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Chapter 8: Seed of the Sword Embryo
Inside the dark room, Ai Hui who was on the bed, leaning on a corner while hugging a sword, slowly opened his eyes.
Eyes that were even deeper than the night instantly opened, and a streak of cold light flashed through the pitch-black room. This strand of sharp cold light died as soon as it came, then, Ai Hui’s appearance resumed its harmless state.
Even after leaving the Savage Territories for a few days, he still had not gotten accustomed to sleeping on the bed.
He inspected the sword embryo seed he had been raising in his body for three years and did not discover any change to it whatsoever.
When he released the grass sword that he was holding in his bosom, the sword embryo’s reaction that was within his body disappeared. Originally, there was once a time in which he was excessively dependent on the sword embryo. No matter the time, he would never let go of his sword. Later on, he discovered that this would easily lower his own guard, so he forced himself to not touch the sword unless he was in combat or on night vigil.
Being able to be intact after living in the Savage Territories, Ai Hui naturally possessed his own uniqueness, and the sword embryo seed was what he largely relied on.
After the third day of entering the Savage Territories, he had nearly lost his life to the yellow springs. It was also at that time when he began his frantic pursuit of power, for only when one possessed power, was one able to survive in the ice cold Savage Territories. He had no one that he could ask for help. Elementalists were never false towards the coolies, and Ai Hui was not a quick witted person who was good at acting to get what he wanted.
When a wild beast was in a desperate strait, they would often display an explosively strength several times greater than it would ordinarily. Humans in desperate straits were the same.
Like a drowning man, Ai Hui desperately grabbed at whatever he could grab at.
Like sword manuals, things that took up a majority of his brain.
When spiritual energy had disappeared, the cultivation world had crumbled, and the cultivation era was no more. But these millions of years of accumulation were incomparably deep, and the cultivation system had grown to a great degree, far surpassing what people nowadays could possible imagine.
Body refinement, spell formations, weapon training, the five elements, necromancy… etc. There was a myriad of all sorts of odd things that used spiritual energy. Added to the fact that mankind’s imagination was rich and plentiful, the hugest, most glorious and resplendent cultivation system of all time was born.
But even in the large and glorious enormously complex cultivation system, sword cultivation was eternally its dazzling jewel. No matter which era within the cultivation world, the strongest peak experts were always figures who cultivated the sword.
In those times, sword manuals that were rich in history came into existence, often times bringing along foul winds and carnage. Nowadays, they were buried in a pile of old books in garbage heaps and were completely worthless.
Sword cultivators made up a large majority of the cultivation community, so there were naturally all sorts of strange and odd things.
Sword manuals that required spiritual energy to be utilized were the first to be eliminated by Ai Hui. Those kinds of sword manuals were often used by the big factions of the righteous sects back in the eras when spiritual energy was abundant. Being able to more effectively utilize spiritual energy was the great road in those days. What he eliminated next, were sword manuals that he did not understand. There were countless numbers of manuals that were cryptic and abstruse. Ai Hui had flipped through a shockingly amount of sword manuals, and could be regarded to be a sword manual expert, but there were still many sword manuals that he could not comprehend. Some were unnecessarily complicated, and some were just far too old.
After filtering and filtering, there were still a few sword manuals left.
If they were to be released in the cultivation era, these sword manuals would be from the heretical factions. If they were to be found by an honest and upright person, they would undoubtedly shout “demon!”.
Even when he had read it back then, Ai Hui’s heart also trembled with fear. These sword manuals were strange and mysterious, and completely exceeded the limits of a normal person’s imagination. For example, one sword manual required the cutting off of a person’s seven emotional states and six desires; the last, being lust, and then they would achieve the supreme way of the sword. For example, in the Nightmare Devil Sword Tome, cultivators would use a secret technique to sleep inside a large coffin and cultivate the sword within nightmares. Those who succeeded in cultivating that way, would become empty when returning, completely different from how they were normally.
When he had been flipping through those sword manuals, he only found them to be interesting bits of news, and never really thought much of them. When he realized that he had to cultivate one of these sword manuals, he had trembled all over.
It took a while, but Ai Hui finally found a sword manual that wasn’t too strange. It wasn’t that this sword manual did not have a name, but that it was badly damaged, even somewhat incomplete, and there was only one thing emphasized there, which taught him how to cultivate the sword embryo.
After a period of careful research, Ai Hui more or less understood had a rough idea of what the Way of the Sword Embryo was. It wasn’t that complicated actually. The growth of a human’s physical body was limited, but the growth of intangible things like the three energies: spirit, vigor, and essence were limitless. But the three energies were formless and drifted like mist, without any ability to kill or wound anyone. The creator of this sword manual proposed an extremely interesting theory. A person’s physical body was like a sword’s sheath, and the three energies were the true sword.
And how was it possible to condense the incorporeal spirit, vigor, and essence into a sword? The sword manual gave a very unique way of thinking. The three energies were hard to condense, so one should just make them the soil, and nurture seeds of the sword embryo.
Compared with the other sword manuals, this sword manual obviously seemed to be more normal than the rest.
Ai Hui did not hesitate, and cultivated according to the sword manual’s doctrine. Unexpectedly, he had succeeded in planting a sword embryo seed.
If he were in the sword cultivation scene then, he would definitely not take any risks. But what hesitation could he have in the Savage Territories? With each passing day, there would always be someone who fell, and he did not know if he would survive until tomorrow, so the risks were simply not worth mentioning. What he was concerned about, was if the so called sword embryo was useful.
Surviving was of the most importance.
Three years had passed, and he had survived through the Savage Territories, entering the Induction Ground.
The sword embryo seed was still a seed, and there were no movements nor changes.
Towards this, Ai Hui was considerably calm and collected. He felt that it was worth it because he was able to walk out alive from the Savage Territories and didn’t have any impractical expectations for the sword embryo. The sword manual was incomplete due to its damage, and what words came after that were suppose to teach him how to continue cultivating it were missing.
Within the cultivation era, sword manuals that belonged to sects were aplenty, and no matter how strange of a heretical sect it was, it still nevertheless returned to the two words “spiritual energy”. He’d reckon that the later stages of its cultivation was inevitably linked to spiritual energy.
Sword cultivation was something that was out of date, so cultivating according to a sword manual was no use whatsoever. He wasn’t as obsessed with sword manuals as Owner, who believed that sword cultivation was so wonderful and grand.
From the start, he had never bothered to think about the next step in cultivating the sword embryo.
Even if the sword manual said that meditating while hugging a sword nourished the sword embryo seed. What was even more important for him was hugging the sword at night to increase his vigilance at night.
The sword embryo was extremely mystifying. Whenever he had a sword in hand, the sword embryo would activate. When the sword embryo was active, his six senses would become exceptionally sharp. Any bit of movement, to even the wind blowing on the grass would be sensed. Later on, when the great elementalists knew that he was an expert in vigilance, being on evening duty was one of his main assignments.
This was also why he was allowed to obtain a portion of the spoils of war, even if they were scraps.
Meditating while hugging a sword replaced sleep, and as though it was only one day, three years had been persevered through.
At that time, he trembled in the cold wind and mud, but now, he had spent a night in a warm and safe room till dawn.
He was quite content about his current fortune.
Today was the first day of classes and he was brimming with expectation. Ever since he had obtained 50,000 yuan, he had never left home the next two days.
The color of night was still deep in the sky outside the window. The glimmers of light were soaked with coldness, and it was moments before daybreak.
Ai Hui leapt down from the bed with extreme nimbleness as his bare feet stepped atop the carpet. Like a keen animal of the feline family, each and every one of his steps were silent and noiseless. The carpet was thick and rough, weaved from firm brown grass, somewhat pricking his feet, but Ai Hui absolutely did not feel it. He didn’t turn on the light. The glimmers of light coming from the horizon outside the window allowed him to distinctively see everything inside the room.
Borrowing the faint glimmers of light, he began to wash up inside the dark room.
He was already accustomed to the dark, and this was also a gift from the Savage Territories. In the Savage Territories, where danger lurked in every corner, even the smallest hints of light could land oneself into a dangerous predicament.
After removing the simple traps he had placed near the doorway, Ai Hui pushed open the wooden door and breathed the clear cold air into his lungs, rousing his spirits.
The faint light of day and the tranquil training hall, seemed to have absentmindedly transported him back to the Sword Cultivating Training Hall. A sense of familiarity filled the air as the clear cold air appeared to have become more fragrant. The obviously stiff and sharp corners on his face gentled, as a hint of a warm smile that hadn’t appeared in a long time involuntarily graced his face.
He carried water and began to mop the floor with brisk movements.
His body’s memories awakened quickly, and his movements quickly became quite used to it.
Before the sun had even risen, Ai Hui had already completed the cleaning. Without even bothering to wipe his sweat, Ai Hui looked at the spotless training hall, feeling a sincere happiness and contentment.
Seeing the clean training hall, he was a bit reluctant to step on it.
During those three years in the Savage Territories, he lived in the middle of the muddy wetlands and worked within rotten and dried leaves. Coming across rotten corpses of strange animals were even a common occurrence. After being covered in mud and blood for a long period of time, his clothes had become patches of deep brown. It was not known whether they were his or from wild beasts.
Stepping onto clean planks of wood was quite a familiar feeling.
The spotless tranquility of the training hall was the very dream from the deepest part of his heart.
After going through the first two days that he wasn’t used to, Ai Hui slowly began to like this kind of livelihood. If he were to live like this from now on, it wasn’t too bad, was what he had thought.
Sensing his own childish thoughts, Ai Hui laughed and turned around, going back to his room to tidy some things. His class schedule was really tight.
The sword embryo seed had helped him come back from the Savage Territories alive, but this was not worth mentioning. In terms of elemental cultivation, he was far behind others, so the pressure on him was several times greater than anyone else’s.
The Induction Ground’s rules were strict. If one did not open their natal palace within one year, and didn’t reach Initial Completion within five years, they would be banished from the Induction Ground. If the student was from Five Way Heaven and was slacking off, their parents would be responsible for them. If the student was from Old Earth, they would lose their qualifications to enter Five Way Heaven and would be sent back to Old Earth.
When achieving the Initial Completion Realm, one would still have to leave the Induction Ground, because it signified that they were qualified to be a registered elementalist.
The five year time period was the longest time limit that the Induction Ground was capable of giving. In reality, Ai Hui only had four years to do this because of another one of the Induction Ground’s rules, which was that once any student exceeds the age of twenty, they had to leave the Induction Ground.
There wasn’t much time for him, so if he still wanted to grasp his fate, he had to work even harder.
If it was too petty, then he had to work harder than hard.
The sun behind the horizon brightly dyed the sky, fusing with the cold blue, and reflecting within the air. After tidying up his things, he took a stalk of grass and put it in his mouth. Carrying his old cloth bag, he walked out of the training hall’s entrance towards the open blue sky filled with red clouds.
The streets in the early morning were not as clamorous as the daytime, nor brightly lit like the nighttime. The streets were very peaceful, as if they had not awakened. The first strand of sunshine crossed through numerous hills and rivers, penetrating through roofs and casting the first rays of color on the streets.
Ai Hui liked sunshine.
In the Savage Territories, the early morning was always the most dangerous of moments. Sneak attacks usually happened then, it was a time when death and blood were at its peak.
But when sunshine had fully passed through the dewdrops on the grass, savage beasts and the barbarian tribes would retreat like the parting tide. The slaughter filled Savage Territories became peaceful under the sunshine.
The school building wasn’t really too far away from the training hall, but it wasn’t near either.
As he got closer and closer to the school building, there were more and more students. The bustling crowd was extraordinarily strange to Ai Hui. Their young faces were brimming with vitality and hopes for the future. Ai Hui was somewhat envious, there was not the least bit of blood soaked great changes he had to go through, he could not see any precaution stemmed from experiencing massacres towards the outside world.
They were pure, unblemished and young.
Ai Hui felt that he was incompatible. He used more force to chew on the grass, allowing the unripe grassy flavor spread in his mouth.
To them, the Induction Ground was a school, for him, the Induction Ground was his new battlefield.
To him, surviving was more important than making happy memories.
He took a step forward and entered the school building.
Much thanks.
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