Reaching the Pinnacle of Perfection

In the previous levels, the advancement of the Supreme Clarity Sword Technique had been almost entirely without obstacles.

He only needed to practice diligently every day to gain experience points.

And once those experience points were in place, he could immediately reach a new level.

However, as Shen Mo touched upon the level of mastery, he finally felt a bottleneck he had never encountered before.

"For this period of time, no matter how I practice, the experience points for the Supreme Clarity Sword Technique have ceased to grow."

The Supreme Clarity Sword Technique he had just practiced, despite its magnificent momentum and imposing power, felt incomplete.

Throughout the process of executing it, he always felt a trace of something left undone, a blockage in his sword intent that prevented its power from reaching its peak.

"If I could fill in this missing piece, it should be enough to take the Supreme Clarity Sword Technique to the next level and reach the pinnacle of perfection."

Shen Mo thought to himself, then couldn't help but smile bitterly: "But, easier said than done."

Although he was currently only a hair's breadth away from advancing the Supreme Clarity Sword Technique to the next level, that single hair's breadth was something some people spent years of bitter, stagnant meditation unable to break through.

He didn't know how long it would take for him to bridge that gap.

Suppressing the restless emotions in his heart, Shen Mo turned his focus back to practicing his sword with undivided attention.

The fact that he had previously advanced his cultivation methods, immortal arts, and martial techniques to perfection so smoothly was already enough to make countless people envious.

To be so impatient just because he had encountered a slight bottleneck for a few days was truly too greedy.

"Whoosh!"

"Whoosh!"

High in the sky, the moonlight shone down, gilding all things on earth with silver edges.

In the distance, the Lancang River surged, its tides crashing against the shore.

The tide was ceaseless, the sound filling his ears.

On the stone terrace, Shen Mo swung his sword, his mind clear of distractions, practicing each move and stance slowly.

"Clang!"

His long sword moved like a dragon, tearing through gusts of wind.

Under the sweep of the wind and sword intent, fallen leaves in the distance gathered three feet around Shen Mo, dancing across the sky.

"Clang!"

"Clang!"

The sword aura was thick and heavy, slicing through the night like the tides of the Lancang River, one wave stronger than the last.

Although he practiced it over and over, Shen Mo never managed to gain experience for the Supreme Clarity Sword Technique to reach a new level.

But if he had paid the slightest bit of attention, he would have noticed.

The sword aura in his hand and the sword intent in his heart grew a fraction stronger with every repetition.

At this moment, Shen Mo could not perceive this.

Immersed in the way of the sword during his practice, he had no time to examine his own changes.

As he practiced move after move, his noisy thoughts were completely emptied.

Shen Mo seemed unable to feel his surroundings, his spirit wandering beyond the world.

Between heaven and earth, it seemed there was only himself and the sword in his hand!

This profound and mysterious realization left Shen Mo intoxicated.

He did not know how much time had passed; he felt as if he had been practicing for several hours, yet also as if he had just raised his sword and had not yet executed more than a few moves.

"Whoosh!"

The sound of a crashing wave suddenly exploded in his mind.

Immersed in this epiphany, Shen Mo was startled by the sound of the tide, which broke his state.

He awoke as if from a dream, gazing at the river, the tides, the moonlight, and the mountains before him.

All things in heaven and earth seemed to suddenly become clear and bright.

"This sword... this sword intent!"

He suddenly realized that, without knowing when, he had condensed an incomparably vast and powerful sword intent.

This deep, oceanic sword intent surged ceaselessly within his body, leaving Shen Mo's eyes dazed.

"I have a premonition that with this one strike, I could split the river in two."

A sudden, inspired intuition welled up in Shen Mo's heart.

As this thought flashed through his mind, he could no longer suppress the urge to swing his sword.

With that, he moved.

The Dragon Sparrow Sword in his hand erupted with an unprecedented, intense fluctuation, transforming into a streak of white silk that slashed down abruptly.

The Sword Qi swept across the river, cleaving through a hundred feet of the river and sea!

This blade of Sword Qi actually followed the riverbank, shattering the very tidal bore of the Lancang River.

Subsequently, the unstoppable Sword Qi tore through the river's surface, splitting the entire surging current in two and exposing the silt, fish, and shrimp at the riverbed.

"Splash!"

However, this Sword Qi did not last long; once it dissipated, the rift in the river vanished.

The endless waves smoothed over the surface once more, leaving only the sound of falling water echoing one after another.

Facing a strike like this, even a cultivator at the early stage of the Qi Gathering Realm would perish and vanish!

Gazing at the spectacular scene of the river waves, Shen Mo regained his senses, his heart filled with shock.

When did I gain such strength?

He felt a moment of bewilderment, only to see a message pop up before his eyes.

[You practiced your sword against the river tide, and amidst these mountains and seas, you unexpectedly entered a state of epiphany, successfully comprehending the infinite mysteries of the Supreme Clarity Sword Technique. Your Supreme Clarity Sword Technique experience +9857]

"An epiphany. Just now, in the midst of practicing my sword, I actually entered the state of epiphany that countless cultivators dream of!"

After seeing the prompt from the information panel, Shen Mo finally understood what had just happened.

"No wonder that strike just now had such power!"

With the convergence of favorable timing, geographical advantages, and human effort, Shen Mo, while in the state of epiphany, had unleashed a terrifying Sword Qi that did not belong to his current level of strength.

"The Supreme Clarity Sword Technique—that single blade of Sword Qi actually granted me so much experience!"

When Shen Mo cast his gaze back onto the data in his martial arts tab, he was slightly stunned.

[Martial Art: Supreme Clarity Sword Technique - Supernatural (254/16000)]

"Supernatural?" Shen Mo gasped. "That epiphany didn't just let me break through the bottleneck of the Mastery stage; it allowed me to skip the Peak stage entirely, bringing my comprehension of the Supreme Clarity Sword Technique to the level of Supernatural!"

He had skipped an entire stage!

This was something that had never happened before while he was cultivating martial arts or techniques.

"The effects of this epiphany are simply too terrifying!"

While he was stunned and shocked, a smile unconsciously curled at the corners of his mouth.

Eventually, the smile grew deeper, transforming into uncontrollable laughter and wild joy.

In the secular cultivation world, according to the grading of the Destiny Panel, cultivating a martial art or technique to the Peak stage was already considered the ultimate level.

A proficiency of Supernatural meant that he had cultivated this basic sword technique, the Supreme Clarity Sword Technique, to a level that no predecessor had ever reached!

This martial art, which originally didn't even rank, now possessed the power to turn decay into magic in his hands.

"At this stage, my Supreme Clarity Sword Technique and the one practiced by ordinary disciples are completely incomparable. Its power has been greatly amplified, far exceeding the category of unranked martial arts!"

Although Shen Mo had not yet practiced any ranked offensive immortal arts, he pondered in his heart that the power of the Supreme Clarity Sword Technique at this level of proficiency should be equal to, if not greater than, a low-grade Profound-tier offensive martial art.