Chapter 1168: Golden-Winged Roc; The Dao of The Sword (II)

Outside the pocket world, the days passed quietly. Within it, however, time flowed at an entirely different pace, and before long, twenty years had gone by.

In a secluded valley carpeted with orchids, the clear ring of a sword echoed through the air. Luo Chen stood among the flowers in white robes with a jade belt fastened around his waist and the Primordial Slaughter Sword in hand. He moved slowly through one form after another, paying close attention to every turn of his wrist and shift of the blade. As the sword moved, traces of the ambient spirit energy seemed to follow its tip.

For him, those twenty years had meant enough time to make progress in more than one area. After raising his proficiency to Grandmaster level in Fire Phoenix's Prairie Blaze, he had done the same with Flame Dragon's Descent. Further improvement, however, had become very difficult. Spells of that caliber ate up an enormous amount of mana, and practicing them too often would inevitably disrupt his cultivation. Rather than force the issue, he had allowed himself to progress more gradually.

Beyond that, he had also completely broken all of the Penglai Eightspire Pavilion's restrictions and finally brought the treasure under his full control. That was a tremendous gain in and of itself, but the real surprise came when he gained access to its internal spaces. Scattered across several compartments were multiple rare and high-tier spirit medicines that were almost unheard of in the world. They had most likely been gathered by disciples of the Penglai Immortal Sect from the Wood Heaven Plains in the Land of Fallen Devils, but now all of them had fallen into Luo Chen's hands.

Furthermore, according to the system's evaluation, he had now become a fourth-tier formation master! This was not the result of any sudden improvement in talent; he had simply accumulated so much experience dismantling formations that, at some point, quantity had finally produced a qualitative change.

His greatest gain and most closely guarded secret, however, concerned his divine soul. When his cultivation finally advanced from the first stage to the second, his main soul once more became unusually full and powerful, giving him the opportunity to use Soul Split again and create a third soul. The process was every bit as painful as before, but this time he knew what to expect. More importantly, his mastery of Soul Split had already reached the Proficient level, and that had allowed him to complete the division far more quickly and shorten the period of agony.

As expected, everything unfolded just as he had predicted, and the newly formed subsidiary soul already possessed strength comparable to a late-stage Adept. It was still far too weak to be of any real use in battle, but that was not really a problem. He didn't need it in battle for the time being. The real problem came from elsewhere.

With three souls now sharing the same sea of consciousness, Luo Chen found himself plagued by an increasing number of stray thoughts. Although all three souls belonged to the same consciousness, their simultaneous activity made it much harder to maintain perfect mental clarity. If those stray thoughts continued to accumulate, they could eventually give rise to Heart Tribulations or even Heart Devils. In the worst case, they might push him into cultivation deviation.

Because of this, he considered many possible solutions before eventually turning to the Fine Dust Primordial Art. He had created the art himself after reaching the Golden Core Realm, but because it had ultimately been included into a fourth-tier cultivation art, it had remained useful even after he became a Sage. By now, however, Luo Chen no longer needed it to condense his Golden Core or temper his mana. Instead, he began using it to strip away distracting thoughts and restore clarity to his sea of consciousness.

The reason that was possible was that, when he first created the art, he had incorporated a Core Formation secret art known as Stilling Wind and Waves.

Stilling Wind and Waves had originally come to Luo Chen through his late acquaintance Miao Wen, though its origins could be traced even further back to the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect's Illuminated Sword. As a result, the art retained some of the same principles, particularly its ability to sever distracting thoughts and suppress inner demons.

When he first got his hands on it, he had little interest in studying it in its entirety. At the time, he needed only the portions that could assist with Core Formation, so he extracted those principles and incorporated them into the Fine Dust Primordial Art. Now, his situation was different. With three souls constantly generating stray thoughts, the very parts of Stilling Wind and Waves he had once ignored were exactly what he needed. Thus, Luo Chen decided to study the art properly, from the very basics.

There was another reason as well: Stilling Wind and Waves was rooted in the Dao of Sword, and practicing it might help him improve his control over Primordial Slaughter. He had already refined two of the sword's seals and could wield the weapon freely, but he lacked a proper sword-control art and could only make use of the sword's extraordinary sharpness. Using a weapon of this caliber in such a crude manner was undoubtedly a waste, regardless of whether he won or lost. If he could deepen his understanding of the Sword Dao and learn how to control a flying sword properly, he might finally begin drawing out more of its true might.

Over the years, Luo Chen had accumulated several inheritances related to the Sword Dao, including Flying Cloud's sword-orb refinement art and Han Zhan's sword formation art. The problem was that both had been developed around sword orbs, a special kind of enchanted treasure whose characteristics differed greatly from those of a true flying sword. Primordial Slaughter was simply not suited to those arts. Stilling Wind and Waves might be lower in tier, but its underlying principles were much broader and could be applied to both sword orbs and flying swords.

Between the problems in his sea of consciousness and his need for a proper foundation in sword control, he had every reason to study the art seriously.

At this moment, he guided the sword through another slow arc and sighed. If only I had a higher-level technique...

As he continued practicing, a faint fragrance drifted through the secluded valley. It was not the scent of the orchids around him, but the soft fragrance of a woman.

Fu Qinglan emerged from behind the stone door and found a greenstone nearby. After smoothing her skirt beneath her, she sat down and quietly watched Luo Chen practice without disturbing him.

Perhaps because of the time spent together, the two had developed this sort of unspoken understanding in moments like this. Whenever Luo Chen was training, Fu Qinglan would simply sit nearby and would not disturb him. However, before long, sitting on the stone began to grow uncomfortable for her. It seemed that she had spent too many years sitting rigidly in meditation to have any patience for the same posture while resting. She shifted to one side, propped an elbow against the mountain rock, and rested her chin in her hand as she followed the movements of his sword.

The longer she watched, the more curious she became about the man before her.

When they first met, she had regarded Luo Chen as little more than an ordinary rogue cultivator. Yet after he easily defeated Qi Xiongcheng outside the Peach Garden, she had been forced to see him in a new light. Later, she discovered just how accomplished he was in spells, and his battle with the Wrathful Vajra revealed that his attainments in Physique Refinement were every bit as formidable.

Even so, she had always thought there was at least one obvious gap in his strength: he lacked a True Artifact suited for offense. The black armor he wore was an excellent True Artifact, but it was limited to defense, while the small gray cauldron excelled at suppression and confinement. Neither was designed for attacking. Even when two powerful enemies had besieged him, he had never produced an offensive enchanted treasure or True Artifact of comparable quality.

Fu Qinglan had assumed that, as a rogue cultivator, he was already remarkably fortunate to possess two fine True Artifacts after reaching the Nascent Soul Realm. Yet now, the blood-red sword in his hand was unmistakably a peerless weapon!

My family has always supported me, and I've had the sect's resources behind me from the very start. But even after becoming a Sage, I only managed to nurture the Heaven-Shrouding Leaf on my own. Well, Grandpa did find another True Artifact, but it doesn't even suit me that well. He, on the other hand, is only a rogue cultivator, yet he has three True Artifacts?! Just how? Did he stumble across some incredible opportunity, or did he make all of them himself? And if he had a weapon this powerful all along, why hasn't he used it until now? Is he really that confident in himself? What a waste, though. His swordsmanship is far too rough. Compared to the senior brothers, he's not even close. He has such an incredible sword, but no sword art worthy of it... Hm?

Before her eyes, the sword in Luo Chen's hand suddenly trembled. A beam of sword light, only several cun long, flashed from its tip and plunged into the earth. It left behind a hole no wider than a finger, yet so deep that she could not even sense the bottom.

Her eyes widened. A sword ray?!

Sword cultivation was traditionally divided into four stages: sword energy, sword light, sword heart, and sword will, corresponding to Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul, respectively. Strictly speaking, however, this cultivation system was generally applied to orthodox sword cultivators—namely, those who used sword orbs. Luo Chen was wielding a flying sword, yet he had just produced a genuine sword ray before her eyes.

Fu Qinglan stared at him. Don't tell me he's accomplished in the Sword Dao too?

Luo Chen himself looked no less surprised and stared at the radiance lingering along the blade of Primordial Slaughter. That sword light had not been produced by the weapon itself. It had been formed entirely from his own mana.

Do I actually have some talent for the Sword Dao?

Still puzzled, he went to check his status panel. The entry for the Fine Dust Primordial Art, already at Perfected Mastery, shone brilliantly before his eyes.

Almost at once, he realized it. It had nothing to do with any hidden talent for swordsmanship. Rather, after having practiced with the Fine Dust Primordial Art countless times over the years, he had long since gained a thorough understanding of Stilling Wind and Waves.

In other words, although Luo Chen had never formally cultivated the Sword Dao, he had already developed something akin to the sword heart, the third stage of sword cultivation. With that foundation already in place, producing sword light, which was merely the second stage, was hardly surprising.

Unfortunately, a technique corresponding only to the Foundation Establishment Realm could do little for his combat strength at this level. At best, it gave him another useful tool and a foundation from which to build.

Luo Chen smiled faintly, put away Primordial Slaughter, and walked over to Fu Qinglan.

"Done cultivating?"

"Mm."

"Still no luck?"

Fu Qinglan shook her head. "No."

Luo Chen did not seem surprised. "It's not your fault. There's too little spiritual vitality in these cores, and finding the root power within them is hard to begin with. What we really need is more illusory cores."

Fu Qinglan lowered her gaze.

Over the past twenty years, Luo Chen had gathered nearly thirty fourth-tier illusory cores for her! Although their harvest had never been stable, thirty cores were still an impressive number. Yet after refining every single one, she still had not managed to grasp the Root of Wood.

Luo Chen seemed to have grown used to these failures, but even Fu Qinglan was starting to question herself. Perhaps her aptitude simply wasn't good enough. Worse, if things continued like this, she had no idea how many more years he would have to spend helping her before he could finally be free of this obligation.

She stared silently at a blade of grass poking through the soil near her feet.

After a moment, Luo Chen spoke. "There might be another way."

Fu Qinglan immediately looked up.

"If you had enough spiritual vitality to keep cultivating, you wouldn't have to stop every time an illusory core was exhausted. You could keep going until you finally found the root power."

Enough spiritual vitality to keep cultivating... Does he mean...

Before she could ask, Luo Chen continued, "Rest for two days, then come with me. If this works, you may be able to succeed all at once."

With that, he turned and left the valley.

Fu Qinglan remained where she was and watched him disappear from sight. A complicated mixture of disappointment and relief settled over her.

So he wasn't referring to the Heaven Mystery Pill.

That was only reasonable. The pill was far too precious, and she had never truly expected Luo Chen to give it to her. Even so, his words left her wondering what other approach he could possibly have in mind.

If he wanted her to cultivate continuously until she found the Root of Wood, the amount of spiritual vitality required would be enormous. Was he planning to hunt several high-tier illusory beasts at once and let her refine their cores one after another?

She did not doubt Luo Chen's capabilities, but she seriously doubted there was still a place in the pocket world where enough high-tier illusory beasts could be found together.