Duncan emptied his mind and tried to re-enter the same state he was in when he tried to grasp the immensity of a mountain in the Grotto Heaven.
He had some initial troubles in clearing his thoughts. His mind was occupied with some random thoughts for a while, but Duncan somehow managed to clear them away. Following that, a strange sense of irritation was present in his heart. Duncan had to calm it down and let it enter a peaceful state.
Trying to calm down his thoughts and put away the irritation in his heart took him some time. Duncan was a little flabbergasted by this situation as he hadn't run into such a thing before. His mind had never taken this long to calm down.
Duncan chalked up the strange event to his constant stress in the past few days. Fighting with a group of young talents, breaking through to the Violet Palace realm, evading pursuit from angry Golden Hall experts who were out to kill him, and escaping successfully from the region that made him despondent, these things had taken some invisible toll on his mind.
His mind had been in a constant state of stress. Earlier, after entering the garden, he thought he had relaxed a bit. But, it seemed like it wasn't enough. His mind and heart were still stressed out. So, Duncan had to relax completely first to re-enter that strange meditative state where he was able to perceive the immensity of the mountain.
Duncan somehow managed to calm his thoughts and soothe the irritation in his heart. He slowly entered the meditative state and began to perceive his surroundings calmly. The first time Duncan perceived the garden in a meditative state, Duncan was taken aback by what he sensed in his perception.
The seemingly peaceful garden in his eyes was anything but peaceful in his senses at that moment. He could feel a hidden sense of murderousness enveloping the area in front of him. It was like a viper lying in wait. The moment the prey appeared, it would pounce.
Duncan opened his eyes in disbelief and looked at the peaceful garden in front of him. It was still the same beautiful garden he had seen earlier. But, fresh from having his senses assaulted with hidden murderousness, Duncan didn't want to take any chances.
Duncan took out a spare weapon he had found amidst his spoils and decided to use it to check the situation ahead first. Even though he hadn't stepped foot inside, Duncan had been toying with that idea for some time now.
He had even wondered if it would be more beneficial to enter the garden completely and meditate. He just hadn't tried it. There was no particular reason to it. Now, sensing the hidden murderousness, Duncan wanted to check it out at the first opportunity and see what would happen if something truly entered the range of the garden.
Duncan took one last look at the weapon trying to confirm its authenticity. It was a well-crafted spear. The body of the spear was long and straight. It was gleaming brightly in the sun. The tip of the spear was sharp as well.
One look at it was enough for Duncan to determine that it would fetch a very good price in the black market. But, Duncan didn't get distracted from his objective. Losing a spear wasn't much of an issue. He needed to find out what would happen if something entered the peaceful garden in front of him.
Duncan took aim in a random direction and launched the spear into the garden. The moment the spear entered the garden, it pierced through the petals drifting lazily in the garden. Duncan was taken by surprise at how easily those petals parted.
Duncan even had a thought, at this moment, that it wasn't that difficult to navigate the region if that was all it held. Sure, the petals were deadly, but he could use the spear to make sure they didn't come into contact with him.
If that was the case, then he didn't need to worry about traversing this region at all. Duncan smiled slightly looking at the progress of the spear without taking his eyes of it. However, the next moment his heart jolted and his lips became dry seeing what happened to the spear.
The spear didn't travel very far. The moment it parted the petals and traveled a little distance in, a tornado made of petals formed surrounding it completely. Within moments, the tornado of petals cut through the entire spear with no blockage.
Duncan's eyes bugged out seeing this. He never expected such a thing to happen. And the worst part was that the spear wasn't visible anymore. The tornado literally ground the entire spear into basic filaments and let it disappear into the region as dust.
Duncan gulped looking at the spear that was vanishing into dust. Within moments, the tornado lost its purpose and began to dissolve as well. Soon, the garden returned to its idyllic state once again causing Duncan to marvel at the speed of the transition.
If he hadn't been watching the entire thing carefully, he wouldn't even know how terrible the beautiful garden in front of him was. Duncan's physical body will never be able to stand against the murderousness of the tornado of petals as well.
He was incredibly glad that he didn't mistakenly step into the region for anything. This region now looked more deadly than the one he came out of. Let alone traversing it, Duncan didn't think he would last even a minute under such an attack.
Duncan looked at the beautiful scenery in front of him with apprehension in his eyes. He didn't think this region would hide such murderousness inside the seemingly idyllic scenery.
For the first time since he entered this region, he saw the beautiful garden in front of him with fear in his eyes. Duncan wasn't naïve to not understand how dangerous this region was. He completely understood the severity of the danger present in the garden at this moment.
Thinking back to the hidden murderous feeling he had felt, Duncan was glad that he did not enter the region. He didn't think his body would be an exception. Most likely it would be minced into a million small pieces by the time the petals were done with it.
At this moment, Duncan decided that unless and until he found a way to negate the sword aura in the petals, he would not enter the region. He would rather have another walk through that region filled with despondence than try his luck here.
Taking a deep breath, Duncan shook away the terror of the beautiful but deadly garden before him and reentered the meditative state. Slowly his thoughts quietened and all he could perceive was the sword aura in the garden in front of him.
Duncan soon forgot about everything and concentrated solely on the sword aura. Whether it was due to his innate talent or due to how determined he was to find a solution to the sword aura in the petals, he soon began to perceive the intent engulfing the entire region in front of him.
His mind slowly separated the murderousness in the region from the pure sword intent. Casting away the murderousness, Duncan meditated on the sword intent present in the garden.
For a long time, all Duncan could perceive was a sharp sword that was stinging his mind. He endured the torture for a long time before he could perceive anything other than the stinging sensation.
Slowly, a vision started to appear in his mind.
The garden before him was not filled with petals. The petals were just euphemisms of the intent enveloping the area. The area was filled with nothing but countless swords in his mind. Duncan took a sharp breath the moment the vision appeared in his mind.
This was the true face of the garden in front of him.
A garden of swords.
The flowers, the wind, the petals, the fragrance, and whatnot. Everything that occupied the garden before him was nothing but a sword. The breezing wind was also a type of sword attack. The flowers that were blooming colorfully were nothing but various sword moves. The petals that drifted through the wind were nothing but the mechanism to hide the murderous edge of a hidden sword that roamed the region.
The garden was nothing but a murderhole made of swords.
Duncan felt his mind shiver just visualizing that image that he perceived. He didn't know who would be crazy enough to walk through this murderhole made of swords. It would take immense willpower and strength to accomplish that.
His desire to walk through this region was eroding rapidly. Duncan didn't think he could walk through this muderhole made of swords with his current strength. But, there was a part of him that wanted to compete with this region and walk through it as well.
Duncan took a deep breath and concentrated further on the interaction between the various sword attacks in the regions. He had never seen such an intricate setup made of sword attacks. This wasn't a formation or anything like that. This setup was fundamentally different to a formation.
However, it still had some similarities to formations as well. The entire region operated on a strange set of rules. The sword attacks that formed the breeze guided the sword attacks that made the petals in a particular rhythm. The flowers on the ground acted in concert with them making it a very chaotic entanglement between all the attacks.
Despite the chaotic nature of the entanglements between the sword attacks filling the region, they had a sense of rhythm to them. It was almost like they were following a certain law. But, Duncan didn't think it was a hard and fast rule that enveloped this region. The rhythm that worked in the region was ever-moving and ever-changing making it very unpredictable as well.
But, regardless of the type of sword attack, there was one thing common throughout the region. There was lingering sword intent in every sword attack present in the region. It was the only constant in this bizarre murderhole made of swords.
And it was the thing that made all these sword attacks very dangerous to tamper with.
Looking at the entire setup, only two words came to Duncan's mind.
Intent Domain!
