Immortal Soaring Blade

Everyone, welcome to 2021!  2020 has been an absolutely horrid year for many people on many levels, and I think many (most? all?) of us are glad to leave it behind.  With that said, I wanted to give everyone a preview for some of the things that are coming up in the coming few months for Wuxiaworld.

Front-End Site Redesign - This one has been a long time coming!  Historically, we've focused more on incremental changes and feature build-out rather than overhauling the site itself, but for quite a few months now...

Read More...

A soft sound of flowing water suddenly echoed inside the quiet room. The spiritual energy in the mountain was very dense, so the spiritual energy around Zhao Jiuge became very viscous compared to before.

Ripples gradually appeared in the originally empty air, and they all rushed toward Zhao Jiuge’s body while he cultivated. Zhao Jiuge was shocked when he felt the spiritual energy rushing toward him. The growth in his spirit force was far too fast.

How would Zhao Jiuge know that although the entire world was filled with spiritual energy, the density of spiritual energy was different depending on the environment. The Mysterious Heaven Mountain was a treasured land with thousand peaks connected together and many plants. There was also a large formation gathering more spiritual energy. Therefore, cultivating here took much less effort than elsewhere. Which of the seven holy lands didn’t occupy a treasured land or had a formation constantly gathering spiritual energy?

Back when Old Man Mysterious Heaven soared into heaven, his prestige rang through the Huaxia Dynasty. When he occupied this location, no one dared to even let out a fart. However, if not for the formation left by him, other people would have already made a move by now.

The entire Mysterious Heaven Mountain Range was covered in the Green Shadow Myriad Sword Formation. Normally, it would continue to gather spiritual energy, and when there was a great disturbance, it would use that spirit force to create thousands of sword shadows around the mountains. No even cultivators at the Mahayana Realm could break it.

Silk-like spiritual energy entered Zhao Jiuge’s body, then the Sanskrit Heart Sutra turned that into spirit force that nourished his body. Even to this day, Zhao Jiuge still wasn’t clear about the use of the smiling buddha in his dantian, nor the Sanskrit Divine Body. How would they change as his cultivation level increased? Was it just an increase in the number of golden dragons?

This problem was buried in his heart, but he couldn’t find anyone to help him solve this doubt, because the Sanskrit Heart Sutra had a mysterious origin, and he wouldn’t dare to expose this secret. Now he could only take it one step at a time and focus on cultivating. Once the time is right he will naturally understand.

Ding.

A crisp sound echoed inside his body, and the spirit force inside him became brighter and more dense. He finally broke through today.

Zhao Jiuge did not feel happy about breaking through to the mid stage of the Spirit Transformation Realm. After he recovered from his battle against the Ten Thousand Corpse Elder and then the battle against Daoist Yi Qing, his spirit force had already reached the point of a breakthrough. If he had time before, he would have already reached the mid stage of the Spirit Transformation Realm a long time ago, so this breakthrough felt natural to him.

The Spirit Transformation Realm was merely just a process of saving up spirit force to reach the Foundation Realm—there was no bottleneck to speak of. Only when he attempted to build his foundation to reach the Foundation Realm would he face any difficulties. The Foundation Realm was when cultivation truly began.

It was just like how the children at the village studied in private when they were young to lay the foundation for the future. If the Spirit Detecting Realm was entering the door, then the Blood Movement Realm was for transforming the body, and the Spirit Transformation Realm was for accumulating spirit force. The purpose of these three realms was to pave the way to forming the foundation formation. Once the foundation formation was formed, it would create the step to enter the Foundation Realm.

That was why this was a very important realm in cultivation. If the foundation formation was not built well, one would be doomed to not go far in the future. Just like building a high-rise building, how could it be built without a good foundation? Even if one managed to make it far, it would all collapse during Tribulation.

That was why after the Foundation Realm, every step was life and death. Building the foundation, forming the spirit core, and then forming the nascent soul all carried big risks. Just one misstep could lead one down the path of no return. That was why the Mysterious Heaven Sword Sect disciples all had solid foundations. The sect focused on teaching methods that made them take one steady step forward at a time.

First, refine one’s character, then hone one’s nature, and finally cultivate.

This was the Mysterious Heaven Sword Sect’s teaching method. Other schools relied on talent and gathering large numbers of disciples to be filtered out. After all, there would always be genius, but without a solid foundation, those geniuses were like fireworks. They would dazzle for a short period of time before disappearing.

That was why the Ten Thousand Dao Sect and Yue Hua Academy recruited a large number of disciples with very low entry requirements. The more disciples they took, the more chances of finding a genius among them. As this cycle continued, they would naturally become more powerful. However, after the Nascent Soul Realm, the shortcomings of these sects would begin to show. The cultivation speed of their sect members would decline. Although the Mysterious Heaven Sword Sect had few disciples, each person that reached the Nascent Soul Realm was still steadily improving.

Zhao Jiuge didn’t stop cultivating after reaching the mid stage of the Spirit Transformation Realm—he continued. After coming here, Zhao Jiuge was like a thirsty fish that was constantly absorbing spiritual energy to nourish his dried-up body.

His showing in the competition in three years would decide if he could enter the inner sect and learn the legendary Mysterious Heaven Sword Art. This would all depend on his effort in these next three years. In order to reach his goal, he couldn’t relax for a day. Breakthroughs didn't happen in a day, they required persistence, like with water dripping on stone. Even if he only gained a little spirit force each day, after a long time, he would have gathered enough to make a breakthrough.

When Luo Xie came back at night, he saw Zhao Jiuge sitting on his wooden bed, cultivating. Zhao Jiuge’s breathing was slow and the dense spiritual energy around him produced a strange scene. Luo Xie was surprised and secretly muttered about how diligent Zhao Jiuge was. Zhao Jiuge wouldn’t even waste this little bit of time and was already cultivating. Also, the spiritual energy here was far too dense, it almost had a viscous feeling.

He copied Zhao Jiuge and also began to cultivate on his own wooden bed.

Time passes extraordinary fast during cultivation. When the first ray of sunlight tore through the night and spilled onto the mountain peak, Zhao Jiuge’s closed eyes moved. His whole body seemed to awaken when the sunlight landed on his face, and he opened his eyes.

Because the light was a bit too dazzling, Zhao Jiuge had to squint. His face looked a bit lazy with the sunlight in his eyes, and he stretched his body before climbing off the wooden bed. Although he hadn’t slept all night, after cultivating, Zhao Jiuge looked like he was full of energy.

Zhao Jiuge observed Luo Xie on the other side. His ordinary-looking and even slightly ugly face had a serious expression and he was breathing calmly. The current him didn’t have the lecherous look he usually displayed. Zhao Jiuge felt like Luo Xie intentionally put up an act to cover his true self.

After hearing movement, Luo Xie suddenly opened his eyes and exited his cultivation state. When Luo Xie saw that there was someone standing before him, he was startled. His movement even caused the wooden bed to move a bit.

Then he saw Zhao Jiuge’s not-so-thick brows that were furrowed. He was seriously observing him.

Luo Xie relaxed a bit and whispered, “I was wondering who it was, you scared me. Coming next to my bed and looking at me so lecherously—if i didn’t know any better, I’d think there was something wrong with your orientation. No wonder you looked like you were trying to hide when that alluring girl was walking next to you.”

After he exited his cultivation state, Luo Xie returned to his originally lecherous state. As he spoke of that alluring girl, his eyes were filled with passion and spit flew out of his mouth. This made Zhao Jiuge seriously doubt his own thoughts just now. Was this really Luo Xie’s true nature? Zhao Jiuge felt helpless about this matter.

He was stunned by what Luo Xie had said. His mouth was slightly agape as he stared at Luo Xie. He didn't know what to say at this moment.

“Did I hit the mark and now you’re speechless and have nothing to say?” Seeing Zhao Jiuge unable to respond, Luo Xie quickly followed up. He even folded his arms over his chest. He had a lecherous look but still pretended to be afraid.

Zhao Jiuge suddenly felt like he had lost his temper against this hopeless person. He was afraid of what might come out of Luo Xie’s mouth next if he didn’t speak now. The corner of his mouth twitched a few times before he said in an unhappy tone, “With your looks? Even if you washed yourself clean and placed yourself on my bed, I would be too lazy to even look at you. What’s more, there is already someone in my heart.”

After Zhao Jiuge said this, two figures appeared in his heart. Even he found it strange and was confused about how to deal with this.

One figure was noble and cold, and wore a plain-looking dress. Her long, waterfall-like black hair fluttered in the wind. The night felt like it was just yesterday. The more out of reach that beautiful figure was, the more it coiled around Zhao Jiuge’s heart.

The other figure was delicate and spoiled but also lively. She looked hot-tempered, but her heart was like a stream of clear water that gently washed away all your negative emotions.

Zhao Jiuge also didn’t know when two figures had appeared in his heart. He revealed a self-deprecating smile and decided it was best to focus on cultivation. The strong would be respected. Without strength, everything was just empty talk.

If his cultivation was lacking, then how could he go find Su Su in five years? How could he take his self-esteem back from that proud figure?

At this moment, it was Luo Xie’s turn to stare at Zhao Jiuge. After Zhao Jiuge finished speaking, he seemed to have entered a trance. Sometimes he would smile, sometimes he would reveal a self-deprecating smile, and sometimes he would show a silly expression like he thought of something happy.

That look of intoxication made it seem like he was immersed in his own memories. Now it was Luo Xie’s turn to be stunned silly. He didn’t expect the handsome and cold Zhao Jiuge to have this cute side. Luo Xie strengthened himself to not laugh out loud, because he was afraid of disturbing Zhao Jiuge’s current state.

Finally, he couldn’t hold it any longer after seeing Zhao Jiuge’s constantly changing expression and awakened Zhao Jiuge.

Seeing Luo Xie laughing, Zhao Jiuge’s face turned a bit red and he felt a bit embarrassed. At most, he felt angry due to embarrassment and shouted, “What’s there to laugh at? Today is the first day of class!” After he finished speaking, he ignored the laughing Luo Xie and left first.

After seeing Zhao Jiuge’s back, Luo Xie could not help but bend over laughing while holding his stomach. He decided he was going to tell this to everyone, and he left the room in a good mood.

Previous Chapter Next Chapter