Chapter 165 - The Sword Eye (2/2)

He chuckled in excitement and all of a sudden, the heavy fog that filled his mind and thoughts lifted as his doubts and questions found their answers!

The old geezer then finally voiced out in praise, "Disciple of the Zhong Shan Clan, you may not be very talented, but the gift you have in your intelligence is truly astonishing. In such a short period of time, you were able to see through the crux of the reverse opening of the five realms, a method far quicker than the one I used. Reverse opening of the five realms ... it requires an incredibly overbearing power. Ages back then, the ancestor of the Feng Clan was impressively talented. At the age of twelve, his forehead bulged up abruptly, and he tried everything he could to rid himself of it but failed to do so whatever method he tried. Soon, it turned into an eye socket, upon which, the third eye grew."

Zhong Yue's heart shifted and he exclaimed out, "The third eye? The third eye emerged on its own?"

His heart was shuddering in shock, the third eye was undoubtedly the divine third eye of the Fuxi Celestial Race!

The divine third eye of the first headmaster had emerged on its own at the age of twelve, which meant that the Fuxi lineage within him was about the same density as Zhong Yue's was now!

This was the racial talent, the first headmaster awakened the racial talent on his own due to the thick bloodline that inherently coursed through his veins!

Zhong Yue could only evoke the divine third eye through the arduous distillation of the bloodline with the assistance of the beast god inner core. Meanwhile, the first headmaster's divine eye had emerged on its own — his starting point was higher than Zhong Yue, higher than old geezer and higher than all the other humans!

"Then, his Yuan Shen also had the third eye. Two years later, at the age of fourteen, he opened the five realms in reverse."

The old geezer sighed and said, "He had codified the ways to reverse open the five realms into one of the secret cultivation techniques of Swords Gate that are kept with the highest degree of discretion. The nine-layered totem patterns of the inner structure of his third eye were derived from the sword carvings of the [Great Boundless Sword Qi] one layer after another, hence, is known as the sword eye. The reason why I didn't reverse open the five realms, other than the danger of the endeavor itself, was because I didn't have the third eye. Even though I had cultivated the sword eye into my eyes, they were still incomparable to the third eye."

He opened his eyes as he spoke, his dimmed and blurred eyes turned bright and bursting of vitality. Nine layers of totem patterns emerged in his eyes that formed concentric circles over one another, each of them in constant independent revolution!

"Although I've cultivated a pair of sword eyes, the success rate was still too low, not even ten percent. I dare not do it, and hence, I didn't."

Old geezer's weather-beaten face dimmed, he sighed and said, "If only I had tried to reverse open the five realms, I might not be venerated as the Sword God, but rather, I would truly be the God of the Sword. Even after my death, my godly spirit would still guard the Swords Gate, and I wouldn't have so many things that I couldn't let go off. What a shame, the third eye was a flash in the pan; tens of thousands of years passed and it had only emerged once in the Feng Clan. With the third eye, the success rate of reverse opening the realms would greatly increase…."

Zhong Yue hesitated for a second, then he said, "Headmaster, please take a look at my forehead."

Old geezer was puzzled, he cast his gaze over as requested, and he could see that there was a golden willow leaf-shaped mark on his forehead. Looking more carefully at it, there was a fine crevice at the middle of the mark.

Zhong Yue closed his eyes, and slowly, the golden willow leaf-shaped mark started to split open at the middle, unveiling an eye that shone with godly rays beneath.

"You…."

The old geezer was shocked, he grabbed onto him and exclaimed, "You've awakened the third eye too? When did it happened? Nice, nice! I've planned to let you cultivate the sword eyes into your eyes just like me, but like I said before, the success rate of succeeding in the reverse opening method would still be remote. Without me constantly by your side, the probability of you dying is too high! Thankfully you've awakened the third eye, the success rate is now very much higher!"

Zhong Yue was unable to contain his joy, he quickly blurted out, "Headmaster, how high is the success rate now?"

Old geezer put up a single finger and said ecstatically, "Ten percent!"

Zhong Yue's face immediately darkened, but old geezer continued, "If I'm by your side overlooking, there will be a forty percent success rate! But I can't leave Swords Gate, you can only have Shouzhu overlooking you while you all are on the way to the Xiao Mang in the East Barren, that'll further reduce the success rate by twenty percent, ending up with a success rate of twenty percent."

"Twenty percent, that wasn't too high either…."

Zhong Yue's heart then turned heavy. Suddenly, he heaved a breath and said smilingly, "Twenty percent is not that low, better than nothing. Please, may the headmaster teach me the arts of the sword eye, disciple will reverse open the Dao Yi Realm on the way to East Barren!"

"Disciple of the Zhong Shan Clan, it will be an arduous and precarious journey, you'll have to think twice, or even, thrice!"

"Overcoming hardship and difficulty … isn't that the reason we are born into this world?"

Half a day later, Zhong Yue walked out of the golden summit. Feng Shouzhu gathered all of the Swords Gate inner hall and the hall masters and said, "The Xiao Mang Celestial Race is strong and formidable. They have countless experts, innumerable arts and skills, and are stronger than us of the Swords Gate. This time, there will only be five who will take part in the duels against the Xiao Mang Celestial Race; the other eleven are merely red herring to mislead the Xiao Mang Celestial Race so that they would not know who their opponents would be to prepare beforehand."

The inner hall disciples and hall masters nodded, some of them were well known to the outside world, the skills they cultivate, the weapons they used, the scope of their prowess … none of them were secrets. If the Xiao Mang Celestial Race found out the identity of the Swords Gate's five champions, it would give them ample time and opportunity to prepare and ready themselves accordingly. Hence, the already pitiful chances for Swords Gate's victory would only decrease further.

Feng Shozhu selected sixteen disciples, three of Spirit Nurturing, four of Rebirth, three of Awakening, three of Atman Body, and three of Inner Core.

Among them, the disciples of the Rebirth division numbered the most, other than Zhong Yue, there was Qiu Jin'er, 'Shui Qingyan' and Yu Zhengshu.

When the disciples were selected, Feng Shouzhu then cast out a wooden ship on which they boarded. The banner adorned with the character '剑' of swords fluttered in the wind and the waters streamed beneath the ship, forming a river that set sail towards the East Barren.

"When we arrive at the East Barren, we must act carefully. There are many temples in the East Barren, you would never know within which one of the temples, regardless of small or big, shabby or grandeur, would reside a godly spirit of the fallen gods!" Feng Shouzhu's face was solemn as he warned them.