Sword Light Splits, Sword Force Surges Like the Tide
An hour later, having finished refining the Yellow Earth Divine Sword for the day, Kong Wenxuan drew the yellow peacock feather, which was not yet fully refined, into the sea of Qi in his Dantian. The Azure Wood Divine Sword and the Black Water Divine Sword were already there, drawing in and expelling Law Power. This both refined the divine swords and purified his Law Power.
Beside the two divine swords were a scarlet peacock feather and a white peacock feather. They too drew in and expelled Law Power, but had yet to be refined into their corresponding Five Elements Divine Swords.
Kong Wenxuan looked at the remaining Thick Mountain Stone and made a mental estimate. He should be able to devour and refine this last piece of Thick Mountain Stone completely within a month, refining the yellow peacock feather into the Yellow Earth Divine Sword. Then he could advance to the Qi Refining Seventh Layer and reach Late Qi Refining.
And from Late Qi Refining, attempting to reach the second-tier Foundation Establishment Stage would not be far off. But without the Peacock True Spirit Star suppressing it from above, the struggle between humanity and demonic nature during a breakthrough to a major realm like this was even more dangerous than it had been when awakening the bloodline.
This was a great deadly tribulation for many bloodline cultivators and Lineages in the True Spirit Realm whose bloodlines had not attained a True Spirit position. As a result, many bloodline cultivators spent their whole lives stuck at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer, never daring to attempt the Foundation Establishment Stage. They feared that the demonic nature in their bloodline would overwhelm their humanity during the breakthrough, causing them to fall and become Demon Beasts.
The Kong Household currently had quite a few elders at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer who had spent more than a decade, or even several decades, without daring to break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm.
For this reason, many such cultivators and Lineages whose bloodlines did not hold True Spirit positions chose to enter the service of True Spirit Lineages as slaves and servants. They relied on the suppressive power of their masters' Bloodline True Spirit Stars to help suppress their demonic nature and break through in cultivation.
Even so, their chances of breaking through safely were still far lower than if their own bloodlines held True Spirit positions and their own True Spirit Stars suppressed their demonic nature. But at the very least, a breakthrough was no longer a nine-deaths-one-life ordeal.
The current patriarch of the Kong Household, Kong Changgeng, was one such case. He had relied on the suppressive power of the Cuckoo True Spirit Star to take the risk and successfully break through to the second-tier Foundation Establishment Stage.
Although Kong Wenxuan had only awakened his bloodline and become a bloodline cultivator a few years ago, he estimated that, at his current pace of refining swords and cultivating, he would reach the Qi Refining Ninth Layer in a few more years. He did not want to follow the example of those clan elders and waste half his life, or even his entire life, at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer. When the time came, he would certainly seek an opportunity to break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage.
How, then, was he to overcome the demonic nature in his bloodline?
Should I also rely on the power of the Cuckoo True Spirit Star?
Kong Wenxuan looked inward at the projection of the Cuckoo True Spirit Star, which was suppressed and sealed by a strand of Five-Colored Divine Light in the sea of Qi in his Dantian, and could not help shaking his head.
Rather than count on the power of the Cuckoo True Spirit Star, I might as well count on the Five-Colored Divine Light.
At least when I awakened my peacock bloodline, the Five-Colored Divine Light appeared, and I didn't seem to feel any backlash from the power of my demonic nature at all.
I just don't know whether the Five-Colored Divine Light will continue to work when I break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage, helping me block and suppress the backlash of my demonic nature.
Or perhaps I could try Star Inlaying in the Celestial Stars True Spirit Diagram when I break through to the second-tier Foundation Establishment Stage, and raise the Lineage's peacock bloodline to a ninth-grade True Spirit position again. That should also do a good job of suppressing the demonic nature and keep me from falling and becoming a Demon Beast!
While Kong Wenxuan was considering his future cultivation, someone came running along the other shore of the lake. Before he drew near, he called out, "Cousin Wenxuan, the snake demon has come ashore!"
Kong Wenxuan immediately stood and went to meet him. The man was his teammate on patrol and hunt, an older cousin of the same generation in the Lineage named Kong Wenxiong. He had awakened his bloodline five years before Kong Wenxuan, but his cultivation was the same as Kong Wenxuan's: the Sixth Layer of Qi Refining.
In fact, his progress through the Sixth Layer of Qi Refining was behind Kong Wenxuan's.
After all, Kong Wenxuan was confident he could break through to the Qi Refining Seventh Layer within a month, while Kong Wenxiong would be lucky to do so within a year.
"Cousin Wenxiong!" Kong Wenxuan went up to him and, after greeting him, said, "Where did the snake demon come ashore? Let's hurry and kill it. We've been held up here for three days because of it."
A patrol-and-hunt mission meant checking the safety of the Lineage's Peacock Ridge and the surrounding area, and hunting Demon Beasts, enemies, and anything else that might pose a threat.
The lake before them was only fifty li from Peacock Ridge. At some unknown point, a first-tier snake demon had grown up in it. It had come ashore several times and entered Peacock Ridge, where it had hurt people and even swallowed a peacock spirit beast raised by the Kong Household.
The Lineage had long ago ordered their patrol-and-hunt team to kill the snake demon that had been hurting people. But it often hid in the depths of the lake, and Kong Wenxuan and the others were no good at fighting underwater, so they had been held up here for days without being able to do anything about it.
Now that they had finally waited for the snake demon to come ashore, they naturally had to kill it as soon as possible. They could not let it escape back into the lake.
"The bait trap Aunt Yuling made worked. It lured the snake demon ashore," Kong Wenxiong said at once.
Kong Wenxuan immediately understood what had happened. With a cry of "Let's go," he led the way, racing in the direction Kong Wenxiong had come from.
His patrol-and-hunt team had five members in all. Besides Kong Wenxuan and his cousin Kong Wenxiong, there were three elders at Late Qi Refining: their aunt Kong Yuling, their elder uncle Kong Yushan, and their younger uncle Kong Yutang.
Aunt Kong Yuling had said earlier that she would make bait to lure the snake demon out of the lake. But nothing had happened for three days, and Kong Wenxuan had thought she had failed. He had not expected her to succeed this time.
Kong Wenxuan and Kong Wenxiong soon reached the site of the bait trap. From a distance, they could see three dazzling lights flashing ahead, captivating the eyes and unsettling the mind.
He knew this was the commotion from his three elder teammates, Kong Yuling, Kong Yushan, and Kong Yutang, already fighting the snake demon.
The Peacock Soul-Bewitching Scripture inherited through the Kong Household's peacock bloodline focused on cultivating the soul and excelled at illusions. Combined with the eye patterns on the tail feathers of the Peacock Feather that manifested when Kong Household members awakened their bloodlines, it could often multiply the power of those illusions.
But illusions were illusions, after all, and their killing power was limited.
Thus, when Kong Wenxuan reached the battlefield, he saw his three elder teammates at Late Qi Refining each holding a peacock feather and casting illusions, trapping a black snake demon nearly a zhang long in their midst. Each time they cast an illusion filled with dazzling light, they could bewilder the snake demon for an instant.
But the Law Techniques and Law Artifacts the three elders used to attack could, at most, leave a few wounds on the snake demon. They could hardly kill it outright, laying bare their lack of offensive and killing power.
"Watch out!"
Kong Wenxuan had arrived just then. Seeing this, he cried out in alarm and, at the same time, joined his fingers, formed a sword Instruction, and pointed. In the next instant, the Azure Wood Divine Sword, refined from a green peacock feather, flew out of the sea of Qi in his Dantian. It flickered in midair and split into eighteen streaks of green sword light, which descended like a net of swords, blocking and trapping the snake demon.
He then changed his sword Instruction, and the Black Water Divine Sword, refined from a black peacock feather, also flew out in an instant. Its sword light surged like the tide, wave upon unbroken wave, its force growing ever stronger. It struck the snake demon, trapped by the Sword Light Differentiation of the Azure Wood Divine Sword, and cut it in two on the spot.
Azure Wood Divine Sword, Sword Light Differentiation; Black Water Divine Sword, Sword Momentum Like the Tide!
Each of the Five Elements Divine Swords had its own mysteries and powers.