Supreme Being: The Sword of True Martial Arts

The stairs extend downwards, seemingly without end.

Lin Yan walked at the front, his iron sword held horizontally in front of him, his Myriad Manifestations Sword Heart operating at full speed. His sword sense probed downwards along the steps, but before it penetrated ten feet, it was blocked by an invisible force—not an array, but some extremely dense, almost tangible spiritual energy. That spiritual energy was very similar to the sword heart fluctuations emanating from the girl, but it was more ancient, more pure, and also more…brutal.

If the girl's sword heart is a clear pool of water, then the spiritual energy deep within the underground palace is a boiling sea of ​​blood.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

His heartbeat grew louder and louder. Each beat was like a heavy hammer pounding on his chest, making Lin Yan's blood surge. He glanced back and saw that Qi Xia's face was pale, and Meng Qi's lips were even blue. Only Jiang Zhiwei remained calm—but her right hand was still on the hilt of her sword, her knuckles slightly white.

The girl walked at the very back. Her bare feet trod on the cold stone steps, her long blue robe trailing behind her as if weightless. Her blue eyes remained devoid of emotion, but Lin Yan's Myriad Manifestations Sword Heart sensed that her sword heart fluctuations were accelerating—not from fear, but from resonance. She and that thing deep within the underground palace came from the same place.

"You said your sword heart fragment came from Mount Ling," Lin Yan asked without turning his head. "What kind of place is Mount Ling?"

The girl was silent for a few moments, as if recalling something. "I don't know." Her voice was still soft and clear. "Kenshin only told me two words—'Spirit Mountain.' And a sword mark."

"Sword marks?"

"A very deep sword mark. Carved into the stone wall. Behind the stone wall, something is moving. Thump, thump, thump." The girl paused. "Exactly the same as now."

A cold sweat broke out on Lin Yan's back. Mount Ling, the sword mark, the heartbeat. These fragments, pieced together, vaguely outlined an extremely ancient scene—someone had left a sword mark on the stone wall of Mount Ling, sealing something deep within. That thing's heart was still beating. Tianci obtained the sword heart fragment from the ruins of Mount Ling and nurtured the girl with the Heart-Stealing Pill and life force. But he didn't know, or rather, he knew but did it intentionally—the sword heart fragment was only part of the seal. The truly sealed thing lay deeper within the sword mark.

And now, that thing is awakening.

The stairs finally came to an end.

Lin Yan stepped off the last stone step, and a breathtaking view unfolded before him. A vast underground palace, even more expansive than the main hall above, stretched out before him. A high dome hung suspended in the air, and the walls were inlaid with countless fist-sized fluorites, emitting a faint blue glow. The floor was a single slab of black stone, intricately carved with countless array patterns—not added by Tianci later, but present from the beginning. The edges of the patterns had weathered, and in some places, they were blurred by the passage of time, yet their former grandeur was still evident.

In the very center of the underground palace is an altar.

It was ten times larger than the one above. The altar was octagonal, with a stone pillar at each corner, covered in runes that Lin Yan couldn't understand. In the center of the altar floated a blue crystal—more than ten times larger than the one that had conceived the girl. Inside the crystal, a corpse was sealed.

A headless corpse.

The corpse was tall, clad in tattered dark armor, riddled with sword and blade marks, some sections pierced to reveal the withered skin beneath. Its hands were clasped across its chest, the fingernails unusually long and a strange bluish-black. Most horrifying of all was its chest cavity—the armor torn from the inside, ribs broken, the cavity empty. The heart had been removed.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The heartbeat was coming from the chest cavity of the headless corpse. Although there was nothing there, each heartbeat was clearly audible, causing ripples to spread across the surface of the blue crystal.

"This is..." Meng Qi's voice trembled, "Without a heart, where does the heartbeat come from?"

No one answered. Because no one knew the answer.

The girl walked to the altar, her blue eyes fixed on the headless corpse within the crystal. Her face remained expressionless, but Lin Yan's Myriad Manifestations Sword Heart sensed that her sword heart fluctuations were approaching their peak—not fear, but an almost instinctive…closeness.

"Do you recognize it?" Lin Yan asked.

The girl shook her head. "I don't recognize him. But Kenshin does." She raised her right hand, her palm pressed against the surface of the cyan crystal. The crystal trembled violently, and the headless corpse inside trembled at the same time. The heartbeat suddenly quickened—thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, like rapid drumbeats.

"Its heart," the girl's voice was still soft, but it carried an emotion Lin Yan had never heard before—not sadness, not fear, but more like... bewilderment, "was ripped out with a sword."

"With a sword?" Jiang Zhiwei frowned.

"Hmm." The girl withdrew her right hand from the crystal, her fingertips lightly tracing a line in the air, making a sword-drawing gesture. "A sword pierces the chest cavity, the sword energy swirls, shredding the heart, then it's pulled out. Clean and swift. The person who drew the sword knows it very well—because only someone very familiar with it knows that its heart is hidden on the right side of the chest cavity, not the left. And only someone very familiar with it can make it take this sword without any defense."

She turned her head, her blue eyes looking at Lin Yan. "The one who drew the sword also has a sword heart. The same sword heart as you and me."

A moment of silence fell over the underground palace. Only the increasingly rapid heartbeat echoed through the air.

Lin Yan took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil in his heart. The person who wielded the sword possessed the same Myriad Manifestations Sword Heart as him. This meant that his cheat ability wasn't unique. Before him, someone else had possessed the same ability—that person used it to kill someone they knew well and rip out their heart.

"Who is that person?" Lin Yan asked.

The girl shook her head. "Kenshin doesn't know. Kenshin is just a fragment; he only remembers the sword mark and the heartbeat behind it." She paused, then added, "But Kenshin told me that person is still alive."

Lin Yan's fingers tightened slightly as he gripped the sword hilt.

Just then, the blue crystal on the altar began to tremble violently. It wasn't the kind of tremor the girl had touched, but a tremor that erupted from within, as if something was about to break free. Dense cracks appeared on the surface of the crystal, each crack spreading and intersecting with the others, like a spider web.

The headless corpse slowly raised its hands. The hands, clasped together in front of its chest with long, slender nails, were gradually separating. Ten bluish-black fingernails scraped against the inner wall of the crystal, producing a harsh, grinding sound. Then, it sat up.

The cracks in the crystal spread rapidly, and azure light surged wildly from the fissures. The entire underground palace trembled, rubble from the dome fell in a cascade, and fluorite stones on the walls shattered one after another. The runes on the four stone pillars lit up one by one, emitting a buzzing resonance, as if some ancient seal was being activated—or rather, being broken.

"It's awake," the girl said.

The crystal shattered as soon as the words were spoken.

Cyan fragments scattered like a torrential rain. Lin Yan stepped aside to shield Qi Xia and Meng Qi, his iron sword forming a curtain of blades that deflected all the fragments hurtling towards them. Jiang Zhiwei also drew her sword at the same time, protecting Yan Wujiang. The fragments struck the swords, producing a dense series of clanging sounds, each strike carrying a heavy force—not physical weight, but the tangible impact of condensed spiritual energy.

The fragments fell away. A headless corpse stood in the center of the altar.

It was a full two heads taller than Lin Yan, its dark armor gleaming coldly in the azure light. The headless neck had a clean, smooth cut, as if severed by a single sword—was it the same sword that had ripped out its heart, or a different one? It stood there silently, its heartbeat seemingly still. But Lin Yan's Myriad Manifestations Sword Heart sensed that its spiritual energy was recovering at an astonishing rate.

It wasn't true qi. It was spiritual qi. Pure, untransformed spiritual qi of heaven and earth flowed continuously into its body from the array patterns on the four walls of the underground palace. With each influx, its aura grew stronger. Qi Accumulation Stage, Aperture Opening Stage, one aperture, two apertures, three apertures… In just a few breaths, the aura it emitted had surpassed that of a Heavenly Gift, reaching more than seven apertures. And it was still growing.

"What level of cultivation did this thing have in its previous life?" Meng Qi's voice trembled.

"At least the exterior shots." Jiang Zhiwei's longsword was already drawn, the tip pointing at the headless corpse, but her hand was steady. "It might even be higher."

The headless corpse raised its right hand. Its movement was slow, as if its joints had been rusted for too long and needed to loosen up little by little. Five slender fingers slowly closed, forming a fist. Then, it threw a punch.

The force of the punch was like thunder. Lin Yan didn't have time to draw his sword; he only managed to hold the iron sword horizontally in front of his chest. The force of the punch struck the sword, and he was thrown back by a tremendous force, his back slamming against the stone wall. A sweet taste rose in his throat, and a trace of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. This was just a gust of wind from the punch. The headless corpse's fist hadn't even truly been unleashed yet.

Jiang Zhiwei's sword arrived. With a single, decisive strike, it pierced the headless corpse's chest cavity—the very place where the heart should have been. The headless corpse neither dodged nor parried, allowing the longsword to penetrate its chest. The tip pierced three inches, then, as if striking something extremely hard, it could go no further. The headless corpse had grasped the sword with its hand—not its palm, but its five fingers—from inside its chest cavity, gripping the piercing tip.

Jiang Zhiwei's expression changed. She tried to draw her sword, but it seemed to be embedded in a block of iron, remaining completely still.

The headless corpse raised its right hand and threw a punch at Jiang Zhiwei. This punch was more than ten times stronger than the previous one. Wherever the fist passed, the air was compressed into a visible white shockwave, producing a deafening sonic boom. If this punch landed, Jiang Zhiwei would be blasted to pieces.

A streak of azure sword light flashed from the side. It was the girl's sword. The lightsaber struck precisely at the headless corpse's right wrist—a crucial point for the transmission of the fist's force, and also the most severely damaged spot on the armor. The Intercepting River Style. Exactly the same Intercepting River Style as Lin Yan.

The headless corpse's fist paused slightly. This pause caused Jiang Zhiwei to loosen her grip on her sword hilt, sending her flying backward. The headless corpse's fist grazed her clothes, and the force of the blow blasted a three-foot-deep crater into the stone wall behind her.

"Your swordsmanship is the same as mine." Lin Yan propped himself up from the stone wall and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

The girl sheathed her sword, her blue eyes fixed on him. "Kenshin told me. When you used it to stab Tianci just now, Kenshin remembered it." She paused, "But there's something else in your sword heart. The 'momentum' of the Cloud-Piercing Style, the 'intention' of the Severing Thought Style. Kenshin didn't remember those, because they aren't sword techniques; they are your own."

Lin Yan was silent for a moment. Then he smiled. "So, do you want to learn?"

The girl tilted her head, a very faint ripple flashing in her blue eyes—not an emotion, but more like… curiosity. “Learn.”

The headless corpse pulled Jiang Zhiwei's longsword from its chest cavity. The sword was stained with a bluish-black liquid, it was unclear whether it was blood or something else. It casually tossed the sword aside, clenched its fists, and the sound of its heartbeat returned. This time, the heartbeat was no longer a dull thud, but a sharp, piercing sound, like a sword cutting through the air.

Qi Xia gripped the water-splitting thorn, her face pale but her eyes resolute. "Young Master Lin, what is it afraid of?"

Lin Yan's Myriad Manifestations Sword Heart was operating at full power, its gaze fixed on the headless corpse. Its spiritual energy flowed in an extremely strange way—not along the meridians, but like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, surging from all directions into the center of its chest cavity, where the heart should be. There was a vortex of spiritual energy there; all the spiritual energy ultimately converged at the center of the vortex, then erupted, driving its body.

The center of that vortex was its weakness. But the problem was that the vortex was surrounded by layers of armor and ribs; to pierce it, one had to break through the armor first. And the armor was made of an extremely special material—not metal, but some kind of material Lin Yan had never seen before. When spiritual energy flowed onto the surface of the armor, it would automatically slide away, making it impossible to apply any leverage.

"It doesn't have a heart," Lin Yan said, "but it has a vortex of spiritual energy in its chest cavity, which is like its temporary heart. As long as you can pierce the center of that vortex, you can stop it. The problem is, its armor can deflect true energy—my sword can't penetrate it."

"I can," the girl suddenly said.

Lin Yan looked at her. The girl raised the lightsaber in her hand, true energy patterns flowing within its cyan blade. "A sword condensed from the sword heart is not true energy, but the sword heart itself. Its armor cannot be removed."

Lin Yan and Jiang Zhiwei exchanged a glance. Their eyes met for a moment in the air, then they nodded simultaneously.

"I'll attack from the front." Jiang Zhiwei picked up her longsword from the ground; the blade was still stained with a bluish-black liquid, but she didn't care. "Draw its attention."

"I'll attack from the left." Lin Yan gripped his iron sword tightly. "Its left arm armor is the most damaged. Although I can't pierce it, I can disrupt its movements."

He looked at the girl. "Attack from the right. Once its hands are restrained, burst in from the right and stab its chest."

The girl nodded.

The three moved simultaneously. Jiang Zhiwei charged forward, her sword flashing like a white rainbow piercing the sun, aiming straight for the headless corpse's throat—though it had no head, the cut at the neck was one of the areas where true energy flowed most densely. The headless corpse threw out both fists simultaneously, one aimed at Jiang Zhiwei's sword, the other at her chest. Jiang Zhiwei did not retreat; the tip of her sword briefly touched the fist before moving away, using the force to flip to the side, landing on the headless corpse's left.

At the same time, Lin Yan's iron sword pierced through. He didn't strike the headless corpse's body, but rather a section of bluish skin exposed by the torn armor on its left arm. The instant the sword struck the skin, the true energy of the Intercepting River Style erupted, severing a crucial point in the flow of true energy in the left arm. The headless corpse's left arm faltered slightly.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Jiang Zhiwei circled behind it and thrust her longsword three times into the back of its knees. The headless corpse exerted force on both legs at the same time, its body leaning slightly forward, its hands instinctively pushing downwards—a balancing action that anyone with combat instincts would make.

Now. The girl's lightsaber pierced through from the right. The tip precisely pierced the gaps in the armor, through the gaps in the ribs, and into the very center of the aura vortex in the chest cavity.

The headless corpse froze. The heartbeat in its chest stopped abruptly. It remained motionless, its hands supporting it, like a statue. Then, from deep within its chest came an extremely low sigh—not from its throat, but from its chest, from the empty cavity where its heart had been ripped out. It sounded like regret that had transcended endless years, or perhaps like a release that had finally been found.

The dark armor shattered into pieces. The headless corpse's body turned into azure specks of light starting from its feet, slowly dissipating into the air. The specks of light drifted towards the dome, towards the shattered fluorite, illuminating the entire underground palace in a gentle azure light.

The girl stood still, her blue eyes reflecting the specks of light. She reached out and caught one. The speck lingered in her palm for a moment, then passed through her hand and continued to float upwards.

"It said, thank you," the girl whispered.

Lin Yan looked at her. "You can hear it talking?"

"No." The girl withdrew her hand. "But Kenshin can sense it. It has been sealed here for a long time—longer than Hidden Emperor's Fortress, longer than Jiangzhou City, longer than the True Martial Sect. The person who killed it sealed it here and used its heart to do something else. What that was, Kenshin doesn't know."

She turned her head, her blue eyes looking at Lin Yan. "But Kenshin knows one thing. The person who killed it also had a Kenshin. Just like you, and like me, a Kenshin. That person is still alive."

The underground palace remained silent for a long time. The last wisp of blue light disappeared into the dome, plunging the palace into darkness, with only a few unbroken fluorite stones emitting a faint glow.

Jiang Zhiwei sheathed her sword, breaking the silence. "The side quest is complete. The Lord of the Six Paths of Reincarnation just notified us that the four masters, Ma Lianghan, Tan Wenbo, Cheng Yong, and Ding Changsheng, have all been successfully 'rescued.' Adding to the previous quest, each person will receive forty merit points. Including the main quest of killing the fortress lord—Tianci is still alive, but the Lord of the Six Paths of Reincarnation has already determined the main quest to be complete, each person will receive fifty merit points."

"Tianci is still alive?" Meng Qi was stunned.

"He's alive." Jiang Zhiwei looked up at the top of the stairs. "But his dantian was pierced by the girl, and most of his cultivation was ruined. The Lord of the Six Paths of Reincarnation determined that he is 'no longer the Lord of the Hidden Emperor's Fortress,' so the mission is considered complete."

Lin Yan suddenly thought of a question. "Where is Qingjing?"

Jiang Zhiwei was silent for a moment. "Qingjing and Ma Lianghan perished together. The Lord of the Six Paths of Reincarnation judged that both of them had been 'saved' successfully, and Qingjing also received the merit for the side quest. But he is already dead—merit is meaningless to the dead."

No one speaks.

After a long silence, Qi Xia spoke softly, "Let's go back."

Lin Yan nodded. He glanced at the girl—she was still standing in the ruins of the altar, her bare feet on the cold stone slabs, her blue robe trailing on the ground, and the faint glow of fluorite reflected in her blue eyes.

"What are you planning to do?" Lin Yan asked.

The girl looked at him, remaining silent for a few moments. "I don't know. Kenshin didn't tell me."

Lin Yan thought for a moment, then held out her hand. "Come with us. At least let's get out of this awful place."

The girl looked down at his hand, then looked up at his face. Her blue eyes remained emotionless, but she slowly raised her right hand and grasped Lin Yan's hand. Her hand was cold, like holding a piece of cold jade.

"Okay," she said.

Just then, a grand, icy voice resounded in everyone's minds—

"Main quest complete, returning."

Lin Yan felt a sudden darkness engulf him; the underground palace, the fluorite, the ruins of the altar, and the girl's icy fingers all vanished in an instant. His consciousness was as if gripped by an invisible hand, abruptly lifted upwards, piercing through layers of darkness, through the array-carved staircase, through the central hall, through the passageway, and through the dome of the white jade plaza—

Then, the light shone on Chapter 9, the Underground Palace: Heartbeat.

The stairs extend downwards, seemingly without end.

Lin Yan walked at the front, his iron sword held horizontally in front of him, his Myriad Manifestations Sword Heart operating at full speed. His sword sense probed downwards along the steps, but before it penetrated ten feet, it was blocked by an invisible force—not an array, but some extremely dense, almost tangible spiritual energy. That spiritual energy was very similar to the sword heart fluctuations emanating from the girl, but it was more ancient, more pure, and also more…brutal.

If the girl's sword heart is a clear pool of water, then the spiritual energy deep within the underground palace is a boiling sea of ​​blood.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

His heartbeat grew louder and louder. Each beat was like a heavy hammer pounding on his chest, making Lin Yan's blood surge. He glanced back and saw that Qi Xia's face was pale, and Meng Qi's lips were even blue. Only Jiang Zhiwei remained calm—but her right hand was still on the hilt of her sword, her knuckles slightly white.

The girl walked at the very back. Her bare feet trod on the cold stone steps, her long blue robe trailing behind her as if weightless. Her blue eyes remained devoid of emotion, but Lin Yan's Myriad Manifestations Sword Heart sensed that her sword heart fluctuations were accelerating—not from fear, but from resonance. She and that thing deep within the underground palace came from the same place.

"You said your sword heart fragment came from Mount Ling," Lin Yan asked without turning his head. "What kind of place is Mount Ling?"

The girl was silent for a few moments, as if recalling something. "I don't know." Her voice was still soft and clear. "Kenshin only told me two words—'Spirit Mountain.' And a sword mark."

"Sword marks?"

"A very deep sword mark. Carved into the stone wall. Behind the stone wall, something is moving. Thump, thump, thump." The girl paused. "Exactly the same as now."

A cold sweat broke out on Lin Yan's back. Mount Ling, the sword mark, the heartbeat. These fragments, pieced together, vaguely outlined an extremely ancient scene—someone had left a sword mark on the stone wall of Mount Ling, sealing something deep within. That thing's heart was still beating. Tianci obtained the sword heart fragment from the ruins of Mount Ling and nurtured the girl with the Heart-Stealing Pill and life force. But he didn't know, or rather, he knew but did it intentionally—the sword heart fragment was only part of the seal. The truly sealed thing lay deeper within the sword mark.

And now, that thing is awakening.

The stairs finally came to an end.

Lin Yan stepped off the last stone step, and a breathtaking view unfolded before him. A vast underground palace, even more expansive than the main hall above, stretched out before him. A high dome hung suspended in the air, and the walls were inlaid with countless fist-sized fluorites, emitting a faint blue glow. The floor was a single slab of black stone, intricately carved with countless array patterns—not added by Tianci later, but present from the beginning. The edges of the patterns had weathered, and in some places, they were blurred by the passage of time, yet their former grandeur was still evident.

In the very center of the underground palace is an altar.

It was ten times larger than the one above. The altar was octagonal, with a stone pillar at each corner, covered in runes that Lin Yan couldn't understand. In the center of the altar floated a blue crystal—more than ten times larger than the one that had conceived the girl. Inside the crystal, a corpse was sealed.

A headless corpse.

The corpse was tall, clad in tattered dark armor, riddled with sword and blade marks, some sections pierced to reveal the withered skin beneath. Its hands were clasped across its chest, the fingernails unusually long and a strange bluish-black. Most horrifying of all was its chest cavity—the armor torn from the inside, ribs broken, the cavity empty. The heart had been removed.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The heartbeat was coming from the chest cavity of the headless corpse. Although there was nothing there, each heartbeat was clearly audible, causing ripples to spread across the surface of the blue crystal.

"This is..." Meng Qi's voice trembled, "Without a heart, where does the heartbeat come from?"

No one answered. Because no one knew the answer.

The girl walked to the altar, her blue eyes fixed on the headless corpse within the crystal. Her face remained expressionless, but Lin Yan's Myriad Manifestations Sword Heart sensed that her sword heart fluctuations were approaching their peak—not fear, but an almost instinctive…closeness.

"Do you recognize it?" Lin Yan asked.

The girl shook her head. "I don't recognize him. But Kenshin does." She raised her right hand, her palm pressed against the surface of the cyan crystal. The crystal trembled violently, and the headless corpse inside trembled at the same time. The heartbeat suddenly quickened—thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, like rapid drumbeats.

"Its heart," the girl's voice was still soft, but it carried an emotion Lin Yan had never heard before—not sadness, not fear, but more like... bewilderment, "was ripped out with a sword."

"With a sword?" Jiang Zhiwei frowned.

"Hmm." The girl withdrew her right hand from the crystal, her fingertips lightly tracing a line in the air, making a sword-drawing gesture. "A sword pierces the chest cavity, the sword energy swirls, shredding the heart, then it's pulled out. Clean and swift. The person who drew the sword knows it very well—because only someone very familiar with it knows that its heart is hidden on the right side of the chest cavity, not the left. And only someone very familiar with it can make it take this sword without any defense."

She turned her head, her blue eyes looking at Lin Yan. "The one who drew the sword also has a sword heart. The same sword heart as you and me."

A moment of silence fell over the underground palace. Only the increasingly rapid heartbeat echoed through the air.

Lin Yan took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil in his heart. The person who wielded the sword possessed the same Myriad Manifestations Sword Heart as him. This meant that his cheat ability wasn't unique. Before him, someone else had possessed the same ability—that person used it to kill someone they knew well and rip out their heart.

"Who is that person?" Lin Yan asked.

The girl shook her head. "Kenshin doesn't know. Kenshin is just a fragment; he only remembers the sword mark and the heartbeat behind it." She paused, then added, "But Kenshin told me that person is still alive."

Lin Yan's fingers tightened slightly as he gripped the sword hilt.

Just then, the blue crystal on the altar began to tremble violently. It wasn't the kind of tremor the girl had touched, but a tremor that erupted from within, as if something was about to break free. Dense cracks appeared on the surface of the crystal, each crack spreading and intersecting with the others, like a spider web.

The headless corpse slowly raised its hands. The hands, clasped together in front of its chest with long, slender nails, were gradually separating. Ten bluish-black fingernails scraped against the inner wall of the crystal, producing a harsh, grinding sound. Then, it sat up.

The cracks in the crystal spread rapidly, and azure light surged wildly from the fissures. The entire underground palace trembled, rubble from the dome fell in a cascade, and fluorite stones on the walls shattered one after another. The runes on the four stone pillars lit up one by one, emitting a buzzing resonance, as if some ancient seal was being activated—or rather, being broken.

"It's awake," the girl said.

The crystal shattered as soon as the words were spoken.

Cyan fragments scattered like a torrential rain. Lin Yan stepped aside to shield Qi Xia and Meng Qi, his iron sword forming a curtain of blades that deflected all the fragments hurtling towards them. Jiang Zhiwei also drew her sword at the same time, protecting Yan Wujiang. The fragments struck the swords, producing a dense series of clanging sounds, each strike carrying a heavy force—not physical weight, but the tangible impact of condensed spiritual energy.

The fragments fell away. A headless corpse stood in the center of the altar.

It was a full two heads taller than Lin Yan, its dark armor gleaming coldly in the azure light. The headless neck had a clean, smooth cut, as if severed by a single sword—was it the same sword that had ripped out its heart, or a different one? It stood there silently, its heartbeat seemingly still. But Lin Yan's Myriad Manifestations Sword Heart sensed that its spiritual energy was recovering at an astonishing rate.

It wasn't true qi. It was spiritual qi. Pure, untransformed spiritual qi of heaven and earth flowed continuously into its body from the array patterns on the four walls of the underground palace. With each influx, its aura grew stronger. Qi Accumulation Stage, Aperture Opening Stage, one aperture, two apertures, three apertures… In just a few breaths, the aura it emitted had surpassed that of a Heavenly Gift, reaching more than seven apertures. And it was still growing.

"What level of cultivation did this thing have in its previous life?" Meng Qi's voice trembled.

"At least the exterior shots." Jiang Zhiwei's longsword was already drawn, the tip pointing at the headless corpse, but her hand was steady. "It might even be higher."

The headless corpse raised its right hand. Its movement was slow, as if its joints had been rusted for too long and needed to loosen up little by little. Five slender fingers slowly closed, forming a fist. Then, it threw a punch.

The force of the punch was like thunder. Lin Yan didn't have time to draw his sword; he only managed to hold the iron sword horizontally in front of his chest. The force of the punch struck the sword, and he was thrown back by a tremendous force, his back slamming against the stone wall. A sweet taste rose in his throat, and a trace of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. This was just a gust of wind from the punch. The headless corpse's fist hadn't even truly been unleashed yet.

Jiang Zhiwei's sword arrived. With a single, decisive strike, it pierced the headless corpse's chest cavity—the very place where the heart should have been. The headless corpse neither dodged nor parried, allowing the longsword to penetrate its chest. The tip pierced three inches, then, as if striking something extremely hard, it could go no further. The headless corpse had grasped the sword with its hand—not its palm, but its five fingers—from inside its chest cavity, gripping the piercing tip.

Jiang Zhiwei's expression changed. She tried to draw her sword, but it seemed to be embedded in a block of iron, remaining completely still.

The headless corpse raised its right hand and threw a punch at Jiang Zhiwei. This punch was more than ten times stronger than the previous one. Wherever the fist passed, the air was compressed into a visible white shockwave, producing a deafening sonic boom. If this punch landed, Jiang Zhiwei would be blasted to pieces.

A streak of azure sword light flashed from the side. It was the girl's sword. The lightsaber struck precisely at the headless corpse's right wrist—a crucial point for the transmission of the fist's force, and also the most severely damaged spot on the armor. The Intercepting River Style. Exactly the same Intercepting River Style as Lin Yan.

The headless corpse's fist paused slightly. This pause caused Jiang Zhiwei to loosen her grip on her sword hilt, sending her flying backward. The headless corpse's fist grazed her clothes, and the force of the blow blasted a three-foot-deep crater into the stone wall behind her.

"Your swordsmanship is the same as mine." Lin Yan propped himself up from the stone wall and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

The girl sheathed her sword, her blue eyes fixed on him. "Kenshin told me. When you used it to stab Tianci just now, Kenshin remembered it." She paused, "But there's something else in your sword heart. The 'momentum' of the Cloud-Piercing Style, the 'intention' of the Severing Thought Style. Kenshin didn't remember those, because they aren't sword techniques; they are your own."

Lin Yan was silent for a moment. Then he smiled. "So, do you want to learn?"

The girl tilted her head, a very faint ripple flashing in her blue eyes—not an emotion, but more like… curiosity. “Learn.”

The headless corpse pulled Jiang Zhiwei's longsword from its chest cavity. The sword was stained with a bluish-black liquid, it was unclear whether it was blood or something else. It casually tossed the sword aside, clenched its fists, and the sound of its heartbeat returned. This time, the heartbeat was no longer a dull thud, but a sharp, piercing sound, like a sword cutting through the air.

Qi Xia gripped the water-splitting thorn, her face pale but her eyes resolute. "Young Master Lin, what is it afraid of?"

Lin Yan's Myriad Manifestations Sword Heart was operating at full power, its gaze fixed on the headless corpse. Its spiritual energy flowed in an extremely strange way—not along the meridians, but like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, surging from all directions into the center of its chest cavity, where the heart should be. There was a vortex of spiritual energy there; all the spiritual energy ultimately converged at the center of the vortex, then erupted, driving its body.

The center of that vortex was its weakness. But the problem was that the vortex was surrounded by layers of armor and ribs; to pierce it, one had to break through the armor first. And the armor was made of an extremely special material—not metal, but some kind of material Lin Yan had never seen before. When spiritual energy flowed onto the surface of the armor, it would automatically slide away, making it impossible to apply any leverage.

"It doesn't have a heart," Lin Yan said, "but it has a vortex of spiritual energy in its chest cavity, which is like its temporary heart. As long as you can pierce the center of that vortex, you can stop it. The problem is, its armor can deflect true energy—my sword can't penetrate it."

"I can," the girl suddenly said.

Lin Yan looked at her. The girl raised the lightsaber in her hand, true energy patterns flowing within its cyan blade. "A sword condensed from the sword heart is not true energy, but the sword heart itself. Its armor cannot be removed."

Lin Yan and Jiang Zhiwei exchanged a glance. Their eyes met for a moment in the air, then they nodded simultaneously.

"I'll attack from the front." Jiang Zhiwei picked up her longsword from the ground; the blade was still stained with a bluish-black liquid, but she didn't care. "Draw its attention."

"I'll attack from the left." Lin Yan gripped his iron sword tightly. "Its left arm armor is the most damaged. Although I can't pierce it, I can disrupt its movements."

He looked at the girl. "Attack from the right. Once its hands are restrained, burst in from the right and stab its chest."

The girl nodded.

The three moved simultaneously. Jiang Zhiwei charged forward, her sword flashing like a white rainbow piercing the sun, aiming straight for the headless corpse's throat—though it had no head, the cut at the neck was one of the areas where true energy flowed most densely. The headless corpse threw out both fists simultaneously, one aimed at Jiang Zhiwei's sword, the other at her chest. Jiang Zhiwei did not retreat; the tip of her sword briefly touched the fist before moving away, using the force to flip to the side, landing on the headless corpse's left.

At the same time, Lin Yan's iron sword pierced through. He didn't strike the headless corpse's body, but rather a section of bluish skin exposed by the torn armor on its left arm. The instant the sword struck the skin, the true energy of the Intercepting River Style erupted, severing a crucial point in the flow of true energy in the left arm. The headless corpse's left arm faltered slightly.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Jiang Zhiwei circled behind it and thrust her longsword three times into the back of its knees. The headless corpse exerted force on both legs at the same time, its body leaning slightly forward, its hands instinctively pushing downwards—a balancing action that anyone with combat instincts would make.

Now. The girl's lightsaber pierced through from the right. The tip precisely pierced the gaps in the armor, through the gaps in the ribs, and into the very center of the aura vortex in the chest cavity.

The headless corpse froze. The heartbeat in its chest stopped abruptly. It remained motionless, its hands supporting it, like a statue. Then, from deep within its chest came an extremely low sigh—not from its throat, but from its chest, from the empty cavity where its heart had been ripped out. It sounded like regret that had transcended endless years, or perhaps like a release that had finally been found.

The dark armor shattered into pieces. The headless corpse's body turned into azure specks of light starting from its feet, slowly dissipating into the air. The specks of light drifted towards the dome, towards the shattered fluorite, illuminating the entire underground palace in a gentle azure light.

The girl stood still, her blue eyes reflecting the specks of light. She reached out and caught one. The speck lingered in her palm for a moment, then passed through her hand and continued to float upwards.

"It said, thank you," the girl whispered.

Lin Yan looked at her. "You can hear it talking?"

"No." The girl withdrew her hand. "But Kenshin can sense it. It has been sealed here for a long time—longer than Hidden Emperor's Fortress, longer than Jiangzhou City, longer than the True Martial Sect. The person who killed it sealed it here and used its heart to do something else. What that was, Kenshin doesn't know."

She turned her head, her blue eyes looking at Lin Yan. "But Kenshin knows one thing. The person who killed it also had a Kenshin. Just like you, and like me, a Kenshin. That person is still alive."

The underground palace remained silent for a long time. The last wisp of blue light disappeared into the dome, plunging the palace into darkness, with only a few unbroken fluorite stones emitting a faint glow.

Jiang Zhiwei sheathed her sword, breaking the silence. "The side quest is complete. The Lord of the Six Paths of Reincarnation just notified us that the four masters, Ma Lianghan, Tan Wenbo, Cheng Yong, and Ding Changsheng, have all been successfully 'rescued.' Adding to the previous quest, each person will receive forty merit points. Including the main quest of killing the fortress lord—Tianci is still alive, but the Lord of the Six Paths of Reincarnation has already determined the main quest to be complete, each person will receive fifty merit points."

"Tianci is still alive?" Meng Qi was stunned.

"He's alive." Jiang Zhiwei looked up at the top of the stairs. "But his dantian was pierced by the girl, and most of his cultivation was ruined. The Lord of the Six Paths of Reincarnation determined that he is 'no longer the Lord of the Hidden Emperor's Fortress,' so the mission is considered complete."

Lin Yan suddenly thought of a question. "Where is Qingjing?"

Jiang Zhiwei was silent for a moment. "Qingjing and Ma Lianghan perished together. The Lord of the Six Paths of Reincarnation judged that both of them had been 'saved' successfully, and Qingjing also received the merit for the side quest. But he is already dead—merit is meaningless to the dead."

No one speaks.

After a long silence, Qi Xia spoke softly, "Let's go back."

Lin Yan nodded. He glanced at the girl—she was still standing in the ruins of the altar, her bare feet on the cold stone slabs, her blue robe trailing on the ground, and the faint glow of fluorite reflected in her blue eyes.

"What are you planning to do?" Lin Yan asked.

The girl looked at him, remaining silent for a few moments. "I don't know. Kenshin didn't tell me."

Lin Yan thought for a moment, then held out her hand. "Come with us. At least let's get out of this awful place."

The girl looked down at his hand, then looked up at his face. Her blue eyes remained emotionless, but she slowly raised her right hand and grasped Lin Yan's hand. Her hand was cold, like holding a piece of cold jade.

"Okay," she said.

Just then, a grand, icy voice resounded in everyone's minds—

"Main quest complete, returning."

Lin Yan felt a sudden darkness engulf him; the underground palace, the fluorite, the ruins of the altar, and the girl's icy fingers all vanished in an instant. His consciousness was as if gripped by an invisible hand, abruptly lifted upwards, piercing through layers of darkness, through the array-carved staircase, through the central hall, through the passageway, and through the dome of the white jade plaza—

Then, the light shone.