Chapter 101: Peerless True Art! A Stroke of Luck?

"Technique-Transmitting Jade Slip!"

Examining the crystal-clear jade tablet, Chen Mu took a deep breath and slowed his breathing.

Then, he pressed the jade tablet against his brow and concentrated his spirit.

Hmm~~

His mind swayed slightly, a faint sting at his brow.

The next instant, a great mass of complex, profound information surged from his brow into his mind.

He did not know how long passed — it seemed like an instant, yet felt like a year.

Chen Mu came back to himself in a daze, calmed his heart and qi, sat in meditation for a while, and steadied himself.

Looking at the jade tablet again now, its crystal-clear texture had vanished, leaving only a patch of withered, grayish white.

Thud~

He flicked it lightly with a finger.

"Crack!"

Crash~~

The grayish-white jade tablet shattered into countless pieces at the sound.

"A single-use Technique-Transmitting Jade Slip?"

Chen Mu clapped his hands, shook off every fragment and speck of powder, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

"Single-use is great, single-use is wonderful!"

A Technique-Transmitting Jade Slip can be set to be read multiple times, or just once — it all depends on how the one who recorded it configured it.

The one who configured it for single-use was "Duan Tianhe."

The jade slip recorded the key contents of the "Heavenly River Sword Canon."

The "Heavenly River Sword Canon" contained three things: the inner cultivation method "Heavenly River Art," the martial technique "Sky-Fighting Sword," and the visualization method "Star Transformation."

The "Heavenly River Art" had a total of ten layers. The first through the ninth corresponded to the First to Ninth Stage of the Innate Realm, while the tenth layer was the Earth Altar Realm.

The "Sky-Fighting Sword" had a total of eighteen forms, yet its variations numbered in the hundreds.

This martial technique was very special — to advance one's realm, one had to keep fighting.

Hide away at home to cultivate, and even after practicing for decades or a century, one could forget about reaching the threshold of mastery.

It was created for battle!

Only through ceaseless combat and constant slaughter could the sword art's power rise steadily, reach its peak, and split the heavens with a single strike!

Sky-Fighting — fighting the heavens themselves — was not just an empty boast.

With this special method of advancement, Chen Mu's plan to take a shortcut and use cultivation cards was a dead end.

Unless he had battle experience cards recording the "Sky-Fighting Sword," to be used together with cultivation cards!

The problem was that "Duan Tianhe" had been dead for over two hundred years, and the "Heavenly River Sword Canon" had been lost for over two hundred years as well.

No one in this world had practiced the "Sky-Fighting Sword" for a long time.

Chen Mu was its sole heir.

As for the visualization method "Star Transformation"…

It was the core to breaking through to the Heavenly Palace Realm!

The Martial Dao Realm was the foundation.

And Wu Gong encompassed martial techniques, inner cultivation methods, and visualization methods.

Among them, visualization methods were the most special, for they dealt with the spirit!

Martial techniques and inner cultivation methods, even if one could not comprehend them, were ultimately text or pictures, and could be transcribed and copied.

But visualization methods were Wu Gong of the spirit — they could not even be copied.

One could only grasp them through intuition!

Unless the martial artist who created the visualization method personally used his own spiritual will as a guide to imprint it onto a dedicated vessel.

Disciples of great sects and major powers would observe and read them through "visualization diagrams."

This sort of thing relied far too heavily on talent.

After observing, either you grasped it or you didn't — that was all there was to it.

Therefore, Wu Gong that included visualization methods was called True Art.

It transcended the concepts of upper, middle, and lower tiers, forming its own lineage — an absolute scripture.

A peerless True Art!

Such peerless True Art basically only existed in major powers with over a thousand years of inheritance.

The Fang family, to which Fang Yuanfu and Fang Yuanzuo belonged — despite being renowned throughout the entire Hannan Circuit and having a heritage of several hundred years — most likely did not possess a True Art either!

This was also why the brothers Fang Yuanfu and Fang Yuanzuo had gone mad over the "Heavenly River Sword Canon."

Without a True Art, one could never set foot into the Heavenly Palace Realm!

Without a Heavenly Palace Realm powerhouse presiding over the clan, lasting a thousand years of inheritance was exceedingly difficult!

Therefore.

Chen Mu was determined to obtain the visualization method "Star Transformation" from the "Heavenly River Sword Canon"!

The reason he said "must obtain" was that the Technique-Transmitting Jade Slip had not imprinted "Star Transformation" — it only recorded related information.

"Duan Tianhe" had left a passage in the jade slip: his legacy mainly consisted of three parts.

Sword Canon, Sword Gear, Sword Soul!

Among them, the Sword Canon was the "Heavenly River Art" and the "Sky-Fighting Sword," all recorded within the Technique-Transmitting Jade Slip.

But the Sword Gear had been split apart by him and scattered across various places in the Great Zhou.

The top-grade mystery weapon, Tianzong Yunjian, is one of the sword gear's components—the blade itself.

The contents of "Star Transformation" were engraved onto several other parts of the sword gear.

If you collect all the sword gear pieces, you will obtain the complete "Star Transformation"!

Though scattered across distant lands, anyone who has entered the first stage of "Duan Tianhe's Technique" can sense each component of the sword gear.

The first layer of "Duan Tianhe's Technique" has a sensing range of one thousand meters.

The second layer: four thousand meters. The third layer: nine thousand meters…

Thus, collecting all the sword gear pieces is difficult, but not hopeless—at least there is a guiding direction.

Only the "Sword Soul" was not specified, with only a vague, ambiguous remark.

"Where your heart desires, there your soul resides."

What is this supposed to mean?

It's just a riddle!

If I think of the "Sword Soul," will it appear before my eyes?

That's utterly unrealistic.

But the power of the "Sword Soul" is beyond doubt.

"Duan Tianhe, the Sword Sovereign" used the three-piece set to fight across major realms and never lost!

The Preemptive Battlefield!

The Battlefield battles the Heavenly Palace!

The Heavenly Palace battles the Myriad Phenomena!

Above the Heavenly Palace realm in the Martial Dao Realm lies the Myriad Phenomena realm!

The nature of this realm was not explained in detail by "Duan Tianhe, the Sword Sovereign"—only a brief introduction was given.

Because "Duan Tianhe, the Sword Sovereign" himself only reached the Heavenly Palace realm.

Yet even as a Heavenly Palace cultivator, he could directly withstand attacks from a Myriad Phenomena cultivator!

"The Sword Technique, the Sword Gear, the Sword Soul…"

Chen Mu took a deep breath, calmed his mind, and whispered, "Since the 'Sword Soul' has no direction, I'll start cultivating the 'Sword Technique' first!"

"Fight the Heavens Sword" requires combat—I'll set it aside for now.

I can begin cultivating "Duan Tianhe's Technique" first.

Fortunately, "Qingyuan Yiqi Technique" and "Duan Tianhe's Technique" don't conflict; Chen Mu is currently only at the Second Stage of Heaven, so switching cultivation methods won't take long.

Otherwise, there'd be a mountain of troubles.

…

Just as Chen Mu halted the circulation of "Qingyuan Yiqi Technique" and switched to "Duan Tianhe's Technique," news spread through Nan Yun Prefecture that the Ba Jian Sect had been wiped out, causing uproar.

"Too brutal! Everyone on Ba Jian Mountain died—Fang Family is ruthless!"

"Shh~ Lower your voice! I heard one of the Fang Family's young masters also died on Ba Jian Mountain!"

"Serves them right! These big clan brats are used to looking down on others—they deserve to die off."

"Alas, the Ba Jian Sect suffered an unjust disaster—could they really have meddled in a mystery weapon?"

I heard it wasn't even about competing for the mysterious weapon?

"It was absolutely about the mystery weapon! I've confirmed it—July Altar Master of Tianxia Society, Shi Shi Kuangsheng of Bai Jian Gate, Huang Keqin of Jiuyou Sect, and several others from major factions fought over the mystery weapon on Ba Jian Mountain, even blasting a hole through the mountain!"

"Really? So who ended up with the mystery weapon?"

"This… no one seems to have gotten it?"

"…"

Across Nan Yun Prefecture, warriors from all factions debated endlessly.

But inside the Hero Tower in the inner city, the conversation was different.

"What mystery weapon? Shi Shi Kuangsheng, Huang Keqin, Fang Yuanfu—they were fighting over the 'Duan Tianhe Sword Scripture'!"

"This is the true cultivation art of 'Duan Tianhe, the Sword Sovereign' from over two hundred years ago! Shi Shi Kuangsheng, Fang Yuanfu—they fought for hours, and still lost it!"

"What? You can lose a true scripture? If someone picked it up, wouldn't they soar to the heavens?"

"Indeed—who knows which lucky soul got it…"

"I know!"