Chapter 1: The Black Severing Sword
Yuanshi Town, Zhoujia
Under the scorching sun, dozens of young men and women were practicing martial arts on a large square, each sweating profusely, looking miserable. A middle-aged man with his hands behind his back was weaving through the crowd, occasionally letting out a cold hum, scolding the lazy youngsters.
On a large stone at the edge of the square, a seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes sat cross-legged, slender and very handsome.
It was mid-September, the most venomous time of the autumn tiger. Under the scorching sun, this stone was hot enough to cook an egg. But that handsome young man, although his eyebrows were constantly twitching, never got up, and sweat dripped down, wetting his temples.
His name is Zhou Heng, and he is currently practicing the Zhou family's secret technique, Liuyang Jue.
A warrior's cultivation is to refine the food they eat, extract the absorbable energy from it, and convert it into their own true yuan force, which is stored in the cells of their body. The Liuyang Jue can then use the power of sunlight to accelerate the absorption of food and increase the efficiency of conversion.
The more intense the sunlight, the higher the conversion efficiency. However, how many people can withstand the scorching sun? At most, they can only practice for ten or twenty minutes, half an hour before running to a shaded area to cool off.
Ke Zhouheng has been practicing since sunrise this morning and it's already been three hours!
Not just one day or two days, but many years as always!
Unfortunately, Zhou Heng's body was too damaged, and after such a long period of hard work, he still remained at the initial stage of Body Refining, with almost no difference from those who had never cultivated before.
The warrior's cultivation is divided into twelve levels, known as the Twelve Layers of Body Refining. After reaching the twelfth layer, one can break through to even higher realms. It is said that once successful, one can ascend to heaven in a single step! However, for over a hundred years, not a single person from the Zhou family has ever set foot on this path to ascension.
The twelve layers of body refinement can be further divided into four realms: the first three layers are the Refining Skin Realm, the fourth to sixth layers are the Refining Flesh Realm, the seventh to ninth layers are the Refining Bone Realm, and the tenth to twelfth layers are the Refining Blood Realm.
The true yuan force cultivated by the warrior is stored in the cells of the body, which is a gradual process, first the skin, then the muscles, then the bones, and finally the blood.
Therefore, there is a division of four realms.
The power gap between each boundary is huge. A cultivator of the 'flesh' boundary can basically be instantly killed by a cultivator of the previous bone boundary! And within the same boundary, for example, the fourth layer and sixth layer of body refinement are both in the 'flesh' boundary, so when fighting, the sixth layer will definitely have the upper hand, but it's not possible to crush them completely.
The path of martial arts is difficult, the higher you climb, the more rugged the road becomes. After entering the Blood Refining Realm, it's possible that even after a decade or so, one may not necessarily be able to advance a single level!
However, the Refining Skin stage is still relatively easy to break through. Generally speaking, as long as there is sufficient food supply and one cultivates diligently without stopping, it will take only half a year to reach the peak of the Refining Body stage. Completing the entire Refining Skin stage requires merely three years.
Zhou Heng has been practicing Liuyang Jue since he was eight years old, and it's almost been ten years now. However, his cultivation is still stuck at the initial stage of Lian Ti, which is simply a strange phenomenon. The family invited countless doctors to diagnose him, but there were no results, and they could only conclude that Zhou Heng's innate talent was too poor, and he was not born suitable for cultivation!
As stubborn as a rock!
What's even more puzzling is that Zhou Heng's father, Zhou Dinghai, was a genius, a true genius. He completed the refinement of his skin in half a year, then refined his 'flesh' in two years, and finally refined his bones in five years. At just 41 years old, he had already reached the tenth layer of body refinement, the Blood Refining Realm!
Before this, the fastest member of the Zhou family to enter the Blood Refining Realm was sixty-three years old, which shows just how terrifying Zhou Dinghai's innate talent is!
Such a genius absolutely has the qualifications to shock the world!
A tiger father begets dog sons!
This is the evaluation of the Zhou family towards Zhou Heng, and this is still being polite. Many people are calling him a waste behind his back. If Zhou Dinghai wasn't one of the six major elders of the family, this insult would have been thrown in his face.
"Doesn't that trash still want to give up?"
"Hmph, what's the use of not giving up? Many doctors have examined him, and they all say he has no illness or disease. His inability to cultivate is simply because his innate talent is too poor!"
"It's a good thing our family has us, otherwise if the monster comes to attack, everyone would just be waiting for death!"
"He's clearly a good-for-nothing, but his appetite is bigger than anyone else's, what a glutton!"
"I think he's just pretending, deliberately sitting there, and not actually practicing at all!"
The young men and women on the square stopped to take a short rest, several people whispered to each other, their voices not low, so that Zhou Heng could hear clearly.
"Shut up!" The middle-aged man in charge, Zhou Yuanyang, who was barely related to Zhou Heng as a paternal uncle, immediately rebuked him. With a stern face, he said, "Acting pretentious? You all go act pretentious for once! Whoever can sit on that big stone for an hour, I'll exempt them from the rest of today's homework!"
As soon as these words came out, those young men and women suddenly fell silent at the same time.
Joking, that stone is hot enough to cook 'chicken' eggs. Who can sit for an hour? Don't mention an hour, even ten minutes is enough! Only a few people who practice the Lianyang Jue can transform the high temperature - but not everyone in the Zhou family practices the Lianyang Jue!
Zhou Yuanyang walked to Zhou Heng's side, and heaved a faint sigh in his heart. He had seen the young man's efforts, but alas, heaven was blind, and he was born unable to cultivate.
"Don't take it to heart!" He could only comfort Zhou Heng with one sentence.
"Thank you, Uncle!" Zhou Heng revealed a sincere smile, radiant like sunshine.
"Don't be too tired either, take care of your body!" Zhou Yuanyang advised.
Sitting on this big stone to cultivate, even he can't persist for a long time, let alone Zhou Heng who hasn't even reached the initial stage of Lian Ti?
"I understand!" Zhou Heng nodded, but he didn't intend to get up at all.
Zhou Yuanyang sighed again in his heart, and the feeling of regret grew stronger. He thought that if this young man had the same talent as his father, then with such hard work, his future would be even brighter!
He turned around to look at the young men and women resting under the trees, and suddenly a surge of anger rose up, shouting: "Rest is over, continue training!"
"No way, we just took a break for less than five minutes!"
"It's just that in such a short time, I haven't even had a chance to catch my breath!"
"It's all because of that useless thing, it's dragging us all down!"
Those few boys and girls returned to the playground one after another, staring at Zhou Heng with hostile eyes, blaming everything on him.
Zhou Heng saw these gazes, but didn't put them in his heart at all. He continued to operate the Liuyang Jue, using the power of sunlight to continuously refine the food inside his body and convert it into his own true yuan force.
In his body, food is constantly refined under the action of sunlight and gongfa, forming countless free energies, which are transformed into true yuan force through the operation of Lieyang jue, flowing in his body.
Everything was normal until the true yuan force circulated to the lower abdomen, but when it really flowed into the lower abdomen, it suddenly turned a corner and plunged into the dantian, never coming out again!
The true yuan force can only be stored in the cells and burst out when needed, covering the entire body with skin, flesh, bones, and blood. What is the dantian? Although there are rumors that the dantian is also very important, related to the elusive path of ascending to heaven, Zhou Heng is now not even stable on his foundation, how can he think about ascending to heaven?
Only Zhou Heng himself knew that the reason he couldn't cultivate was because of this dantian!
It's a broken sword in the cinnabar field!
Zhou Heng had a secret that nobody knew, which was that when he started cultivating at the age of eight, his consciousness seemed to be able to take shape and move freely within his body, allowing him to see every detail inside his body.
It was at that moment that he saw a broken sword floating in his dantian.
More than one foot in length, the entire body is pitch black, including the hilt. Although it's a broken sword, it gives off an aura of grandeur and overwhelming power, as if it had existed since the dawn of time, traversing the ages, eternal and forever lasting!
Another child would have been scared to tears by this scene!
Ke Zhōuhéng had been a very opinionated person since he was young, but he kept this secret hidden.
He doesn't want to be a monster in everyone's eyes!
When examined by the first doctor, Zhou Heng was still anxious in his heart, but that doctor did not detect the existence of the broken sword at all. It's not just this doctor, none of the doctors invited by Zhou Dinghai discovered the existence of the black-colored broken sword, as if it only existed in Zhou Heng's mind!
Since others don't even know of the existence of the black-colored Broken Sword, how can they take it out?
As time passed, he didn't become a monster, but became a recognized waste. But no one knew that it wasn't that he couldn't cultivate martial arts, but rather all the true yuan force he had cultivated with great difficulty was being "eaten" by the black-colored Broken Sword!
This bandit, hiding in his own body as an old nest is one thing, but he actually sucked up all of his true yuan energy!
Although he clearly knew that this black sword was a bandit, why did Zhou Heng still insist on cultivating it?
Because he still had a glimmer of hope, which was that there would always be a time when he could feed the black sword to satiety!
At that time, the true yuan force he cultivated can be used by himself!
His qualifications are not bad, which can be reflected in his appetite, because for a warrior, food is equivalent to true yuan power. The amount of food he eats every day is more than any peer, meaning that the true yuan power he cultivates every day far exceeds others!
Because of this, he calmly faced the contemptuous gaze and disdainful faces! He firmly believed that as long as the black sword was no longer holding him back, he would definitely be able to stand out!
That day is getting closer and closer!
He could feel the black sword changing all the time, but this process was too slow. However, dripping water can still pierce stone, and after ten years, it's finally about to undergo a qualitative change!
It's just these few days!
This hope supported him to endure the scorching sun, the high temperature that could burn his buttocks, and the extremely dry meditation. It was a continuous cultivation, cultivating, cultivating, feeding the huge appetite of the black-colored broken sword in his dantian.
Apart from eating, Zhou Heng sat on the stone to cultivate, and what he cultivated was the Liuyang Jue, which could transform high temperatures, and had long been roasted into a human prune!
Several hours later, the sun set and Zhou Heng got up shakily and walked towards his residence.
"Want to leave? Crawl under me first!" A young man suddenly blocked Zhou Heng's path, with his hands clasped across his chest and a proud smile on his face. Four other boys stood by, watching the scene unfold.
