Chapter 885: Chapter 884: The Arrival of Restlessness
In the blink of an eye, twenty years have passed.
Hou Niao meticulously counted the achievements he had reached during this period, as if in a dream.
His Cultivation had firmly stood at the Golden Core Mid Stage. He couldn’t claim that his Mana wasn’t a shortcoming, but at the very least, he wouldn’t be at a significant disadvantage against others. Even when encountering someone like Lou Yi from the Golden Core Late Stage, his Flying Sword wouldn’t just leave a few white marks.
However, on the stage of Hell Star, there were too many prodigies, all top figures from the same Realm across the Universe Myriad Realm. On the Jinxiu Continent, he could stand out, but here he seemed quite ordinary. At least in terms of Cultivation, most visitors from the Upper Realm had deeper Cultivation than him. This wasn’t because of his inadequate talent, but because the twelve of them in this group had relatively short Core Formation times, and Cultivation needed time to be honed.
His sword frequency remained at twenty breaths, not because it couldn’t increase, but because he didn’t focus much on this aspect. What he needed was a very stable sword frequency, not one that randomly overclocked. The best way to increase sword frequency was to master the Fire Element and Gold Element, not just to rapidly turn the Mysterious Light!
During these twenty years, he was most proud of two achievements: one was Sword Transformation, and the other was sword speed.
With Yue Duo’s adjustments and the help of specialized spiritual power Cultivation Techniques, his spiritual power made significant progress. He had now raised Sword Transformation to four, still not catching up to Yue Duo’s five. The further one advanced in Sword Transformation, the harder it became. He estimated that he would have to stay at Sword Transformation four for a long time.
It was because Sword Transformation had improved that Sword Light Division no longer required certain sword frequency. Even with twenty swords at once, a single division could result in eighty swords, but he couldn’t yet achieve a second complete division because of insufficient spiritual power. He couldn’t control more than three hundred Flying Swords, still some distance from Yue Duo, but there was room for expectation.
A year ago, he completed an important dividing line in swordsmanship: Sword Energy And Thunder Sound.
The process was arduous, taking him nearly twenty years. The principle was to stimulate the activity of different attribute facets of the Five Elements Mysterious Light, creating attribute conflicts in an otherwise peaceful Five Elements Mysterious Light interface. Using such a conflicting interface to cut the Sword Seed allowed the Flying Sword to surpass the speed of sound.
It sounds simple, but it’s hard to execute. A slight oversight in controlling the Five Elements Mysterious Light could lead to failure. It’s necessary to generate Five Elements conflicts and make the conflicts controllable, challenging one’s ability.
Fortunately, he found the right path. After twenty years of persistence, he finally turned theory into reality.
Imagining sword light faster than sound, nearly three hundred Flying Swords at once—such a strike was a world apart from before and represented a substantial leap in his strength.
The only regret was that his sword gathering was not yet refined. He could only achieve a Unification Sword with under two or three hundred Flying Swords, anything beyond was hard to come by and could only be slowly overcome through practice.
These things are all hard indicators of Sword Cultivator data. As Yue Duo said, he could now barely be called a Qingkong Sword Cultivator and wouldn’t disgrace himself too much by going out.
There was also an improvement in soft strength, unseen and untouchable, which lay in the change of sword-wielding style, a hard-learned aspect for him.
Ascending Sword, as Yue Duo put it, needs to be engraved in the bones and integrated into the blood.
For twenty years, he practiced his sword every day under the constant pressure of Yue Duo’s Flying Swords, unstoppable and unpredictable. He couldn’t stay in one place, and people shouldn’t guess the next direction of his Vertical Escape—always in irregular motion, to the point where he himself wouldn’t know where his next Ascension would be.
At the same time, he had to maintain stable sword frequency, sword speed, Sword Transformation, and sword control during such relentless Ascension and Vertical Escape—this was the true challenge.
After twenty years, his entire body had been pierced with Yue Duo’s Flying Swords. A slight hesitation would result in a bloody hole, sparing no vital areas.
He had protested, but Yue Duo had her reasons. Some things are beneficial in being less, like being more focused?
Such prolonged indoctrination resulted in him using all kinds of angles to pick up a dish at dinner, wishing he could change ten latrines during a bowel movement, always moving while sleeping or meditating. The worst was that even his speech became jumbled, striking left and right, leaving people unsure of what he truly intended to say.
He’d gone mad.
Yet Yue Duo was quite satisfied. She hadn’t been able to strike him for quite some time, and he was about to graduate.
One day, after their sword exercise, Yue Duo called him over, "At Xiao Mountain, after disciples reach proficiency, they undertake a mission to prove themselves—a promise to both master and Sect.
I’m not your master, so you don’t need to prove anything to me, but the Xiao Mountain Sword Lineage requires it. You’re already proficient in swordsmanship, and a ceremony is needed to verify these twenty years of learning.
At Xiao Mountain, it always involves a blood baptism, and here is no exception."
"Who? Where?"
Yue Duo said plainly, "Visitors from the Heng River, Sharma, in Sizhou."
Hou Niao stood up, delighted to finally have a chance to be away from the tigress for a while, "I’ll be back."
Watching him get up unhurriedly and leave without delay, the urgency barely showing under controlled expression, Yue Duo revealed a rare smile.
Very good, neat and straightforward, no hesitation or excessive questioning. At Xiao Mountain, Sword Cultivators execute missions like this,
Who? Where?
Enough.
These twenty years genuinely had been worrisome and trifling years. She had never taught someone like this before, a first and likely a last in her life.
This guy surprised her daily, but she never let the surprise show, instead becoming increasingly strict. Of course, she also benefited greatly during this process, sensing his chasing steps right behind, so close, forcing her to also strive forward.
Only like this could she maintain the dignity of a senior sister and prevent any rebellious thoughts. But even maintaining this for the past year had been challenging. She knew that she was slightly unable to suppress him any longer, still relying on leftover prestige. Eventually, it would be exposed, and would then this guy still be like a Pekingese constantly barking around his senior sister and elder sister?
Everyone grows, and she was growing, too. But this guy grew incessantly, heedless of the regular pace of growth, once unleashed, impossible to stop.
She knew this guy had many things uniquely his own that he hadn’t revealed. What would happen when he truly did, could she still suppress him?
He needed to be released, even eagle training must have limits, occasional blood supports growth.
Took out a Jade Scroll, left a letter on it, and then buried the Jade Scroll in a place known only to both of them.
Lifted herself and, without lingering, merged into the Cloud Sea, disappearing without a trace.