Sword Breathing

Chapter 99 Sword Breathing

His Qi cultivation progressed steadily, but his body refinement, which had slowed down as he entered the later stages of body refinement, was progressing at a slower pace.

Now, due to the cultivation of spirit, the progress has accelerated a bit. After exchanging some body-refining spiritual items at the Inner Affairs Hall, perhaps in a month or two, I can make another step forward.

Thinking of this, Lu Yang was overjoyed. After all, what could be more enjoyable than improving one's cultivation level?

Lu Yang's smile widened as his gaze fell upon the Returning Flow Puppet Technique. After half a month of studying it, Lu Yang could now be considered to have entered the realm of the Returning Flow Puppet Technique.

After all, it is a skill, and it is much simpler than the Refining Spirit by Returning to the Flow.

In fact, puppetry is a technique that uses one's own soul, spiritual power, restrictions, and array patterns as a link to control objects that lack independent intelligence or have their intelligence sealed, so that they can fight, explore, protect, and work on one's behalf.

This object can be the corpse of a living being, the shell of a monster, a mechanical construct, etc.

It was much grander than the puppetry Lu Yang had imagined. After all, it was one of the hundred arts of cultivation, and it had its own essence.

Puppets are not living beings, but merely controlled tools. They have no consciousness, so they need to be controlled by spirit and restrained by divine power.

Yes, it's somewhat like the robots of my past life. If you don't want to drive and control them yourself, you can actually input a code like the robots of my past life and let them act according to the code.

For example, if Lu Yang wants a puppet to help with farming, he can simply imprint this piece of consciousness onto the puppet using a soul imprint method.

It's just a simple operation; even the most basic first-tier puppet can do it.

However, if Lu Yang wanted to free himself and have the puppets help him farm, he could only refine some high-level puppets. These high-level puppets could be given pseudo-intelligence and pseudo-emotions, and spells could be engraved on them, such as the Minor Cloud and Rain Spell and the Minor Seedling Spell. The puppets could then use these spells to cast spells.

At that time, automated farming will truly be possible.

After mastering the basics of puppetry, Lu Yang also understood why refining the spirit was a prerequisite, because the biggest drawback of puppetry is that it consumes spirit and energy and is vulnerable to spiritual shocks.

If one's spiritual cultivation is not profound, even if a puppet is created, it cannot be controlled.

Lu Yang can now attempt to refine some first-tier puppets, the simplest of which are wooden figures, pottery puppets, and stone puppets. After establishing a "spiritual line" connection between his divine sense and the puppets, he can command them to perform simple actions such as slashing, carrying, and guarding, but they can only perform single actions.

Even the simplest first-tier puppet requires first-tier spiritual materials to make. Lu Yang didn't have such materials on hand, so he had to go to the Spirit Plant Hall to exchange for them.

Green bamboo would be a good choice.

However, you don't necessarily have to make it yourself; you can also find it by chance.

Lu Yang took out a puppet from his storage bag.

It was the spoils obtained after killing the fierce tiger. At that time, most of the other puppet beasts were injured because of the fierce tiger's self-destruction.

Only these four puppet arrow beasts remained. These four puppet arrow beasts were all mid-grade first-level puppets, and close to high-grade, so they were of good quality.

The centaur-like appearance was unclear; it was unknown whether Li Hu had seen such beastmen before or if he had simply imagined it.

Next time, we can call him out and ask him.

Now that Li Hu is dead, Lu Yang can use puppetry to control him.

However, it doesn't mean that you can control it simply by releasing your spiritual sense.

The first stage of puppetry is "Guiding Spirit and Binding Form," which involves condensing a wisp of divine thought and attaching it to the puppet, thereby allowing it to act according to one's will.

To achieve this, basic restrictions need to be placed on the puppet: Spirit Binding Restriction, Body Immobilization Restriction, and Spirit Summoning Restriction.

Spiritual restriction and restriction are all common formation techniques. Lu Yang hadn't expected that puppetry would require a foundation in formations.

Nowadays, it's alright to just practice basic puppetry techniques. The so-called spirit binding, immobilization, and spirit summoning restrictions aren't that difficult either.

However, if one wants to continue cultivating and constantly improve their puppetry skills, they really need to come into contact with and practice this formation.

It's not just about formations, but also about talisman techniques and weapon crafting. Formations are used to inscribe array patterns, which are essential for high-level puppets.

Rune inscription is used to record runes, while weapon crafting is used to create puppets.

Lu Yang has already come into contact with talisman techniques and will continue to study them in depth. However, weapon crafting is really giving Lu Yang a headache. When cultivating various arts, one usually chooses to practice only one, since it takes a lot of time. If one practices too many, it will definitely delay the progress of cultivation.

Nowadays, even to learn puppetry, you need so many prerequisite skills.

No wonder there are so few cultivators practicing puppetry in the cultivation world; it's quite a trap. If Lu Yang hadn't wanted to use technology for farming, he would have given up by now.

My luck isn't great right now, so I can only wait and see how things go. It's impossible for my puppetry skills to take off soaring to new heights.

Binding a spirit binds the consciousness; attracting a spirit also attracts the consciousness; immobilizing a body creates a puppet.

Basic puppets don't necessarily have to be driven by one's own divine sense. They can also be driven by the spiritual sense of other beings. By using the Spirit Binding Restriction to bind the spiritual sense of other beings, the Spirit Guiding Restriction can draw the spiritual sense of other beings out of the puppet's body and then introduce it into the puppet's body.

The cultivator uses a body-fixing technique to immobilize the creature, while the cultivator uses their powerful spiritual sense to suppress it and make it obey their commands.

That's it, but there's always a risk of things getting out of control.

Lu Yang didn't want to go through all that trouble. Now that he was cultivating the Returning to the Flow and Refining the Spirit, his spiritual sense had improved considerably. He directly separated a wisp of it and placed it on the puppet.

The puppet arrow beast was readily available, and Lu Yang did not need to place any restrictions on it.

Lu Yang focused his spiritual sense on the puppet and transmitted his command. The puppet arrow beast immediately began to act according to Lu Yang's orders.

Whoosh!

A black sparrow flew across the sky. The puppet arrow beast shot an arrow, and the black sparrow fell to the ground.

It has to be said that readily available puppets are still the most useful.

Moreover, this puppet arrow beast is quite powerful, possessing the cultivation level of the sixth level of Qi Refining. Even if it were used for protection, it would be good.

Thinking of this, Lu Yang immediately took control of the other three puppet arrow beasts as well.

Puppet beasts need a driving force, which is usually spirit stones. The spirit stones used by the four puppet beasts were almost exhausted. Lu Yang took out the spirit stones from their bodies, which were about ten in total.

In other words, once the ten spirit stones are exhausted, the puppet beast will have to go on strike.

If it happens during a real battle, there might not be enough time to replace the spirit stones, which is quite a rip-off.

It could be used to store mid-grade spirit stones, but unfortunately Lu Yang had never even seen a mid-grade spirit stone before; he was a penniless wretch.

Lu Yang placed ten low-grade spirit stones into each of the four puppet beasts in turn.

Then, one puppet beast was placed in the spirit field and the other in the spirit lake. This way, not only could other cultivators be informed that the spirit lake and spirit field had owners, but it could also defend against the invasion of some birds and beasts.

Putting everything else aside, those spirit birds, if they wanted to eat spirit grains or catch spirit fish, would only die at the hands of the puppet arrow beasts.

Lu Yang put away the other two puppet arrow beasts, preparing them for use later in protection or battle.

Ten spirit stones are enough for the puppet arrow beasts to use for half a year if they are only used for daily activities. Moreover, when they are not in combat, they can replace the spirit stones themselves, as long as Lu Yang gives them the order.

So Lu Yang also placed some spirit stones in the courtyard, so that they could replace them when they were almost used up.

More than half a month has passed, and the spirit fields and medicinal fields have been almost finished. At this time, under the nurturing of the spiritual veins, Lu Yang has obtained five and a half acres of spirit fields and five and a half acres of medicinal fields.

Five parts of the spirit field were used to cultivate the calming wood, and five parts were used for medicinal herbs. Lu Yang didn't delay and directly planted the Hu Yang flower.

There isn't much difference between planting spiritual herbs and spiritual grains; it's just that you need to be more meticulous and diligent.

After all, spiritual herbs are much more precious than spiritual grains.

Two bags of Hu Yang Hua seeds were planted directly in the medicinal field. Hu Yang Hua is ultimately no match for a more domineering spiritual seed like An Shen Mu. Its ability to seize spiritual energy is also far inferior, so it can be planted on a large scale.

This season, Lu Yang planted Blood Fang Rice in the spirit field. He quite liked this kind of spirit rice that could provide blood energy and didn't plan to switch to spirit grains.

The breeding of spirit fish at Linghu Lake is also going well.

For spirit fish, the most important thing is spiritual energy. Lu Yang's Minor Spirit Gathering Technique has been mastered, and with the Minor Spirit Condensation Technique and Minor Spirit Interception Technique, the spirit fish have abundant spiritual energy. Lu Yang also feeds them Spirit Yang Rice. If they still don't grow well, it would be too much.

Moreover, Lu Yang had the Sun Eater clean up all the threats in the lake, so these spirit fish could truly live without worry.

Now that the arrow beast puppets are in charge, Lu Yang can already look forward to how much fortune he can gain when these spirit fish die of old age.

After settling the puppet arrow beast, Lu Yang returned to the courtyard, preparing to use up the remaining three years of his fortune.

The Golden Sun River Opening Technique has been largely completed, but achieving perfection is a long way off. More than three years of effort have been poured into it, yet it hasn't even made a ripple.

The Mingwang Fist has already reached a high level, and after more than three years of good fortune, it is not enough to take another big step forward.

I've just entered the stage of refining the spirit through returning to the source. I can now nourish my spirit with qi. However, even if I use luck to advance further, it won't be enough to reach the level of nourishing the spirit with the mind. So I can put it aside for now.

As for spells, I have mastered the basic spirit plant spell and the minor wind-supporting spell, and I have also mastered the other basic spirit plant spells to a lesser extent, which is enough for now.

He has already achieved a basic level of mastery in the Wind and has also entered the realm of Golden Light Escape. However, his luck over the past three years is insufficient to push him any further.

In terms of swordsmanship, the Thunderclap Sword Technique has made considerable progress due to the Sword Nourishing Technique.

Lu Yang's gaze fell on the Sword Nourishing Technique. Lu Yang had never used his internal energy to advance the Sword Nourishing Technique before, and his current grasp of it was only superficial.

Even with only a superficial understanding, Lu Yang's swordsmanship has been steadily improving.

If one were to invest the fortune accumulated over the past three years into this, one should be able to master the basics of the Sword Cultivation Technique. At that time, one's swordsmanship should improve very quickly.

With this in mind, Lu Yang did not hesitate and directly invested his three years' worth of fortune into the Sword Nourishing Technique.

Lu Yang, who was in a state of sudden enlightenment, found that the broken sword had appeared in his sea of ​​consciousness.

Lu Yang subconsciously nurtured the broken sword with his sword energy, but at this moment, Lu Yang seemed to have another inspiration, and his spiritual consciousness was contained in the spiritual sword.

"Sword Breathing!"

With his spiritual consciousness contained within the spirit sword, perhaps due to a sudden enlightenment or a great advancement in his soul, Lu Yang actually obtained a piece of information from the broken sword.

Sword Breathing!

It turns out that swords also have their own breath. Lu Yang began to make his breath close to the breath of the sword, and gradually, he fell into a state of selflessness and swordlessness.

At this moment, Lu Yang used his own sword energy to nourish the broken sword, and the sword and the man breathed together.

The way to nurture a sword is to avoid indiscriminate killing and slashing, which would damage the sword's nature and taint it with karmic fire. The sword should be nurtured in its sheath, waiting for the right time to be unleashed, and when it is unleashed, blood will surely be drawn.

Avoid abandoning it for too long, lest its nature become dormant and its spiritual essence dissipate.

Avoid contamination by impure energies, and do not use demonic, evil, or foreign energies to nourish it.

At this moment, it seemed that Lu Yang had entered the first stage of the sword-nurturing technique and gained a deeper understanding of the way of nurturing the sword.

At this moment, Lu Yang observed the heavens and earth and saw thunder, long winds, interrupted streams, and split mountains;

Observe life and death, and use the sword to cut through attachments, illusions, and cause and effect.

Observe yourself, and use your sword to cut through inner demons, hesitation, and mortal limitations.

At this moment, Lu Yang seemed to have sensed the Dao of the Sword. Although he was still only scratching the surface, his own sword energy was rising rapidly. He was clearly using his sword energy to nourish the broken sword, yet his own sword energy did not decrease but instead increased.

Thunder has sword energy, long wind has sword energy, broken stream has sword energy, and fierce mountain has sword energy.

Everywhere you look, there is the aura of swords.

By drawing upon the myriad spirits of nature as his sword and cultivating sword energy within his heart, Lu Yang realized at this moment that his previous swordsmanship was utterly naive.

The way of the sword is contained within the vast universe; it cannot be found in sword manuals.

To gather all spirits into a sword, to slay life and to destroy death—this is the true method of protecting the Dao, and the method of severing the Dao.

With a sword in hand, what is there to fear from obsessive illusions, from the cycle of cause and effect, or from the disturbances of inner demons?

At this moment, Lu Yang's mind was completely clear. However, after this state subsided, Lu Yang couldn't help but feel a sense of loss. It turned out that it wasn't his mind that was clear, but the mind of the broken sword. When man and sword breathe together, one can obtain the clarity of the sword.

Even with Lu Yang's current level of cultivation, he cannot sever illusions or inner demons, but the Broken Sword can.

Sword Breathing!

Lu Yang's gaze fell on the broken sword in his sea of ​​consciousness. That's right, after he mastered the Sword Nourishing Technique, the broken sword had changed its residence and actually entered Lu Yang's sea of ​​consciousness.

The spiritual consciousness contained within it seemed to be constantly growing stronger, and the Broken Sword, nurtured by Lu Yang's spiritual consciousness, seemed to have become even more spiritual.

Emerging from the state of enlightenment, Lu Yang tried to breathe close to the broken sword again, but it was no longer as effective as during his enlightenment.

As he breathed closer to the broken sword, Lu Yang clearly felt his understanding of swordsmanship improving, and he was now able to borrow the power of the broken sword.

If there are truly inner demons causing trouble, or if falsehoods arise, Lu Yang can simply use the broken sword to slay them.

"What grade of magical artifact is this broken sword? Even in its damaged state, it's still so powerful!"

With the addition of the Broken Sword, Lu Yang's path to refining his spirit seemed to have become much easier.

Nourishing the sword with the spirit, and nourishing the spirit with the sword—that might be the way it is. However, Lu Yang knew that he did not yet have the ability to nourish the sword with the spirit; all of this was being controlled by the Broken Sword.

A vague unease crept into my heart, after all, the feeling of being controlled by external things during cultivation was not a pleasant one.

However, when he recalled the scene of three thousand sword immortals slaying demons when he first came into contact with Broken Sword, Lu Yang felt relieved. Those white-robed sword immortals, who were compassionate to all living beings, would not bring disaster upon one person!

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