Zhang Ruochen held the inscription pen and continuously injected his true qi into the pen, his mental energy completely immersed in the world of the Sixth Grade Array Inscription.
“Rumble!”
Outside, the sounds of attacks were constantly coming from the outside, and the entire underground palace shook incessantly.
Han Chu stood nervously at the side, not daring to make a sound for fear of disturbing Zhang Ruochen.
About an hour passed, Zhang Ruochen finally withdrew his Inscription Brush, and only at this moment did he realise that his entire body was drenched in sweat.
Zhang Ruochen exhaled a long breath, and from his spatial ring, he took out a Spirit Crystal and continuously punched it into the pit in the stone wall.
Eight hundred and sixty-four Spirit Crystals were punched out in a row, completely filling up the pits on the stone wall.
“Success or failure is here.” Zhang Ruochen pressed his palm on the stone wall and injected his True Qi into the formation inscription.
The true qi flowed along with the formation inscription, completely activating the eight hundred and sixty-four spirit crystals. Those Spirit Crystals flickered continuously, almost like hundreds of bright stars set on top of the stone wall.
“Wow.”
The stone wall of the underground palace lit up with a pattern so dense that it was like a spider’s web, forming a defensive array.
“Success! Success!” Zhang Ruochen laughed out loud.
Han Qiu was also thrilled, and there was a bit more admiration in his gaze towards Zhang Ruochen, “Zhang Ruochen, you’re too powerful as well! What even the formation masters of the Yuntai Zongfu couldn’t do, you did it!”
“It’s just repairing seven or eight per cent of this Sixth Grade Formation, it’s not much of a skill. But using this one remnant formation to block Huo Jingcheng should be enough! We can now recuperate from our injuries at ease and wait until our injuries heal before slowly discussing ways to deal with Huo Jingcheng.” Zhang Ruochen laughed.
Han Chu’s eyes glanced towards the ring on Zhang Ruochen’s finger.
“From a ring that can actually take out hundreds of spirit crystals, it must be a spatial treasure.” Han Chu’s heart thought so.
After hesitating for a moment, Han Chu finally did not bother to ask, after all, that was Zhang Ruochen’s secret. If she inquired, she might be misunderstood by Zhang Ruochen, thinking that she had greed for that piece of spatial treasure.
Under the guard of the Sixth Grade Remnant Formation, Huo Jingcheng really did not manage to break in.
After spending two days, Zhang Ruochen was finally healed.
The wounds all over his body were completely healed, leaving only some faint scars.
The True Qi in the Sea of Qi was restored to its peak state, and it seemed to have improved quite a bit compared to before.
After the recent spate of battles, Zhang Ruochen realised that the power of sacrifice in his body had completely fused with his true qi, and his cultivation had reached the peak of the Earth Extremity Realm’s Small Extremity Position.
“In the midst of a battle, the power of sacrifice is surprisingly able to fuse so quickly. The next time I absorb the power of sacrifice again, I will definitely use the battle method to fuse the power as well.”
Zhang Ruochen glanced towards Han Qiu and realised that she was still recuperating from her injuries.
Her injuries were originally a bit heavier than Zhang Ruochen’s, and when she recovered, it was natural for her to be a bit slower.
After another day passed, Han Qiu was also healed from her injuries and her spiritual Qi was completely restored. She opened her eyes, and two sharp rays of light shot out from her ebony pupils, emitting a powerful martial aura.
As she withdrew her True Qi back into her body, the light in her eyes dissipated and returned to calmness.
Han Chu’s gaze looked over towards Zhang Ruochen and found that Zhang Ruochen was carving something on the ground?
Thus, she walked over and stood behind Zhang Ruochen, looking down.
Only to see that on the ground, there was an arcane Yin Yang Eight Trigrams pattern carved, surrounded by tiny textual markings.
In the pattern, there stood two small figures holding battle swords and were comparing sword strokes.
“This is …….”
Han Chu took a deep breath, mobilised his sword intent realm, condensed his spiritual energy, and once again stared towards the yin and yang bagua pattern on the ground, and found that the two small men holding war swords seemed to have come to life, hovering on the ground, constantly swinging their swords, making moves, and stepping on the ground, and executing a subtle sword move.
The yin and yang bagua pattern, as if it had come to life, constantly operated.
“Sword intent performing martial arts!”
Han Chu said in a shocked voice, “Your attainments in the Dao of the Sword have actually reached such a realm, I guess it’s not far from Sword Mind Tongming?”
Sword Heart Understanding, that was a legendary realm.
Ever since she was a child, Han Chu’s attainments in Sword Dao had far exceeded those of her age, and even her father had said that she possessed the natural talent of a Saint, and was the most outstanding Sword Genius of the Yuntai Zongfu in the past hundred years.
Even back then, when Han Chu lost to Zhang Ruochen in a sword competition with him, she felt that she was only slightly inferior to Zhang Ruochen. As long as she worked hard, she would definitely be able to surpass Zhang Ruochen.
It was only until this moment that she realised that there was such a huge gap between her realm in Sword Dao and Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen did not pay attention to Han Qiu’s surprise, pointing his finger at the pattern on the ground, he said, “This is a Yin-Yang Two-Yi Sword Formation, and only two martial artists who both have extremely high attainments in Sword Dao are able to put the power of the formation into full effect. Our Sword Dao realms are both at the peak of Sword Follows Heart, if we were to unleash the sword formation, it would be enough to kill Huo Jingcheng.”
“You want me to learn this sword formation now?”
Han Qiu frowned, “This sword formation, is very profound, it’s estimated that without a year and a half of time, it’s impossible to reach the realm of integration.”
With just one look, Han Chu had already discovered the arcane nature of the Yin Yang Two Instruments Sword Formation.
Zhang Ruochen said, “You don’t need to reach the realm of fusion and coherence, as long as you are able to utilise one-tenth of its power, it won’t be difficult to defeat Huo Jingcheng. I’ll give you three days, and with your attainments in swordsmanship, that should be enough!”
Han Qiu stared at Zhang Ruochen with some suspicion and said, “There are also some combined sword formations in the Yuntai Zongfu, but it requires at least three people to form a sword formation. Moreover, it also requires the assistance of the Formation Base Jade Stone to bring out its full power.”
“If there is no assistance from the Formation Foundation Jade Stones, you want to defeat Huo Jingcheng with just a sword formation that can only exert one-tenth of its power?”
Zhang Ruochen said, “The function of the Formation Base Jade Stone is to use formation inscriptions to connect the true qi of the martial artists who set up the formation. However, the Yin Yang Two Yi Sword Formation doesn’t need to borrow formation inscriptions, it borrows the sword intent between the two martial artists, allowing the sword intent to connect the two martial artists’ power together.”
“I see.” Han Chu said.
Other martial artists did not understand the subtle meaning of “Sword Intent Connection”, but Han Chu, who had a high level of Sword Dao cultivation, was able to understand it. Therefore, Zhang Ruochen only slightly mentioned it, and it dawned on her.
Zhang Ruochen continued to explain some of the subtleties of the Yin Yang Two Instruments Sword Formation to Han Chu, hoping to help him grasp this sword formation faster.
“The Yin-Yang Two Elegance Sword Formation is based on a human being, using the two elements of heaven and earth as a compass, and the Yin-Yang Mysteries as the driving force, if the two people in the formation can work together to the extreme and achieve ‘Sword Intelligence Compatibility’, they will be able to invoke the spiritual qi of heaven and earth. Human power was infinite, but heaven and earth were infinite. As long as one is able to invoke the aura of heaven and earth, creating any miracle is not surprising.”
“When setting up the sword formation, you and I belong to the yin and yang eyes in the formation respectively. The yang eye moves, while the yin eye moves. The yang eye stops, while the yin eye stops.”
“The sword moves that go along with the sword formation are only eighteen in total, and they are known as the ‘Nine Swords of Yin Yi’ and the ‘Nine Swords of Yang Yi’; as for the other sword moves, it is entirely up to the situation at the time, and they are improvised in the sword formation. I believe that with your attainments in swordsmanship, within three days, you should be able to cultivate the Nine Swords of Yin Yi, to the introductory realm.”
Han Chu’s hands were clasped in front of his chest, his eyebrows slightly raised as he said, “You’re looking down on me too much! With my attainments in swordsmanship, I can cultivate the Nine Swords of Yin Yi to the introductory level within a day. Three days is enough to cultivate the Nine Swords of Yin Yi to a minor accomplishment.”
Zhang Ruochen stared at her and continued, “If the Yin-Yang Two-Yi Sword Formation was that easy to cultivate, it wouldn’t be known as the strongest two-person sword formation. Thinking back then, Chi Yao and I ……”
Speaking here, Zhang Ruochen suddenly stopped and smiled slightly bitterly as he said, “I’ve already engraved the nine strokes of the Nine Swords of Yin Yi here, so you can cultivate them first! How much you can comprehend depends on your enlightenment. If there is anything you don’t understand, come and ask me as much as possible.”
After saying this, Zhang Ruochen walked to the other end of the underground palace and began to cultivate the “Yang Yi Nine Swords”.
Han Chu stared deeply at Zhang Ruochen and said, “What a strange man!”
Han Chu’s perception was indeed very strong, exceeding Zhang Ruochen’s expectations, and it only took him two days and three nights to cultivate the Nine Swords of Yin Yi to the introductory level.
Of course, during this period, Zhang Ruochen had also corrected her mistakes in swordplay many times, instructing her with great care and teaching her some of the tricks of the Nine Swords of Yin Yi without reservation.
After cultivating the Nine Swords of Yin Yi to the point of initiation, only then did Han Qiu truly understand the vastness and depth of the Yin Yang Two-Yi Sword Formation.
Even without the Yin Yang Two Yi Sword Formation, just this set of “Nine Swords of Yin Yi” was even more brilliant and powerful than those Spirit Grade Sword Techniques.
In the Yuntai Sect House, there was only one Spirit Grade Sword Technique, and it was incomplete with a few missing pieces. That set of sword techniques had been made the strongest sword technique of the Yuntai Sect House, but compared to the Nine Swords of Yin Yi, it was a hundred thousand miles away.
Earlier, when Zhang Ruochen said that the Yin Yang Two Instruments Sword Formation was the strongest two-person sword formation, Han Qiu was still a bit sniffy, but now she completely agreed with Zhang Ruochen’s point of view.
Compared to the powerful sword formations of the Yuntai Sect House, the Yin-Yang Two Instruments Sword Formation was nothing more than a lowly sword formation.
Han Chu said, “Just cultivating the Nine Swords of Yin-Yang Yi to the introductory level took close to three days. If you want to cultivate it to a small level of success, it is estimated that it will take at least a month, if not longer. If those other martial artists were to be allowed to cultivate, it is estimated that it would take a year, and they would not be able to cultivate to the introductory level.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “You’ve only cultivated the Nine Swords of Yin Yi to the introductory level, and it’s still unknown whether we can work together silently to execute the Yin Yang Two Instruments Sword Formation.”
“Is it that difficult?” Han Chu asked.
“You’ll know if you try it!”
Zhang Ruochen took out the Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword and stood inside the circle that had already been drawn long ago, pointing his sword horizontally as his entire aura immediately changed radically.
The spine of his back, became straight and his gaze was sharp, as if he was a young sword god.
Han Qiu stood inside another circle that was ten feet away from Zhang Ruochen, cupping a white jade ancient sword in his hand and pointing it at Zhang Ruochen, his aura was also completely different from just now, and with his absolutely beautiful face, he was like a beautiful sword fairy.
Before the two of them could even strike their swords, a sword aura had already appeared in their surroundings.
“Move!”
Zhang Ruochen recited a single word and stepped on his footsteps, rushing out seven steps to the right, each step exactly one zhang away.
As Zhang Ruochen’s feet began to move, Han Qiu also moved immediately.
“Swish swish!”
Both of them were experts in swordsmanship, and they moved quickly in the sword formation, executing a single move of swordsmanship.
It was like eighteen silhouettes appeared in the entire sword formation, each one rehearsing a different sword move.
