Before Feng Yunwuji could set foot on the Southern Ascension and Northern Dipper Mountains, a public announcement changed his mind about meeting the Purple Sovereign.
The announcement, issued by members of the Purple Sovereign's libertarian faction, declared:"Sword Emperor Feng Yunwuji has founded the Sword Domain. In response, the Sect Master of Southern Ascension and Northern Dipper, the Purple Sovereign, extends his congratulations on behalf of all sect disciples. Furthermore, any faction showing hostility or ill intent toward the Sword Domain shall be regarded as an enemy of Southern Ascension and Northern Dipper."
The Purple Sovereign continued:"I am willing to form an alliance with the Sword Domain and have dispatched an envoy to the Sword Pavilion. I await the Sword Emperor's response."
Upon receiving this message, Feng Yunwuji immediately returned to the Sword Pavilion. The Purple Sovereign's position was crystal clear: he was open to an alliance with the Sword Domain but had no intention of joining it. Given the strength and independence of both the Purple Sovereign and his sect, this stance was entirely expected and within Feng Yunwuji's calculations.
What he hadn't expected, however, was that before he could even make the trip, the Purple Sovereign had already sent a disciple to personally deliver his congratulations.
Despite the alliance, Feng Yunwuji couldn't help feeling a pang of disappointment. Had the thousands of disciples from Southern Ascension and Northern Dipper joined the Sword Domain, its power would have surged dramatically. It still might not have rivaled the Four Realms, but the gap would have narrowed significantly.
The envoy was a young woman named Ming'er, whose smile bloomed like a flower. Yet throughout their conversation, she observed Feng Yunwuji with an odd, probing gaze—one that made him instinctively uneasy, as though his every secret were laid bare beneath her eyes.
That intuition wasn't far from the truth. In the Purple Sovereign's ascended realm, there existed a rare ability called Intent Domain. Ming'er had mastered a particularly peculiar form of it—one that allowed her to replicate the abilities of others on equal footing. Her mission to the Sword Pavilion had layers of intent beneath its surface.
Though strikingly beautiful, Ming'er's presence made Feng Yunwuji uncomfortable. After a brief and courteous exchange to affirm their alliance, he excused himself and left her in the care of Chi Shang, while he retreated to the third level of the Sword Pavilion.
Before leaving, Ming'er cast a curious glance at his retreating figure. After a short chat with Chi Shang, she found a reason to depart. Before doing so, she left behind a slender, flame-red longsword named Scarlet Dawn, ranked among the Ten Divine Weapons, as a token of alliance for the Sword Emperor.
Feng Yunwuji already possessed the Fifth Sword Soul, which he had refined to the point where blade and flesh were one—able to shift between softness and steel. It was the perfect weapon for him, making Scarlet Dawn unnecessary. He thus gifted the sword to Chi Shang.
For a swordsman, a great sword is worth more than life itself. Chi Shang was overjoyed at the unexpected gift.
After joining the Sword Domain, all members had selected martial arts techniques from the Holy Temple's collection and had been training relentlessly since their ascension. Their diligence only intensified once they became part of the Sword Domain.
During the campaign to hunt the Night Clan, Feng Yunwuji came to realize the immense power of Sword Formations—when used properly, they could defeat opponents far stronger than the wielder. Sword formations had existed before ascension among various sects, but the Sword Pavilion's overall strength remained too weak. Even after four hundred years of cultivation, they still lagged behind other ancient masters.
The Pavilion's members hailed from many different sects and realms. While twenty years of bloody conflict in the martial world had led to the loss of many advanced techniques, sword formations—being unrelated to individual cultivation—had survived better than most.
Feng Yunwuji gathered all members and ordered them to submit written versions of the sword formation techniques and incantations from their former sects. Having dueled countless experts before his ascension, he was already familiar with many unique sword formations.
Combining the submitted materials with his own insights, and drawing on the principles of natural law, the Five Elements, and the Eight Trigrams, Feng Yunwuji immersed himself for more than ten days in deep contemplation. At last, he created a formidable new formation: the Mahā Sword Array.
After drafting the formation diagrams, incantations, and corresponding sword techniques, he handed them over to Chi Shang. With his natural leadership and keen attention to detail, Chi Shang quickly began organizing rehearsals among the Sword Pavilion warriors.
From among them, Feng Yunwuji selected seven gifted individuals to serve as his personal guard, naming them the Seven Servants of the Sword Pavilion, titled Sword One through Sword Seven.
In a single night, he used a refined version of the Star-Absorbing Art to reverse-transmit his own internal energy to them, gifting each one the equivalent of 500,000 years of cultivation.
While this amount was only a small fraction of Feng Yunwuji's over twenty million years of accumulated power, for these newly ascended swordsmen—who had only cultivated for about four hundred years—the boost was indescribably euphoric.
He then led them into the mountains, where they practiced tirelessly until their coordination reached perfection and the Mahā Sword Array could be unleashed at full force.
Though the alliance with Southern Ascension and Northern Dipper gave the Sword Domain a foothold, Feng Yunwuji understood that survival ultimately depended on his own strength. The allied sect would not send a single soldier to assist them if the Sword Domain faltered. Should they fail, the Purple Sovereign could simply claim that the Sword Domain lacked the qualifications for an alliance. But if they succeeded, he could equally claim credit for the alliance's role in their survival. Feng Yunwuji had foreseen all of this from the moment the envoy arrived.
Each day, he personally supervised the training of the Mahā Sword Array, while at night he guided internal cultivation. Using his own power to channel and draw in the world's elemental energy, he accelerated the warriors' progress. With Feng Yunwuji's cultivation level, this method drew in qi at a rate even greater than the Spirit Gathering Sword Array of Hidden Valley. The only downside was the tremendous mental strain. Fortunately, his mind had long been trained to superhuman strength through the Mental Sword Body Technique, allowing him to maintain this exhausting work over extended periods.
That evening, Feng Yunwuji once again sat cross-legged atop the Sword Pavilion. Below him, thousands of warriors sat in meditation, cultivating in silence.
Suddenly, a tremor stirred in his heart. His eyes snapped open.
Under the moonlight ahead—countless dark shadows were racing toward them…