The qi of the Violet Origin Pill dispersed, and Xie Xuanyi successfully broke through.
A faint golden radiance ignited across his entire body.
Xie Xuanyi rose to his feet.
"Rumble—"
The howling of wind and thunder echoed through all one hundred and eight major acupoints!
His right shoulder, which Rank Six had once pierced through, had completely healed... As for the Gu Blood that had invaded his body and spread within it, it had been utterly wiped out, reduced to nothingness!
This was the Immortal Spring!
Xie Xuanyi stretched out both hands, feeling the blood and qi within his body surge like flood dragons, yet he frowned slightly.
"After being nourished by the Immortal Spring, it seems my path of cultivation has become somewhat different?"
At the first realm, Qi Refinement, others merely needed to absorb the qi of heaven and earth.
Yet he required Golden Qi.
Now that he had reached the second realm...
The normal second realm was called "Foundation Establishment" in the Daoist sects, while the sword palace called it "Divine Sense." The differing names stemmed from the differing directions of later cultivation. The sword palace's second realm primarily cultivated the divine soul, preparing one to wield a Lifebound Flying Sword in the future. The Daoist sects' "Foundation Establishment" realm, meanwhile, prepared one to condense a mature Dao Fruit upon becoming a True Person, using it to emulate a Nascent Soul.
Thus, the third realm was called "Qi Wielding" by the Daoist sects and "Artifact Wielding" by the sword palace. They sounded alike, differing by only a single word, yet in truth they were worlds apart.
But by the fourth realm, "Grotto-Heaven"—the cultivation philosophies of the two great sects became strikingly similar once more. Daoist sects used a "Dao Fruit seed" to form a grotto-heaven, which was why this realm was also called "Core Formation." Once the grotto-heaven at a Daoist cultivator's dantian fully matured, they would naturally achieve the Nascent Soul realm.
The Great Grain Sword Palace's fourth realm, meanwhile, used a Lifebound Flying Sword to construct a "Sword Qi Grotto-Heaven." In the early stages of this realm, sword cultivators needed to expend immense amounts of essence, qi, and spirit to nurture their Lifebound Flying Swords.
Later on, the entire Sword Qi Grotto-Heaven would in turn nourish the sword cultivator.
"Logically speaking, this so-called second realm merely requires one to condense the divine soul and continuously establish a connection with one's lifebound object..."
Xie Xuanyi murmured, "With my current accumulation of divine soul power, I should have been able to cross the second realm with ease."
He slowly raised a hand.
A huge stone atop Little Barren Mountain slowly rose into the air.
He clenched his fist.
With a bang, the huge stone exploded. The dozens, nearly hundred fragments that burst apart likewise floated neatly in the air.
This had actually already exceeded the limits of the Divine Sense Realm.
It could be said that this was a method only the Artifact Wielding Realm could employ.
Yet Xie Xuanyi did not currently possess that mysterious sensation of a divine soul becoming perfectly rounded and unified, as he had when breaking through the second realm in his previous life.
"Is it because I have already walked through the 'Divine Sense Realm' once?"
Xie Xuanyi fell into thought.
No one had ever died and come back to life, but he was an exception.
And so... something as unreasonable as slaying demons in Jade Pearl Town had appeared, just like that, without a shred of reason.
A Qi Refiner had employed Artifact Wielding methods and unleashed lethality far beyond the first realm.
Although Xie Xuanyi no longer had qi, his divine soul remained, and the foundation of his Artifact Wielding arts was still deep and solid.
This allowed him to "ignore" the rules of cultivation at the lower levels.
Though he was in the first realm, he could still employ Artifact Wielding methods.
This relied on the divine soul!
"Wait."
All at once, Xie Xuanyi realized something.
Over these years, he had been a rather pure sword cultivator... The cultivation arts, breathing techniques, and killing arts he practiced had all come from the Great Grain Sword Palace.
There were countless paths in this world.
Sword cultivation was merely one of them.
Though Xie Xuanyi had traveled deeply down this path, he did not understand the other ways of cultivation.
"The reason I was previously trapped in the Qi Refinement Realm... Could it have been because I subconsciously tried to cross this abnormal first realm using the path of a sword cultivator?"
Xie Xuanyi had heard that the Buddhist disciples of Southern Li cultivated exceptionally arduously in the first realm.
Ordinary cultivation often required ten years, or even longer, of bitter practice!
Yet the combat strength Buddhist disciples could display in the first realm was also the highest and most outstanding among those of the same realm. Their blood and qi were like bulls, and their skin like iron hide.
Whether Daoist cultivators or sword cultivators, all pursued a swift resonance with heaven and earth in the first realm, so they could enter the next realm.
Buddhist disciples were different. Their second realm pursued "Iron Bones" after "Copper Skin."
After that came the achievement of "Vajra."
Both Daoist sects and sword palaces needed to refine lifebound objects. But Buddhist disciples could meet treasured artifacts head-on with their fleshly bodies.
Now, Xie Xuanyi had successfully broken through.
Thinking back carefully.
This so-called "Golden Qi" actually resembled a Buddhist cultivation method. It was an extremely radical path of suppressing one's realm.
No matter how extraordinary one's talent or how keen one's sensitivity to qi, it was useless!
To condense Golden Qi, one had to put in bitter effort—
"The Immortal Spring changed my body."
Xie Xuanyi murmured, "At the same time... it also changed my cultivation method."
Many years ago, he had wanted to cultivate the Great Grain Sword Palace's two sword paths at once.
But because his physique had been insufficient, he had been forced to give up.
Now, after being forged by the Immortal Spring, Xie Xuanyi vaguely saw a glimmer of radiance he had never seen before.
He lowered his head and once more turned his gaze inward.
The water droplet formed from countless strands of condensed, entwined Golden Qi hung at his dantian.
Beside the water droplet.
The place belonging to Chronic Ailment was completely empty.
"After reaching the peak of Qi Wielding, one opens a Sword Qi Grotto-Heaven... This is the path of a sword cultivator."
Xie Xuanyi suddenly understood and murmured softly, "The reason I do not feel the same mysterious sensation I had when breaking through the Divine Sense Realm is because I have already walked this path before. The power of my divine soul has long surpassed the 'Divine Sense Realm.'"
Forget the Divine Sense Realm.
So long as conditions allowed it, Xie Xuanyi could wield several hundred flying swords. This was divine soul power that utterly crushed the Artifact Wielding Realm.
Though the path of sword cultivation was not merely the cultivation of the divine soul...
In the first three realms, Xie Xuanyi's abundant divine soul could practically charge ahead unimpeded.
If he only walked the path of the sword cultivator, he would progress very quickly.
But...
What if he did not walk the path of the sword cultivator?
Xie Xuanyi suddenly realized that his current self possessed many new possibilities.
Though he had transcended the second realm, he was still within the second realm.
"The cultivation method of using Golden Qi to nourish the acupoints somewhat resembles the 'body-forging path' born from a fusion of Buddhism and Daoism."
Xie Xuanyi silently examined this body. "Does this mean that besides cultivating the sword path... I can cultivate another great path?"
Or perhaps two?
The moment this thought emerged, Xie Xuanyi's heart trembled.
His intuition told him.
If he could reclaim Chronic Ailment and hang it beside the Immortal Spring, then the Sword Qi Grotto-Heaven that had originally belonged to him could soon be rebuilt... This was the "sword path" he had once walked. Now that he was alive again, picking it up once more would not require too much effort.
It was simply that the wondrous uses of the legendary divine artifact, the Immortal Spring, seemed to be far more than merely "saving lives."
"There are one hundred and eight major acupoints that need to be ignited in the first realm."
"But if I continue letting Golden Qi flow through my entire body, filling every meridian..."
Light shone in Xie Xuanyi's eyes. "Wouldn't this be Buddhism's 'body-forging path'?"
Countless thoughts whirled through his mind.
The sigh his master had once uttered within the Great Grain Sword Palace swept into his mind for the third time.
"Xuanyi..."
"The path a sword cultivator can comprehend need not be only the sword path!"
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