Apotheosis – Ascension to Godhood Chapter 290: Sword Washing Pool

Chapter 290: Sword Washing Pool

The higher one could insert his sword in the mountain, the greater his benefit would be. It wasn't easy though.
Anyone who came here would obviously try his best and insert the sword at the top of the Killing Sword Mountain. This would ensure maximum benefit, but only if it was so easy! One needed to go through several challenges to defeat the sword intent hidden in those swords. There was only one path to the top of the mountain, and the sword intents were on that path. Zen had to defeat them.
However, he clearly knew that he couldn't win over the sword spirit of next sword, as it was too powerful, so his only option was to throw the sword to the mountaintop.
This was a mystical area and no one knew whether Zen was the first person to do so since the Killing Sword Mountain had been made. However, if he had succeeded, his sword would have landed higher in the mountain.
Deciding that throwing was his only option, he chose it. Zen was born with superhuman strengths. When he threw his sword, he also activated all the power in the dragon's scales.
The Streamer Sword, under his power and the dragon's too, drew a bright silver arc of light in the air as it hurled in a parabolic path, almost like a meteor streaking over countless sacred weapons. It soared upwards and far!
With the extreme initial velocity, it took the sword three breaths of time to lose its upward power and begin falling towards the earth. Then it slammed into the middle of the mountain ridge, where the top grade sacred weapons were stuck. As a lower grade fairy weapon, the Streamer Sword was clearly visible among them, like a lion in a zebra herd.
Seeing this scene, the cyan dragon paused for a moment, too astonished to speak. The Killing Sword Mountain was a special sacred place and it had its own rules, which everyone had to follow. Breaking them would mean immediate expulsion. Powerful as the cyan dragon was, he dared not to help Zen from the beginning to the end lest he broke the rules and was punished. And Zen's sword throw made him worry that the idea might violate the rules of the Killing Sword Mountain.
If the Killing Sword Mountain did not acknowledge Zen's sword inserted in such a manner, the sword would bounce back. He was even more afraid that Zen would be expelled directly from the Killing Sword Mountain for this reason.
But Zen's sword was safely inserted into the mountain ridge. Then it emitted soft splendor, which demonstrated that it was establishing a connection with Zen. Obviously, Zen's sword had been recognized by the Killing Sword Mountain. He did not need to reach there himself. Only his sword did.
“Did that really work? I totally did not see that coming!”
Whatever had just happened went way over the cyan dragon's head. He had lived for hundreds of thousands of years and was much older than Zen, but he suddenly found that Zen had refreshed some of his ideas.
To be honest, Zen had just wanted to try the idea and see whether reaching higher in such a manner was acceptable or not. He hadn't expected it to actually work!
It was a pity that he was not strong enough. If he had been stronger and with enough brawn, maybe he could have thrown his sword right to the top of the mountain, where it could stay among the divine weapons or perhaps, some even higher ranks of the weapons.
Of course he knew that he couldn't be too greedy. The Streamer Sword had landed in a fairly good spot which far exceeded his expectations.
After the Streamer Sword lodged itself into the ridges of the Killing Sword Mountain, Zen suddenly felt some changes taking place in his body. There was a very special feeling in his mind, as if he was beginning to get connected with this huge sword mountain! As if he could talk to it. An invisible passage seemed to have been formed between his body and the Killing Sword Mountain which could let him reach higher places.
Suddenly, before Zen could carefully understand and analyze that feeling, the Killing Sword Mountain collapsed out of the blue in front of his eyes. With the loss of the whole world of the Killing Sword Mountain, his consciousness retreated from it immediately and he found himself back in the arena.
When his consciousness returned, the cyan dragon smiled and told him, “I'm so impressed. It really surprised me when you were able to throw and lodge the sword so high. This way of killing is a good way to be strong, so make good use of it. Now, I've done enough, and I feel like taking a nap. Bye!”
Even though the cyan dragon had devoured a piece of dragon bone spear earlier on, he hadn't received much energy from that. After all, the dragon bone spear was too small for a gigantic genuine dragon.
As the cyan dragon gradually fell asleep, Zen opened his eyes and woke up.
“Zen is awake! He's awake! Finally! Now some action!”
“It took him so long to learn the consummate sword intent.”
“Hey wait! Rocher hasn't woken up yet. It's taking him longer!”
Zen glanced at Rocher who was sitting close by. His eyes were still shut and he didn't seem to have retreated from whatever place he had gone to yet.
According to the cyan dragon, in the moment of understanding the consummate sword intent, Rocher would have been sent to another place in order to be tested and granted new skills.
The Killing Sword Mountain was only one of the several hundred sacred cultivation places in the world. He couldn't know where Rocher had been taken and why he hadn't woken up yet.
However, just at that moment, Rocher opened his eyes suddenly.
As his eyelids flickered and his pupils came into focus, there was a sudden outbreak of fierce sword intent from his body. It formed a huge cyclone into the sky, and several flashes of terrible lightning and thunder loomed into the air, traveling across the cyclone.
“Is there a kind of thunder power in Rocher's sword intent?” Zen's eyes narrowed slightly, a little surprised. The blue lightning Rocher was emitting seemed quite powerful. Combined with Rocher's sword intent, the lightning was emitting a faint trace of natural law.
“It looks so powerful, almost like true lightning in the sky! Alas, I envy Rocher having such a great opportunity. He had an enormous breakthrough and all he did was sitting there for two hours. How do I find myself opportunities like that?”
“Don't even think about it. You wouldn't be able catch up with him even if he hadn't mastered the consummate sword intent! Now he is even more powerful.”
“Would you look at that? Zen has also grasped the consummate sword intent, but he seems to have gained less power. When he woke up, he didn't burst out such an eye-catching effect.”
Zen smiled as he heard the audiences' remarks.
The greatest gain he had achieved in his epiphanic state was to establish a connection with the Killing Sword Mountain. This wouldn't have been visible immediately to the audience but he would feel the effects. After he had practiced the killing sword skill, the benefits of that connection would appear and increase gradually. His second greatest gain was the sword spirit. Born with powerful malicious aura, Lily had now become a great battle force that Zen could rely on as soon as she came into being.
But he hadn't let Lily appear in front of the public just yet. She was hidden inside Zen's mind, and her aura naturally did not spill over. Therefore, no one noticed that there was an entirely new person hidden inside him.
Rocher's sword intent overflowed for a long time, and then slowly calmed and restored. Rocher took a deep breath and let it out slowly. A peaceful and delighted smile appeared on his face. With Rocher's grave character, such a happy expression could indicate only one thing: that he had gained a lot in his sleep.
That he had!
As soon as he had understood the consummate sword intent, he had been pulled into a place called the Sword Washing Pool!
As someone who was crazy about swords and intents and legends, Rocher had paid special attention to the stories of the masters. The Sword Washing Pool had been mentioned in a book he had read. The book had said it was a semi-holy place.
So, on finding himself granted an opportunity to go into the Sword Washing Pool, how could he restrain his excitement? After all, only a very small number of people among the tens of millions of swordsmen would have received such an opportunity. Not everyone would have managed to perfect the sword intent and even if they did, they weren't sure to be allowed to enter the semi-holy land to improve their sword intent.
Cultivating in the Sword Washing Pool could not only improve his sword intent, but could also add a special attribute to it.
So Rocher had dipped his sword into the Sword Washing Pool and began to practice his intent.
After a long time, changes had taken place in the Sword Washing Pool. The water of the pool had emitted glaring blue thunder and lightning, which had poured crazily into Rocher's body and his Blood-corroding Sword. In the end, the thunder and lightning had merged with his sword intent, granting it several new powers.
With that in his mind, he had named his new sword intent as the Extreme Thunder Sword Intent.
Thunder and lightning was a kind of natural phenomenon, which was also seen as a divine punishment. The Heavenly Sword Rocher was practicing was already powerful in attack. Now its attack was greater after being mixed with the strong natural powers of the world. Thunder and lightning could have dealt catastrophic damage to his opponents. It was quite obvious that the Extreme Thunder Sword Intent could enhance Rocher's fighting capability greatly.
“Congratulations, Rocher, it looks like you got a great opportunity in your state of epiphany.” Zen congratulated him with a smile.
Rocher nodded. He didn't need to be modest. To be able to cultivate in the legendary semi-holy place was enough for him to show off his good fortune.
The person with such kind of good fortunes was favored by the heavens and was destined to be a great man. There wouldn't be a second one for a thousand years in the whole Eastern Region. If he continued to be modest, it would be hypocritical in nature.
“I tried my best in my last attack, but I still couldn't defeat you. That means I have already lost the game,” Rocher said slowly. “But since both of us understood the consummate sword intent at the same time, the battle had to be suspended in between. With that situation taken care of, I want to challenge you once again with both of us at a higher level of swordsmanship now.”
Zen nodded when he heard Rocher's words. “Ok, I accept your challenge. Let's see who wins the final battle.”
The disciples of Cloud Sect had been sitting in their places for more than two hours, waiting for Zen and Rocher to complete their epiphany. They were all quite bored now.
Those who had been watching through the Picture Slab were in a slightly better state. They could have left the Picture Slab for a while to do what they wanted to do when there was nothing interesting to see. But those on the scene of All Peak Competition were unable to do so.
This naturally meant that as soon as they heard Rocher say that he had lost, they were fired in anger and ready to swear and shout.
'We have been waiting for you for so long and all you can do is admit defeat? Boo! Are you kidding?'
Then they heard Rocher say that he would challenge Zen once again. They cheered at once.
The Heavenly Sword of Rocher had been so powerful. Now that he had understood the consummate sword intent and there was an additional thunder and lightning power in his sword, how strong could he be now? That remained to be seen but one thing was clear: there was going to be much flash and much bang now in the arena.
“Can he defeat Zen and turn him into a piece of lightning-struck burnt wood with his sword?” One of the disciples asked.
“I am not sure whether he will chop Zen into burnt wood pieces or not. But I can say for certain that Zen is a difficult opponent to deal with,” answered another.
“Yes. You know? I used to think that Zen would defeat Rocher easily. But it's hard to say now. Obviously, both of them have grasped the consummate sword intent. But Rocher seems to have gained more benefits than Zen did. When Zen woke up from the epiphany, he showed no signs of a sharp increase in strength. And Rocher emitted lightning himself. It seems that Zen has clearly not gained much from the epiphany,” A third one remarked.
The state of epiphany was a great opportunity for the martial art refiners but not everyone was sure to reap remarkable benefits from it. Anything could happen in that state. Sometimes, people entered the state of epiphany, but ended up getting nothing helpful from it. Stories like this could be found everywhere.
Rocher raised his Blood-corroding Sword slightly. After he had understood the consummate sword intent, every sword cyclone around him was more and more aggressive now, and there was a trace of thunder and lightning hidden inside them. Rocher knew clearly that the power of thunder and lightning he had obtained from the Sword Washing Pool was by no means ordinary. They were definitely more powerful than any mortal man could imagine.
He was confident that he could defeat Zen this time.
As Rocher was building up the power of his sword with full confidence, Zen called upon the sword spirit in his mind. Lily faded into existence gradually at his side.
“Wait what...! There is another person inside the arena! And she is a beauty! Where did she come from? What happened? What's going on?” A disciple shouted out uncontrollably.