Lu Tianzi stared dumbfounded at the gap created by the old master's sabre strike.

What kind of combat technique was that?

Even though Lu Tianzi had already been prepared to see something outrageous, this was still beyond what he had expected.

It was as though the old master's sabre strike had completely deleted away everything in its path, not allowing even the slightest bit of resistance.

With such power at his fingertips, the old master would probably be able to wipe out even Overlords with each swing of his sabre!

"My apologies, Master. I wasn't able to see it clearly..." the middle-aged man's words broke Lu Tianzi out of his daze.

"What are you waiting for then?" the old master seemed to have expected as much.

"I... Understood, Master," the middle-aged man said while getting to his feet.

The next moment, the middle-aged man shot forward, disappearing into the darkness of the tunnel.

Letting out a weary sigh, the old master faced the tunnel and spoke. "Take your time and feel it for youself. If you cannot even learn to do this much, then don't bother going. After all, this is the bare minimum you need in order to contend with the enemies you seek."

Even his voice seemed to be imbued with limitless energy, reverberating through the tunnel and causing the cave to tremble once more.

Upon hearing these words, Lu Tianzi felt his head spin, as though the world around him had become unstable and was warping strangely.

Lu Tianzi did not try to resist, letting things progress as they would.

In any case, there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Instead, he began to ponder upon the earlier sabre strike by the old master.

Now that he had discovered the existence of Battle Intent, as well as coming into contact with the power of Battle Intent with his own body and mind, Lu Tianzi was beginning to understand more about this mysterious power.

Battle Intent was the materialisation of a martial artist's will.

The will of different individuals naturally would not be the same, but they could still be measured against each other in terms of strength.

The stronger the will, the more intense the materialised Battle Intent.

If a martial artist's will was strong enough, he could technically crush his opponent with his will alone, not even needing to lift a single finger in the process.

This was the might of Battle Intent.

Unfortunately, materialisation of one's will into Battle Intent that could be used in combat was extremely difficult, far beyond the capabilities of most martial artists.

After experiencing the old master's Battle Intent, Lu Tianzi finally realised that this was not the first time that he had witnessed the use of Battle Intent.

Back then, Lord Er and Shafeng had both imbued their attacks with Battle Intent as well.

It was only because Battle Intent differed slightly from individual to individual that Lu Tianzi was initially unable to recognise this fact.

While Lu Tianzi was contemplating over this matter, his surroundings finally stopped warping and began to stabilise.

When everything cleared, he was once again seated facing the cave entrance, with the middle-aged man kneeling towards him.

"Farewell, Master. This will probably be the last time we see each other, so do take care of yourself." the middle-aged man repeated the exact words that he had said earlier.

The memory was looping?

Lu Tianzi was stunned for a moment, then he was overcome by excitement.

This was perfect for him!

If the memory was really looping, he would have plenty of chances to slowly experience the sabre strike of the old master, learning as much as he could!

***

In the rocky cave, Lu Tianzi's body was now covered in sweat, even trembling slightly from the immense pressure.

While his mind was enjoying the process, his body certainly was not.

The pressure from the lingering Battle Intent was extremely strong past the narrow stream, and Lu Tianzi's body could not escape being strained either.

Anyone in his place would have already succumbed to the pressure and retreated to recover, but Lu Tianzi did not.

In fact, Lu Tianzi did not even realise that his body was being strained to such an extent.

He was now in a strange state where his mind and body were in two different worlds, completely independent of each other.

If it were anyone else, this lack of concern for his physical body's condition was a serious matter, and could even lead to internal injuries that might damage his foundations.

However, that was not the case for Lu Tianzi.

Upon detecting the danger that his body was in, the thin beastial bloodline in his body reacted immediately and started to become more active, which in turn increased the resistance of his body to a certain extent.

This was not a full beastial bloodline activation, and was therefore unable to complete ease the pressure off of Lu Tianzi. Still, it provided just enough protection for him, preventing any internal injuries from forming.

Apart from the lingering Battle Intent, there was also a faint aura of death in the surroundings.

Under the cover of the immense pressure, this faint aura of death was not at all apparent. It was only after one crossed the narrow stream into the inner half of the cave that it would become a lot more obvious.

If Lu Tianzi's thoughts were not lost in another world, he would have found this aura of death familiar as well.

It was none other than the feeling that he had felt from the old master's black sabre, albeit slightly weaker.

While the old master was not a cultivator of the Slaughter Essence system, he had still reaped innumerable lives with the black sabre throughout his lifetime, resulting in a vast accumulation of primordial Slaughter Essence on the blade of the black sabre.

And with that one sabre strike of his, traces of this primordial Slaughter Essence had been engraved into the walls of the rocky cave.

Even though an unknown number of years had passed, a portion of this primordial Slaughter Essence still remained in the cave, indirectly turning the cave into an ideal cultivation area for cultivators of the Slaughter Essence system.

In such a conducive environment, the four of them were able to cultivate at a pace far beyond anyone's imagination.

Two months passed.

On this day, a surge of energy rose up from within Young Master Xuan Hao.

Young Master Xuan Hao had managed to cross the narrow stream to reach the inner half of the cave not long ago, finally catching up to and even overtaking Lu Tianzi.

Of course, this was also partially because Lu Tianzi had not moved from his spot ever since crossing the narrow stream.

After cultivating under the pressure of the lingering Battle Intent and dense primordial Slaughter Essence, Young Master Xuan Hao had finally broken through the upper boundary of his cultivation level, reaching the Seventh Cycle Origin Core realm!

A wave of energy travelled out in all directions, alerting the others of his breakthrough.

However, not a single person was willing to end their meditation to congratulate him. Even Ruan Ling merely smiled to herself for a brief moment before turning her focus back to her own cultivation process.

They were all deeply immersed in cultivation, and ending their meditation prematurely might result in the breaking of their train of thoughts, possibly setting them back by a huge margin.

Even Young Master Xuan Hao did not open his eyes after breaking through, choosing to remain in meditation to consolidate his new cultivation.

But what happened next came as a surprise to all of them.

As if Young Master Xuan Hao's breakthrough had set off a chain reaction of sorts, the other three made their respective breakthroughs over the following two weeks.

Young Master Xuan Hao and Ruan Ling had been well prepared for this period of cultivation at the War Intent Cliff, and were already at the limits of their respective cultivation levels before their arrival.

All they needed was that one last push to get past their bottleneck and reach the next boundary.

As for Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue, their situation was not too different either.

The sacrificial ritual at Bog Town had been meant for Fifth Cycle Origin Core realm martials to breakthrough to the Sixth Origin Cycle.

With the two of them being much lower in terms of cultivation level, the ritual not only helped Lu Tianzi and Nanlan Qianxue breakthrough, it had also brought their cultivation extremely close to the next boundary after their gains were fully consolidated.

Using that as a foundation, these few months of cultivation in the rocky cave was more than what the two young talents needed to reach the next boundary.

Having every single one of them make a breakthrough was a surreal and shocking situation, albeit one that the youngsters relished in.

This was the absolute best case scenario, with each of them having reaped their own benefits.

Of course, there was one person who had secretly gained the most during this period of secluded cultivation.

Lu Tianzi was now a Third Cycle Origin Core realm martial artist, his true origin core brimming with strength and energy.

But unlike the others, Lu Tianzi had actually been focusing on the mastery of Battle Intent all this while.

The improvement in his cultivation level had merely been a side effect of him cultivating within the hidden cave, with the dense primordial Slaughter Essence in the surroundings acting as the perfect catalyst.

Suddenly, a sabre suddenly appeared in Lu Tianzi's hands despite his eyes being still closed.

It was a purely subconscious action, drawing the Torrential Sabre from his spatial ring while his mind was still elsewhere.

This was nothing uncommon either.

Martial artists often meditate with their weapons in hand. This way, they could feel for themselves the weight and form of their weapons, replicating it perfectly in their minds.

Because of that, everyone else ignored it completely... until Lu Tianzi actually started waving the Torrential Sabre around.

At this moment, the old master's sabre strike continued to replay in Lu Tianzi's mind, leading to Lu Tianzi attempting to mimic it for himself.

With each swing of the Torrential Sabre, powerful sabre light flashed across the cave, smashing into the rock walls and causing powerful tremors that reverberated across the entire cave.

Nanlan Qianxue, Young Master Xuan Hao, and Ruan Ling immediately ended their meditation and stood up in alarm.

Each of Lu Tianzi's sabre strikes seemed to be done casually, yet the force behind them was shocking to the extreme.

Not just that, but the power contained within each strike continued to rise as time passed, creating an increasingly fierce storm of sabre light.

"This..." Young Master Xuan Hao felt the corner of his lips twitch.

Fortunately for the rest of them, Lu Tianzi's sabre strikes were all directed towards the depths of the cave, sparing them from harm as long as they stayed behind him.

This was fine for Nanlan Qianxue and Ruan Ling since they were unable to advance further than Lu Tianzi in the first place. Only Young Master Xuan Hao felt aggrieved that he was being forced to retreat.

But even so, Young MasterXuan Hao did not choose to interrupt Lu Tianzi.

He understood that for Lu Tianzi to suddenly enter such a seemingly crazed state, he must have stumbled upon in a state of epiphany that rarely came for martial artists. For Young Master Xuan Hao to disrupt Lu Tianzi's thoughts in such a situation was rather selfish.

Thus, all he could do was to stay back temporarily while Lu Tianzi continued with his practice.

As for Lu Tianzi, his consciousness was still deeply immersed in observing and emulating the heaven defying sabre strike by the old master.

While trying to master the use of Battle Intent, Lu Tianzi was subconsciously learning the ways of the sabre as well, refining his mastery of the weapon.

The old master had reached an incredibly high level in his mastery of the sabre. Just from shadowing his moves, Lu Tianzi was able to glean great insights in regards to sabre techniques.

Lu Tianzi's sabre mastery had always been lagging slightly behind his sword mastery, but now this difference was rapidly reducing by the minute.

***

Hidden a distance away outside the hidden cave, the skinny man who had been keeping an eye on the entrance frowned.

At the same time, the dark yellow glow in his eyes dimmed significantly in his attempt to conceal his presence even further.

He hurriedly backed up into the shadows and sent a message through his communication ring. "There's movement! Some people are coming – five of them – and they don't seem to be pushovers!"