The public bus made intermittent stops, and in the distance, among the skyscrapers, a mass of dark green slowly grew larger.
As we drew nearer, a trace of coolness touched me, like morning dew on my brow, refreshing my spirit.
Looking up, I saw a colossal green tree, capable of being embraced by ten people, rising hundreds of meters high amidst the concrete and steel of the city.
Its branches and leaves were exceedingly lush, covering a few kilometers around, while fist-sized Cui Birds hopped and fluttered through the trees, and trains shuttled between the branches—a perfect fusion of nature and humanity.
One of the Xianmen Sect's most powerful tools, a third-order branch of the Divine Tree of Heaven in Rongcheng City, which serves as one of the carriers for the Central Array Spirit Computer.
"The closest place to the Spiritual Vein, I'm envious."
"If only my family had a house here."
"Keep dreaming. Only Cultivators or those who have made significant contributions can settle here, and at most, their lineage can remain for three generations."
Passengers chattered on the bus, their envy palpable.
Jiang Ding felt the same. If his mother and Jiang Yuan could live here, no doubt their health would greatly improve—along with their martial arts progress. Over the years, it might even extend their lifespans by seven or eight years.
"Rongcheng Library, we have arrived. Please exit through the rear door..."
Jiang Ding followed the stream of people off the bus and lined up to swipe his ID card to enter the library.
The first thing he saw was a row of towering bookshelves, with an array of neatly arranged books made of various materials—beast skins, jade slips, stone tablets—all carriers of knowledge, many of which were plundered from wars in the Outer Realm. Some Cultivation Methods and secret techniques required specific types of carriers.
A fragrance of books filled the air, like stepping into a world of knowledge.
Jiang Ding didn't linger, heading straight for the computer reading room to sit down after swiping his ID card.
Ding!
"Your library points: 325."
These were the fruits of two weeks spent collecting specimens at the otherworldly general store.
Huang Deyou was indeed an expert, having acquired over four thousand specimens in just a couple of weeks. These included valueless herbs and grasses from the roadside and wheat seedlings from the fields.
Unfortunately, not all of the specimens were new species never recorded by the Xianmen Library, so only about three hundred were of any use.
After that, there would be less to find; it wasn't just any plant on the roadside that would be useful. They had to specifically search in the countryside and the mountains.
Following discussions with Huang Deyou, the purchase price per specimen rose to ten Wen; as a result, their silver reserves plummeted, barely sustaining the situation.
His fingers tapped swiftly on the computer keyboard.
"Hundred Step Flying Sword."
Thump!
A familiar dialog box with a red cross popped up, warning that dangerous knowledge was not accessible to minors.
Jiang Ding took out his phone and, speaking softly, made a call to Lin Wanqiu.
"Mom! I have a request for you to approve."
"Dangerous? No, it's not dangerous, just a matter of curiosity. It'll broaden my horizons, which is good for martial arts training..."
Thanks to the good impression Jiang Ding had consistently made, Lin Wanqiu hesitated briefly but still gave consent on the Xianmen Library APP for her minor to access 'Hundred Step Flying Sword-related' content.
Ending the call, he refreshed the page, and a long list of Cultivation Methods and secret techniques related to the Hundred Step Flying Sword appeared, stretching on until the ninety-ninth page without end.
"Song's Hundred Steps Flying Sword," "Blood Refining Hundred Step Flying Sword," "Thundering Hundred Step Flying Sword..."
Jiang Ding clicked on the summary of "Blood Refining Hundred Step Flying Sword" by Hu Yuan from the Qianling University Cultivators Report dated September 6, 11115.
"Hundred Step Flying Sword, a palm-sized half magic tool used by Mortals, is crafted from Spirit Metal and takes shape as a blade. It is nurtured with one's Essence Blood and a large amount of medicinal herbs for over a decade until it becomes spiritually aware. It can then be deftly controlled, a rather ingenious design... Often at the cost of cutting off future prospects... Today we've made improvements... The innovation is..."
Cutting off future prospects!
Jiang Ding's heart jolted, and he hastily opened the lengthy paper of over a hundred pages, containing more than a hundred thousand words, to read in detail.
Hours later, he rubbed his brow.
He had skimmed the paper, unable to understand many parts, but he got the gist of it.
Hundred Step Flying Sword!
This was a side branch of secret techniques created by the most ingenious of Mortal martial artists, born of their envy of Cultivators' ability to wield magical tools. They would use Spirit Metals as the core and cultivate the sword with medicinal herbs and Essence Blood over the years, thereby enabling them to wield a Flying Sword during their Mortal lives.
It was a foolish act, seeking instant benefits at the expense of one's future path.
Essence Blood, the foundation of a person.
Even the strongest of warriors has a finite quantity of Essence Blood, and overusing it is tantamount to suicide. Even cautious use inevitably harms the body's foundation, with martial arts progression becoming practically impossible.
Especially for young warriors, losing just a drop of Essence Blood could take years to recover.
The value may not be much.
However, combined with the need of students in the Cultivation Departments of various universities to publish their work, even if it's on a fringe topic, thousands of years of accumulation have created a vast database of Cultivation Methods.
"Could it be an issue with this Cultivation Method?" Jiang Ding clicked on "Thundering Hundred Step Flying Sword."
It was a Ph.D. thesis from Caiyun University, originally a secret inheritance of a martial sect from the Canghai Small World. It was seized during the interface wars, and the doctoral student had collected and corrected some minor errors, thereafter uploading it to earn library points.
```
He scanned through the material quickly, especially the sword-practicing section in the overview.
"The principle doesn't differ much; both require the nurturing with essence blood."
"The difference lies in the addition of a locally mined ore called thunderstone, which can absorb the bioelectricity of spirit beasts to enhance the flying swords and add the attribute of thunder, making them faster and more lethal."
Jiang Ding, not willing to give up, turned to another book.
"Song's Hundred Steps Flying Sword, seized during the war in the Yellow Sand Small World; during sword cultivation, it adds a 'clan weapon' attribute that can be inherited and refined by descendants—useless to outsiders... pointless."
Next book, next book, the book after that…
After flipping through an entire page, Jiang Ding randomly checked dozens more, all different styles, all different attributes, all different peripheral techniques, but none could escape the core essence—essence blood, continuously nurtured with essence blood for at least a decade.
Others' foundation was useless.
"It seems that nurturing with one's own essence blood is the most fundamental basis for the Hundred Step Flying Sword, and all its glory is built upon this."
Jiang Ding reflected quietly, yet he didn't lose heart; his thoughts gradually branched out.
"Is there something that can challenge these principles and turn the impossible into the possible?"
"There is!"
An answer almost immediately surfaced in his mind.
"A powerful enough cultivation method, such as the 'Soaring Eagle Sword Technique' among the sixty-eight techniques for the Dao Body Embryo."
Once his line of thought was clear, Jiang Ding's spirit lifted; his mouse clicked on the filter, selecting the highest grade.
"'Great Sun Sword Classic – Sword Cultivating Sword Technique' by Zhang Junsheng from Hu Lin Qingfeng University Cultivators Report, year 10823, July 1"
The Xianmen Sect broadly categorizes cultivation methods into four types: scripture, classic, method, and technique. Due to the First Law of the Immortal Gate, anyone can practice the sect's most powerful cultivation methods.
But most people won't do so.
Because corresponding to the level of the methods is the immense difficulty; only those with exceptional talent and the support of top-tier resources and treasures can practice them.
Those who force themselves into practicing these methods are lucky to make no progress in a lifetime, while falling into madness and death is the norm.
The mouse cursor hovered over it, and Jiang Ding hesitated for a moment.
The Great Sun Sword Sutra!
It was a famous name in history books, originating from the Great Sun Sword Pavilion, a core cultivation method from an external realm faction. The Great Sun Sword Pavilion was once one of the Nine Great Immortal Sects from the outer realm and the main enemy during the 'Third Interdimensional War' of the Immortal Gate over three thousand years ago. In its most powerful era, a million cultivators from the Great Sun Sword Cultivation had invaded Blue Star, occupying over ninety-five percent of the planet's surface area, and the planet's Magic Arts-Breaking Immortal Gold was theirs for the taking.
During that time, the majority of Blue Star cultivators and mortals became mining slaves for refining Law Immortal Gold. The population plummeted by more than fifty percent, as over a hundred billion people died from the endless mining, and their bones filled the mines.
Latter on, the forbidden nuclear weapon 'Shooting Immortal' emerged, which killed the Refining Nothingness ancestor of Great Sun Sword Pavilion in a single battle. The Immortal Gate entered the counteroffensive phase, flattening the mountain gate of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion with a mass of nuclear weapons, and ever since, the place has been a forbidden land, where the small world of the sect suffered almost complete biological annihilation.
The fundamental and unrivaled 'Great Sun Sword Sutra' of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion was partially seized during this war. Over the three thousand years that followed, experts and scholars conducted countless studies on it, generating a plethora of results that gave birth to many civilian and military technologies.
The 'Great Sun Sword Classic – Sword Cultivating Sword Technique' is one of those results, and moreover is a research outcome leaning towards original analytical methods.
A typical 'valuable but useless' result because the mode of combat in the Xianmen Sect involves driving tanks, battleships, air-space motherships, drones, and fighter jets in joint land, air, and space operations, where engaging in close combat with cold weapons is seen as too primitive by most.
"It's 11126 now, and these results came out in 10823, more than two thousand years after the fall of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion..." Jiang Ding's gaze wandered over the title, as if he could see the epic past.
"That makes sense, the Xianmen Sect is not strong in this aspect, quite weak in fact."
Browsing further, he saw nothing but methods and secret techniques with the suffix 'Hundred Steps Flying Sword', similar to the previous 'Song's Hundred Steps Flying Sword,' revealing no breakthrough studies—all of them were the lowest within the 'scripture, classic, method, and technique' categorization, barely making it into the 'technique' level.
He clicked on an abstract.
What came into view were no longer Chinese characters, but a special script that somewhat resembled Chinese characters, yet more twisted and seemingly ever-changing.
Spiritual Script, compared to Chinese characters, can convey more information in a single character and is more accurate—a basic subject in the Xianmen Sect's Chinese Class.
"...Using Taiqing Spirit Iron as the core, Law Immortal Gold as the foundation, taking a drop of essence blood as the spirit, melting down Great Sun Essence and smelting with heart fire for a hundred days, transforming the mundane into immortal, casting the Supreme Immortal Base..."
As expected.
Jiang Ding took a deep breath.
Jing-level Cultivation Methods indeed have the power to turn the rotten into the miraculous, even if it's just a 'method'-grade sub-chapter.
Seeing the words 'Magic Arts-Breaking Immortal Gold', his heart gave a shudder.
It's true that Blue Star is rich in Magic Arts-Breaking Immortal Gold, but that doesn't mean it's common!
In fact, only a handful of Nascent Soul Monks who had accomplished great deeds could apply for just enough material to forge a single magic tool, and even then, it was only used as a finishing touch.
What's more, upon receiving Magic Arts-Breaking Immortal Gold, they must swear a great oath not to sell it to Outer Realm Cultivators. Should they fall or reach the end of their lifespan, that magic tool would revert to the possession of the Immortal Gate, which, in turn, would compensate their descendants.
However, despite such stringent conditions, the number of Nascent Soul Monks applying each year still maxes out without hesitation.
Because this Immortal Gold is too powerful!
It inherently possesses the Magic Arts-Breaking Attribute, making shields, magic, and formation methods as flimsy as paper in its presence.
How could a mere mortal who isn't even in the Qi Practicing Realm dare to covet it!
```