136: Chapter 135: The Thunder Formation of Spring 136: Chapter 135: The Thunder Formation of Spring Everything went smoothly, except for his own cultivation.
After this period of explosive training, he had successfully advanced Qi’s puzzle to Shi’s puzzle, yet still saw no opportunity to solve it.
Would he really live to old age still puzzled as ever?
His two dantians were now like two black holes, which seemed full, but each influx of spiritual inspiration could stretch them further, like a balloon.
He had no idea where the limit was.
Would he burst from the pressure and end up with a useless dantian?
In the cultivation world, such situations were not uncommon; it was the case of greed not being satisfied until it swallowed more than it could handle.
He wasn’t being greedy; he simply had no other choice.
As long as his dantian could still be filled, he wouldn’t be able to achieve the effect of fasting, and this was the source of his frustration.
The battles within the Soul Realm, however, proceeded in an orderly fashion.
Every time he would encounter soul beings of various forms and engage in all sorts of strange life-and-death battles.
To be honest, he lost more than he won.
Even when facing Magic Soul Bodies or other types of soul bodies, the gap in knowledge made his response extremely challenging.
In his current realm, he could only remain at the level of wielding his sword.
He once entertained the idea of learning a Five Elements-oriented technique to increase the power of his sword, but this too proved difficult to choose.
For example, Dou Gong’s Fire Sword, was based on his family’s assistance and secret techniques to determine that his Five Elements Attribute was inclined towards fire, thus the choice.
But the Quanzhen Sect did not offer such Five Elements assessment to low-rank disciples upon initiation, believing that premature determination was not necessarily beneficial and also quite troublesome, usually provided after a cultivator reached the Tongxuan realm.
Hou Niao, of course, had no family or connections; a lone undercover spy bedded here, it was hard for him to find ways in these aspects.
Various reasons left him no choice but to continue with his Ancient Extreme Sword Technique.
Fortunately, there was still room for growth, and he was slowly figuring out how to use the Extreme Sword Skill to counter Magic Divine Power.
To deal with the endlessly strange Magic Divine Powers, his forte in swift and fierce combat was of little use.
What proved effective was the other side of swordsmanship: stillness, softness, slowness, lightness, emptiness, and illusion!
This level of swordsmanship was much more profound than just wielding the sword with sharp and aggressive force.
For most cultivators, it was something they might not achieve in a lifetime, but as long as the Soul Realm persisted, he would continue to improve.
He always believed that it wasn’t about suddenly understanding something at a certain time; what was important was continuing to progress, step by small step, so when you finally couldn’t go any further, you would find you had reached a height others could only look up to.
Time passed unnoticed amidst his busyness until early March arrived.
In the Yinling Wilderness, the weather warmed more slowly than other regions, so it was still cold, and the ground hadn’t thawed yet, but…
Hou Niao, within the Soul Realm, was engaged in a fierce intellectual battle with two Magic Soul Bodies.
Facing these two who kept their distance and aggressively cast Techniques, he struggled to close the gap and thus could only focus on training his sword defense against spells, a different kind of swordsmanship practice.
After such an extended period of trying, he had some insights into slowness and softness.
Whenever a spell was cast at him, he could now accurately assess its basic nature and then decide whether to quickly block or drag and gently lead it?
In most cases, he responded with slowness and softness.
In the midst of this, he sought to break down the magic power with the Qi Gang on his sword…
It was an interesting process.
It might not satisfy his urge for slaughter or give him the thrill of sweeping all before him, but it was a hurdle he had to overcome!
Otherwise, his swordsmanship would never rise to a new level.
Resolving spells sometimes succeeded, sometimes failed; success was experience, failure even more precious, but it required bearing the cost in Soul Body Energy.
His trial in the Soul Realm was essentially such a process, until he could no longer withstand the spells raining upon him, crushing him into debris.
While in the midst of battle, he suddenly felt the Purple Mansion Vortex shake, a tremor so faint yet so distinct, that through the perception of his physical body outside the Soul Realm, he realized something had occurred.
A spring thunder, quietly unfurled in the evening, even affecting his Purple Mansion Vortex!
Inspiration struck, his longsword moved; he silently observed the impact of the spring thunder on the structure of his Purple Mansion and then channeled that sliver of Thunder Force into his sword’s glow, striking from afar…
The Magic Soul Body in front of him, as if struck by a mighty spell, instantly disintegrated, and the other Magic Soul Body blasted him into debris.
Emerging from the Soul Realm, a thought crossed his mind.
He wasn’t clear if this was happenstance or inevitability.
If it was inevitable, might he have found a way to further enhance his combat power?
He walked to the window, pushed it open, and into the dark sky came the faint rumble of thunder, intermittent, almost imperceptible, yet he felt nothing.
Stepping out of his room into the yard, he still came up empty-handed.
Deciding to leave the fort, he stood still in the wilderness.
The thunder felt so distant, as if he and the thunder existed in two separate worlds—he knew not the thunder, and the thunder took no notice of him.
Feeling a bit downhearted, he also understood that he was perhaps asking for too much.
How could a mere Essence Building minor cultivator, with no formed mana, still dominated by Spiritual Power in his dantian, and ignorant of the Heavenly Dao and his own shallow understanding, grasp such an exalted and forbidden power?
Among the cultivators he had encountered since entering the path, those who could wield even the slightest Five Elements Power did so not through their own real power but through inscribed arrays on their swords, like Dou Gong’s Fire Sword.
This was not a real understanding of the Five Elements, but rather forcing Qi Gang into the sword through a converted formation, a shortcut that amounted to borrowing against future abilities.
In major cultivation sects, this practice was discouraged.
Of course, for families with some heritage, preparing handy tools for their descendants was not necessarily blameworthy.
It was common to see swords affiliated with the five fundamental properties: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
Rarely did one see variant attributes because the demands on artifact making and array inscribing were high.
True artifact crafters and array masters were reluctant to waste time and resources on a low-rank cultivator’s sword just to let them kill a few more minor demons.
Wind, ice, thunder, and more were desired yet unattainable dreams for minor cultivators.
If swords were , imagine how hard personal comprehension would be.
Without mana, it was a fantasy, and to possess mana, one must reach Tongxuan.
Hou Niao shook his head, feeling he was getting ahead of himself.
The frost comes early in the yin lands, and the warm weather urges on.
Snow has not been seen in the deep winter, but already in January, we hear thunder.
If thunder has come, can the rain be far behind?