Chapter 835: Sword Fiend

This handle came from a broken sword found in Blood Color Fishing Village. Ink Painting hadn't taken it out or handed it over to the sect before, mainly because its origin was a bit unclear to explain.

Moreover, on the broken sword, there was still some karma related to "Tai Xu Divine Thought Transform Sword". He wanted to keep it for research.

Once handed over, everything would be gone.

But the true secret of Divine Thought Transform Sword, besides the basic "Transform Sword Style", required a deep foundation in the sword dao and guidance from experts on the key points to comprehend the more advanced sword styles. He couldn't understand it just by looking at it a few times.

Ink Painting had researched it several times before but gained nothing, so he temporarily put it down. Later, there were too many other matters, and he simply forgot about it.

He had too many secrets on him, and quite a few things with unclear origins. One more wasn't much.

This handle of a broken sword was naturally just left at the bottom of the box. Now that he had obtained the Water Prison Forbidden Box and learned the "Divine Soul Out of Body" path through the "Forbidden Map" of the Dao Prison within it, Ink Painting only then thought of this broken sword again.

Ink Painting touched this ancient and old remnant sword, broken after a bitter battle, and felt some emotion in his heart. The master of this sword must have been a predecessor of Tai Xu Sect. To be able to cultivate Divine Thought Transform Sword to such a level, they must have been an astonishing talent and a favored child of heaven in the past.

From the karma in the broken sword, the sparse scenes he could deduce showed that this predecessor, in their youth, had their entire body condensed with sword qi, their sword intent pure, revealing astonishing power. They must have delved deeply into the sword dao and were an outstanding sword dao genius.

Ink Painting sighed. "Such an astonishingly talented predecessor, their life sword was also broken."

"I wonder about others?"

"A broken life spirit sword necessarily causes great vital energy injury and damages the dao path..."

Thinking of this, Ink Painting was startled. "Could this predecessor... have already fallen? If they truly fell, then their corpse and bones should be buried in the back mountain?"

Ink Painting felt inexplicably sad. "If I have the opportunity later, I can go to the back mountain to look and find a way to return this broken sword to its original owner..."

After all, for a sword cultivator, the sword is their second life. The sword and the sword cultivator live and fight together; they die and are buried together. So this could also be considered repaying this predecessor for the kindness of indirectly gifting him the Divine Thought Transform Sword method.

Ink Painting nodded.

Immediately, Ink Painting thought again, "This predecessor's name seems to be called 'Xuan Er'?" This was the name elders used for juniors. Ink Painting felt it wasn't respectful to call him that, so he silently said in his heart: "Senior Xuan."

Ink Painting remembered this name and then began to formally ponder the sword secret.

"Shock God Style" is the true secret of Tai Xu Divine Thought Transform Sword, a more advanced sword style based on Transform Sword Style. Ink Painting deduced the karma of the broken sword once again and watched the process of "Senior Xuan" learning Divine Thought Transform Sword's Shock God Style in his youth.

This time when he re-deduced, the scenes in the broken sword were dimmer, and the sounds were more intermittent. Obviously, the karma on the broken sword was slowly dissipating, and deducing the karma accelerated this process. Ink Painting only deduced it once and didn't dare to do it again, fearing that the karma on the broken sword would completely dissipate. He only firmly remembered the seen pictures and heard sounds in his heart and then carefully and solemnly put the broken sword back into his storage ring.

In the karma, the images and sounds related to "Shock God Sword" were no different from before, perhaps even a bit more blurry. But the current Ink Painting was different from before. Previously, he didn't understand. But now that he had mastered Transform Sword Style and understood the principle of "Divine Soul Out of Body", thinking back to the various pictures in the karma, Ink Painting's heart gradually enlightened.

Tai Xu Divine Thought Transform Sword takes Transform Sword Style as its foundation. From the perspective of "Divine Soul" theory, the so-called Transform Sword Style's essence is to transform and give birth to the sword's "Heart Image". That is, to have a sword in one's heart.

While Shock God Style, on the basis of transforming the sword, integrates the sword's "Heart Image" into the "Divine Soul", thereby condensing a truly lethal "Sword Intent" containing divine soul power. Shock God Sword, with its extremely sharp and majestic sword intent, shocks others, even all evil spirits, making them fearful and dreading without even fighting. This seems to be of the same origin as the method in Water Prison Gate's Seven Souls Blood Prison Pupil Technique, which integrates the heart image of the punishment prison into the divine soul to nurture killing qi into the soul.

Only, although the two grand dao they research are vastly different, one is sword dao, one is punishment prison, their specific applications are also greatly different.

"Shock God Sword Style..." Ink Painting closed his eyes and sat in meditation, his divine consciousness sinking into his sea of consciousness. In the sea of consciousness, his divine thought avatar opened its eyes and at the same time, began to condense divine thought, manifesting a rough sword weapon in its hand.

"This is my heart, the sword's 'Heart Image'..." Ink Painting sighed, feeling a bit helpless. It was so shabby... Although it looked golden and flashing, its shape was too simple, just a primitive "Sword" prototype.

"Never mind, I'll make do with it..." Ink Painting shook his head. He was a sword dao cultivator halfway through; he couldn't demand so much.

And then, according to the method of Shock God Sword he deduced from the broken sword, he formally began to cultivate the sword secret. He integrated his understanding of the sword dao into the "Heart Image". He engraved the sword's "Heart Image" into his divine soul. At the same time, according to the sword secret of Shock God Sword, he repeatedly tempered his divine soul, stimulated sword qi, and made the divine soul and the heart image merge into one, fusing into true "Sword Intent".

The means of the divine soul are formless and intangible, mysterious and profound. But for Ink Painting, who was already proficient in the divine thought dao, manipulating his own consciousness and performing various changes was familiar.

Ink Painting could feel that his divine thought sword was slowly integrating into his divine soul. This process was accompanied by some pain. And this hint of pain also made Ink Painting's perception of his own life soul and seven souls clearer. He felt that his divine soul was being tempered by the sword secret.

And after several temperings, the sword intent in Ink Painting's divine soul also slowly emitted an inexplicable and astonishing momentum. The sharp sword intent made people's hearts tremble. Ink Painting's gaze also gradually became sharp. The power of the sword intent contained in his body was also slowly climbing...

But after climbing for a period, it soon stopped, and it was difficult to make any further progress. It seemed that it could only stop here. Even if he continued to temper his divine soul and fuse his sword intent with "Shock God Sword Style", the momentum of the sword move could no longer climb.

Ink Painting vaguely had a feeling that this was his current limit. He opened his eyes, took out a mirror, shone it on his obedient and pretty face, then his gaze condensed, urging "Shock God Sword Style". Through the mirror, he could clearly see that his gaze was slowly brightening, and at the same time, the sharpness of the sword intent in his eyes made it difficult for people to look directly.

But that was all. Compared to Water Yan Luo's pupil technique, it was far inferior. At least when Water Yan Luo displayed his pupil technique, his eyes were blood red, as if soaked in blood, and there were monstrous shapes within them roaring crazily, carrying an extremely thick killing qi. Regardless of the power or effect, it was much stronger than his own sword dao "pupil technique".

"If it's not even as good as Water Yan Luo, then how can this be..." Ink Painting propped his chin and began to think about exactly where things went wrong.

Thinking back and forth, Ink Painting felt that it could only be for two reasons: one was his foundation in the sword dao, and the other was the method of out-of-body travel. Subjective divine consciousness is based on objective external things. In other words, "Sword Intent" needs to be based on the foundation of the sword dao.

The foundation of the sword dao refers to the effort a sword cultivator puts into the sword dao from childhood to adulthood. This includes years of learning, practicing, and comparing swords, as well as polishing, thinking, and comprehending sword methods, which together form a kind of sword dao experience. These don't come from nothing. They are the dao polished by a sword cultivator year after year through hard work, a fusion of their own sword methods, skills, insights, and comprehensions. This is something you either have or you don't. Ink Painting obviously didn't have it.

Moreover, this cannot be "enlightened" out of the blue. Enlightenment is built on long-term practice and thinking. Just like he paints arrays every day and constantly thinks about the principles of arrays, someday in the future, it might be possible for him to have "enlightenment" in arrays. But someone who hasn't learned arrays can't enlighten anything about arrays. Similarly, someone who hasn't practiced swords can't enlighten sword methods.

Ink Painting had hardly touched a sword before entering Qian Xue State Boundary. From childhood to adulthood, he hadn't learned a single sword move. Naturally, it was impossible for him to have any foundation in sword dao skills, experience, and insights. His foundation in the sword dao was extremely poor. This also determined that the "Sword Intent" he cultivated was necessarily weak, and the power of the pupil technique containing sword intent was naturally not as expected. This is the first point.

Besides, there is another point, which is the method of out-of-body travel. The master of the broken sword, that is, "Senior Xuan", used the means of "Borrowing Sword Out of Body". That is, after the sword intent goes out of the body, it attaches to the sword, which both amplifies the power of the sword qi and enhances the killing qi of the sword intent. Not only Senior Xuan, but the successive sword cultivators of Tai Xu Sect before him possibly also used the means of "Borrowing Sword Out of Body". The problem lies precisely in this "Sword". Ink Painting does not have a spirit sword. His foundation in the sword dao is weak, and what he controls are "self-destructing style" spirit swords. He doesn't have the life sword that other sword cultivators have, which is nurtured from childhood, has a telepathic connection, and will be used as a magic treasure in the future. Therefore, he also has no way to borrow a sword to go out of the body.

The sword intent is not strong, and the power of the pupil technique is not strong. Without the amplification means of a sword weapon, the power further declines. Therefore, this Tai Xu Shock God Sword Style, lacking so much power out of thin air, on the contrary seems somewhat useless.

But Ink Painting was also a bit unwilling. How could Divine Thought Transform Sword only have this much power?

"But how to do this well?" Ink Painting frowned, thinking hard for a long time, but found no clue. Somewhat dejectedly, he lay back on the meditation mat, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

One is a sword method, one is a pupil technique... The sword method emphasizes sword intent and borrowing a sword to go out of the body. The pupil technique nurtures killing qi and borrowing the eyes to go out of the body. Now he has abandoned killing qi and changed to sword intent, borrowing his eyes to go out of the body. Without the deterrence of killing qi, without sharp sword intent, and without the amplification of borrowing a sword weapon, it is equivalent to abandoning all the advantages of these two methods, and instead, his disadvantage in the sword dao is brought to the extreme...

"Should I just endure and practice the sword little by little later?" Ink Painting shook his head. It was too slow. The foundation of the sword dao emphasizes the grinding of water dropping on a stone. It cannot be practiced in a day or two. What's more, if he starts practicing now, by the time his sword dao has achieved some small success and this move of Shock God Sword can show its might, he doesn't know what year and month it will be...

"I need to find a way..."

"When encountering matters, one cannot be rigid; one needs to be flexible."

"The ten thousand laws of the world, ten thousand changes; the wonder of application lies in one's heart..."

Ink Painting continued to sink into thought. He was now essentially borrowing the "Out-of-Body Method" of Water Prison Gate's Seven Souls Blood Prison Pupil to display Shock God Sword. If Shock God Sword was strong enough, then there would be no problem. But his current foundation in the sword dao was weak, and Shock God Sword was not strong enough. Then he still couldn't abandon the original framework of the Seven Souls Blood Prison Pupil Technique for the time being.

"Then..." Ink Painting's inspiration flashed, "Why not fuse Shock God Sword Style into the framework of the Seven Souls Blood Prison Pupil's pupil technique?"

"But how to fuse?" Ink Painting continued to frown and meditate.

Shock God Sword cultivates sword intent and borrows a sword to go out of the body; Blood Prison Pupil nurtures killing qi and borrows the eyes to go out of the body. First, he is not a sword cultivator, so the means of "borrowing a sword to go out of the body" can be directly ignored. Then all that is left is to cultivate sword intent, nurture killing qi, and... borrow the eyes to go out of the body. So, it becomes a fusion of sword intent and killing qi, borrowing both eyes to go out of the body?

If the sword intent is not strong, then use killing qi to make up... At the same time, use the righteous Tai Xu sword intent to neutralize the gloomy killing qi in the punishment dao?

Ink Painting's heart skipped a beat, and his gaze became increasingly bright. "It seems... I can try?"

Ink Painting suddenly sat up and took out the Water Prison Forbidden Box again. He had the idea; the next step was how to specifically do it. How to fuse the sword intent of Shock God Sword and the killing qi of Water Prison Gate's punishment prison?

Ink Painting thought for a long time and couldn't help but scratch his head. One inheritance was a sword secret, and the other was a forbidden map. The two were completely unrelated; how could they be fused? "Indeed, some matters are easy to think of, but difficult to do specifically..." Ink Painting sighed in his heart.

He recalled the process of Senior Xuan cultivating "Shock God Sword" in the karma images again, and then stared with wide eyes, looking blankly at the Water Prison Forbidden Box. Swords, prisons, torture instruments, sinners...

By a fluke, Ink Painting's heart suddenly skipped a beat. A sword is a weapon of killing. Killing and injuring people will naturally have killing. The punishment prison is for punishing sinners. Then using a sword to replace torture instruments to punish sinners is not just a kind of nurturing killing? Moreover, it is a combined nurturing of sword intent and killing qi!

Thus, he could not change the original structure of the Water Prison Forbidden Map and seamlessly fuse Shock God Sword Style into the Blood Prison Pupil Technique. Replace punishment with the sword, and make sword and killing one!

Ink Painting's expression was excited. He immediately began to meditate and, according to his own idea, began to perform the fusion of the methods. The method of cultivation was still the same as before: visualize the heart image of the punishment prison, engrave the heart image into the divine soul, and use this to nurture the divine soul's killing power. But unlike before, when Ink Painting visualized the Water Prison Forbidden Map, he "self-deceived" and played some tricks. He relied on his proficiency in the divine thought dao to "tamper" with his cognition, replacing all the torture instruments in the heart image of the punishment prison with Shock God Sword.

Thus, the punishment prison map became a sword punishment map. All the sinners were punished under the edge of Shock God Sword, wailing in panic. This small divine dao technique was explored by Ink Painting himself. It had a similar wondrous effect to "Dao Heart Planting Demon", more like planting a kind of "suggestion" in his own dao heart. And once the sword punishment map was formed, the entire dao prison, which had a gloomy aura, changed completely and became extremely sharp, as if it were a divine thought "sword prison" full of sword qi.

This sword prison, fused with sword intent and killing qi, was engraved into Ink Painting's divine soul. A majestic and sharp sword killing bloomed from Ink Painting's eyes. Amidst the flowing edge, the sword dao was upright, the killing qi was gloomy, nearly sweeping away all sins in the world, making petty demons and evil spirits lose their courage at the sound of the wind. In an instant, Ink Painting seemed like the master of the Nine Netherworld's Ksitigarbha, and the power of his sword killing was so strong that people dared not look directly.

This was the true Shock God Sword! Moreover, it was different from what all the previous Tai Xu Sect predecessors cultivated, capable of being displayed with both eyes and containing killing qi!

After a moment, all the sharpness was restrained. Ink Painting's eyes became clear again. He looked around with an expression of regret. "It's a pity that Water Yan Luo isn't here, otherwise perhaps I could have a stare-off with him and see whose eyes are more powerful..." But there were no enemies around, and Ink Painting felt inexplicably lonely. "There are also no bad people coming to let me take a look..."

However, he had learned it after all! "Shock God Sword!"

Ink Painting smiled foolishly for a bit and then suppressed the excitement in his heart. He sank his divine consciousness into his sea of consciousness and continued to practice arrays. Do not be happy with things, do not be sad with yourself. At any time, one must maintain a normal heart and diligently learn arrays; one cannot be lazy. Ink Painting closed his eyes and calmly painted arrays on the dao stele in his sea of consciousness...

And before this.

The moment Ink Painting took out the broken sword, a wisp of karma aura had already scattered out. In the back mountain's sword tomb, the old man with a full head of white hair and a long beard suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils trembling.

"Xuan Er..."

"How is there Xuan Er's qi machine within Tai Xu Sect?" He released his divine consciousness. A powerful divine thought spread out in an extremely obscure way, sweeping across the entire Tai Xu mountain range, wanting to trace the source of this qi machine. But his current state was different from the past; his divine consciousness was already greatly damaged, and using it suddenly caused pain like being pricked by needles. Although his divine consciousness spread out, he searched very slowly.

And at the same time, the qi machine of "Xuan Er" was increasingly strong. It seemed that someone was touching Xuan Er's karma and deducing something.

"Who is it..." The old man's heart was alerted, and he continued to trace the source with his divine consciousness. But just as he was about to perceive the source of the qi machine, everything disappeared again. It disappeared completely, as if it had been deliberately hidden by someone, moreover hidden in a place not within the state boundary, not within karma. The old man's face showed anger and then gradually calmed down again. Only at the bottom of his heart, he recorded another account.

Suddenly, the stabbing pain in his divine consciousness intensified, and sounds of outer heaven demons rang out by his ears. The old man's gaze was alerted, and he immediately retracted his divine consciousness, also restraining his whole body's aura, holding his breath and concentrating, restraining himself and guarding his heart. After a long time, the demon sounds calmed down, and his divine consciousness was no longer chaotic. Only then did the old man slowly open his eyes, but his expression was tired, as if he had aged several more years.

He was alone, looking around, looking at the sword tombs on the mountain, at the countless rusty broken swords, and at the dry bones buried in the sword tombs. These swords were once sharp for a time. These people were also once his junior brothers, senior brothers, and even masters. And Xuan Er was also the last hope he held onto in his unwillingness and despair, the last sword dao successor he had placed high hopes on.

But he was wrong. He shouldn't have passed it on...

The broken remnant swords and dead bodies of his fellow junior brothers, senior brothers, and masters could still be buried in this sword tomb, accompanying him in his lonely old age. But Xuan Er's corpse and bones were gone, and even his sword was broken somewhere unknown...

The old man's back couldn't help but hunch, with some desolation. A bitter voice echoed in the sword tomb: "Is it really... cut off?"