Immortal

Li Yu listened and committed one point to memory.

What Thousand Mechanisms Evolution could not control were heaven-tier cultivation methods.

In other words, Thousand Mechanisms Evolution is a cultivation method for crushing weaklings, but it can't do much against anything on its own level? That was Li Yu's understanding, but he only dared think it, not ask aloud.

Seeing Li Yu nod, Su Wen continued.

"Although this Taiqing Mystic Sect's Formless Sword Qi only contains cultivation instructions up to the nascent soul realm, the path to its ultimate realm is very clear in the outline: combine sword intents into a formation. With a single stroke, a vast formation descends and crushes everything beneath it. It reaches the same destination by a different road from our Great Evolution Academy's path."

"But when I tried combining them into a formation, I discovered that Thousand Mechanisms Evolution couldn't control them. The sword intents refused to submit to one another, clashed violently, and scattered. This might be because I'm not a sword cultivator. All those sword intents were merely simulated through Thousand Mechanisms Evolution based on the sword art's descriptions. I have no sword heart of my own to control them."

"Still, for one person to bring all twelve sword intents to the pinnacle, even a nascent soul realm sword cultivator probably couldn't manage it. Moreover, a sword cultivator needs a pure sword heart, while the twelve sword intents in this sword art oppose one another in pairs and clash with each other. It probably requires something at its core that stands above all these sword intents to suppress them. According to the outline, that would be a sword?"

"Or perhaps a method like the Starry Sky Dao Sword Sect's, using a sword heart of the highest order to control the all-heaven sword intent?"

After explaining what he had learned from his attempts, Su Wen raised his own questions.

Li Yu immediately raised his hand and explained the matter of the Taiqing Divine Sword.

"So it really is a sword. But that raises another question: did the Taiqing Divine Sword come first, followed by a sword art designed to accompany it? Or did the sword art come first, and someone later forged this sword to unleash its power?"

Su Wen's question left Li Yu at a loss for an answer.

He could only recount the legends of the Mount Lao Sword Sect: its legacy had been left by an immortal from overseas, and the Three Divine Swords had also been that immortal's weapons.

In those myths, the immortal and the divine swords had both been there from the beginning. There was no way to tell whether the sword art or the swords had come first.

"An immortal? Are there still immortals in your star sector?" Su Wen seized on this point and asked in a grave tone.

Li Yu shook his head. Ever since Severing Heaven from Earth, there had been no accounts of immortals descending upon the four lands of Mountain Sea.

At that thought, Li Yu recalled Jin Ling's father. After some hesitation, he told Su Wen about him.

"A reincarnated immortal? I'd guess it was a primordial spirit realm cultivator possessing another body, who passed through the mystery of the womb and recovered his memories." Su Wen gave his assessment, and Li Yu thought it was quite likely.

In that case, was Jin Guang still Jin Ling's father or not?

"Has anyone in your star sector cultivated to the mahayana realm and ascended?" Because of the Taiqing Mystic Sect's Formless Sword Qi, Su Wen no longer dared regard the Desolate Star Sector where Li Yu lived as some backward countryside. At the very least, it must have produced mahayana cultivators before.

"What is ascension?" Li Yu asked what he did not understand. The four lands of Mountain Sea had no such term.

Su Wen said, "Ascension means leaving the universe and going to the Immortal Realm to pursue a realm beyond mahayana. Beings at that level are also called 'immortals.' I just don't know whether our immortals and yours refer to the same thing."

Li Yu was stunned. "There's actually a realm above mahayana?"

He had thought mahayana already corresponded to the immortals in the legends of Mountain Sea's four lands.

Su Wen looked a little embarrassed at that. "There are accounts of it in ancient books from ruins explored by the Galaxy Alliance. But since the Galaxy Alliance was founded, there hasn't been a single verified case of a mahayana cultivator ascending to become an immortal."

Li Yu nodded. "In the four lands of Mountain Sea, there's no mention of ascension after cultivating to the primordial spirit realm. There are records of people seeking the Three Immortal Isles, though, also in the hope of becoming immortals."

Both places regarded becoming an immortal as the endpoint of cultivation.

"You once mentioned the Heavenly Emperor. Is he also an immortal from your world's legends?" Su Wen had an excellent memory and immediately connected this to the sect's origins Li Yu had mentioned.

Li Yu said, "I don't know about that. The Heavenly Emperor was the ancestral deity worshipped by the Great Xuan Dynasty. After Immortal Zhou destroyed Great Xuan, it destroyed every text concerning the Heavenly Emperor and forbade all living beings from spreading his name. I only know about him because my lineage is in the Eastern Lands, where the Immortal Zhou Orthodox School's influence hasn't penetrated deeply. Besides, the sect is unwilling to shy away from its own origins."

Su Wen nodded and asked no more about immortals, returning to their original topic.

"If this sword art follows the path described in its outline, then once cultivated to its highest realm, the formation manifested by a single sword stroke would be no less impressive than the forty-nine highest-ranked formations in Thousand Mechanisms Evolution."

The forty-nine most formidable formations in Thousand Mechanisms Evolution were all mahayana-level in difficulty. Any one of them, once laid down, could not be broken by anyone below mahayana-and even a mahayana cultivator who entered might not be able to break it.

Su Wen had spent his entire life studying formations, so his understanding of them was certainly sound.

After hearing his words, Li Yu's face also showed his inner conflict.

The more formidable the Taiqing Mystic Sect's Formless Sword Qi was, the harder he found it to let go.

But his foundation was the True Supreme Unity Interpretation, and to condense a primordial spirit through the Taiqing Mystic Sect's Formless Sword Qi, he would have to have the Taiqing Divine Sword.

"Teacher, I also obtained half a sword intent. Could I use it to condense a sword heart and attempt sword-heart foundation establishment?"

Still, Li Yu thickened his skin and asked about his original plan.

"In theory, there's no problem. Morally, however, our Galaxy Alliance condemns such behavior. It's equivalent to cheating your way through immortal-path foundation establishment. As your teacher, I absolutely will not tell you how to cheat." Su Wen shook his head, making it clear that he would not impart any knowledge on the subject.

"Teacher, about that matter you mentioned before-I went back and thought it over, and I think it might be workable." Li Yu's words made Su Wen's eyes light up, despite his stern refusal moments earlier.

Su Wen wanted to use Li Yu as a sample unlike any the Galaxy Alliance had ever had, recording his entire cultivation process with the True Supreme Unity Interpretation and writing it up as a paper.

If Li Yu could ultimately advance this simplified cultivation method into the Supreme Unity Divine Chapter, it might open up a new road to mahayana. To the Galaxy Alliance, that would be a deed of great merit.

And that great merit could allow him to form his primordial spirit with ease, or even dispel his heavenly tribulation.

Of course, this matter required Li Yu's consent as the subject.

Li Yu was not particularly willing to have every detail of his cultivation progress scrutinized by someone else. But this would also firmly bind Su Wen, a nascent soul realm expert, to his side, ensuring that Su Wen would devote himself wholeheartedly to helping him cultivate.

Sure enough, after thinking for a moment, Su Wen coughed softly. "Send me a private message after class."

During class, he had principles. He could not discuss such things.