“Open, then.” With a single thought, Heifeng Jiansui opened the door hidden between his eyebrows. A rune seemed to flash for a moment, before disappearing in a split second. A flash of silver light passed by, and a transparent sword flashed in front of him.

This sword was something that was very dear to him, the Eternal Weapon he forged for himself as a path to breakthrough to Perpetual Emperor. “Sword Calling Heaven’s Will, Nineprime. I thought I lost you in the battle against that Calamity. So how have you returned…?”

Suddenly he realized something. While his chaoseed was lost, Nineorigin saved his soul from dissipation. The Eternal weapon was fused into his soul. Unexpectedly, it too had been saved from destruction!

“My cultivation of Chaos Sovereign disappeared, but my soul reached an unrivalled realm before my death. While I thought that Nineorigin simply transferred my memories over, it seems that Nineorigin also sealed my previous soul into my new body. After my every breakthrough, I would be able to unseal a portion of my soul until I possess my true power.” Within his heart, Heifeng Jiansui thanked Nineorigin.

Nineprime was the strongest sword that he held in his previous life. In reality, he refined its core before becoming a Perpetual Emperor. Journeying to countless dangerous regions to obtain the materials to refine it, searching for the best forging artifacts, obtaining the best forging technique… in reality, he took five centuries to just obtain these supplies and a thousand years to forge the sword! Fortunately, he used a time formation while refining so not too much time was wasted on trivialities.

While he expected to forge a top-grade Immortal Rank sword, a stroke of luck ended up handing him a Eternal sword instead! The newly forged Eternal Weapon fused into his spiritual sea, causing him to breakthrough to a Perpetual Emperor as a cultivator of the Sword Dao!

Mentally controlling the battle spirit, Heifeng Jiansui realized that the sword was simply a sword spirit now, and no longer an invincible weapon from his previous life. Sometime later, his well of spiritual energy was completely exhausted and a rune flashed, returning his battle spirit to his spiritual sea.

“That rune… it seems to be a Dao engraving etched on my soul. Could it be a benefit of my bloodline?” Dao engravings were similar to diagrams, engraved on the bodies of beasts of a certain bloodline allowing them to easily understand the Dao comprehended by their ancestors. They were also used as a foundation for certain bloodline techniques. The Desolate Dragon’s Ninerune Great Destruction Array was such a peerless bloodline technique, sacrificing all lifeforce for might that could shatter chaosworlds!

“Since my bloodline hasn’t awakened yet, the Dao Engravings aren’t visible to me. Since it’s like that, I will meditate on this Dao Engraving that I spotted by chance later. For now, let me report this good news to my dear mother…” Without paying any attention to the top grade Common Rank blade that he finally refined, Heifeng Jiansui silently left the refining room.

While he had some thoughts of concealing his battle spirit awakening, it would be ultimately useless. In the end, his understanding and knowledge of battle spirits that appeared after the end of the Primordial World was too low.

+++

“Jian-er, you tr-truly awakened your battle spirit?” The expression of disbelief was still engraved on Chanlong Yue’s face even as she stared at the ethereal sword in his hands.

After a few more moments of stunned disbelief, Chanlong Yue touched the ethereal sword with a finger.

“Even when it is true, I still can’t believe it… Awakening a battle spirit and you haven’t even lived for a year… Also, it seems that the reason behind your rapid rise of skill in auxiliary arts was not due to supernatural talent, but precise control over the body due to your powerful soul… No, I suppose that qualifies as a supernatural talent on its own…”

“Oh, I almost forgot. Jian-er, how is your training of the Foundation layer of the Quintessence Sword codex?”

“Mother, after I awakened my battle spirit, I completely mastered the sword art. I can now use the Mind-Sword Unison technique.” The Man-Sword Unison technique granted perfect control over muscles and increased the ability to enter a meditative state.

“Now that you have practiced that technique to completion, you need a new sword art to train in. This sword technique is quite a high-level one, yet it has quite a few requirements which make cultivating it a difficulty. But you astonishingly fulfill most of the requirements, so it is perfect for you! I bought it to train my battle spirit technique, but I will be more suited to you.” With a flick of a finger, a manual appeared on Chanlong Yue’s finger.

“Divine Sword Spirit Art?” While leafing through the manual, he found out only the first two out of five layers were present. Heifeng Jiansui realized that ‘quite a few requirements’ was understating it. “Sword-type battle spirit, ability to forge swords, perfect control over muscles… It seems that fate wished me to train this technique.”

“Sword body to complement sword spirit!” The entire manual was based on these words as the foundation!

The first layer of the art detailed that to complement the sword type battle spirit, a sword had to be forged by the cultivator. It had to be a Mortal Rank weapon, the higher the grade, the better. It would become the companion sword of the cultivator and would accompany the cultivator for his life. When the cultivator increased the level of his battle spirit, he could break down the sword to its core and reforge it as a mightier weapon!

First layer: Mortal, Second layer: Earth, Third layer: Heaven, Fourth layer: Divine! The topmost level, the Fifth layer could actually forge an Immortal rank companion sword!

“The cultivator of this sword art is actually aiming to create a Fifth Layer to this sword art! Even though he hasn’t reached the level where he could actually forge an Eternal-level sword, he believes that since Sheng Jiansui could forge an Eternal sword without breaking through to Perpetual Emperor, why wouldn’t he be capable of the same thing? Such audacity, to dare compare himself with the final Perpetual Emperor of the Primordial Era!” Chanlong Yue had a derisive expression on her face as she answered.

Interested, Heifeng Jiansui asked, “What is this cultivator’s name, then?”

“Jiang Feng, the sect leader of the Ten Thousand Swords Paradise!” The Ten Thousand Swords Paradise was a sect on the level of Five Sacred Beast Sect, the sect Black Phoenix Empire was a part of. It controlled a large number of major worlds and had a large number of experts.

“Anyway, that isn’t important. What is important is that Jiang Feng created this art with the Quintessence Sword codex as the foundation! You will certainly have great success practicing it!”

“Oh, I almost forgot!” With another flick, Chanlong Yue took out another manual. “This is the Five Sacred Beasts Cycle!”

“This is the complete version of the technique. You don’t have to worry about the cost, it is one of the cheapest yet most effective techniques you can find. Unfortunately, only the first page will be of some use to you. Without awakening your bloodline, you cannot cultivate, but nurturing some qi within your meridians is possible. With this technique, you can do it.”

“Your birthday is coming in a week. While I have tried my best to conceal your progress, a battle spirit will be revealed if anyone even scans you with spirit sense. Thus, we will explosively reveal your prowess on your birthday!” Chanlong Yue was certainly in a good mood. The potential her son had revealed might make it possible for him to battle against Heifeng Xingmei as an equal in 7 years!

+++

Chanlong Yue left, leaving her son to read the two manuals. After carefully memorizing the two manuals, Heifeng Jianxue put both of them away into his spatial ring.

“While the Divine Sword Spirit Art is interesting, the Five Sacred Beasts Cycle is of more interest to me. Pity I’ll need to awaken my bloodline in order to properly cultivate it…” After remarking on this, he immediately began nurturing qi within his meridians.

After only thirty minutes, his meridians were saturated with qi. If his bloodline was awakened and his dantian was unsealed, he could circulate the qi for one great cycle and make a footstep on the grand road of cultivation.

After completing his qi nurturing, Heifeng Jiansui sat down on his bed in a crosslegged posture. He immediately entered Mind-Sword Unison, with his body as the sword and the spirit as the wielder, promptly boosting the power of his soul with the accumulated qi. This was a simple trick for the inventor of the sword art!

With a single thought, he visualized the rune that flashed when he called out his battle spirit. The aura of an facet of the Great Dao of Fire was transmitted to his heart. For any other junior, this would a great fortune, however for the topmost expert who spent a millennia meditating to the origin of all the Dao of the chaosworld, how could it matter?