Ascension Day

Two shuttles of Sword Qi zipped back and forth between the mountains and rivers of the New Land, glinting brilliantly whenever they caught the sunlight. Suddenly, one of the shuttles shot skyward, tracing a graceful arc before landing on Yuan Qi's large head.

The Sword Qi dissipated.

Yuan Weiyang stood there, her chest heaving as a flush of excitement colored her face.

She was panting slightly. It was her first time using Sword Flight, after all, and the energy consumption was immense. Even with her considerable cultivation, she was thoroughly exhausted.

Yuan Weiyang's strength lay in her Divine Sense, but her Primordial Qi was not as profound as Xu Ying's. She could use Divine Consciousness Sword Manipulation to execute more complex and varied Sword Techniques, but without deep reserves of Primordial Qi, she couldn't maintain it for long.

Xu Ying, on the other hand, was strong in Primordial Qi but his Divine Sense was weaker than Yuan Weiyang's. He was about to stop as well when suddenly, the Sword Box on his back moved on its own. A Sword Qi within it hummed joyfully, seeming to leap with excitement, eager to fly out.

A thought struck Xu Ying. He remembered comprehending the Sword Intent from the Water Gate Temple alongside the Sword Qi in the box, and he immediately mobilized his Divine Sense to make contact with it.

The moment his Divine Sense touched the Sword Qi in the Sword Box, it used his Divine Sense as a conduit to leap out. In the next instant, the Sword Qi surrounding Xu Ying's body erupted!

"WHOOSH!"

His vision went black. His speed had increased so drastically that the blood rushed from his head to the soles of his feet, starving his brain of oxygen.

Xu Ying hurriedly circulated his Qi Blood, and his vision returned. His scalp went numb with terror. In the brief moment his vision had blacked out, he had flown several miles and was now hurtling straight toward a massive mountain!

He was moving far too fast now, four or five times his previous speed. The Sword Qi tore through the air, leaving a trail of white vapor clouds in its wake!

Behind him, Yuan Weiyang and Yuan Qi cried out in alarm. They could only watch as the Sword Qi around Xu Ying flared, creating a thunderous boom as it broke the sound barrier. It even trailed a long streamer of light as it rushed headlong into the mountain!

Xu Ying used every ounce of his Divine Sense to control the Sword Qi and steer himself, but he still only managed to scrape past the mountain peak!

"SCRAPE! SCRAPE! SCRAPE!"

A series of ear-splitting noises rang out as huge chunks of rock were sheared off the side of the mountain by the Sword Qi surrounding Xu Ying!

Xu Ying's heart nearly leaped into his throat, but as the Sword Qi skimmed past the peak, he found himself completely unharmed. He couldn't help but feel a mix of shock and delight.

'Senior Yuan Tiangang's Sword Box is incredible!'

His speed was still increasing, but he could also feel his Primordial Qi being consumed at an ever-faster rate. "Stop! Stop! Stop!" he yelled.

He struggled to command the Sword Qi from the box. The agitated energy vibrated nonstop, but he gradually brought it under control. Xu Ying finally felt a sense of command over the Sword Qi as he began to slow down.

However, the Sword Qi was still restless, lurching unpredictably from time to time. He would need to practice his sword manipulation until he could command it as easily as his own limbs.

A moment later, Yuan Qi saw a ten-foot-wide sphere of Sword Qi flying toward him and his scales bristled in horror. "Ying," he shouted, "be careful you don't carve a crater in my forehead!"

Xu Ying spread his arms, surrounded by the dancing Sword Qi, and slowly descended to the ground.

Suddenly, the Sword Qi retracted all at once. With a sound like rushing water, it flowed back into the Sword Box on his back and vanished.

"What a fine sword!"

Xu Ying exclaimed in admiration. 'Senior Yuan Tiangang is such a good person, so why is the Sword Qi he nurtured so violent? Could it be that he refined his own irritability into the Sword Qi, which is how he manages to stay so calm himself?'

Yuan Qi couldn't see his own forehead and hurriedly asked, "How's my head? Is it still there? Lord Zhong, Lord Zhong! Tap my head so I can hear if it's okay... All right, stop, you're making me dizzy!"

Full of enthusiasm, Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang sat back down and dove into a discussion. They shared the difficulties they encountered during their flight and began to refine the original Sword Control Technique.

Before they knew it, the sun had set. The Dragon Chariot still hadn't left the New Land, and Yongzhou City was nowhere in sight, to say nothing of Lingling. It seemed Zhou Qiyun had gotten lost.

The four Divine Dragons pulling the chariot had grown tired, so Zhou Qiyun brought it to a halt to let them rest.

Yuan Qi was finally able to get out of the Dragon Chariot for some fresh air, much to his delight.

The place where they stopped to rest was by a large lake, its shores a mix of shallow beaches and a great marsh. The water was crystal clear. Yuan Qi slithered into the water, his movements creating advancing ripples on the surface that startled the large fish in the lake, causing them to leap out of the water continuously.

The Big Snake seized the opportunity to fill his belly.

Xu Ying surveyed his surroundings. The area was encircled by mountains on three sides, with a small, solitary hill in the center, unconnected to any of the other ranges. It just stood there, all alone.

The hill wasn't very high, only three or four hundred feet, nor was it particularly large. But it was covered in ancient trees with bark that resembled dragon scales. Some of the trees looked to be tens of thousands of years old.

Xu Ying walked to the foot of the hill and saw stone statues perched in the trees. The statues varied in size, the largest being as tall as a person, and the smallest no bigger than a fist.

He circled the base of the hill and realized the entire mountainside was densely packed with these statues. There had to be tens of thousands of them, if not more.

He took a step, intending to head up the hill for a closer look, when a strange static noise suddenly buzzed in his ears, like someone whispering right next to him.

Da Zhong immediately grew tense. It let out a loud DONG, refining away the static in Xu Ying's mind, and shouted, "Ying, don't move! Remember that huge thing I suppressed at the bottom of the well? There's something like that here!"

Xu Ying instantly recalled the incident at Little Stone Mountain. The Naihe River had invaded, and he and his pursuers had been trapped in the Deserted Temple. He had seen chains beside a well, and when he glanced inside, he saw a giant eye at the bottom!