Secret Records of the Leader of the Beichen Sword Sect

But then again, there are only nine major sects, and seven of them have sent people to plot against us. The Sword Sect really has terrible relations, doesn't it...

In any case, Tie Dan couldn't be bothered to complain anymore. He arranged a trigram, bowed to the sword tip, and tossed a copper coin, performing divination to find people.

He finally calculated seven people in Zhenzhou, three in Genzhou, and one each in Dui and Kun.

Huh?

The three in Genzhou are easy to explain. Shen Yong is at Hidden Sword Manor, and Hui Ming Zhan Tie hasn't returned yet; he's probably still training in the Immortal Tomb.

As for the ones from Dui and Kun, they're most likely the two Outer Mountain Disciples from the Sword Sect, hiding in the west. No need to worry about them.

But why are the other seven gathering in Zhenzhou? Having a meeting? Are they really waiting there for him to come and kill them?

No need to hesitate then! First, go and wipe out everyone in Zhenzhou! Time waits for no one, let's move out immediately!

"Crash!"

The Sword Rainbow soared into the sky, flying southeast at full speed.

Who would've thought that halfway through the flight, a massive icicle cloud blocked the sky, obstructing his escape light's sword path, and forcibly halted his Sword Rainbow!

Tie Dan frowned, calculating with one hand, while looking down at the ground, he suddenly found the scenery below familiar.

Oh, it's White Deer Peak...

Damn! It's that old thing!

"Young friend, it's been a while."

Indeed, a white-robed child with five-foot-long deer antlers appeared gracefully, standing on the glacier. His body was protected by five-colored auspicious clouds, with the sun blazing on the left horn and the bright moon hanging from the right horn.

It was none other than Xuan Jizi himself.

Tie Dan bowed,

"Why do you stop me, senior?"

Xuan Jizi shook his head, calculating with his fingers and smiling,

"The heavenly mechanisms cannot be disclosed, I actually don't know either. It was the patriarch's instruction to wait here for someone with fate.

He said if you, young friend, reach the sword infant realm, I should present three challenges for you.

If you don't understand these challenges and can't pass them, it means your skills are lacking, and your opportunity has not arrived.

But if you can pass them, it's not a problem; it just happens to help me disintegrate my army."

Tie Dan could not help but darken his expression.

Is this for real, and at this time of all times? Could it be those old things planned this long ago, setting an ambush to block him, just so those people could awaken and cross the tribulation, seizing the Heavenly Demon Seed!?

No way, how many years has it been, and they could calculate this?!

But since Xuan Jizi said it was the Immortal's orders, Tie Dan was treating it as a major enemy, knowing this ordeal was indeed extremely difficult. Without using his entire life's skills, he'd probably really have a hard time getting through.

After all, no matter how much that old thing holds back seeking death, it's a legitimate Kunlun Divine Beast, with a Daoist practice of nine thousand years. It's served under the Immortal Lord and received teachings from the Heavenly Book. Even among the Old Xuan Sect, it's top-notch, so even Tie Dan doesn't have full confidence in it.

No wonder the Tianyin family didn't dare take this job at all, fleeing at the slightest hint...

"Very well! Please teach me!"

But so what! Afraid of nothing! Let's do it!

After all, Tie Dan wasn't completely unprepared. Now armed by his brothers with fine equipment, he's been repeatedly struck by lightning, refining his Dao Body. He even has an Immortal Bone to power him, and in his sleeve, the newly obtained Tianpeng Law Ruler can smack people around. It's much better prepared than the past when he didn't even have a good sword. What's there to worry about?

Onward! Just keep going! He's on the Sword Immortal's path of slaughter, so what can come of being afraid of wolves in front and tigers in the back!

Whatever schemes there may be! Just chop your way through!

"Haha! Excellent! Young friend is truly an unparalleled sword! Come! Have a look!"

Xuan Jizi, this old beast, had probably prepared these three challenges for millennia already. At first hand, it set up an immense snow cloud in the sky.

And yet Tie Dan didn't rush forward to interrupt with a Lightning Stab, only focused on observing Xuan Jizi's method of array setting, occasionally using the Ice River Escape, to jump and dodge left and right within the array, checking its details.

After all, Tie Dan knew that Xuan Jizi's true intention was to seek his own death. If surrendering outright wasn't off-limits, he probably would be eager to open a backdoor for Tie Dan right away. Naturally, it wouldn't immediately activate the full force of the array to crush Tie Dan; now, by slowly arranging, calculating, and triggering the array step by step, it was giving him a chance to see clearly and potentially break through it.

How could the array of an old nine-thousand-year-old Immortal beast be easy to deal with? Even setting up a simple ice and snow array would be enough to make Tie Dan struggle for a drink. What's more, this was clearly not a simple two-dimensional array diagram but the Mystic Sect's rotational star map.

Indeed, relying on the Ice River Escape taught by the old deer before, Tie Dan galloped left and right amidst the array, riding the snow cloud, quickly realizing that this stage seemed like an avalanche of hail and a sky full of cold frost and icy winds. In essence, it was simulating a nebula.

Yes, that nebula, the interstellar cloud formed by the accumulation of dust, hydrogen, helium, and other ionized gases. More specifically, a simulation of some kind of emission nebula was Xuan Jizi's first challenge.

An emission nebula is a cloud of ionized gas that emits light of various colors. The ionization is usually caused by high-energy photons emitted from nearby hot stars, which excite the gas in the nebula to glow.

Now, Xuan Jizi was managing the array's core, emitting light with its double horns atop its head, simulating a binary star, sometimes the Sun, sometimes the Taiyin, projecting the immortal light of gold and silver to the surroundings. Instead of directly beaming rays, it used Xuanming True Qi and Xuanji Ice Crystal to form snow clouds and ice rivers, simulating a nebula sky river, causing the immortal light to scatter randomly as plasma. This splendid gold and silver aurora, and star cloud light, nearly lit up the entire sky dome. From a glance, the expanse from White Deer Peak to the Gen River, hundreds of miles in between, was transformed into a dazzling icy river star sky.

Tie Dan hurried back and forth using Ice Escape, observing for a long time before he felt he grasped something.

The first array wasn't that hard; it could be passed.

First, one must avoid contact with the dust. After all, all the star dust was transformed from the Xuanji Ancestor's Xuanji Xuanming Ice Crystal. This power is inherently imbued with cold energy, very formidable. If this body of the Divinity Transformation level's Xuanji Ice Qi invades within, in no time at all, the meridians would freeze and break, internal organs severely injured and damaged, flesh and bones would be frozen into icy fragments and snowflakes.

Secondly, it's crucial to be cautious of the scattered plasma radiation burst from the star cloud. These are surely the divine light of sun and moon emitted by the nine-thousand-year-old monster, its power sends shockwaves through the world. Getting touched by any means guarantees you'll be turned to ashes in an instant, incinerated to charcoal, swept by the high-energy radiation, leaving not even a cell intact.

Then, of course, one must watch for the changes in light from the Sun and Moon on the double horns, because with every frequency flicker of the twin-star system, the scattering trajectory of the plasma in the emission nebula changes abruptly. What might have been a safe passage earlier, could instantly become a death zone where immortal light converges the next second.

Moreover, the star cloud is shapeless and formless, gathering and dispersing at will. Once the Qi flow and clouds change, the entire grand array also sways and flutters accordingly, coupled with the quick shifts in light, constantly altering the pattern and imagery of the array. Each flicker brings a completely different wild scattering of plasma across the sky.

And finally, there's Xuan Jizi himself, this deer's combat capability.

After all, no matter how you put it, it's a Kunlun Divine Beast, right? Even if it doesn't use any magic power, it could still catch you off-guard and give you quite the beating with just a "Moo——" charging headbutt...

So, how about that? This is the first challenge, pretty simple, right?

Hmm, Tie Dan must admit that Xuan Jizi certainly held back a lot.

Not only did it allow Tie Dan to see the array clearly, but also remained stationary throughout, and even taught him the Xuanji Xuanming True Qi and Ice River Escape in advance. As long as he paid attention to the flickering frequency of the Sun and Moon Mysterious Light, understood the structure of the star cloud, and didn't blindly rush into direct light, he'd be fine.

Plus, Tie Dan had already realized the Formless Ball Secret Method earlier, so at this moment, seeing through Xuan Jizi's path of immortal light, he calculated the spectrum of the immortal light, using the Taiyin Sword Light to create corresponding solar and Taiyin balls, deflecting the scattering of the mysterious light.

Through observation, contemplation, study, and experimentation, Tie Dan finally traversed the array, dashing and evading through the nebula, narrowly avoiding the Yin Yang scattered mysterious light, breaking through the array as he went, and emerged in front of Xuan Jizi.

"Wonderful! Young friend, your skills are remarkable! Unscathed! You only took three days to break my Xuanji Nebula Array, it seems I am indeed destined to fall by your hand!"

Xuan Jizi was overjoyed, clapping his hands, then took out a Flying Talisman and handed it to Tie Dan.

"A letter from Songshan, thanking the Sword Sect for the sword sent."

Tie Dan's face turned as cold as ice.

Damn, lost on the first stage.