Chapter Twenty-Eight: Walking Upon the Sword

The Yunluo Mountains stretch from west to east, and Chuyun Valley marks their western origin. Traveling eastward for thousands of miles from Chuyun Valley leads directly to Yunluo City.

Liu Junhuai journeyed by day, and at night entered the Tower of Myriad Phenomena to cultivate. He had spent two days traversing the Yunluo Mountains and encountered only two second-tier demonic beasts along the way.

Within the Tower of Myriad Phenomena, he had gathered ample materials for alchemy and artifact forging, save for demon cores; for some unknown reason, the beasts in the cultivation space could not yield their cores. Demon cores form only within beasts of the third tier and above. With Liu Junhuai now at the ninth stage of Qi Refinement, he could face a fourth-tier beast in battle, so long as he wasn't surrounded by several at once.

Night had already fallen when Liu Junhuai entered the Tower of Myriad Phenomena to continue his training in the Five Elements Chaotic Blade.

Chaos refers to the state of primordial energy: "United with heaven and earth, chaos is uncarved; before creation, it is substance, called the Great One." It speaks of chaos as the source of all energies, existing even before primordial energy divides. In the Five Elements Chaotic Blade, chaos refers to blade aura—blade energy that can ignore all other elemental attributes and move as it pleases.

Even with only a nascent form of the blade aura, Liu Junhuai could sense its reckless presence in the air, its boundless power. The aura could create countless murky, invisible vortices, tearing apart enemy blade barriers with sheer force.

The most extraordinary aspect of the Five Elements Chaotic Blade is its lack of fixed techniques; the blade aura automatically seeks out the weakest point in an opponent's spiritual defenses, piercing through directly and efficiently.

Just as cultivation is for true essence, this blade art is for blade aura. Regrettably, only half of the technique remains; its highest realm, the Blade Domain, is when the aura forms its own territory, allowing free dominance within it.

Once he could form the Blade Domain, Liu Junhuai would be able to wield his palm as a blade, no longer needing a physical weapon to produce blade aura.

The Shadow Blade, a weapon for stealth, is designed to conceal its aura and is unsuitable for the Five Elements Chaotic Blade.

Thus, after becoming a first-tier artifact forger in the forging chamber, Liu Junhuai's first creation was a blade.

The forging process was rife with mishaps. He summoned Azhi, dumped the Golden Light Mystic Iron Spear, a counterfeit Heaven-turning Seal of mid-grade mystic tier, a mid-grade mystic-tier Silver Training Spear, a mid-grade earth-tier Black Mountain Axe, and all his ten-thousand-year Cold Iron and Fire-type Purple Sandstone into the forge, melting everything into a single, unidentifiable lump of metal.

Imagining the shape of a blade, he spent the night forging a rustic, brown knife resembling a kitchen cleaver.

When the blade emerged from the forge, Liu Junhuai’s first impression was that of a toad—exceptionally ugly and heavy. Even Azhi, perched on his fingertip, let its flames dance excitedly, seemingly delighted.

Annoyed, Liu Junhuai tossed the blade to the ground. Unexpectedly, when the blade landed, it bounced and embedded itself edge-first into the stone slab, proving surprisingly sharp despite its ugliness.

Delighted, Liu Junhuai hurriedly retrieved it and caressed its surface.

He named the blade "Clumsy," and Azhi’s body trembled again, conveying a sense of disdain that Liu Junhuai could feel.

After refining Clumsy, Liu Junhuai slipped into the Beast Mountain.

The spiritual energy in the cultivation space was much denser than outside, and every time he entered, Liu Junhuai felt his breathing grow more comfortable.

He summoned Azhi, who burned four corpses to ash in a flash. With his celestial sense masking his aura, Liu Junhuai gripped the Shadow Blade and moved stealthily through the forest.

The third form of his "Blade Escape Technique," Soul Pursuit in Three Steps, was still lacking, mainly due to his unfamiliarity with the footwork. This time, he chose to train in the forest, hoping to integrate the "Shifting Shadow" technique into his movements.

Three hundred meters ahead, a one-horned earth rhino drank at a water hole. Its horn was a universal ingredient for restorative pills, used in almost every healing formula. However, in the cultivation space, beasts could only be slain, not hunted, limiting Liu Junhuai’s gains.

Careful not to disturb the tangled branches underfoot, Liu Junhuai slipped within striking distance, while the earth rhino remained oblivious to the approaching danger.

A few steps closer, Liu Junhuai struck with the Shadow Blade, stabbing from both sides. The third-tier earth rhino twisted instantly, and the Shadow Blade punctured its muscular hind leg.

The earth rhino bellowed in rage, lowered its head, and charged with its horn. Liu Junhuai sidestepped, slashing at its waist with his two-part strike. The rhino braked with its forelegs, shifted its massive body deftly, and swept its thick tail at Liu Junhuai’s arm. Liu Junhuai repelled the tail with a burst of true essence from his left hand, then struck again at the rhino’s waist with his right—another two-part attack. The Shadow Blade hit its waist, ringing out like striking tough leather.

The rhino's thick skin ignored the wounds, its horn still aiming fiercely for Liu Junhuai. Liu Junhuai dashed sideways, reversed his grip, and struck its waist yet again. The rhino’s hind legs faltered, its body sinking.

With a gust, Liu Junhuai stabbed both flanks into the rhino’s raised chest. He slapped the hilt, sending the Shadow Blade through the beast’s body, piercing its back. The earth rhino collapsed.

Before Liu Junhuai had caught his breath, his celestial sense detected incoming birds from behind. Turning, he saw specks of red light approaching rapidly.

A swarm of pitch-black bats, each several feet wide, descended, drawn by the scent of blood. The red glow came from their blood-colored eyes.

Second-tier blood bats, adept at long-range sonic assaults. Liu Junhuai was secretly pleased—perfect for testing the cauldron’s counterattack.

He activated the "Primordial Shield Cauldron," and the first wave of sonic attacks struck the golden protective aura, causing it to tremble.

The cauldron retaliated, sending a golden beam along the path of the sonic assault. A hiss sounded, and clumps of flesh dropped from the air; half the bats fell, slain.

The second wave of sonic attacks struck again, shaking the protective aura. The cauldron retaliated, but this time the golden beam’s trajectory dimmed, dissipating halfway through the air.

It seemed that only one ranged counterattack was possible. Resigned, Liu Junhuai wielded the ugly Clumsy blade.

The bats now closed in, their bloody fangs visible.

Clumsy swung through the swarm, and the Five Elements Chaotic Blade instantly annihilated every creature within its aura’s range.

"Too domineering!" Liu Junhuai muttered, salivating. The blade aura seeped into every crevice, sweeping the space, occupying nearly every gap.

Liu Junhuai felt fortunate—he believed no one else could master the Five Elements Chaotic Blade.

It absorbed the qi of the five elements, specifically the most chaotic portion of ordinary spiritual energy. All five attributes were indispensable, and he just happened to possess mixed roots and had entered the "Treasure Pavilion."

The Five Elements Chaotic Blade was the most brutal of blade arts, drawing on the wildest energies. Even more terrifying, it had no techniques, only producing aggressive blade aura that cunningly sought the weakest points in defenses.

At this moment, Liu Junhuai recalled the cauldron that had filled him with hope.

Now, the cauldron was spinning within the vortex of the "Golden Chalice," suggesting its counterattack could only be used for ambush, though he didn’t know under what conditions it might be triggered again.

And so, amidst ceaseless battle, another night of arduous cultivation passed for Liu Junhuai.

He did not rush to leave the Tower of Myriad Phenomena. Instead, he took out the high-grade earth-tier flying sword he had acquired in the "Treasure Pavilion."

He wished to try flying. In the past two days, he felt he had wasted too much time traveling; with sword flight, he could devote more time to cultivation.

The sword was called Nine Heavens. He activated his cultivation method, infused the sword with true essence, and the blade widened to three feet.

He tossed Nine Heavens into the air, vaulted onto its blade, but the sword wobbled and fell after only ten meters, though he had prepared and avoided injury.

He tried again, carefully controlling the sword with his true essence. This time, he managed several dozen meters before the sword reluctantly dropped.

He practiced countless times, falling just as often. Only when his true essence was nearly depleted did he stop. By then, he could manage dozens of miles, though his body remained unsteady.

He sat cross-legged in the spirit-gathering array, clutching a few high-grade spirit stones, and quickly restored his true essence.

An hour later, Liu Junhuai rose, refreshed, and once more mounted the flying sword.

After flying over a hundred miles, his true essence was nearly spent. He took a few Essence Pills, continued for several dozen miles, and then stopped to recover. He had finally mastered sword flight.

When his true essence was fully restored, it was already midday. Liu Junhuai emerged from the Tower of Myriad Phenomena but did not immediately mount his flying sword, for he noticed a cluster of blooming purple acacia flowers on a nearby cliff. He needed to gather these spiritual flowers to brew spirit flower wine.