286: Chapter 285: The Secret of Tongxuan 4 [Seeking Minimum Guarantee at the Beginning of the Month] 286: Chapter 285: The Secret of Tongxuan 4 [Seeking Minimum Guarantee at the Beginning of the Month] Hou Niao gave a cursory glance over these so-called Body Sword Skills, sighing in his heart.
It was a necessary evil; they could not abandon the traditions of Sword Cultivators, yet wielding a sword and being unable to strike at anyone was truly awkward.
He figured that these skills were gradually added by the predecessors, somewhat superfluous, but understandable.
It reminded him of the helpless feeling Zheng Shixie must have had when facing the Ghost King—a desire to fight but no power to change the outcome.
It was precisely because these Sword Cultivators couldn’t master Flying Swords that they had to focus more on Techniques, but how could Techniques possibly compare to the well-honed skills of the Daoist and Buddhist Sects?
Thus, they fell into a vicious cycle, gradually drifting from their original path.
In the end, they focused mainly on Technique attacks, relegating Swordsmanship to a close-quarters option for special circumstances.
Without specialization, they became average, and their decisive advantage in combat as Sword Cultivators was lost.
Such a vicious cycle.
After a moment of reflection, he left the Sword Storage Tower with his sole acquisition of the day—the Quanzhen Sword Form True Understanding—two days and nights having passed, with a weariness of the heart from all he had seen.
He chose an abandoned quarry outside Jin City.
Overgrown with weeds and strewn with rocks, it had been deserted for many years.
Since it had no value for cultivation or construction, it was left untouched.
Hou Niao had only noticed this ownerless wasteland when flying into Jin City.
For him, it was perfect: he could practice to his heart’s content without worrying about damaging anything with his Flying Sword, considering the place was already in disrepair.
He still hadn’t referred to the insights of the three predecessors but planned to produce his own Flying Sword before making any decisions.
He knew his own path well; being cautious was not his style.
Combat was inevitable, and without superior Sword Technique, he would sooner or later become a stepping stone for others.
Sitting cross-legged on a bare, large rock, he began to study the Quanzhen Sword Form True Understanding seriously.
An hour later, he exhaled deeply; this Flying Sword was not something disciples below the Tongxuan Realm could cultivate.
There were four critical prerequisites: the nature of Mana, the Sword generating Sword Consciousness, a clear internal vision of the Purple Mansion, and a stable bridge channel—each one indispensable.
The specific process involved guiding the Sword to the internal vision of the Purple Mansion using a special Sword Transformation Skill, leading to the Sword Hidden in Purple Mansion coexisting with the internal vision, thus nourishing the Flying Sword continuously without pause.
If the quality of Spiritual Power was insufficient, the Sword could not be transformed.
Without generating Sword Consciousness, the Flying Sword wouldn’t reach its destination and respond to summons.
A stable bridge channel prevents it from getting lost, while a clear internal view of the Purple Mansion ensures it doesn’t collapse when a Flying Sword enters.
Each condition was essential.
Thus, nurturing a Sword within the internal view of the Purple Mansion allowed it to grow strong and slowly develop an ethereal connection with the Cultivator.
When deployed, it soared without falling, darting agilely as if it was an extension of one’s body; with further advancement, it could even replicate more Flying Swords within the Purple Mansion, all clones of the Lonely Sword.
Upon encountering an enemy, they would fill the sky, Ascending Swords like dragons.
Of course, Dividing Swords was a matter for after the Golden Core stage.
When Hou Niao was a Disciple, he often saw his Uncle Master wielding Flying Swords and always wondered where he hid them—in the Upper, Middle, Lower Dantian, or somewhere else?
How could a large Flying Sword be concealed within a Cultivator’s body through the method of Reality and Illusion?
Now he finally understood.
It wasn’t literally inside the body of a Cultivator, for a human body couldn’t contain a Sword—it wouldn’t fit horizontally and vertically, it would stick out from the mouth if one sat down…
no, that was impossible.
The Purple Mansion was a place on the cusp of reality and illusion; it truly existed and determined the Cultivation process of a Cultivator.
Yet it also did not exist, as it wasn’t physically located in any specific acupoint of the body.
This refers to the trick of the Dao of inner Cultivation, which regards the human body as a small universe.
“Spirit Shu·Evil Guest”: “This person corresponds with heaven and earth.” To put it more simply, the natural world (the macrocosm, the whole) and people (the microcosm, individuals) are interresponsive, reactive to each other, and reflective of one another.
Hiding here, there really is no need to consider the size of the Sword, it can be infinitely large, and of course, infinitely small; it is both separate from the Cultivator’s body and unaffected by the external environment, always with the Cultivator, just like a person’s spirit, unless dead, otherwise inseparable in life and death, with no outsider able to stop a Cultivator’s connection with the inner landscape of his Purple Mansion.
Such a method isn’t unique to the Quanzhen Sect, only that other Schools and Daoist traditions don’t nurture Flying Swords, they can nurture other things, like Magical Treasures, Spiritual Beasts, and so on; each treasure nurtured within a Cultivator’s Purple Mansion is called a lifebound treasure, and once lost, it’s not merely the loss of the treasure, but the long-term mutually steeped inner landscape of the Purple Mansion will also be affected.
Therefore, Cultivators are extremely careful when training their treasures, they must choose those with good growth potential and unlimited potential for training, otherwise, if they change treasures every time they advance a Realm, then each treasure nurtured within the Purple Mansion will have very limited time, and thus will not reach their maximum power.
In this respect, Quanzhen Sword Cultivators who specialize in swords have an advantage, as they pour all their efforts in their entire lives into this single Flying Sword, never to change it again.
Having understood all this, Hou Niao took a deep breath, ready to begin; he had already met the prerequisites for training his Flying Sword, this is the benefit of cultivating Sword Consciousness in advance.
Taking Lonely Sword and laying it across his knees, the Sword Consciousness connected, following the Sword Transformation Method taught, Magic Power from the Dantian surged out, slowly enveloping the entire Sword; once this step was completed, he then used the Bridge of Reflection path in the mysterious Purple Mansion, the illusory path, and the physical Lonely Sword to construct a bridge between them.
He operated very slowly, being his first attempt he was extremely cautious, he definitely didn’t want to transmit the Lonely Sword away or for the Lonely Sword to be repelled by the Sword Orchid in the inner landscape of the Purple Mansion; these are issues to watch out for during the sword hiding process, and they were elaborately explained in the Sword Form True Understanding.
It took him a full fifteen minutes, but finally, the Lonely Sword completely disappeared, and in the next moment, within the inner landscape of the Purple Mansion, beside that Sword Orchid, the Lonely Sword suddenly appeared; the two interacted with each other, testing each other, accepting each other, because from now on, they would never again be apart.
This familiar process was very slow under Hou Niao’s control, as first acquaintances are always somewhat reserved, requiring a process, demanding time; according to the Sword Form True Understanding, after an hour, when he no longer felt any repulsion between the Sword Orchid and the Lonely Sword, he realized that this important step had been completed.
Standing up, his gaze fixed on a dead tree ten yards away, he shouted, “Fast!”
An arm’s length from him, the Lonely Sword suddenly appeared out of thin air, lurching forward, and instantly the dead tree as thick as a bowl was cut off halfway up!
Upon his command, the Flying Sword turned back, but the speed was much slower, partly because of the depletion of power, and partly because Hou Niao intentionally controlled it; he didn’t want to accidentally pierce himself with his first attempt at recalling the Flying Sword.
There were many such jokes in the history of the Quanzhen Sect.
The Flying Sword slowly returned, and Hou Niao applied the Sword Transformation Technique again; since it was already connected with the Purple Mansion, the process was very fast, and within a few breaths, it re-entered the Purple Mansion, smoothly completing his first mastery of Flying Sword maneuvers.
While the process was slow, real combat was out of the question, but with persistent practice, instant sword release isn’t a dream.