The five strands of light trembled violently before finally bursting apart with a bang, scattering into a sky full of specks of light.
Ye Feng grunted. It felt as though a heavy hammer had struck his brain, and his vision darkened in waves.
But he wasn't discouraged. If anything, he was a little excited.
He had found the right path.
The days that followed settled into an incredibly regular routine.
During the day, he honed Heart Separation Control in the courtyard, condensing strands of light.
At first, he could barely maintain five strands. Gradually, he managed to keep them stable, then began trying to condense a sixth.
This process took a full three months.
The moment the sixth strand stabilized, his spiritual power broke through a bottleneck, and his perception grew much sharper.
At night, he sat cross-legged in meditation, recovering the spiritual power he had spent during the day while absorbing Soul Power from the world around him and increasing his rank.
Time flew by amid this dull yet fulfilling cultivation.
Half a year later.
In the courtyard, deep in the night, all was silent.
Ye Feng sat cross-legged. Ten slender yet solid golden strands of light hovered quietly before him.
Each strand radiated a faint golden glow, carrying an aura that was both sacred and razor-sharp.
After half a year of hard cultivation, he could finally control all ten strands at once with perfect stability.
"Next, I have to weave them into a blade."
Ye Feng opened his eyes and sent his spiritual power surging. The ten strands of light began slowly drawing together.
This presented another challenge.
How could he combine ten strands of high-energy light in the most stable, most compact structure?
He had tried simply stacking them side by side, but the energy in the strands repelled one another, making fusion impossible.
He had also tried winding them together like a braid, but the structure was too loose, and its power was greatly diminished.
Failure after failure, attempt after attempt.
Ye Feng immersed himself in the process, oblivious to everything else.
He continuously worked through the various physical structures and mathematical models he had learned in his previous life.
At last, he fixed on one particular structure: a double helix.
Two strands of light would form the core, winding around each other to create a stable axis.
The other eight strands would spiral around it in a specific sequence and at precise angles, fitting together layer by layer to form a perfect whole.
The control this required of his spiritual power surpassed anything he had ever attempted.
Even the slightest deviation in the angle of a single strand would make the entire structure collapse in an instant.
Ye Feng held his breath, pouring all his focus into the task.
One strand, then two...
Under the control of his spiritual power, the strands moved like the most obedient sprites, gliding precisely into their designated positions.
Hum—
The instant the tenth strand settled perfectly into place, a brilliant golden light erupted.
The ten strands fused in an instant, transforming into a golden Light Blade about three feet long and two fingers wide. It hovered quietly before Ye Feng.
This Light Blade was completely different from the "Light-Gathering Blade" he had previously condensed from Soul Power.
It was no longer an illusory mass of energy. Instead, it had an almost solid metallic sheen.
Golden light flowed across the blade, pulsing as if it were alive.
Its razor-sharp aura even caused the surrounding air to warp slightly.
He had done it!
Ye Feng rose to his feet and loosened his stiff limbs.
He could clearly feel the Light Blade connected to his blood, as if it were an extension of his arm.
At a thought, he could wield it with complete ease.
His gaze fell on a huge block of bluestone in the corner of the courtyard. It was half a man's height, left over from when the courtyard wall had been reinforced.
Without charging up or making any unnecessary movements,
Ye Feng simply stood where he was and casually swung his arm toward the bluestone.
Whoosh!
A crescent-shaped golden Light Blade broke free from the solid blade in his hand and shot out at a speed almost impossible to see!
There was no earthshaking boom, no cloud of dust from an explosion.
The golden Light Blade simply sliced silently through the bluestone.
A second later,
the upper half of the stone slid slowly along a perfectly smooth cut and hit the ground with a thud.
The cut was as smooth as a mirror, reflecting his image in the moonlight.
What incredible power!
The destructive force of that strike was absolutely no weaker than the first Soul Skill of an Assault System Soul Master!
Ye Feng's heart jolted. The attack had consumed about one-sixth of his Soul Power.
He raised his hand again and swung repeatedly at empty space.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Three golden Light Blades shot out in succession, tracing brilliant, deadly paths across the night sky.
After he swung out the fourth Light Blade, the solid blade in his right hand flickered, then vanished with a soft pop, dissolving into specks of golden light.
A powerful sense of emptiness washed over him.
Ye Feng checked his reserves and found that a full two-thirds of his Soul Power had been drained.
He panted softly, but a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
He would call this self-created Soul Skill "Light Blade."
Simple. Direct.
It was his strongest trump card so far.
Although he now had some means of keeping himself alive, Ye Feng still felt it wasn't enough.
The Light Blade's strengths lay in its range, speed, and sharpness.
But its energy structure was "open," built for "cutting."
Yes, its energy structure was "open," built for "cutting."
Cutting meant sharpness, meant piercing a single point to the utmost degree.
But what if he faced an absolute "surface"?
For example, a massive Soul Beast with astonishing defenses, one that couldn't be cut through easily?
The Light Blade might carve a gash in it, but it would be difficult to deal a fatal, devastating blow.
Its very nature was to "divide," not to "destroy."
It wasn't enough.
Not nearly enough.
Ye Feng stood alone in the courtyard. The night wind stirred his silver hair as the newly condensed Light Blade slowly vanished from his hand, dissolving into specks of golden light.
He needed a kind of power—a pure, unreasonable attack capable of unleashing terrifying energy in an instant.
A Soul Skill that existed for the sake of "destruction."
The concept behind the Light Blade had come from imitating the microscopic structure of matter, weaving energy particles into their most stable form.
Then the new Soul Skill had to take the opposite approach.
Not weaving, but compressing.
Not stabilizing, but detonating.
He would use Heart Separation Control to compress vast amounts of light-attribute Soul Power into an extremely tiny singularity.
Then, using a specific structure as a guide, he would release that energy, compressed to its utmost limit, in a single instant and in a chosen direction.
That would no longer be "cutting," but "piercing" and "annihilation."
Like... an armor-piercing round made of pure energy.
Once the idea arose, he could no longer suppress it.
Ye Feng's heart began pounding violently, beyond his control.
This was the power he wanted!
However, theoretical conception was always ten thousand times easier than practice.
He sat cross-legged once more and closed his eyes, letting his spiritual power sink deep within him.
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