"Then I'm afraid there may be no hope of further progress in the Beginner's Sword Dao, right?" Xiangling asked. Si Niang shook her head and said, "Perhaps. Master said that precisely because of this, she developed so many distracting thoughts, causing her sword heart to become impure and making it impossible for her to use the Beginner's Sword Dao in its purest form. But now that she has inherited the Beginner's Sword Dao from me, she doesn't seem to find it all that depressing."
"If my guess is right, the Beginner's Sword Dao isn't a boundless sword technique after all. Sword techniques may change in myriad ways, but they aren't without a foundation. As long as all nine methods of deconstruction reach the Mahayana stage, no matter how powerful the sword techniques in the world are, they can't surpass the nine major categories. By then, even getting married and having children wouldn't be a problem, would it? As for distracting thoughts—what sword cultivator has none? Once one reaches the supreme realm, one has already become one with the sword. What could possibly remain impossible to break? Even if one's heart harbored countless distracting thoughts, a single sword could shatter them. The moment it was drawn, victory and defeat would be decided." Shao Zi, however, did not agree.
Si Niang nodded, seemingly in complete agreement with this line of reasoning. The other disciples naturally all looked at me, waiting for my explanation.
"As Shao Zi said, from a certain angle, sword techniques do indeed have ultimate counters. That's why they can only serve as a supporting means for an immortal cultivator to achieve victory. Cultivation alone has no upper limit. It's fine to devote oneself to the Sword Dao, but if one's cultivation is inadequate, one will ultimately remain nothing more