Identical ripples oscillated over one hundred and eight pristine snowflakes. They melded into the air, too subtle to be distinguished from one another.
Rumble—
Explosions boomed from the void like thunder as two hundred and sixty-five snowflakes crashed against each other.
Lu Yun walked through the air and raised Argent Snow, bringing it down on the spirit’s head. The latter vanished in a state of stunned shock, soon followed by the disappearance of his Domain of First Snowfall.
A silver bridge appeared in front of Lu Yun.
“This means I pass, right?” Lu Yun retracted his own domain and set foot onto the bridge.
The spirit stood at the end and greeted him with an unwelcome glare.
“You just wouldn’t give it a rest if you didn’t hit me on the head with the stick, would you?” he huffed.
“Nope.” Lu Yun shook his head. “And it’s not just hitting you on the head once, either, but twenty-seven times. There’s twenty-six times left!”
One hundred and eight snowflakes appeared around him again, all undulating with the same oscillation. Though he hadn’t grasped the true heritage within the snowflakes, he’d found the secrets to the mysteries of their ripples. With his powers of comprehension, being able to understand something was to use it for his own purposes.
He could already access the third domain of Argent Snow, so the trial of the first domain wasn’t very difficult for him.
Of course, just because he could deploy the third domain didn’t mean he’d perfected his mastery of it. If it wasn’t for his grasp of the ripples, he would find it very difficult to advance after the twentieth level.
At the same time, formula dao constantly analyzed himself and the combat arts of the spirit in front of him. He continued to improve in everything he did and constantly strove for great perfection.
Though the Tome of Life and Death hadn’t come with his soul force, it could still affect his replica since it was his nascent spirit.
The soul force replica was one with the primary body.
When Lu Yun practiced supplemental dao, he’d been able to swiftly become one of the foremost supplemental kings of the world of immortals and Hongmeng due to the abilities of the treasure.
Books were the medium of civilization, and living beings cultivated civilization—no matter the school of thought or dao.
……
Lu Yun easily passed through the second level of the Domain of First Snowfall. Once again, he smashed the spirit to death with a single blow to the head. However, that only came about after facing off his opponent for more than a hundred breaths.
Both sides utilized the first domain of Argent Snow and Lu Yun slowly derived the truth behind the domain through the exchanges. He didn’t allow himself to pass until he got a handle on certain concepts.
Then the third level, fourth, fifth…
When he reached the tenth level, the spirit’s Domain of First Snowfall underwent a certain shift. The one hundred and eight snowflakes turned into three hundred and sixty-five, forming a marvelous formation instead of just Domain of First Snowfall.
Lu Yun brought out the same formation as well, deploying three hundred and sixty-five snowflakes to battle the spirit.
……
“Strange… so very strange… Does that kid have some kind of unnatural dealing with the spirit of Argent Snow?” The chubby youngster’s curiosity bloomed uncontrollably when Lu Yun didn’t reemerge from the stone tablet.
“Sword Thirteen, what are you doing here?” A young girl in purple walked out from the nearby Aureate Wind tablet and regarded him curiously.
“I met an interesting fellow who couldn’t make it past the first level. But, he hasn’t come out from his latest attempt and it’s been a while,” the chubby Sword Thirteen mumbled. “I only know that he’s from the Star Sect, I haven’t had a chance to ask his name. How about you, Sword Feather? Are you confident of making it onto the ranking?”
“I was so close to passing the one hundred and eighth level of the third domain. I’m going back to closed door cultivation and will probably pass it next time. But that level alone is still not enough for the Hero Ranking.” Sword Feather pursed her lips. “Star Sect disciples are all a bunch of crazies. What are you doing with one of them? It’s just a waste of time.
“Of their younger generation, only that Xing Lang—er, Xing Lan is worthy of any notice. The rest of them are trash. At least their previous head disciple knew himself well enough to relinquish his position. Otherwise, a head disciple who can’t even make it onto the ranking would be the biggest joke of them all.”
Though Xing Lingkong had made it past the eighty-first level of Argent Snow’s third domain, he was still complete trash in the girl’s eye. She’d made it to the one hundred and eighth level, and not that of the combined domain, but the one after the pivotal twenty-seventh level that the Argent Snow spirit had said was the division of great perfection.
“That’s different.” Sword Thirteen shook his head. “The Star Sect doesn’t have the Argent Snow inheritance. Xing Lingkong making it to the third domain through just the Three Thousand Soul Daos is incredibly terrifying. If he possessed the legacy, he’d immediately barge into the supreme domain.
“Their Star Sovereign King entered the ancient past in a dream and can derive the imperceptible strands of fate. None of their disciples can be easily dismissed!
“It won’t be long before one of them comes to our Sword Clan for the inheritance.”
Sword Thirteen and the young girl in purple were all disciples of the incomparably mysterious Sword Clan. Their true forms were living beings manifested from connate divine swords.
“We’re supposed to give it to them just because they want it?” Sword Feather grumbled.
“That’s up to the elders of the clan, what does it have to do with us? Plus, the Star Sect doesn’t want anything from us and has no conflict with us. In the Boundless Planes, one friend more is better than one more enemy,” Sword Thirteen chuckled. “Besides, what other faction have you seen the younger disciples beat up their elders from time to time?”
He lifted his head to look at the names on the Argent Snow Hero Ranking. His was listed at number one hundred.
……
In the twenty-sixth level of the first domain, one thousand and eighty snowflakes swirled around Lu Yun’s soul force replica; it teetered on the edge of collapse. He managed to walk up to the spirit and smash it to death with one hit of the stick.
The bridge to the twenty-seventh level appeared in front of him; he set foot onto it without another thought. His replica was instantly repaired the moment he reached the next level.
“Your strength doesn’t seem strong enough to pass this level.” The spirit appeared with a supercilious smile. “I had seven chances to go down with you in the prior level, but you managed to evade all of them. I can utilize the full strength of Domain of First Snowfall in this level. You’ll have no further chances of escape.”
“Alright, I take back what I said earlier,” Lu Yun said with resignation.
“What, do you want to give up?” the spirit asked with a smile.
“Yes, I’m giving up smacking you to death with the stick. This time, I’ll beat you fair and square.” Lu Yu’s eyes blazed with a serious look.
The spirit: ……
etvolare's Thoughts
Aha, no wonder their names are like that. And okay, I'm beginning to pity the spirit.
