Chapter 164 - 114: Dharma Vein Reaction, Elders’ Assembly

Chapter 164: Chapter 114: Dharma Vein Reaction, Elders’ Assembly

Inside his wooden cabin on Washing Sword Mountain, Li Yinsheng put away the Golden Characters hovering before his eyes, smiling warmly as he rubbed Mu Xiaoyu’s head.

"Junior Sister, would you like to learn the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword with two hundred and fifty-six Sword Lights in the future?"

Mu Xiaoyu instinctively grew vigilant. "Senior Brother, you aren’t going to make me resume practicing right now, are you?"

Li Yinsheng stared blankly for a moment before laughing and shaking his head. "How could I? I promised you could rest today. Even if you were to learn it, it would be a matter for the future."

Besides, reaching one hundred and twenty-eight Sword Lights was already her current limit. With her present Magical Power, practicing further was simply impossible.

By his estimation, if one hundred and twenty-eight Sword Lights were a common method suitable for Magical Combat among Daoist Cultivators, then two hundred and fifty-six Sword Lights would be highly effective even in the hands of a Grand Daoist. At least when he used it himself, neither the destructive power nor the energy consumption was anything to scoff at.

Going further, five hundred and twelve Sword Lights was likely a technique approaching or even reaching the Realm of an Imperial Decree Daoist. When he had three hundred years of Cultivation, he could barely sustain the consumption of five hundred and twelve Sword Lights, treating it strictly as a lethal trump card. Now, with four hundred years of Cultivation and the Six Interpretations of Life and Death, executing it was much easier, though he still couldn’t use it effortlessly at will.

However, he was still a fair distance away from becoming an Imperial Decree Daoist. His understanding of that Realm was limited, so he couldn’t definitively conclude whether five hundred-odd Sword Lights would be sufficient for someone at that level. According to what Shangguan Ling’Er had said, even without deploying their Dharma Aspect, an Imperial Decree Daoist possessed an insurmountable gap in strength compared to an ordinary Grand Daoist. Perhaps for that Realm, a mere five hundred and twelve Sword Lights was just a standard tactic?

Regardless, with his Junior Sister’s current Cultivation of just over thirty years, she definitely couldn’t handle any more Sword Lights. He reckoned she would need at least sixty or seventy years of Cultivation just to barely meet the minimum Magical Power requirement to continue her training.

That would roughly correspond to the Eighth Layer of the Qingxuan Scripture. Currently, she was only at the Fifth Layer. Yet, in terms of her accumulated Cultivation, she had already touched the threshold of the Sixth Layer; she just needed a small catalyst to break through. Of course, such a catalyst wasn’t strictly necessary. Steadily increasing one’s Cultivation like he did would naturally lead to a breakthrough anyway.

Mu Xiaoyu had no idea what her Senior Brother was thinking. Hearing his guarantee that she didn’t have to practice her swordsmanship today, she immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"It seems Senior Brother isn’t that strict after all," she thought to herself. "The sudden feeling that he was going to increase my training load must have been an illusion. Alas, I’ve wronged him."

She discreetly cast a slightly apologetic glance toward Li Yinsheng.

Li Yinsheng, meanwhile, was pondering another matter. Since the Cultivation Aspiration for practicing the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword could generate a follow-up with higher rewards, could other Cultivation Aspirations do the same?

He fell into deep thought. Long ago, he had confirmed one thing: the trigger for a Cultivation Aspiration was based on his Junior Sister. For example, he had known about the Dao Examination long before, but the corresponding Cultivation Aspiration only appeared after he actually told her about it. The same logic applied to the Cultivation Aspiration triggered when she first handled talismanic coins, and the one triggered when she was bullied by the Shouyi Temple.

The reason the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword generated a follow-up was because she had come into contact with the two hundred and fifty-six Sword Lights, something that wasn’t originally supposed to exist.

In other words, if other Cultivation Aspirations involved higher-level goals, would they also have follow-ups? Take the Cultivation Aspiration for having his Junior Sister learn Artifact Refining, for instance; its highest goal only reached the level of a Magical Treasure. But he knew that above Magical Treasures were Quasi-Spirit Treasures used by Ghost Immortals and Spirit Treasures used by Human Immortals. Could there be new goals and rewards corresponding to those two upper tiers?

This thought swirled in his mind for a moment before he tossed it aside. Even if there were, it wasn’t something to dwell on right now. Just refining a Magical Treasure would likely require the Cultivation of a Daoist. As for the Quasi-Spirit Treasures and Spirit Treasures above that, he had only ever heard of them. Since his Junior Sister couldn’t even refine a Lower Grade Magical Artifact yet, dreaming about Spirit Treasures was purely a pipe dream.

However, while she couldn’t refine a Lower Grade Magical Artifact at the moment, it might be a different story soon. Li Yinsheng sensed the nine Fire Seeds suspended in his Dantian and the hundreds of drops of Moon Dew in his Sea of Consciousness, feeling quite expectant.

Artifact Refining merely required fire, Divine Sense, and technique. He had ways to help her improve the first two, and as for the latter, with abundant resources, it was nothing more than diligent study and hard practice until she achieved mastery through repetition.

Since he had already promised she could rest today, he decided to wait until tomorrow to let her begin her Refinement of the Fire Seeds and Moon Dew. A single day’s delay wouldn’t hurt. After all, the Moon Dew needed to be refined once every half month to ensure a gradual progression. The Fire Seeds had no such restrictions; even if she refined all nine consecutively, it wouldn’t be a big problem.

Meanwhile, a resplendent Escape Light rose into the sky from the Five-Colored Glazed Palace where Shangguan Ling’Er and her master resided.

This Escape Light looked somewhat similar to Shangguan Ling’Er’s, but its aura was vastly superior; merely rising was enough to scatter the sea of clouds for miles around. Within the Escape Light, Shangguan Ling’Er stood obediently by her master’s side as a single Colorful Leaf circled around the two of them.

"Master, where are we going?" Shangguan Ling’Er asked.

"You silly girl, asking when you already know the answer!" the beautiful, palace-dressed woman scolded with a smile. "We are naturally going to chat with the other Elders about that handsome, prodigious Fellow Daoist of yours."

Shangguan Ling’Er’s face flushed with embarrassment. "If he’s a prodigy, just say he’s a prodigy. Why do you have to bring up him being handsome, Master?"

"Did I bring it up? Weren’t you the one who said it when you were reporting to me?" The woman shook her head. "You were the one who emphasized that Li was rather handsome."