True Solution of the Sword Dao

Lin Fei stood silently in the distance, while Ye Yuhua’s face also settled into calmness, looking at him with a hint of irony as if to see what he could do.

Lin Fei began to slowly recall all the swordsmanship he had learned thus far.

The fragmented sword moves from Yan Shi were of no use here; he had once used tassels to defend, but was still killed by the second sword instantly. As for offensive moves like the Sword Heart Chain and the like, they dissipated as quickly as snow in the sun before he could even get close, neutralized and extinguished by countless Sword Qi.

Basic Sword Techniques were merely precise strikes at acupoints after getting close.

The moves from Dragon-Intent Swordsmanship and Yuan Yue’s heritage swordsmanship were not suitable either, as they belonged to close combat swordsmanship.

The Heavenly Net Bright Moon Sword, the sword technique relied on by Yuan Yicheng. He had only learned the first move, and then he had only studied and understood the rest without practice. But the first move was indeed truly mastered.

Lin Fei’s eyes flickered as if he had thought of something.

Heavenly Net Bright Moon Sword used nodal points as the means of attack. Perhaps he could...

Lin Feipeng calmly pressed his hand on the hilt of the Black Demon Sword. He had not yet reached the level of Yuan Yicheng in terms of harnessing the True Force network, but he could still condense a single nodal point.

The Black Demon Sword suddenly unsheathed.

With a hiss, a silver semicircular arc lit up in front of him.

"Bright Moon One."

In the center of the arc, an invisible diamond-shaped True Force nodal point instantly formed and, under Lin Fei’s control, flew piercingly towards Ye Yuhua. He did not have the subsequent nodal points that formed an automatic traction network, but he could control this one himself.

The diamond-shaped node, the size of a fist and extremely fast, flew towards Ye Yuhua.

Her expression chilled, and she lightly raised her bare hand.

"Starshine! Insight!"

A silver light ball flew directly from her sword tip, trailing a long silver tail, colliding head-on with the True Force nodal point.

Boom!!

A loud bang echoed, and the entire space vibrated.

The True Force nodal point of the Heavenly Net Bright Moon Sword and the silver light ball annihilated each other, the explosive force scattering the True Force of the remaining nodal points. Clearly, the nodal point was still somewhat stronger.

Although he did not achieve a hit, Lin Fei seemed to have found a key, and his figure suddenly disappeared.

Hiss hiss hiss!!! He kept reappearing from all directions, with silver arcs lighting up in succession.

Multiple True Force nodal points rapidly pierced towards Ye Yuhua from different directions.

Ye Yuhua’s face hardened with frost as she continuously produced groups of silver light balls to neutralize each True Force node. The pure True Force was far less condensed and powerful than her Sword Qi, but the single strands of True Force that constituted the nodes contained the absolute secret sword techniques of the Heavenly Net Bright Moon Sword. Their power was not to be underestimated and naturally carried a slight pulling force. After all, this was one of the four strongest sword techniques of the Siyue Sword Sect, another world’s dominant power. And it also matched Lin Fei’s speed maneuver from the Tracing Shadow Sword Art.

The thing that troubled Ye Yuhua the most was not that the True Force nodes were difficult to counter, but rather that these nodes were not all equally strong. Most of them were just a facade and could be shattered with a light hit. However, occasionally a True Force node would pop up that was so powerful it had to be countered with full force. This unpredictability, with absolutely no control over the situation, made her so frustrated she felt like vomiting blood. Her attention could not be the slightest bit distracted, as a single misjudgment in the moment of contact with a True Force node meant she had to react, but after a few such instances, Ye Yuhua finally suffered a wound on her left shoulder from one of the nodes, and crimson blood soaked through her green gauze dress. Afterwards, she dared not continue like this, and had to counter each node with enough force to shatter the strongest node.

As a result, her consumption was far greater than Lin Fei’s. In terms of cultivation level, Lin Fei was still at the First Phase of True Force, while she was at the True Qi Realm. Although the cultivation techniques they practiced were worlds apart, the Foundation Cultivation Technique from the Sword Dao True Solution by Zhang Yuan of Jue Xian Sect—an ability almost on par with the Sword Canon creation—was naturally far superior to the Stellar Domain Foundation Qi Cultivation Technique practiced by Ye Yuhua.

However, she and Lin Fei were ultimately separated by a whole realm. To counter Sword Dao with Sword Qi, such a qualitative difference was actually still being suppressed. Ye Yuhua couldn’t imagine what kind of sect could possess such a formidable cultivation technique.

Of course, if Lin Fei had only practiced a common foundation cultivation technique rather than Zhang Yuan’s self-created Qi cultivation Chapter, then his True Force density and intensity, even if conflated into nodes at the maximum amount his body could muster, would not be able to negate Ye Yuhua’s casual True Qi. Regrettably, Lin Fei happened to be a fusion of several legacies.

Hiss!

A speck of crimson splashed.

Ye Yuhua clutched at her throat, her face filled with disbelief. Almost all of her gauzy dress was soaked with fresh blood.

"He-heh..."

The pierced throat emitted a wheezing sound.

Ye Yuhua collapsed to the ground with a thud, breathless.

She was drenched in sweat, almost exhausted to death by Lin Fei. The Qi Cultivation Technique and the total amount of True Force from Zhang Yuan were far superior to that of ordinary Technique Decisions, and after Ye Yuhua converted her True Force into Sword Qi, the quantity was greatly reduced. Drawn into such a feint-heavy tactic, she quickly felt powerless as the fight dragged on even a little longer. Her defeat was therefore inevitable.

Lin Fei’s figure suddenly appeared in front of Ye Yuhua.

The prompts for the two choices resounded in his mind once again.

"Choice one," Lin Fei softly recited. He was unable to select the second option. At the current stage, he could only afford to revive one person. Therefore, even if he wished to revive Ye Yuhua, it was impossible.

"Defeated: Ye Yuhua, stellar domain elite disciple, adept in high-level Sword Techniques: Star Shattering Sword Art, Luo Yu Sword Art, Skywalking Step. Due to the Sword Master’s choice to inherit swordsmanship options. You may choose to directly inherit one high-level Sword Technique, or two intermediate-level Sword Techniques, or three low-level Sword Techniques."

The prompt from the Sword Canon sounded appropriately.

Lin Fei hadn’t expected that the first option could be further divided into several choices.

Streams of information flowed into his mind.

"Ye Yuhua is adept in high-level Sword Techniques.....Intermediate-level Sword Techniques: Illusion Star Sword Art, Flowing Water Sword Art. Low-level Sword Techniques: Spring Water Sword, Falling Leaves Sword, Seeking Crane Sword...." followed by a string of densely packed names of various Sword Techniques. Ye Yuhua’s reputation as an elite disciple seemed well-deserved. Moreover, she was obviously a commoner elite who had climbed up from the bottom step by step. The hundreds of Sword Technique names made it easy to imagine Ye Yuhua’s initial efforts and sacrifices.

Lin Fei decisively chose the Star Shattering Sword Art. What he needed most now was a Sword Technique suitable for himself; as for other intermediate and low-level Sword Techniques, perhaps they could be used as a foundation for training new recruits in the Swordsmanship Club in the future. But not now.

The relevant information for the Star Shattering Sword Art instantly poured into his mind.

Star Shattering Sword Art: consists of the Sword Techniques part and the Qi Cultivation part, split into four major Realms—Comet, Planet, Star, and Star Shattering. Each Realm has three layers. According to the introduction of the Qi Cultivation part, it was originally the Clan’s Core Technique of a small sect. After the founder of the Star Shattering Sword Art acquired it, he became incredibly powerful with this relatively high-level Cultivation Technique, on top of his already peak sword skills. When his Cultivation Level became profound, he then collected countless Qi Cultivation Techniques and modified the original Cultivation Technique into the current, more complete and perfect Qi Cultivation Technique. However, since Lin Fei already had a better Qi Cultivation Technique, he didn’t need it and only needed to consult the Sword Techniques part.

Based on the Realm divisions, Ye Yuhua was an elite disciple about to break through to the Planet Level, but she was just about to, as a real stellar domain powerhouse of the Planet Level wouldn’t need to use the first move as a buildup, and could directly execute the second move—the move that instantly vanquished Lin Fei multiple times.

The described swordsmanship in the Star Shattering Sword Art, as well as the routes propelled by True Force, were all high-explosive in nature. They were highly concentrated and didn’t require much delay to execute. This perfectly suited the current Lin Fei, making up for his biggest weakness—attack intensity.

But Lin Fei’s biggest gain wasn’t this; it was something even more critical—the Sword Imbuing Technique.

It allowed one to fuse countless longswords into their body and continuously forge and merge them with True Force and True Qi to form a longsword that was completely their own. The Sword Imbuing Technique, which is the most basic accompanying sword training method in the stellar domain within the Star Shattering Sword Art. According to the introduction, almost every Sword Cultivator knows this Technique. The Star Shattering Sword Art, as a whole, naturally included its own unique Sword Imbuing Technique. This is a Technique capable of absorbing numerous materials and longswords to fuse into the most suitable longsword for oneself. Its name is simple, known as the Star Imbuing Art.

But it directly addressed a problematic issue for Lin Fei.

He was always concerned that without a longsword in hand, his strength would be greatly reduced. Although it might not matter against weaker opponents, the discrepancy would become very apparent against equally strong masters. After all, his entire strength was built upon the basis of wielding a sword. Many moves were designed with a sword in hand. Without a longsword, moves that previously had very few flaws would become riddled with vulnerabilities. His power dropping by ten percent was an understatement; it would be over half. In other words, his current peak of C-rank strength would plummet to the initial stage of C-rank. Such a significant difference was undoubtedly unacceptable to Lin Fei.

But now with the Star Imbuing Art, everything had a very good solution.

However, the very first sentence of the Star Imbuing Art directly put a halt to Lin Fei’s current aspirations.

"The foundation of this Sword Art lies in Sword Qi, with Sword Qi being the Essence Qi of the sword. One must absorb the Essence Qi of a sword until the precious sword turns into an ordinary longsword, using this as the basis to cultivate the sword embryo." In other words, this Technique could only be practiced upon reaching the Second Realm, the True Qi Realm, because only in the True Qi Realm could one emit Sword Qi.

Regardless, Lin Fei’s biggest issue was ultimately remedied. The essence of the first choice was that it allowed the Sword Master to directly obtain everything Ye Yuhua had cultivated, meaning Lin Fei had the same proficiency in the Sword Techniques that Ye Yuhua was capable of using.

Standing within the white space, Lin Fei gently raised the Black Demon Sword.

"Starshine!"

Hisss!

A silvery orb flashed by, and countless silvery sword glows burst outward. Without the True Qi Realm’s Cultivation Level, Lin Fei’s Starshine resulted in this effect.

After the myriad silvery, comet-like sword glows scattered, they exploded in an instant as Lin Fei’s sword was raised.

The countless silvery comet trails transformed into numerous silvery stardust and then swiftly converged onto the tip of Lin Fei’s sword, forming a dazzling silvery point of light.

Whoosh!

The entire space within dozens of meters trembled under the influence of that one sword.

Clang!

Lin Feipeng held the longsword up high, its blade violently trembling due to the sudden exertion of force.

"Within a radius of dozens of meters, only one sword is needed for illumination and extinction." The cold light clearly reflected Lin Fei’s face. "What a domineering sword method!" A trace of blood slowly dripped from the corner of his mouth. (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)