You've only been cultivating for a few years, and you're already talking about cultivating

The ability to discern all illusions and phantoms in the world, and to see through the appearances to the true reality – the "discerning of shadows"!

As one's understanding deepens, the ability to "discern shadows" also changes.

The light emanated from Qi Fei's palm; it wasn't a dazzling brightness, but a very soft light, like moonlight or water ripples.

It condensed into a ball in his palm, neither expanding nor shrinking, shining quietly.

Where the light shines, the world begins to change.

The first thing to change was the master's face.

That pale, ethereal face, bathed in the light of "Shadow Recognition," resembled a painting soaked in water, its colors beginning to blur and its edges becoming indistinct.

The brow peaks are no longer brow peaks, the bridge of the nose is no longer a bridge of the nose; those clear contours are like ink drops into water, spreading out in strands, drifting, and then disappearing.

Then there was the plain white Taoist robe. The hem of the robe no longer fluttered; the folds that had been blown up by the wind froze in mid-air, then became transparent, like a thin layer of ice slowly melting in the sunlight.

The body beneath the Taoist robe is also dissipating. You might think there's a person standing there, but the "shadow discernment" reveals that there was never anyone there.

The palace began to dissipate.

Green tiles, white walls, flying eaves, and upturned corners—those exquisite and ancient buildings crumbled like sand dunes in the light.

The tiles turned into points of light, the walls into mist, and the pillars into shadows.

Stone steps, bamboo forest, floating islands, sea of ​​clouds, cranes—one by one, they all vanished.

Those things that Qi Fei had lived in for several months and thought were real were revealed one by one to their true nature in the light of "Shadow Observation".

They were never stones, bamboo, or clouds. They were just a painted mask, a watercolor, a set that someone casually set up.

It was all an illusion; he had simply moved from one illusion to another!

There has never been a Yunqiao Sword Sect, nor is there any Nanshan Mountain that is the entrance examination formation for the Yunqiao Sword Sect!

Qi Fei groggily opened his eyes and heard a strange sound.

"Wow, you're amazing."

It is said to be hearsay, but it is not necessarily accurate.

Because that voice resides in Qi Fei's heart.

Qi Fei opened his eyes and saw something strange.

It was a beam of light, about half a foot wide and three feet long!

It had eyebrows and eyes, but no nose or mouth. It hung in mid-air, silently "gazing" at him.

This is the thing that transmits sound to Qi Fei.

"What are you?" Qi Fei asked, slightly taken aback.

The light of "Shadow Detection" emanated from his palm, confirming that what was before him was no longer another illusion.

Truth and illusion, reality and fiction, are sometimes hard to distinguish.

The light replied, "I am not a thing, I am a sword."

"Cheap?" Qi Fei, having experienced two illusions, didn't immediately realize what the light meant.

"Yes! I am a sword, a conscious sword," the light continued.

"Oh~!" Qi Fei finally realized that it was referring to "sword".

No wonder, how could anyone call themselves "cheap"?

"But you don't look like a sword." He looked the strange thing up and down.

It doesn't look like it at all.

Swords don't look like that.

"Because I am a conscious sword," the light said calmly. "Human, I have been here for hundreds of years and have never seen anyone as powerful as you."

"Impressive? Hundreds of years?" Qi Fei looked around. "Then... this is the Sword Immortal's residence?"

Only then did he realize that he was in a huge stone chamber.

It is at least a thousand square meters, spacious and secluded. In the center of the stone chamber, a small earthen mound rises, deliberately piled up to resemble a mountain peak.

Seven beams of light stood on the slope, each a distinct color—red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple—quietly radiating its own light.

"There were indeed sword cultivators here a long, long time ago," the light said.

Qi Fei got up and walked towards the seven-colored pillar of light.

Upon closer inspection, it became clear that the earthen slope held a hidden world. Seven small peaks surrounded a ridge, on which lay a cave entrance. Above the entrance were three characters carved:

"Daoming Cave".

On the mountain peak where the seven pillars of light were located, there were many figures moving about. These people were smaller than ants, yet they were busy doing something.

"This is..." Qi Fei was stunned.

"Seven Illusion Sword Formation," the light said.

Qi Fei recalled the towering pillar of light he had seen outside Nanshan and asked, "Does coming in from outside mean entering this place?"

"good."

"What about that last white beam of light?" Qi Fei pressed.

The light replied, "That is the true gate to this place. Only those who see the white pillar of light are qualified to receive the sword technique inheritance."

"What sword technique?" Qi Fei asked. "Does this mean I'm qualified to receive the sword technique's inheritance?"

"Yes. You have passed the test and are qualified to receive the sword technique inheritance," the light said. "Come with me."

After saying that, the light flew away with a "whoosh" and disappeared without a trace.

"Hey, wait for me!" Qi Fei shouted.

How could this thing just leave like that?

The beam of light flew back with a "whoosh" and said, "Human, you're too slow."

Qi Fei said helplessly, "I can't fly."

"Then I'll wait for you," the light said.

After walking for a while, the light said again, "Human, you're too slow."

We walked for a while longer.

"Hey, can you hurry up?"

Let's walk a little further.

"Human, it took you so long to cover this short distance; I could have flown hundreds of times over."

Qi Fei was too lazy to pay attention to it.

After walking for a while, the light finally said, "Man, you have arrived."

This cave is even larger than what Qi Fei had just seen.

He walked for about fifteen minutes before arriving at a stone wall. As he walked, he suddenly realized that his baggage was still on him.

It seems that entering that white pillar of light led directly to this place. The absurd dream I just experienced was probably also the work of this sword formation.

"This is the sword technique left behind by the sword cultivator," the light said.

Qi Fei looked up at the stone wall.

A beam of sunlight slanted down from above, illuminating the writing on the wall. The very first sentence sent a shiver down his spine:

"The Tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. What my sword cuts lies between name and reality, like a skilled butcher carving up an ox—nothing is beyond its reach! Nothing is beyond its power!"

Qi Fei continued reading and gradually understood what kind of sword technique this was.

So this is what sword cultivators in this world are like.

"The name that can be named is not the eternal name" means that the names, classifications, and definitions that humans give to all things are merely convenient tools and are never the things themselves.

Once people use language to confine things, everything becomes fixed and restricted, losing its original infinite, fluid, and real appearance.

Take a stone, for example. People call it a "stone," and that's how it becomes a stone.

But what exactly is it?

Nobody knows, so we have to force a name!

This "name" is the same as the "reflection" mentioned in "Shadow God Method".

They are all telling the monks that what you see and the names you give to things are never the same as the things themselves.