All the escorts scream and rush towards Yilu Lok.
Jiu Jin checks the conditions of Yilu Lok and says.
"Don't worry the young master has only fainted from exhaustion. After having some rest he will be alright."
All the escorts take deep breaths and feel relieved about Yilu Lok.
"You take the young master to the carriage."
He hands Yilu Lok over to one of the escorts; the escort takes Yilu Lok and leaves. Then he looks at the two escorts who were with Yilu Lok with cold eyes.
"You two come here and tell me everything that happened."
The two escorts do not have the courage to look Jiu Jin in the eyes. So they bow their heads towards the ground.
Then one of the escorts opens his mount and tells Jiu Jin everything. From how they entered the crack, what they encountered at the gray desert and what happened at the cave about the blood pool and how Yilu Lok saved their lives.
After listening to both of the escorts Jiu Jin says with a Solomon voice.
"You two know what you have done wrong right."
Both of the escorts do not lift their heads and say.
"We know, because of our incompetence the young master almost lost his life."
"Yes captain, it's our fault that young masters have to suffer, please punish us."
"Yes, captain punish us."
Jiu Jin exhales and looks at both escorts.
"Since you know what you have done wrong I will leave the decision to the Young master."
Both of the escorts lift their heads and look at Jiu Jin.
"You two go reflect on yourself and wait for your punishment when young master wakes up."
"We understand."
"Now go."
Both of the escorts leave.
***
Three days later
Yilu Lok opens his eyes and tries to get up.
"Argh!"
"It still hurts and how long I was asleep for."
Yilu Lok looks around and gets up and sits straight inside the carriage.
The carriage suddenly stops and Jiu Jin knocks on the door.
"Young master, may I come in?"
"You can enter."
"Understand."
The door of the carriage opens and Jiu Jin looks at Yilu Lok with a worried expression and asks.
"Are you alright young master, is there any discomfort?"
Yilu Lok shakes his head and asks.
"How long have I been asleep?"
"Young master, it has been three days."
"Oh!"
Yilu Lok scratches his head and thinks .
'A long time has passed. It seems I was more exhausted than I thought."
Then he looked at Jiu Jin.
"What is our next destination?"
"Young master, our next destination is the Tang clan. We will stay there for some time and restock our supplies and leave."
"Hmm.. Tang clan you say. How long will it take us to reach our next destination?"
"Young master, we are very close to our next destination. Currently it is ten o'clock in the morning and I think at noon we will be at the gate of the Tang clan."
"Ok… there is one thing I want to ask you."
"Just say it young master."
"When I was at the blood pool I saw an orange light. What was it?"
Jiu Jin laughs and says.
"Young master that was sword intent."
"Sword Intent."
Yilu Lok looks at him with a puzzled expression.
"Yes young master."
Jiu Jin unsheathes his sword and soon his sword begins to shine with orange light.
"Young master, this is sword intent."
"How fascinating?"
Yilu Lok looks at the sword's intent with a perplexed expression.
"Young master as you know when someone starts training martial arts they starts from third class warrior, then second class and finally first class."
Yilu Lok nods.
"Young master first class is the highest a person without talent can reach in their lifetime."
"Oh so what comes after first class?"
"After first class there is peak comes peak and those who have reached peak are referred to as masters."
"...so brother Jin, are you a master?"
Jiu Jin nods.
"Yes, young master and peak masters are divided in four stages. Those are early, advance, late and perfect-peak masters."
Yilu Lok then asks.
"Brother Jin, what stage have you reached?"
"Young master before entering the crack I was a late-peak master now I have broken through and became a perfect-peak master the intent you see is something only perfect-peak masters have."
Yilu Lok looks at Jiu Jin and says.
"First of all congratulations brother Jin for breaking through and becoming a perfect-peak master."
"Thank you young master."
"I have a few more questions."
"You can ask anything, young master."
"Instead of saying sword intent you said intent are their more types of intent."
"Young master, you are very perceptive. Yes young master I use a sword , that is why I have sword intent, someone who uses fist has fist intent and a blade user has a blade intent and so on"
Yilu Lok nods and asks his next question.
"Can only perfect-peak masters have intent?"
Jiu Jin shakes his head and says.
"No young master, if someone has great understanding of sword he can have sword intent as an early-peak master."
"So the most important condition for an intent is understanding."
Jiu Jin smiles at Yilu Lok.
"You are a very smart young master without understanding it is impossible to manifest intent."
Yilu Lok nods.
"That's all I wanted to thank you for your time brother Jin."
"It's alright young master if you have any more doubts you can ask me anything I will give my full effort."
"Thank you brother Jin."
Jiu Jin leaves the carriage and the journey continues.
***
Inside the carriage Yilu Lok closes his eyes.
As soon as he closes his eyes the centre of his forehead shines with a dark blue light and a small barrier spreads around isolating the inside of the carriage.
Then Yilu Lok slowly opens his eyes but instead of brown his eyes are dark blue in colour. Yilu Lok glares at the dark blue barrier.
"Just as I thought I could now use soul energy but compared to the soft golden soul energy I had in that multicolored sea this dark blue soul energy is so weak it feels blasphemy to even compare them."
Yilu Lok opens his palm and a black lightning flashes and the soulblade appears in his hand. Yilu Lok unsheathes the soulblade and holds it in his hand with its tip facing towards the sky.
Yilu Lok begins to pour his soul energy into the soulblade after all he had used soul energy for a very long time not to mention his unique talents. Soon the blade is radiating a dark blue aura.
"Jiu Jin said that for manifesting intent one needs high understanding. In my case I need a high understanding of the sword and know what the intent is."
"Hmm what is the intent?"
Yilu Lok quietly looks at the soulblade for some time then closes his dark blue eyes and tries to remember the sword intent of Jiu Jin.
One minute passed then ten minutes passed and soon an hour passed.
Yilu Lok slowly opens his closed eyes. His dark blue eyes fall on the soulblade as he mutters.
"Intent… Intent is materialisation of one's inner will and understanding. Intent is the ultimate expression of mastery, where mental and spiritual state directly influence."
On the soulblade the dark blue aura begins to condense little by little after ten minutes the soulblade begins to shine with dark blue light.
Yilu Lok smiles as he looks at the dark blue light.
"I succeeded, but I can't call it sword intent. This is the manifestation of my soul instead of a sword so it will be more accurate to call it soul intent."
Yilu Lok may not know much about swords but when it comes to understanding of soul no one in the entire Central plains can hold a candle to him.
For Yilu Lok, manifesting intent from soul is not a difficult task and not to mansion with his unique talent in energy and the talent of copy it is very easy for him to manifest soul intent.
But there is another problem. Beads of sweat began to fall from Yilu Lok's forehead and Yilu Lok disables his soul intent.
"Fuu.. I am able to use soul intent but it takes too much energy. No wonder only peak masters can use intent. With my current soul energy I can barely use soul intent for about a minute and after that my reserve of soul energy will be exhausted."
Yilu Lok sheaths his soulblade and closes his eyes for rest.
The carriage is smoothly moving towards this destination. But suddenly two people, one boy and a girl stops the carriage.
Jiu Jin looks at them and narrows his eyes.
The man stands in front of Jiu Jin and cupped his fist and said.
"I am sorry for stopping the carriage. Good sir can we know where you are heading?"
Jiu Jin does not say anything for a second.
"Young warriors, we are heading towards the Tang clan."
"Oh you are also heading towards the Tang clan, can we get a ride? We are also heading there."
"I am merely a guard. I can't make any decisions. You have to ask the young master for permission."
The man narrows his eyes and simply smiles and says.
"Can we meet the young master and ask for permission?"
Jiu Jin gets off from his horse and walks towards the carriage.
"Follow me."