Zhang Han held his sword in one hand and slashed hard toward the mountain ahead.
A streak of true qi over three meters long flew from the blade and cleaved straight into the mountain.
A deep chasm appeared in the distant mountain. This was the Foundation Establishment Realm.
That slash seemed to have exhausted all his true qi. Slightly out of breath, Zhang Han tossed his precious sword out, stepped onto it, and flew back down.
He came to a slow stop beside Ying Zheng, then stood there without moving.
Ying Zheng was puzzled. What's going on? I admit that move was pretty impressive, but are you trying to show off in front of me?
Zhang Han, who had looked so transcendent just moments ago, regarded everyone with a bitter smile. "My feet went numb."
"Ah! Hahahahaha!" Everyone burst out laughing at Zhang Han.
Ying Zheng swept his hand through the air. "Come on, let's throw you a welcome-back feast. We'll have a few drinks tonight!"
Everyone returned to the room and listened as Zhang Han recounted his experiences over the years. His story left them sighing with emotion.
Reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm wasn't that difficult. With a calm mind and enough accumulated cultivation, a breakthrough would come. Going out and wandering around was best; a good mood also helped with breakthroughs.
That night, everyone drank themselves into a stupor.
In the early hours of the next morning.
Zhang Han sat in his room, his brush racing across the page as he wrote down the skill he had comprehended.
The skill Zhang Han had comprehended was: [Sword-Controlling Art].
A sword was but ordinary iron; through wielding, it gained spirit, through the heart, it moved, through blood, it lived, and through stray thoughts, it died.
"The art of controlling the sword lies in regulating the breath, embracing the origin and guarding the one, uniting wielder, sword, and the five spirits, cycling back and forth, endlessly renewing..."
The Sword-Controlling Art had three stages: sword control, qi control, and mind control.
He had nothing to hide, so he wrote down every incantation and compiled them into a volume titled [Sword-Controlling Art].
He also recorded all his insights at the end to help those who came after him cultivate it.
However, this [Sword-Controlling Art] wasn't suitable for public release yet, because only those in the Foundation Establishment Realm could practice it.
Only those in the Foundation Establishment Realm could send true qi out of their bodies, either releasing it or attaching it to an object to control it.
Zhang Han kept feeling that this Sword-Controlling Art could give rise to endless moves and variations.
He would have to ponder and practice those himself. What he needed to do next was keep cultivating.
He needed to cultivate all the way to the ninth grade of the Foundation Establishment Realm. With every minor stage he advanced, the spiritual energy stored in his body would grow denser and more abundant, and its power would increase.
At his current stage of first grade foundation establishment, his sword qi could only extend about three meters beyond his body. As his realm advanced, it would grow longer and more powerful.
Combined with moves and techniques, its power would become even greater.
Over those five years, quite a few talented youths had emerged. They entered the Martial Arts School, received systematic training, and grew quickly.
Mages of every element gradually became more numerous, and some geniuses of the human race began studying the principles of magic.
They began using all sorts of methods to work things out. Could they alter magical structures and create their own magic skills?
That was the human race: never content to follow the beaten track, always striving to innovate.
If there was no way, they would find one. If there was no road, they would wade through and make one.
After all, the magic they currently used came from the Elf Race's Tree of Life and was better suited to the Elf Race.
Although humans could cast it, it wasn't necessarily the best fit for them.
He was merely a snapshot of the human race's development over those five years. The entire human race was changing.
During those five years, several professions catering to cultivators had also emerged.
Because of immortal cultivation, people began placing greater importance on their own strength and wanted to use cold weapons.
These included sabers, spears, swords, halberds, axes, battle-axes, hooks, forks, and other cold weapons.
In response, blacksmiths began researching how to forge tougher, sharper weapons.
After years of research, sharp weapons were finally being forged, one after another.
However, weapons like these couldn't be mass-produced. They had to be forged by hand.
At this point, the dwarf race returned to its original trade. When it came to smithing, everyone else was trash!
The weapons forged by the dwarf race truly outperformed human-made weapons in every respect, and by a wide margin. Of course, their prices were also very high.
Large quantities of weapons were forged and gradually spread throughout Blue Star, until everyone had a cold weapon in hand.
It was said that the emergence of spiritual energy had also changed the structure of certain minerals.
Combining them in different proportions produced miraculous effects as well.
Research had reportedly already begun into amplifying spiritual energy so that moves unleashed through spirit-energy weapons would be more powerful.
Another profession had emerged as well: alchemists!
Using medicinal principles and carefully balanced ingredients, humans developed spiritual medicines that aided the body's cultivation.
They received widespread praise upon release, but their prices were outrageously high.
Where there were buyers, there was a market. Many people joined in, all hoping to develop more effective spiritual medicines.
Countless related professions branched out from these developments, multiplying the human race's combat strength.
The beginning of the cultivation era hadn't brought technological progress to a halt. Instead, it had pushed it further forward.
Large numbers of new weapons were developed, and human scientists began researching new energy sources.
They were no longer satisfied with nuclear energy. If they could develop a better energy source, every technological weapon would undoubtedly undergo another transformation.
After scientists began cultivating, activating the acupoints in their brains made their thinking more agile and improved their intelligence, making them smarter and sparking more ideas.
The human brain contained fifty to sixty acupoints. By experimenting with different combinations, people tried to enhance various abilities.
Many people had sudden flashes of inspiration. Based on different sequences and combinations of acupoint activation, they developed volumes of so-called cultivation methods.
The abilities these methods enhanced and the cultivation speeds they offered did indeed differ.
This led countless organizations to begin research, all hoping to develop the strongest cultivation method and corner the market.
They charged for them! Supposedly, the better the results, the higher the price.
And so, human society transformed with each passing day. It changed every single day.
Naturally, the state possessed the nation's best resources and talent, and the various formulas it developed were the most advanced.
However, under the Qin Kingdom's regulations, military applications had to come before civilian ones.
As improved cultivation methods emerged in an endless stream, the human race cultivated faster and faster.
Zhang Yang had been enjoying the view from the sky, watching the human race develop on every front and looking around for interesting spectacles.
A "don't look down on a poor youth" story at school?
That was the perfect protagonist template!
Take Zhang Han, for example. Zhang Yang had been keeping an eye on him all along. This cultivator was heading down the path of a sword immortal!
He might even establish the sword immortal lineage someday and become the founding ancestor of sword cultivation.
Geniuses were emerging in every other power system as well. They might each establish a lineage and leave their names in the annals of history.
They would all be founding patriarchs in the future!
He was still looking around for entertainment when a mechanical voice suddenly rang out.
This astonished Zhang Yang. He hadn't taken the initiative to challenge anyone yet, but someone had actually come to challenge him!
A mechanical voice came from the medal on his chest:
[The ruler of Hilles Star has declared war on you. Since you are in the tenth ring, you may choose to refuse.]
Zhang Yang looked curiously at the other party's race, and his expression immediately filled with distaste.
Zhang Yang heaved a deep sigh. Fine, let's fight.
Even the smallest mosquito has meat. Even if there aren't any resources worth using, selling them for a few energy points would still be something.
A defensive battle, huh? I'll treat it as a large-scale military exercise.
Why was Zhang Yang so disgusted? Because the opposing race was:
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