Chapter 1449 — Nurturing the Spirit with the Blade

Around the Yong River the fishing boats had stopped fishing; on the riverbank fishermen and divine ability practitioners alike halted to watch, and they saw blade light sweeping across the river like sunlight scattered on the water, rippling and shimmering.

Yet that shimmering light did not cling to the river's surface but suddenly leapt up, filling the blue sky, and more blade light traveled through the river water like great fish, like azure dragons.

Light after light wove and crossed, splitting the sky, leaving black lines in their eyes.

The divine ability practitioners of Jingping at once bled black from both eyes, and blade wounds suddenly appeared on their bodies; startled, they hurriedly restrained the fishermen along the bank, forbidding them to look again lest their eyes be harmed. The battle in the river had reached such a pitch that although the fluctuations of power in the combat arts school were not as mighty as those of divine abilities, and divine abilities spread their power over a wider range, the combat arts school that took the blade as its core hid a spirit in its moves that could easily wound the Dao heart and spirit of onlookers.

Especially Shen Mu, Zaifu, and the other three—grand masters who had entered the Dao through the blade; their moves seemed not to reach this far, yet every move and stance held their Dao, and a single glance stirred one's essence, qi, and spirit as if a keen blade had touched the body!

The stronger one's cultivation, the stronger this resonance, and the graver the injury! The divine ability practitioners restrained the fishermen, and the dragon palace in the Yong River was migrating too; divine dragons great and small swam along the riverbed, eyes shut, following the Dragon Emperor of the Yong River upstream or downstream.

"Hide in the heavens at the heart of the Yong River, bar the doors tight, shut your eyes, do not observe or examine, do not look or listen, do not sense or receive!

" The Dragon Emperor of the Yong River was named Lord Huanlong, a great master of the river with deep cultivation, and he was much pleased with himself, crying: "Formidable, is it not?

My lord has returned! " The edge of a treasured sword comes from grinding; so too with the blade.

Shen Mu took qi as his blade, and his whole essence, qi, and spirit were ground by the four great masters ever stronger and keener; the same Dao-entering divine ability, with a different state of mind and different moves, when executed, became a different blade art. But in the end, though the five turned their Dao-entering divine abilities over a thousand times, they could not overcome Shen Mu, nor force him one step further to comprehend a deeper Dao realm.

Three days later, the sweeping, shouting figures were gone from the Yong River; only five figures remained, standing at scattered intervals on the river's surface, motionless, their essence, qi, and spirit in combat. This sight was even more terrifying!

Blade qi and spirit filled the river's surface, twisting space; thousands upon thousands of strands of blade qi collided fiercely in the air like schools of fish.

The blade nurtures the spirit. They were contending with spirit!

Nearby, many scholars of the former Yong River Academy, now the Yong River Sect, came hurrying at the news; no sooner had they reached the riverbank than their primal weapons flew up beyond their control, ringing and clashing in the air against the blade qi.

Crash. One primal weapon after another shattered in the air, startling the scholars.

And the closer to the Yong River, the faster the primal weapons shattered.

Strangely, this blade qi was harmless to the human body, and did no harm to grass or trees, insects or fish; it seemed to target only weapons. "Sect Master Su!

" Several academy scholars quickly passed through the dense woods along the bank and came to the riverside, where they saw several deities standing at the water's edge, gazing far off at the river's heart; at their head was none other than Su Yunzhi of the Yong River Academy. What greatly startled these young scholars was that Su Yunzhi and the deities of the Yong River had their divine weapons floating up beyond their control as well, bursting with wave upon wave of heaven-flooding divine might, as if contending against the blade Dao spirit coming from the river's heart.

And the divine weapons of these deities were already covered in blade marks.

The blade Dao spirit seemed to have formed a vast spiritual brand here, a brand growing ever stronger, spreading across the sky, so that the primal weapons and divine weapons of all who came here lost control.

And this brand sank ever deeper.

Standing at the riverbank, they could see in the river's heart blade Dao heavens great and small, layer upon layer, branded into layer upon layer of the void, the deepest already reaching the eighteenth layer of the void!

The Dao realm was like a great dome, covering all the wilds, bringing a feeling of incomparable shock.

"Comprehend with your heart, and you may touch their spirit. " Su Yunzhi said to the scholars: "This is a rare chance.

If you wish for a deeper understanding of the way of the blade, seize this great opportunity.

" Another half year passed, and the brand in the void grew deeper and ever more clearly visible; the place had almost become a holy land, and the young people and deities of every realm in Jingping—any who studied the blade or studied the sword—came hurrying here on pilgrimage.

Around the Yong River, divine weapon after divine weapon floated, ceaselessly clashing in the air, bursting with every kind of divine might.

This was a trick someone had devised: to borrow the might of the blade Dao here to temper one's own cultivation and the power of one's divine weapon.

But here there were more still—young divine ability practitioners and deities from all over Jingping, sitting motionless, nurturing their spirit, tempering the will of the blade, tempering their own primal qi.

A year later, on both banks of the Yong River, blades and swords stood thick as a forest! The place had become a holy land.

In Jingping few cultivated the blade; more refined the sword and nurtured the sword heart. But once the blade Dao holy land was established, it stirred a tide of blade study.

And the dome of the blade Dao realm in the void seemed to have taken on substance, branding the figures of those five in the river into the eighteenth layer of the void, clear and visible.

"In ancient times there was Jiang Baigui, former Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, who met friends with the sword, defeated every combat arts school and divine ability school under heaven, and raised the status of the sword art to the foremost law of Jingping! From then on the sword Dao flourished greatly!

" "Today these five sages of the blade Dao, comprehending the Dao by the river, establish the blade Dao holy land—more shocking than those years!

The way of the blade, too, shall flourish greatly! " Another year passed, and the blade Dao heavens suddenly quivered, appearing in the nineteenth layer of the void.

The Dao might of the blade spread for ten thousand li around, clearly perceptible.

Then, in the first month of the second year, the blade Dao heavens covered the twentieth layer of the void.

The next month, the twenty-first layer.

In the third month of the second year, the twenty-second layer. By the sixth month of the second year, the twenty-fifth layer.

The Dao might of the blade now covered half of Jingping.

The five blade Dao grand masters in the river's heart were honored as the Five Ancestors of the Blade Dao.

On this day the Yong River suddenly shook; the Yong River gradually rose into the air, floating in the sky, climbing higher and higher like a white, translucent ribbon drifting up beside one magnificent divine mountain after another. Shen Mu suddenly opened his eyes.

The time had come.