He didn’t know whether or not Esteemed Lan Yue knew this.

　　Lin Xuanzhi thought that Esteemed Lan Yue probably wasn’t aware of this.

　　Otherwise, he would never have left Bei Shitian alone for the time being.

　　Lin Xuanzhi stroked Lianlian’s hilt with his fingers and soothed Lianlian, which was constantly trying to unsheath itself and fight because it had tasted blood.

　　There was a sense of mutual understanding between sword cultivators and swords that nobody else could feel. When swords and sword cultivators could achieve a tacit understanding and were able to mutually understand each other’s thoughts, then this would be the realm of unity between man and sword.

　　However, Lin Xuanzhi had never reached this point thus far.

　　But that didn’t prevent him from sensing Lianlian’s thirst for slaughter, as well as its grief, indignation, and helplessness from Lin Xuanzhi’s suppression.

　　Lin Xuanzhi felt that he should have a chat with Bei Shitian or Bei Cangmo some time.

　　Raging winds and somber, desolate ice still devastated Fierce Gale Cliff. People felt their legs go soft when standing outside the cave entrance.

　　Lin Xuanzhi had never spent an entire night at Fierce Gale Cliff before. He didn’t know what Fierce Gale Cliff would look like at night.

　　Lin Xuanzhi held the sword as he slowly entered.

　　Fierce Gale Cliff and the outside world were connected by a cave entrance. He pressed the hidden mechanism underneath the cliff and directly closed the entrance, completely isolating himself from the outside world.

　　Lin Xuanzhi listened to the wind that wailed like ghosts and howled like wolves. He drew his sword, flew up, and spun like a quick crane dancing amongst the withered leaves and crushed stones. His sword technique was refined and elegant without any unnecessary movements. He strove to make every move with precision, and every move had to be brought out to its fullest potential.

　　He wouldn’t waste any chance to draw his sword. He had always practiced his sword like this — either he didn’t practice at all or practiced with no distractions and with all his heart.

　　His spiritual Qi circulated around in his body, and soon it made an entire round. His Dantian emitted faint heat, and the faintly visible spiritual root inside became clearer.

　　Wind spiritual root.

　　This was Lin Xuanzhi’s natural spiritual root, which was also the most suitable one for practicing the sword.

　　Like the graceful wind — everywhere and everchanging; at times soft and flexible while at times violent and wild.

　　Lin Xuanzhi suddenly felt a certain comprehension. When the sky and the earth changed colors amidst the flying sands and rock shards, he closed his pair of clear eyes.

　　Hearing with the ear and sensing with the body. Not all things in the world needed to be seen with the eyes, as they’ve already entered into his heart.

　　Lin Xuanzhi’s sword danced faster and faster, and the spiritual Qi in his body became more and more frenzied. The first three styles of《Teal Lotus Nine Styles》in his hand also became more and more natural, flowing more smoothly. Just as the shadow of the sword rose here and before it even landed over there, looking from a distance, the afterimages of the sword’s shadows actually resembled blossoming lotus petals when connected together.

　　Boom — A single slash broke through the dome of heaven.

　　A blazing lotus mark was faintly discernible between Lin Xuanzhi’s eyebrows. His Dantian seemed to be bursting with spiritual Qi. The spiritual platform was clear and bright. He seemed to “see” a cultivator’s teal shadow dancing out a set of sword techniques. A secret manual appeared beside the shadow with《Teal Lotus Nine Styles》written on it.

　　Lin Xuanzhi was just about to flip through it, but the wisp of remnant shadow abruptly disappeared, leaving him with only a vague glimpse of a corner of the Dao’s door, but he was unable to truly enter the door and see the magnificent and wondrous world behind it.

　　The winds on Fierce Gale Cliff suddenly rose again. After the icy frost came violent rocks. The giant creature imprisoned at the bottom of the cliff seemed to have been provoked by something and howled continuously with such frenzy that the entire Sinking Sword Peak could hear these sounds.

　　One could see a sudden change in weather throughout the heavens and the earth, and thunder roared furiously. Thunderclouds swept through the originally clear sky like a tide. Rumbling sounds fell incessantly on the ears, causing the entirety of Profound Sky Sect and even Profound City to shake–

　　“What happened?”

　　“The hell…Is this a tribulation?”

　　“It looks like a tribulation, but I haven’t heard of any elders who entered closed-door cultivation during this period!”

　　“Look! Those clouds are gathering towards Sinking Sword Peak. It can’t be that the one on Sinking Sword Peak….is making a breakthrough again?”

　　The word “again” made many people feel sad and astonished.

　　Yan Tianhen got up this morning and felt that his eyelids would twitch uncontrollably from time to time. He didn’t know why, but he always felt a little uneasy in his heart. Not only did he confuse many plants’ attributes when memorizing the《Profound Book of Poisons》, but he even accidentally made some low-level mistakes and pulled out the spiritual herbs when trying to pull weeds, which made Esteemed Huai Yu so angry that he couldn’t wait to give his head a good knock.

　　He hadn’t seen Lin Xuanzhi for many days, and he didn’t know what happened to Lin Xuanzhi these days either.

　　Ever since he came back, Esteemed Huai Yu had been forcing him to carry out all kinds of high-intensity cultivation, acting like he’d been triggered. And currently, Yan Tianhen basically only had one method of cultivating, which was: pull weeds, pull weeds, and pull more weeds!

　　These days, while other people were watching the pupils outside take part in the thrilling and exciting sect entrance examination and compete with each other for the chance to enter, Yan Tianhen was like a little cabbage, standing alone beside the endless spiritual plant fields and pulling weeds!

　　Those weeds really fit the saying “wildfire never quite exterminates them and they grow tall once more in the spring winds”. As a result, Yan Tianhen suspected that it was all a dream when he completely uprooted those weeds yesterday!

　　Like this, Yan Tianhen expended all the gloomy Yin Qi in his body and once again absorbed those Yin-attribute energies in heaven and earth back into his own body. He didn’t know how many times he repeated this cycle. After enduring hardships day and night in this kind of high-intensity cultivating cycle of exhausting one’s spiritual Qi and then refilling it again, even if he was a good-for-nothing, he would still have been able to touch upon some enlightenment to advance to the next level.

　　In this way, Yan Tianhen finally managed to raise his cultivation by a level yesterday evening.

　　Now, he was a Foundation Stage second layer cultivator.

　　Of course, if one used a Divine Devil’s normal cultivation speed as a measure, this wasn’t considered fast. But currently, the vast majority of Yan Tianhen’s behavior remained “human”, so he didn’t intend to think of himself as a Divine Devil.

　　Although Yan Tianhen was happy, he wasn’t too excited.

　　In reality, this kind of cultivation was much slower than when he just went to mass graveyards or battlefield burial grounds to absorb Yin Qi from Yin corpses. Yan Tianhen knew how to quickly improve his cultivation in the short run, but he didn’t dare to do so.

　　He was afraid that one day, he would become a monster that had no choice but to rely on these dead things’ inner cores to survive.

　　In contrast, Esteemed Huai Yu’s high-intensity training was more acceptable to him.

　　Yan Tianhen’s unease reached its peak when these dark clouds were gathering in the sky.

　　He stopped pulling out weeds and gazed up at the sky there over there with great anxiety, “Master, I think something’s wrong. That direction is clearly Sinking Sword Peak. Maybe… maybe something’s wrong with my Dage?”

　　Esteemed Huai Yu also sat on a tree and looked toward the center of the cloudy sky. He frowned, “This shouldn’t be. Your Dage is just a Hardened Body Stage cultivator. Even if he suddenly broke through to Primary Realm, it’s still very difficult for him to cause changes in the sky. A lightning tribulation is most certainly not something that someone of his level could draw forth.”

　　Esteemed Huai Yu also felt uneasy. In his opinion, out of everyone on Sinking Sword Peak, only his senior martial brother, Esteemed Lan Yue, could trigger such violent and severe weather changes when he was about to undergo his tribulations. As for the other elders stationed in the mountain, they didn’t have this ability at all.

　　“Could it be…my Senior Martial Brother?” Esteemed Huai Yu mumbled a few words and could no longer sit still. He jumped down from the tree, “This won’t do; I have to go take a look.”

　　Yan Tianhen hurriedly drew the Yin Qi back into his body and ran towards Huai Yu. “Master, wait, I’ll go too!”

　　The anomaly of heaven and earth lasted for some time.

　　This period of time was enough for Esteemed Huai Yu to take Yan Tianhen along as they rode the sword over to Sinking Sword Peak and successfully joined the 1,000 people on Sinking Sword Peak.

　　Seeing Esteemed Huai Yu, Zhan Fengting gave a salute, “Martial Uncle, you’re here.”

　　Esteemed Huai Yu looked around but did not see Esteemed Lan Yue. “Where is my Senior Martial Brother?”

　　Zhan Fengting answered, “Master has been on the Astrological Divination Platform for the past two days.”

　　Esteemed Huai Yu was slightly shocked. “Who’s undergoing tribulation over there? Lin Xuanzhi?”

　　Zhan Fengting nodded with a somewhat complicated expression, “The tribulation clouds have already taken shape, but the lightning tribulation hasn’t struck yet; it’s been like this for over half a day.”

　　Esteemed Huai Yu inquired, “What was Lin Xuanzhi’s cultivation level when he entered secluded cultivation?”

　　Zhan Fengting replied, “If he did not conceal it, then he should be Hardened Body Stage first layer.”

　　Esteemed Huai Yu fell silent.

　　A Star of Salvation, he indeed deserved to be called the darling of the heavens and the proud son of fate. He was merely a Hardened Body Stage cultivator, yet he was able to attract lightning and cloud tribulations. He was indeed extraordinary.

　　Looking back at his own son again, Huai Yu was afraid that if Yan Tianhen followed the conventional path, he would never be able to catch up to Lin Xuanzhi. Even if he had the same cultivation as Lin Xuanzhi, judging from how Lin Xuanzhi caused such a sensation when he advanced in cultivation, he was probably invincible among cultivators of the same level.

　　What to do?

　　This was mostly what Esteemed Huai Yu thought about.

　　Nobody knew who sucked in a cold breath.

　　Yan Tianhen didn’t feel too much surprise. He probably took those things for granted, no matter what shocking deeds Lin Xuanzhi accomplished.

　　However, Yan Tianhen was incessantly anxious. “Senior Martial Brother Zhan, will my Dage be in any danger? This lightning tribulation hasn’t come down for a long time; will it suddenly strike and catch my Dage unaware so that he can’t bear it?”

　　Zhan Fengting shook his head with a wry smile, “I don’t know anything either. For so many years, I’ve never seen a situation where a Hardened Body Stage cultivator called forth a lightning tribulation when advancing.”

　　Yan Tianhen could only grit his teeth and secretly encourage Lin Xuanzhi.

　　Everyone was waiting nervously for Lin Xuanzhi to come out of secluded cultivation.

　　Will he survive the lightning tribulation?

　　Or, what level will his cultivation reach once he comes out?

　　Feng Jingyu, who was in Yan Tianhen’s clothes, leaned his head out and eagerly gazed up at the sky, his eyes not moving at all.

　　Yan Tianhen secretly broke out into a cold sweat. He kept praying in his heart. Dage, you have to pass this lightning tribulation smoothly.

　　And how would Lin Xuanzhi himself feel now?

　　He couldn’t help but want to curse in his heart. He didn’t understand — he was simply minding his own business by practicing his swordsmanship and improving his cultivation; how could he call forth a lightning tribulation?

　　Although he experienced lightning tribulations with his soul body in his previous life, he was in the soul plate at that time. The soul plate’s level wasn’t low and was able to completely block out the lightning tribulation for him, so there wasn’t much difference between having experienced it and not having experienced it.

　　Yet in this life, he was merely a Hardened Body Stage cultivator, yet he attracted the goddamned lightning tribulation over?

　　Lin Xuanzhi couldn’t help but fall deep into thought — exactly which step went wrong?

　　He did not dare to sit down cross-legged and thoroughly ponder the question, because he wasn’t sure exactly when this screwed-up lightning tribulation would come down. He had to be fully prepared to meet it.

　　However, two hours passed.

　　Four hours passed.

　　Six hours…

　　Lin Xuanzhi was not happy.

　　He’d already more or less absorbed all the spiritual Qi that he could, and his cultivation had risen from Hardened Body first layer to a stage that he was satisfied with. Raising it by another level wasn’t impossible, but he understood, even more, the importance of steady, gradual progress, so he had suppressed his pace of advancement.

　　Now that the absorption of spiritual Qi had already been blocked, it could no longer be collected into the Dantian Qi Sea for the time being, and he didn’t know when the lightning tribulation would strike either, so what should he do now?

　　Lin Xuanzhi was a person who never wasted time.

　　So when he saw his storage bag, he was suddenly carried away by a whim and thought of some of the achievements that Soul Plate once told him about some craftsmen–

　　En, this environment was suitable for refining equipment.

　　The sky was covered with dense dark clouds and the sound of thunder rang about, but everything was tranquil on Fierce Gale Cliff. There was a kind of extreme calm right before the storm. Large regions of spiritual Qi were drawn over, due to him absorbing so much Qi when advancing his cultivation level, so dense that it made people’s hairs stand up.

　　Lin Xuanzhi placed Lianlian down beside him.

　　Rose, *passing through*: LX so OP! He even finds the time to refine equipment while waiting for his tribulation to strike. What a good multitasker