At the top of the sea of clouds, Yun Su unexpectedly caught a wisp of purple cloud essence. He recognized that it was nurtured by heaven and earth and contained Dao intent, but he didn't know what it was. The sword light landed in the courtyard and returned to the house with the wine bottle to refine it.
This little thing was full of spirituality and ordinary clouds were still difficult to control. He was still confused about how to refine it to ride the clouds.
If it were another cultivator, they might have just used ordinary clouds.
Ordinary cultivators looked like they had a longer lifespan than ordinary people but after careful decomposition, they did not actually enjoy their life. They had very little time to study the limit. To put it bluntly, many people were so busy that they did not even have time to date.
For example, under normal circumstances, a certain inspirational passerby named Alpha.
His aptitude surpassed others and his immortal fate surpassed others. Passerby Alpha finally embarked on the path of cultivation and was lucky enough to enter a sect.
Mr. Alpha needed to spend almost all of his time refining qi and strive to invoke qi into his body as soon as possible. He had to compete with those favored children of heaven, sect-connected people, and people with more outstanding qualifications for some sect favor and cultivation resources that he would never complain about having too much of. Those who were smarter even knew to squeeze out some time to please their teachers. Of course, if their minds were not firm, they still had to take some time to cause trouble, be jealous, and fight. Mr. Alpha's future would basically be ruined.
After Mr. Alpha finally drew Qi into his body, he became even busier. He had to cultivate in seclusion every day, from a few days to years. At the same time, he still needed to take time to learn spells and techniques. Other than that, he also had to learn formations, medicinal pills, restrictions, talismans, artifacts, and spiritual materials even if he could not be proficient in them. In addition, the sect had arranged for him to go down the mountain to train, serve his teachers, deal with the competition between his fellow disciples, and compete for cultivation resources. Promotion in the sect was extremely time-consuming. At that stage, seclusion was already a common occurrence. Sometimes, it would take more than ten years to cultivate a certain secret technique.
In most cases, Mr. Alpha would unknowingly age. It didn't matter if he lived for a hundred years or two hundred years. He would always find that his lifespan wasn't enough. His white hair would droop and the fear of death would descend. At that time, he would fight even harder. If he didn't break through, he would die. However, most cultivators couldn't see through life and death. Even if it was the law of nature, the smarter and more extreme a person was, the more they couldn't see through it and Yun Su couldn't do it.
Since Yun Su had plenty of time and this Cloud Riding Technique was a must-have for escaping killing and plundering in the future. Therefore, it was even more important for him to fight for his dignity. Naturally, he would rather have nothing than having something inferior.
However, when Yun Su tried to refine the essence energy of the clouds, he did not know that her unintentional actions at dawn had unintentionally affected the entire cultivation world of the Divine Continent.
The Divine Continent was vast and boundless, spanning billions of kilometers. Cultivators were as vast as the stars and there were countless forces.
However, at that moment, the cultivators of the myriad races under the sky encountered a very difficult problem. They were puzzled.
Not to mention the ancient sects in the distant land, even the cultivators in the Yang State in the Great Cheng Dynasty were taught a lesson by the unexpected situation.
…
The Mount Wu Mountain Range in Yangzhou Prefecture was famous far and wide. The mountains here were extremely steep. The mountains were like long swords pointing at the sky. They extended deep into the clouds. The main mountain, Mount Wu, was like a huge sword that pierced the sky. The lone mountain was surrounded by clouds.
The entire Mount Wu had been built by predecessors with absolute cultivation. It took several generations to build the Nine-Fold Sword Palace. The higher one went, the stronger the sword cultivators in the Sword Palace were.
Before dawn, on the training ground of the third level of the Sword Palace, Senior Brother Ji Ping had already brought Chen Li, Zhang Jiao, and the pale-faced Ye Ning to sit cross-legged together and prepare to comprehend the sword.
The Sword Palace of Mount Wu did not have a master-disciple relationship. It had always been passed down between senior brothers and sisters. After Ji Ping returned to the mountain, he officially became the senior brother of the four.
"Our Sword Palace has dominated the martial world for nearly 500 years without falling. Others say that we rely on the terrain to be easy to defend and difficult to attack. Actually, the real key is the sword in our hands.
Chen Li and Zhang Jiao, the two of you are a little superficial. You should remember what happened when you went down the mountain this time. Don't look down on comprehending the sword at dawn every day like before.
Ye Ning, Huan'er, the two of you have just recovered from your injuries. You don't have to practice your swordsmanship but you can't skip your homework on comprehending the sword every day. Especially Ye Ning, many rumors have put a lot of pressure on you these days but it's not easy to master the sword in your left hand in a short period of time. I've searched through the ancient books and found a method to comprehend the sword with your left hand. It can help you shorten the time needed to switch to practicing the sword in your left hand. I hope you can learn something soon."
They nodded in unison. Ji Ping glanced at the horizon and sat upright. When he heard the morning bell from the peak of Mount Wu, he focused his attention and circulated his Qi. He closed his eyes and waited to enter a state of sword comprehension.
However, a moment later, Ji Ping was stunned. Something was wrong. Why was his comprehension of the sword so different from before?
In the past, as long as the ray of light at the edge of the sky lit up, Qi would speed up and enter a strange state, allowing people to communicate with the sword.
However, today, the ray of light did not light up and the Qi did not speed up. The sword on his lap was like a dead thing and could not be felt.
"Strange. I can't enter a state of sword comprehension."
"Me too."
"What's going on? It's supposed to be sunny. Where's the usual glow?"
From the second to the eighth level of the Sword Palace, all the disciples of the Sword Palace came out of their caves, regardless of their martial arts cultivation. They were confused. All the disciples were unable to comprehend the sword. For a moment, they discussed.
In the Ninefold Sword Palace, a white-robed sword cultivator suddenly opened his eyes. Two foot-long sword beams shot out from his eyes, filled with bewilderment.
"Strange, why is there no light or auspicious aura at sunrise!!"
The white-robed sword cultivator pinched his fingers and calculated for a moment but he found nothing. This wisp of multicolored light and auspicious qi was very important to cultivators. It appeared when Yin and Yang alternated. It was extremely spiritual, like a medicinal catalyst. With it, cultivators could easily breathe in and out spiritual energy while comprehending a trace of the true meaning of heaven and earth contained in the multicolored light.
If he accidentally comprehended a trace, his cultivation would naturally improve greatly.
With the help of the light and auspicious aura, the cultivation effect at dawn was the best.
This light was most mysterious. Otherwise, cultivators could cultivate it 24 hours a day, so why would they wake up early to eat?
Not to mention cultivators, it was important to even the disciples of the Sword Palace who did not have the aptitude for cultivation were very important. They also needed to use the secret techniques they created to comprehend the sword with the help of the light and auspicious qi.
Although he had read in the ancient books that the light and auspicious qi were nurtured by the heavens and the earth, its whereabouts were extremely mysterious. They would change with the alternation of Yin and Yang and it would fluctuate between strong and weak throughout the seasons but it would not really disappear. With his cultivation, he could not calculate how long it would take for the light and auspicious qi to be nurtured again.
Not long after, a white-haired sword cultivator came under orders.
"Grand Palace Master!"
"Wuqing, inform all the disciples in the Sword Palace to stop comprehending the sword. Wait for my order before recovering."
"Yes, Great Palace Master."
The white-haired sword cultivator left with many questions. The white-robed sword cultivator muttered to himself: "Something must be wrong. I wonder if it's a blessing or a curse for our Sword Palace."
…
At the same time, in Mirror Lake, more than two hundred miles away.
A huge golden carp had just swum out of the underwater cave. The fish yawned and swam leisurely to an arch in the center of the lake. It shook itself and began to wait for the sunrise for that ray of light.
"Heaven and earth please help me, I reflect on myself multiple times a day. Old fish, old fish, remember that carps who don't want to transform into dragons are not good carps…"
The old carp was originally sleepy and lazy. After muttering these words to itself, the entire fish was instantly full of energy. It opened its goose-egg-sized eyes and welcomed every moment of cultivation in its strongest position.
Gradually, dawn broke and the morning sun rose. The old carp waited left and right until he was almost asleep but he did not see the light and auspicious qi in the sky.
"Where's the light? Did you oversleep like me?"
He couldn't figure it out. After thinking for a while, the old carp closed his eyes and floated back to the simple cave abode at the bottom of the water. He would sleep again and think about it tomorrow when he woke up. He slept very soundly. He thought to himself that it wasn't that the old carp didn't work hard but the heavens wanted a day off. He had no choice.
…
In addition, cultivators from the Tile House Sect of the Hejian Prefecture and the Yangming Mountain of the Yangming Prefecture had discovered that the light and auspicious qi had disappeared.
The hundreds of millions of cultivators in Yangzhou, the Great Cheng Dynasty, the entire Southern Continent, as well as the entire vast Divine Continent, fell into the same confusion. Strange things happened every year but this time, even the light and auspicious aura that inevitably appeared every day was gone. Usually, even if it rained, cultivators could visualize and capture its existence from the sky but now, there was no trace of it at all.
A billion miles away from the dynasty, a statue in an ancient sect suddenly opened its mouth and muttered:
"That's odd. It disappeared without a trace. It couldn't have been stolen, could it?"
Yun Su naturally did not know about this. Ever since he started cultivating, his progress had been too fast. When others were cultivating diligently, he was basically in seclusion or sleeping. Although he could recognize that this thing was extraordinary and roughly knew the ins and outs of it, he really did not know what it was.
Others were in a panic while Yun Su was also extremely depressed. He had failed time and time again but no matter what, he could not refine the fellow hiding in the wine bottle. He did not have any intelligence but he was smarter than a human. As expected of someone born from heaven and earth.
It couldn't be touched or refined. He cast a spell to catch it and it ran even faster.
"Endure a moment to turn away before enduring the darkness of the flowers more."
Yun Su thought of the legendary monkey. It had taken him three years to learn the Seventy-two Transformations and the Somersault Cloud. It had only been a hundred times. He should just endure it. If only he could coax it like how he coaxed Wang Xuanyu. He wished he could coax it like a baby. It was really stubborn.
After twenty-four hours and the thousandth refinement, he suddenly realized the problem. His eyes widened in disbelief.
"I swear on my immortal life, don't tell me you haven't drank enough of my wine?"