Chapter 361 - The Five Gates of the Grand-Orient Sword
Tianming took out the Saint Origin Sphere. He was still wracking his brain over how he could restore the seals onto Feiling's nails, yet all it took was for him to bring it close to her. The weird energy from the seals came out of the sphere and returned to her nails. Once more, all ten of her fingernails had ten mysterious powers.
As if her beauty wasn't stunning enough, she opened her hands wide and showed off her beautiful, arcane fingers. If there was one part Tianming had to pick as the most beautiful part of her, he would no doubt pick her slender fingers and beautiful nails.
The short time they had spent away from each other had only intensified their feelings for one another. Once more, Tianming felt his body fill with power when she used Spiritual Attachment. Coupled with the boost offered by the Grand-Orient Sword, he reached historic heights no ninth-level Unity beastmaster could ever match.
"I'll say this again: Don't use Soulburn without my permission, okay?"
"I know. Using it once caused me to sleep for so long. I don't want to go back to the necklace again." After all, Tianming would stroke it nonstop if that ever happened again.
"Ahem!" Tianming cleared his throat and the awkwardness in the air in one go. Feiling had played around for a couple of hours, and seeing Tianming still trying to figure out Heavenly Will, she had him bring her out of the mausoleum to see Qingyu. Meanwhile, Tianming sat back down with the sword on his crossed legs.
He felt the patterns on the sword. There were reliefs of mountains and rivers on the black handle of the sword. The edges of the blade itself, however, were gold and intricate. Once touched, it felt like it contained endless power and mystery.
"It isn't as nice to touch as Ling'er's Love. Damn, what am I thinking?" He really wanted to slap himself. What was he thinking when he should be trying to comprehend the Heavenly Will stage?
"The heavenly patterns on the Grand-Orient Sword aren't saintly heavenly patterns." Given his stage, he could only faintly feel the patterns. It was as if they had morphed into the mountains, rivers, sun, moon, and stars. With both of his eyes closed, he continued sensing the mysteries of the sword, within which his blood flowed. When he touched it, they resonated with each other. It no longer felt like a sword, but a majestic beast.
Feeling the resonance, Tianming said, "Are you trying to tell me something? It's too bad I can't see through you.” A thought suddenly occurred to him. “By the way, I wonder if my Insightful Eye can be used to observe heavenly patterns?"
Without further ado, he opened his third eye and focused it on the sword. As expected, it was able to see through the fog straight to the source and essence.
While it initially didn't seem different from observing with his own eyes, he was a patient man. It didn't take long before the Insightful Eye showed him something different. The faint illusions of nature and astral bodies now seemed real to him. The mountains and rivers stretched endlessly, and the sun, moon, and stars dotted the skies.
He felt like he was in a limitless world, which was quite shocking indeed. The world in his eye morphed nonstop, as if he had stepped into a new world path. Everything before him was colored black and gold. The speed of his advance gradually increased until he emerged out of a primordial-like world.
All of a sudden, five grand gates appeared before him. They seemed to tower into the skies with limitless height. The two on the left were light gold and dark gold respectively, while the two on the right were grey and pitch black. The one right in the center was a colorless gate that almost seemed like it didn't exist. However, it only took a glance for him to spot it.
"Where is this?" All he had done was observe the sword using his Insightful Eye. How did he even arrive here?
"I don't know, but one of the doors is opening!" Ying Huo suddenly said.
"You guys can see this?" He recalled they were within the lifebound space.
"There's a projection on the Prime Tower," said the black cat.
"I didn't think it could do that." It was as if Tianming had entered the world within the Grand-Orient Sword. He didn't think the Prime Tower would be able to show his pals what he saw as well. The two critters sat before the tower, completely relaxed as if they were watching a movie.
Beside them, a blue and brown egg began bouncing over. As it approached, the lifebound space itself seemed to shake from its sheer weight. Nine more dragon-shaped cracks could be seen on it.
The people of Vermillion Bird called these sacred dragon patterns. Most objects with these patterns were considered to be prestigious and grand. The beast was probably matured to some degree within the egg. Now, all it needed to be born was for the hatching condition to be met. Even then, Tianming still didn't know what kind of beast it was.
"Go away," Ying Huo said as it kicked the third egg with its claw.
"Chicken bro! Why bully our younger brother?" the black cat snapped.
"I know a feisty one when I see one. It needs to be brought in line with some punishment before it grows too powerful to beat up."
"Makes sense!"
"Quick! Our mount's approaching the gate!" Ying Huo said, pointing with its wings. It couldn't help but recall its high-grade mount, Mu Wan. Riding her was truly a blissful experience indeed.
Tianming saw that four of the five gates were closed, but the leftmost light gold one was cracked open just a slight bit. Now, he was standing right before the gate.
"I wonder what’s beyond this gate." The moment he peered through the crack, he saw another boundless world, and beyond that was nothing but a single continent-sized black and gold vortex. The black and gold energy flows melded together at the center of the vortex.
"This feels like the Grand-Orient Vortex that formed in my body when I held the Grand-Orient Sword." Tianming had named the phenomenon himself; he didn't actually know what it was called.
"I can't enter!" he said after trying. All he could do was peer through the gate, but couldn’t take a single step in.
He turned to the other four gates.
"Does this mean that these four gates are only representations of the five blessings of the Grand-Orient Sword? That means I've already unlocked the first blessing of the sword. When I wield it, the black and gold energy will be present in my body. While this energy is limitless, how much I can use depends on my level. I wonder what other blessings the four gates will confer...." It seemed the sword was far more mysterious than he had initially thought.
"I've only unlocked the light gold gate for now. There's still the dark gold one, the black and grey ones, and the colorless one at the center. Dark gold should be stronger than light gold, right? And the black and grey ones should contain some different blessing entirely. Perhaps the colorless gate at the center is the essence of the sword. Not to mention, I have the Prime Tower too. It's a shame I’m not too well informed about it."
He wanted to ponder on Prime Tower's mysteries, but it kept hiding within his lifebound space and wouldn’t come out. Fortunately, Ying Huo and the rest could still try comprehending it as the tower allowed them to enter, for some reason. In other words, Tianming was responsible for dealing with the sword, while his lifebound beasts were responsible for the tower.
"I haven't heard others talk about these five gates before. I guess nobody has been able to truly unlock the sword's true blessings other than me. I wonder if the founding ancestor used the Grand-Orient Vortex before...."
While he was right in front of Li Shenxiao's tomb, he couldn't exactly excavate his remains and ask him about it. What he was considering now was how he could open the other four doors. Right as he was pondering, he suddenly saw many gold heavenly patterns on the gate. The light gold patterns seemed to swirl around the gate itself.
"I’ve heard of yellow heavenly patterns, but not gold! These gold patterns are definitely not the same. I feel like they're even more mysterious than saintly heavenly patterns!"
Tianming narrowed his eyes at the sight. His horizons had been expanded by exploring the sword. He didn't think there would be more colors apart from the standard seven. Using the Insightful Eye, he examined the gold heavenly patterns. The moment he pressed his left palm against the gate, the patterns surged toward his body. At that moment, he glimpsed the Heavenly Will stage.
Unlike when he touched the sword, he now felt each of the patterns guiding him toward the true path of heavenly patterns and heavenly will. Normal people could only try comprehending the Heavenly Will stage using patterns on spirit ores, yet Tianming seemed to have it directly downloaded to his mind. In a flash, the boundless Heavenly Will stage opened up before him.
Within the wide expanse, he came to understand one thing: comprehending heavenly patterns was the only way to open the other gates. Only then could he make new patterns appear on those gates. Eventually, he would be able to open the colorless gate at the center.
Heavenly patterns belonged to the world, but his heavenly will belonged to himself! Comprehending the Heavenly Will stage was the true start of his path of comprehending the world.