Volume 4, Chapter 41 – Creating a Method (II)

Bai Xiang’s current sword moves and formulas could roughly be divided into four parts.

The first part was mainly made up of the ancestral sword routines of Shenming Sword Dao. These were the most basic trajectories of a move, like how to flick upward, how to chop, how to block, how to cleave. They were foundations among foundations, merely adjusted according to her own height, arm span, and strength.

Strictly speaking, in this area her routines were about the same as what Bai Zhuqing and the others cultivated.

The second part involved her first act of creating a method. On that stormy night, she had fully digested the Shangqing sword formulas and, fusing them with parts of Shenming sword arts, had created quite a few new moves.

For instance, the move “Thousand Cicadas Thundercry,” which used the Vibration Art to draw lightning from the heavens into the body. It was very suitable for dealing with sudden encirclement and was a branching variation of “Only Regret Summer Is Short.”

Including the later “Thunder-Tiger Sword-Sha,” “Sky-Trembling Flower,” “Qi-Forming Thunder Dragon,” “Marsh-Cutting Flow,” “Thunder-Water Qi-Flower”… all of these sword moves used the Shangqing Wave-Sweeping Lightning-Drawing Sword Formula as their reference and developed in the direction of “thunder and water transformation.”

That line of creating methods even influenced the later Creation Qi Tribulation. When that sword formula debuted, it had first manifested in the form of lightning. When it came to the transformation of the nature of Heaven-and-Earth energy, her insights from Shangqing sword arts meant what Bai Xiang understood best was still thunder.

And thunder really was extremely useful. It was fiercer than fire and as mutable as water, one of the most rigid and most yang forces under Heaven, with an especially strong countering effect on soul-type techniques. With so many advantages in front of her, Bai Xiang had no reason not to use it.

Creation Qi Tribulation and Void-Imagination Shenming were moves of the same tier and together formed the third part. If the former had been fused on the basis of the Shangqing sword, then the latter was purely Bai Xiang’s own breakthrough and comprehension in the Dao of sky-shaking vibration.

The very first time she used it, she cut down quite a few demonfolk, including Yao Qingyuan. The principle behind the move was to disperse her Qi-force into the surrounding Heaven-and-Earth energy, then use the Vibration Art to guide it into resonance, thereby destroying and pulverizing all matter within a certain range.

The fourth part, then, was tied to the newly obtained Sun-Chasing Scripture and the fragmentary Tathagata Body-Ferrying Scripture.

She had acquired the Sun-Chasing Scripture by killing Sword Head Lu Qingning of the Suzhen line. The fragmentary Tathagata Body-Ferrying Scripture only consisted of a single page, a martial seal technique that had once been the supreme secret art of southern Golden Light Temple: the Golden Light Great Handprint.

From studying the Sun-Chasing Scripture, Bai Xiang had developed a shoulder-slam that shifted sideways into a mountain-crashing strike and a sword move that gathered all her strength into a whiplike swing of the arm. She had casually named it “Opening-the-Mountain Form.”

Later, after gaining insight into the Golden Light Great Handprint, she had used it as the basis for creating the “Heaven-and-Earth Golden Light Sword Seal of None but Me,” that ultimate killing move which allowed Feixiang Heaven to cross the void and suddenly assassinate the enemy.

Four stages, each rising above the last, plus a metamorphosis in the middle brought about by comprehending the Five Dragons of Heavenly Water Method. Only then had Bai Xiang, upon first attaining Immortal Venerable, been able to integrate most of her divine sword moves and create the ten-thousand-tribulation lotus that sealed the skies and sealed techniques.

At its core, that move was simply a form of control over Heaven-and-Earth energy. In fact, that kind of control had already existed back in her Shangqing sword comprehension phase. It was just that at the time she had known only the “that it was” and not the “why it was,” not even realizing there was such a thing as Heaven-and-Earth energy, only that she could attach thunder to sword moves. The killing power had actually been quite limited.

Later, after comprehending the Five Dragons Method and with the Taishang sense in the middle pulling the strings, Creation Qi Tribulation had been worked into it to sketch out the tribulation lotus, while Void-Imagination Shenming merged in as a sky-shaking sealing art. Together, they coalesced into the “Forbidden-Method Tribulation Lotus,” which could be called a great divine-ability sword formula.

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Once it was unleashed, the Heaven-and-Earth energy over a wide area nearby placed Bai Xiang at its center, like an army awaiting her command. Even the “Qi” that other people had refined inside their bodies could not escape.

This, then, was Bai Xiang’s current sword art system. If you stripped away all the flashy movements and poses, you would find that its essence was nothing more than step by step figuring out how to condense stronger Qi and how to strengthen her sensing and control over Heaven-and-Earth energy.

“This great divine-ability sword formula is enough to casually insta-kill anyone below Immortal Venerable, but against Immortal Venerables it still falls short.”

Bai Xiang frowned, very dissatisfied that she had failed to suppress Cui Yuanhao to death.

She was no longer a novice who only half-understood the Upper Realm and Immortal Venerables.

All sorts of information from different channels pointed to roughly the same conclusion: Immortal Venerables were extremely hard to kill.

Cultivators who made it to this realm, whether human or demon, saw their desire for straightforward fighting drop sharply. Instead, they shifted their focus to breaking through to seek higher laws and to further longevity.

So these Immortal Venerables, regardless of individual strength, regardless of whether the weaker one would be instantly killed if they fought the stronger, all poured effort into developing the rules of their divine pool, thinking up every possible way to obtain some kind of “undying” ability.

Cui Yuanhao could reconcile ice and fire and turn extreme cold into flame.

Other Immortal Venerables might very well have techniques like “rebirth from remnant soul” or “regrowth from a drop of blood.”

They were really like liches with a polished phylactery, annoyingly hard to kill.

The Forbidden-Method Tribulation Lotus could certainly suppress Immortal Venerables, but it did not do much damage to them and could not truly solve the problem.

Once an Immortal Venerable grasped methods sufficient to withstand that move, such as borrowing a human-path sacred armament like the Tianxuan Sword, her Vibration Art, her sealing arts, and her lightning methods would all lose their edge. Even the violent Qi-Origin clinging to the surface of Feixiang Heaven would only be able to boost the sword’s durability.

In terms of quality, Feixiang Heaven was still far behind the Tianxuan Sword. When the fight was over, its blade edge had been chipped and pitted in many places and only recovered after absorbing the other Zhenyuan sword embryo.

And that was with her using sword Qi from her Origin Orifices to wrap around it.

Without that, it probably would have been cut in half the moment it touched the Tianxuan Sword.

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“If I am pushed into pure close-quarters, I can use my soul-abilities and treat my body as both shield and control tool, like letting the enemy’s weapon pierce through me so I can lock them in place and seize an opening.”

“But that is far too risky, and until I fully understand these abilities, I should use them as little as possible.”

Bai Xiang kept driving the Jade Spirit, trying to create a set of close-combat sword arts that could suppress Immortal Venerable level opponents.

She had no idea how greedy that thought really was.

One had to know that even in the Upper Realm, Immortal Venerables usually only probed each other in battle.

They knew it was very hard to kill the other side, and if you failed to kill, you would have to endure their revenge.

There were very few Immortal Venerables who fought alone. Cultivators at this tier generally had their own trusted followers and forces. Knowing full well that those below them could not withstand another Immortal Venerable’s fury, they naturally did not usually push things to the point of no return.

Unless it touched on Dao disputes and tribulation struggles.

Then it was another matter entirely.

If the hiding Cui Yuanhao knew that Bai Xiang was still unsatisfied with her result against him, he would probably cough up a mouthful of old blood and have his martial will severely shaken.

You are already able to crush an Immortal Venerable without a sacred armament with the ten-thousand-tribulation lotus. Even an Immortal Venerable wielding a sacred armament has been killed by you using strange methods, losing both life and treasure and being forced to burn a secret resurrection art.

What more do you want?

You are still not satisfied?

Outrageous.

Bai Xiang did not care about any of that. She simply followed her own thoughts, combined all the close-combat moves she had gathered so far, and once again used the Jade Spirit to calculate and deduce, sketching out the outline of a new art bit by bit.

The old arts were not much use anymore.

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Thousand Cicadas Thundercry, Thunder-Tiger Sword-Sha, and the rest.

A single tribulation lotus already encompassed all the fine essence of those older arts. Anything the tribulation lotus thunder cudgel could not do, those old moves certainly could not.

“When fighting opponents who wield sacred armaments or demon armaments, if I am forced to return to this kind of primitive hand-to-hand combat, it can be seen as a return to basics.”

“In that case, I do not need to be bound by ordinary moves. I will still center everything on Feixiang Heaven and the Qi-Origin of my Origin Realm. For now, I will set the core goal as ‘being able to cut or crush the enemy’s body without using soul-abilities as my trump card.’”

Do not be fooled by the fact that she could also achieve this with the Forbidden-Method Tribulation Lotus. Under those conditions, Feixiang Heaven had to act as the amplifier for sky-vibration, which meant the sword could not approach the target and could not absorb their blood essence for refinement.

Later she had indeed thrust through Cui Yuanhao’s chest and broken his ice-aspect body, but that had been when he had deliberately sold her the opening. In that instant there had been no time to change moves, and she had not managed to draw out and absorb his blood essence.

There was no trick to be had there.

She had to honestly train up a new art.

This process was not actually slow. Bai Xiang had been brewing this idea for several days already, and at the Jade Spirit’s rate of calculation, who knew how many tens of thousands of times it had run simulations in that span. Before long, Bai Xiang had a clear outline in mind.

Whoosh.

Soul-vision of the Body-scape activated, and her soul-form shot out of her body into the air, where it began rehearsing one sword move after another in slow motion.

Some moves looked extremely strange in posture. Others looked extremely simple.

The former were modifications based on her bodily flexibility and the conceptual path of Qi-forming the great Buddha.

The latter took the Sun-Chasing Scripture as their reference.

Opening-the-Mountain Form.

Lifting-the-Peak Form.

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Toppling-the-Mountain Form.

God-Stride Form.

She also worked in some of the fists and kicks she had developed after tempering her body.

For example, that toe-stomping kick she had instinctively favored in her very first fight after waking up was also folded into the mix.

As time passed, Bai Xiang finally opened her eyes.

Suddenly her entire body tightened, and a surge of powerful qi and blood erupted from her. Its momentum was so great it coiled above her head like a pillar of blood-colored smoke, and when she parted her lips, a pure white line of sword light shot out. That “single sword” actually bore into the air hard enough to make it explode, producing the sonic crack normally heard only in blade clashes.

That was about right.

Dropping down from midair, Bai Xiang peeled off her sweat-soaked clothes and quietly walked into the washroom to bathe.

Later she could sort out a simplified version and hand it over to Second Uncle along with the rest of the teaching materials, as a “guardian art” to follow the Qi-Refining methods.

As for a name.

Since it had been derived from her void-imagination deductions in the first place, there was no need to make it so convoluted and long. She would simply use the concepts of “void-imagination” and “Shenming” and call it the Void-Imagination Divine Sword.

The moment this idea appeared, Bai Xiang could practically see Bai Zhuqing’s little face, all tangled up.

She would definitely complain that the name was not lofty or fashionable enough and that compared to something like the Shangqing Wave-Sweeping Lightning-Drawing Sword Formula, it fell far short.

But so what.

She liked seeing Zhuqing all conflicted like that.