I gain ten years' worth of cultivation every day, and even geniuses will only see my doorstep!

He opened his eyes.

"That sphere," he said, "used three powers: fire, ice, and lightning. How did you defeat those two elders?"

Lin Qing'er didn't understand why he suddenly asked this. "You absorbed the Chaos Fire. You restrained the Chaos Ice. You found the pattern to the Chaos Lightning."

"Three forces, three methods," Qin Yuan said, "but he fused the three forces together. He didn't force them together, but let them take turns."

"Can't you take turns too? Didn't you already do that in his sleeve?"

Qin Yuan remained silent for a while.

"All I managed was to avoid fighting. What he managed was to use them together. It's different."

"How much difference?"

Qin Yuan thought for a moment. "I'm missing a gear. I only have three gears, each turning independently. He has an axle that connects the three gears together."

Lin Qing'er didn't respond. She knew Qin Yuan wasn't speaking to her, but to herself. She just needed to listen.

After a while, Qin Yuan closed his eyes. Lin Qing'er thought he had fainted again, but he had simply focused his consciousness into his body.

He stopped trying to mobilize the three powers to repair his body. He drew them all back to his dantian and let them settle. Then he began to think about the axis.

What is an axle? It's something that strings three gears together. Not the gears themselves, but something outside of them. In Chaos Heaven's hands, the axle is the chaotic energy—he uses chaotic energy to envelop the three forces together, allowing them to operate within it. But Qin Yuan doesn't have chaotic energy. He has the Guardian Heavenly Dao.

He doesn't want to merge the three forces. He wants to make the protection of the Heavenly Dao the axis.

Qin Yuan opened his eyes. He raised his right hand, palm up. Golden light shone from his palm—small and weak, like a star about to go out. Inside the golden sphere of light, three colors slowly rotated: red, blue, and purple. They didn't fight or repel each other; they simply rotated quietly and orderly within the golden sphere.

Lin Qing'er saw the ball of light. She didn't know what it was, but she knew it was different from all the previous powers.

Qin Yuan clenched his fist, and the ball of light went out. He then closed his eyes.

This time she really fell asleep.

Qin Yuan was awakened by a tremor. The palace was shaking, not from an earthquake, but from something hitting it from the outside.

Chaos Heaven stood up, walked to the palace entrance, glanced outside, and then walked back. His face was expressionless, but Qin Yuan noticed that his pace was quicker than before.

"Someone's coming," said Chaos Heaven.

"Who?" Lin Qing'er asked.

"I don't know him," Chaos Heaven said, "but he's very strong. Stronger than you, and stronger than your man too."

He looked down at Qin Yuan. "You have accomplices?"

Qin Yuan did not answer. He didn't know who was outside, but he knew they weren't his accomplices. He never had any accomplices.

The sounds of impact outside the hall grew louder. The rumbling of chaotic energy seeped through the hall walls like waves in a storm.

Chaos Heaven glanced at the palace gate, then at Qin Yuan and Lin Qing'er. He seemed to be making a decision.

Then he walked back to the stone chair and sat down. He didn't go out to fight, nor did he continue interrogating Qin Yuan. He just sat there, as if nothing had happened.

The impact lasted for a long time. Then it stopped.

The palace gates were not open.

Chaos Heaven closed his eyes. Qin Yuan didn't know what he was thinking, but he knew that nothing outside had come in—either it had left or it had been blocked.

Qin Yuan didn't ask. He continued to circulate the three powers within his body, allowing them to slowly rotate within the halo protecting the Heavenly Dao.

Lin Qing'er leaned against him without saying a word.

Qin Yuan didn't know how long he had slept. When Lin Qing'er woke him up, he found himself being pulled up from the ground.

Chaos Heaven stood before him, holding the bronze lamp in his hands. Golden flames danced on the wick, illuminating Qin Yuan's face, and also Chaos Heaven's own. His face was expressionless, but Qin Yuan noticed the scar on the back of his hand—the white scar that stretched from the base of his index finger to his wrist—had changed color. It was no longer white, but a pale gold.

"You slept all day," said Chaos Heaven.

Qin Yuan remained silent.

"I've healed about a third of the wounds in your body," Chaos Heaven said. "It wasn't out of kindness. If you were dead, I wouldn't know how that power works anymore."

Qin Yuan looked down at his left shoulder. He could move it. Although it still hurt, the bone had set. His right leg could also straighten; the misalignment of his shinbone had been corrected.

"Why?" Qin Yuan asked.

"I told you. If you die, I won't know how that power works." Chaos Heaven placed the bronze lamp back on the stone table. "You combined the Guardian Dao with the Three Chaotic Forces. I can't do that. I need you alive."

Qin Yuan stood up. His body was still in pain, but he could stand.

"You want me to teach you?"

"I want you to show me," said Chaos Heaven. "With your sword."

Qin Yuan glanced at his broken sword. Only the hilt and a blade less than an inch long remained.

I have no sword.

Chaos Heaven took a sword from his sleeve and tossed it to Qin Yuan. The sword was black, with a long, slender blade, devoid of patterns or inscriptions, as plain as an iron bar. But the moment Qin Yuan grasped the hilt, he felt the power contained within the sword—the power of the ninth level of the primordial chaos.

"I'll lend it to you," Chaos Heaven said. "Beat me, and you can take it. If you can't, you die, and the sword remains."

Qin Yuan gripped the hilt of his sword tightly. A hazy light shone on the black blade—not the light of the sword itself, but the light that Qin Yuan had infused with his power.

He began in the chaotic sky, without weapons.

The two men faced each other in the center of the palace. The golden flames of the bronze lamps cast their shadows on the wall, the two shadows overlapping.

Chaos Heaven struck first. His right hand formed a claw, reaching for Qin Yuan's throat. Qin Yuan dodged to the side, his sword blade slashing upwards towards Chaos Heaven's arm. Chaos Heaven withdrew his hand, striking Qin Yuan's chest with his left palm. Qin Yuan parried with his sword, the palm print striking the blade with a muffled thud, and Qin Yuan staggered back two steps.

Chaos Heaven did not pursue. He stood still, watching Qin Yuan.

"Your body hasn't recovered yet. You can only use 50% of your strength in your left shoulder and 70% in your right leg."

Qin Yuan remained silent. He knew that Chaos Heaven was right.

Chaos Heaven made his move again. This time, he used both hands simultaneously, releasing a black sphere on each side. The three forces within the spheres no longer tore at each other, but rotated in an orderly fashion—the same way Qin Yuan had comprehended in his sleeve, but more stable and stronger.

Qin Yuan didn't take the hit head-on. He took a step to the right—his right leg throbbed with pain, but he gritted his teeth and stepped forward. The first sphere flew past him to the left, crashing into the palace wall and blasting a crater. The second sphere followed closely behind. Qin Yuan struck the sphere with the blade of his sword, not with a slash, but with a slap. The moment the hazy blade made contact with the sphere, it didn't explode; instead, it was deflected, flying towards the palace roof and blasting an even larger crater.