Chapter Forty-Six: Reality and Illusion

  The moon had set and the sun had risen. When Xiao Fan woke up, it was already three poles high, which was noon.

  As soon as he woke up, Xiao Fan checked his cultivation and indeed, both his spiritual power and physical body had made great progress.

  Xiao Fan looked around, and similarly, there was no White Tiger's corpse, nor any traces of fresh blood. It was clear that everything from last night had vanished into thin air. However, everything that happened was indeed real, which left Xiao Fan perplexed.

  "So strange, it must be related to this valley, could it be an illusion? Or is it a formation?"

  Xiao Fan thought about it back and forth, unable to come up with any results, and finally laughed out loud, "What's the point, whether it's an illusion or a formation, or if it's a problem with this river valley itself, as long as my cultivation can increase, that's all that matters."

  Coming to this river valley, Xiao Fan's purpose was to improve his cultivation. No matter what he would experience at night, as long as he could improve his cultivation, it didn't matter.

  At this time, Xiao Fan was practicing sword under the waterfall during the day, tempering his body. At night, some wild beasts appeared again.

  This time a group of snakes appeared, these snakes were born with wings and could fly, spitting out toxic liquid, the dark green toxic liquid spat on the ground, even giant rocks would melt.

  That night, Xiao Fan was injured for the first time in battle, and his body was corroded by the venom, causing unbearable pain. Fortunately, Xiao Fan managed to hold on and killed all the poisonous snakes in the end.

  Finally, when the sky brightened, a moving piano sound made Xiao Fan fall asleep again.

  The next day, when Xiao Fan woke up, he found that all the injuries on his body had healed, and even the dented and corroded Xuan Tie heavy sword that was damaged by the poisonous liquid had recovered.

  "In other words, no matter how badly I'm injured at night, I'll always recover by the next day."

  Seeing this result, Xiao Fan suddenly burst out laughing happily.

  For the next three months, Xiao Fan stayed in this valley, practicing sword under the waterfall during the day to temper his body, and fighting with countless wild beasts at night.

  During this time, as the years passed, Xiao Fan's spiritual power cultivation continued to grow stronger, his physical strength became incredibly powerful, and his opponents also grew stronger along with his increasing abilities.

  At first, it was just an ordinary wild beast, although it was more ferocious, but it wasn't a demon beast, still just a wild beast.

  In three months' time, Xiao Fan fought with all kinds of wild beasts every day, and his cultivation had made great progress in terms of strength, speed, or spiritual will.

  Especially his physical strength is constantly breaking through limits.

  It's strange that as Xiao Fang's strength progresses, his opponents' strength also increases, as if the strength of Xiao Fang's opponents is naturally equal to his.

  Every battle of Xiao Fan was extremely arduous, and later on, he got injured every time, even several times to the point of near death, but he still managed to pull through.

  Three months later, Xiao Fan stood in the middle of the waterfall, holding a heavy black iron sword as large as a door panel. The water poured down on him with tremendous force, instantly tearing his clothes to shreds and revealing his robust physique. The powerful torrent was strong enough to split mountains and rocks, but it couldn't cause even a scratch on Xiao Fan's body.

  After three months of cultivation, Xiao Fan's cultivation had a significant improvement. The spiritual power in his Spiritual Sea had all liquefied and the liquefied spiritual power in his Spiritual Sea had condensed into a small lake. He was only one step away from successfully cultivating the first layer of the 'Intention Sword Body' technique.

  Xiao Fan's physical body, tempered by the 'Mind Sword Body', had almost reached the realm of indestructibility. Xiao Fan believed that even if he were to be struck with a ordinary sword, he would not feel any pain; he was convinced that his body had become as hard as diamond.

  "I don't know what kind of state I've reached with my full strength now."

  Standing quietly under the waterfall, allowing the waterfall to pour down from the top of the mountain with a force of tens of thousands of pounds, suddenly, Xiao Fan grasped the Xuan Tie heavy sword with both hands, let out a loud shout, and with both hands holding the sword, he slashed upwards against the waterfall.

  "Hum..."

  Xuan Tie's heavy sword turned into a sword light in Xiao Fan's hand, although there was no sword energy, but the sword intent was so sharp that it tore open the waterfall, and then an astonishing scene appeared; only to see the water of the entire waterfall actually flowing backwards under Xiao Fan's sword, forming towering waves, with the water light covering the sky, like a boundless sea turning over.

  With one sword slash, Xiao Fang's entire body leapt into the air, and with another sword sweep, he passed by once again.

  The sword intent was like a tide, Xiao Fan's sword light flashed by, the tip of the sword pointed to the place where the mountain rocks exploded, the grass and trees were cut off, like a shocking thunderstorm, the void burst open, as if the void was about to be shattered.

  In the void, Xiao Fan took a step forward, and his spiritual power naturally circulated. The whole person actually stepped out of thin air in the void for several steps.

  After falling to the ground, Xiao Fan quietly pondered: "Although due to the 'Primordial Chaos Sacred Body' restriction, I am unable to cultivate sword energy, however, I have already begun to cultivate a thread of the most pure and refined sword intent, which can be said to be fortune and disaster intertwined."

  The sword energy is easy to cultivate, but the sword intent is different. The sword intent is intangible and extremely difficult to cultivate. Some people practice swords for hundreds of years, reaching a very high level of cultivation, yet still cannot cultivate the sword intent. However, some people have extraordinary intuition, just like Xiao Fan, who can cultivate the sword intent in just a few months of practicing swords, which is one in ten thousand. This is mainly due to the effect of the innate sword body inherited from Xiao Fan's bloodline.

  Xiao Fan's 'Pre-Heaven Sword Body' was overshadowed by the 'Pre-Heaven Chaos Sacred Body', but when Xiao Fan practiced his sword, it still gave him endless help.

  In the valley, Xiao Fan was sitting in front of a bonfire, on which a fragrant deer was being roasted, emitting an enticing aroma. This deer was exactly what Xiao Fan had spent several hours running out of the valley to catch and satisfy his hunger.

  Xiao Fan ate the fragrant and savory wild boar meat while muttering to himself, "No demonic beasts came to challenge me last night, I wonder if any will appear tonight?"

  Just two days ago, Xiao Fan had an epiphany about the sword's intent while fighting against the demonic beasts and instantly slaughtered all of them. Then, that night, the sound of the guqin never appeared again.

  The next night, Xiao Fan waited left and right until dawn, but no monster appeared again.

  Before long, night fell, Xiao Fang sat cross-legged on a huge stone, with the Xuan Tie heavy sword placed horizontally across his legs, quietly waiting for the arrival of the demon beast.

  It was night, and Xiao Fan did not cultivate, but instead stared widely with his bright eyes at the dark surroundings, full of hope that a demon beast would appear again. However, as time passed second by second, Xiao Fan still did not see the shadow of a demon beast.

  When dawn broke, Xiao Fang got up with a disappointed face and headed towards the cave in the middle of the mountain.

  "Well, it seems like this won't happen again from now on."

  Xiao Fan let out a soft sigh and stepped into the cave.

  As soon as Xiao Fan walked into the cave, he was stunned. Everything inside the cave was different from the scene when he first came in.

  For three months, Xiao Fan had been practicing, and except for the first time he discovered this cave, he had not entered it a second time.

  Now entering the cave for the second time, Xiao Fan was surprised to find that there were some other things in the cave.

  Inside the cave, on the wall hung a painting, the person in the painting was an old man with white hair and eyebrows, kind and benevolent eyes, a smiling face, wearing a Taoist robe, his clothes fluttering as if he had a celestial air about him, vividly lifelike.

  Under the painting were placed a black lacquer ring and a jade flute.

  Just as Xiao Fan approached, a strange scene appeared. The old man in the painting on the wall suddenly transformed and stepped out of the painting.

  "Entering my dojo is already a fate; passing my test is being my disciple, can obtain my legacy, my name, the three ultimate superior men."

  The old man spoke, as if his voice came from afar, carrying a sense of wonder, like the sound of celestial music, yet also like the majestic tone of the Great Way.

  Xiao Fan was slightly stunned.

  The white-haired old man, however, took a step forward in the void and walked closer to Xiao Fan. He pointed his finger at Xiao Fan's forehead, and suddenly, a large amount of information entered Xiao Fan's mind from his fingertips.

  At this moment, Xiao Fan's spiritual power has reached an extremely strong realm, and he can easily digest the amount of information in it without feeling a headache.

  After passing on the information to Xiao Fan's mind, the white-haired old man spoke again: "The objects on the table are: the Qiankun Ring and the Wujixiao Flute will be passed down to my disciples. My disciples should cultivate well and one day we will meet freely."

  As soon as his voice fell, the white-haired old man suddenly transformed into countless immortal lights and disappeared.

  Xiao Fan came back to his senses, the old man in the painting was still there, only lacking a hint of spirituality, the ring and jade flute on the table were still present.

  "Haha...!" Xiao Fan's spirit shook, and after digesting the inherited information in his mind, he suddenly burst out laughing.

  "Disciple pays respects to his master."

  In an instant, Xiao Fan bowed his head in front of the portrait and kowtowed three times, knocking nine times, shouting: "I Xiao Fan, from today on, will be a true disciple of San Jue Shang Ren..."