Aspiring to the Immortal Path - Chapter 501

Chapter 501: Hunted (3)

The southwestern skies of Nadir Hill, thirty thousand meters above the surface.

Tang Jie sat on a cloud, letting the wind buffet him. Around him floated countless swords.

The Rainbow Sword, the Yin Yang Sword, the Water-Repelling Sword, the Extreme Cold Sword, the Gold-Storing Sword, the General-Appointing Sword, the Mother-Son Light-Parting Swords, the Celestial Wildfire Sword, the Thousand Soldier Repeller Sword, the Windfire Cloud Dragon Sword, the Violet Bane Astral Sword, the Ice Flame Sword…

These countless swords hovered and danced, brimming with sword energy and glowing with light, with Tang Jie at their center.

These swords were the weapons that countless disciples of the Peerless Sword Pavilion had forged using their blood, sweat, and lives over the last thousand years, and each one contained a lifetime of their cultivation insights. These swords alone were enough to establish the foundation of a sect. In terms of value, they even exceeded the storehouse that Tang Jie had plundered.

Tang Jie had truly been able to take them away because of that Celestial Sword True Lord. If he had not put his whole strength into breaking the formation, these swords would not have broken free of the Sword Mound’s control to be seized by him. It was no wonder the Celestial Sword True Lord had been so infuriated that he had fallen into energy corruption.

There had been a total of 1,796 swords in the Sword Mound, divided into lower grade, middle grade, and upper grade. There were 912 lower-grade swords, 642 middle-grade swords, 239 upper-grade swords, and three swords that exceeded the upper grade and entered the ranks of divine treasures.

These swords circled around Tang Jie, and whenever they flew past him, Tang Jie would feel an inexplicable power surging into him, carrying with it a prodigious sword intent and howling with a majestic sword wind.

Tang Jie knew that this was the resonance of the souls of the heroes of the Peerless Sword Pavilion that had attached themselves to the swords.

Each of these swords was a soul weapon.

Each of these swords was a legacy.

Upon understanding this, he began to look at these swords differently.

As that mighty sword intent flowed into Tang Jie, he began to understand various things about how to use the sword.

Although he was not an expert in using the sword, it shared the same principles as using a saber. What Tang Jie comprehended deepened his understanding of how to use the saber.

But sabers and swords were ultimately different, and Tang Jie still felt like he was missing something.

He had comprehended the Dao of the Saber in the Water Moon Paradise and had developed a sliver of understanding regarding the ultimate saber intent, but this understanding had only allowed him to merge all of his Heavenly Cloud Blades into one, greatly increasing its power.

Simply improving the power of a spell art had absolutely nothing to do with ultimate saber intent.

The “ultimate” meant instantly gathering all power at one point and detonating it. This power was great enough to exceed one’s limits and kill above one’s tier. Only then could it be considered “ultimate”.

Tang Jie suddenly recalled Xi Canhen’s Sacrificial Sword.

Not too long ago, Xi Canhen had grasped the Heart Consonance secret art. He had been as elated as a child and spent a long time conversing with Tang Jie. Tang Jie had used the opportunity to ask Xi Canhen about the secrets of the Sacrificial Sword.

Just as Tang Jie had expected, while the Sacrificial Sword was powerful, it had only a single strike. Once this strike was made, whether it succeeded or failed, the user would be entirely drained of energy, hence the name “Sacrificial”, stemming from the phrase “only by sacrificing the body can one achieve virtue”. Moreover, Xi Canhen had a demon sword, which was an even better match for the Sacrificial Sword. This combination allowed him to kill people two tiers above him.

Ultimate sword intent wasn’t as extreme as the Sacrificial Sword. It wouldn’t create such a huge drain, but its power was comparable to the Sacrificial Sword. However, cultivating it was much more difficult. But as Tang Jie was guided by these countless swords and was influenced by the dauntless attitude of the sword cultivators within them, the will to fight within him began to gradually blaze. His mental state soared, and a white radiance emerged from the top of his head.

As this white radiance appeared, Tang Jie shook his hand, and the Heartbreak Saber appeared.

The white radiance automatically attached itself to the Heartbreak Saber, and then Tang Jie swung. A wave of saber energy flew out, instantly slicing through the clouds. From the look of it, this wave of energy had a length of one thousand meters.

And this was in the middle of the sky. If it had happened on the ground, the attack would have destroyed at least half a city.

But Tang Jie had a nonchalant appearance, so this attack clearly didn’t have his full power behind it.

Yet with ultimate saber intent, every strike had one’s full force behind it. There was no such thing as holding back.

A faint smile appeared on Tang Jie’s face, and he shouted, “I see! I was too focused on achieving the ultimate, forgetting about the saber intent itself. Intent arises from the self, and only with the ability to issue and withdraw as I please can it be called true intent. The ultimate is focused on simplicity. But while it may be powerful and simple, it is no clumsy brute, punching with all one’s power at every blow. Hahaha, I didn’t think that these swords would inspire me!”

He swung the saber again, releasing another thousand-meter-long wave of saber energy, which was as intimidating as lightning and swift as the wind. It was clear that Tang Jie had made some advancement in his pursuit of ultimate saber intent.

Countless swords clanged in the sky, clattering against each other as if they had been provoked. One of the swords suddenly flew right at Tang Jie’s face.

“Sabers and swords can’t coexist? Interesting. Then I will use you to forge my saber intent,” Tang Jie snorted. He swung his saber, and a brilliant wave of energy flew at the sword. If one looked closely, one would find that this attack carried some of the form of the Matchless Slash, but also that of the Heavenly Cloud Blade, and even a little of the Divine Court Thousandshift.

The ultimate wasn’t just about clenching one’s teeth and unleashing all of one’s strength in a single attack, but merging together everything that one had learned into a single point, unleashing the utmost of one’s power.

The sword and saber clashed, and there was a clang as the sword was sent flying away in an arc. Tang Jie faintly smiled. “A sword without a master has only a sharp sword intent, but no-one to exert it. Since that’s the case… all of you, come together.”

Clang! A clattering resounded through the sky.

Those swords seemed to sense Tang Jie’s challenge, and they spiraled up into the air, pointing their tips at Tang Jie, and charged.

A formation of one thousand swords!

Only those three divine-treasure-class swords stood aloof and motionless.

The power of these more than a thousand swords could be compared to a divine connection attack.

Tang Jie’s eyes flashed with a cold light. “That’s exactly what I want!” he shouted as he swung the Heartbreak Saber.

The saber and the swords left a brilliant trail of light in the air. Amidst all these swords, a person danced with his saber. There was no spell art and no cultivation, only the dance of combat, a dance that imbued everything he had cultivated into his saber. Just like this, an unbelievable scene played out in the sky.

A mountain of sabers began to rise.

It was clearly only one person swinging the saber, but countless sabers of light gleamed as they flew up to face the swords.

A sword formation clashed with a mountain of sabers!

Finally, as Tang Jie roared, those countless sabers suddenly glowed, and the sword formation also let out a radiant light.

The two sides were in the middle of their most intense clash!

Each sword clashed with a saber manifestation, unleashing a riot of colors in the sky. The numerous crashes and collisions merged together in a thunderous rumble.

A moment later, the light sabers and swords froze.

It was as if time had stopped.

A few moments later, Tang Jie suddenly vomited blood. A clack came from the Heartbreak Saber in his hand, and then it shattered.

In that clash just now, the Heartbreak Saber had essentially contended against those more than a thousand swords. Unable to take all of the power, it had finally shattered. This saber had followed Tang Jie for many years. To his surprise, rather than being destroyed in battle, it had shattered while Tang Jie had been comprehending saber intent, as if it had sacrificed itself for this purpose.

At the same time, a great crash came from the sky as all those famous swords also shattered.

But unlike the Heartbreak Saber, when these swords shattered, they left behind a golden grain.

This was the Weapon Mantra’s effect.

When Tang Jie had gathered all of his strength and unleashed his utmost power, he had inadvertently included the power of the Weapon Mantra. In truth, he had not intended to shatter these swords. It had to be understood that none of these were ordinary weapons. Even a lower-grade sword would be a top-tier treasure in the outside world, easily able to sell for tens of thousands of spirit coins.

These more than a thousand swords were like hundreds of millions of spirit coins. Even Tang Jie wasn’t willing to turn them all into golden grains.

But as he had just comprehended ultimate saber intent, he wasn’t able to completely control its level of power, especially in that final clash. In his excitement, he had unleashed his full power and held nothing back, which ended up activating the Weapon Mantra.

Tang Jie winced as he saw all those swords shatter.

This was all money!

In this collision, at least six hundred swords had shattered. While they had all basically been lower-grade, Tang Jie still felt like someone had dug out his heart.

Of course, while his heart ached, Tang Jie still gathered up those golden grains.

Curiously, these golden grains were all somewhat larger than the ones Tang Jie had gotten before from shattering weapons.

Was this because these swords had concentrated the essence blood of cultivators in them? Or was it because they were soul weapons?

Tang Jie had never shattered a soul weapon before. After all, every soul weapon had the potential to grow. Thus, he didn’t know how large of a golden grain he could get from shattering a soul weapon, though it now seemed like it was much more than what one would get from shattering an ordinary art relic.

Even so, Tang Jie didn’t plan to keep shattering soul weapons. His heart was still aching from all the soul weapons he had just lost.

Under his control, all the grains gathered together into a golden sphere.

This was the first time he had been able to get so many golden grains from a weapon-shattering session.

Tang Jie bitterly smiled as he took out his golden blade.

After ten years of accumulation, his golden dagger was much longer and could be called a golden saber, only a little smaller than the Heartbreak Saber.

But as spell arts couldn’t be used with the golden saber, Tang Jie rarely used it. After all, the enemies he needed to deal with weren’t the same as before. It would be very difficult to kill his enemies through pure physical damage, as even if their heads were cut off, they could still revive. What he needed were powerful spell arts that could extinguish and exhaust his enemies’ life force.

For this reason, the golden saber had now become like chicken ribs to Tang Jie, of too little value to use, but also something he didn’t want to throw away. At times, Tang Jie would wonder why the Martial Lord had created such a weapon. Even in High Antiquity, one still had to destroy one’s opponent’s life force in order to kill them, right? If he couldn’t apply spell arts to the golden blade for additional damage, then no matter how sharp it was, how valuable could it really be?

It was like having a weapon that could pierce through defense but could only deal 1 damage. What was the point?

Fortunately, this was reality, and there were still times when the golden saber’s defense-piercing ability was useful. But this space was getting smaller and smaller.

As he was thinking, Tang Jie placed the golden sphere on the golden saber.

As the golden sphere touched the saber, they automatically merged. As they were merging, the hilt of the saber suddenly erupted with light, and the blade began to hum.

This humming came so suddenly that Tang Jie couldn’t help but be taken aback.

He had used this golden saber for ten-some years and done mergings numerous times, but this was the first time such a thing had ever happened.

What was going on here?

As he was wondering what was going on, he felt a warm current going from the blade of the saber into his hand.

“This is…” Tang Jie was stunned.

This was a very familiar feeling, the sensation of his mind linking with the golden saber. Tang Jie had felt this feeling, as it was the key behind the ability of the golden saber to change form. But the sensation was even stronger this time, and he even felt like he could do even more now than just change its form.

It was a sensation that was both strange and familiar.

“It can’t be…” Tang Jie murmured, his mind a sea of turmoil.

He slowly raised his hand and mustered his spiritual power. A white sliver of light appeared on the blade.

Spiritual energy!

The radiance of a spell art!

The golden blade could be used with spell arts!

Tang Jie almost fainted.

Why was it suddenly capable of using spell arts?

He raised his head, looked at those swords that were still floating around, and suddenly understood. He shouted, “So that’s what it was! Soul weapons! I have to use soul weapons!”

——————————————

The golden weapon created by the Weapon Mantra actually could be used with spell arts, but the condition was that it had to be made from soul weapons.

Tang Jie hadn’t expected the situation to be like that. If he hadn’t been cultivating ultimate saber intent and inadvertently destroyed a large number of precious swords, he might have gone ages without ever discovering this fact.

After all, in his view, using soul weapons as materials for the golden grains was just too much of a waste. He hadn’t expected there to be such an important relationship.

If not for this mass destruction, then even if Tang Jie had one day used one or two soul weapons as an experiment, he might not have arrived at this conclusion.

This was because the functionality of spell arts with the golden blade depended on how many soul weapons had been put into it.

Tang Jie had tested things out. Since he added in that golden sphere, while the golden blade could now be used with spell arts, all spell arts used with it were greatly reduced in power.

When he used the Matchless Slash with the golden blade, the power wasn’t even a fifth of the power when used with the Heartbreak Saber. Divine Court Thousandshift was somewhat better, reaching a third of the power, perhaps because of this spell art’s universality.

After thoroughly considering the problem, Tang Jie concluded that it was because the ratio of soul weapon materials was too small.

Tang Jie had built up the golden blade over twenty-some years, and while the golden sphere had consisted of several hundred swords, they ultimately couldn’t compare to twenty years of accumulation.

Adding a spoonful of sugar to a cup of water was perfect, but adding a spoonful of sugar to a jar of water would make it basically impossible to detect any sweetness.

This was how things were with the soul weapons.

To be blunt, it wasn’t enough.

Since he knew that it wasn’t enough, there was no need to say what came next.

After some rest, Tang Jie decided to shatter the remaining lower-grade swords. There were few of them left, definitely not enough to reach the level that Tang Jie wanted, so after some thought, Tang Jie decided to shatter the middle-grade swords as well.

While there were few middle-grade swords, they were of higher quality, so their golden grains were purer and larger. Once they were fused into the golden blade, Tang Jie found that the spiritual energy transfer was more efficient, and the spell art was much more powerful—the Matchless Slash was now at one third of full power.

Seeing this, Tang Jie hardened his heart and decided to break down the upper-grade swords as well.

His heart bled as he shattered them.

This was hundreds of millions of spirit coins!

This was enough to buy a Dao armament. Of course, even if he got a Dao armament, he didn’t have the ability to use it.

The Martial Lord’s techniques were great, but they used up far too much in resources.

No wonder you didn’t say that only by using soul weapons can you cast spell arts with the golden blade! You were too embarrassed to mention it, right!?

Tang Jie was exhausted by the time he got to the upper-grade weapons, so his original body came out and shattered them all with the Weapon Mantra.

It was then that Tang Jie realized something:

When he first shattered the weapons, hadn’t he shattered several hundred lower-grade swords all by himself?

This was unprecedented for him. In the past, he had always shattered them one by one.

In other words, his Weapon Mantra had also advanced along with his comprehension of saber intent?

It had gone from singular to multiple-target?

Tang Jie couldn’t help but grin.

Excellent!

The original body shattered the two-hundred-some upper-grade swords, and as those golden grains merged into the golden saber, the golden saber changed, the blade gaining a faint spiritual sheen that it didn’t have before.

The golden blade had a soul!

In the end, Tang Jie left behind ten upper-grade swords and the three divine swords. These were the finest swords of the Sword Mound and were things that money couldn’t buy. Their former masters had all been illustrious figures of this domain, and the sword intent on them was incomparably powerful. Destroying them would truly be a crime.

Tang Jie planned to keep them. Even if he didn’t use them himself, he could give them to his friends or trade them for important resources.

Initially, those three divine swords had been rather aloof, unwilling to bow their heads to Tang Jie.

But once they sensed those countless swords perishing, they completely submitted. When facing the golden blade, they seemed to tremble in fear, the golden blade finally revealing some of its divine majesty.

At this time, the golden blade was still unable to fully unleash the power of a spell art, but it could get to 50%, and with Divine Court Thousandshift, he could get around 70%.

Although the spell arts were weaker, Tang Jie was still extremely satisfied. After all, the ability to ignore defensive barriers made up for the weaker spell arts, and he could fix this flaw in the future. Tang Jie still had the Soul Refining Pearl. He didn’t dare to use it in battle, but it was perfect for making soul weapons. The soul weapons he made might not be better than those swords, but he was confident that quantity could make up for quality.

His only regret was regarding those ordinary weapons. In Tang Jie’s various heists, he had stolen many weapons, and he had originally planned to slowly break all of them down and merge them with the golden blade, but now, he did not dare. Until the golden blade reached a normal ratio, continuing to extract golden grains from ordinary art relics was like mixing water into wine, only lowering the quality of the golden blade right after it had reached the standard.

After incorporating more than a thousand swords, the golden blade was much longer, now about the size of the Heartbreak Saber.

Tang Jie couldn’t help but sigh in regret at the thought of the shattered Heartbreak Saber. Suddenly, he had an idea. He looked at the golden blade, which responded to his thoughts and gradually transformed into the Heartbreak Saber, looking exactly the same except for the fact that it was golden.

As he looked at it, Tang Jie sent another mental command, ordering it to change color.

This wasn’t possible in the past, but this time, the golden blade gradually changed from golden to black, now appearing exactly like the Heartbreak Saber.

Tang Jie was delighted.

Everyone knew he had the golden blade and the Heartbreak Saber and took precautions against them, but this new development was certain to surprise them all.

Alas, the fire eagle saber soul on the Heartbreak Saber was no more. It would have been perfect if it were still around to control the golden blade.

As he was thinking this, Tang Jie suddenly sensed something and snatched at the air while gasping in surprise. Wisps of spiritual light appeared, and then the lingering soul of a fire eagle appeared.

The Heartbreak Saber’s soul?

Tang Jie froze, and then he realized what was going on.

The Heartbreak Saber was the only weapon that hadn’t been destroyed by the Weapon Mantra. For this reason, what had been destroyed was only the saber itself, while the saber soul had survived. But the saber soul had nothing to attach to, so it would ultimately dissipate. If Tang Jie hadn’t been thinking about the saber soul, he might not have sensed its existence.

Having gotten back the saber soul, Tang Jie laughed and said, “Not bad, not bad. Since that’s the case, I should give you a new home.”

He brought the soul to the saber.

But the saber soul simply circled around the golden blade, unable to go in. It frantically shouted, and wisps of flame appeared in the air.

“True, the golden blade is no mortal weapon, so it won’t permit someone to take residence in it. Eh, forget it. From now on, you can just stay here.” What Tang Jie offered this time was the Heartbreak Saber’s sheath.

The eagle soul hissed and flew in a circle in the air before reluctantly entering the sheath.

When Tang Jie did battle in the future, the eagle soul would fly out of the sheath and move along with the saber.

In any case, it wasn’t being used for battle, only as a decoration to fool others.

As he stuck the golden saber into the sheath, a new Heartbreak Saber was born.