Three months later.
The first half of the Grand Line, Luluka Island.
On a cliff overlooking the sea, Sephiroth sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, the Butcher Blade resting across his knees.
By unleashing Observation Haki at full power, supplemented by the spatial perception provided by the Butcher Blade, he sensed the spatial fluctuations within a radius of over ten kilometers.
Over the past three months, in order to find the Rainbow Mist as quickly as possible and return to his original time and space, Sephiroth had spent almost all his time on this cliff in meditation, aside from four hours of sleep each day and time spent replenishing life force. Like an ascetic, he used the Butcher Blade's spatial perception to search for traces of the Rainbow Mist.
Long hours of meditation every day had made the Butcher Blade seem as though it had completely fused with him...
Many years ago, he had already reached the realm of man and blade as one, treating the blade as an extension of his arm. The swordsmanship he wielded through it had reached an exquisitely precise level.
However...
Sephiroth felt as though he had now touched upon a realm even deeper and more ethereal than man and blade as one.
After pondering it for a while, he suddenly recalled something he had heard by chance in his previous life.
Swordsmanship could be divided into three realms:
The first was having a sword in one's hand but no sword in one's heart, primarily practicing every move and stance.
The second was having a sword in one's hand and a sword in one's heart. This was the so-called unity of man and sword, cultivating sword energy.
The third was having no sword in one's hand and no sword in one's heart, a state of