All of a sudden, the room was in complete silence.
Ling Xu was surprised since this was the first time he saw a true corpse. "It seems that this person was dead for decades or even centuries, all that is left now are the bones."
Observing the corpse carefully, he was giving a strong feeling. "I wonder how strong he must have been for its bones to still look complete even though such a long time must have passed." The skeleton structure seemed to be from a strong person as it could still give off a little bit of aura even though the former owner of it was already dead.
It even gave the sense from a sheathed sword that could be unsheathed anytime and cut anything in its path.
Behind the corpse, an ivy that had a slight red color could be seen growing, slowly devouring into it the remnants of what remained of the strong figure.
"There is something there." Looking at the place where the bones of its hands and lap should be, he found an old tome that was made out of a stone that managed to resist the passage of time.
It was almost devoured by the red ivy so Ling Xu was fortunate to find it since in just a few more years it would have disappeared on the plant and he wouldn't have found it there.
"For the fateful one who may encounter my last will, I leave behind my small inheritance with the sole purpose of leaving someone to carry on with my sword path. My name shall be forgotten but I hope that my desire to reach the peak of the sword will remain with you." Reading the first part, he realized that the predecessor who left the inheritance in this cave must have been a rogue cultivator who crazily sought the sword without any sect or affiliation.
Continuing to read, Ling Xu reached the end of the will as he was surprised. "Even though I reached Core Condensing and I could have lived a life full of pleasure anywhere I went, I decided to continue in the path of the sword since that was my deepest desire. I leave behind everything that is left of me and hope to reach the peak of the sword though you."
"He was actually in the Core Condensing Realm!" He was shocked since he didn't know anything about it but that this realm was above the Foundation Building Realm. "It seems that I am still very far from reaching the level this person had in the sword. I wonder how much higher it must have been, compared with the remaining intent that is left in the sword."
This was a normal feeling since he had no information and didn't even know which was the difference between the Foundation Building and Core Condensing realms. So it was even harder for him to know what came after sword intent. Ling Xu only knew that it wasn't the end of it since he still had a long path to advance forward, and having comprehended the beginning of the path in the sword he realized how profound it was.
Apart from the end of the will, he also confirmed that if he had passed through the sword intent without comprehending it and had forcefully opened the barrier the inheritance would have disappeared. This was because there was a formation hidden in the barrier which would activate and collapse the whole cave in the case of someone opening it with something other than sword intent.
"Fortunately I realized that sword intent was the key to open it or else… if I waited to be strong enough to force my way through it I wouldn't have been able to get anything."
Talking about the inheritance, there wasn't much to be told in the letter apart from its location as he looked at the leftovers of the passionate swordsman that sought the path of the sword and bowed down. "I may not have known you but I would have loved to see your sword path, I will do my best to continue from what you left behind." He said as he then stood up.
Turning to the other side of the room, he found a small protrusion on the ground that looked almost naturally done, but he pressed it with his leg and in the wall in front a small window opened.
"Here they are." Within it, he found a small storage which contained the source of energy that maintained the formation that brought the pressure from the sword through the cave's passage and the barrier blocking anyone who didn't comprehend sword intent.
"There are only two spiritual stones remaining?" Ling Xu looked at the empty space confused as he observed the last two shining stones in the formation. "Was I so late that there were only two left before the energy was completely used?" He was shocked by his incredibly bad luck which only gave him two spiritual stones.
Observing the transparent looking stones with light inside of them, he suddenly found something different in them. "Wait a minute, these aren't low-grade spiritual stones!"
A feeling of curiosity surged within him as he noticed something in them. "The energy contained within these two feels much stronger than any low-grade spiritual stones. They aren't of low-grade, they are middle-grade!" He was elated since he realized that these two small shining and transparent stones were equivalent to a hundred low grade spiritual stones each.
Before taking them, he observed in a small corner outside the circular shaped formation surrounding the spiritual stones a spatial ring. In the will of the predecessor he found out that there was pill recipe left behind in this ring, so it was the first thing he took out.
It didn't say what its specific effect was but it detailed how important it was to be used while breaking through to the Core Condensing Realm.
Ling Xu begun inserting his qi to refine it and see what was inside. Fortunately for him, it was pretty fast since the spiritual mark from its previous owner had long been erased from the passage of time.
Still, it took him several times longer to refine it since it asked for a lot of his qi. In this way, he realized that this spatial ring wasn't made for Qi Refining as it wasn't a treasure but something of a much higher level.
"This spatial ring must be at least a spiritual treasure." He was very happy that he got his hands on a spatial ring with a grade that would allow him to contain more space, since he was already having problems with his current low grade treasure spatial ring.
After several more minutes, he managed to refine the ring with half of his qi being used up and he looked what was inside of it. Taking out whatever was inside he soon realized that he had made a mistake.
"These are…" A small mountain of low grade spiritual stones fell on the ground since he took everything out. "They are so many!" After counting, he found that there were eight hundred of them in total, a round number to his surprise.
Saving them inside of the ring once again, he was left with the last item and the most important one. Made out of a white material that gave off a cold aura.
"It is so cold." Ling Xu observed a thin layer of paper containing the list of ingredients required to refine the pill and a description of the whole refining process.
"As expected, this is the real deal." He observed since it seemed to be truly legitimate and then put it inside once again. Afterwards, he took the two middle grade spiritual stones left on the small storage compartment within the wall.
Since there was nothing else to see within the cave and Ling Xu had taken everything that was within it, he left the room and begun walking back outside. As he passed through the sword that was used to channel through the formation the sword intent left behind by the predecessor, he realized that it didn't give pressure anymore.
"It must have stopped working the moment I took the middle grade spiritual stones." The sword that looked very dangerous previously suddenly broke away once it was slightly touched by one of Ling Xu's fingers. All that remained was an old and unusable sword so he didn't even pick it up.
Outside of the cave, a woman with fiery eyebrows and a delicate figure was sited in the lotus position. A sword resting above her tender legs as it started to resonate.
After a few more minutes, she opened her eyes and stood up in an instant. The sword was smoothly grabbed by her white right hand and in the blade she could feel an unstable energy forming.
Surrounding the blade completely, she moved her hand and the red sword slashed through a middle sized rock. It passed through it without any problem and the half that was on the upper side fell to the ground.
"Amazing! I have completed the proficient level in my Red Leaves Autumn Sword and even entered great success. I even managed to grasp sword intent in barely what it takes an incense stick to burn." Her eyes shining with excitement after feeling that her strength had progressed so much, she felt grateful at her chance of coming here and encountering the pressure of the cave.
"After I return back to the sect and train for a few more days I will also be able to advance to the fourth stage of Qi Refining. Still, I need to cultivate harder if I want to remain on his side." An alert emerged, having noticed Ling Xu's monstruous strength as she didn't want to be left behind by the first brother she had acknowledged, she decided on practicing harder than before.
Thinking about brother Xu, Sun Qinglan felt curious about what was going on within the cave and if he had managed to reach the end as she felt the pressure coming out starting to decrease until there was nothing left.
After a dozen minutes of walking, Ling Xu was halfway through the dark passage where nothing could be seen as he heard the sound of footsteps. "Who is it?" he asked alarmed not expecting someone else entering.
"It is me, brother Xu. Don't be surprised." She answered while heading his way, not able to see where he was.
"Oh, I see." He recalled having left her behind since she couldn't advance anymore as she had yet to comprehend sword intent. Now he was curious whether she had managed to grasp it.
"Here you are!" She said, finding herself after advancing a few more steps right in front of Ling Xu. Her breathing could be heard as it contained a bit of the characteristics from the Bursting Fire Breathing, it was strong and full of energy.
"Did you find anything?" Her breath was warm as he could feel it almost as if she was breathing in his neck.
Ling Xu adjusted his position and backed off a little, feeling a little uncomfortable from being so close to her. On the other hand, Sun Qinglan hadn't realized that she was speaking less than a few inches right next to him.
"There were the remnants of a late swordsman who pursued the path of the sword his whole life, and he left behind a few things." He answered truthfully since he didn't plan on keeping the inheritance all for himself. Although he didn't like giving things for free he recognized that she had some kind of influence on him getting to this cave.
Although the situation was a bit 'special', he still recognized her value and even remembered how she guided him to get here.
Even though Sun Qinglan didn't enter the cave with him, all of this was because of Lu Wenjie, her now dead fiancé. This was something that he still didn't know how to talk about since it was a very delicate topic.