"Humph! I have lost," Zhang Yan said with a bewildered look on her face as she gazed at the starsword qi before her. That sword qi was like a galaxy emerging from the snowy ground. She murmured,
"I cannot counter your sword intent with comparable means."
"Sword intent is but a manifestation of a swordsman's will," seeing that Zhang Yan had admitted defeat with grace, Li Shiyin remarked, "Senior's cultivation is profound and unfathomable. I believe you will soon comprehend a sword intent that belongs to you."
Seeing that the two had finished speaking, this round was over, so Qin Ran said,
"This is the enhancement that sword intent provides to the second realm of sword qi. Next is the enhancement that sword intent provides to the third realm of sword qi. I will also let Senior see what a sword formation is."
"Sword formation?" Zhang Yan was rather surprised. "Could it be qi arrayed into a formation?"
"Sword formation..." Li Shiyin was also very surprised. She hurriedly turned her head back to look at Qin Ran, blinking her large eyes as she wordlessly asked him, "Master, when did I ever learn any formations?!"
Qin Ran smiled and blinked his eyes back at her, then said with his divine sense, "Just summon your sword qi, I will set up the formation for you."
Li Shiyin felt relieved and looked back at Zhang Yan with a smile. "My master is very skilled with formations. I also study them sometimes.
"Master often tells me that all things under heaven and earth are formations. The channels and textures of the human body are formations. Cultivation methods and mystic abilities are formations.
"He taught me to combine sword qi and formations to obtain sword formations. Using sword qi enhanced by sword intent as the material for formations and setting up formations with it. Since it is sword qi, when the sword qi changes, so do the formations. I believe this is a path of limitless potential.
"Senior, please observe..."
As she spoke, over a hundred strands of sword qi flew out from her body, dancing chaotically like a swarm of bees, like a flying flock of migratory birds.
Qin Ran looked at Li Shiyin recounting with a straight face before them and could not help his strange expression. Because these were actually his words. And he had indeed worked together with Li Shiyin to research this, but...this silly girl Li Shiyin had not learned formations for even a day!
The sky filled with sword qi that flew out and danced in midair. At a certain moment, the sword qi seemed to gain awareness and began to systematically arrange itself between the two people from Wulin Sword Sect and Qin Ran's master and disciple.
As more and more sword qi arranged itself, their figures grew more and more blurred. Suddenly at one point, their figures and the sword qi all disappeared into thin air, leaving only the snowy ground behind. It was as if they had never appeared there or had been teleported away.
"They..." Zhao Ya Qing's expression changed and she stepped forward, carefully searching around her. "Did they teleport away?"
She still remembered that Qin Ran knew how to set up teleportation formations.
Aunt Mei stopped her and said, "They are still here. It is just that the formation has been activated."
Only then did Zhao Ya Qing breathe a sigh of relief.
But...as she looked at the open space before her, as she kept looking, she felt something was off. Li Shiyin was showing a sword formation to Zhang Yan, but the four of them had all entered the formation?
Within the formation, Zhang Yan and the youth in black were looking at their surroundings in astonishment. They had already entered the formation. And this formation was indeed set up with sword qi.
This was unheard of!
"What do you think?" Qin Ran laughed and asked, "If the two of you are interested, I can give you the diagram for this formation."
Zhang Yan and the black-clothed youth were startled. They retracted their gazes to look at Qin Ran. Could it be that Qin Ran was the one who set up this formation to create an environment to kill them?
"Are you..." The eyes of the youth in black narrowed. Setting up such a great formation, was it to kill them?
"I have a monumental piece of intelligence to share with you two..." Qin Ran held his fists together courteously and said, "It involves the lives, families, and sects of you both!"
Zhang Yan looked at Li Shiyin, beginning to understand a little.
"You all disregard the danger to your lives, circling around to come here, just to deliver us intelligence?" she asked. "You all are so kindly disposed?!"
"Since it involves your lives, families, and sects, it naturally also involves our lives, families, and sects," Qin Ran slowly replied. "In the current state of affairs, if we divide, both sides lose; if we unite, both sides benefit!"
"Could it be..." The youth in black seemed to have heard an enormous joke, and he laughed loudly. "Are you saying we should cooperate?"
Qin Ran did not mind at all. He looked at Zhang Yan and asked further, "Do you know why Xuanqin invaded North Chu?"
"The rise and fall of mortal kingdoms has cycled back and forth every few hundred years since ancient times. They are always the same old business. Why would I care to know the details?" Zhang Yan was utterly indifferent. "Perhaps by the time I finish my next seclusion, Xuanqin will be no more."
"Then..." Qin Ran went on to ask, "Do you know why the Cloud Heaven Sect is making full effort to aid Xuanqin?"
Zhang Yan was stunned. She furrowed her brows slightly. She also did not know that.
She was a cultivator, with a long lifespan, and she did not care about mortal matters. But...Cloud Heaven Sect was also an immortal cultivation sect. Shouldn't they also look down on mortal affairs?
"Perhaps..." she guessed, "There is some great kindness between the Xuanqin Court and the Cloud Heaven Sect's Sect Leader?"
"What kind of great kindness would be worth the Cloud Heaven Sect dispatching Nascent Soul stage cultivators to assist?" Qin Ran laughed and questioned further. "They even had several Golden Core cultivators die. Yet the Cloud Heaven Sect still shows no intention to withdraw? In fact, newer cultivators have arrived. What is this great kindness between them?"
Even trading a promise from a Nascent Soul stage cultivator would be priceless...it would take countless top-grade spirit stones to buy one. Let alone dispatching one to serve as commanded.
These words made Zhang Yan realize something seemed fishy here.
"But what if, between them, it is not kindness, but equal cooperation aimed at a shared monumental ambition?" Qin Ran looked at Zhang Yan and posed a further question. "It is the Xuanqin Court and Cloud Heaven Sect cooperating together for an earth-shattering plot!"
"You mean..." Zhang Yan thought and asked, "Could the Cloud Heaven Sect be coveting the sects of North Chu?"
"Too small!" Qin Ran shook his head. "It is not just Xuanqin and North Chu, but the entire Land of Immortal Legacy!
"Xuanqin's ambition is to unify the entire Land of Immortal Legacy; the Cloud Heaven Sect's ambition is to unite all cultivation sects. Xuanqin will take care of the mortal world; Cloud Heaven Sect will take care of the cultivation world. Xuanqin will become a super empire, supporting Cloud Heaven Sect, providing them all the resources they need, including population; Cloud Heaven Sect will become the super sect, sheltering Xuanqin.
"Their ambition is to unify all of the Land of Immortal Legacy's resources to create a super sect!"
These words directly stunned Zhang Yan and the youth in black. They did not dare to believe it, yet somehow felt it was possible at the same time.
"They...they..." The youth in black was so frightened he stammered. "A tiny sect like Cloud Heaven Sect, how can they possibly defeat all the sects across the Land of Immortal Legacy?"
"When the Xuanqin Emperor unifies the mortal kingdoms, not a single cultivator cares. But once unified, tilting all the mortal resources of the Land of Immortal Legacy to Cloud Heaven Sect, undoubtedly, Cloud Heaven Sect will only grow stronger and stronger.
"By then, Cloud Heaven Sect will swallow up sect after sect. Given cultivators' mentality of aloof indifference, they will certainly sweep across the land like an avalanche. "
Qin Ran looked at him with a mocking yet meaningful look, and added, "Moreover, they need not accomplish this in a short period of time. They can slowly unify over a very, very long period."
This remark struck at their Achilles heel. Because this was precisely Wulin Sword Sect and Zhiren Valley Sword Sect's strategy. The youth in black and Zhang Yan fell into endless silence.