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Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
Looking at the notes, Lu Ye could tell that his third senior brother, Xiao Xinghe, did not use the same weapon as him. The Inviolable was a saber, while his third senior brother’s weapon was a massive blade with a flamboyant design. Therefore, many of his insights were not really suitable for Lu Ye.
That said, he found himself resonating with many of Xiao Xinghe’s more generic insights. Despite the contrasting designs, they both fell under the same fighting style: the blade.
In fact, the generic insights were exactly what Lu Ye needed right now. Even the unsuitable ones could be used as reference materials. This was what the ancients meant when they created the saying, “A rock is no jade, but it can be used to refine one.”
Despite Lu Ye’s achievements, his cultivation was actually lacking in many ways. It was because he was basically a self-study since the day he unlocked his first Spiritual Point. Neither Shui Yuan, the Sect Master, or Lady Yun were able to help him much especially when it came to blade techniques. No one had ever given him a systematic education in the cultivation of blades.
Normally, a sect cultivator would be tutored by an experienced instructor. In Lu Ye’s case, he needed to find an experienced blade tutor to teach him.
However, the Crimson Blood Sect did not have such a person. In fact, the sect was only made up of Shui Yuan and the Sect Master before he officially entered the sect. The former was a medicine cultivator, and the latter a spell cultivator. He doubted that they had touched a blade their whole lives.
That was why his current attainment in blade techniques was purely the result of his blood, sweat and tears. Not only was it an incomplete style with no particularly powerful techniques, it was mostly based on convenience. Any way that could kill the enemy faster was an acceptable way so to speak.
A style built purely on ending the enemy’s life in the shortest amount of time possible wasn’t bad. In fact, it was incredibly dominant against enemies who were weaker than him. However, battles against powerful foes who were on par or stronger than him were also much longer. The lack of explosive finishing moves was a major reason for this.
Right now, Lu Ye’s biggest flaw in terms of blade techniques was his lack of finishing moves. He had already realized this after the battle against Shi Guang. That was why he had created Flash. Unfortunately, he was unable to perfect the finishing move to this day.
His third senior brother’s insights had inspired him greatly. It was exactly what he needed right now.
If the Yuan Metal Storm hadn’t appeared out of nowhere, Xiao Xinghe would have requested Lu Ye to visit the Blue Emperor City’s headquarters so he could teach him in person. Since the Yuan Metal Storm had disabled the Divine Opportunity Column’s ability to teleport between Jiu Zhou and the Spirit Creek Battlefield, he had no choice but to entrust Xiao Changhe to pass his insights to Lu Ye instead.
In the building, Lu Ye was sitting in a meditative position and holding his palms upward. The Inviolable was lying quietly on his hands.
While inhaling and exhaling deeply, he tried to sense the saber in front of him.
This was a cultivation method. According to his third senior brother’s notes, Spirit Artifacts were more than just weapons, and those that had survived thick and thin with their master and wet their appetite on their enemy’s blood even more so. At this level, a Spirit Artifact wasn’t just a Spirit Artifact anymore. It was a lifelong partner that their master could entrust their life to!
By using this special cultivation method, the blade cultivator could forge a profound connection with their weapon and achieve what people called the Blade Communion!
… Or so his third senior brother claimed. To be honest, Lu Ye thought that this was just superstition. After all, a Spirit Artifact was just an object. How could it possibly form a spiritual connection with him?
Still, he decided to give it a try. Lu Ye was planning to cultivate for a couple of days straight and see if things would work for him. If it didn’t, then he would ask his third senior brother for guidance when he had a chance.
It should be obvious, but the Inviolable was the Spirit Artifact he had chosen to commune with. Since he embarked on this journey, he had used only three Spirit Artifacts in his life. The first one was Manager Yang’s sword, and the second one was a saber he had obtained from his enemies at Green Cloud Mountain. The blade shared almost the same shape as the Inviolable, but unfortunately it was destroyed during the Battle of Goldentip because it was too weak.
After the Battle of Goldentip, Lu Ye had purchased the Inviolable from the Vault of Providence. He was only a Fifth-Order cultivator back then.
Today, the blade had accompanied him for over a year, and he literally could not remember how many foes he had slain with it.
Lu Ye was extremely pleased with the saber. Even if his cultivation outstripped the blade in the future, he was planning to buy a better Spirit Artifact with the exact same shape.
At first, Lu Ye couldn’t feel anything special. Then, he felt as if the saber in his hand was actually breathing in tandem with him. The feeling was weak at the beginning, but it gradually grew to the point where it felt like his saber was truly alive!
At some point, something suddenly flashed inside the dim room. It was also accompanied by the sound of something being unsheathed, jolting Lu Ye out of his trance. When he looked down, he saw that the Inviolable had been unsheathed partially before he knew it!
Right now, the Inviolable felt very different from usual. Instead of a tool that was purely used to slay his enemies, it actually felt like an extension of his own body!
He unsheathed the saber completely and gave it a casual wave or two. The movement felt much more smoother and natural like… yes, like he was moving his own fingers!
[Is this what they call a Blade Communion?]
Lu Ye clicked his tongue in amazement. He did not think that this particular section of his third senior brother’s notes was true. He was even more surprised that he had succeeded so easily even though he didn’t really think it would work.
His cultivation level hadn’t increased, and his number of Spiritual Points was exactly the same as before. However, Lu Ye knew that he had taken a big step on the Way of Blades.
[There’s something else…]
Lu Ye thought for a moment before sheathing the saber. Then, he closed his eyes and tossed the blade and the sheath somewhere. He maintained the special cultivation method while doing so.
Because he had closed his eyes before he threw the Inviolable, he did not know where he had tossed his saber. However, he could vaguely sense where it was even though his eyes were still closed!
He rose to his feet and slowly took seven steps in a certain direction. Then, he bent down and extended his hand. He was able to grab the Inviolable in first try!
With this, the first step to cultivate his blade technique was complete!
Lu Ye thought only a short time had passed, but his growling stomach told a different story. When he inquired Hua Ci about it, he was even more surprised to learn that three days had passed since he began his training.
Lu Ye almost thought that the woman was tricking him yet again—he really didn’t feel like that much time had passed—but when he messaged an acquaintance, he realized that it really had been three days.
Later, Hua Ci served Lu Ye a table full of nightmarish-looking food because of his distrust. He couldn’t even escape because Hua Ci was standing right there and smiling at him. He forced himself to eat them all while Amber watched on with a sympathetic look on his face.
Once his appetite was satisfied, Lu Ye returned to the third floor and sat down once more. He started breathing while holding his saber again.
Just because he had achieved Blade Communion with the Inviolable didn’t mean that he was done. The method was supposed to be performed continuously so that his connection with his saber would continue to deepen. The greater the connection, the more powerful his attacks would become!
Lu Ye made up his mind to spend two hours cultivating this special cultivation method every day after that. Unlike other cultivators, he did not need to inhale or exhale Spiritual Power when cultivating, so he might as well spend some of that time cultivating his connection with his saber.
Two hours later, he left the wooden building and went to the courtyard. However, Hua Ci was nowhere to be seen. He was sure that that woman was cultivating at her secret spot as usual, and frankly Lu Ye was a little curious about her methods. Ever since she came to the Myriad Poison Forest, her cultivation had been improving by leaps and bounds. He strongly suspected that she was close to achieving Heaven Nine.
At the courtyard, Lu Ye unsheathed the Inviolable and assumed a pose. Then, he channeled his vitality into his right arm exactly as his third senior brother had mentioned in the booklet and swung the weapon!
Since he couldn’t channel his Spiritual Power, the attack wasn’t really all that powerful. However, Lu Ye could tell that it was faster and stronger than his normal attacks!
[So this is what I’ve been missing all this time!]
Previously, he had been trying to perfect Flash to no avail. It was because he kept feeling like he was missing something. He finally realized what it was after going through his third senior brother’s insights. The blade technique was missing his vitality!
Normally, he executed Flash by channeling his Spiritual Power into the Spirit Artifact and swinging the saber via brute strength. The former was instinct, and the latter was a product of a powerful physique.
Most of the time, cultivators fought using Spiritual Power. In that sense, a cultivator without Spiritual Power was like a mortal with a stronger body than normal.
It was only now that Lu Ye realized one of the biggest problems with his fighting style.
He relied too much on his Spiritual Power and too little on his own body.
Before this, his Flash was made up of eighty percent Spiritual Power and twenty percent physical strength. It might even be less than that.
Flash would be perfect if he could increase the percentage of his physical strength to forty or even fifty percent. His explosive power would skyrocket as well.
So how could a cultivator more effectively channel their physical strength?
By shifting their blood!
Vitality was the source of one’s physical strength. Why were body-tempering cultivators physically stronger than all other factions? It was because they possessed a lot of vitality. And why was Lu Ye physically stronger than the average body-tempering cultivators? It was because his vitality was greater than theirs.
However, he had never learned how to use his tremendous vitality properly. It was basically a mountain of treasure that had been left to waste until now.
The Blood Shifting technique was the perfect solution to this problem.
Once again, his third brother’s booklet of insights had aided Lu Ye tremendously.
Now was the time to cultivate the Blood Shifting technique because the Yuan Metal Storm not only froze the World Spiritual Qi, but also the Spiritual Power in a cultivator’s body. Right now, the only power he could rely on was his vitality!
The environment also helped him to perceive the flow of his vitality better.
He concentrated hard to focus his vitality in his weapon arm. In just a moment, the arm had turned red and hotter than normal!
Lu Ye did not stop until he felt like he could push any further. It was only then he swung his saber!
A blood red flash came and went. It wasn’t the light of his Spiritual Power, but his vitality.
This attack was at least fifty percent stronger than the one before!
