Enlightened Sword, Created Array, Boundless Self-Made

I do not know how much time had passed when Ye Guchen slowly opened his eyes.

His sixth soul ring hovered steadily beneath his feet, black as ink and radiating a faint, chilling light.

Yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black.

Six soul rings spiraled beneath him; if an outsider were to see this configuration, their jaw would surely drop.

"It is done, and my soul power has reached level sixty-two!" Ye Guchen stood up and stretched his body, feeling filled with power.

Dugu Bo walked over and looked him up and down, clicking his tongue in wonder: "A six-ringed Soul Emperor—just how old are you?"

Ye Guchen smiled but did not reply.

He raised his hand to summon the Shark Tooth Sword and channeled his soul power into it. A layer of dark silver luster immediately emerged on the blade—the effect of his sixth soul skill, Iron Bamboo Resilience, which significantly enhances the toughness and sharpness of his martial soul.

"Let us go, Old Poison." Ye Guchen retracted his martial soul and walked toward the valley.

"Back to the valley?"

"Yes. I gained some insights from the battle just now, and I need to find a quiet place to absorb what I have learned."

Hearing this, Dugu Bo did not dare to delay. Having cultivated for many years, he understood better than anyone that such moments of enlightenment were hard-won.

Immediately, he and Ye Guchen hurried back to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

Ye Guchen sat cross-legged on a protruding platform above the valley, replaying the scenes of his battle with the Iron Bamboo Soul Beast over and over in his mind.

The sword formation formed by the bamboo leaves was endless...

Ye Guchen sat cross-legged on the platform above the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. Below him lay the miraculous spring, misting with icy blue and crimson vapors; two currents, one cold and one hot, intertwined as they rose, brushing against his robes and face.

Ignoring all changes in the outside world, he closed his eyes, his mind completely immersed in the memory of that battle against the Iron Bamboo Soul Beast.

That battle had been truly profound.

The entire bamboo forest was his enemy, with thousands of bamboo leaves transforming into sharp blades, attacking from all directions as if they would never run out.

Cut down one layer, and two more would fly in; disperse one wave, and two more would surge forward.

Those bamboo leaves were not simple hidden weapons; they possessed a certain connection, as if an invisible web linked them together. The flight path of every single leaf was not isolated, but rather a single link in an entire offensive system.

The Iron Bamboo Soul Beast was not attacking him with brute force, but with a formation.

This realization sent a jolt through Ye Guchen.

He recalled the details of the fight—the bamboo leaves appeared to fly in a chaotic manner, but in reality, they moved in groups of three, each group separated by a fixed time interval, connecting front to back and echoing left to right, sealing off all his paths of retreat.

When he used Heaven and Earth Shift to weave through them, he also noticed that the bamboo leaves did not vanish after missing their target; instead, they traced an arc in the air, returning to the space above the bamboo forest to await the next round of attacks.

Endless, cyclical, and repeating.

This was the most troublesome aspect of the Iron Bamboo Soul Beast—it was not the strength of its attacks, but the fact that they had no end.

"What if... my sword could do the same?"

A thought suddenly sparked in Ye Guchen's mind, like lightning flashing in the dark.

He opened his eyes, and the Shark Tooth Sword appeared in his hand out of thin air.

The blade shimmered with a dark silver luster, the effect of his sixth soul skill, Iron Bamboo Resilience, making the already sharp sword even tougher.

Ye Guchen stood up and began to swing his longsword slowly on the platform.

One strike, two strikes, three strikes...

The speed of each strike was not fast, but the trajectory of every movement was meticulously calculated.

At first, it was just aimless sword testing, but gradually, he began to try and integrate the derivative methods of his Horizontal Sweep into the movements.

The reason Horizontal Sweep could instantly derive four variations of sword moves was due to the high-speed vibration and splitting of soul power within the blade.

If he could amplify this principle, allowing each sword aura to continue splitting after leaving the blade, then one strike could become ten, and ten could become a hundred.

But quantity alone was not enough.

The reason the bamboo leaves of the Iron Bamboo Soul Beast could attack in a cycle was that they were essentially part of the soul beast's body; they shared a soul power connection, allowing them to be recovered and reused.

His sword aura, however, was like water without a source once it left the blade; once it dissipated, it was gone, impossible to recover.

"Is there a way to make the sword aura return?"

Ye Guchen fell into deep thought.

He stood on the platform, sometimes swinging his sword, sometimes pausing in contemplation, looking as if he were possessed.

Dugu Bo, looking up from below, saw his state and did not disturb him, merely warning Dugu Yan not to make any loud noises.

Time passed bit by bit.

From sunrise to sunset, from moonset to sunrise.

Ye Guchen remained on the platform for three full days and nights.

During these three days, he attempted, deduced, and overturned his work countless times.

He tried leaving marks on the sword aura with his soul power and tried guiding the flying sword aura with his spiritual power, but these methods were not ideal—either the recovery distance was too short, or the recovery speed was too slow; he simply could not achieve an "endless" cycle.

It was not until the night of the third day.

Above the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, mists of icy blue and crimson intertwined under the moonlight, forming a massive, slowly rotating vortex.

Ye Guchen looked up at this sight by chance, and he suddenly froze.

A vortex.

Rotation.

Two diametrically opposed forces, ice and fire, existed in this valley in a state of mutual incompatibility yet mutual dependence, forming a perfect cycle.

Hot air rose, cold air sank, and the alternation of heat and cold was endless.

This in itself was a "ceaseless" circulatory system.

Ye Guchen looked down at his hands, a sharp light flashing in his eyes.

"A domain..."

"What if I could integrate the properties of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well into my combat?"

He stood up abruptly, holding the Shark Tooth Sword horizontally before him, and instantly unleashed his Ice and Fire Yin Yang Domain.

Two halos, one blue and one red, spread outward from him as the center, filling the air with two diametrically opposed auras of freezing cold and scorching heat.

Within the domain, everything was within his perception.

Ye Guchen closed his eyes, feeling the flow of the domain's power.

Ice and fire maintained a delicate balance within the domain, like a massive Taiji diagram; there was yang within the yin, and yin within the yang, ceaseless and unending.

"This is it."

He opened his eyes, and the Shark Tooth Sword in his hand slashed out violently.

The first strike.

The sword qi tore through the air, shimmering with an icy blue cold light, leaving a frozen trail in its wake.

But this strike was different from the past—the base of the sword qi was connected to a nearly invisible thread of soul power, the other end of which was tied to the tip of his sword.

This was a technique he had learned from Dugu Bo.

The reason the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor could retract and release his poison mist with such ease was precisely due to this method of controlling soul power threads.

"Not enough." Ye Guchen shook his head.

A single thread of soul power could only control one strand of sword qi; if he wanted to release thousands of strands, would he not need to split his focus into thousands of threads?

That would consume too much mental energy; even with his vast mental power, attempting to control tens of thousands of sword qi strands for precise attacks was nothing but a pipe dream.

He fell into deep thought once again.

I do not know how much time passed, but he suddenly remembered something—a fishing net.

A fishing net did not require every single thread to be held in one's hand; one only needed to weave them into a net and hold the main rope at the opening to control the entire net at once.

"If my sword qi could also be connected to one another, woven into a net..."

Ye Guchen's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

He immediately began to experiment.

He first released three strands of sword qi, letting each release a thread of soul power after flying out, connecting them to each other to form a triangle.

Once the triangle was stable, he tried to retract the three strands of sword qi.

Swish—

The three strands of sword qi swirled simultaneously, flying back along their original trajectories toward the Shark Tooth Sword, transforming back into soul power to be absorbed by the blade.

"Success!"

Ye Guchen was ecstatic, but he quickly calmed down to continue his deductions.

A triangle was the most basic unit; three triangles could form a larger hexagon, and six triangles could form a circle...

Theoretically, as long as he released enough sword qi, he could weave a sword net that covered the entire domain.

Once this sword net was formed, it could attack an enemy from all directions, and if an attack missed, he could retract the sword qi, redistribute it, and strike again.

Ceaseless, endless, and infinite.

Ye Guchen took a deep breath and began to attempt a larger-scale weaving of sword qi.

Ten strands, thirty, fifty...

With every additional strand of sword qi, the consumption of mental energy and soul power increased, and the difficulty of weaving grew exponentially.

But he did not give up.

One failure, start over.

Ten failures, start over.

A hundred failures, still start over.

Dugu Bo watched the tireless figure on the platform from within the valley and could not help but sigh, "This kid... he's gone mad."

As for Dugu Yan, whenever she was not cultivating, she would rest her chin in her hands, staring at Ye Guchen above with a smile on her face.

By the fourth day, Ye Guchen was already able to weave a hundred sword qi strands simultaneously, forming a sword net that covered a radius of fifty meters.

But he was still not satisfied.

The Iron Bamboo Soul Beast can cover the entire bamboo forest, nearly a hundred zhang in radius; I have only managed fifty meters, which is far from enough.

He continued to deduce and continued to practice.

On the fifth day, eighty meters.

On the sixth day, one hundred and twenty meters.

On the seventh day, two hundred meters.

By the eighth day, Ye Guchen stood on the platform, his eyes flashing with sharp light, his entire being radiating a piercing sword intent.

Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan below both sensed that aura and looked up in unison.

Ye Guchen slowly raised his Shark Tooth Sword.

"Immeasurable Sword Array."

His voice was not loud, yet it reached their ears with perfect clarity.

The next instant, the heavens and earth changed color.

With Ye Guchen at the center, the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Domain expanded violently, the ice-blue and crimson lights intertwining into a massive canopy of light that shrouded a radius of three hundred meters.

Within the domain, the temperature shifted drastically; one half was bone-chillingly cold, the other scorching hot.

Before Dugu Bo could react to what was happening, the Shark Tooth Sword erupted with blinding sword light.

Countless strands of sword qi shot out from the blade like a volcanic eruption, surging toward the sky in such density that they blotted out the sun like rain.

One hundred, two hundred, five hundred, one thousand...

The sword qi split continuously in mid-air, each strand spawning new ones as it flew, just like the leaves of the Iron Bamboo Soul Beast—endless and inexhaustible.

Yet, this sword qi did not fly in a chaotic, disorganized manner.

Dense threads of soul power connected them, weaving together to form a three-dimensional sword net that covered the entire domain.

A thousand strands of sword qi were merely the beginning.

Once the sword net formed, the first wave of sword qi crashed downward.

Chi chi chi chi—

Every strand of sword qi left a deep mark upon landing, the cold and scorching attributes alternating to erode the ground, sending soil splattering in all directions.

After the first wave missed its mark, it did not dissipate.

They bounced off the ground, guided by the threads of soul power back into the air, and reintegrated into the sword net. The sword net shuddered slightly, redistributing the recovered sword qi to form a second wave of attacks.

The second wave fell, was recovered, redistributed, and the third wave fell again.

Wave after wave, continuous and unending, like an unstoppable tide.

This was the core of the Immeasurable Sword Array—not a one-time burst attack, but a sustained, saturated bombardment.

As long as Ye Guchen's soul power was not exhausted, the sword array would not cease.

Sword qi struck from all directions: overhead, underfoot, in front, and behind—there were no blind spots.

Even with the fastest movement techniques, there was nowhere to hide within this airtight sword net; one could only take it head-on.

Unlike other area-of-effect skills, its greatest advantage was its controllability and recyclability, allowing it to function as both a wide-range attack and a precision strike against a single enemy.

Dugu Bo stood at the bottom of the valley, watching the sword net that blotted out the sky above, his expression shifting from surprise to shock, and then to disbelief.

Within a radius of three hundred meters, the ground had been battered beyond recognition; the once-level earth was covered in dense sword marks, as if it had been plowed countless times over.

Yet the sword array continued to operate, the sword qi continued to dance, showing no signs of stopping.

"This brat..." Dugu Bo muttered to himself, a trace of wariness he hadn't even noticed in his own voice, "What kind of monstrous sword array has he created?"

Dugu Yan was left dumbstruck, her small mouth slightly agape, unable to utter a single word.

Although she was only at the thirty-something level, her discernment was not poor.

She could clearly see that within that sword array, there was simply no safe place to stand.

Sword qi fell from above, pierced from below, and swept from all sides, moving so fast that even afterimages were impossible to track.

If one were trapped inside, let alone counterattacking, one wouldn't even know which direction to defend.

Finally, Ye Guchen withdrew his sword.

The sky-filling sword qi dissipated instantly, the soul power threads snapped, and the sword net disintegrated.

Everything returned to calm, as if the terrifying sword array from a moment ago had never existed.

Only the scarred and ravaged ground silently bore witness to everything that had just occurred.

Ye Guchen stood on the platform, gasping for air, sweat rolling down his forehead.

The consumption of the Immeasurable Sword Array was far greater than he had imagined; more than half of his soul power had been drained in an instant.

With his current cultivation at the sixtieth level, he could maintain this sword array at full power for at most half an incense stick's time.

Half an incense stick of time was already enough.

In a real battle, that duration was sufficient to slaughter every opponent who entered the formation.

He looked down at the Shark Tooth Sword in his hand, a faint smile slowly curling the corners of his lips.

"Immeasurable Sword Array... it is complete."

In the distance, Dugu Bo leaped up and landed on the platform, looking at him with a complex expression.

"Kid Ye, what do you call this move of yours?"

"Immeasurable Sword Array."

"Immeasurable... boundless and infinite, endless and ceaseless." Dugu Bo savored the name and nodded. "It is quite fitting."

He paused, then asked, "Combined with the dual-attribute suppression of your Ice and Fire Domain, I fear even an ordinary Douluo would struggle to withstand this."

Ye Guchen smiled. "It is still far from enough. Currently, it can only be maintained for half an incense stick of time, and the coverage is only three hundred meters. There is still a great deal of room for improvement."

Dugu Bo's mouth twitched.

Three hundred meters, half an incense stick of time, saturated indiscriminate area-of-effect attacks—and this kid actually claimed it was "far from enough"?

As for Dugu Yan, she had long since turned into Ye Guchen's little fangirl.

Not noticing her grandfather's twitching mouth, she began to clap repeatedly as soon as Ye Guchen finished speaking.