Chapter 55 - 36: Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword

Chapter 55: Chapter 36: Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword

Early morning at Xuanzhen Temple. Li Yinsheng pushed open the door and stepped into the Scripture Pavilion.

Junior Sister Mu’s screams last night had been absolutely miserable.

Li Yinsheng hadn’t expected that the Magic Technique left behind by that senior Daoist—designed to enhance the Qingxuan Divine Light’s effects of Washing Marrow and Cleansing Veins—would be so incredibly potent. He had only experimented with it slightly, yet it had multiplied the efficiency of the Qingxuan Divine Light’s Washing Marrow and Cleansing Veins several times over.

Naturally, the corresponding pain had increased by the exact same margin. That was why his junior sister’s screams had been so tragic, and why she firmly refused to continue Washing Marrow. After all, he had initially promised her that Washing Marrow and Cleansing Veins would become progressively less painful, but this session had hurt significantly more than even her very first time.

Li Yinsheng could only sigh and reflect that technological progress truly wasn’t something everyone could easily accept.

To coax her into persevering, he had no choice but to promise that as long as she finished this session of Washing Marrow and Cleansing Veins, she could sleep in for half an hour this morning. He figured that if he enticed her a few more times this way to get her through the most agonizing early stages of this upgraded process, he could revert to his old tactics. He would gently persuade Junior Sister Mu, telling her that the most painful phase had truly passed and that giving up now would be a massive loss, so she might as well stick with it.

However, Washing Marrow and Cleansing Veins required steady perseverance; it could not be rushed. Pondering his future daily plans for his junior sister’s regimen, Li Yinsheng made his way up to the second floor of the Scripture Pavilion.

The temple’s absolute best Cultivation Techniques and Magic were kept on the Third Layer, but the Cultivation Technique his Martial Uncle had recommended was on the second floor. Most of the Magic stored here was extremely practical and had its merits, but compared to the collection on the Third Layer, it was undoubtedly a tier lower. Had his Martial Uncle not recommended it, he would have definitely gone straight to the Third Layer to find a relatively simple Magic for his junior sister to practice.

Walking over to a bookshelf in the corner, he pulled out an ancient, yellowed manual.

"Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword..." Li Yinsheng nodded. "This is the one."

After flipping through it for a moment, he nodded slightly. This Magic was indeed excellent. Even though it was Sword Cultivation Magic, it was compatible with most Cultivation Techniques and did not require one’s Main Cultivation Technique to be a Sword Dao Technique.

Its cultivation method and effects were straightforward and unadorned. In battle, the user simply unleashed a Sword Light to slash at the enemy in a direct, head-on attack. The reason it was named "Light-Splitting" was that as one’s mastery of the Magic deepened, a single swing of the sword would unleash an ever-increasing number of Sword Lights.

The "Yin Yang" aspect referred to the fact that every time a cultivator doubled the number of Sword Lights, the power of each individual Sword Light would also proportionately increase.

For example, when this Magic was first mastered, it could only emit a single Sword Light, the power of which was slightly inferior to the White Blade Skill. But once cultivated to the point where two Sword Lights could be released simultaneously, each individual beam carried nearly the same might as the White Blade Skill. Firing both at once made it an attack the White Blade Skill couldn’t hope to match.

As proficiency improved further, allowing four Sword Lights to be slashed out in one strike, a single Sword Light would be thirty percent stronger than the White Blade Skill, to say nothing of the devastation caused by all four striking at once. According to what his Martial Uncle had told him, and as recorded in the manual, cultivating to the level of four Sword Lights was not difficult. Even someone with average aptitude could achieve it with three to five years of dedicated practice.

Beyond that, however, the next leap in power required the ability to unleash eight Sword Lights simultaneously, which demanded many years of arduous training. The qualitative change after that would only come at sixteen Sword Lights, followed by thirty-two, sixty-four, and so on.

Therefore, most people who practiced this Sword Technique did not stubbornly pursue it to the end. While the power increases were massive at later stages, the difficulty scaled exponentially. Moreover, it possessed a flaw that could not be ignored.

Unlike the high-burst, lethal path of "One Sword Breaks Ten Thousand Techniques" that most Sword Cultivators pursued, the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword took the complete opposite approach. Its explosive power was weak. It excelled at unleashing an endless barrage of continuous attacks but severely lacked the means to secure victory in a single decisive strike.

Li Yinsheng had never heard of a Sword Cultivator relying on chipping away at an opponent’s health during Magical Combat. The vast majority of Sword Cultivators yearned to decide the victor with one full-powered swing. Although the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword wasn’t terrible, its characteristics doomed it to be ignored by the vast majority of Sword Cultivators as their Major Cultivation Magic. Generally, they only learned it casually to round out their basic repertoire.

The reason his Martial Uncle had recommended this Sword Technique to Li Yinsheng was that she had a way to compensate for its lack of a lethal finishing move. If this shortcoming was resolved, the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword would become a practically flawless Sword Technique, worthy of being placed directly into the Scripture Pavilion’s Third Layer.

His Martial Uncle’s method of fixing this flaw was simple.

During her early years of traveling and gaining experience, she had stumbled upon a Fragment of a Superior Sword Technique. Later, expending an immense amount of effort, she had used that Fragment as a foundation to derive an incredibly potent Slaughter Sword Technique. For a very long time, that Sword Technique had been her trump card. Once unleashed, it could even instantly kill enemies whose Cultivation was higher than her own.

The only catch was that to execute this Sword Technique, one needed a massive number of Sword Lights as a base. The more Sword Lights there were, the greater the might of the Slaughter Sword Technique. Because of this, a Sword Technique capable of dividing and multiplying Sword Lights was extremely vital, and the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword was the crown jewel among such Sword Techniques.

However, writing manuals and passing down teachings was an incredibly exhausting endeavor. Back in her spirited youth, she had been too busy with cultivation and adventuring. Even when she had free time, she preferred seeking out friends for Magical Combat and sparring. Consequently, she had never bothered to compile her self-created Slaughter Sword Technique into a book to be stored in the Scripture Pavilion.

But ever since her Cultivation had been completely crippled, she had lived a secluded life. Having nothing better to do, she had long since summarized nearly everything she had ever learned.

Once Junior Sister Mu managed to cultivate the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword to the level of eight Sword Lights, she would be able to learn the basics of that Slaughter Sword Technique. While a foundation of only eight Sword Lights meant she would barely be scratching the surface of the technique, his Martial Uncle had confidently guaranteed that it would be more than enough for his junior sister to completely outclass most Cultivators at her level of Cultivation.

"We Sword Cultivators don’t have any other merits besides being strong! We can fight! We can really fight!" his Martial Uncle had once proudly declared. "We don’t even flinch when we run into a Body Cultivator!"

Holding the manual for the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword, Li Yinsheng stood in front of the bookshelf and began reading it on the spot. Although he had primarily sought it out for his junior sister to practice, he himself hadn’t learned any exceptional Magic either. In the past, all his energy had been focused on raising his Cultivation, so he had only picked up a few simple and practical Magic spells. Now that his Cultivation had skyrocketed, everything had happened too quickly for him to learn better Magic.

Since the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword was so highly praised by his Martial Uncle, he naturally had to learn it in passing. Although as a Body Cultivator he didn’t fear Sword Cultivators at all in terms of combat power, being a Sword Cultivator was just too cool!

Li Yinsheng knew his own limits. His comprehension ability was neither good nor bad; it was purely average. But he was now a Daoist. Not only did the power of his Magic increase dramatically, but learning Magic was also vastly easier than before.

After reading the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword manual without pause, Li Yinsheng raised his hand and brought two fingers together. A Sword Light materialized by his side. Although the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword was a Sword Technique, with his current Cultivation, executing it using his fingers as a substitute for a blade was hardly difficult.

A moment later, the single Sword Light split into two.

A short while after that, the two Sword Lights divided into three.

Less than half an hour later, a fourth Sword Light separated.

Li Yinsheng nodded slightly and dispersed the Sword Lights. Generating four Sword Lights—a milestone that would take ordinary Cultivators three to five years to achieve—took him less than half an hour.

However, by the same token, these current Sword Lights were practically meaningless to him. If it came down to pure power, a mere four Sword Lights couldn’t even compare to the force of him throwing two casual punches.

"Hmm, looking at the time, Junior Sister Mu should be getting up to practice now.

"Her recent progress has been good. I can try adding another ten pounds to the weight of her Quenching Essence Lock today.

"Then I’ll have her cultivate for two hours as a warm-up.

"Once she’s done warming up, I can teach her the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword.

"The Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword is quite simple for a Beginner. If she works hard enough, she might even be able to form her first Sword Light today.

"Ah, today is going to be another fulfilling day," Li Yinsheng muttered to himself as he put away the manual for the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword.