Chapter Nineteenth: The Sword Soul Classic
(Recommended for collection, work has been signed)
Returning to the Purple Bamboo Institute, I went to Duan Qingyun to take away today's food. In this Chaoyang Palace, apart from their group of disciples, there were also some disciples in charge of daily affairs, also known as outer sect disciples. The so-called outer sect disciples were not because they had a lower innate talent than the inner sect disciples like Lu Qing, but because they had a lower innate quality and absorbed less yuanqi than ordinary people. They relied on their family's offerings to the sect to be taken in, and normally wouldn't receive guidance from their master. There were also many trivial matters that needed to be handled, and many other conditions were far worse than those of the inner sect disciples. In general, they were no different from servants.
However, even so, there are still people eager to come in. After all, being one of the five peaks of Zixia can make the thickening of heaven and earth's original energy more intense than that at the foot of the mountain, which is very beneficial for absorbing original energy. Moreover, the atmosphere of cultivation in Chaoyang Palace is strong, and the benefits of cultivation and enlightenment are subtle and imperceptible. Even on ordinary days, getting along well with inner sect disciples can still get some valuable guidance. Over a thousand years, there have even been lucky ones who broke through to the Sword Guest stage by virtue of this. Although the Sword Guest stage is only considered an ordinary high-level expert in Zixia Wufeng, this is the concentrated area of power and resources of the Zixia Sect. In the sect's domain at the foot of the mountain, a single town with a Sword Guest stage expert is already considered top-notch, and for those small, local forces, it is the highest level of expertise, even enough to change the course and status of a small family.
So, although Chaoyang Peak only has more than 50 disciples, Lu Qing knows that this is only the number of inner sect disciples. Some outer sect disciples have nearly two hundred people. It can be said that if it weren't for Xuanqing personally bringing him in, with Lu Qing's qualifications, even if he wanted to enter, he would have to go through rigorous tests.
Returning to his own room, the marks on the floor from the bamboo broom indicated that an outer sect disciple had carefully swept it clean. The bedding on the bamboo bed was neatly folded, and the table and chairs were spotless, making Lu Qing very satisfied. He gently lifted the bamboo bed and reached underneath to retrieve the Nianyun Sword. Since it was inconvenient to practice swordplay with the Nianyun in hand every day, he had left it in his room, but fearing others might see it, he hid it in a gap between the bamboo slats under the bed, as few people could resist the temptation of such a divine sword.
He finished the carefully roasted pheasant meat and a bowl of fragrant chicken soup in his food box, and Lu Qing rubbed his belly contentedly. For these disciples below the rank of sword guest, three meals a day were still necessary. It wasn't until they reached the Sword Yuan realm that they could drink some mountain spring water and eat some vegetables every day. Not until they condensed their sword soul and entered the realm of the true sword masters on the mainland could they refine their physical body with the primordial energy of heaven and earth, reaching the state of not eating human food, known as the Bigu state.
Sat down on the bed, placed the Nianyun Sword horizontally on his knees. According to Xuanying's words, this way can borrow the spiritual purity of the Jintian-level divine sword to introduce the heavenly and earthly primordial energy, which is very beneficial for the initial purification and growth of the sword primordial energy.
The Rising Sun Heart Sutra began to operate, and Lu Qing only felt the air around him slightly fluctuating. The warm and gentle heavenly energy was immediately attracted over, passing through the pores of his skin into the meridians, where nearly half of it was wrapped in the constantly flowing Sword Energy, gradually refining into a flow of energy that originated from the same source as the Dan Tian. The remaining half, after circulating within his body, flowed out again through the pores on the surface of his skin. Despite Lu Qing's efforts to restrain them, these heavenly energies seemed to have a mind of their own, hesitating for only a moment before departing in succession. Lu Qing knew that this was already his limit - he had managed to retain about five layers of energy. If there weren't any extraordinary encounters that defied the heavens in the future, it would stop at this point and wouldn't change with the evolution of his cultivation. This was a natural endowment, subject to the will of heaven.
At the same time as the Kokoro Heart Sutra, there is also the Soul Refining part of the Jianhun Jing that Xuanqing had previously imparted. The text of this Soul Refining part is extremely profound and it took Lu Qing a whole day to roughly understand its operating principles. There are still some phrases and sentences that he only half understands, which will require further cultivation to fully comprehend later on. Currently, he is only at the initial stage. According to some fragmented words in the Jianhun Jing, Lu Qing discovered that this Soul Refining method seems to be divided into five parts: Nourishing the Soul, Refining the Spirit, Condensing the Soul, Forming the Corpse, and Void Spirit. It appears to correspond one-to-one with the Five Great Realms of Sword Dao, but possibly because Xuanqing only obtained a fragment, this incantation stops abruptly at the Forming the Corpse stage.
But Lu Qing didn't have any regrets, in his opinion, being able to condense the sword soul was already a blessing he had cultivated for thousands of years, how could he dare to harbor any delusions about reaching the realm of the Sword God Continent's most revered and divine-like Sword Spirit Master? After all, in the 50,000-year recorded history of the Sword God Continent, there were countless examples of those who successfully advanced, either having had heaven-defying encounters or being an unparalleled genius with the support of great powers, and only after countless diligent practices did they achieve success. So, Lu Qing was already content if he could just succeed in cultivating this half of the soul-refining part, as for the latter half, whether it succeeded or not was completely unimportant.
His mind was calm and peaceful, with the only movement being the gentle flow of Qi along the route of the Heart Sutra in his lower abdomen. Lu Qing poured all his energy into the Sea of Consciousness in his Brow Point, eliminating all unnecessary thoughts to enter a state of meditation without any distractions. However, after two hours, there was no reaction except for a few slight movements at the Shenting acupoint. On the other hand, the growth of Qi in his lower abdomen was slightly faster than usual, and now it occupied more than 70% of his entire lower abdomen, which was a significant progress compared to the nearly 60% when he first arrived at the mountain.
Opening his eyes, Lu Qing's eyes showed a hint of puzzlement. He didn't feel anything special, at most he just felt more spirited than usual when meditating day and night. There was no other obvious change, but Lu Qing wasn't discouraged by this. If it were that easy to have a feeling, then the Sword Soul Scripture wouldn't be worthy of being cultivated by an ancient swordsman. It must have its own unique aspects.
As soon as he thought of this, Lu Qing closed his eyes again, and the Xu Ri Xin Jing operated continuously, while sinking his mind into the Shen Hai Shen Ting. In the state of no thoughts and no desires, Lu Qing only felt that the darkness in meditation was so vast and boundless, no matter how hard he tried to explore with his divine thoughts, he couldn't find the end, there were only countless vague bright spots changing unpredictably, with blurry trajectories, impossible to comprehend.
One night passed, and Lu Qing still didn't feel the initial cool breeze in his sea of consciousness as mentioned in the first layer of Nourishing the Soul. However, his body no longer felt the slight fatigue he used to experience after a night of cultivation, and instead, his mind was clear and his energy was full for the first time.
This made Lu Qing involuntarily feel a little delighted. Originally, he had been aware that the time was short and still practiced meditation at night, although his sword energy had also improved, but due to physical limitations, it was not as fast as daytime practice, and sometimes even affected his daytime cultivation. But last night's initial practice of the Sword Soul Scripture solved this problem for him, and it can be said that from now on, he truly had twice the amount of time to cultivate compared to others.
A month passed just like this.
The bright moon, the sun just rising, a golden white torrent crashes against the precipitous cliff's jutting rocks and plunges straight down, rushing into the pool of water below, stirring up swirling waves of white foam. In front of a massive black boulder near the waterfall in the pool, a tall and proud young figure stands quietly in the water, his long black hair disheveled, his upper body bare, his muscles slightly bulging, though not to the extent of bulging veins, yet looking so harmonious, the connection between skin and flesh like flowing water, able to unleash full strength in an instant.
In his right hand was a broad-bladed giant sword over five feet long, with no sharp edges on either side. At first glance, it looked clumsy, but when held in the young man's hand, it gave off a faintly heavy aura.
Wow!
The great sword danced up, and the air was suddenly filled with a loud whooshing sound. Amidst this thunderous waterfall-like sound, another faint hum could be heard. The boy's body moved in tandem with the sword, as the blade drew a perfect arc above his head.
A loud shout suddenly chopped down——
Boom!
The pool's surface seemed to have been hit by a landslide, and a yard-high splash of water flew out in all directions. After the sword body entered the water surface, the young man's body retreated several steps, dragging the big sword across the pool surface, turning his body, and moving the sword body into a horizontal position, a clear purple light swept across.
Hmph!
Only to see the giant stone behind the young man suddenly burst into a flying spark, the entire pool surface seemed to be shaking, even the calm pool surface on the shore was rippling with waves. The young man let out a low hum, his great sword spinning several times before plunging straight down into the crevice of the pool's bottom, his right hand trembling slightly. Only to see that within a few feet around the young man, the pool surface suddenly erupted in pale water flowers, like boiling spring water churning ceaselessly, not calming down until much later.
During this time, the boy's lower body was stable, and the part of his waist that was submerged in the water didn't move a single thread, as if it had been embedded in the bottom of the pool for many years like an unyielding rock.
"Good——" At this time, two voices of applause sounded from the shore, Yu Ji and Duan Qingyun looked at each other, and they saw surprise in each other's eyes, but soon relaxed, because they both knew how hard it was for the young man in the pool to cultivate, which could no longer be described as just diligent. Others may not know, but their fellow disciples living in the same courtyard clearly did. Every time it was quiet at night, the gathering of heaven and earth's energy in the courtyard clearly told them the difference between diligence and hardship.
"Congratulations, Lu Qing," Yu Jihua said with some emotion. "I didn't expect you to grasp the concept of adapting to circumstances so quickly. Congratulations on your great improvement in swordsmanship!"
"Ah, ah!" Duan Qingyun couldn't help but twitch the corners of his mouth, "This swordsmanship is almost as good as mine! If you successfully build your foundation, I'm afraid even if I don't go all out, I won't be able to defeat you, you freak!" The two spoke in succession as they walked towards the young man who had just arrived on shore. And this young man was none other than Lu Qing.
