Thus, the shape of a sword slowly formed.

This was the sword of the soul!

A sword forged from the very essence of the soul.

It was radiating an eye-piercing infinitely blinding white light, instantly lighting up the dark void.

Thus, the formation of the sword silhouette sped up, and the main body of the silhouette became even more specter-like. However, this sword had already taken shape and thus, was emanating an immense and heavy spiritual energy.

“This is seventy percent of the soul that I’ve abandoned. Everything that you’ve been imbued with were merely fragments of some memories and a couple shreds of the energy from my soul. It wasn’t in its complete form.

“These soul energies will be stored within the deepest depths of your mind directly at the center of your forehead.

“And this is the soul’s dimension.

“Your realm, the realm of the ‘Sword’, and the soul’s dimension contains vast and immense power. When this realm expands during a person’s birth, that person would be deemed exceptional, and you’re one of the most outstanding people.

“Besides that, you’re one of great ambition. One with an exceptional will.

“I’ve once had my eye on Yang Qingtan. Unfortunately he was unworthy as he was not close enough to be my match. Hence, this man only inherited a fragment of my powers, and it was through the backbreaking traumatic change in his life did his strength and powers greatly improve.

“And you… Your soul was similar to the souls of people from China on Earth—it matches mine perfectly.

“If I wasn’t aware that you were a local in this world, I would’ve assumed you were from my world. However, the various cultures within this one are extremely similar to the culture of China from Earth, hence it was not entirely odd.

…

“You’re still not ready to control this sword-shaped soul yet and are even more unprepared for it to be absorbed into yourself, but you can continuously and repeatedly observe this sword-shaped soul with your soul; keep continuous contact with it.

“As of your current state, your soul possesses some form of condensing potential, and it’s capable of detecting and sensing the training progress and anyone’s power level. When you can concentrate your soul and manifest the specter of the Divine Beasts, then you’d be able to condense the Blade’s specters of the Divine Beasts, hence manifesting the Blade’s Soul of the Divine Beasts.

“When that happens you would be ready to inherit everything I have to offer.”

“Master…”

Upon hearing what his master said, Zhou Yan was completely shocked and absolutely blown away.

However, upon noticing the specter that had begun to fade away, Zhou Yan was reluctant to watch it leave.

“You don’t have to feel this way. I’ve told you. I’m not dead yet. My main soul has been reincarnated and given a new start in life. However, that’s an extremely dangerous and complicated place, but at the same time it contains plenty of great opportunities. It’s impossible for me to bring all of this to that world, so why don’t I find myself an heir to my power and legacy right?

“Coincidentally, everything that you’ve experienced, the things you’ve encountered in your youth is similar to what I’ve been through, and most importantly, you’re extremely fitting and worthy to inherit my legacy!

“The main purpose of me doing all of this was to prove something. The two ways of the sword that I’ve studied weren’t wrong. Although I’m capable of spatial destruction, I’ve been struck by the Calamity of Lightning, but we can each study one of the two ways of the sword that I’ve been devoted to.

“If there’s a day in the future where we meet, we can each compare the results of our studies.”

“…”

“Yes master, I will not fail you!”

“Very well, knowing you have such a genuine heart proves that everything I’ve done thus far has been worth it. However, heed my words. Any unpleasant thoughts can be used as motivation for training, hence the most important principle of training with my ways would be following your heart.

“But there are some things that I’ve yet to accomplish, hence this resulted in my harrowing tragic fate when the Calamity of Lightning struck me. Almost all of my godly-majestic forms were completely obliterated!

“Hence, you must heed my word!”

“I, as your pupil, will take your wise words to heart!”

Thus, Zhou Yan once again bowed with the most sincere respect.

“Excellent, someday in future when you’re able to escape into the vast universe, we’ll truly be able to sense each other’s presence.

“So rid yourself of any intentions of searching for me before then.

“However, if you fail before that, then so be it. It means our paths were never meant to converge.”

The majestic specter let out a soft sigh.

After doing so, it looked toward Zhou Yan seemingly assessing the progress of his growth and training. After grasping a good understanding of the results of the young lad’s training, it nodded in pure delight and satisfaction.

At that very moment, Zhou Yan was humbled as he paid full attention to everything the specter had told him.

At that moment, the specter had also suddenly pointed directly at Zhou Yan’s body.

Zhou Yan made no attempts to resist the specter, but he was able to clearly feel the instant the specter pointed at him. That specter—his master’s silhouette—was fading away and dematerializing from this dimension.

Then the young lad’s body trembled as his eyes shot open. Thus, the young lad was once again staring at the moons out the opening on the ceiling. He was being basked by the gentle moonlight.

Everything that happened earlier felt like a dream.

However, Zhou Yan knew it was undoubtedly real.

That was all because the young lad could very clearly feel he was no longer the same person he once was.

The young lad sensed a change in him and could clearly feel his spiritual affinity become massively better.

The only difference was, the young lad’s soul was not molded into the shape of a sword, it was still the same as before—unstable and unshaped.

However, the instant the young lad used the incredibly sharp and keen spiritual energy to sense the void within his forehead, he was able to clearly bear witness to the huge majestic Sword of the Soul that stretches into the very heavens above!

That was the pure spiritual energy of the ancient sage. It was the result of the Calamity of Lightning that had been purified and forged by his soul—the spiritual energy that was indescribably pure.

The instant the young lad extended his keen sense onto this giant blade, he was immediately greeted by a violent rush of extremely powerful spiritual energy pouring out from the huge blade.

Thus, Zhou Yan felt as if he was being baptized in a spiritual fountain. Thus, every inch of the young lad’s body was instantly rejuvenated with incredible feelings of delight and contempt!

The previously unstable and unshaped soul solidified and became more stable instantly. In addition to such great improvements—just like that enormous blade—the young lad’s soul began shaping itself.

As Zhou Yan detected such a change to his own body, he was completely stunned.

However, the young lad collected himself immediately.

Only someone as powerful as his master would have such unimaginably immense power from a single fragment of his soul.

Thus, the young lad was grateful for Yang Qingtan to be incompatible with his master to be graced with such an opportunity!

No wonder he had a familiar feeling upon meeting that person since that man had also been graced with an insignificant minute help by his master!

‘However, even with such a minuscule amount of help, Yang Qingtan was able to progress to such an extent.’

‘And I’ve inherited seventy percent of Master’s strength!’

‘Seventy percent of a person capable of spatial destruction…’ he thought to himself.

Thus, Zhou Yan took a deep breath to calm his heart.

The young lad had never once thought about any of this before. He naively believed that all of the drastic changes happening to him was because he inherited the will of the Ancient Sage, without any other factors in play. However, after the young lad reflected and gave this situation a much deeper thought and after what had transpired tonight, he finally realized the naivety of his foolish mind before.

This was the only reason for everything that had transpired in his life.

Thus, without a moment of hesitation Zhou Yan continuously focused his attention on shaping his soul and at the same time repeatedly sensing the enormous Sword of the Soul.

Alas, due to this process, another subtle change occurred.

This time, the young lad felt no anguish or pain.

In addition to that, Zhou Yan felt inhumanly relaxed as a wave of unbound relief washed over him as if he had been completely cultivated within the waters of spiritual essence—it was indescribably comfortable.

Thus, the sands of time slowly slipped away.

Zhou Yan, who was completely immersed in his cultivation, had completely forgotten about time, his realm, and his sword skill training as he was completely invested in the cultivation of shaping his soul.

Alas, after countless attempts in shaping and molding his soul, a loud ‘boom’ could be heard from Zhou Yan’s soul as his soul suddenly exploded.

It was in that instant, Zhou Yan felt his soul completely shatter. However, the young lad was not afraid as he knew it was the first sign of transformation in the process of shaping his soul!

As expected, after that moment of inhuman torturous pain, Zhou Yan felt a huge wave of infinite spiritual energy rushing toward him, and this time, he was finally able to absorb more spiritual energy from the enormous massive sword that was contained in his forehead. Within this rush of spiritual energy, it brought with it a tiny flashing ray of purple light from the Calamity of Lightning.

Zhou Yan knew this was most probably the ray of light from the Calamity of Lightning but he could not explain why and how this lightning found its way there.

Although it was merely a shred of lightning, the energy contained in it made Zhou Yan uncomfortably curious.

Fortunately, the energy from the lightning did Zhou Yan no harm as this shred of energy had seemingly been infused in him.

The moment this tiny shred of energy from the Calamity of Lightning entered his soul, he could feel his unstable soul finally solidify completely.

A young lad who looked exactly like Zhou Yan stood silently at the very center of his forehead. The void within his forehead had been divided into two layers; the enormous blade was housed in the innermost layer, and the outer layer contained Zhou Yan’s soul.

Alas at this moment, the young lad’s soul had finally been solidified and had also mutated. Thus, with a single thought, this soul flew out of Zhou Yan’s forehead and landed on top of his head.

“Disperse!”

With another thought, that soul immediately dispersed into a collection of formless spiritual energy.

“Gather!”

Another change of thought and this formless collection of unbound spiritual energy once again gathered and condensed instantly into the appearance of Zhou Yan while levitating midair.

“Form Sword!”

Thus, with another thought the soul immediately manifested the specter of the enormous blade. With a soul that had been solidified and given form, the enormous blade that was manifested seemed slightly specter-esque!

Zhou Yan frowned as he thought of why it became a specter, and then proceeded to control it differently. The moment that happened, the enormous blade once again morphed into the appearance of an actual sword.

This time, that sword felt extremely life-like and solid but the ferocity of this blade was far inferior to that enormous specter of a sword.

“I think I’m beginning to understand now.”

Zhou Yan’s heart lit up with delight as the shaping of one’s soul progressed from a mere specter to a solid form—this would undoubtedly benefit him greatly.

A scholar’s ability to gain enlightenment was closely related to how powerful one’s soul was. A massively powerful soul would have an inhuman affinity toward achieving enlightenment.

Since Zhou Yan’s soul had been mutated and evolved to such an extent, Zhou Yan’s ability to gain enlightenment had reached an immeasurable height.

…

After a good long while, Zhou Yan finally snapped out of his enlightened state, and it was only when he had regained consciousness did he realize the light that shone through the opening from the ceiling was not from the moon but was in fact sunlight.

It was uncertain how much time had passed.

However, since not a single person came to bug him, Zhou Yan knew it was still not close to the time he was required to head toward the Zhou family home, which meant from the moment he entered a state of enlightenment to when he had snapped out of it did not take more than twenty days.

Thus, Zhou Yan proceeded to assess his training progress. The moment he sensed his body, he was shocked to find that just by training his soul, his progress had ascended to the very peak of the second rank within the realm of the Blade’s Menace!

This pace was seemingly too fast of a progress!

In addition to his ascension, the young lad’s Qi Column had undergone another change too. Just like his success in shaping his soul, the young lad’s body had seemingly also greatly evolved!

Zhou Yan recalled the process of training his soul and the amazing feeling from the baptism of spiritual energy—both his eyes lit up in absolute delight!