The people of Oldridge Village came out to offer their congratulations, celebrating that the Village Chief, now nearing the end of his days, finally had a successor to carry on his mantle. They also cheered for Quinn Shepherd, who had inherited the Village Chief’s legacy and become the new Human Emperor of this era. Yet the Village Chief still treated the Mute Smith coldly, and Quinn himself wasn’t too happy about his new Human Emperor status.
Sword Diagram was a sword art created by the Village Chief himself, not the Human Emperor Hall’s sword technique. Its first move, Sword Treading the Rivers and Mountains, was already the most complex sword art Quinn had ever seen—even more intricate than the Dao Sword’s first move, Two-Yi Reversal of Yin and Yang.
Yet Sword Treading the Rivers and Mountains was actually the simplest move in Sword Diagram. The second move, Sword Opening the Pioneer Era, was several times more complicated and proved extremely difficult to master.
Back when Quinn first learned Sword Treading the Rivers and Mountains, it took him more than ten days to master.
During his travels through the Everpeace Empire, Quinn’s vision and experience had grown beyond measure. He received the Woodcutter Sage’s sermon, comprehended the Grand Unification Art, and fused it with the Overlord Three-Core Art. His own talent and understanding had also made significant progress.
Even so, learning Sword Opening the Pioneer Era still cost him more than twenty days.
It was only then that Quinn understood the Village Chief’s painstaking intentions. Without the Village Chief grinding him down on Sword Treading the Rivers and Mountains, mastering Sword Opening the Pioneer Era might have taken him half a year or more.
It was precisely because the Village Chief forced Quinn to push and exhaust his own intelligence that he could learn Sword Opening the Pioneer Era in just over twenty days. Now, standing at the threshold between sword technique and sword art, Quinn could comprehend the move with effort—even if it was still a struggle.
But the third move in Sword Diagram, Supreme Sovereign Calamity, reached the ultimate limit of sword technique and variation—far beyond what Quinn could currently master. He could memorize its patterns, but to actually perform it, he needed to grasp the deeper mysteries within. No matter how hard he studied, he couldn’t fully unravel Supreme Sovereign Calamity’s secrets.
It all came down to vision and experience: if your horizons were limited, your foundation would be shallow, and even if someone taught you, you still wouldn’t be able to learn or use it.
Quinn had no choice but to focus on mastering Sword Opening the Pioneer Era.
With one sword, the Pioneer Era is opened; blood surges like an ocean.
Quinn had once heard this poetic line in Little Wasteland Village, recited by the young Village Chief who stepped out of Deaf’s painting. There was a unique emotion hidden in the sword art.
The Sword Treading the Rivers and Mountains that the Village Chief taught him carried its own unique flavor—a spirit of rallying heroes and waging war against gods and demons. Sword Opening the Pioneer Era, on the other hand, was suffused with grief and remembrance for the fallen.
These two sword arts embodied entirely different emotions, and their artistic conceptions were worlds apart. Though Quinn had mastered both moves, he still couldn’t truly grasp the feelings and intent hidden within them.
Sword Opening the Pioneer Era demanded an astonishing amount of yuanqi—a type of vital energy cultivated by practitioners in this world. One strike would drain nearly half his cultivation; without a deep well of energy, it was impossible to execute.
“Village Chief, how many moves are there in Sword Diagram?” Quinn asked.
The Village Chief replied calmly, “Only eight.”
Quinn was surprised. “Eight? That few?”
“One move for each cultivation realm.”
The Village Chief squinted and said, “So there are only eight moves.”
Quinn counted on his fingers: Spirit Embryo Realm, Five Luminaries Realm, Six Directions Treasury, Seven Stars Treasury, Heaven-Man Treasury, Life-and-Death Realm, Divine Bridge Realm. That made seven realms. So why were there eight moves?
If you go beyond the Divine Bridge Realm, you become a god! Could the Village Chief’s eighth move be a technique for gods? Quinn’s heart raced at the thought.
These days, aside from studying sword arts, Quinn sparred with the Village Chief, using the pressure to force himself to improve.
He tried to integrate the Imperial Preceptor’s three basic sword moves into Sword Opening the Pioneer Era, and with the Village Chief’s guidance, his progress was swift.
The Village Chief’s sword arts were close to the Dao itself. For him, it didn’t matter if there were fourteen or seventeen basic sword moves, but for Quinn, adding the Imperial Preceptor’s three sword moves greatly enhanced the power of Sword Opening the Pioneer Era.
During these days, Quinn’s swordsmanship improved rapidly.
It felt as if Quinn had returned to the old days—sparring fists with Grandpa Mark, dueling blades with Butcher, playing thief-and-thief with Grandpa Lame (each trying to steal from the other), learning forging from the Mute Smith, cultivating spirit-eyes with Grandpa Blind, refining medicine with Apothecary, painting with Deaf, and tailoring with Granny Sue. But now, what they taught him was no longer just the basics. With his vision and experience grown, he could finally learn their true, deeper arts, making the elders of Oldridge both proud and gratified.
Though every day left him exhausted and collapsing into bed, Quinn felt his life was full and rewarding.
Grandpa Blind sighed, “I had to hit hard. Granny Sue’s cultivation has soared—she’s nearly at the Life-and-Death Realm now, probably because Tyson Li’s soul has fused too much with hers. And Tyson Li’s Grand Unification Art is truly formidable. If I don’t strike hard, he’ll break free.”
Grandpa Mark said, “Your heart-devil is growing stronger. Dragging this out isn’t a solution. My Buddhist arts are shallow compared to the Elder Buddha’s—maybe the Elder Buddha at Great Thunderclap Temple can help suppress Tyson Li. You should go there.”