Upon completing the trials and imbibing the four colored seeds of fire, earth, wind and water from the God, Buddha, Demon and Buddha, Heifeng Jiansui’s three disciples were struck unconscious by a sudden blast of killing intent. It was a mental attack so powerful, so profound that even the personalities of the three couldn’t stand against it.

In a blink of an eyes, the three entered a clear minded state. No thought, clear brightness, pure void… this state of highest meditation had many names. All cultivators strived to enter this state, knowing that they would achieve enlightenment in this state. However, they hadn’t entered it voluntarily nor had they entered this via swallowing a rare treasure.

Quintessence Sword Intent… The legacy that Heifeng Jiansui had left for them was sealed into the four statues, inside the ‘4 seeds’. Imbibing one would bring the mind to a peculiar state. Imbibing all four… would bring forth Quintessence Sword Intent, an immensely destructive force that struck out with a mental attack to their souls, knocking them unconscious!

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There was no person, no thought and no desire. There was only a sea of blood and a mountain of corpses. There was red everywhere, the color of killing intent.

“Aaargh!” Looking around, only a haze of red shrouded the vision. There was only massacre and blood in the sight. Killing intent became something that the body became familiar with, sustaining it and attacking with it. With every second, it became a part of the body, like the blood in the veins and the breath within the lungs.

The first ‘fiery seed’ after defeating the God brought an intense desire to kill. The second ‘earthy seed’ after killing the Buddha brought a grounding calmness! The third ‘windy seed’ after killing the Asura brought an indifference that chilled the bones! The final ‘watery seed’ from the Immortal brought along a feeling of having the entire world as the enemy, with the only person to rely on being the self!

The four coming together within the mind brought along an intense feeling that was hard to describe. It encompassed the four seeds of killing intent, calmness, indifference and strength to oppose the world. It was something that encompassed these simple emotions and feelings, it was a frame of mind.

It caused the soul to tremble, the body to shiver and the qi within the self to run haywire. It was something that was impossible to bear. This was something Heifeng Jiansui lived with every second of his life, the thoughts running through his mind, yet being put into his place for a brief moment caused the steady destruction of the self.

What kind of worthless disciple would act like this when placed in the master’s shoes? Every step he could take was a million mile, that distance was hard to comprehend let alone walk.

For a brief moment, even the self was forgotten, overwhelmed by the blood and the killing intent. The only thing that was known was that the Quintessence Sword Intent… was something that only Heifeng Jiansui could wield. It was impossible to master this calamitous force, for it would be impossible for a human to walk this calamitous path. Sheng Jiansui… walked this path, but he was an existence who was peerless in the world.

No, the only thing that was there to do was to learn. As his disciples and inheritors, they did not need to master the Quintessence Sword Dao, but they would need to at the least gain insight into the path that their Master walked, and not fall to the pitfalls along the way.

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When Langyu regained her sense of self from the disconcerting sea of blood and mountain of flesh, she remembered some facts from her past life.

She had watched some programs about existences with different states of mind from the world. Serial killers, Buddhist monks, some soldiers, even certain corporate heads. Psychopaths and sociopaths, these were the titles psychologists who researched them granted. The thoughts of a person could be far away from the actions and the ‘true self’ could be hidden until death. But who could have thought that underneath the calm eyes of the swordsman rested a world of madness?

Blood spattered the ground, and the calm swordsman lazily chopped, bringing yet another man to death. The number of victims grew one by one, until he stood upon a hill of corpses and a lake of blood. Man, woman, beast… as long as they dared oppose the man, their fate would be to join the lake of blood and the hill of corpses. The hill turned into a mountain and the lake turned into a sea, slowly evolving to a continent, a planet… until there was finally a world of corpses. The swordsman finally stood alone, with only his sword on his side. There was a world but there was no life. The man had become one with the sword, the man had become a cold bar of metal.

Langyu expected to see a sword technique, but there were only cold cuts of the sword. The Nine Origin Elements bathed the land to end life and there were other techniques as well. Soul sundering attacks, the power of crushing space and freezing time, the limitless power of primal chaos… but in the core, there was only the sword, formed from killing intent of slaughtering. It was overwhelming yet underwhelming, still it was something that aligned with Langyu’s heart.

She remembered the meaning of ‘sword intent’ that the twins described to her. “A sword intent is simply the comprehension of the Laws of the World fused into the sword.” Saying this, Fu Li and Fu Ying drew their sword to bring forth a world of ten thousand flowers. Seeing the dazzling sight, she couldn’t help but have her heart shaken.

Unable to comprehend how they could freely control the powers of Wood and Earth, she couldn’t even begin to think about the time needed to gain insight into these powers. Cultivating for 100 million years, she couldn’t even remember the zeroes in that number. Not having lived for 25 years, even the thought of the time involved in that number made her numb.

Comparatively, the ‘Quintessence Sword Intent’ seemed easier. There was only killing. Everything else was only auxiliary. She was an assassin after all, compared to gaining insight into the ‘mysterious profound laws’, killing would only be easier. Thinking this, she intently focused on the world of slaughter, on the sword that flashed in simple gestures yet brought forth a river of blood, on the man who indifferently slaughtered.

‘Quintessence Sword Intent’ was the path that Heifeng Jiansui chose, one man and one sword against the universe. It was a path he proved by bringing forth rivers of blood, treading across worlds and slaughtering all that opposed him. It was a path only for him, but having understood it, having understood him… She could finally use the Quintessence Sword Dao that she inherited from him.

It wouldn’t be her sword technique, but it would light her own path for her. As long as she moved forward, she would someday reach the heights Sheng Jiansui reached, the might of the Quintessence Sword Saint!

With this hope in her heart, she attentively gazed at the sea of blood.