“The Paradise Seal is basically a gateway to the Paradisiacal Swordworld! Now that I have transferred your rewards to you, let me introduce you to its intricacies!” The girl named Ganwu Aina tapped her Paradise Seal on Heifeng Jiansui’s seal. Suddenly, the sensation of being sent into an illusion was felt. Without resisting, he opened his eyes to a white world.

“This is the Whitespace, a calming sight which greets a cultivator who enters the Swordworld for the first time. Now I am going to the introduce the areas that newbies are allowed to explore to you… Oh, before we do that, call out status! It will display vital information!”

“Status.” On calling this out, a blue screen flashed into existence.

Name: Heifeng Jiansui

Age: 1 year 6 months

Cultivation: NIL

Status: Gold-level/ Core disciple

Art Specialization: Major- Bloodline and Battle Spirit/ Minor- Auxiliary

Merit Points: 60,000

Virtual Arena Rank – NIL

“Before you ask, the Virtual Arena is one of the only ways for those without cultivation to gain advantages from this Swordworld. I will teach you more about this, but later. To begin with, let me teach you something simple: creating your own domain in this Whitespace.”

“Within this Whitespace, you can freely change an area of 1000 sq. ft. to your liking with your imagination. This will be your own domain. With a merit points, you can keep on increasing the size of your domain indefinite. In this domain, you can create basic refining forges, alchemy rooms and formation arrays and you can upgrade them with merit points! This is a virtual world with no risk of permanent injury or death, so you can practice forbidden techniques or retrofit techniques to squeeze more power out of them.”

“Also, by paying merit points, you can accelerate time for additional training! You can also produce training implements like beasts for training your sword arts on, gravity chambers to temper the body, illusions to temper the mind, etc. This might not be too useful to you who has not begun cultivation, but for those who have, this space is a godsend!” After finishing her explanation, she took out a small booklet and gave it to Heifeng Jiansui.

“This booklet contains the command words like ‘Status’ which will allow you to freely roam the Paradisiacal Swordworld. Carefully memorize them. Without these command words, you cannot ever venture out of the Whitespace.” Hearing this, Heifeng Jiansui carefully read the booklet memorizing everything.

“Now, other than the Virtual Arena, only the Mission Hall, Scripture Hall, Treasure Hall and the Swordheart Palace remain. Among them, you are prohibited from accessing the Swordheart Palace, so let’s go to the Mission Palace!” Grasping Heifeng Jiansui’s hands, Ganwu Aina muttered, “Transport: Mission Hall.”

Both of them teleported together into a new space. With a red carpet covering the ground, there were 8 towering steles on which various missions were engraved. In the middle of the steles was an old man nodding off in a rocking chair.

“These steles denote the 8 mission ranks: E, D, C, B, A, S, P (Prohibited) and R (Restricted). According to the art specializations you have chosen, you can choose appropriate missions and gain merit points for rewards! As for that sleeping old man, if you have a mission you want to assign to the cultivators of the sect, you can wake him up.”

Just as Heifeng Jiansui thought of having a look at the missions, the girl guiding him grabbed his hand. “Transport: Scripture Hall.”

The scene was of a great library. Shelves and shelves of books covered a large area, and they seemed to cover all visible space. Like before, there was a single old man sleeping on a chair. “This Scripture Hall contains a truly boundless amount of books, manuals and scriptures. You can exchange manuals for merit points. Of course, some basic foundation manuals and core cultivation arts are free. Also, if you have written a manual, you can have the old man inspect it. I have heard that you can get a ridiculous amount of merit points as long as it is not a fabrication or a useless technique!”

“I suppose the Treasure Hall’s function is evident by its name… If you want to buy a treasure, get it here. You can also sell treasures here. If it’s a sufficiently unique treasure, the Treasure Hall will buy it at a exorbitant price!”

“Since you cannot access the Swordheart Palace, it would be useless for me to speak about it. Experience it yourself when you have the right too… Now to save the best for last, the Virtual Arena!” A smirk suddenly split her face.

“Let me give you some advice… The virtual avatar created in the Paradisiacal Swordworld is on the peak Body Refining level. The sooner you adapt to the avatar, the quicker your battle prowess will reach that of a true peak Body Refining level." Saying this, she fished out her Sword Seal.

“I Ganwu Aina challenge you to battle!” Pointing her Platinum Paradise Seal at Heifeng Jiansui, she proclaimed. Suddenly, the sword-seal hidden in Heifeng Jiansui’s pocket started vibrating. Withdrawing it, he mirrored Aina’s stance, yelling “I accept!”.

Sword intent resonated as the vast library surrounding them morphed into a battlefield! An invisible sword intent bound both of them as the world around them transformed and the cold wind of death swept past! The two seals turned into sharp swords and returned to their owner’s hands.

“Battle Commence!” A cold female voice echoed out as Heifeng Jiansui and Ganwu Aina were freed from the sword intent holding them.

+++

Draw, slash, stab, parry, counter, cleave, crush, break! After a long time, Heifeng Jiansui unleashed his peerless sword arts on an opponent! Ganwu Aina strained herself to block his attacks, but the stream of sword strikes flowed on ceaselessly, building up greater strength and momentum with every blow!

‘There isn’t a hint of True Qi in his strikes and this sword technique is only the Foundation layer of the Quintessence Sword codex, a sword technique useful to only mortals! The only reason I am able to block his strikes is due to my training the Quintessence Sword codex for a decade! But if I keep defending, it won’t be long until he breaks through it!’ Aina began to use a footwork technique to retreat, bolstering it with her True Qi to increase the distance between them. Heifeng Jiansui had built up enough momentum that any attempts to attack with True Qi would turn into fatal openings for her!

Would Heifeng Jiansui allow her to escape just like that, wasting the momentum built up? Of course not!

“Quintessence Sword First Layer, Final Art: Sword Flies Through 9 Palaces!” With a single throw, the sword in his hands flew through the air, piercing straight towards her chest!

Seeing the sword flying towards her, Ganwu Aina immediately stopped her retreat. No matter how fast she ran, she could not escape the flying sword! Decisively, she held her sword in a defensive stance.

“Quintessence Sword Second Layer, Third Art: Sword like Mountain!”

“Boom!” A rumble shook through the air as swords collided! The final stance of the First Layer boosted with momentum versus the defensive Second Layer stance bolstered with True Qi seemed to be of equal force. Finally, Heifeng Jiansui’s sword was flung away. Aina’s True Qi seemed to be exhausted by her defense, yet she was unscratched.

“I didn’t expect that True Qi can be utilized here… Of course, this battle is being fought with virtual bodies formed by divine sense so this is nothing new, I suppose…” Heifeng Jiansui calmly watched Aina recover as he casually spoke.

“Heifeng Jiansui, while I have exhausted the majority of my True Qi, you have lost your sword and cannot utilize True Qi! I suppose it’s my win…” Saying this, Aina dashed to cut down the unarmed boy. Heifeng Jiansui did not move, calmly awaiting her.

Wordlessly, she swung her sword. In response, Heifeng Jiansui struck out with his fingers. Unexpectedly, the fingers parried the sword away!

Seeing his counter, Aina couldn’t help but freeze. No attempts at defense were made as the fingers once again flashed to strike her bare neck. In the virtual arena, the fall of the girl’s head was like a mannequin’s detached head!

[Congratulations, you have won your first battle!] The emotionless voice rang out announcing his victory. At the same time, more messages were red out.

[You have received 10,000 merit points for winning your first battle.]

[You have received 5,000 merit points from #64 Ganwu Aina as victory spoils.]

[You have received 16,000 merit points for defeating a higher rank opponent]

[Virtual Arena Rank – Swordless #64]