“Of course! How could a sword practitioner exert his Sword Intent and undergo the test without a sword in hand…” Before Dan Xiaotian could finish his words, the truth suddenly dawned on him, causing his lips to twitch. “Ah… I tossed the sword away after my test… Teacher, it can’t be that you tried the test without a sword in hand?”
Due to his usual swordsmanship being too weak, he had eventually resorted to the sword toss… and because there was no wall in front, he had no idea where the sword had gone, so he could not retrieve it.
He had not thought much into it then, but when his teacher asked that question, he suddenly found himself utterly dumbfounded.
How could one exert Sword Intent without a sword?
This was just like trying to squeeze milk out of a bull! How could you squeeze something that did not exist?
Even so, his teacher had still achieved the same result as him.
He really had managed to squeeze milk out of a bull.
How did he manage to do it?
Dan Xiaotian felt as if he was going mad.
“Cough cough…” Hearing Dan Xiaotian’s explanation, Zhang Xuan felt a stifled feeling in his chest.
The heck! After all of the effort I put into it, it turns out that the reason my result is so poor is because you lost the sword!
How did I end up taking in such an unreliable student?
It’s no wonder I couldn’t even reach one meter! In the end, it wasn’t my problem at all…
“Keep this matter to yourself. I’ll be going to cultivate!” Sighing deeply, Zhang Xuan waved his hand before returning to his own room.
He meditated for a moment to assuage the stifled feeling in his chest before taking out the Book of Heaven’s Path once more.
He had wasted a golden page just to seal some sword qi. No matter what, he had to make sense out of what was going on!
Thus, he flipped open the Book of Heaven’s Path and tapped his finger lightly on the sword qi that was swimming around freely.
Hu!
A surge of knowledge flowed from the tip of his finger into his consciousness, leaving him with a splitting headache in an instant. It felt as if something was squeezing against his head, attempting to burst it open. Following which, the deep chime of a bell echoed loudly in his mind.
“The Way of the Sword is not a true path belonging to the heavens. It’s a path created by humans…” A voice began speaking, and before long, Zhang Xuan found himself completely immersed in it.
This interpretation of swordsmanship was far more advanced than what he had learned, such that even the Heaven’s Path Sword Art felt like a small hill standing before a true mountain.
While the Heaven’s Path Sword Art was flawless, that was only so by the standards of the heavens of the Master Teacher Continent. In the face of this swordsmanship, it was truly full of flaws.
This was similar to how knowledge that one had learned in one’s earlier years might not necessarily hold true by the time one reached university.
The pursuit of knowledge was an endless journey, and even the heavens were not a constant force that stagnated on the spot. New creations were constantly brought into the world, and the heavens assimilated those new creations into their system.
What was deemed the truth one day might become nothing more than a joke a hundred years later.
It’s no wonder I was unable to adapt easily to the spiritual energy in the Azure back then even though I cultivate the Heaven’s Path Divine Art… It turns out, to the heavens of the Azure, my cultivation technique is filled with flaws.
Speaking of which, if the heavens of each world have their own definition of what is right and what was wrong… does an absolute gauge of what is right and wrong truly exist?
Every single country had its own laws and culture. What was right in one country might end up warranting the death penalty in another. Was it the same for the heavens?
After all, what the heavens of the Master Teacher Continent deemed to be right was being rejected by the heavens of the Azure.
If so, does it mean that everything I have cultivated is actually flawed?
Zhang Xuan suddenly felt a splitting pain in his head.
Ever since he started cultivating two years ago, he had held unwavering trust in the Heaven’s Path Divine Art. He had believed that it was right because that was how the Library of Heaven’s Path reflected it to be, but it turned out that even ‘perfection’ was a relative concept depending on the heavens of each world.
This left him feeling a little terrified.
He tried to drive his cultivation technique, but in a momentary daze, he heard a voice in the depths of his consciousness shouting at him, This is flawed!
He tried to execute his battle technique, but the same voice shouted back at him, Flawed, flawed, flawed! They are all flawed!
His eyes slowly reddened as steam began rising from the top of his head. His zhenqi billowed furiously, and it seemed as if something was going to erupt from him.
If a cultivator was watching this scene, he would surely understand.
This young man’s cultivation had gone berserk!
Zhang Xuan had never faced any hiccups practicing the Heaven’s Path Divine Art, but less than half a month after he arrived in the Azure, his cultivation had actually gone berserk!
And from the looks of it, it seemed like he would be crushed if he failed to overcome this ordeal.
Hong long long!
As Zhang Xuan’s faith started to crumble, the Library of Heaven’s Path in his mind began trembling nonstop. It was as if an earthquake had struck, and the entire library was on the verge of falling apart.
His doubt was destroying everything within him.
Pu!
The pressure placed on his body finally reached a limit, and blood spurted from his mouth.
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Weng!
Just as it felt like everything would descend into chaos, the red pendant that Zhang Xuan wore around his neck suddenly emanated a warm glow and embraced him.
This warmth felt soothing like the morning sun, and it swiftly calmed down Zhang Xuan’s flustered mind. His reddened eyes also slowly reverted back to normal.
As his consciousness slowly cleared up, an answer slowly emerged before him.
I see. It isn’t that what I have learned is wrong, but it was just limited in terms of perspective. When viewing things from a higher angle, one is able to get a more complete picture of everything…
This reminded him of the story of blind men touching an elephant. One touched the leg of an elephant and said that it was like a pillar. One touched the stomach and said that it was like a wall. One touched the tail and said that it was like a snake…
Were they wrong?
From an individual perspective, what they were saying was not wrong, but on the whole scale of things, their answers deviated from the truth.
This was the problem caused by being unable to view things from a broader perspective.
However, given how deep and profound cultivation was, it was impossible for anyone to get an oversight of what cultivation truly was. Perhaps the Library of Heaven’s Path was the existence closest to achieving that, but even it was not entirely infallible. It was limited by the world that it was in.
The Azure was of a higher dimension than the Master Teacher Continent, and it harnessed a bigger trove of information for cultivators to work with in order to perfect their arts. That was why he was starting to find flaws in the techniques that he practiced.
It was not to say what he had practiced was wrong, but when what he had learned previously was applied to the greater and vaster world of the Azure, his previous knowledge proved somewhat limited.
It was the same as what was going on now.
This was similar to scientific knowledge in his previous world. There was no doubt that newer and more complete theories would eventually be formulated, but that did not render everything that they were currently learning meaningless.
Rather, the current scientific knowledge of today served building blocks that could be used, removed, added on to, or reshaped in order to broaden their horizons and further what they already know.
So, that’s how it is, Zhang Xuan thought.
With this comprehension, the Sword Intent finally fused together with him, granting him an even deeper understanding of swordsmanship.
The Speed Sword Quintessence, Strength Sword Quintessence, and Defense Sword Quintessence that he had learned previously flowed through his head and swiftly fused together to create a complete swordsmanship system.
It’s no wonder no one on the Master Teacher Continent was able to fuse the many Quintessences together as one. Back then, it was thought that it was an impossible feat due to the vastly different attributes of each Quintessence… but it turns out that isn’t the case. The problem is that the angle at which they are looking at swordsmanship was simply too low!
He had heard from his father, Zhang Zhenxing, that there were very few people who had comprehended two Sword Quintessences, and those who had mastered three Sword Quintessences barely existed in the world. Given so, fusing them together felt nothing more than a pipe dream.
He had tried searching for a way then but to no avail. Eventually, he had attributed it to a lack of corresponding books and the limitations of his talent…
But from the looks of it, it simply meant that Master Teacher Continent had not been ready for it then.
Take the famous scientist, Isaac Newton, from his previous world for example. Did he discover gravity just because an apple fell on his head?
No, that was not entirely right. It was because he was already standing on the shoulders of giants. There were countless scientists before him who had propped up the accumulation of knowledge to a level where he could finally open the door to a new world.
The Master Teacher Continent simply had not reached a sufficient level of accumulation in order to open the door to new swordsmanship yet.
Weng!
As the understanding of the various Quintessences fused into one in his head, Zhang Xuan’s aura swiftly grew. His presence was becoming more and more like a sharp sword. His physical body, zhenqi, and soul were undergoing immense refinement and tempering.
With such a level of swordsmanship, I’ll be truly invincible within my cultivation realm!
The reason there was no one who was a match for him in the Ethereal Hall was simply because Starlight City was far too remote.
But as he traveled to the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion and felt the conceptualization from the massive sword at the entrance, he had come to realize that he was not as strong as he thought he was. However, in his current state, even if the Ten Li Sword God back at the Sword God Hall appeared before him, he was confident that he would be able to defeat the other party in a battle of swordsmanship.
Weng!
After fusing with the Sword Intent, the golden page suddenly blazed up and vanished with a puff of smoke.
“It wasn’t a waste at all…” Zhang Xuan chuckled softly as he opened his eyes once more.
That Sword Intent seemed to have put him on top of the shoulders of a giant in an instant, pushing his swordsmanship to levels that he would never have imagined possible before. From that alone, he had profited hugely.
Otherwise, even if he had ten years or a hundred years to himself, there was no saying whether he would have been able to comprehend this much.
“Ruoxin, thank you,” Zhang Xuan muttered as he clasped the red pendant hanging around his neck.
When his cultivation went berserk earlier, his mind had been a complete mess. He had already lost control over himself, and even the Library of Heaven’s Path had nearly been destroyed by that calamity. It was the pendant that Luo Ruoxin had given him that had saved him in that crucial moment.
Could it be for the same reason that she had placed the Great Codex of Spring and Autumn in the Library of Heaven’s Path? Did she anticipate some kind of scenario where he would require the Great Codex of Spring and Autumn in the future?
Anticipate?
Zhang Xuan lowered his head to take a closer look at the red pendant. With a crimson as deep as blood, it still looked as conspicuous as it previously did. But for some reason, Zhang Xuan felt like it had turned a little dimmer.
Just who in the world are you?
She knew about the Library of Heaven’s Path, and it was clear that she had predicted that something like this would happen. The more he came to know about her, the more mysterious she seemed to become.
“I shouldn’t waste time idling around here anymore. I should find the sect leader or the elders and challenge them. Hopefully, I can get some news regarding the Spirit God Palace from them,” Zhang Xuan muttered as he stood up and walked out.
Walking into the courtyard, he found the subordinate whom he had recently taken in and issued him his first mission. “Cao Chengli, I have something I need you to do. I want you to look into how the Ethereal Token of the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion can be acquired, and if it’s convenient, I want you to bring a couple of them to me!”