"F–Five Treasures?!"
The disciples' gasps of disbelief erupted one after another.
"His first entry into the Starveil, and he claimed five Treasures?!"
"Did Senior Brother Zhexian… cheat?!"
Ning Fengzhi's calm but sharp gaze swept across the crowd.
At once, every disciple fell silent.
He, Chen Xin, and Gu Rong stared at Li Zhixian for several breaths before Ning Fengzhi finally asked:
"Zhexian…"
"Have you ever cultivated your spiritual power?"
Li Zhexian shook his head.
"The Treasure Trial was torment… piercing to the soul."
"I merely endured a little longer than most."
He spoke plainly, without false modesty.
Those who had survived the Hell Road of Slaughter City had all sought ways to calm their killing intent—lest it consume their minds.
But Li Zhexian had sealed that murderous aura within his sword, forcing himself through the agony by will alone.
The spiritual backlash of the Seven Treasure Starveil was like ten thousand ants devouring one's soul—
Yet for him…
It was still bearable.
His words struck everyone else like thunder.
Who among them had not tasted the torment of the Starveil?
They knew well—
A broken bone could mend within a hundred days.
But once the spirit was shattered, there was no promise of recovery.
The pain of the mind far outweighed that of flesh!
Li Zhexian had endured an hour and a half—
and claimed five Treasures?!
At that thought, every disciple looked toward the pale-faced youth,
their eyes brimming with awe so thick it almost took form.
"Zhexian…"
Ning Fengzhi began to speak again,
but Ning Rongrong stepped forward, brows furrowed tight.
"Father, Brother Zhexian is exhausted. Let him rest before asking more."
Ning Fengzhi nodded in assent.
Chen Xin raised two fingers and drew lightly through the air.
That crimson sword qiwhich had supported Li Zhexian
lifted him gently, carrying him down the forest path.
Ning Rongrong's Spirit Power rippled softly underfoot as she followed, unwilling to let him out of sight.
"This child is truly… a monster,"
Gu Rong rasped a hoarse laugh.
Chen Xin glanced back toward the misty veil of the Starveil entrance—
and in the depths of his eyes, a flicker of heated light quietly rose.
"Perhaps…"
"Zhexian really might comprehend a sword intent born of spiritual power."
—
In the days that followed, Li Zhexian seemed utterly possessed.
Every single day—without rest, without hesitation—he threw himself into the Seven Treasure Starveil once more.
His near self-destructive obsession chilled the hearts of all disciples of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan.
Even the most diligent among them would only enter the Starveil once every seven days,
for the agony—splitting headaches, spirit collapse, the world turning upside down—required several days to recover from.
But this rule…
did not apply to Li Zhexian.
Every time he emerged from the Starveil, he was pale as death, staggering, his eyes vacant—
as though he might collapse at any moment.
Though he staggered out each time, pale and hollow-eyed, looking as if he might collapse at any step—
Yet the next morning,
that same white figure could always be seen—
striding decisively toward the Starveil once again.
And his progress was nothing short of terrifying.
On the third day alone, Li Zhexian had already claimed six Treasures.
When the news spread,
the entire Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan was thrown into an uproar.
—
Kneeling on one knee amid the flowing glasslike sands of starlight,
Li Zhexian gripped the Heart Protection Mirror tightly.
Veins bulged along his temples; cold sweat dampened his hair.
"The sixth treasure…"
"One stick of incense faster than last time."
"Taking the seventh may be like reaching heaven itself… but it's not impossible."
That seventh treasure—
a fingernail-sized glazed bead,
its entire body shimmering with thirty-two hues,
etched with twenty-four hidden patterns within and without—
lay among a flood of countless false treasures,
each identical in appearance and aura.
To locate and seize the true bead amidst that torrent of illusion…
just imagining it made one's scalp go numb.
Yet Li Zhexian's eyes burned with unwavering confidence.
Still—there was no joy on his pale face.
Taking seven treasures was not his true goal.
He sought to comprehend the Sword Intent of Spiritual Power!
But so far—
he had found not even a hint of its path.
"Perhaps…"
"The 'Glazed Dream Wine' will give me the strength I need."
Li Zhexian's gaze shifted toward a small bottle resting quietly upon the starry sands.
He, Li Zhexian, would soon have a new wine to drink!
According to the Brewing Records:
The Glazed Dream Wine required the starlit sands of the Starveil as charcoal,
blended with herbs that nourished the spirit,
and refined in a furnace of raging spiritual storms.
Its effect: to heal wounds of the spirit and nurture the very essence of the soul.
Li Zhexian's lips curled faintly as he licked them.
"With the Glazed Dream Wine…"
"I'll last longer inside the Starveil."
"And my chance to comprehend a new Sword Intent will grow stronger."
His heart was clear as polished glass.
No matter how divine the brew, it was still an external aid—
a mere ornament to an already-forged Sword Intent,
just as those immortal wines of the past had been.
True Sword Intent was born only from the crucible of life and death—
or from bitter solitude and thought.
As that realization flickered across his mind—
A bead of light flashed briefly amid the torrent of phantom treasures.
Li Zhexian's eyes blazed.
His white robe billowed like a sail as his body shot forth like an arrow loosed from the bow.
His index and middle fingers came together as a sword—
striking straight through the narrow gap.
Shh—!
His fingers closed—steady, precise.
A single glazed bead lay pinched between them.
The next instant—
BOOM—!!!
The explosion dwarfed all that came before.
The unleashed torrent of warped spiritual energy
roared like a feral beast bursting free.
"Urgh—!"
Li Zhexian let out a muffled groan.
Blood streamed from his ears, nose, and lips.
His white robe whipped wildly as if caught in a gale, his body hurled back hundreds of meters.
It felt as though a billion venomous needles, wrapped in soul-corroding flame,
pierced his spirit again and again.
Flat on his back upon the starry sands, Li Zhexian gasped in ragged breaths.
The world spun wildly;
a deafening hum filled his ears, pressing against his skull until it felt ready to burst.
Pain.
Agony beyond words.
Yet as he forced his bloodshot eyes open,
a faint, chilling light suddenly ignited within their depths.
"The way spiritual power scours the flesh… unforgettable…"
"My spiritual power may be fading—
but it's leaving marks upon my body…"
"Spiritual power has no form.
Sword Intent, too, is formless.
Then I'll take the simplest path…"
Even for one whose sword-bones rang like steel,
a shiver of fear crossed his brow.
His gaze flickered—then steadied.
"Do it."
He turned his head toward the bottle on the sands,
mad resolve flickering in his eyes.
"To comprehend the sword, one must walk the edge of madness."
"Tonight—I will brew the GlazedDreamWine!"
"If I gain a spirit-healing elixir, then I too must work harder still!"
Under the reverent stares of countless disciples,
Li Zhexian staggered out from the entrance of theStarveil.
Ning Rongrong instinctively moved to catch him—
but stopped midway, her steps faltering.
She followed instead, keeping a quiet distance.
"Zhexian's dominance over his generation is no accident."
Gu Rong's hoarse voice rasped with awe.
Ning Fengzhi nodded gravely.
Watching his daughter hover hesitantly behind the youth,
his heart filled with a complexity words could not hold.
He sighed softly.
"Children needn't be hurried into fate.
Each sails their own boat…"
Chen Xin stood with hands behind his back, his gaze piercing the dusk toward the shimmering depths of the Starveil.
"Zhexian's heart is set on the sword."
"May he find what he seeks."."
Until the figures of the youth and girl vanished among the forest paths—
Ning Fengzhi's Spirit Power coiled into a thin thread of sound,
quietly reaching Chen Xin and Gu Rong's ears.
"Has the Spirit Hall made any move?"
Both Sword and Bone Douluo's faces hardened.
"Were it not for our precautions, we might have been completely fooled.
Beneath the surface, the Spirit Hall has secretly gathered ten thousand Spirit Masters."
"Just as Zhexian predicted—Spirit Hall is about to stir up the storm."
"Let us hope the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan can survive this tribulation…"