Chapter 513: Life Flying Sword

Wang Yu played with the jade slip in his hand for a while, then finally placed it against his forehead and slowly closed his eyes.

He was genuinely curious: as a life weapon, what exactly distinguished a life flying sword from an ordinary artifact?

In his impression, no matter the cultivation level, any cultivator who mentioned a sword cultivator would feel awe—they were beings no one in the same realm dared to provoke.

According to legend, a sword cultivator’s terrifying power stemmed entirely from a single life flying sword.

So before confirming his own life weapon, he decided to first examine the mysteries of a sword cultivator’s life flying sword.

Time passed slowly.

As time went on, Wang Yu’s expression grew increasingly solemn, and by the end, his mouth hung slightly open, forgotten, as if he had witnessed something inconceivable.

“Huff.”

After exhaling deeply, the jade slip fell from his forehead; he caught it in one hand and opened his eyes again.

His face was now heavy with gravity.

“This is a life flying sword,” Wang Yu murmured, staring at the white jade slip in his hand. “No wonder sword cultivators are so powerful—legends say they can shatter ten thousand arts with a single sword.”

This half of the sword scripture indeed matched what the Mo Jian Gate’s true immortal had said—it recorded several methods for forging and nurturing life flying swords, even including techniques for crafting auxiliary tools like sword pouches, scabbards, and sword boxes.

But all these were recorded in the latter half of the scripture; the first half focused entirely on how difficult it was to become a sword cultivator, how formidable they were, and what truly defined a genuine sword cultivator.

Yes, this half-scribed scripture was essentially a sword cultivator’s beginner’s manual, likely Mo Jian Gate’s own, missing only the most critical cultivation techniques and sword incantations.

However, according to its teachings, whether or not one possessed sword cultivator cultivation methods had no impact whatsoever on forging a life flying sword.

What shocked Wang Yu, though, was not this point—but the conditions described in the jade slip for becoming a true sword cultivator.

The first half of the jade slip clearly stated that to become a true sword cultivator, one needed only to accomplish two things.

First, the cultivator must personally forge a qualified life flying sword.

A life flying sword is not forged with the help of an artifact crafter—it must be forged by the sword cultivator’s own hands; otherwise, what is produced is merely a sword artifact, not a true life flying sword.

The forging methods for life flying swords are numerous, and the inscriptions and techniques used differ drastically from those known to ordinary artifact crafters; during forging, the sword cultivator must infuse their own blood and even a portion of their soul, making it possible only for the cultivator themselves to forge it.

In short, the more the sword cultivator sacrifices of themselves during forging, the stronger the resulting life flying sword will be.

This is why the Mo Jian Gate’s Golden Core true immortal, when forging his own life flying sword, simply turned his entire physical body into material and poured it into the blade.

To other cultivators, such a blasphemous act was plainly insane—sword cultivators were utterly incomprehensible.

Second, to become a sword cultivator, after forging a life flying sword, one must perform a special ritual, swearing a grand vow in the sword’s name to implant a spiritual seed within it.

Yes—not does the sword cultivator possess a spiritual seed, but the sword itself must be planted with one!

Wang Yu, as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, had already encountered some information about Golden Core true immortals.

According to what he had previously learned, spiritual seeds were things only cultivators above Golden Core could possibly master, said to involve the legendary Dao principles.

And these Dao principles, in every text mentioning them, were only briefly touched upon—no detailed descriptions existed.

Yet from what he understood, Golden Core true immortals could effortlessly crush Foundation Establishment cultivators not merely because their spiritual energy was vastly greater, but because during Golden Core formation, a spiritual seed was simultaneously born within the core.

Once the Golden Core was complete, it meant a spiritual seed had been planted within the true immortal.

As their cultivation advanced, Golden Core true immortals gradually mastered and developed this seed within their core, forming a true spiritual power.

In Wang Yu’s current understanding, spiritual power seemed to be a higher-tier “great spell,” far beyond ordinary spells.

When Wang Yu first met the Celestial Toad Ancestor, the old immortal stood atop a spiritual vessel in the sky and, using only a trace of his spiritual pet’s power, used a single spiritual thread to pull every low-level cultivator hiding on the ground into the open.

Recalling that horrifying scene now, it must have been the Celestial Toad Ancestor’s spiritual power—likely related to space.

Thus, normally only cultivators above Golden Core could wield spiritual power, but sword cultivators, regardless of cultivation level, could implant an additional spiritual seed into their life flying sword by swearing a grand vow, granting the sword itself spiritual power.

It didn’t matter what cultivation level one held—if a spiritual seed was born within the life flying sword, one was a true sword cultivator.

Even if one was merely a Qi Refining disciple, it made no difference.

Conversely, if a spiritual seed never formed within the life flying sword, even a Golden Core true immortal was merely a false sword cultivator.

Now Wang Yu finally understood why, at the same level, ordinary cultivators stood little chance against sword cultivators.

Below Golden Core, others still fought with ordinary spells and artifacts, but a sword cultivator at the same level could already wield spiritual power through their life flying sword.

Even if it was only a faint leakage of power from the spiritual seed, how could ordinary Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment cultivators possibly match them?

As for Golden Core true immortals, it was even more obvious.

A Golden Core sword cultivator could wield two spiritual powers simultaneously—one from their Golden Core, one from their life flying sword—while ordinary Golden Core cultivators possessed only one, leaving them inherently weaker.

According to the half-scribed scripture, although forging a life flying sword was difficult, implanting a spiritual seed within it was far more difficult—almost an act against heaven itself.

Thus, granting one’s life flying sword spiritual power was the lifelong pursuit of nearly every cultivator who walked the sword path.

The scripture noted that implanting a spiritual seed into a life flying sword wasn’t limited to swearing a grand vow through ritual—other methods existed, but they were even more arduous, with success rates nearly negligible.

Hence, the first half of the half-scribed scripture recommended only this one method—but it recorded absolutely nothing about how to perform the ritual or the precise steps of swearing the grand vow.

Yet consider this: the Mo Jian Gate, a Nascent Soul sect rivaling the Bi Shui Palace in strength, had only thirty-some true sword cultivators—this alone revealed how difficult it was to implant a spiritual seed into a life flying sword.

However, the scripture did mention a few precautions regarding this method of implanting a spiritual seed through a grand vow.

Generally, the broader, more difficult, and more complex the vow, and the harder it was to fulfill, the greater the potential of the spiritual seed implanted in the sword, and the stronger its spiritual power would become.

But likewise, if the grand vow was never fulfilled, it would become the sword cultivator’s demonic obstacle during every major breakthrough.

Making every breakthrough agonizingly difficult, eventually trapping them at a certain level, halting all further advancement.

Recalling this, Wang Yu drew in a sharp breath.

Clearly, this method was a double-edged sword—those who became sword cultivators this way lived with both torment and joy.

He now understood why sword cultivators often seemed like fanatics; their personalities were likely warped by the vows they had sworn.

Yet he had no intention whatsoever of becoming a true sword cultivator, nor would he ever swear a grand vow—so his focus returned to the latter half of the jade slip, the methods for forging a life flying sword.

According to the scripture’s introduction, even a life flying sword without a spiritual seed, once properly nurtured, was far stronger than ordinary artifacts, surpassing even the so-called “low-grade” and “mid-grade” artifacts.

If one had to compare, it would at least match the rank of a high-grade artifact.

But high-grade artifacts were merely the starting point for a life flying sword—if forged well and nurtured properly, even ordinary high-grade artifacts could not stand against it; a life flying sword might even rival the legendary supreme-grade artifacts.

One method for forging a life flying sword mentioned in the latter half of the scripture deeply intrigued Wang Yu.

Because the sword forged by this method was a pure fire-elemental flying sword.