Divine Brilliance

Noon of the next day, Zong Shou was seated on the soft mattress of the carriage, his body shaking and moving with the vibrations of the carriage.

The current him was living in a state of ignorance, his mind totally wandering off. Who knew how long had passed before he sighed, his expression really bitter.

“What should I do? This favor that I owe that Lingyun Sect ancestor is getting bigger and bigger..”

Ever since he learned that the twelve God Talisman seeds could help him draw out the twelve God Talismans after he had nourished them to a certain level, Zong Shou knew that the gift from the Lingyun Ancestor was far greater than he imagined.

Just the eighteen Cloud Shocking God Destroying sword intents were already a huge help. Along with these God Talismans, the benefits didn’t even need to be mentioned.

Yesterday he was just too tired and didn’t think much about it. He spent a full day and night in deep sleep, and after waking up and doing his usual cultivation he started having a headache.

In his last life, he was known as one of the Seven Emperors of the Cloud World. His martial art methods were enough to compare to the top experts of the Ten Shrines.

But, after all, that was in his last life, and also in that virtual environment.

To his current body, be it the sword intents or the god talismans, he had to cherish them.

What Zong Ling was hesitating about was that after getting all these things, how was he going to strike down the Lingyun Sect?

The vengeances in the last life, as well as the happenings in real life were things he could all place down and not bother with.

The Lingyun Sect’s Scripture Hiding cave and that Ancestral Hall were just too tempting.

“Forget it! These sword intents and talismans, with my cultivation, can’t be used anyways. If I have a chance in the future, I’ll think of a way to pay them back. Speaking of which, if I can’t solve this body, what future do I have? Aren’t I thinking too much?”

As he thought in such directions, Zong Shou felt more at ease and started cultivating once more.

——

Training Qi and meditation were all about focus. Once Zong Shou got into that zone, he had no thoughts and no emotions.

Thread after thread of true Qi were forcefully sucked out of the beast crystals in his hand, and directed into his energy ocean. There he gathered up the true qi like a spear, piercing the unopened parts of his Breathing Meridian, chiseling it open without much care!

Different from previous days, within that true qi spear were also the eighteen sword intent spiritual seeds!

The original, already powerful strength was sharper than before. With an unstoppable aura, it broke apart all the unopened holes and acupoints in the Breathing Chakra Meridian.

Explosions broke out from within the Qi ocean, like lightning striking down. Blood roiled all over his body, his white skin flushed red.

Zong Shou was unfazed, and after a light shout, he took in a deep breath. Air currents wrapped up within the room, like small tornados, all the air as well as spiritual energy surging into Zong Shuo’s nose. His lungs were like bottomless pits as they gave out soft sounds of wind and lightning.

He exhaled hard, generating yet another explosion. All the air that he had inhaled from before was released.

In just the time it took to inhale and exhale, all the holes and acupoints in his foundation and Breathing Meridians were opened up. There were now two circles around his energy, clean and pure.

“After the Foundation and Breathing Meridians, it is the Marrow Meridian!”

Without any hesitation, he directed the remaining true qi in his meridians into the Marrow Meridian.

The entire Marrow Meridian was also an unorthodox wheel going around his body. Like the other Chakra Meridians, it was made up of twenty-four points.

Zong Shou broke open two of them in one shot, and then stopped without using up all of the true Qi.

With the aid of the Cloud Shocking God Destroying sword intents, the damage his meridians sustained by forcing them open was much lower than expected. Even if he opened up one or two more points, it would be fine.

But cultivation and meditation was a process. His foundation and Breathing Meridians had progressed too quickly. In just three months he had totally opened them, leaving no time for him to amass and create a foundation.

That Breathing Spirit Fist was also at the small success state, unable to truly train his two meridians into boulder-like entities, to the stage where energy flowed out like a fountain.

If the foundations weren’t strong, how would one build a tower that led to the heavens?

He dispersed all the true Qi, allowing them to cycle the meridians as they wished. Zong Shou looked up at the clouds, which were dark and cloudy as usual. Since he couldn’t use the Sky Mirror Soul Shining Technique, he didn’t meditate, instead taking out a Willow Mark knife. As he held it in the center of his palm, a serious look appeared on his face.

Six God Defensive Knife Technique was the most pure martial arts secret technique, merging the rhythm, strength, sense, soul, spirit, and focus all into the flying dagger in his hand. This was the path of the Six God Defensive Knife Technique!

It might not be as convenient as the tool-driving methods of spirit cultivators, but when one trained it to a high level, it could claim lives from thousands of miles away.

When the knife was used, it was even stronger than driving weapon techniques. Its strength and explosiveness wasn’t something that those spirit weapons and tools could compare to.

In his last life, Zong Shou walked the purest form of martial arts cultivation. After he got this Six God Defensive Knife Technique, he naturally followed the instructions, but felt that something wasn’t right.

In this life, since he was forced to become a dual cultivator, he couldn’t help but have thoughts of adding spiritual energy to this technique.

In these short three months, naturally he didn’t have any success. The only success was that the five flying knives in his sleeve were more spiritually connected to him.

However, after these few months of testing, he had unknowingly opened up a back door that could strengthen the power of this flying knife…

——

Continuous thoughts and ideas filled his head, until the sky outside of the window was dark. A sharp glow appeared in Zong Shou’s eyes.

“This idea can be used. But it is indeed hard to grasp…”

Without hesitating anymore, Zong Shou felt the sword intent spiritual seeds in his body. Causally choosing one and using his will to wrap around it. On the other side of this willpower was the Willow Mark knife in his hand.

He was actually using a singular method, turning his will into something similar to sword intent, and infuse into the knife.

This was also a spirit master technique that Zong Shou knew in his last life, known as the Talisman Marking Technique. It was originally a secret technique from cultivators that only some of the top talisman masters knew. In the future it was spread widely, which meant that anyone that learned talismans would know about this.

Zong Shou slightly changed it to help him imprint the sword intent.

However, only Zong Shou, relying on the huge amount of experience he had amassed in his last life could use his will to successfully replicate this Cloud Shocking God Destroying sword intent.

As time went on, bean-sized beads of sweat appeared on his head. The talisman knife in his hand started to change. A cold glow flowed along it, and the tip became sharper, like something was about to break out from the body of the knife.

In just a short while, the entire Willow Mark knife exploded into pieces. Many white lights scattered in all directions, sharp beyond belief. Without any sound, they pierced into the four walls of the carriage, deep enough into the steel such that one couldn’t see any splinters.

Even Zong Shou’s right hand, which he pulled back extremely quickly, was scratched by the shrapnel, leaving over ten wounds.

Zong Shou didn’t bother much, and he didn’t find it unfortunate, the only thing was that his brows were furrowed.

“These were made of elite Blood Copper steel, and still couldn’t withstand it. Is this sword intent too strong? What I can copy is obviously only the top layer. As expected from the Cloud Shocking God Destroying sword, it can destroy god and celestial…”

Flipping his hand, yet another Willow Mark talisman knife came out. He used the Talisman Marking Technique to again try to imprint the Cloud Shocking God Destroying sword intent onto it.

This time, just a short moment passed before it was blown to pieces again.

He repeated like that, until the fourth time, Zong Shou’s face had no color of blood anymore. Within his hand lay a Willow Mark talisman knife.

The knife’s body was still green with red veins. But if one looked carefully, one could sense that within the knife’s body a Cloud Rune was flowing around…