CH 225

After displaying all the moves in the Irregular Sword Manual, Shang Jian took his leave. 

Even though Shang Xia closed his eyes halfway through the demonstration, he was able to detect everything going on around him. He carved the memory of Shang Jian’s movements and the feeling of how the energy flowed deep into his mind.

Carefully running through the entire sequence in his mind, he finally opened his eyes. “What an amazing sword art!” 

Shang Xi sighed at the side, “Hah… He actually chose to impart the technique to you through his divine sense. Even with his cultivation at the large completion stage of the Martial Intent Realm, he will only be able to recover after a few months.”

Shang Xia stared at her with his eyes wide open. He didn’t expect his second uncle he hadn’t seen since his birth to assist him in such a way. However, he quickly changed the topic. “Our Shang Clan actually had an inheritance for Martial Extremity Realm cultivators. Why didn’t I know about this? Does that mean that we also have an inheritance for Martial Intent Realm experts?” 

Shang Xi shook her head and sighed, “Of course not! Well, that was probably the reason behind his departure… He left the city to search for better techniques. After he returned, he seemed to have reached the limits of whatever technique he learned. He’s currently stuck at a bottleneck and the moment he breaks through, he should be able to leave behind a complete Martial Intent Realm sword inheritance.”

“Aunt, are the both of you on good terms?” 

Nodding her head slightly, she sighed, “Our relationship was great when we were kids. Anyway, the grudges of those in our generation shouldn’t affect the next…” 

Even though Shang Xia maintained a smile on his face, his expression remained somber. He chose to remain silent about the matter.

Seeing as the situation wouldn’t change in a short period of time, Shang Xi decided to talk about something else instead. “You should be able to feel the similarity between the Irregular Sword Manual and our Shang Clan’s famous Irregular Steps. Both of them are part of the same technique. When Shang Jian left, no one in the clan was able to attain the same achievements in the Irregular Sword Manual anymore. However, the Irregular Steps became a part of our clan’s core technique.”

Shang Xia nodded in response. “Of course I realized…” 

He noticed the similarities when he comprehended the technique, and he wouldn’t dig into the details of how Shang Xi got Shang Jian to come over to teach him. He would only silently note down the grace Shang Xi had shown him.

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In the following days, Shang Xia returned to his original routine of training.

Since his cultivation had reached the peak of the Martial Extremity Realm, the amount of inner qi in his body wouldn’t increase anymore. He could only practice his sword arts and continue to create talismans.

No matter what, Shang Xia would find some time to practice creating talismans in his free time every day.

He could basically craft rank one talismans without mistakes every time now. As long as he put his mind to it, he would be able to make three of them a day!

The problem only started when he tried to craft rank two talismans. If he gave it his all, he might be able to create one a day. Of course, that was assuming he didn’t fail at any step. As long as he made a mistake, he wouldn’t be able to gather enough inner qi to make a new rank two talisman from scratch.

Regardless, talisman crafting was only a complementary art he used to increase his strength. He wouldn’t pour all his attention into it.

He would only make a few inscriptions on the talisman he was working on every day, only completing a rank two talisman every week or so.

Even though that was the case, pausing his attempts every day and picking up where he left off perfectly allowed him to hone his techniques even more. It didn’t come as a surprise when he noticed his success rate of crafting talismans increasing significantly.

Most of his time was spent on the Irregular Sword Manual.

After Shang Xia refined the third portion of Tempering Meridian Powder, his meridians could be said to have reached the limit of their durability.

With his increased ability to circulate a larger amount of inner qi, sealing his sword intent into his newly invented talismans back in the battlefield between two worlds shouldn’t be a problem.

… 

As he trained in the Irregular Sword Manual, he discovered that once he used it in conjunction with the Irregular Steps, it would display its full might.

Out of the seven sword manuals Shang Xia trained in, the Dual Interference Sword Manual could be ranked number one in terms of raw power. His River Sword Policy would come in at a close second, and the Irregular Sword Manual would be ranked third.

If he took the intricacies of each technique into consideration, the River Sword Policy would take the first spot while the Irregular Sword Manual would come next. 

After talking about the raw strength and intricacies of all his techniques, one had to mention the type of sword intent Shang Xia could comprehend behind each sword art. Surprisingly, the Quandary Manual that hadn’t been ranked among them stood the highest with the dao of life and death. However, the Irregular Sword Manual would maintain its second spot.

Of all the sword arts he trained in, the Irregular Sword Manual would consistently rank in the top three in any aspect! 

Like the Irregular Steps, the sword dao contained in the Irregular Sword Manual focused on distance. 

It seemed as though Shang Jian was an impressive swordsman indeed. He not only displayed the moves in the sword manual, he also left Shang Xia with the insights he gained. He extrapolated his knowledge and touched on the basis of manipulating the distance between the user and his target.

Just that fact alone touched on the dao of space. As such, the Irregular Steps far surpassed the Dual Interference Sword Manual and the River Sword Policy.

Back when the Shang Clan’s convoy was ambushed in the city, Shang Xia fought several promising cultivators in succession. Li Xi’s Tide Sword Manual was far from ordinary as it allowed him to comprehend a secondary sword intent, Twilight.

Hou Yuchun was also a formidable opponent. He was able to touch on the theory behind crests and throughs, eventually comprehending the dao of elevation.

It was a pity he chose to appear when Shang Xia had already lost his patience. No matter how intricate his sword intent was, it was but a speck of dust compared to Shang Xia’s fusion of six different sword intents. He didn’t manage to show off a single move before he was defeated.

To speak truthfully, out of the four cultivators, Li Xi, Ma Qi, Yang Chao, and Hou Yuchun, Hou Yuchun was the strongest of the four. It couldn’t be denied that his fighting abilities were much higher than any of the three before him. However, if Shang Xia were to give a proper evaluation, he felt that Yang Chao was the one with the highest potential.

Yang Chao’s Agile Sword Art allowed him to walk down the path of movement and stillness. Seeing the potential behind the sword art, Shang Xia even gave him some tips from his original world.

If Yang Chao understood his advice and broke through his bottleneck, Shang Xia was afraid that he would have to use his full strength when facing the man.

Coming back to the Irregular Sword Manual, Shang Xia had to say that Shang Jian’s insights were really useful. It allowed Shang Xia to cultivate with half the effort to achieve twice the effects.

The more he trained in the Irregular Sword Manual, the deeper his understanding of the dao. He recalled the insights he gained during his battle with the four cultivators of the other institutions and in a few short days, he managed to reach the large completion stage of the Irregular Sword Manual. The seventh sword in his dantian was starting to form.

The moment it was completed, Shang Xia’s Yin Yang Sword Formation would experience a huge increase in strength! That would also signify that he had reached the true limits of his cultivation realm.

Even though the dao of Yin and Yang was supposed to be limitless, Shang Xia’s cultivation was the one that stopped him from gathering more sword intents!

With his Yin Yang Essence Qi’s ability to transform into seven different pairs of qi, other Martial Extremity Realm cultivators could only be left behind in the dust.

“The Yin Yang Sword Formation doesn’t describe my martial intent well… With the formation of seven sword intents, I’ll formally change the name of my martial intent to the Seven Laceration Sword! The name implies everything. Seven sword intents are contained in one attack.”