Switching Cultivation Arts

Several hours later, Xiao Yu arrived before a mountain two hundred li from the Giant Sword Sect's gates!

The mountain was not particularly tall, rising only several dozen zhang!

Flowers, grasses, and trees flourished around it, but before the mountain lay a clearing twenty or thirty zhang across, with only scattered weeds growing in it.

Several smaller hills, each a dozen or so zhang tall, also stood within a radius of a little over ten li.

At the sight, Xiao Yu nodded with some satisfaction.

He had chosen this spot not only because it was relatively close to the sect, but also because it was very secluded. Anyone who did not search carefully would certainly overlook it.

Moreover, a few hundred li farther west lay the border between the Yue Kingdom and the Fengdu Kingdom. The Fengdu Kingdom had established a market near its border in this direction, only a few hundred li from here.

Then he patted his waist, took out the Small Axe, and began hacking fiercely at the rock face!

After the better part of a day, Xiao Yu had carved out a cave abode a dozen or so zhang across inside the mountain, then added a cultivation chamber, a spirit beast chamber, a bedroom, and other rooms.

Finally, Xiao Yu took seven formation flags from his Storage Bag. After planting them around the cave abode one by one, he swiftly began forming spell seals.

A moment later, an array formation shining with white light appeared. Its light surged, transforming into a rock face that concealed the cave abode!

Seeing the formation appear, Xiao Yu frowned slightly and muttered, "This formation can only fool some low-level Qi Refining Stage cultivators. Its protection and concealment are woefully inadequate. It will have to do for now. Once I've finished switching cultivation arts, I'll go to the market and look for a better formation!"

Over the next few days, Xiao Yu remained constantly busy.

First, he found a flat patch of land in a secluded spot near his cave abode, then scattered some spirit medicine seeds over it.

These seeds were all common varieties, planted here merely as a smokescreen. As for rare spirit medicines, he would later establish a secret medicinal garden inside his cave abode, where he could accelerate their growth.

During the remaining time, Xiao Yu also found some relatively hard bluestone on the mountain and carved it into stone tables, chairs, and other furnishings, placing a set in each room.

Finally, he carefully chiseled all the walls smooth and embedded some moonlight stones in them, making the cave abode as bright as day.

Only then was the initial construction of Xiao Yu's cave abode complete.

With work on the cave abode finished, Xiao Yu began studying the Azure Essence Sword Art he had obtained from the Scripture Pavilion, preparing to switch cultivation arts.

The first three layers of the Azure Essence Sword Art corresponded to the early, middle, and late phases of the Qi Refining Stage. Likewise, the fourth through sixth layers corresponded to the early, middle, and late phases of the Foundation Establishment Stage.

The Qi Refining Stage methods were not difficult to understand. Xiao Yu was already a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator, and cultivators at higher realms generally found it easy to comprehend methods for lower realms.

Thus, Xiao Yu needed only a few days to understand them thoroughly. He then used the art in his cultivation chamber to refine the residual medicinal power of the Foundation Establishment Pill within his body.

A month later, Xiao Yu finally mastered the fourth layer of the Azure Essence Sword Art, truly bringing his cultivation of the art to the early Foundation Establishment Stage. His cultivation base was now fully stabilized as well.

That day, inside the cultivation chamber, Xiao Yu opened his eyes, swept his hands before his chest, slowly brought his practice to a close, and stood up.

Suddenly, he raised his arm and swept it before him. A hazy azure sword aura about a foot long immediately sprang from his fingers, radiating a biting chill and looking incomparably sharp.

Then he flicked his arm, and the azure light abruptly swelled to over a zhang in length. He aimed the sword aura at the cultivation chamber's stone wall and gave it a shake. It shot forth at tremendous speed, striking the wall in an instant.

With a soft hiss, the sword aura vanished into the stone wall. Xiao Yu walked over and examined it for a while, discovering a sword hole about half a zhang deep, its edges perfectly smooth.

The Azure Essence Sword Aura ability that comes with the first three layers of this art really packs a punch! Xiao Yu thought with satisfaction after inspecting it.

Next, Xiao Yu silently activated the spell formula, and a peculiar shield suddenly appeared around him.

The shield was azure all over and about the same size as an ordinary protective barrier. Its surface, however, was no longer smooth, but covered in hedgehog-like spikes, giving it a faintly baleful air.

"So this is the Body-Protecting Sword Shield!" Xiao Yu carefully examined the spiked shield around him. It looked quite promising.

Dismissing the sword shield, Xiao Yu turned his hand over, and a golden book page covered in densely packed runes appeared in his palm. Looking at it, he thought, Now that I've cultivated the Azure Essence Sword Art to the early Foundation Establishment Stage, it's time to receive the cultivation method inside!

He immediately tossed the Golden Page into the air and cast a Floating Spell on it, holding it in place. Then he raised his right hand, sending an azure sword aura as thick as an arm straight into the page.

With a soft hiss, the azure sword aura vanished without a trace upon striking the page, like a clay ox sinking into the sea, as though it had been swallowed whole.

Xiao Yu was not surprised by this sight. He simply continued striking it bit by bit with small bursts of Azure Essence Sword Aura, while the page accepted every one of them like a bottomless pit.

After a long while, just as the true essence inside Xiao Yu's body was nearly exhausted, the page finally changed. Golden light blazed from its surface, and it stopped absorbing the sword aura. Instead, it reflected it, punching a sword hole straight through the cultivation chamber's stone wall.

Xiao Yu watched the changes in the page without blinking.

The light on the page slowly drew inward, gathering into glowing characters the size of ants. They appeared on its surface, forming densely packed points of golden light.

Then, with a patter, the Floating Spell suddenly lost its effect, and the Golden Page dropped straight down. Delighted, Xiao Yu immediately leaned forward and caught it in his hand.

The instant Xiao Yu's fingers touched it, the glowing characters seemed to find an outlet. All of them surged madly through the point of contact, pouring into his entire body.

In a single instant, the glowing characters covered Xiao Yu from head to toe, their shimmering light making him look incomparably mysterious.

Yet this scene lasted only briefly. Suddenly, as though they had received an order, all the glowing characters swarmed toward his head and seeped into it one after another.

Xiao Yu felt countless things forcibly crammed into his mind in an instant. The pain made him clutch his head and let out an agonized cry as he toppled to the floor.

Fortunately, the pain was extremely brief. Within moments, all the glowing characters had finished entering him. By then, Xiao Yu lay sprawled on the floor, unable to move even a fraction.

Only after a full quarter of an hour did Xiao Yu recover a little strength. At last, he could barely manage to sit cross-legged, close his eyes, and regulate his breathing.

It was not until a day later that the discomfort in Xiao Yu's mind completely vanished. Only then did he begin recalling the contents of the glowing characters.

As he had expected, these glowing characters contained the complete Azure Essence Sword Art, the full set of cultivation formulas from the first layer through the thirteenth, which could be cultivated all the way to the Deity Transformation Stage.

Moreover, the final section did indeed contain an auxiliary cultivation method called the Three-Turn Heavy Origin Art.

The Three-Turn Heavy Origin Art had been created specifically to support the Azure Essence Sword Art. Once the Azure Essence Sword Art reached the sixth layer, it required the practitioner to disperse his cultivation back down to the fourth layer, then cultivate back up to the sixth.

He could then use the Three-Turn Heavy Origin Art to compress the magical power and true essence he had cultivated anew. After compression, his magical power would be several times purer than before.

After repeating this three times and cultivating back to the peak of the Foundation Establishment Stage, achieving Core Formation would be effortless.

The first six layers of the newly acquired complete Azure Essence Sword Art were essentially identical to those he had obtained from the Scripture Pavilion, so he comprehended them without much effort. The Three-Turn Heavy Origin Art, however, took several more days of study.

That day, after understanding and mastering the Foundation Establishment portion of his newly acquired cultivation methods, Xiao Yu entered the Mysterious Space again.

Several more months had passed since he last optimized the Blood Refining Secret Art, so the two large golden characters on the Heavenly Book had fully recovered and were ready for use again.

After going through the process, Xiao Yu obtained two different versions of the Azure Essence Sword Art. Once he had firmly memorized the enhanced version, he left the space.

Over the next half month, Xiao Yu followed the circulation pathways of the enhanced Azure Essence Sword Art and refined the true essence and magical power within his body once more.

The results left him tremendously excited. Cultivating the improved art had doubled the purity of his magical power.

The power of its two accompanying abilities had also doubled. Although the Azure Essence Sword Aura was still only about a foot long when released, it was more condensed than before and could pierce over a zhang deep into the stone wall. Its power rivaled that of a fine-quality, top-grade magic tool;

The Azure Essence Sword Shield was the same. Its strength had increased substantially, and the spikes on its surface had more than doubled in length. His tests showed that activating the sword shield gave him defensive power equivalent to that of a fine-quality, top-grade magic tool.

Most importantly, he could activate both abilities instantly with a single thought, and their magical power consumption was negligible.

By comparison, the effects of the Three-Turn Heavy Origin Art must surely have doubled as well. Just imagining his magical power becoming several times greater than that of others at the same stage filled him with excitement.

Now that he had finished switching cultivation arts and stabilized his cultivation base, he finally had some basic means of keeping himself alive. It was time to leave seclusion and take care of a few things.