"Piaoxue, how are you?"
The Lin family arrived. A middle-aged man with frosted temples rushed anxiously to Lin Piaoxue's side.
This person was none other than the head of the Lin family, Lin Zhengyuan.
"You're poisoned?"
Lin Zhengyuan's heartstrings tightened instantly as he hurriedly retrieved a medicinal pill and handed it to Lin Piaoxue. "Quickly consume this Top-grade Pure Spirit Precious Pill to suppress the toxicity!"
Lin Piaoxue took the pill, placed it in her mouth, and swallowed it down.
She immediately sat cross-legged to circulate her qi and refine the pill's energy. A full quarter of an hour passed before she spat out a mouthful of pitch-black, toxic blood, and her complexion finally looked much better.
Lin Zhengyuan was finally reassured. With lingering fear in his heart, he said, "You child, I told you the Black Wind Bandit was cunning, treacherous, and hard to deal with. Something major almost happened this time."
"You're about to leave for the Azure Star Academy immediately. What would we have done if something went wrong at this juncture?"
Lin Piaoxue's expression was complicated as she said, "Father, your daughter knows. I will definitely be more careful if I encounter such a thing in the future. I actually almost killed myself this time to avoid falling into the hands of the Black Wind Bandit and being humiliated by him, but at the very last moment, a young lord saved me."
Upon hearing this, Lin Zhengyuan was stunned.
"A young lord?"
"From what clan? To be able to kill the Black Wind Bandit—there aren't many youths in the Great Chu Dynasty with such strength."
Lin Piaoxue shook her head and said, "I don't know his surname or given name either, but he is very young, and I feel that he should only be at the Sea of Qi Realm in cultivation!"
Lin Zhengyuan widened his eyes and said, "The Sea of Qi Realm cultivation and he could slay the Black Wind Bandit? That's impossible!"
Lin Piaoxue used a certain tone as she said, "Father, my perception has always been extremely acute. I shouldn't have judged incorrectly. Although that Black Wind Bandit had already been heavily wounded by me, it still couldn't conceal the radiance of that young lord's formidable swordplay!"
"Pity, he didn't tell me his name and background..."
Lin Piaoxue's tone carried a hint of regret.
Lin Zhengyuan's gaze flickered for a moment before he said, "A young man, Sea of Qi Realm cultivation, outstanding swordplay—as for someone matching these characteristics in this region, this father actually knows one!"
Lin Piaoxue immediately revealed a look of excitement and said, "Father, you know who it is?"
Lin Zhengyuan nodded and said, "When this father came to look for you, I happened to hear that Xia Wudao, the second young master of the Sword Pavilion's Xia Family, has very good talent and also happened to break through to the Sea of Qi Realm cultivation!"
Lin Piaoxue: "The Sword Pavilion..."
Lin Zhengyuan sighed with emotion, saying, "That Sword Pavilion was indeed brilliant once, surpassing even our Lin family at times."
"But the people of the Sword Pavilion's Xia Family grow a generation worse than the last, and now it is already setting like the sun in the west."
"I never expected that such a genius would be born in the Sword Pavilion nowadays. It seems the Sword Pavilion's fate is not yet exhausted and it is about to usher in a great rise!"
Lin Piaoxue hurriedly said, "Father, I want to take a trip to the Sword Pavilion and have a meeting with that Xia Wudao."
Although she had also helped Xia Wudao, she now realized that her action back then was purely meddlesome. With Xia Wudao's strength in slaying the Black Wind Bandit today, he naturally could have also killed that Lightning Leopard.
As for the so-called clearing of karmic ties, Lin Piaoxue did not think so at all.
She wanted to... continue this tie.
"Yet the Azure Star Academy side is urging us urgently. You should set off..."
Lin Piaoxue shook her head and said, "It won't delay much time. I only want to thank him in person."
Lin Zhengyuan thought about it and said, "Fine. Since that Xia Wudao possesses such capability, he will certainly become a person of note in the future. Our Lin family can also take advantage of this opportunity to send a token of goodwill to the Sword Pavilion to help their Sword Pavilion rise once again."
On the other side.
Xia Wuji arrived at a secluded and deep place.
Holding the Radiant Crystal Profound Stone, he sized it up for a few glances before tossing this item toward the air.
Directly following that, spiritual power swept outward, fixing the Radiant Crystal Profound Stone in midair.
Xia Wuji formed hand seals, conjuring flames to smelt the Radiant Crystal Profound Stone.
It took close to an entire hour before the smelting of the Radiant Crystal Profound Stone was finally completed.
The flames extracted from the bodies of primary-grade Fierce Beasts simply won't do; smelting a single piece of this Radiant Crystal Profound Stone is already so difficult, Xia Wuji thought with emotion.
If it were someone else using this kind of flame, success would be utterly impossible. Fortunately, the fire control technique known as the Sky Burning Art that Xia Wuji executed was profound and extraordinary; even in the Heaven Realm, it was top-tier heritage in this regard.
Once the smelting of the Radiant Crystal Profound Stone was complete, Xia Wuji drew the Jinghong Sword and cast the crystallized substance yielded from the smelting into the sword body. During this process, Xia Wuji's spiritual power also surged unceasingly within the sword body.
With spiritual power, he controlled that crystallized substance, bit by bit merging it into the Jinghong Sword, and then used his spiritual power to leave strand after strand of spirit patterns within the sword!
The greatest difference between a treasured sword and a spirit sword is that a spirit sword possesses spirit patterns!
The art of spirit patterns is profound, abstruse, and incomparable.
Artifact refining, talismans, formations, and so on are all inextricably linked to spirit patterns.
If his spiritual power were not able to leave his body right now, Xia Wuji would not have been able to achieve this either.
As strands of spirit patterns were deeply hidden within the Jinghong Sword, the radiance emitted by the Jinghong Sword grew increasingly brilliant. In fact, imperceptibly, the vital energy of heaven and earth took the initiative to converge toward the Jinghong Sword.
This was the efficacy of spirit patterns!
Aside from sharpness, a treasured sword is merely hard!
Yet a spirit sword is sharper, harder, and can actively draw upon the vital energy of heaven and earth. Spirit swords of even higher grades will even give birth to sentience...
A streak of rainbow light soared into the sky.
Xia Wuji grabbed with his palm, and the hilt of the Jinghong Sword landed in his palm. In an instant, an edge rushed into his body.
The Sword Seed also flashed with a sliver of luster in response, absorbing the edge belonging to the Jinghong Sword.
The Jinghong Sword was Xia Wuji's matching sword and was not suitable for direct devouring by the Sword Seed, but with the Jinghong Sword in Xia Wuji's hands, its edge actually nourished the Sword Seed every moment as well.
Of course, the effect of this kind of nourishment was extremely weak.
After all, even now, the Jinghong Sword had been smelted with the Radiant Crystal Profound Stone by Xia Wuji, yet it still could not be called a first-tier spirit sword, at most qualifying only as a quasi-spirit sword.
Grasping the quasi-spirit sword in his hand, a surge of bold spirit suddenly arose in Xia Wuji's heart. Without delay, he slashed with a sword, practicing movement techniques and swordplay in this secluded and tranquil place!
Various techniques had long since been thoroughly mastered; what needed to be done now was to let this body adapt.
After all, the situation now was that he possessed consciousness countless times superior to this body.
His consciousness grasped it... but his body was somewhat failing to keep up.
The movement technique Xia Wuji executed at this moment was named the Cloud Soaring Steps, and the swordplay was the Overlapping Waves Sword Art, both belonging to the Profound-tier low grade.
Once the moves of the Overlapping Waves Sword Art unfolded, the momentum was like waves of water overlapping one upon another, each move stronger than the last!
There were a total of nine moves!
If the ninth sword could be unleashed with nine overlapping waves, its momentum could even closely pursue Profound-tier mid-grade swordplay.
A quarter of an hour later.
Xia Wuji slashed out with a sword!
In a flash, the sword light actually transformed into two heavy giant waves!
The sword light swept outward, and wherever it passed, a patch of rocks, grass, and trees was thoroughly pulverized!
"Two heavy waves—compared to the True Sun Swordplay's Three Suns Opening burst, it's a bit stronger, but not by a huge margin."
"With the quantity of Sword Essence I currently possess, it is fully sufficient to unleash three heavy waves."
"If I can unleash three heavy waves, then compared to the True Sun Swordplay's Three Suns Opening, there will be a marked improvement in might!"
"Let's practice more!"
Xia Wuji continued to execute the swordplay moves, and another two quarters of an hour passed.
Finally, while executing the Overlapping Waves Sword Art, this body was at last able to keep up with his consciousness.
Three heavy waves!
Three layers of sword light swept outward from the blade's edge in an instant, mighty and grand, with astonishing momentum, directly pulverizing a large expanse of grass, trees, and rocks ahead. The destructive power was simply doubled compared to the previous two heavy waves!
Xia Wuji was quite satisfied with the results of this sword practice.
"The Sword Pavilion Ancestral Worship Ceremony!"
"Xia Wudao..."
"I have arrived!"
Before you continue