Rise of Humanity

by <unknown>

  The sword art she cast was sharp and intense, the golden Sword Qi curled and intertwined with the lightning, it painted a very astonishing scene, even more profound than the【Spring Thunder Swords Art】he has learned from Elder Pu.

  “Junior Martial Sister Jin’er , what sword art is this?” Zhong Yue was surprised and asked curiously.

  Qiu Jin’er was even more surprised, she said, “This is the Geng Jin Sword Qi, most of the Qi Practitioners in Swords Gate have learned this before, hasn’t senior martial brother practice it before?”

  Zhong Yue was ashamed, he was never a Qi Practitioner, how could he have the qualification to learn the Qi Practitioner leveled sword art, Geng Jin Sword Qi.

  I guess only this silly little Junior Martial Sister Jin’er couldn’t tell that I am not Qi Practitioner. Zhong Yue said in his heart.

  “Wait for a moment senior martial brother!”

  Qiu Jin’er’s soul flew back to her palace and returned moments later, bringing a sword token along with her, she smiled and said, “Senior Martial Brother Zhong, this sword token contains the art of Geng Jin Sword Qi, you only need to ‘look’ at it with your heart and feel it, then you will be able to learn it.”

  Zhong Yue accepted the sword token and his sights fixated on it, there were sword marks disorderly placed all over the sword token, it was hard to tell how would one learn the Geng Jin Sword Qi from the sword token, his brows furrowed in confusion.

  But it was not long before Zhong Yue’s heart suddenly thumped quicker, the cluttered sword marks on the sword token magnified before his eyes as if they were actual slashes of sword rays that sliced the heaven and earth in half!

  A thrust that caused the stars to fall, a slash that demarcated life from death, a slice that divided Yin and Yang from the Void!

  Another few moments later, the sword marks slowly disintegrated and within it, various kinds of marvelous totem carvings emerged, this should be where one could truly learn the Geng Jin Sword Qi!

  Zhong Yue focused his sights on the totem carvings, the more he looked at it, the quicker his heart thumped.

  The totem carvings are the medium that contain the true quintessences of the arts and techniques. Every single art and technique is derived from the fundamental permutations of the totem carvings. For example, the【Spring Thunder Swords Art】, it’s core totem is the thunder totems, Elder Pu taught me twelve different types of thunder totems and from those twelve totem carvings, formed the【Spring Thunder Swords Art】.

  He watched closely at the Geng Jin Sword Qi’s totem carvings, there were a total of thirty-six different totem carvings!

  But as he focused deeper into it, he could slowly delineate an abstruse secret about the totem carvings, they all ostensibly appeared as such on the surface, but in truth, all of the thirty-six totem carvings, were in fact, one!

  The total of thirty-six totem carvings was only ancillary to this one totem carving!

  This totem carving was like Zhong Yue’s Dragon Blood Scabbard, if you place a sword in it then it would be a sword scabbard, or if a blade then a blade scabbard.

  This totem carving was shaped like a sword totem, it was the base of all and within it were incorporated thirty-six other totem carvings which ultimately formed the Geng Jin Sword Qi visualization totem.

  If it were for the fact that he was cultivating the【Sui Sovereign Flame Order Palace Visualization Art】, allowing his soul to take the form of the Sui Sovereign which had the third eye – divine eye, he would not be able to discern the hidden sword totem carvings within the chaotic derangement of sword marks.

  “A sword art with only one totem carving?”

  Zhong Yue was perplexed, the totem carvings of the Geng Jin Sword Qi were even fewer than the simple【Spring Thunder Swords Art】!

  The【Spring Thunder Swords Art】was the art that the upper house disciples can only learn while the higher grades of thunderous lightning sword arts were in the hands of Lei Hu Qi Practitioners. Zhong Yue once heard Elder Pu and Ting Lanyue say before, that the Lei Hu Clan had mastered 128 thunder totem carvings!

  The common intuition of cultivation was, the greater the number of totem carvings in the arts and techniques, the stronger it would be. Under this consensus, the twelve thunder totem carvings【Spring Thunder Swords Art】would be stronger than the one totem carving Geng Jin Sword Qi. But the truth was, the more Zhong Yue studied the sword totem carving the more he could feel its immense strength, it was far more profound than the【Spring Thunder Swords Art】!

  If he combined it with the Jiao Dragon totem, it would incite an incredible phenomenon between the two and form an incisive and brutal combat art, an art that would be far stronger than the【Jiao Dragon Winding Body Totem Technique】!

  Not only that, it seemed like the sword totem can fuse with any of the other totem carvings giving him infinite possibilities in the way of cultivation!

  Geng Jin Sword Qi could be described as a boundless Sword Qi, there are no limits to it! With this Sword Qi, I can travel the world without fear!

  Zhong Yue praised it greatly in his heart, he then immersed his whole body and mind to study the sword totem, he did not even notice when Qiu Jin’er had left.

  The sword totem was too exquisite and marvelous to the point that he completely disregarded the thirty-six totems, in his eyes, only this one sword totem carving was the core, the other thirty-six totem carvings were merely accessory, it would not be necessary to practice them.

  Junior Martial Sister Jin’er left?

  Zhong Yue only stopped after his psyche and soul neared exhaustion, he said in his heart, It’s fine, I will return to her tomorrow. This sword totem is too profound, I can’t study it thoroughly alone, Junior Martial Sister Jin’er is a Qi Practitioner and she had practiced the Geng Jin Sword Qi for quite some time, she must have some precedent experiences that I can glean from.

  Qiu Jin’er’s soul returned back to her body, the palace was empty as her mother had yet to return. She tried to stand up – Pu-tong – unsurprisingly she fell down from the wooden wheelchair.

  The young maiden’s psyche moved and lifted her up from the ground and placed her back onto the wooden wheelchair.

  “Jin’er, your waist….”

  The beautiful woman stood in front of the palace, she stared blankly at Qiu Jin’er, her voice shuddered with fear, “Does it have no feeling anymore?”

  Qiu Jin’er lowered her sights, a small part of her clothes were torn as she fell to the ground, revealing the livid bruises on her waist.

  The beautiful woman’s psyche lifted Qiu Jin’er and the wooden wheelchair wholly out of the palace, she hurried and said, “We can wait no longer, I will talk to the grand elder right now, no matter how I will have him suppress the wood element in your body!”

  Qiu Jin’er’s heart thumped, she quickly answered, “Mother, can we wait until tomorrow, I will tell Senior Martial Brother Zhong and then we can go to the grand elder….”

  “Not a single second can we delay!”

  The beautiful woman brought her up to the golden summit of Swords Gate.

  The next day, when Zhong Yue arrived at the lightning zone, Qiu Jin’er was unexpectedly absent, he waited and waited but she did not appear.

  Is Junior Martial Sister Jin’er entangled with some other matters? I was just thinking of asking her the about the sword totem.

  The third day, Qiu Jin’er was still nowhere to be found, as well as on the fourth, and the days following so forth. For a long period of time, Zhong Yue no longer saw the young maiden he first spotted in the lightning.

  Chapter 46: Xiang Dragon Sword Qi |

  Junior martial sister Jin’er might not be coming here anymore.

  Zhong Yue bathed himself amidst the lightning while he played with the sword token in his hand, feeling the immensely strong power the sword token contained, he thought of the bright and sweet young maiden and his heart could not help but become slightly despondent, he thought to himself, I don’t know wh
ere she stays either, there is no way I can find her. I can only wait until I become a Qi Practitioner and enter the inner hall, then I can return her this sword token.

  Swords Gate had a strict rule on its inner hall disciples, they must be able to manifest a spirit and become a Qi Practitioner. There were numerous upper house disciples in the outer hall but only a handful of them was able to enter the inner hall.

  It was a tremendous chasm that separated the mortals and the Qi Practitioners, on one side were the ordinary mortals while at the other side stood the strong and supernatural Qi Practitioners.

  “The power in the sword token is not bad at all, this should be the most profound art within Swords Gate.”

  Xin Huo was finally awake, the little flame leaped out from the Dragon Scale Sword, he stood on the sword and was the same size as Zhong Yue’s soul, they were both small and little with the height of an inch tall.

  The two little fellas sat together, Xin Huo looked at the sword token that appeared to be huge in their eyes, he sensed the power in it and praised, “The power in it is profound, the sword totem contains an abstruse art, it is still beyond what you can comprehend.”

  Zhong Yue’s soul was in the Sui Sovereign dragon-headed human form, he sat in the lotus position with the lightning continuously refining his soul, he nodded and agreed, “I’ve also noticed the art in the sword token, but as it is meant for the Qi Practitioners, I can’t fully understand it.”

  “The Qi Practitioners of the Swords Gate can fully study this sword totem?”

  Xin Huo was shocked and said, “To be able to study and fully understand this sword totem requires high intelligence and perceptions. Even the innate spirit body could only understand 40-50% of it, it seems like there are indeed strong and formidable Qi Practitioners in the Swords Gate!”

  Zhong Yue was puzzled, he mumbled to himself, But didn’t junior martial sister Jin’er said that most of the Qi Practitioners have all learned it before? Then why is that the Geng Jin Sword Qi is so difficult to learn in Xin Huo’s opinion?

  He was confused, but what he did not know was that Qiu Jin’er was referring to the thirty-six totem carvings in the sword token rather than the one sword totem he saw.

  “This sword art is known as Geng Jin Sword Qi? What a name!”

  Xin Huo was perplexed, he gazed at the sword art in the sword totem, he then told Zhong Yue, “Techniques－arts and skills, one art and the other skill. Arts are the foundation of a martial artist, they are the ways they cultivate on. On the other hand, skills are the extraneous manifestations of that foundation that would turn its prowess into focused strength and power. That’s why they are called skills! What are skills? Why would the skills have the character denoting gate in it?”

  Zhong Yue listened as he spoke, it then dawned on him as he surmised, “The gate is a gateway! The human body house the prowess and it would need a medium and a conduit to unleash its strength, hence the skills!”

  Xin Huo nodded and praised Zhong Yue, “Precisely, the name of the Swords Gate hid an abstruse meaning in it. But sadly, only a few Swords Gate Qi Practitioners are able to understand the hidden secret of the name, most of them just obtusely practiced the skills of swords without knowing what they are practicing and for what purpose. This sword totem contains an art and skill in and of itself, the art would require the successful manifestation of spirit but the skill is rather easier, simply merge it with the other totem carvings and you will be exposed to limitless permutations of skills, no one would ever know the true skill you practice. Strange, is this really practiced by every Swords Gate Qi Practitioners?”

  Even with his broad scope of knowledge as one who lived all the way back from the time of the Flame Order Sui Sovereign Era to the Human Sovereign Era, Xin Huo was still quite puzzled.

  Zhong Yue was disappointed as he said, “If I hadn’t manifested the spirit then I can’t practice it?”

  “Only when you have manifested your spirit can you glean the quintessence of the technique, to absorb the energy from nature, heaven, and the earth and manifest them into Swords Qi. But this is only the way an ordinary Qi Practitioner practices the techniques!”

  Xin Huo sat at the edge of the sword blade, his two legs swung back and forth in the air as he said proudly, “But the Xin Huo inheritors are different, they are unfettered by such restrictions, although you aren’t truly a Xin Huo inheritor, nonetheless, I would need your help to search for a pure-blood Fuxi celestial race. Hence, your prowess must not be too low otherwise I would lose all face. I will now show you the quintessence of this sword skill and let you have a preview of it.”

  A hologram shot out from the little flame’s eyes and a screen curtain slowly appeared, it showed all the little nuances and the quintessence of the sword token.

  Zhong Yue’s third eye, the divine eye opened and he cast his gaze at the sword totem, he was able to use the divine eye with his soul in the Sui Sovereign form. Zhong Yue noticed that he could see things deeper and more insightfully with the third eye.

  This was also how he had noticed the sword totem hidden behind the other thirty-six sword totems.

  In his eyes, the totem carvings were getting clearer, from afar it seemed like a sword gate, a gate that was shaped like a sword while within it was contained Sword Qi.

  The gate was getting bigger, larger, taller and higher; turning even more imposing and majestic.

  All of a sudden, carvings like dragons appeared on the surface of the gate, it was the totem carvings of the sword totem!

  The sword totem was a totem carving itself, but who knew its structure would be so complex as it was a totem carving formed by countless totem carvings.

  Zhong Yue stared at it, the totem carvings were like dragons and pythons coiling around the gate, the aura they gave off was quaint and ancient!

  Gradually, the sword gate before him grew to a thousand feet tall while Zhong Yue was as tiny as a little flame of an inch high in comparison; but even with the sword gate appearing a million feet tall in his eyes, the enlarged totem carvings retained the same level of complexity!

  The actual structure of the totem carvings was unfathomably complex!

  Even if they are so complex, it is still way easier than the Sui Sovereign.

  Zhong Yue gazed at the sword gate without the slightest thought of retracing his gaze, he had seen techniques even harder than this; the【Sui Sovereign Flame Order Palace Visualization Art】bestowed upon him by Xin Huo was one such example!

  【Sui Sovereign Flame Order Palace Visualization Art】... that was even more complex than this sword totem, its complexity was beyond his imagination!

  Although he had been cultivating the【Sui Sovereign Flame Order Palace Visualization Art】, he could only roughly visualize it. The Flame Order Palace, Fire Tree and Sui Sovereign, he still could not fully visualize the details of the totem carvings.

  In order to fully visualize the【Sui Sovereign Flame Order Palace Visualization Art】, it was a vast and mighty challenge, tens of times harder than the sword gate before him, he would need an unearthly strong and formidable psyche to visualize the entirety of the【Sui Sovereign Flame Order Palace Visualization Art】.

  With the current psyche in his psyche ocean of three thousand mus, mustering all his psyche could probably allow him to visualize a pinky of the Sui Sovereign in the unblemished state!

  “Actually … En, the fundamental of this Geng Jin Sword Qi, is also visualization.”

  Xin Huo was resentful towards the name ‘Geng Jin Sword Qi’, he thought that the name was an insult to such a profound technique. Unwillingly he instructed, “Form a sword gate in your psyche ocean and nourish the Sword Qi in it, but not all by your psyche, but the energy from the heaven and earth, the world, and the planet. If you have a spirit, you can extract Gold Qi from metallic items, Wood Qi from the trees, Water Qi from the oceans, and Fire Qi from the Sun, manifesting them into your own Sword Qi, rather than having it only as the Geng Jin Sword Qi. But you don’t h
ave a spirit in you yet, it is impossible for you to extract the Sword Qi from the world.”

  “Abstracting energy from the world to form the Sword Qi?”

  Zhong Yue was envious and admired the Qi Practitioners, he said, “Even a commonly practiced sword skill is so strong, the Swords Gate is really amazing. Xin Huo, without the spirit, I really can’t do it?”

  Xin Huo said proudly, “You can’t abstract energies from the world to form a Sword Qi, but you have the essence of the beast god. They are energies abstracted by the beast god, as long as you can master the beast god essence, you can form a beast Sword Qi.”

  “Beast Sword Qi? What kind of weird name is this?”

  “It is basically a Sword Qi from the Xiang Dragon.”

  Xin Huo thought for a moment and he said, “It is indeed a weird name, we shall then call it the Xiang Dragon Sword Qi. You can form the Xiang Dragon Sword Qi from the essence of the beast god inner core. Now, visualize the sword gate and perfect it, then absorb the beast god essence and place them into the sword gate.”

  Zhong Yue blinked and asked, “Xin Huo, is there anything I need to be aware of?”

  “None at all, rest assured, I promise you will be safe….”

  Moments later, Zhong Yue’s soul was engulfed by the beast god essence, he turned into a Xiang Dragon standing in the midst of lightning, getting struck, burned and spurting out black fumes. A pair of furious eyes stared fiercely at Xin Huo.

  “Um … It seems like it is indeed a little bit dangerous.”

  Xin Huo was diffident, he whispered, “But not very dangerous, just be a little bit more cautious.”

  Zhong Yue spent another half a day to refine the excessive beast god essence and reverted his soul back to the Sui Sovereign form. He formed the sword gate with his psyche and cautiously, he absorbed the beast god essence into the sword gate.

  After over ten days, he was finally able to form the Xiang Dragon Sword Qi, it was five feet long and shaped like a sprinting Xiang Dragon, with sharp edges and a wild, brutal aura!