It was so much easier for the Dragon Blooded Horse to reach the Violet Palace Realm than it was for Lin Yun. Lin Yun pondered briefly before he retrieved the jade slip that contained the Overlord Sword. He had been traveling during the day and refining his origin energy at night. So he never took the time to look at the Overlord Sword given to him by Guardian Plum.

Placing the jade slip on his forehead, boundless information began to rush into his head. This was an overbearing sword technique that had nine moves in total. There was the Thunderbolt Slash, Solar Slash, Big Bang, Breaking Dawn, Blood Suppression, Tai’a Slash, Limitless Radiance, Myriad Ages, and Overlord.

The difficulty of learning would increase with each move. The amount of information was massive, which gave Lin Yun a headache. He realized that with his comprehension, he was actually only able to barely understand the first move. Although he could barely understand it, it was impossible for him to reach greater mastery in it without comprehending the intent in the sword.

Lin Yun opened his eyes and fell into deep thought. He now knew why Guardian Plum said so confidently that there weren’t many sword techniques that could compare with the Overlord Sword. It was hard for Lin Yun to cultivate it even though he grasped the xiantian sword intent. For others, it must be even harder.

“But doesn’t this prove that it’s a powerful sword technique?” Lin Yun licked his lips as he held onto the jade slip. Only the challenges were intersting to him.

Clearing his thoughts, Lin Yun put away the jade slip and stood up from the bonfire. His black pupils glowed like two stars in the darkness and he casually picked up a tree branch.

“Thunderbolt Slash… what does that really mean? Am I going to comprehend it as a whole or break it down? Wait, that doesn’t seem right. Based on the mantra, the Thunderbolt Slash doesn’t have any breaks or pauses. I’ll only injure myself if I break it up. Hmmm, then what does it really mean?”

Lin Yun had been practicing the entire night, so he was exhausted when dawn arrived. However, his eyes were energetic. With a faint smile on his face, he murmured, “It has been a long time since I’ve had a challenge.”

Martial techniques were differentiated into four stages -  initial, lesser, greater, and complete mastery. Only a few talented ones could reach the manifestation realm. Most people would spend a lot of time just getting a martial technique to greater mastery. It was at that level that one could bring out 80-90% of the martial technique. It was too harsh trying to get to complete mastery just for the last 10%. As for the manifestation realm? Most people couldn’t even feel that stage in the first place.

With Lin Yun’s comprehension, he would usually spend half a day to get to initial mastery. As for greater mastery, it would take as long as half a month and as little as one week. For complete mastery, it would only take him one month tops.

But he failed when it came to the Overlord Sword’s first move. He couldn’t even reach initial mastery after one night.

“At least I had some harvest or else I would feel some despair,” smiled Lin Yun as he got up to stretch.

Right at this moment, the Dragon Blooded Horse appeared before Lin Yun. Lil’ Red’s aura was a lot stronger than before. Its fur looked like crimson jade and Lin Yun could sense the power contained in Lil’ Red’s body.

“Not bad. I’m looking forward to what kind of changes you will go through when you reach the Violet Palace Realm,” muttered Lin Yun as they proceeded to travel through the Extermination Barrens. He didn’t have a specific goal and only wanted to train himself beyond the Great Qin Empire. He wanted to understand the entire Ancient Southern Domain first before determining his next goal.

Lin Yun changed his schedule a little by comprehending the Thunderbolt Slash during the day and refining his sword energy at night. His days were dry, but it was a fulfilling process.

“Thunderbolt refers to momentum. To be explosive like a thunderbolt and to unleash an attack that streaks across the horizon. It looks like this move emphasizes how to achieve momentum. The stronger the momentum, the stronger this move. This should be the right direction.” Lin Yun finally figured out a direction to go after three days.

But just when he was about to try practicing it, the sky began to rumble and thunderclouds started gathering. Lin Yun was briefly stunned, but his eyes soon lit up, “Is it going to rain?”

The sky turned terrifyingly dark, but there was no rain. Thunder began to rumble in the sky, which brought along a huge pressure. Just as Lin Yun fell into deep thought, time seemed to have frozen as a bolt of lightning streaked across the horizon. In the next second, rain began pouring down.

“I see.” A smile appeared on Lin Yun’s face as he got wet from the rain. He casually found a place to avoid the rain and focused on comprehending the Overlord Sword. As time passed, the rain stopped and Lin Yun suddenly opened his eyes.

The sky suddenly became dark once more with rumbling lightning caused by his sword intent. A boundless sword momentum began to gush out from Lin Yun before he drew his sword. In the next second, a bolt of lightning flashed and exploded. When Lin Yun sheathed his sword, a huge ravine was created in front of Lin Yun that stretched for a few thousand meters.

The power of this sword left Lin Yun dumbfounded. But he soon became emotional because it was only in initial mastery. How powerful would it be when it reached greater mastery? He simply couldn’t imagine how powerful it would be.

Then again, the reason why this sword was so powerful was also related to Lin Yun. Lin Yun had been converting his origin energy with third grade spiritual jades over the past few days. He now had 60% of his origin energy converted into sword energy.

So, the Thunderbolt Slash wouldn’t be as powerful if someone else was using it. This was because they didn’t have Lin Yun’s powerful origin energy, nor did they have a sword sutra for their cultivation technique.

Then again, the Overlord Sword was powerful and Guardian Plum didn’t lie to him. With this sword technique, Lin Yun believed that he could forge a name for himself in the Ancient Southern Domain.

“But the exhaustion is also terrifying.” Lin Yun discovered that the Thunderbolt Slash took one-fourth of his origin energy and the exhaustion would increase if he used it again. The origin energy exhaustion was nothing compared to the spiritual energy exhaustion, which was immense.

Right at this moment, thunder rumbled once more in the sky, which made Lin Yun frown his brows. 

I already called off my sword momentum, so why is the lightning still rumbling? Could it be that someone else is practicing their sword here?

When Lin Yun raised his head, he saw the thunderclouds gathering once more.

“Wait, this isn’t created by sword intent…” Lin Yun soon analyzed that this must be the cause of nature. After all, he couldn’t imagine how powerful a person would need to be in order to create such a huge commotion.

Over the next few days, the thunderclouds would gather and disperse continuously for eight cycles. Just when he was about to leave the Extermination Barrens, he saw the thunderclouds gathering again for the ninth time. But this time, the commotion was even greater. “It's coming again?”

It felt as though the apocalypse had arrived and fear loomed in his heart. Even Lil’ Red began to feel uneasy.

“What’s going on?” Even if Lin Yun was an idiot, he could guess that something unusual was going on.