Chapter 26: The Spiritual Realm
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You invested a hundred strands of worldly essence into the Supreme Profound Sword Qi.
The Supreme Profound Sword Qi is a sword technique that transforms one's internal energy into an indomitable force of sword qi, unleashing it externally to strike down enemies with unparalleled sharpness.
In the first year, you devoted yourself to cultivating the Supreme Profound Sword Qi, dedicating five hours each day to practice. The proficiency of the technique increased rapidly.
After one year, your Supreme Profound Sword Qi advanced to the minor accomplishment stage, allowing you to project sword qi within a distance of three zhang to kill enemies.
In the second year, you continued your focused cultivation, and the Supreme Profound Sword Qi became ever more refined. Since your martial cultivation, flesh, bones, and meridians had already reached the innate realm, your progress with the Supreme Profound Sword Qi was swift and effective.
Your Supreme Profound Sword Qi reached the grand accomplishment stage, enabling you to project sword qi within ten zhang to slay foes.
In the third year, you continued your dedicated training. All your internal energy became as strong and vigorous as pure yang, imbuing your sword qi with the same qualities and greatly increasing its power.
In the fourth year, through diligent practice, your internal energy could continuously transform into Supreme Profound Sword Qi, and you could now unleash sword qi without relying on any weapon.
In the fifth year, your Supreme Profound Sword Qi broke through to the sixth level.
In the sixth year, despite your focused efforts, you made no progress; the technique could not break through its current bottleneck.
Seventh year...
Eighth year...
Ninth year...
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On the Record of Worldly Beauties, the deduction of the world’s fate continued, and the consumption of worldly essence drove the relentless progress of the Supreme Profound Sword Qi.
For some unknown reason—perhaps a missing opportunity—the Supreme Profound Sword Qi remained stuck at the sixth level, unable to advance.
Zheng Yi, however, remained patient and persisted in his efforts.
In the tenth year, there was still no progress in the Supreme Profound Sword Qi.
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By the twentieth year, you had converted all your internal energy into Supreme Profound Sword Qi, able to release it from any angle at will.
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In the thirtieth year, convinced that quantitative change would bring about qualitative transformation, you began compressing the Supreme Profound Sword Qi, increasing its density and sharpness.
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In the fortieth year, you continued compressing the Supreme Profound Sword Qi.
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In the fiftieth year, you finally succeeded in compressing all the Supreme Profound Sword Qi within you into a single strand.
This single strand of Supreme Profound Sword Qi was incomparably pure, residing within your body and responding instantly to your will. It could be projected up to a hundred zhang to kill enemies in an instant.
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In the sixtieth year, your mastery over this strand grew more refined. You could transform it at will into different sword qi to strike down enemies. The more you split the sword qi, the weaker each became.
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By the seventieth year, you could freely convert your internal energy between Purple Sun True Qi and Supreme Profound Sword Qi, and your very constitution began to change subtly.
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In the eightieth year, you began to quietly refine the Supreme Profound Sword Qi, seeking to comprehend the true intent of the sword.
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In the ninetieth year, you vaguely sensed an ineffable sword intent, causing your mastery of the sword to soar.
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In the hundredth year, while practicing, you happened to unleash a single strike—neither the wind nor the sword moved, only intent moved—and the earth split open. You broke through the innate realm.
Your martial cultivation stepped into the Spirit Communion Realm.
"It’s done!"
Zheng Yi exclaimed in delight. A hundred strands of worldly essence and a century of effort—he had finally, through the Supreme Profound Sword Qi, broken through the innate realm and entered the Spirit Communion Realm!
In the Spirit Communion Realm, a martial artist can use their will to attune to the primal energies of heaven and earth, imbuing every move and technique with this power.
The stronger the martial artist's will, the higher their cultivation, and the more powerful their techniques become.
Normally, to reach the Spirit Communion Realm, a martial artist must survive countless life-and-death battles and gain profound understanding of mortality.
But Zheng Yi achieved this with the consumption of a hundred strands of worldly essence and a century of time.
He exhaled slowly, ending the deduction, and the century’s worth of Supreme Profound Sword Qi instantly merged into his being.
A mysterious aura enveloped him, and all his internal energy surged, transforming into countless fine threads of sword qi, now stored within his dantian and body.
At the same time, with a mere shift of intent, these fine threads of sword qi fused and circulated rapidly, forming a single, pure strand of sword qi.
He extended his right hand, forming a sword with his fingers.
With a thought, an invisible strand of energy gathered at his fingers.
Supreme Profound Sword Qi.
Zheng Yi carefully examined the sword qi hovering above his fingers. Though illusory and shapeless, it was undeniably real.
He could faintly sense an overwhelming surge of searing energy, sealed within this tiny pocket of existence.
With a single thought, he could release it, annihilating any foe before him as easily as breaking dry twigs.
Moreover, this strand of Supreme Profound Sword Qi could be divided into countless weaker strands, each capable of striking down enemies.
He was unsure of the full might of a century’s worth of Supreme Profound Sword Qi, but it was easy to imagine its devastating power.
After several days’ rest, Zheng Yi returned to his meditation chamber and began cultivating the Invincible Heavenly Gang Body, a technique of external refinement.
Since his martial cultivation had already reached the Spirit Communion Realm, he possessed an innate understanding of this innate-level technique and mastered it with ease.
As the saying goes, mastering one art leads to mastery of all.
With his Spirit Communion Realm foundation, nearly all techniques were instantly comprehensible.
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Within three years, the Invincible Heavenly Gang Body reached a state of divine mastery.
Another ten years of cultivation stabilized its power, making the technique even more formidable.
Afterwards, Zheng Yi relied on worldly essence to practice various other martial arts copied from the arsenal.
In lightness and movement arts: the Nine Transformations of the Spirit Serpent, Cloud-stepping Ascent, Grass-leaping Flight, and Chasing the Stars and Moon.
In hidden weapons: Eight-Armed Arhat, Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers, and Yin-Yang Life and Death Talisman.
In palm techniques: Eight Trigram Palms, Wandering Dragon Palms, and Profound Yin Palm.
In fist techniques: Arhat Fist, Great Strength Demon Bull Fist, Seven Wounds Fist, and Spirit Serpent Fist.
In sword techniques: Sword of the Wind, Sword of the Storm, Soul-stealing Death Sword, and Duality Sword Technique.
There were also techniques for concealing one’s presence, such as Turtle Breath, Embryonic Breath, and the Sealed Breath Bottle Technique.
Over a hundred martial arts secrets were mastered by Zheng Yi in just over a month, thanks to the use of worldly essence.
Because these techniques were of low grade, and with his current Spirit Communion Realm strength, most required only a single strand of worldly essence to achieve divine mastery.
Thus, Zheng Yi could now be called a Martial Arts Grandmaster.
The consequence was clear: the worldly essence was nearly depleted, and he needed to replenish it quickly.
Unfortunately, despite the many martial classics, he had yet to encounter any true cultivation texts and could not progress further in the path of cultivation.
His martial cultivation stood at the Spirit Communion Realm.
His cultivation realm remained at the first level of Qi Refinement.
However, according to the records, his martial prowess at the Spirit Communion Realm was comparable to that of a late-stage Qi Refinement cultivator.
Upon leaving the meditation chamber, Wang Zhonghai immediately greeted him. "Your old servant pays his respects to the Grand Emperor."
"What is it?"
"Reporting to the Grand Emperor, it’s nothing urgent. The Beauty Cicada has sent another bowl of her personally prepared lotus seed and lily porridge."
"Beauty Cicada?" Zheng Yi asked in surprise, "How many times has she sent porridge this month?"
"This is... the fifth time."
"Five times? Interesting..."
Zheng Yi’s interest was piqued. Was this woman vying for favor?
But he was not the emperor; no matter how much he doted on her, she would remain nothing more than a beauty, never to be granted the title of consort, let alone empress.
Could it be... she had some other motive?
After a moment’s thought, Zheng Yi gave his order. "Tonight, summon Beauty Cicada to attend me."
"At once!"