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Dao of Healing - Chapter 31
🕑 Added 2025-01-06 13:53:20 +0000 UTC<< Chapter 30 | Index | Chapter 32 >>
The male disciple of the Soaring Sword Sect felt a gentle gust of wind on his cheek and came to a halt as his blade met another with a metallic clang. Looking up, his eyes met the gaze of the female Cloudy Falls Sect disciple. They were both equally shocked.
Xia Caihong had done the impossible. Well, not really. Though what she had managed to achieve was something very few cultivators in the Qi Gathering Realm would be able to repeat.
She had managed to comprehend a miniscule portion of the Dao of Wind. An extremely miniscule portion that would be equivalent to a single drop of water compared to an ocean when looking at the Dao of Wind as a whole, but it was still an extraordinary accomplishment nonetheless.
Time and time again, Caihong had been told that attempting to grasp the Dao before Middle-stage Foundation Building was not only impossible, but dangerous to one’s path. It could lead to cultivation deviation or even death if one tried to glimpse concepts beyond mortal understanding.
The Dao was simply too ephemeral; too vast for those without sufficient intellect and experience to attempt to ponder. Yet she had managed to do that, integrating that sliver of comprehension into her Drifting Cloud Steps.
While the core of the technique allowed one to act like clouds drifting in the sky, there were many facets of this and as cultivators advanced through the realms and their paths diverged, their own understanding and usage of the technique would shift. In Caihong’s case, she’d taken inspiration from an idle afternoon studying the clouds while struggling to progress in her cultivation.
Clouds didn’t simply drift through the sky under their own impetus. No, they were driven by an external force—the wind.
When faced with an impossible gap that she had no hope of closing, Caihong had thrown out all thoughts and followed her instincts. Instincts that had altered her technique and allowed her to momentarily increase her speed—the same way clouds could catch a sudden updraft and zoom through the skies.
All of this took quite a while to understand but in reality it happened in a single moment as her mind and body experienced enlightenment.
Needless to say, this also meant she’d achieved Polished accomplishment in the technique, but she could celebrate that later. Because while she’d succeeded in stopping her enemy’s first attack, the battle was far from over.
While he was shocked that she’d actually managed to block his attack, it didn’t make him falter. Ultimately, a dragon did not care if one of its claws was blocked. It knew that nothing would survive the second.
In this instance, he was the dragon. A two-star Qi Gathering cultivator with superior sword skills facing down against a one-star disciple who’d barely blocked his first strike.
He withdrew his blade but at the same time stepped forwards, entering her range.
It was one fluid motion that caught her by surprise. Her footing was still shaky and she was out of her depth.
There was a vast gulf between heaven and earth. A single moment of enlightenment might be enough to block one strike, but it was far from enough to win against superior talent and experience.
He knew that and he was rewarded for his boldness. His first strike smashed her sword aside and he immediately went for a second, drawing blood but not quite severing her sword-hand as she deftly dodged.
Xia Caihong even managed to return with a slash of her own, but the sword cultivator easily parried it to the side and struck back. The pressure grew and she was pushed back, every step bringing the battle closer to the man currently undergoing a breakthrough.
Caihong couldn’t help throwing nervous glances his way. There was something very odd about this breakthrough. It didn’t feel anything like the breakthroughs she’d experienced in the Body Tempering Realm, but far more complex.
However, she didn’t have much time to watch the strange breakthrough. All of her focus was on the fluid sword movements of her opponent. She just about managed to block his most recent slash, only to be forced onto the backfoot once more as a second sword almost severed her head.
The female sword cultivator had joined the fray.
Caihong had barely been holding her own against one sword cultivator, but against two it was impossible. She managed to block or parry the first few strikes from the pair but they soon broke down her guard.
It didn’t help that her intrinsic skills with the sword were far from a match for the two. Almost all the disciples from the Soaring Sword Sect were sword cultivators because… well obviously. It was in the name. That meant they spent practically all their time obsessively meditating about the true meaning of swordsmanship and practising with their blades, with the goal of becoming one with the sword and forming tangible Sword Intent.
For the true masters of the sword, going beyond and forming a Sword Heart was the pinnacle of their path. Neither of these two disciples had even achieved the first step of intent, but nonetheless they were giving Caihong a hard time.
The male disciple jumped forward as the female one deflected her sword to the side and slashed a deep wound across her thigh. Blood poured onto the dirt as she was forced to retreat, but still suffered another wound on her arm as she did.
She struggled, wondering how if she could possibly integrate her recent enlightenment into her sword style, but it was futile. One could not eat soup with chopsticks; her brief insight into the Dao of Wind was meant for her Drifting Cloud Steps alone.
Hence she found herself standing just two steps in front of her saviour. He had clearly progressed in his breakthrough. Less than thirty seconds had passed but already his body looked more… human shaped.
Despite that, Caihong knew she needed to buy even more time. Unfortunately she wasn’t sure if she had the strength to do so. Looking in the direction of her senior brother, she hoped for a miracle.
Alas, he was still battling the strongest of the three sword cultivators and it even seemed as though he was losing. She sighed, allowing her frustrations to fade away.
Whatever the outcome, she would put everything on the line. One final slash to determine both their fates.
Even if the heavens saw fit to end her life here, King Yama couldn’t judge her as a woman who hadn’t tried her utmost. Even if she couldn’t use her insights to improve the essence of her sword technique, she could still combine Drifting Cloud Steps with a sword strike.
The two sword cultivators rapidly closed in on her as she held her blade out horizontally, preparing to unleash the greatest sword slash of her life. It might be her last, so Caihong would make it her best.
There wasn’t actually much swinging involved. She only held out the blade of the sword, edge facing her enemies, as she initiated the third movement of the Drifting Cloud Steps, one that she still didn’t understand that well—Stormcloud Step.
It involved putting a great deal of qi into a single step in order to cross a distance near instantaneously. It would work perfectly as the foundation of her slash.
Xia Caihong opened her eyes and in the same instant kicked against the ground. A faint clap reminiscent of thunder echoed across the forest as her figure blurred.
What happened next was too fast for mortal eyes to see. Caihong closed the gap between her and the male disciple in an instant and her sword carved down from shoulder to hip.
His eyes opened wide in shock as he realised what had happened but it was too late. He coughed blood as the top half of his body slipped off his legs. Caihong grinned seeing that her gambit had been successful, but then she also coughed out a large amount of blood.
She looked down to see a sword poking out of her chest. While her attack had been devastating—a near instantaneous strike capable of taking even stronger foes by surprise—it effectively surrendered all defensive movements to achieve that singular purpose.
Which had left her vulnerable to her second opponent. The female sword cultivator had struck from behind and pierced her through the lung. She wasn’t dead yet, but it wouldn’t be long before she took her last breath.
She collapsed to the ground as the woman pulled out her sword, blood leaking from her chest. Her vision blurred and she felt herself dancing between life and death. Her final action was to turn her head to see if she’d bought enough time for her saviour to finish his breakthrough.
Xia Caihong lost consciousness right after seeing that his body was still bloody and damaged, the female cultivator about to slice it in two.
She had failed.
****
Wen Ai flicked her sword, the blood of the female disciple spraying the earth. Losing one of their group to a mere one-star Qi Gatherer was rather pathetic, but she had displayed exceptional skill beyond her cultivation.
As a sword cultivator she had to commend that final slash of hers, despite it being a weird fusion of a movement technique and a pure sword slash. Nonetheless, her senior brother would soon finish off the other disciple and she only needed one cut to end the life of this unfortunate guy.
Then again, he could only blame himself. What kind of idiot decided to break through in the middle of a battle, especially in a place as dangerous as the Jagged Sword Mountains middle peaks.
On the other hand, enlightenment and opportunities for advancement came rarely for cultivators. Grasping them when they arrived was an essential attribute for any cultivator who wished to reach the peak.
So she couldn’t blame this poor Body Tempering practitioner for his decision. However, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t still end his path here.
Luck was also an essential aspect of any successful cultivator and clearly this guy didn’t have much. Wen Ai raised her sword and slashed downwards, no expression on her face.
Right before the edge of her blade sliced through the disfigured body a loud THUMP echoed through the clearing.
****
I couldn’t really see—or sense, I guess—what was happening around me as I broke through to… eleven-star Body Tempering. Honestly I wanted to bite my tongue just thinking about it.
How was such a bullshit path of progression even possible? Instead of the usual way of advancement, breaking through from nine-star Body Tempering to one-star Qi Gathering by melting my spirit roots and forming a dantian, I was breaking through to a stage never before seen in the world. For the second time.
I suppose I shouldn’t be complaining. With how much excess blood essence had built up in my body the other alternative would be death.
And there was another small benefit to these excessive breakthroughs. My body was becoming far stronger, tougher, and better able to withstand spiritual energy than any other cultivator in the world. Including those elusive Nascent Soul Sages.
Now that wasn’t to say I was tougher than a Nascent Soul cultivator. Far from it. Even a peak Qi Gathering cultivator could squash me like a bug with a single finger, but when it came to the quality of my vessel? No one came close.
Well, except those with ridiculously powerful or rare physiques. Or those with a pinnacle bloodline. Or heavenly beasts… Okay, so there were probably plenty who could match me, but compared to average cultivators I was far superior.
Regardless, my focus was mostly on making sure my body didn’t collapse. Even though I was used to it by now, the pain was extreme. More agonising than anything else I’d ever experienced.
It took almost all of my conscious effort just to stop my body from collapsing into a puddle of blood and flesh. Actually, right before the breakthrough I had the presence of mind to swallow the final healing pill I’d received from City Lord Teng.
Contrary to expectations, it did absolutely nothing to aid my body in reforging itself after the breakthrough, but that wasn’t why I’d eaten it. Perhaps trying to split my focus during a breakthrough was incredibly risky, but I hadn’t become one of the greatest war doctors on Earth by being a coward.
At the same time as breaking through I was also using the medicinal energies from breaking down the healing pill to begin refining the second organ with my Fivefold Medicine Forge Physique—my stomach.
The energy in the pill was barely enough to refine five percent of my stomach, but it was still a nice distraction from the agonising pain of the breakthrough. Suddenly I heard my heart beat loudly, making me realise the process was almost complete.
After all, there was no way I could hear that without my ears which meant they must have been reformed. Unfortunately when I opened my eyes the first thing I saw was a sword descending towards my neck.
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