Chapter 12
First-grade Sword Technique—Wind Chasing Sword Technique
In the Southwest Sea of the Myriad Sea of Stars.
The surging sea water splashed against a black cargo ship, making loud noises.
Chen Daoxuan stood on the deck and looked at the endless sea. He turned to the clan leader, Chen Xianhe, and said, “Thirteenth uncle, is this the clan’s Canglong cargo ship?”
“Haha, Yes, it is.”
Chen Xianhe caressed the mast of the Canglong. “This is your first time on a ship, right?”
Chen Daoxuan nodded.
Although Chen Daoxuan was a man that had lived two lifetimes, it was the first time he would embark on a sea voyage on a ship. At that moment, he felt a little excited.
“At the beginning of the voyage, everything will seem novel and new to you, but after you see it day after day, you will end up getting sick of it. We have a long journey ahead of us to Lingbei Island. Even with the speed of the Canglong, it will take us at least a month to arrive.”
Chen Xianhe was right. After looking around for less than the time it took for an incense stick to burn, Chen Daoxuan felt bored.
In his eyes, all he could see around him was azure blue seawater; there was nothing unusual or exciting about it.
He suddenly thought of something, and asked, “Thirteenth uncle, didn’t you always say that the Myriad Sea of Stars is dangerous, and that demonic beasts often appear in the sea?”
“That’s if you run around randomly. In fact, if you sail on the fixed routes, the Myriad Sea of Stars is still very safe. After all, demonic beasts also have intelligence. They know which areas are safe and which areas are dangerous.”
Hearing this, Chen Daoxuan could not help but be stunned.
He originally thought that one or two demonic beasts would appear on this voyage, giving him the opportunity to slay demons.
In the end, it seemed that he was overthinking things.
…
Time passed day by day.
The days they spent sailing on the sea were extremely boring. After experiencing some initial novelty, Chen Daoxuan decided to hole himself up in the cabin and cultivate all day long.
However, there was no spiritual eye on the ship, so he could only absorb and refine the spiritual essence in the air, resulting in his cultivation speed becoming very slow.
In the end, Chen Daoxuan, who could not stand this kind of slow cultivation speed, gave up on cultivating and instead studied and learned spells.
For a Qi refinement realm cultivator, their main means of defending themselves against enemies were spells, spiritual artifacts, and spiritual talismans.
Needless to say, spiritual artifacts and spiritual talismans had to be purchased with spirit stones, so they were considered external items.
Apart from that, cultivators also had a way of displaying their own strength, and that was through spells.
The grading system of spells was the same as spiritual artifacts. They could also be divided into first, second, and third grades.
However, unlike spiritual artifacts, there were no grade divisions for spells within those grades.
For example, the fire control spell that Chen Daoxuan had mastered was of the first grade. The fire control spell practiced by a cultivator of the first and ninth levels of the Qi refinement realm was essentially the same.
There was no difference between a low-grade first-grade fire control spell and a high-grade first-grade fire control spell.
However, for spells of the same grade, the results of different people’s practice and study were also different.
In the cultivation world, cultivators generally divided the results of their cultivation of spells into four stages, which were beginner, small success, large success, and perfect.
For Qi refinement realm cultivators, it was very easy to get started with spells. Even those who were slow to understand could start off with a first-grade spell after spending a few months of study.
However, the subsequent cultivation of a spell was not as simple.
Chen Daoxuan had been cultivating for five years and had only mastered two spells so far. One was the wind control spell he used for traveling, and the other was the fire control spell he used to refine artifacts.
As for spells related to combat, attack and defense, Chen Daoxuan had not learned any of them.
It was not that Chen Daoxuan’s talent in spells was poor, but rather that his energy and focus was limited. During these five years, Chen Daoxuan had to focus on cultivating the Origin Convergence technique, while also focusing on refining artifacts. Most importantly, he had to develop the spirit smelting furnace from scratch.
No matter how talented he was, he really did not have the energy or focus to also cultivate battle-type spells.
Of course, this did not mean that Chen Daoxuan did not have any means of dealing with his enemies.
Apart from using spells in combat, cultivators mainly used spiritual artifacts to fight their enemies.
As an artifact refiner who had once refined a high-grade first-grade spiritual artifact, how could Chen Daoxuan be lacking in spiritual artifacts?
In his storage bag was a high-grade first-grade spiritual weapon.
It was the only high-grade first-grade spiritual weapon he had refined. It was a water-attribute flying sword called the Flying Snow sword.
Ever since he refined the Flying Snow sword, it had become his trump card. He had kept it in his storage bag at all times.
Even his uncle, Chen Xianhe, did not know that Chen Daoxuan possessed such a trump card.
However, while the Flying Snow sword was powerful, it also consumed a lot of true Qi.
Chen Daoxuan had tried it out before. If he, who was in the second level of the Qi refinement realm back then, used the flying snow sword with all his strength, he could only use the sword three times at most before his true Qi would be almost fully exhausted.
Although his cultivation had now reached the third level of the Qi refinement realm, he could only use the sword one extra time at most, after which his true Qi would be exhausted and he would be left at the mercy of others.
…
On the tenth day of sailing, Chen Daoxuan, who was sitting cross-legged in the cabin, closed his eyes tightly.
He looked at the ten Stardust revolving around the golden scripture in his sea of consciousness, and he could not help but feel extremely excited.
As expected, as long as he meditated on the Hong Meng Enlightenment Sutra once a day, he would generate one Stardust in his sea of consciousness. If he did so for ten consecutive days, he would generate ten Stardust and would be able to exchange them for an opportunity to experience an epiphany.
After some trial and error testing over these past few days, Chen Daoxuan had already figured out the rules behind the generation of Stardust.
First, no matter how many times he meditated on the Hong Meng Enlightenment Sutra every day, he could only generate one Stardust at most. After that first meditation, any further meditation on the scripture would only restore the divine sense that he had consumed previously.
Second, he could only generate and maintain ten Stardust at most. If he insisted on not using them, they would always revolve around the golden scripture.
Thirdly, after the ten Stardust collided and merged into one, it greatly enhanced Chen Daoxuan’s comprehension ability and produced an effect similar to that of an epiphany.
He had a vague feeling that these ten Stardust represented the actual unknown words in Hong Meng Enlightenment Sutra. The meditation sessions forcefully stored his comprehension ability in the form of Stardusts and until the tenth day, where it would be all used in one go.
When this thought surfaced in his mind, Chen Daoxuan himself was shocked.
He had heard of saving money and accumulating food, but this was the first time he had heard that one’s comprehension ability could also be “accumulated”!
However, no matter what, the fact of the matter was that Chen Daoxuan could only keep the Hong Meng Enlightenment Sutra as his biggest secret.
During his days on the ship, although Chen Daoxuan could not cultivate the Origin Convergence technique, he did not stay idle. Instead, he thought about cultivating a new spell.
If other Qi refinement realm cultivators heard this, they would probably laugh their heads off.
Although it was not difficult to cultivate a first-grade spell, one month was far from enough to cultivate it to an acceptable level.
In fact, it was already quite good if a Qi refinement realm cultivator could even begin to properly cultivate a first-grade spell within one month.
Even a heavenly spirit root cultivator would not be able to accomplish the feat of cultivating a spell to the small success stage within one month.
Normally speaking, for a cultivator to cultivate a first-grade spell to the small success stage, it would require at least a year.
However, if they wanted to cultivate the spell to the large success stage, it would require at least five years.
As for the perfect stage, that was not something that could be achieved by spending time. This stage required the cultivator to have extraordinary comprehension.
Generally speaking, when a cultivator was said to have completely mastered a spell, it meant that the cultivator had practiced the spell to the large success stage.