However, in this situation, whether he had comprehended it or not, all he could do was sit—either sleep or stare blankly.

Although he was still very tired, his mind remained in a state of high tension. For the moment, how could he possibly fall asleep? So, feeling utterly bored, he slowly tilted his head back. This pine forest was not dense, and he could clearly see the starry sky. However, he did not notice that there were clouds.

The clouds were neither thick nor dense, more like mist, shrouding the sky. Even the moon at its zenith was veiled by a layer of cloud.

“What a letdown!” Henry Clark cursed under his breath at the overcast sky, then prepared to close his eyes and sleep. But just as his eyes were about to close, a gust of wind suddenly swept across the sky, blowing the clouds away.

In an instant, the starry sky that had been hidden by the clouds appeared before Henry Clark's eyes, though only a small part of it.

Henry Clark felt a sudden brightness before his eyes, and a brilliance like starlight flashed in his gaze. But in the next moment, the starry sky that had just appeared before Henry Clark vanished, and another patch of stars lit up.

The starlight flickered in and out of view, seemingly chaotic, yet faintly revealing an extremely mysterious pattern.

Clouds drifted, starlight flashed.

Suddenly, a sword light flashed through Henry Clark's already exhausted mind: the Eight Trigrams Nine Palaces Sword Technique, the Twofold Return to Origin Sword Technique, and the Taihao Mysterious Moon Sword Technique—all appeared in his mind. Though these sword techniques varied in complexity and depth, in their movement and stillness, they subtly resonated with the mysterious patterns of the Milky Way above. Even the innate purple qi, in its shifting, seemed to align with the Dao of Heaven.

The starlight in Henry Clark's eyes grew brighter and more intricate, until suddenly, it flared and then vanished all at once. He blinked, and his gaze instantly cleared.

He slowly raised his hand, and another pine branch flew into his grasp. It was as if, in that brief moment, all his fatigue had vanished. Once again, he began to wield the withered branch in his hand. This time, he started with the Eight Trigrams Nine Palaces Sword, then moved on to the Twofold Return to Origin Sword. Compared to when he was resting, this time his Twofold Return to Origin Sword was much faster. As the pine branch danced, a purple glow slowly emerged, but unlike before, it did not break. Dots of purple light, like the starry sky, traced increasingly mysterious patterns, and the technique shifted from the Twofold Return to Origin Sword to the Taihao Mysterious Moon Sword.

Chapter 7: Practicing Sword in the Water

Although Henry Clark's physique was a bit lacking, his mind was exceptionally sharp. As his master put it, he had a photographic memory. The Taihao Mysterious Moon Sword, though intricate and complex, after Mark demonstrated it twice for Henry Clark, he had memorized the basic stances. As for the first nine moves, he had already learned them before, so he was even more familiar with them.

Normally, if he were to perform the entire set, it would take him little effort and only a short time to go through all eighty-one moves. But today, it seemed a bit difficult.

After finishing the Twofold Return to Origin Sword Technique, he did not stop but continued to practice the Taihao Mysterious Moon Sword. Yet, as soon as he started the first move, his actions became unusually clumsy. By the second move, he was like a child just learning swordplay, not even knowing where to point the pine branch in his hand. When he reached the third move, there was a “crack”—the pine branch, which had become like a piece of purple jade in his hand, shattered once again. After the branch broke, the remaining half in Henry Clark's hand continued its motion, and he actually managed to finish the third move. A trace of joy flashed across Henry Clark's brow, but his body collapsed straight to the ground.

“I broke through the Kidney Meridian of the Foot-Shaoyin!” That was his last thought before fainting from exhaustion!

Henry Clark was a lucky one. The process he had just experienced was considered the most miraculous and rarest kind of sudden enlightenment in the cultivation world.

At the same time, he was also unfortunate, because while others achieved enlightenment and became immortals or Buddhas, his enlightenment merely allowed him to glimpse the ultimate truth of swordsmanship from outside the door, opening an infinite path for his future sword journey. But for now, he was still at the starting point and would need to work hard to succeed.

Genius is made up of ninety-nine percent sweat and one percent luck, and often that one percent of luck is more important than the ninety-nine percent of effort combined. Today, Henry Clark could be said to have been lucky enough to gain that one percent of fortune, to steal a glimpse of heaven’s secret. But the road ahead would still require hard work. Whether he would put in that effort was another matter entirely.

In fact, what made him happiest was not that his understanding of swordsmanship had reached a level his peers could not hope to match, but something else: his innate purple qi had broken through the Kidney Meridian of the Foot-Shaoyin. This was another main meridian of the second layer of innate purple qi. Breaking through the Kidney Meridian meant his innate purple qi was now fully stabilized at the second layer and could begin to strive for the state of great perfection. With this, his cultivation of innate purple qi would rank him among the top four of the ten core inner disciples.