Daoist Wields Sword

Cheng Xiu, and everyone watching, felt that Jiang Xuan, with his mediocre Spirit Root aptitude, ought to seize the chance to curry favor once he had caught the eye of an influential patron.

In this immortal sect's Dao Academy, talking about integrity and dignity was nothing more than squandering a once-in-a-millennium opportunity for nothing.

But after obtaining the class panel, Jiang Xuan no longer believed himself inferior to anyone.

With that thought in his heart, he naturally had no intention of bowing and scraping before others.

Of course, before he had grown strong enough, Jiang Xuan would not reveal the thoughts in his heart.

At that moment, faced with Cheng Xiu's earnest advice, Jiang Xuan merely said calmly, "I have my own considerations on how I should act."

With those words, he closed his eyes and regulated his breathing, saying no more.

Meanwhile, the warm medicinal power dispersed by the decoction within him slowly circulated, nourishing his meridians and internal organs thread by thread.

Several hours later, dusk sank in the west. It was time for the sect's evening lesson.

Without needing anyone to urge him, Jiang Xuan, sensing that his body had recovered to its peak condition, immediately began his second cultivation session of the day.

This time, he was still cultivating the One Qi Sword Art.

The sequence of his cultivation still began with the liver's wood element.

Yet unlike before, Jiang Xuan no longer drew recklessly upon the liver's source qi. He merely guided out a wisp of wood origin to kindle the heart fire.

He then suppressed all of the blazing heart fire, leaving only a faint spark and, following the principle of the Five Elements generating one another, sent it into his spleen.

Wood gave rise to fire, fire gave rise to earth, and the spleen belonged precisely to the earth element.

"Bzzz—"

The instant the mouthful of innate qi Jiang Xuan had nurtured merged into his spleen, he immediately sensed an entirely different feeling.

Unlike the liver wood's abundant vitality or the heart fire's blazing rush, the earth-aligned spleen gave Jiang Xuan a sense of profound weight and solidity, like an abyss standing still and a mountain rising tall. The source qi nurtured there likewise became deep, dense, and heavy.

But "weight" was itself a kind of power.

With the spleen earth's source as its foundation, Jiang Xuan could clearly sense that the Sword Qi he condensed with his mana was several times more solid than before.

"Earth is the foundation of the land. In countless myths and legends, the earth element is the bedrock of the material world. It should possess such stabilizing power."

After nurturing earth-origin qi, Jiang Xuan stimulated it with Sword Qi while activating the Clearheart Mirror. His divine soul turned inward, seeking to uncover the hidden apertures within his spleen.

Yet his previously invincible inner vision encountered an obstacle this time.

Earth was heavy by nature and concealed turbid qi as well. Everywhere the Clearheart Mirror's light reached was filled with dense, foul, murky qi. It took him the time of a cup of tea before he found six hidden apertures amidst the churning turbidity.

At this point, Jiang Xuan had realized that in Spirit Pivot Aperture Opening, the first realm of cultivation, it was not only difficult to nurture apertures—it was no easy task even to locate the hidden ones.

"Good thing I have the Clearheart Mirror..."

After sighing with feeling, Jiang Xuan resumed his cultivation.

Having learned from the morning's lesson, Jiang Xuan no longer drew wildly on the spleen's origin. He opened only two apertures. The moment he sensed a slight depletion in the spleen earth qi, he immediately drew forth a wisp of condensed earth origin and, following the principle that earth gave rise to metal, used it to temper his metal-aligned lungs.

By this stage, his mana and the Clearheart Mirror had already settled upon both lungs.

The lungs belonged to metal. The instant his mana fused with the lungs' origin, the formerly dense qi force abruptly became incomparably sharp, like a keen sword drawn from its sheath.

Through the Clearheart Mirror's inward illumination, Jiang Xuan also grasped the nature of the pulmonary apertures—the spleen earth had turbid qi obscuring the eye, making their forms difficult to see; the lungs' apertures, however, drifted without fixed position, like floating down in the wind.

They not only flickered in and out of sight, but changed in an instant, never resting for even a moment.

Fortunately, after becoming a Clear-Heart Sword Disciple, he had not only gained the heaven-defying passive ability of the Clearheart Mirror, but his divine soul's strength had also greatly increased. With the two aiding one another, though it took some effort, he still found all eight apertures in his lungs.

"The heart and lungs are linked. The lungs rank only beneath the heart in importance, second among the five viscera. Eight apertures is quite reasonable."

"Exhale... inhale..."

Between one breath out and one breath in, he opened another three apertures within his lungs.

By then, he had opened five apertures during the evening lesson.

Combined with the morning lesson, he had opened twelve apertures that day.

"Counting the ones from before, that makes nineteen... I've opened a great many apertures, but the consumption is truly enormous."

The origins of the five viscera were the foundation of the human body. Although Jiang Xuan had been exceedingly careful in this cultivation session, guiding everything through the meridians and causing no damage whatsoever to his organs, the depletion of source qi still left his body with an uncontrollable sensation of weakness and weightlessness.

"Without some great tonic to replenish my qi and blood, my cultivation efficiency is already at its peak today, on the first day I practiced this art and while my condition is at its best. Yet a single night's rest could never restore the deficiencies in my five viscera."

"In that case, tomorrow's cultivation efficiency will at most be seventy percent, and the day after it will fall to fifty. If I truly keep cultivating this recklessly, within three days I'll be so drained that I'll become like the Empty Young Master of legend—so weak even a gust of wind could knock me over."

Only then did Jiang Xuan understand why the sect taught the Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Method rather than a technique like the One Qi Sword Art, which could both fight and cultivate.

Though the former was slow to cultivate, it was steady and reliable, with none of the risks of qi deviation or damage to one's foundation.

The One Qi Sword Art might be wondrous, but setting aside its harsh requirement for talent in the sword path, that alone made it unsuitable for students who had only just entered the immortal gates.

It was far too dangerous—whether it was the danger of using Sword Qi to stimulate the internal organs and reveal the five viscera's apertures, or the danger of drawing heavily upon their origins and damaging one's own foundation.

"Fortunately, after becoming a Clear-Heart Sword Disciple, the first risk is practically nonexistent for me. As for the second, I already have a solution."

With that thought, Jiang Xuan lowered his gaze to the space before him.

The instant he finished his cultivation, Nan Zhi had already stepped forward slowly and placed a bottle of pills and several plates of spirit-food pastries into his hands.

"This is from my young master."

"Please thank your young master for me."

Jiang Xuan truly felt grateful for the resources Dong Hao had sent.

However, thinking that in a few days he would be able to help Dong Hao vent his anger and make him a great deal of Spirit Stones, Jiang Xuan accepted the resources without the slightest awkwardness, his expression calm and composed.

Yet his courteous, restrained, neither servile nor overbearing attitude caused both Nan Zhi and Cheng Xiu to frown.

As a servant, Nan Zhi was loyal, and she knew that there were some things Dong Hao was not suited to say. That was when she needed to step forward and say words that might offend others.

Just as now, what she wanted to see was not Jiang Xuan's polite thanks, but him lowering his head in heartfelt gratitude.

She wanted even more to tell Jiang Xuan how precious these resources were, and that such an opportunity was not something just anyone could beg for.

Yet the words reached her lips, only for her to swallow them back down. Her young master's instructions before departing still rang in her ears: "Jiang Xuan is a sword cultivator. Sword cultivators tend to have proud bones. There's no need to say anything now. Once he loses the wager in a few days and his arrogance has been ground smooth, he'll naturally understand."

That reminder instantly made Nan Zhi understand that the wager her young master had arranged was not merely meant to bestow favor upon Jiang Xuan. It was also meant to grind away this ill-timed pride of his so that Dong Hao could take him into service later.

Nan Zhi held back her words, but Cheng Xiu beside her wore an anxious expression.

He knew something of the character of Aristocratic Clan scions. He believed that if Jiang Xuan kept acting like this, refusing to lower his stance and unable to provide even the slightest emotional value, he would sooner or later be cast aside like a worn-out shoe.

Yet seeing Jiang Xuan's unruffled, confident appearance, Cheng Xiu opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing.

Accepting the pills, Jiang Xuan calculated his cultivation progress inwardly. I've opened nineteen apertures. I'm still seventeen short of the thirty-six apertures required for an "Excellent" rating.

Seventeen apertures, with only two days remaining—this meant that starting tomorrow, he needed to open at least nine apertures each day.

"The time is tight, but it is just enough for me to finish."

No sooner had the thought fallen than he looked up and saw that during the fifth day's evening lesson, seven more Aristocratic Clan students in the front rows had successfully opened thirty-six apertures, entering the ranks of the "Excellent."

By then, the number of students in the Dao Academy rated Excellent had risen from eleven to eighteen.

Among those eighteen were Dong Hao and Su Linyin, whom he knew well, as well as Zeng Jun, who had once caused him trouble.

So many prodigies instantly scattered the small measure of self-satisfaction in Jiang Xuan's heart.

"There are many geniuses in the Divine Firmament Sect. I must not grow arrogant."

"Moreover, the Dao Academy I am in can only be considered middling within the Divine Firmament Sect. The true geniuses are all gathered in the Zi Dao Academy."

The Divine Firmament Sect was vast. Its outer sect residences were named after the twelve Earthly Branches according to their locations: Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, and Hai.

Each of these outer sect residences had a Dao Academy.

Although, according to the sect, the twelve outer sects and twelve Dao Academies held equal status, with no distinction of high or low.

Anyone could see that this was merely polite talk for appearances' sake.

The Zi Dao Academy, first among the twelve Earthly Branches, stood near the inner sect's mountain gate and had always been the foremost outer academy. Its strength was likewise the greatest among the Dao Academies.

The direct descendants of the sect's top Aristocratic Clans, as well as poor-born prodigies found in the mortal world, were, nine times out of ten, placed in the Zi Dao Academy for focused cultivation.

Because prodigies gathered there in abundance, the Zi Dao Academy had always been known in the outer sect as the Daozi Academy.

"The current me is still far too lacking."

After a soft sigh, the evening lesson came to an end.

Seeing this, Jiang Xuan swallowed a pill, using the spirit-food pastries to dissolve its medicinal power, then rose and headed toward Green Bamboo Town.

The moment he entered Green Bamboo Town, Jiang Xuan found it bustling with activity. The town was hung with lanterns and decorations, more festive even than during a holiday.

With a turn of thought, Jiang Xuan understood the reason.

"The Su Household is coming."

To the ordinary cultivators in town, this was a heaven-sent opportunity to attach themselves to an immortal sect's Aristocratic Clan. Naturally, they would exert every effort to put on a good showing. Jiang Xuan, however, had no interest in it whatsoever.

After returning home, he swept the courtyard clean, then lit incense, sprinkled water, replenished the oil... After completing the duties proper to a Daoist Acolyte, Jiang Xuan still had some strength and focus remaining, so he sat cross-legged in the main hall and began reciting the three great divine incantations—the Heart-Purification, Mouth-Purification, and Body-Purification Divine Incantations—word by word.

Naturally, throughout this process, he held Qingli, his bamboo sword, in his arms.

And as he recited incantations while holding his sword, a strange scene unfolded upon his body.

"Supreme Lord's platform star, ever-responsive without cease; drive out evil, bind fiends, preserve life and protect the body..."

"Ring!"

The instant he recited the Heart-Purification Divine Incantation, sword cries suddenly erupted! The profound incantation condensed within his sea of consciousness into an invisible heart sword. Wherever its sword light passed, every distracting thought and troubled notion in his heart was cut away in a single stroke!

"Hmm?! The Heart-Purification Divine Incantation can merge with the One Qi Sword Art? Then what about the other divine incantations?"

These thoughts were not distractions. With a sincere heart, they were Jiang Xuan's reflections and extensions upon the sword path—what was called Clearheart did not mean becoming like withered wood, thinking and feeling nothing. It meant fastening all one's mind and spirit wholly upon a single sword.

With thoughts in his heart, he followed the flow and recited the Body-Purification Divine Incantation and the Mouth-Purification Divine Incantation. Incantation after incantation deeply merged with the Sword of the Mind of the Clear-Heart Sword Disciple, ultimately transforming into a dharma sword suffused with clear radiance that silently floated within his sea of consciousness.

"Clang!"

The next instant, the Clearheart Mirror abruptly turned over, its mirror light illuminating every inch of his body, inside and out, in the finest detail.

The Sword of the Mind floating in his sea of consciousness also transformed into a stream of crystalline light. Following the mirror light's guidance, it swung shadow after shadow of swords at the meridians and internal organs throughout his body!

"Swish! Swish! Swish!"

The sword shadows continued without end. Moments later, Jiang Xuan felt sweetness rise in his throat and spat out a mouthful of black blood.

Yet after vomiting that congealed blood, not only did he feel no discomfort, he instead found his divine soul clear and his limbs and bones completely unblocked, lighter than ever before.

Before this, Jiang Xuan had already developed the Mouth-Purification Divine Incantation and Body-Purification Divine Incantation into methods for cleansing his meridians and marrow, washing away the turbid qi within himself.

But at the time, because his mastery of the divine incantations was so low, his progress in cleansing his meridians and marrow had been slow. He would need months, perhaps even years, of unceasing cultivation before his body could become even slightly clearer and purer.

This was also the norm in Dao cultivation. Whether Daoists or Daoist Acolytes, they began by reciting the three great divine incantations for at least three years.

But now, the situation was different. Once the divine incantation methods merged with the Sword of the Mind, the efficiency increased dramatically.

Sword cultivators were always sharp and direct. That round of sword shadows had actually equaled ten days to half a month of his usual hard work.

What delighted him even more was that because the Sword of the Mind had deeply merged with the three great divine incantations, producing entirely new insights, the experience values on his panel began to surge wildly.

[You fused the Heart-Purification Divine Incantation, Mouth-Purification Divine Incantation, and Body-Purification Divine Incantation with the Sword of the Mind. Sword of the Mind progress +31]

[You gained new insights into the three great divine incantations. Three great divine incantations experience +37]

[Clear-Heart Sword Disciple class experience +21]

[Daoist Acolyte class experience +23]

[Your three great divine incantations have leveled up. Current level: 2/3 (1/300)]

[Your Daoist Acolyte level has increased. Current level: 2/3 (1/600)]

[Congratulations, player. Your Daoist Acolyte has gained additional class advancement options. New advancement paths: Mountain Guardian Daoist (Blue), Demon-Slaying Daoist (Purple), Scripture Mystic Daoist (Purple)]

After roughly looking over the three classes, Jiang Xuan discovered that the Mountain Guardian Daoist was a transformation from a clerical role into a martial one.

Because it had to be bound to a Daoist temple, all of a Mountain Guardian Daoist's power depended upon the mountain range it guarded. Once it left the mountain gate, it was like a dragon trapped out of water, with less than thirty percent of its abilities remaining. In the end, it was merely a gatekeeper confined to one corner.

"Even if it advances to a high rank, it will only become a mountain god. That is not what I want."

His gaze shifted, and Jiang Xuan looked at the Demon-Slaying Daoist and Scripture Mystic Daoist. With a single glance, he could tell that these two classes stood more than one level above the Mountain Guardian Daoist.

First, the advancement options [Demon-Slaying Daoist] and [Scripture Mystic Daoist] were both Purple grade. Their innate foundational power naturally surpassed that of the Blue-grade Mountain Guardian Daoist.

Not to mention that both had completely escaped the fatal shackles of "regional binding." They could operate without restriction in any setting, each possessing core advantages beyond the Mountain Guardian Daoist's reach.

"The core of the Demon-Slaying Daoist is for a Daoist to wield a sword and slay demons and exterminate devils. This class inherits the orthodox Three-Five Evil-Slaying Orthodox Law of the mystic gate. It is the direct lineage of the Celestial Masters' Way for subduing demons and defending the Dao, following the path of 'using killing to stop killing, using righteousness to shatter evil.' Its core advantage lies entirely in eight words: 'unfettered and unrestrained, growing stronger with every kill.'"

"Yet this lineage is, after all, an orthodox Daoist tradition. It teaches that wielding a sword is not for flaunting ferocity, and slaying demons is never for bloodlust. Its core purpose remains carrying out Heaven's transformations, protecting the Dao and securing the people, saving the world and delivering all beings..."

It had to be said that the Demon-Slaying Daoist was very powerful. By taking this path, Jiang Xuan would obtain a complete set of the Three-Five Evil-Slaying Orthodox Law, and every sword strike would naturally suppress demons, devils, evil spirits, and malign entities.

Moreover, this lineage's path of advancement was very simple. The sixteen words, "using killing to stop killing, using righteousness to shatter evil; unfettered and unrestrained, growing stronger with every kill," had already explained the Demon-Slaying Daoist's core path with perfect clarity.

Yet after carefully comparing the Demon-Slaying Daoist and the Scripture Mystic Daoist, Jiang Xuan's heart leaned more toward the latter.