The ethereal Sword Qi in Lu Xiaotian's body was incredibly stubborn. He tried to wear it down with his mana, but his mana was nowhere near as refined or concentrated as the Sword Qi. His mana was steadily depleted, yet the Sword Qi remained utterly unmoved. Worse, the excessive expenditure of mana showed signs of aggravating his injuries, which he had only just managed to stabilize. With the ethereal Sword Qi wreaking havoc inside him, his own mana could barely hold up a defense, and he suffered new injuries from time to time. He could only use the mana within his Dharma Bead to keep repairing his body, the two forces locked in a war of attrition. After suffering several setbacks, Lu Xiaotian had no idea how to drive the Sword Qi out completely. For now, he would focus on keeping things stable.
This ethereal Sword Qi was truly troublesome. Lu Xiaotian wore a troubled expression. With the methods at his disposal, he was utterly helpless against the several streaks of ethereal Sword Qi inside him. And they showed signs of merging into one. Right—before he was teleported away, he had picked up two things that had fallen from the Buddhist monk: a stone stele and a jade slip. He wondered if either might be of use.
Several hours later, Lu Xiaotian finished skimming the contents of the jade slip. What he had obtained was the Buddhist monk's cultivation method. Some parts were abstruse and difficult to understand, and a few hours were naturally not enough to make sense of it all. As it happened, both cultivation methods could be of considerable help with his injuries. The Buddhist monk had cultivated both magic and body, and his Pagoda Dharma Body in particular was incomparably powerful when mastered. The slip also