I was the first person here in the past ten years? Lin Yun’s heart jolted. The old man’s words made him feel a chill run down his spine for some reason. If he couldn’t resist the zither music, would he become a corpse under the lake? If his mind was really affected by the music back then, would he run amok and die the moment he jumped down?

He had a feeling that the answer was something he couldn’t accept. Thinking about it, Lin Yun had a rough guess of the old man’s identity. No matter what, there was no question about the old man’s strength. Since the old man was willing to answer his question, then this meant that he had achieved his goal at the very least.

“Senior, can I ask you if there’s another stage above complete mastery in sword techniques?” Lin Yun asked the question that plagued him for a long time.

“There is,” said the old man. “Everyone knows that there are four stages to every martial technique, the initial, lesser, greater, and complete mastery. It's even a decent achievement...