The Eternal Soaring Sword

Chapter 3 - Eternal Destiny

The path of cultivation: strengthening the body, sensing spiritual energy, damping the blood. Build a foundation to form a spirit core step by step and finally break the spirit core to form a newborn soul. When the core breaks into a newborn soul, there will be a sign. The more solid the foundation, the more likely one is to become immortal. Just a few dozen words for Spirit Detecting Realm, Blood Movement Realm, Spirit Transformation Realm, Foundation Realm, Spirit Core Realm, Nascent Soul Realm. Ye Wuyou was worried that Jiuge would look too far ahead, so he ignored the next realm.

The Sanskrit Heart Sutra that Zhao Jiuge had obtained was divided into two volumes. The first volume was the main cultivation method of the Sanskrit Heart Sutra. Since the creation of the world, everything has spiritual energy—not only humans, all living beings can cultivate. His method was to detect natural spiritual energy and absorb it to strengthen one's body. The second volume of the Sanskrit Heart Sutra is to cultivate one's body. Legend has it that once you reach the top, the body will not be damaged by any spell.

After Zhao Jiuge finished reading, he carefully kept it. He had learned that this continent was called the Huaxia Dynasty. A human being would not be able to walk across all the mountains and rivers of the Huaxia Dynasty.

To the east of the Huaxia Dynasty was an endless sea. To the south was the forbidden land, the Southern Barbarian Forest, which was filled with poisonous insects. Even strong cultivators were unable to escape from this place alive. To the west was the cultivation holy land, where various large and small sects were located. The northern part was connected to another continent, but it had been a long time since someone returned from there. The northern part is even more mysterious than the Southern Barbarian Forest — legend says that only a few immortal beings went there a few thousand years ago.

Zhao Jiuge took a deep breath and looked around the stone cave. He was ready to follow the cultivation method his teacher had left behind and open the cultivation door. If he couldn't detect spiritual energy, wouldn't that mean he had treasures he couldn't use? Seeing the sun rising outside the cave, Zhao Jiuge's mood became clear and he began to take his first steps onto the path of cultivation.

He sat down cross-legged and calmed his mind. He cleared his mind and found a ball of light in his mind. All he had to do was use the cultivation method within the spirit seed to cultivate spiritual energy.

He looked for the Sanskrit Heart Aura that his teacher had left in his mind and something appeared. A six foot tall golden light curtain appeared in his mind and extremely small golden words appeared in the light curtain. These golden words were small but looked like they were carefully carved. Next to it are some blurry images—it is a mantra from the Sanskrit Heart Sutra.

He had to use the Sanskrit Heart Sutra to control the spirit seeds and try to use it to penetrate his meridians into this dantian to complete a larger cycle. Only then could one be considered to have entered the Spirit Detection Realm. Then repeat the larger cycle to absorb more spiritual energy. Once the spiritual energy in the body became sufficiently dense, one would enter the Blood Movement Realm. At that time, one's blood would become different—it would be filled with spiritual energy.

Zhao Jiuge tried many times until he finally controlled the spirit seed and pushed it forward a centimeter before he stopped. After that, no matter how much he tried, he could not push it forward anymore.

Zhao Jiuge spent half a day like this. He was covered in sweat and his chest was going up and down. His brows furrowed and his eyes were filled with doubt. Could it be that there was too little spiritual energy for him to be pushed into his meridians?

Zhao Jiuge decided to leave the cave every morning to exercise and strengthen his body in the mountains. Then, at night, he would return to the cave and control the spiritual energy in an attempt to push it through his meridians.

On the morning of the next day, when the day had just brightened, Zhao Jiuge walked out of the cave with his hunting knife and entered the beautiful green mountain. He looked at the tree that was thicker than his own waist and started slashing at it. Soon, he was covered in sweat.

In order to detect spiritual energy and complete a full cycle, Zhao Jiuge endured his fatigue as he cut down the tree. After he cut down one tree, he moved on to the next. After sunset, he had cut down a dozen trees and went to bathe near the waterfall before returning to the cave. Ignoring her aching body, she sat cross-legged and forced herself to calm down. He then began to study the spirit seeds in his mind.

It took him a long time to control the spirit seed, and he spent a lot of effort to move it a little. Zhao Jiuge sighed, but he did not despair. He felt that it would not take long for him to reach the Spirit Detecting Realm.

Day after day, Zhao Jiuge continued to train his body in the mountains during the day and spent his nights fighting to control the spirit seeds. Everything was going as Zhao Jiuge expected and he was making progress day by day. However, after ten days or so, no matter how much he tried, he was unable to increase the spiritual energy within him for several days.

At first, Zhao Jiuge thought he wasn't training his body hard enough, so he went from cutting down trees to standing on a horse under a waterfall. The water falls from a cliff more than 100 meters above it. The impact was already strong, and on top of that, he defended his horses. After all, Zhao Jiuge was just a 12-year-old boy — lucky he had built up the foundation of his body in the past half month.

When the waterfall hit Zhao Jiuge's body, the water was so cold that it was like being pricked by a needle. After holding it for a day, he dragged his tired body back to the cave.

As time slowly passed, the spirit seed did not move at all, and he gradually became anxious. He became agitated, and fatigue finally caught up with him, causing him to lose control. Zhao Jiuge looked at the ground with a look of loss on his face, his eyes filled with confusion and anxiety. 

However, he was filled with unwillingness more than anything else. A mountain village boy has just experienced his only relative's separation, experienced the murder of the person he hates most, and experienced a magical encounter. However, now he was suffering from the pain of having a cultivation method but was unable to use it.

After days of loneliness and bitterness, he could not help but think about his grandfather and teacher, whom he had just met, and ended up crying. After crying for a while, Zhao Jiuge felt tired and decided to leave cultivation until tomorrow. He dried his eyes, though they became a little red from crying. There were still a few drops of tears left on his handsome face.

Just as he was about to sleep, Zhao Jiuge saw something from the corner of his eye, and it shocked him. The surroundings were covered in golden specks of light—even the mountain outside the cave was different.

Every strand of grass and tree became very clear. Some plants have dense spiritual energy and some have almost nothing. Zhao Jiuge's shock turned into excitement and he started laughing with tears still in the corner of his eyes. "Haha, I can detect spiritual energy, I can detect spiritual energy!" Although he did not know how such a strange thing happened, now he was able to cultivate. Zhao Jiuge was so happy that he forgot how to talk.

After detecting the spiritual energy in the surroundings, Zhao Jiuge immediately activated the Sanskrit Heart Sutra. The surrounding spiritual energy quickly gathered towards the spirit seeds in his body, causing the spiritual energy in his body to become denser and turning it into spirit power.

He continued to direct spirit power into his meridians. As the spiritual energy gathered, the spirit power from the spirit seed continued to move through his meridians. With spiritual energy to replenish itself, this process was not as difficult as before. Immediately, his spirit power approached his dantian. The path was filled with indentations, and the further, the more difficult it became. Finally, in the end, the entire meridian pathway for the larger cycle was opened.

The path that opened was like a circular flow, and the spiritual energy that turned into spirit power was like water in a river. It continued to flow through his meridians.

This meant that Zhao Jiuge had finally entered the cultivation door and reached the early stages of the Spirit Detecting Realm. Right now, the spiritual energy in his body was extremely thin, but now he only needed to continue practicing the Sanskrit Heart Sutra to absorb the spiritual energy into his body and transform his body. Once he gathered enough spiritual energy, he would enter the Blood Movement Stage.

After completing the larger cycle, Zhao Jiuge had a wide smile on his face and was filled with excitement. All the loss he felt before was gone. Even the world outside the cave looked different.The blue ceiling, white clouds, mountains, rivers, trees, and the exclamation of insects were all so clear to him.

According to the jade tube his teacher left behind, Zhao Jiuge decided to cultivate in the mountains as he traveled through them to reach the outside world. The deeper he went into the mountains, the denser his spiritual energy became. Even in a small mountain village, everything depended on strength, and the outside world would be even worse. Once he had the strength, he would go look for the sect.

The beginning had been this difficult, and it took him a long time to figure it out. The further he walked down this path, the more difficult it became, and without anyone teaching him, he would face many detours. Zhao Jiuge also remembered what his teacher had said about the Carefree Valley. Although he did not know what it was now, he believed that once he was strong enough, he would be able to find it. It was not even possible for him to one day stand on the high heavens.

He took out a hunting knife and tied his bag behind his back. He looked at the cave, where he met his teacher, where his life had changed, before he walked out and walked into the mountains. He traveled during the day and found a large tree at night, where he developed the Sanskrit Heart Sutra. The more he did this, the more familiar he was with the action.

Zhao Jiuge thought that this was just the beginning. There was also a Sanskrit Sacred Body that was not yet qualified for him to practice. The internal and external cultivation methods of the Sanskrit Heart Sutra reflect and complement each other. There was no concept of time in the mountains; days passed one by one as his strength increased. His movements were now faster and lighter.

His spiritual energy had involuntarily become denser than it originally was, and he had finally reached the mid stage of the Spirit Detecting Realm. The increase in cultivation level made Zhao Jiuge crave more power, and he spent more time absorbing spiritual energy. He didn't feel it was boring at all.