"I have cultivated for a thousand years ever since I came to Mt. Lightning Roar." Qin Yun stood on the mountaintop as he looked far into the vast lands. However, his brows were slightly knitted.

"The Great Dao of Heaven reached a bottleneck back during my seclusion in the Immortal Vanquis.h.i.+ng Hall. It"s just a sliver short of a Great Dao! Now that a thousand years has pa.s.sed, I"m still short of that sliver." Qin Yun was a little frustrated. "The Great Dao of Earth is also taking up shape. I"ve been able to figure out a few moves at the Golden Immortal level. Just like the Great Dao of Heaven, it"s just a sliver short of a Great Dao. The Great Dao of Man… needs more work."

"How should I get through the bottlenecks that plague these two Great Dao?"

Qin Yun pondered.

He was indeed feeling pressed for time. His Sword Dao was split into Heaven, Earth, and Man. Figuring them out independently was the most suitable course. This was also why the Heavenly Lord of Numinous Treasure held high hopes for him.

Regardless if it was the Immortal Vanquis.h.i.+ng Sword Array or the Qingping Sword, both of them deepened his understanding of the Heaven and Earth. Therefore, his insights into the two Great Dao clearly progressed faster than the Great Dao of Man.

But after reaching a bottleneck…

It came to a halt!

"Perhaps, I should travel." Qin Yun looked at the bustling life across the distant land. After remaining sedentary for so long, he decided to leave the mountain.

His real body immediately took a step and tore through s.p.a.ce, leaving behind an avatar.

…

The Heavenly realm was core to the Three Realms. It was almost infinitely vast and extremely mystical.

Qin Yun had never gotten the opportunity to fully travel the Heavenly realm.

"Boom!"

The Silver River roared as its waves stirred. Even immortals would find them a challenge.

Qin Yun stood on a patch of wild gra.s.s by the riverside as he took in the view.

"Legend has it that Queen Mother used a jade hairpin to tear open this Silver River? It"s truly majestic." Qin Yun looked with interest at the extremely famous spot. "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl were also separated by this Silver River."

"Queen Mother is the leader of all fairies. She could have easily crushed a mortal like Cowherd to death, but she felt pity towards Cowherd and Weaver Girl; therefore only separating them with only a Silver River, allowing them to still meet on a magpie bridge," Qin Yun mused. Queen Mother was also born out of the Chaos. She was born with great divine powers and back when the ancient demon Heavenly Courts was still in power, Queen Mother was also conferred the t.i.tles Golden Mother of the Nacre Lake, Golden Mother the First Ruler, and Queen Mother of the West. Even the Mighty G.o.d Houyi sought an immortal pill for his wife from her.

Whoosh. Several fairies flew by the riverside as they began plucking immortal gra.s.ses.

"Where are you from? How dare you trespa.s.s the Silver River?" When the leader of the fairies saw Qin Yun, she immediately shouted loudly. Simultaneously, she instructed a fairy beside her, "Quickly inform the Silver River navy. Get them to send people to capture this audacious immortal."

"You can forget about running."

"If you attempt escape, you will suffer additional charges."

These fairies berated.

The Heavenly Courts had strict rules. It was true that the Silver River was of great importance. Queen Mother had paid a huge price to produce many treasures in the Silver River"s riverbed. The Silver River was a treasure trove that continuously provided treasures to the Heavenly Courts. Stories of this tempted immortals to secretly dive down in the Silver River to steal treasures. Therefore, the Heavenly Courts naturally forbade ordinary immortals from the lower realms to come to the Silver River.

Once the heavenly rules were set, these fairies had to enforce them. How could they dare allow Qin Yun to flee? They would have committed a serious crime if they flouted the heavenly rules.

"Get the Silver River navy to capture me?" Qin Yun smiled. He did not say much to the fairies as he turned around. With one step, he vanished.

"How dare you challenge the heavenly rules. You won"t escape," shouted a fairy.

Soon.

A Silver River navy troop arrived.

"Who dares trespa.s.s the Silver River?" The general leading the Silver River navy asked.

"It"s him." A fairy waved her hand as a figure appeared in the void. It was none other than Qin Yun.

The general was not like these ordinary fairies. He had the strength of a half-step Golden Immortal, so he had current information on top immortals. He immediately recognized Qin Yun.

"Isn"t this Sword Immortal Qin?" The general was appalled.

"Sword Immortal Qin? The Sword Immortal Qin who went into the fiendish dominion to kill an Ancestral Fiend?" These fairies were alarmed as well.

"The Sword Immortal Qin who holds the Connate Cardinal treasure, the Qingping Sword?"

None of them dared continued their rout. Mighty figures had extraordinary statuses. Even the Heavenly Courts would try to win their favor. Although there were places that ordinary immortals were forbidden from entering, mighty figures could go anywhere they wanted! Qin Yun held an extraordinary position. He had the Dao Ancestor, the Heavenly Lord of Numinous Treasure, backing him. It was a formidable backer, for even the Heavenly Courts required the Dao Ancestors to support them in their rule over the Three Realms. It was even the case that many of the generals of the Heavenly Courts were Daoist disciples.

…

Qin Yun visited various spots in the Heavenly realm, places he had heard of before, but had never visited.

As he took in more of the sights, Qin Yun faintly felt that he had a solution to breaking through the bottleneck of his Great Dao of Heaven. This feeling was as intangible it could be, but Qin Yun knew the general direction.

…

A boat was floating across a river.

Qin Yun sat cross-legged on the boat as he allowed the river to bring him wherever it went. He drifted the entire way.

He saw the old men by the river constructing boats while fishermen caught fish on their boats. There were also powerful pirates.

When the pirates encountered a merchant s.h.i.+p, they were tempted by their l.u.s.t as they attempted to s.n.a.t.c.h the beauties and treasures on board by engaging in a mindless slaughter.

"l.u.s.t and danger are just two sides of the same coin." Qin Yun waved his hand as water splashed up, sending water droplets over.

"Senior, spare us." The pirate captain shouted loudly. At the same time, he released fish-scaled like Dharma treasures that floated around them. However, the water droplets seemed incorporeal as they tore straight through the treasures and into the pirate captain"s glabella. The captain died on the spot with widened eyes as his crew trembled in fear. After all, their captain had reached the Essence Soul realm while the crew"s elites were at the Connate realm. The most bloodthirsty ones had the water droplets pierce through their dantian, crippling them of their Dharmic powers.

As for the weaker ones? Qin Yun ignored them.

Without the leaders, the merchant s.h.i.+p was able to withstand the pirate attacks since it had a few Connate Golden Cores defending it. In the Heavenly realm… Connate Golden Cores were very common.

"Thank you for saving our lives, Senior. Might we invite you onto our s.h.i.+p?" The merchant s.h.i.+p"s owner immediately brought his three daughters in excitement as he shouted loudly. He knew that he had encountered an immortal.

Qin Yun sat cross-legged on that bow of the tiny boat. Although it seemed to drift slowly, it quickly vanished from their sight.

"We encountered an immortal. Unfortunately, we didn"t manage to invite him onto the s.h.i.+p." The s.h.i.+p"s owner felt somewhat regretful.

"Dad, that immortal looked very young," said one of his daughters with brightened eyes.

…

"Even if I die, I will kill you all!" A youth wielded a chipped sword. Not only was it chipped, but it was also rusted. However, the sword beams he produced were sharp and resilient. At that moment, the youth was fervently engaged in battle with a group of cultivators. Although he was only at the Connate Golden Core level and a number of the cultivators had reached the Essence Soul realm, he had managed to kill three of his enemies.

However, the youth was also heavily injured. The worst injury was the gaping hole in his chest that went straight through his heart. Even though his vitality was strong, he could not last much longer.

"Thankfully, we attacked early. If we had let this rascal continue cultivating, we, the Eighteen Bandits of Black Wind Valley, would not be his match." The cultivators heaved a secret sigh of relief.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The youth felt like blacking out, but the rage and anger in him allowed him to persist on.

Suddenly—

Rainwater splashed down.

The cultivators in an array formation collapsed to the ground in silence.

The youth stopped in a daze. As the rainwater hit his wounds, his wounds rapidly healed. Even the wound at his heart was healed. Soon, he was in perfect condition.

"Ding Ding Ding Dang~"

The sound of a bell accompanied the wind.

The youth turned his head and saw a furry donkey with a bell over its neck walk over slowly. Seated on the donkey was a gray-robed man who slung a wrapped sword on his back.

The youth immediately understood what had happened as he knelt down. "Thank you for saving my life, Senior. I, Yuan Chong, wish to thank you for helping me attain my revenge."

"Despite the huge vendetta, you have managed to keep a good bit of merit on you. Hate did not completely destroy your conscience. Unfortunately, your sword arts are relatively weak. Watch well." The gray-robed man waved his hand as the rain water formed a figure which demonstrated a sword art.

"Isn"t this my Illusion Killing Sword Art? No, no. Every move has been changed." The youth"s eyes watched with fervent, burning eyes. A brand new Sword Dao developed in front of him.

After the figure dissipated, it transformed into a stream of light that shot into the youth"s glabella, as he continued being immersed in the insights of the Sword Dao.

He awoke much later.

The gray-robed senior had already long left.

"Senior, I, Yuan Chong, will remember your teaching of the Dao to me forever." The youth knelt down and kowtowed thrice.

…

Qin Yun traveled everywhere as he tried to gain inspiration.

He traveled arduously only with his pair of legs.

He sat on a tiny boat on a river.

He traveled five thousand kilometers on a tiny furry donkey.

He sat on avian creatures and traversed the skies…

With his character of abhorring evil, he would naturally offer help and had even pa.s.sed Dao teachings to three juniors.

The more he saw, the more he experienced. Qin Yun felt that the bottleneck of the Great Dao of Heaven was slowly being dissolved.

Finally!

Qin Yun traveled over land and water, and when he came to the summit of a nameless mountain, he naturally sat cross-legged at the mountaintop.

This was the first time he really stopped after traveling the world for a hundred plus years.

He sat cross-legged and allowed the elements to bear down on him. Soon, the dust that fell on him turned him into a dirty gray statue. He sat there for nine months.