159 Soulless Ponders The Sword Dao

The only difficulty was every breakthrough in cultivation would require me to learn about the Sword Dao. Humans gathered qi or whatever to increase their realm from my understanding. Any stupid human in the Moon Dusk World could gather enough qi stones and swallow enough pills to attempt a breakthrough in realms without learning Dao. So this system was ten times more difficult than a normal human cultivation path.

Humans were a lesser race with very short lives, they needed to increase their cultivation to lengthen their lifespan. So those that were untalented in the Sword Dao would die young trying to treading the path of this strange cultivation system. Thankfully I was a devil.

This technique would reach the peak in my capable hands!

I camped out at my location and began pondering on the Sword Dao. My understanding of the Sword Dao was perfunctory I had only been emulating Shi Da's life so far and using his techniques. Even while wielding Freedom \u0026 Destiny I had never utilized the Sword Dao in my attacks. I was truly a baby in this regard, swinging around my weapons wildly to kill my enemies. Only relying on the brute force of my cultivation and other Daos to kill people.

I started relearning the sword from the basics atop my chosen cliff edge. After practicing a bit of what Shi Da understood I dissected the movements of the sword.

Every sword slash could be broken down into 8 different angles of attack: Straight down from the top, straight up from the bottom, diagonally down to the left, diagonally down to the right, diagonally up from the left, diagonally up from the right, and left and right strikes horizontally.

Mastering the way I performed these slashes was the way I would temper my sword technique. From my experience dueling capable opponents the best defense was always a strong offense. Although stepping back and parrying were ways to stop attacks, fighting on the back foot always put you at a disadvantage in a sword duel.

Stabbing out with my sword was seeking death vs other swordsmen. They would use that opening to either slash at your exposed body, or sidestep and slash at you while you lunged yourself forward.

I practiced each of my slashes in tandem perfecting them to the limit.

"Earth Splitting"

I paid special attention to how Earth Splitting was performed. With Earth Splitting I was making my blade as sharp as possible. Sending my Sword qi throughout the blade to create a powerful arc that could split the very earth. Sword qi was the essence of swordsmanship or the core of my cultivation base as a swordsman.

When I was still fumbling around as Shi Da I didn't notice this. But as a Viscount how could I not notice the fundamentals of a cultivation technique used by a Knight.

By only practicing sword techniques you generated a blanket of sword qi around your body. My body was constantly being tempered by this sword qi blanket, allowing it to breakthrough in realms. Only through increasing the purity of my sword qi by understanding the Sword Dao could I continue to push through realms.

Shi Da's shameless master was truly a mad man to come up with this technique. The only reason Shi Da could practice it was he had never practiced any internal cultivation before. This sword qi generated was toxic. It was wild and unrestrained.

Normally cultivators just channeled their sword qi within their sword utilizing the Sword Dao as a weapon, with this technique you were the Sword Dao. It was simply insane, in battle you could only use one Dao. I know my mother preached that one Dao could shatter a thousand Daos, but with this technique, you were cutting off all paths of retreat.

At my core, I was a Devil who focused on Soul Dao. I could never give up my pursuit of the Devil or Soul Dao to practice such a technique. Even though I had learned the Fire Dao to protect myself when I was weaker, I still saw it as an Auxiliary Dao. Debating this point is meaningless, I'll just ask Dex when I return to my body, he should have an answer.

I'll put my faith in the Codex of Souls being able to repair this technique for me.

So every technique I had used thus far used a different waveform of sword qi to attack. Earth Shattering should not be more powerful than Earth Splitting. Shi Da was just too stupid to notice the meaning behind the attacks. Earth Splitting was a clean and precise attack.

The more focused you could channel your sword qi the stronger this attack would become. Earth Shattering was an area of effect wave attack. Since it was more chaotic it was easier to make the attack more powerful. Earth Splitting… Earth Shattering… How else could I utilize my sword qi in a waveform to attack?

I tried to transform my sword qi into a new type of waveform but it was a waste of time. None of them were more effective than Earth Splitting or Earth Shattering. I just couldn't figure it out yet, my understanding of the Sword Dao simply wasn't enough.

I surmised I had not tempered enough sword qi to be able to use a new waveform attack. The way this technique evolve was through tempering. Once you had generated enough sword qi you could then learn a new waveform and breakthrough.

Earth Splitting and Earth Shattering were the limits for me.

I redoubled my efforts the next week by mastering Earth Shattering and perfecting Earth Splitting. Earth Splitting was no longer second fiddle to my Earth Shattering. After a while, I found I could no longer improve my sword qi. Only through battle could my sword qi be tempered further.

It was time for me to head out and find a worthy opponent to temper my blade!