Chapter 126 - 64: Mountain of Books and Sea of Literature

Chapter 126: Chapter 64: Mountain of Books and Sea of Literature

Staring at the flowing characters, Jiang Xuan instantly felt a powerful attraction.

He could have shielded himself from this pull, but of course, Jiang Xuan wouldn’t do that.

Far from resisting, he actively opened his Heart Spirit, allowing his Heart Soul to surge into the dancing characters like a flock of birds returning to their nest.

BOOM!

The instant his consciousness touched the characters, Jiang Xuan’s vision flashed white. Immediately after, a simple, powerful verse began to chant softly in his ear, every line and every word imbued with Flame Dao Sword Intent:

"Sowing fire’s seed where the sun burns brightest,

Vines and branches pierce through the azure blade.

Silver splendor births a stamen of the sword,

A single ray to shatter countless barriers..."

The instant the verse began, a speck of crimson light flared to life before Jiang Xuan’s eyes.

At first, the light was like a firefly, so faint it seemed a single breath could extinguish it. But in the blink of an eye, the radiant Spiritual Qi of the world rushed in like a tidal wave, pouring entirely into that tiny speck of light.

BOOM!

Infused with Spiritual Qi, the faint wisp of light erupted in a brilliant blaze. Simultaneously, Jiang Xuan’s Heart Spirit sank into the Illusion Realm, becoming one with the essence of "Mangzhong."

The next moment, he clearly felt his body transform as it absorbed the Spiritual Radiance. He burst from the soil as a tiny Spirit Seed, rapidly sprouting, branching, and unfurling leaves. In a flash, he had blossomed into a tree covered in silver flowers.

Jiang Xuan also perceived that on the Heaven-Reaching Fire Tree he had become, every petal of every silver flower shimmered with a sharp sword light, each one imbued with a scorching, immense Flame Dao aura.

VMM!

At Jiang Xuan’s command, the silver flowers blooming on the branches of the Heaven-Reaching Fire Tree cascaded like a river of stars, instantly transforming into streaks of incandescent sword light that shot whistling into the sky.

The swords of light born from the silver flowers could scatter to create a devastating, wide-area attack, or converge on a single point to unleash a piercing power capable of shattering armor, breaking formations, and melting the strongest metals.

A sword strike like soaring fireworks, a bloom like a cascading river of stars. Four Seasons Valley’s description of Mangzhong: Fire Tree and Silver Flowers was now something Jiang Xuan had witnessed firsthand. Its brilliance and deadliness were far more stunning than words could ever convey.

However, having personally become the Fire Tree and Silver Flowers, Jiang Xuan keenly sensed that the essence of this sword technique lay not in the final, brilliant bloom, but in the initial "Mangzhong" and the intermediate "Growth."

’Mangzhong is the foundation, the very beginning of it all,’ Jiang Xuan realized. ’The ultimate power of the Fire Tree and Silver Flowers depends almost entirely on the purity and concentration of the initial seed.’

Jiang Xuan was currently inside the book—the secret tome given to him by Yan Shouzhuo, the Valley Master of Xia Valley. This meant the *Mangzhong* seed within the book was a point of pure Flame Splendor.

Being Flame Splendor, it grew by absorbing the world’s light and heat, and only those things.

’This technique is strongest in summer and during the day. At night or in winter, its power is cut by more than half...’

Shaking his head, Jiang Xuan instinctively wanted to improve the Cultivation Technique. Though the Flame Beauty Seed was powerful, it had obvious limitations. He wanted to break past them and elevate the sword’s might to a whole new level.

And under the blessing of the Scripture Pavilion, Jiang Xuan’s Spirituality became exceptionally active. An idea for an improvement quickly formed in his mind:

’The Innate Qi Sword, condensed from the Five Viscera Origin Qi, can also become the Mangzhong seed... Since this Sword Seed possesses all Five Elements, it can absorb Five Elements Spiritual Qi from the world to grow. Its potential is far greater than that of a simple Flame Beauty Seed.’

With that thought, Jiang Xuan instinctively began to experiment.

And then he learned that theory and practice are two very different things.

Mangzhong: Fire Tree and Silver Flowers was, at its core, Swordsmanship. Its Growth and Bloom, therefore, relied on two things: explosiveness and speed.

The purity of the Flame Beauty Seed allowed it to bloom with incredible speed.

The Innate Qi Sword, however, was a different story.

Absorbing the Five Elements to make it grow sounded simple enough, but putting it into practice was riddled with complications.

First, he found he was completely unable to condense the world’s Five Elements Spiritual Qi into an Innate Qi Sword by will alone.

’Unifying the Five Elements has never been simple. Inside my body, the Five Viscera Origin Qi already belongs to me, and even then, I must rely on the Sword of the Spirit to forcibly fuse them. But the unowned Spiritual Qi of the outside world...’

Shaking his head, realizing that method was a dead end, Jiang Xuan’s Spirituality stirred, and another idea took root.

BOOM!

At Jiang Xuan’s command, the *Mangzhong* seed he unleashed with his Innate Qi Sword didn’t form a single entity. Instead, it split into five branches, each a different color.

He was attempting to perform "One Sword Transforms Five Elements," having each branch absorb the Spiritual Qi of its corresponding Attribute and then bombard the enemy with a Five-Colored Sword Light.

As Jiang Xuan made his attempt, the Five Elements Spiritual Qi of the world was drawn toward him by the Technique from *Mangzhong: Fire Tree and Silver Flowers*.

However, just as the Sword Momentum was about to form, the divided seed exploded violently, shattering into a cloud of Spiritual Qi fragments.

’Failed again...’

Sensing carefully, Jiang Xuan quickly found the crux of the problem. As the most fundamental form of energy, the world’s Five Elements Spiritual Qi was completely intermingled.

In that incredibly short time, he was simply unable to separate the absorbed Five Elements Spiritual Qi by Attribute and channel it into the correct branches.

Any mistake—water mixing with fire, metal clashing with wood—would trigger a violent explosion.

At this point, Jiang Xuan understood: optimizing a Cultivation Technique was far beyond his current capabilities.

He also understood why the Valley of Summer’s technique used only Flame Splendor for its seed. It wasn’t that they couldn’t conceive of other methods, but that the alternatives were simply too difficult to execute.

But even with this understanding, Jiang Xuan didn’t resign himself to creating a Flame Beauty Seed by the book.

His Spirituality, still hyperactive from the Scripture Pavilion’s blessing, soon caught another spark of inspiration.

’A Five Elements Spirit Seed *is* feasible. I just lack the control, or maybe a specific condition... But besides the Innate Qi Sword, I have something else I can use.’

VMM!

With a flicker of his will, a speck of crystalline white light flared within the Mountain of Books and Sea of Literature. It was the complete opposite of the scorching Flame Splendor; this was a bone-chilling light, imbued with the biting austerity and killing intent of the harshest winter. This Illusion Realm was not merely a creation of the book’s essence; Jiang Xuan’s own Heart, Spirit, and Soul Power were part of it, which meant he could infuse it with his own strength.

This wisp of crystalline light was the Seed of the Frosty Winter, condensed from Jiang Xuan’s own Frosty Winter Qi.

Once the Seed of the Frosty Winter manifested, Jiang Xuan immediately channeled the "Growth" and "Bloom" Dao Rhymes recorded in the Sword Manual, carefully applying them to the seed.

The Mountain of Books and Sea of Literature was a special kind of Illusion Realm. Its normal function was simply to allow Jiang Xuan an immersive learning experience.

But with his hyperactive Spirituality, Jiang Xuan had developed a second use for it: Simulation Deduction!

He could replace certain elements within the Mountain of Books and Sea of Literature, isolate a specific part of the process, and then continue the deduction from there.

Take the current situation: the secret tome documenting *Mangzhong: Fire Tree and Silver Flowers* had three core elements: the initial Flame Beauty Seed, the intermediate Growth, and the final Bloom.

Jiang Xuan replaced the "Flame Beauty Seed" with his "Seed of the Frosty Winter," then allowed the second element, ’Growth,’ to take over.

This procedure was undoubtedly flawed. But as stated before, the current Illusion Realm wasn’t just the book; Jiang Xuan’s own Power of Heart Soul was involved.

Therefore, as long as he expended his Heart Spirit and poured in his own power, he could sustain the Illusion Realm.

BOOM!

And so, with Jiang Xuan’s Heart Spirit straining to maintain it and a continuous infusion of Frosty Winter Qi, the crystalline white Seed of the Frosty Winter slowly broke through the soil. It gradually began to sprout, branch out, unfurl leaves, and blossom...

In just a moment, a Frost Silver Tree—crystalline white from root to tip and radiating a bone-chilling cold—stood firmly within the Mountain of Books and Sea of Literature.

Although this ancient, pale silver tree contained not a single trace of flame, it possessed a biting Sword Rhyme that was in no way inferior to the fire tree’s. When the cold wind swept past, it even rang with the sharp clang of swords.

A frigid gust swept by...