As the words fell, Loren's figure faded from Jiang Lin's sight like melting snow.
There was no spatial fluctuation, no afterimage; he simply vanished into the auroras and wind, as if he had never existed at all.
Only the crystal book hovering in mid-air and the ancient sword "Frostblade" stuck in the center of the ice platform proved that what had just occurred was not an illusion.
Jiang Lin took a deep breath, the frigid air rushing into his lungs and bracing his spirit.
He stepped forward and reached out to touch the crystal book.
The pages felt ice-cold, yet not bone-piercing; instead, they had a warm, jade-like texture.
The moment his fingers brushed the pages, the text and patterns within seemed to come alive, transforming into countless streaks of ice-blue light that flowed through his fingertips and into his mind.
In an instant, a massive influx of information exploded within Jiang Lin's consciousness:
There were nine styles of sword techniques in total, each accompanied by detailed cultivation methods, sword intent circulation routes, energy guidance techniques, and dozens of vivid, dynamic sword move illustrations.
Those illustrations were not simple static drawings but unfolded in Jiang Lin's mind like holographic images, demonstrating every detail and change of each sword technique.
The sheer volume of information was suffocating.
Jiang Lin closed his eyes and spent a full two hours merely digesting and organizing this stream of data.
However, he was still a long way from true understanding.
This information had merely been branded onto his mind, allowing him to review it at any time.
Yet, Jiang Lin could clearly feel that if he did not work hard to cultivate, these memories would quickly fade away.
After catching his breath in place for a while, Jiang Lin looked at Little Black.
He gave it a look that implied it understood.
Seeing this, Little Black rolled its eyes and reached out to touch the sword technique known as the 【Ice Flower Nine Styles】.
A few minutes later, Little Black opened its eyes, and its voice rang directly in Jiang Lin's mind:
"Analysis complete. This set of sword techniques is quite interesting; the complete version should touch upon the level of domains..."
Jiang Lin sat cross-legged on the ice platform, listening intently as Little Black explained.
For the entire day that followed, Little Black broke down the 【Ice Flower Nine Styles】 from the general outline to the essence of each style, the methods of exerting force, the trajectories of energy circulation, and the core of the intent, explaining them to Jiang Lin in simple, accessible terms.
Jiang Lin's swordsmanship talent had already been significantly improved, and he had the foundation of the 【Phantom Step · Shadow Wind】, a half-step king-tier skill.
Therefore, his speed of comprehension was not slow.
In fact, given some time, Jiang Lin would have been able to understand and master this skill on his own.
But in terms of efficiency, it was far inferior to Little Black's direct explanation.
After a day and a night passed, when the auroras once again blanketed the dark blue sky, Jiang Lin had already digested seventy to eighty percent of the theoretical portion of the 【Ice Flower Nine Styles】.
"That's about it. The theory is understood; the rest is practice and insight."
Jiang Lin thanked Little Black, then stood up and walked to a more spacious side of the ice platform.
He closed his eyes and carefully reflected on the first style of the 【Ice Flower Nine Styles】, "Frost Condensation."
The first style, "Frost Condensation," emphasized that the sword should strike like frost, with the cold aura restrained, the speed extreme, and the trajectory elusive. The core lay in "concealment," hiding the killing intent within seemingly light and agile sword moves.
He made a grasping motion with his right hand, and the 【Eight Extremities Holy Sword】 condensed in his palm.
This time, the radiance of the blade was more restrained than before, and the ice-blue cold aura winding around the edges of the white-gold blade was more solid, as if it could condense into real ice crystals at any moment.
Following the mental method, he mobilized the egg-sized ice-blue crystal in his dantian.
The crystal vibrated slightly, and a wisp of pure, cold ice-attribute magic essence flowed out along the lung meridian of the hand, gathering at his fingertips.
Then, he began to execute the first style of the 【Ice Flower Nine Styles】 according to the method Little Black had explained.
At first, it was somewhat sluggish, but Jiang Lin was not impatient. The superior control brought by the 【Phantom Step · Shadow Wind】 allowed him to finely adjust the output and circulation of every bit of energy.
Once, twice... ten failures.
But after every failure, he would adjust his approach, combining Little Black's explanations with his own insights.
Finally, after the umpteenth attempt, a faint, almost invisible wisp of ice-blue aura quietly swirled around the tip of his sword.
This aura lacked earth-shattering power, yet it carried a heart-stopping chill, as if it could freeze any life it touched.
With a thought from Jiang Lin, the sword move shifted abruptly.
First style, "Frost Condensation."
The sword light struck out silently like the first wisp of frost on a winter morning.
Fast, fast to the extreme.
There wasn't even a sword shadow left on the ice platform; only a faint cold light flashed, and a sword hole an inch deep appeared on an ice pillar in the distance, with fine frost patterns condensed on the edges of the hole.
First style, successfully initiated!
Following that came the second style, "Ice Prism"...
The third style, "Snow Dance"...
The fourth style, "Cold Current"...
The fifth style, "Ice Seal"...
The sixth style, "Frost Brilliance"...
The seventh style, "Ice Soul"...
The eighth style, "Extreme Cold"...
Until the ninth style, "Eternal Ice Flower"...
Jiang Lin was completely immersed in the cultivation of the sword techniques, forgetting time and fatigue.
On the ice platform, his figure would sometimes stand still like an ice sculpture, carefully contemplating the sword intent, and at other times he would slowly wave his arms, simulating the trajectories of the sword moves, stirring up wisps of cold air.
As he cultivated, the ice-blue crystal in his dantian seemed to become more active, generating a continuous and harmonious resonance with the surrounding environment, which was rich in ice elements.
When Jiang Lin had successfully initiated all nine styles of the 【Ice Flower Nine Styles】 and felt mentally exhausted, preparing to rest for a while, he realized that two days and two nights had passed since the sword saint Loren had left.
In other words, there was only one day and one night left before the sword saint Loren would return to examine the results.
On the ice platform, Jiang Lin put away his sword and stood, slowly exhaling a puff of white air.
Initiation was merely the first step.
The next moment, he brought up the system's 【Random Skill Upgrade】 and clicked it on the 【Ice Flower Nine Styles (Initiated)】.
The scene before him suddenly distorted and faded, finally transforming into a pure, boundless ice field.
The sky was an eternal dark blue, with auroras hanging down like silk ribbons, almost identical to what he had seen at Frostblade Peak, except there was no Loren, no pavilion, only wind, snow, ice, and the eight-colored longsword condensed by intent in his hand.
Then, he began his incredibly familiar practice, over and over again.
The opening, the transition, the closing of every style, the release and retraction of every bit of force, the condensation and diffusion of every wisp of ice-cold sword intent were all etched into his bones through millions of repetitions.
The sword moves went from raw to fluent, from fluent to seamless, and from seamless to... as natural as breathing.
The proficiency of the 【Ice Flower Nine Styles】 continued to rise, and he applied it to his own 【Eight Extremities Holy Sword】.
With a single strike, the eight-colored brilliance was restrained like the dawn, while the ice-blue cold aura wound around the sword body like a physical entity; wherever it passed, even time seemed to be frozen for an instant.
But this had only reached the perfect level; there was still a distance to go before reaching the superlative realm.
After countless years of practice—he did not know how long—Jiang Lin no longer restricted himself to the fixed nine styles.
The sword moved with his intent, and the intent was born from his heart.
The ice-cold sword intent was no longer just attached to the sword moves but had become an extension of his will.
With a slight shift of his mind, ice pillars ten zhang away shattered silently; wherever his gaze landed, falling snowflakes condensed into sword qi and spiraled upward.
The "form" of the 【Ice Flower Nine Styles】 had faded, but its "spirit" had permeated every inch of his sword dao insights.
After countless more years passed, Jiang Lin stood quietly in the center of the ice field, swordless in hand, yet surrounded by visible ice-blue air currents.
Those currents would sometimes swirl like swimming dragons, sometimes bloom like frost brilliance, and sometimes condense into countless fine ice needles suspended in the air, gathering and scattering at the pointing of his will.
The 【Ice Flower Nine Styles】 had been pushed to the "superlative" realm.
【Ice Flower Nine Styles (Initiated) → (Superlative)】
The scene shattered, and Jiang Lin returned to the ice platform.
In the outside world, only a blink of an eye had passed.
He clenched his fist, feeling the surging holy light magic essence within him that was perfectly fused with the ice-cold sword intent, as well as the ice-blue crystal in his dantian that seemed to have condensed a bit more.
But this was still far from enough!
Jiang Lin's eyes were calm.
Reaching the superlative realm with a super-tier skill was a state that ordinary people could hardly reach even with a hundred years of bitter practice.
But Jiang Lin's pursuit could naturally not be so low.
He wanted this set of sword techniques to be completely transformed into something that belonged entirely to himself.
Although the 【Ice Flower Nine Styles】 was originally a king-tier skill, which theoretically should have required thirty-two 【Designated Skill Upgrades】, after Loren's adjustments and castration, its strength was only at the level of a super-tier skill.
Therefore, the system showed sixteen upgrade points.
Subsequently, he exchanged thirty-two 【Random Skill Upgrades】 for sixteen 【Designated Skill Upgrades】 and clicked them.
The next moment, countless memories flooded into his mind again.
This time, the "little black room" was more realistic and longer than ever before.
The ice field was boundless, and time seemed to have lost its meaning.
Jiang Lin stood in the wind and snow; the sword in his hand was no longer condensed from eight-colored brilliance but gradually transformed into a pure ice-blue phantom.
He no longer stuck to the moves but dismantled, reorganized, fused, and even reverse-engineered the nine styles of sword techniques.
The chill of the first style, "Frost Condensation," was integrated into the domain of the eighth style, "Extreme Cold."
The sharpness of the second style, "Ice Prism," intertwined with the soul-freezing effect of the seventh style, "Ice Soul."
The agility of the third style, "Snow Dance," became the trajectory of the ninth style, "Eternal Ice Flower"...
Millions of sword swings, billions of insights.
The ice-cold sword intent gradually shifted from "attached to the sword" to "the sword is me, and I am the sword."
In the end, with every move he made, the wind and snow could serve as his sword; wherever his gaze landed, ice crystals would naturally form a sword array.
At a certain moment, he suddenly stopped.
The phantom sword he held in his hand dissipated, replaced by the chill of the entire ice field gathering toward him.
A thoughtful expression appeared in his eyes.
"So that's how it is..."
Jiang Lin said softly.
As the words fell, the entire ice field suddenly collapsed, transforming into countless ice-blue light spots that flowed into his body.
【Ice Flower Nine Styles (Superlative) → (Limit-broken)】
Jiang Lin opened his eyes and exhaled a puff of white air; the air condensed the moment it left his mouth, actually forming a tiny ice-crystal lotus flower in mid-air that drifted away slowly.
At the same time, he glanced at the system prompt.
【Ice-attribute affinity increased, swordsmanship talent increased】
Jiang Lin could clearly feel that his affinity with the surrounding ice elements had improved significantly.
This degree of improvement far exceeded the boosts brought by previous high-tier skills.
At the same time, Jiang Lin felt that, in the dark, his perception of the sword in his hand had improved.
It seems that super-tier skills really do provide no small boost to one's own natural endowments.
Jiang Lin pondered in his heart.
However, after the consumption of these past few days, his 【Random Skill Upgrade】 count was running somewhat low.
【Random Skill Upgrade * 3】
It seems I'll have to find a way to get more.
Little Black, sensing the change in Jiang Lin's aura, was already accustomed to it.
After all, this guy could reach an incredible level of proficiency in an instant every time he initiated a skill; it wasn't the first or second time.
At this moment, the sky was gradually brightening.
The auroras were slightly dimming, meaning a new day had arrived.
There was still one full day and night left until the three-day deadline promised by Loren.
Jiang Lin stood quietly on the ice platform for a moment, not continuing to practice his swordsmanship.
The sword dao insights after breaking the limit were already deeply branded into his soul and body, requiring no further reinforcement through repetitive practice.
"If I went to find Senior Loren now, would he be startled?"
Jiang Lin thought to himself.
Subsequently, he stood up to search.
He walked toward the ice-crystal pavilion; the first floor was empty, with only simple stone tables, stone stools, and some storage freezers.
The second floor was a lounge, also empty.
Jiang Lin walked around the area again, even using 【Phantom Step · Shadow Wind】 to sense the energy flow around him, but he could never find any trace of Loren.
Returning to the ice platform, his gaze fell upon the ancient sword "Frostblade" in the center.
A trace of curiosity suddenly arose in Jiang Lin's heart.
What kind of resonance would occur between himself after breaking the limit and this sword?
He stepped forward and grasped the hilt with his right hand.
The touch was ice-cold, yet not bone-piercing; it was a heavy, calm sensation, like the deep sea.
Jiang Lin exerted a little force.
The sword remained motionless.
He was not surprised; instead, he sensed carefully.
What came from the hilt was not resistance, but a kind of "scrutiny," as if this sword possessed spirituality and was judging whether he was qualified to be its wielder.
After several breaths, Jiang Lin let go.
"Sure enough, it's still lacking a bit."
He smiled, not forcing it, and turned to sit cross-legged on the edge of the ice platform.
Since he couldn't find Loren, he would use this time to cultivate his breathing technique.
Senior Loren had said he could go to the pavilion's lounge to rest.
But how could Jiang Lin waste such precious time?
At this very moment, he imagined the students in Clearwater City and Boulder City of the Saintas Kingdom, wondering how many were still staying up late to cultivate because of the storm he had brought about.
As the founding patriarch, how could he engage in the lazy act of resting when there was nothing to do?
Thus, the 【Paladin Breathing Technique】 was naturally utilized.
A faint halo of light appeared around Jiang Lin, intertwining with the falling snowflakes, as if he were a god within an ice sculpture.
Time passed slowly in such tranquil moments.
In the blink of an eye, another day and night passed.
When the auroras once again blanketed the sky, an ice-blue figure appeared silently on the edge of the ice platform.
Loren was still dressed in his long robe, his purple eyes calm, but when he saw the center of the ice platform...
Jiang Lin was not practicing his sword, but sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed, cultivating his breathing technique, and a trace of disappointment flashed extremely quickly through his eyes.
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