Volume 1, Chapter 203 – Inheritance

A flicker of surprise passed through Shi Lan’s eyes. From Guiyun Sword Sovereign’s words, it sounded as though this world had a will of its own.

In truth, her understanding of an unseen existence like the Heavenly Dao was extremely limited.

“Although the world-ending great calamity is terrifying, it still leaves behind a sliver of hope. Perhaps heaven and earth cannot quite bear to be utterly ruthless toward the living beings it has nurtured, or perhaps it wants to leave itself a little leeway.”

Guiyun Sword Sovereign looked somewhat wistful. “That sliver of hope gave living beings the possibility of stepping into the Emperor level.”

“To repay heaven and earth for granting that single chance of survival, the vast majority of experts above the Emperor level, when their lifespans are nearing their end, return to their homeland and give their cultivation back to heaven and earth.”

“In the eyes of the world, this is the link between all living things and heaven and earth.”

“But my view is somewhat different. Rather than calling the world-ending great calamity a disaster, it would be more accurate to call it a test—a trial set by the Heavenly Dao of the Lingyang Realm for all living beings.”

A faint smile appeared in the Sword Sovereign’s eyes.

“I once traveled through the All Heavens and came into contact with the Heavenly Dao of many different worlds. Among them, I have never seen a world as heavily bound as the Lingyang Realm. The threshold for leaving this world is terrifyingly high.”

“In some worlds, mortals may not even have the strength to truss a chicken, yet they can still rely on steel warships similar to magical treasures to explore the starry sky. They can even use them to unleash might at the Emperor level and shatter stars.

“In the universe, an Emperor level expert from the Lingyang Realm would already be able to dominate an entire star region. Yet for the Lingyang Realm, reaching that point merely means obtaining the qualification to pass through.”

“The descent of the world-ending great calamity upon the living beings of the Lingyang Realm may itself be a kind of test. That is why I have always believed that the Heavenly Dao has feelings.”

Shi Lan listened quietly, wondering why Guiyun Sword Sovereign was telling her all this.

Guiyun Sword Sovereign lowered the long sword in his hand and stood there with it planted against the ground, speaking in an unhurried, measured tone.

“When a living being steps into the Emperor level and polishes its own Dao to perfection, then evolves its small world into a true world and replaces the Heavenly Dao with its own Dao, only then can it step into the Sovereign Realm.”

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“The Heavenly Dao of the Guiyun Realm came from my Dao devouring and assimilating the Heavenly Daos of several worlds. I fused it into this inheritance. If you wish to accept this inheritance, then you will inevitably have to bear my sword Dao.”

The Sword Sovereign released the long sword that had been standing against the ground, and it slowly floated to a stop before Shi Lan.

“My sword Dao may not necessarily suit you. It may even hinder your own Martial Dao. Therefore, I am giving you a chance to choose whether or not to accept this inheritance.”

“If you are willing to accept it, then grasp the hilt.”

After saying those words, Guiyun Sword Sovereign fell silent.

“Shi Lan, though it’s a pity, I still think it would be best if you gave up this inheritance.”

Samsara, who had remained silent all this time, finally spoke.

“Your future should not be bound by those who came before you. This inheritance may have a very serious impact on your future limit.”

Shi Lan gently brushed the sword scar on her arm, which had almost completely faded, and sank into thought.

Wu Xu stood to the side, simply staring blankly at the Sword Sovereign’s divine thought without saying a word.

“If you cannot decide, then grasp the hilt. I can give you one chance to regret it.”

After Shi Lan had remained silent for a long while, Guiyun Sword Sovereign spoke again, giving her a little room to turn back.

Letting out a soft breath, Shi Lan raised her hand and grasped the hilt without the slightest hesitation.

At this point, there was no meaning in continuing to struggle over it.

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Buzz—

The hilt in her hand trembled lightly. Something impossible to describe clearly surged into her mind.

Shi Lan’s consciousness began to grow hazy, and fragments of memory flashed through her mind at incredible speed.

…

“Yun’er, do you want to learn martial arts?”

In a dilapidated courtyard, with the autumn wind blowing bleakly, a middle-aged man dressed in coarse cloth and short garments spoke, his eyes full of exhaustion.

The little boy, who had just turned six, nodded in confusion. He wanted to ask where his mother had gone and when she would come back, but he did not know how to ask.

“Good. Then Father will teach you…”

The middle-aged man picked up the boy and walked out of the courtyard.

In just a few short years, the boy had become a youth. At the age of twelve, he had already reached the peak of the ninth stage of the Body Tempering Realm, and his name resounded across a thousand miles.

Because of his father’s strict orders, the youth rejected invitations from countless sects, including even the solicitation of a great power. As a result, he gained a reputation for arrogance and disdain toward others.

The youth did not care in the slightest. He simply devoted himself to practicing the martial arts his father had taught him.

The next year, the youth entered the Innate Realm and received the first weapon of his life: a long sword, four chi and three cun in length, with a slightly cool hilt.

Along with the long sword came an unnamed sword manual, as well as a few words from his father.

“The martial path is full of brambles. What you hold in your hand is a weapon made for killing. When you cross blades with an enemy, your body may break, but your sword must never leave your hand. You must treat the sword as a part of yourself and fuse it into your soul, your bones, and your blood!”

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The youth engraved those words in his heart. By day he practiced the sword manual; by night he slept with the sword in his arms.

Then one day, his father disappeared.

The youth searched everywhere within ten thousand miles, yet found no trace of him.

Half a year later, his father returned, carrying a box of ashes with him. He had aged by several decades, his hair entirely white. Only a few days after coming back, he became fatally ill.

At the end of his life, his father told the youth everything that had happened over those six months, as well as the story of the first half of his own life.

When he was young, his father had several brothers-in-arms, each one a friend bound to him through life-and-death ties and debts of gratitude for saving one another’s lives.

For unknown reasons, those close friends died one after another in the wilderness.

Later, while investigating the cause of his closest friends’ deaths, his father met the youth’s mother.

Marriage and children followed as naturally as water flowing downhill.

When the youth was six years old, his father discovered the true culprit behind the deaths of his closest friends, only to be thrown into a terrible dilemma.

Because that culprit was the clan of the youth’s mother.

Through a cruel twist of fate, caught between the woman he had shared his life with and the brothers who had shared life and death with him, his father sank into a mire.

Seeing that he remained unwilling to let go of his hatred, his wife left in anger.

After struggling bitterly for several years, he ultimately chose to demand repayment for that blood debt.

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Once he had made sure the youth possessed the strength to protect himself, his father left to settle that old grievance.

His wife blocked him before the gates of her clan and threatened him with death. In the end, she took her own life before his eyes.

After that battle, he killed all the upper echelons of his wife’s clan, but he did not exterminate them completely, leaving behind a surviving line to carry on their family incense.

“These grievances belong to the previous generation. They have nothing to do with you. Father only hopes that you can become a swordsman unbound by anyone, roaming the world in freedom.”

The youth silently listened to his father’s dying words, his expression calm.

Several days later, the youth buried his father and mother separately, left the ruined home behind, and began traveling the world.

Not long after leaving home, he was ambushed. The surviving remnants of his mother’s clan had extended their hatred onto him.

The youth did not show the slightest mercy. Holding his sword steady, he killed every one of those who had come to assassinate him.

His father had said before dying that the grudges of the previous generation should end with the previous generation, and the youth had acted accordingly.

But now that these people had come to ambush and kill him, it had become his own grievance.

The youth went to his mother’s clan and eradicated them root and branch, without the slightest hesitation.

The first line of the unnamed sword manual was: “If one practices the sword without letting one’s heart and intent flow freely, then one can never become a qualified swordsman.”

His father’s hope had been for him to become a swordsman, and he did not wish to defy that wish. Therefore, these people had to die.

Otherwise, his heart would find no peace, and he would be unable to devote himself to practicing the sword…