Ch.9 - Change of plans

Dalin took a deep breath before extending his arms out to his sides and swiftly bringing them together in a stiff clapping motion.

However, it wasn't a clap sound that rang out but an explosion!

*BOOOM!*

"BEGIN!" Dalin roared due to the strain of controlling his energy that was now running rampant in excitement.

The 1st ring of swords locked in place, then the 2nd, then the 3rd, then 4th, then 5th, then 6th, then 7th, and so on.

Each time a ring locked into place an explosion rang out and Dalin's aura surged!

After all 120 rings of swords were locked in place successively, they shattered into shards of light.

*Crack*

*Crack*

*Shatter!*

Those shards of light began swirling around Dalin and converging into a sword of silver flames!

'Sword Rebirth!'

As this sword was being formed Dalin had countless insights into the way of the sword. From the absolute basics such as slashes, stabs, and flicks. To how to effectively use sword aura and many other things.

'There are many sword paths, these do not refer to the moves that a style has, but the foundation of that style. For example, the emotionless sword path focuses on being emotionless and only pursuing the peak of the sword dao or the art of the sword.' Dalin thought.

'So… What is my sword path?'

As he recalled every moment in his life, one thing became outstandingly clear…

If it was to protect those he cared about or respected, he would go to any length to do so.

He was unrelenting once he chose a path.

'the relentless sword path… That's my path, that's my sword, that's my law, that's me.'

At that instant, the fragments of light finished forming the tip of the sword.

A sword howl shot to the sky, and everyone in the hidden palace heard it. This caused a solemn expression to appear on the grand elder's face 'A sword law seed has been born…'

A seed formed itself inside Dalin's heart, this is the law seed of the relentless sword law!

Dalin took a breath and continued cultivating.

This continued for several months until he finally reached the quasi-gold rank. Dalin decided to call this cultivation session quits here and work on a few techniques. He had the empyrean flame store the remaining energy from the piece of the mortal gale fruit he cut before he stood up and exhaled removing the impurities he absorbed.

Dalin didn't hesitate to begin practicing the 1st step of the 9 mortal steps in the end after around a month of effort he got it to complete mastery before moving onto the mortal palm, mortal fist, etc.

Once that was done Dalin decided it was time to practice runes again. He also made the gate to Yin Yang Empyrean Heaven decelerate time quite a bit since he didn't want to spend too long on them. Now a minute was a second outside.

The phoenix empress helped guide Dalin since she was a sky grade tier 3 profound runemaster. What this means is she has at least learned 25 tier 3 runes to greater mastery.

Under her guidance Dalin actually truly mastered 6 tier 0 profound runes in just 6 hours, that was 2 times the number of runes in the same amount of time as before.

Originally Dalin was just trying to replicate the spiritual runes without looking at them and seeing what they do, but after the phoenix empress explained the importance of understanding spiritual runes, Dalin started paying attention.

After a few more hours, Dalin was able to find similarities in the spiritual rune composition in many of the tier 0 runes he mastered.

After a little more studying he figured out what did what.

So he decided to give improvising a tier 0 rune a try. He didn't call it creating a tier 0 rune cause he wasn't narcissistic enough to think someone hasn't made such a rune before.

Sure enough, after a little experimentation, he managed to create a lightning rune!

The phoenix empress smiled at this. She could see that once Dalin got into the flow of things, he became genuinely interested in it.

"If you want, I can teach you more." She said with a smile.

Dalin nodded "I feel attracted to runes for some reason, just the idea of experimenting to create various runes sounds fun."

She chuckled "You say that now, but when you start experimenting with tier 1 runes theirs a risk they might explode on you."

Dalin laughed.

The 2 continued joking for a bit before Dalin went back to practicing more runes. After he found the patterns in creating profound runes and learned to identify more and more spiritual runes, it became easier to master more and more runes. Soon enough he had mastered over 100 tier 0 runes.

"Do you want to try making an array from tier 0 runes?" She asked.

Dalin was hesitant… Runes could be drawn from his energy rather quickly but an array required a bit of time.

In the end, Dalin shook his head.

"For now I want to focus on just runes."

She nodded. With that she got back to teaching him some more tier 0 runes, in the end, Dalin was able to improvise his first tier 1 rune just from what he learned from tier 0 runes!

*Clap!*

A crimson thunderbolt was emitted from the rune that was drawn in the air creating a small explosion when it impacted the wall causing the room to tremble a bit.

Dalin smiled. The power of that thunderbolt could kill an ordinary intermediate bronze rank if not heavily injure one.

Furthermore, that was using diluted energy from his empyrean pond as its core. If he was to not dilute his energy and use his current energy as the core of it… It could probably heavily injure a titanium rank.

Furthermore, that was with a lesser tier 1 rune!

He might be able to kill a titanium rank in one shot with a greater tier 1 rune!

Maybe he could even fatally injure a quasi-warrior realm with a true tier 1 rune.

The phoenix empress shuddered… 'If he uses a flame element rune and enhances it by using a small fragment of the empyrean flame as its core… It might be able to kill a mid-level warrior if they're taken by surprise! As for this lightning rune, because it's partially made of the flame element, it can be enhanced by the empyrean flame too…'

She had chills down her spine. 'The flame empyrean is much more terrifying than legends say…'

Like this Dalin learned various tier 0 and tier 1 runes, during which he kept analyzing spiritual runes and coming up with new crazy ideas.

In the end, Dalin practiced for a couple of months, during which he became a mortal grade tier 3 runemaster, learning 5 tier 3 runes to lesser mastery.

Dalin would leave these 5 runes as trump cards, he wouldn't casually use them in battle. They required a lot of energy and a bit of time to cast considering they were made of over 25 spiritual runes each.

Dalin took a deep breath.

He deactivated the temporal acceleration effect of heavens gate.

He looked at the phoenix empress, more precisely her clone.

"You should go back to empyrean heaven. I'm also gonna take some time to rest."

She nodded, her gaze had become a lot more gentle than when she first met him, she had learned a lot about him.

She left through the gate giving one last glance at him before the gate closed and disappeared.

Dalin collapsed on the ground a moment later and closed his eyes, falling asleep.

Shortly after he fell asleep, a clone of Animus's appeared silently. She had a gentle smile on her face as she sat on the ground next to him looking at him sleep.

She disappeared a moment later.

Morning came and Dalin woke up.

He yawned before creating a few tier 0 runes to wash before drying himself. After that, he deactivated the temporal formation signifying he was done cultivating. The Grand Elder appeared a moment later. She frowned feeling he was just at the quasi-gold rank.

A moment later though, Dalin revealed his deep aura. Of course, he was still holding back quite a bit of his aura, because right now his full aura could put a quasi-titanium rank to shame. He had to keep some of his trump cards hidden.

"I stored the rest for later. I don't want my foundation to be lacking." He explained to which she nodded in understanding. Although she said the fruit wouldn't have side effects, that was only on the surface, if one ascends too fast their 'foundation' might be a little shaky from not being able to adjust to their new strength given how it rose too quickly.

"Come, let me brief you on the way to the square." She said to which Dalin nodded.

"The Ye Clan has 12 pinnacle quasi heroes in the lower layer while we have 30 quasi heroes of varying levels." She explained to which Dalin nodded.

"Your goal will be to take care of some of the lower-level opponents, those in the embryo realm." She explained.

"Preferably those at the gold rank or above since those take up the majority of the Ye clan's embryo realm forces."

"They have 12 geniuses at the gold rank, their 12 young masters and young misses, these are the 12 you will be occupying, of course, you won't be alone, we will have a couple of orichalcum ranks on standby if you're in a pinch but they will also be busy with others. If you can keep those 12 busy, we can take care of the rest of the Ye clan." She continued.

Dalin frowned.

"Do you blame me for her death, is that why you're making me have the hardest job with the highest risk of death?" Dalin asked solemnly.

The Grand Elder turned around and faced him with a cold gaze.

"No, I don't blame you, if I wanted to kill you I could have done so myself." She spoke coldly.

Dalin shook his head "No, you really couldn't, you're worried I have someone behind me. People like me don't usually come from just nowhere."

Her frown deepened, this man was really intelligent… too intelligent.

"You killed her, didn't you." She asked coldly.

Dalin shook his head sighing.

"No, I didn't." Dalin said shrugging.

Her eyes narrowed as she sent a palm out.

Suddenly a 3rd tier profound rune appeared and blasted her back a couple of meters.

He had made this rune secretly before he even deactivated the temporal formation.

Her eyes narrowed at the sight of it.

"A 3rd tier profound rune, you're a runemaster!"

Dalin nodded. "So what if I am, doesn't change the fact you think I killed her, right?"

She nodded.

Dalin sighed and he snapped his fingers. There are 2 reasons why he didn't just stop speaking after she spoke coldly a moment ago. For starters, there was a possibility he was damned if he does kill those 12 and damned if he doesn't. She would kill him after the battle anyways if he won against those 12. Especially if he won against those 12 since it proved his talent wasn't low or he would be killed by those 12.

When he snapped his fingers a sword of silver flames was made from thin air he grabbed it and a sword howl shot to the sky.

"I didn't kill her, in fact, have you even checked her soul lamp?"

Her eyes widened.

"S-S-She's…"

Dalin nodded "Originally I intended to run with her since she didn't want to come back, but then I had a thought… Why not get another power behind me? If I was to make significant contributions in a war between you and one of your enemies it would have made us great friends, right?"

She nodded slowly.

"So… You faked her death?"

Dalin nodded, he decided to let the cat out of the bag to at least try to salvage the situation. Was it a risky and dumb move, yes. But he still wanted to try it.

"How? There was even death aura and death essence!"

Dalin shrugged "Anyone who's experienced rebirth enough times can replicate death aura and death essence."

Her eyes narrowed.

"You're… You're a reincarnation of a supreme expert?" She asked.

Dalin nodded "Your aware that above the mortal order of cultivation is the earth order right?"

She nodded.

"After that is the sky order, heavenly order, divine order, saint order, and the immortal order. I don't know anything beyond that. I don't even know of the realms in the sky order or beyond." She said calming down.

Dalin nodded.

"In the sky order, theirs a realm called the rebirth realm, one must reincarnate 10 times to complete it. It's also a chance for experts to reforge their foundations. I comprehended the law of death on my 3rd rebirth." Dalin explained. Of course, once again, he was bluffing. Of course, the rebirth realm did exist, and one did indeed have to reincarnate 10 times to complete it.

The best lie is one made partly of truth!

She slowly nodded.

"So… We almost went to war… because of you?" She asked slightly coldly realizing she almost lost children for nothing.

Dalin shrugged "The Ye clan is your biggest enemy anyways, is it not?"

She was livid, to say the least, but a small voice kept telling her 'Don't kill him, only he knows where Sarah is!' rang inside her head.

"Where's Sarah?" She asked coldly.

Dalin shrugged. He really didn't know exactly where the yin yang empyrean heaven realm was.

She suddenly moved to clamp her hand on his throat.

"Where! Is! She!"

Dalin just looked her in the eyes with a ridiculing expression. He wasn't afraid of death! He already lost his life once! So, what's the problem if he dies a 2nd time! Even though he might really die this time, he didn't care. He was happy to at least be able to become a true empyrean for a short while!

Furthermore, if he died, then she really wouldn't be able to find Sarah.

When the Grand Elder stared into his eyes she didn't see any fear, only ridicule. This horrified her deep down… 'How could he not be afraid of death? Could he really be the reincarnation of some expert?'

She loosed her grip allowing him to breathe. "Answer me, where is she?"

Dalin chuckled. "She doesn't want to see you, or anyone from the hidden palace for that matter."

"Is this about her coming of age sterilization?" She asked coldly and Dalin nodded.

The Grand Elder was at a loss for words.

"Why? Why would you help a little girl over something so trivial, a senior like you should know how to stay out of worldly affairs…" She muttered. She truly didn't understand. Subconsciously though she started to believe his story about being a rebirth realm expert.

Dalin shrugged "I follow my heart, although it's landed me in a lot of trouble it's also brought me friends, allies, comrades, brothers, and sisters. I admit, my plan was rather stupid and co- would have gotten people killed. But what matters to me is I'm following my heart." Dalin explained.

She sighed. She was truly lost right now.

"Fine… Just leave before I change my mind… You are not welcome here anymore… Tell Sarah she can come back if she wants, I'll exempt the sterilization seal from her…"

Dalin just shrugged and activated the 1st mortal step at lesser mastery creating faint after images in the eyes of embryo realm experts as he dashed across the land through the forest heading towards the west. He was heading towards a city that Sarah had told him about.

...

A/N: Day 8 everyone, I know this seems sudden but I have a reason which will be explained in the future! Furthermore, our MC doesn't get off scot-free from this incident in the future either. As usual, power stones, comments, collections, and reviews are appreciated!

Also, a friendly reminder, if we get 3 reviews before day 10, I'll publish 2 chapters on day 10 instead of the usual single chapter! We currently have 1 review from Crowny_66 so we just need 2 more! Theirs at least 500 people who read this book a day, so you can do it!

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