His eyes were closed and his breathing was profound, almost looking as if he wasn't breathing at all. Focused as much as when he practiced with the sword, he begun reliving the sensation from the sword on that day as he was greatly helped by the energy in the cave.
He felt some kind of energy travel through his arm and touch his hand as it begun entering the sword. Ling Xu remained in this state for several minutes as he was constantly leaving and entering this subtle feeling he had in the sword.
After a little over half an incense stick of time had passed, the energy in the sword continued gathering. Although it was unstable and he felt that this energy could dissipate at any moment, he was advancing pretty fast.
A transparent light of energy was emitted from the sword made out of some energy different from his qi which seemed to put a strain in his mind.
When Ling Xu felt a little tired from the energy coming to his sword he opened his eyes and looked at it. Seeing the unstable energy formed in the blade of his sword he moved his hand as he felt the sword cut through the air, even able to cut through the sword intent heading towards him as the pressure had stopped falling in his body for a second.
"Amazing!" He yelled excitedly as he saw the sword intent lose its stability and dissipate almost instantly, still he was more than satisfied. Then he willed for the status panel to appear once again.
[Name]: Ling Xu
[Realm]: 2nd stage of Qi Refining (48%)
[Cultivation]: Formless Qi Breathing (perfection), Existence Shadow Will (56%)
[Techniques]: Gale Wind (small success 37%), Flowing Stream Sword (perfection), Three Purities Sword (perfection), Blood Thread Transformation (completed)
[Avenue]: Sword Intent (1%)
"As expected, I have now truly grasped the beginning of sword intent." He said while also observing another thing in his status panel make progress. "Even just by comprehending the tip of the iceberg the progress in the Existence Shadow Will has advanced by three percent." Surprise filled him since this growth told him that reaching 100% in his Sword Intent would provoke the progress in his cultivation technique to advance tremendously.
"I need to use the sword intent pressure coming from this cave to make as much progress as possible!"
He looked in front once again, a pitch dark corridor where he could barely feel the soil and stones in the floor and walls. Continuing his advance forward, he moved one foot to the front and felt that the pressure wasn't the same as before.
After a minute of walking, Ling Xu could still feel that he could advance as he felt almost the same as when the energy pressed him once he had just stepped inside the cave.
While walking, he continued feeling the subtle strands of sword intent that pressured him, following their movements and feeling the intent in his sword. He still had the sword in his hand as he would occasionally form the sword intent in it to practice and see if he had made some small progress.
This process continued for quite a while as he would walk for a minute or even less before his comprehension couldn't keep up with the increasing pressure, then he would feel the strands of sword intent and wait until he advanced a little more before advancing once again.
While all of this was happening, the sword intent in his sword would undergo continues changes as it went from being unstable and struggling to keep its form to slowly becoming more stable and covering the rest of the blade which was still uncovered.
An incense stick of time later.
"This cave goes more than one or two kilometers deep into the mountain, I can't believe it is so deep." He looked at the front as he could finally see some kind of light. After comprehending the sword intent so he could advance forward once again he continued until he reached the light without the need to stop.
As he arrived, he looked to the top of the cave which had some kind of strange and small pebbles that softly lit up the place. He looked at his surroundings and the walls were made out of compressed stone and soil, mixed in with different stones and materials he didn't know but they didn't seem to be that rare.
Turning his focus to the ground, he found something. "There is a sword embedded on the ground." A sword pointing at the stone and soil on the ground was buried deep in it as only half of it could be seen.
Surrounding the sword on the ground, there was some kind of circular carving which contained symbols that glowed a special light, and they seemed to be made out of some special material.
"This must be one of those formations I have read about, similar to the one protecting the sect, but on a much smaller scale." He inferred correctly using the small amount of experience he had in this world. "But instead of protecting, it seems that this one is actually the source of the sword intent giving the pressures." He saw the carvings of the formation made into a circular shape.
After noticing this, Ling Xu advanced until he didn't feel anymore the pressure from the sword intent that was coming out of the sword. "The person that left this sword and the sword intent behind must have been very strong. After all this must have stayed here for a very long time." He figured out from a few clues like the two man boulder blocking the entrance, which was degraded through time by rain. "With the passage of time it must have weakened a lot, I can't imagine how high the comprehension in the sword from that person must have been to be capable of setting this up."
This was normal to assume since the sword intent coming out of the sword and heading to the exit of the cave must have been before much stronger than now. Apart from that, the pressure from the sword intent was much weaker than it since it travelled almost two kilometers inside the cave, covering an large area from the floor to the ground and walls.
He also noticed a few lines of the formation leave the circle and surround the walls and on both sides of the cave, heading to the exit of the cave.
These lines were made to contain the sword intent condense along the whole path so it wouldn't disperse before reaching the exit. Still, it was much weaker in the entrance compared to here and he needed to have a body with strength comparable to someone in the ninth stage of Qi Refining to pass through the entrance. So Ling Xu couldn't imagine how much it was needed to reach here.
He only knew that he arrived here as the sword intent passed through his body without pressuring him since he had also comprehended it, this must have been done this way by the person who set all of this up.
Turning around, he observed what was a few meters behind the sword and the formation surrounding it that created the pressure.
Ling Xu wanted to continue advancing forward but was suddenly met with a wall as he softly hit his leg against it.
"What is this?" He observed carefully for a short while. "It is some kind of special barrier, it doesn't even let me see what is behind of it." He touched the surface of the barrier which was very smooth and wouldn't budge at all as he tried pressing with all his might.
There was no movement at all from it.
"Should I try and break it using my strength?" He asked himself as he unsheathed his sword and begun condensing a lifelike stream of water in the blade that refracted light. The formless qi in the blade waved naturally like real water.
Ling Xu struck the barrier without another thought as the energy from the stream in his sword touched the barrier and exploded, expending all the energy condensed in it to cut through the barrier.
"Uh?" He was surprised when he noticed a strange movement going on between the sword and barrier.
He felt some kind of force absorb the strength from the sword as it took out all the strength it had and he was suddenly thrown a few meters backwards.
"Ugh!" After hitting the ground a bit hard, he stood up and came out of the pressure from the sword intent since he had been thrown a few meters before the pressure coming from the formation ended.
Thinking through this short walk, Ling Xu felt stupid. "I was careless, if the barrier didn't absorb the impact I could have made the cave collapse. This shouldn't be the way to open the barrier." He realized that in a moment of excitement he almost killed himself in the cave, without a chance of coming back alive.
A few minutes later, after pondering and observing around the cave, Ling Xu finally found something that could be a clue. A phrase above the barrier could be seen, carved in stone as it seemed to be done with the cuts from a sword.
"Those who follow the sword will be able to receive my last will." He read aloud. "This must have some kind of meaning to it." He pondered a little when a light bulb in his mind lit up. "The person who wrote this must be the same that made it so those who don't comprehend the sword intent can continue forward."
Keeping with this train of thought, he continued. "But there must be strong people capable of resisting this pressure, that must be why he made this barrier." His eyes showed understanding. "What this person wanted was for someone who also follows the sword to get his will, so only by using sword intent can I pass through the barrier."
Willing with his mind, Ling Xu then called for his status panel.
[Name]: Ling Xu
[Realm]: 2nd stage of Qi Refining (48%)
[Cultivation]: Formless Qi Breathing (perfection), Existence Shadow Will (58%)
[Techniques]: Gale Wind (small success 37%), Flowing Stream Sword (perfection), Three Purities Sword (perfection), Blood Thread Transformation (completed)
[Avenue]: Sword Intent (24%)
After he comprehended his sword intent until 24% his cultivation technique's progress had progressed another two percent. This showed how difficult and complex it was to comprehend sword intent since it had already given him the same amount of progress on it as reaching great success in the Flowing Stream Sword technique, and this was considering that he had barely reached a quarter of the progress.
He stopped looking at his status panel and with the sword in his hand he begun condensing the sword intent. His comprehension of the sword gathered in it and his sword intent formed a slightly noticeable form which looked much more stable than before, covering the whole blade in the sword.
"Cut!" He willed with the sword and moved his arm and wrist, the sword stroke horizontally from left to right and it touched the barrier.
When the sword made contact with it he felt something different. The barrier that had previously absorbed the full might of his Flowing Stream Sword technique that had reached perfection now felt like it was giving way, making almost no resistance.
He felt his sword pass through the barrier and after his sword ended its horizontal trajectory he saw the barrier open through the place he had cut and afterwards the soft light that made it impossible to see what was in front begun fading away.
"There are some things that brute strength or qi can't do." Feeling the sword intent in the blade, Ling Xu noted down since only after using the intent on the sword was he able to open the barrier.
Then he took a step forward and observed his surroundings. The light coming from the top of the cave where the small fragments of stone generated the room's illumination, the walls made out of hard stone and soil, compressed by the immense weight and accumulation of time within the mountain.
Turning his eyes, he noticed on the side a corpse.