Chen Shuangbai chose the Water and Wood Pure Splendor Incantation and the Azure Billows Layered Waves Instruction.
The Book Spirit was not surprised to see him choose those two.
It had known Chen Shuangbai for several years by now and had more or less gotten a measure of this outer disciple's nature.
Though his aptitude was middle second-grade, his comprehension was exceptionally outstanding.
He was always courteous in his dealings with others and never made enemies, but that did not mean he had a good temper. Beneath that glass heart lay waves as deep as the ocean, quietly waiting for a chance to rise into towering billows.
Zhang Yin closed the play and looked at Chen Shuangbai. "The Water and Wood Pure Splendor Incantation is an incantation art. It encompasses six incantations and combines the aspects of water and wood, but it isn't meant for attacking. It's more suited to supporting fellow disciples or companions."
"The Azure Billows Layered Waves Instruction is better suited to Cold Spring Guidance, the Law Technique you've spent the past few years cultivating in depth."
As he spoke of it, Book Spirit Zhang Yin's expression grew a little strange.
He had also read about the Law Technique Cold Spring Guidance.
It was originally a Qi Refining Law Technique for shaping water. Most disciples who had cultivated it before had used it to gather water vapor and condense it into clean drinking water, but Chen Shuangbai had used it to develop water chains, water needles, water curtains, and water blades, and had even produced a mutated frost aspect.
Now, besides water chains, water needles, water curtains, and water blades, he had also touched on most applications of water beasts, ice chains, ice needles, ice thorn formations, and even frost itself.
Law Techniques were fixed; how they were used depended on the caster's own ideas.
But it had to be said that Chen Shuangbai's ideas about Cold Spring Guidance went beyond those of other disciples.
"If you apply the Azure Billows Layered Waves Instruction to your Cold Spring Guidance, the power of that Law Technique will likely increase greatly."
Chen Shuangbai nodded slightly and said it was all thanks to his lordship, flattering the Book Spirit until it was dizzy with praise once more.
Pleased, the Book Spirit gave Chen Shuangbai another pointer.
"Don't you also have a water-attribute flying sword at the level of a mid-grade Law Artifact?"
"If you still have enough Merit Points, you could choose a sword instruction to use with your flying sword. Its power would increase considerably too."
That reminded Chen Shuangbai.
He had previously relied entirely on the Artifact Control Technique to command the Cold Spring Sword, and its cutting power had depended entirely on the flying sword's own quality. He had possessed none of the bearing a sword cultivator should have.
Though he had no intention of becoming a pure sword cultivator, he acknowledged the sharpness of flying swords.
To his surprise, the Book Spirit also found a sword instruction fairly well suited to Chen Shuangbai-the Spring Rain and Flowering Wood Sword Instruction.
It too was a sword instruction suited to cultivators with aptitude for both water and wood.
"However, what I have here isn't the original. If you're interested, you might ask whether there's still one called the Lush Foliage Pavilion among the outer sect's current law societies."
"Do you mean that this sword instruction was originally created by someone belonging to the Lush Foliage Pavilion law society, and that they have the original?"
The Book Spirit nodded.
The Jade Spring Sect had a rule: if sect disciples were talented enough to create new Law Techniques or Cultivation Methods and the like, they could hand them in for Merit, not Merit Points.
Merit could be understood as a grade of accomplishment above Merit Points.
Merit could be exchanged within the Jade Spring Sect for cultivation resources that Merit Points could not buy.
For instance, a sermon by one of the Peak Masters of the inner sect's six peaks, admission under a Peak Master of one's choosing, or a Cultivation Method or secret technique of a higher level...
But the Jade Spring Sect did not compel anyone to do so. It only required a copy, while the original, with the creator's cultivation insights recorded in it, could remain in their possession.
What was kept in this cave abode was the copy, while the original had been passed down within the Lush Foliage Pavilion law society.
Chen Shuangbai frowned slightly.
He had already made some progress in alchemy and no longer had much urgent need for Merit Points, so there was really little need for him to join a law society.
He asked the Book Spirit whether there were any other suitable sword instructions.
The Book Spirit recommended several more, but he felt that none suited him as well as the Spring Rain and Flowering Wood Sword Instruction.
He decided to exchange for the copy and cultivate it first. As for the cultivation insights left in the original... he would think about those later.
Chen Shuangbai flattered the Book Spirit some more before finally taking his leave.
The days after he returned to Lesser Yang Peak remained as dull and tedious as ever.
Chen Shuangbai first finished refining the Flowing Cloud Flying Pouch. After that, he refined pills to sell to the Expenditure Hall, then practiced the Law Techniques and sword instruction he had now mastered. Finally, he did not forget to cultivate his foundation.
Another three months passed in this manner.
One day.
Outside Lesser Yang Peak, a cloud descended at great speed, then settled steadily at the entrance to the cave abode.
Chen Shuangbai leaped lightly down from the cloud and landed on the ground. Then he raised a hand and waved, putting the Flowing Cloud Flying Pouch away.
"After working hard to get used to it for a little over a month, I can finally control this high-grade flying Law Artifact with its incredible escape speed."
Refining the Flowing Cloud Flying Pouch had not taken much effort, but controlling it was another matter.
Fortunately, Chen Shuangbai also cultivated the Moonlight Spirit-Nourishing Instruction, and his spiritual sense was far stronger than that of an ordinary Middle Qi Refining Stage cultivator. Only then could he control the Law Artifact with greater precision.
After more than a month of getting used to it, he had finally tamed it.
Now, when he traveled, he rode that cloud as though racing through the wind.
Only then did he have some of the ethereal grace of a Qi refiner from High Antiquity, poised to ascend as an immortal.
He landed on the ground.
He sat down on the platform in front of the cave abode and summoned the Cold Spring Sword.
Compared with before, the Cold Spring Sword had now been refined by Chen Shuangbai for several years. Though he could not quite wield it as an extension of his arm, he had gained considerable familiarity with it.
The sword became a streak of dim blue light, trailing a keen chill as it flew. Anything it touched would be injured by the chill clinging to the blade, even if it was not cut open.
If it did cut a wound, the chill would cling to it and keep it from healing for a long time.
Chen Shuangbai opened the Spring Rain and Flowering Wood Sword Instruction to its first page.
On that first page was the general outline of the sword instruction:
Blue water holds the breath of spring; green wood gathers heaven's light.
One breath gives rise to twin aspects; the sword moves through the nine heavens.
Chen Shuangbai read it several more times, feeling that it revealed all the wonders of the water and wood aspects.
He glanced at the inscription below and found another passage.
"Outside the gate, I once saw a thousand-year-old withered tree. Nourished by a spring rain in the third month, it sprouted new buds. Seven days later, blossoms covered its branches. Thus I grasped the wonder of water and wood giving rise to each other, and danced with my sword beneath a parasol tree for forty-nine days, creating this sword instruction."
Qinglin.
"I suppose this was the person who created this sword instruction, which reveals all the wonders of the water and wood aspects."
But regrettably, he did not know whether Senior Sister Qinglin was still in the sect or had already...
Chen Shuangbai cut away the distracting thoughts in his mind one by one.
He began studying the sword instruction word by word.
The sword instruction comprised six forms. If practiced somewhere with both water and wood aspects, one could achieve twice the result with half the effort.
Fortunately, outside the cave abode was a clear spring, with several spirit pines growing beside it. Everything outside was lush and green, possessing both water and wood aspects in full.
And so Chen Shuangbai began to dance with his sword.