Flying over to the seashore, Li Huang was trying to find the disposition of thing as it stands.
Transmigrators, reincarnators, returners, and God knows what. With each one existing the equation of 'Li Huang's Life Expectancy' would be more complicated but there is no use in bitching about it.
All I have to do is to take advantage of my past life readings and use this life's personal position to maximize my gains and voila! Instead of a cheat, I might get a cheat sheet.
As I was rubbing my hand together thinking about my grand scheme, we slowly got to the ruins where the sword mark is located.
In the superficial waters of the gold sea lies the wreck of a ship, a ship that was once the prized possession of an up-and-coming trader hundreds of years ago. She is not in what you'd call a good shape; a broken mast and shattered planks litter the main deck.
She's no longer home to a crew, but there are creatures who enjoy the vast opportunities she has to offer them. It can be difficult to spot them all as they hide at the slightest movement. Each one of them is in no rush to claim the entire ship as their own.
These creatures are what we call Boggard. They are frog-humanoid creatures that are one of the low-level sea creatures.
As this place was left behind after the destruction of the ships and the port, these low-level creatures were roaming around in these parts.
The shipwreck doesn't make for a pretty sight, especially not from further away. Like discarded waste, she seems to not belong in these waters. She hangs heavily to one side and the paint of where her name used to be had all but faded to nothingness. A wide range of possessions and many different crates mark her true story up to her demise. Whatever contents were inside some of them have long been claimed by ocean creatures as all broken containers are empty.
No bones or other human remains can be found, but it unfortunately doesn't mean they made it out alive…
One part of the destroyed port was covering the ancient sword mark for all these years. This is the reason for this mark being kept intact until now.
Days ago a cultivator who was roaming around here was attracted by its sword Qi so he decided to tell our heavenly sword sect this piece of information, for a price.
This is how we got to know about this mark.
Arriving at the ancient sword mark I was astonished by its size. The mark stretched out for 500 meters and it was 3 meters deep.
But what was more astonishing was the sword Qi and the vast profundities in the air.
Looking back at the elders I spoke to them.
"Elders, I'm going to comprehend this ancient sword mark, I'll be leaving my back to you." Saying that I walked forward to the center of this commotion.
Comprehending a sword mark of this level is like solving a maze when you are in it. Also, you have to speed up in each turn and if you can't keep up with this increased rate you will face some backlash.
These backlashes could be a simple internal injury to dropping dead. So yeah you have to be vigilant when comprehending and not be blinded by greed and choose something that is clearly over your head.
There is a saying that 'swords don't have eyes' but for sword Qi you can say that even if sword Qi does have eyes that only means you should be more afraid.
In an ancient sword mark, the sword Qi works in a pattern and shows you the way of the sword and how to better your sword art.
But you have to know that this is not a teacher kindly guiding his disciple but is more like gaining enlightenment in a fight that very well could be a life and death situation.
Closing my eyes I take out my sword from its scabbard. This sword is an ordinary sword that Li Huang has been using from the start of his sword practice.
I say ordinary but you have to know it is 'ordinary' in a young master's standard.
Moving further toward the center I could feel my swordsmanship improve.
It was as if I was doing a sword dance with the sword mark's sword Qi.
Each passing second was like months of training even for me who has a terrifying understanding and yielded astonishing results in the shortest of times. Well, you can say this is because of my terrifying understanding that I can benefit this much.
If someone would tell me in my past life that I would be having fun in sword training I wouldn't believe it but right now I'm clearly having fun.
'Let us dance, Lady luck.'
Smiling to myself I continued on comprehending this ancient sword mark.
——(POV Core Elder of Heavenly Sword Sect, Guo Heng)——
This time we got a mission to solve an ancient sword mark before others get to it. I say solve but we officially call it 'comprehending' the ancient mark.
The fateful encounter that you don't get is the one that your enemy would get.
Going with this logic we buy information on this kind of things more generously than others so that we can get these powers for our sect.
This time is no different than other times only that the receiver part in this 'fateful encounter' is someone special.
Li Huang, the chief disciple of the sect and one of the main competitors for the patriarch position.
The other four elders accompanying are outer elders and don't have a high position in the sect but I, as a core elder, didn't have to come out personally for this mission but I did and I have a good reason for it.
The reason for me being here personally is to monitor this junior's worth for myself. I didn't choose anyone as of now for the patriarch position to support so this could be a good chance to check this one out.
When we got to the ancient mark he went in like he was taking a stroll. I know this isn't the best of sword marks but how can he look down on it this much?
'Too young and too arrogant.'
I shook my head, the matriarch should have come here personally…
As I was in my thoughts he takes out his sword and-
Danced!?
Rubbing my eyes to make sure that i didn't see wrong, I looked at the scene again.
"Is- is he really sword dancing with the ancient sword mark?" One of the elders beside me blurted out.
"He is…" I answered absentmindedly.
He went on for some moments and slowed down abruptly.
'He is very talented but alas! it seems that he overestimated himself-'
Just as I thought he is going to face a backslash for slowing down he started moving his sword faster than before.
"He was playing around before.." I couldn't hide my shock this time.
I have never heard of someone comprehending an ancient sword mark this way. Usually, you would try to counter the sword Qi from the mark but Li Huang is going with the flow and is literally sword dancing with it…
This way he is going to have better gains than others comprehending the ancient marks, Why? Because he is experiencing the way of sword left behind by the mark instead of learning how to survive that level of attack.
This went on for an hour and each minute the 'dance' was getting fiercer and the sword Qi was getting more ferocious.
But if this was going according to the script Li Huang should have failed to comprehend the mark and get a heavy backlash at this time, but he was absorbing the sword mark's knowledge like a sponge.
Every passing minute he was getting stronger with each clash and slash.
Me and other elders just kept watching this scene, this could be what they call 'birth of a new monster'.
Just as we were shocked out of our minds he finished comprehending the mark and the sword Qi dimmed.
He put his sword in its scabbard and turned around.
——(POV Li Huang)——
Putting my sword back in its scabbard I turned to face the elders.
"Well, that was fun!" I told them my genuine emotions.
This time I have gained too much. After comprehending this ancient sword mark I can produce sword Qi as long as I have Qi in my body.
The conversion ratio is not efficient right now meaning I have to use like a lot of my Qi to get a bit of sword Qi but this is a big step In the right direction.
Just as I was thinking about my gains I saw something shining at the end of the ancient sword mark.
"Hey, what is that over there…" I muttered to myself.
As I got close to the pink shining thing, it moved.
It didn't even let me be surprised that it shot out towards my head.
I reflexively put my hand in front of my face but it just got past my hand like my hand didn't exist.
'Man, didn't I just fall for the most basic trick in the scary movies?' As this shining thing sunk in my head I was thinking to myself but it was a bit late to get away from the 'dark pit'.
After that all I could see was darkness…