Chương 50: Chapter 49 – The Power of Swords

Ren rushed to put away the jade slips he had been studying. He had just come across some very crucial information that Bao Hua would absolutely be interested in, and he didn't have much time to spare. It had been three weeks since their gathering, and Hua's expedition was set to leave very soon. If he remembered correctly, then the participants would be assembling even now. Without someone to ferry Ren to and from his mountain to the inner sect, it took him almost 5 days to fly on his own.

Even if he had found some shortcuts and areas not completely infested with spirit beasts, he had only managed to shave off half a day. His flying sword just wasn't very good. In fact, he had been searching for information on how flying swords were crafted and the formations that went into them when he was reminded of another such query he had intended to look into for Hua. Ren raced on foot across the inner sect, which was livelier by the day as disciples emerged from their closed door cultivations.

Near the eastern gate, he saw disciples forming a crowd. He spotted Hua's tall frame and waved to catch his attention.

"Fuuu… I made it!" Huffed Ren, trying to catch his breath.

"Did you come to see me off, brother? You arrived just in time! Aw, were you worried about your poor brother?" Hua said with a smile. He was dressed in traveling clothes, with a spatial pouch on his belt and the Tortoise Defender strapped to his back. The large sword was a lot less shabby in appearance after Ren had repaired and reinforced it. Bao Hua had come by a week ago worried that the blade might not hold up to the rigors of the expedition, so Ren had done the best he could.

But to the enhanced senses of a formation establishment realm cultivator, he could see just how shoddy a blade he had made for his friend. The channels of the sword had many places leaking qi into the air. The durability of the ore was also damaged by their poor temperature control while forging. A novice weaponsmith of the qi gathering realm was only capable of so much. One of Hua's main goals for the expedition was to find better materials for a sword.

He insisted for some reason that Ren be the one to forge it, saying, "I can only trust a blade forged by a brother!" Ren had promised to improve his forging skills by the time he returned. In turn, Hua had insisted on stuffing dozens of talismans he had drawn into Ren's hand as payment.

"I… No, you brute! I have some information that I think you should be aware of. Here. Read it on your journey!" Ren said while shoving a small jade slip he had filled with the information he had gathered on sword cultivators. The accounts written by cultivators over the ages who walked the path all had similarities that Ren had also observed in Bao Hua's path. It was fortunate that this was the Heavenly Sword Sect, and there was so much information about this path.

Cultivators who focused above all else on the sword. Their cultivation was tied closely to their attainments with a blade. It meant that achievement in their sword skills meant advancement in their cultivation. Then, if their skill continued to grow until it reached a level harmonious with the Dao, then they formed a force called "sword intent." The language used to describe this stage and how it was reached differed in each account, but the result was the same. Power.

A sword cultivator's growth rarely came from meditation or cultivation alone. They thrived in actual life-and-death combat where they walked the edge. Each new understanding of the blade was best experienced by their own hands. It was this manner of growth that Ren related to Hua's progress. And if he was right, then Hua would be able to grow even faster if he knew it too. Meditation may not be crucial, but you'd receive more benefits from an encounter if you did contemplate the discoveries afterward.

Luckily, he had managed to give Hua the information he had compiled in time. Not long after, the core disciple in charge of the expedition had everyone line up to depart. Ren bid Hua farewell and watched them leave on a flying sword large enough for all 40 disciples. He turned to head back to the library. This trip to the inner sect had been a blessing not just for Hua but for Ren too.

While studying a collection of spirit plants and herbs, he had found one record of a cultivator attempting to balance the strengths of herbs when grown together. Ren had been intrigued by the entry because he had tried something similar in the past. When he had been developing the Wuxing elemental cycle of compatible plants, he had tried to match their differing attributes so they could grow in harmony and even support each other.

The lessons he had learned from those attempts were the bedrock of the formation he was currently employing on his mountain. This particular cultivator had attempted to take it even further. Instead of matching just the environment and the attributes of the plants, she had attempted to create a garden. According to her, there were more types of qi than just the five common ones of the Wuxing Cycle. So why not try to attain a more complex harmony of many different types of qi?

When he first read it, Ren felt like he had been struck by a bolt of lightning! He lamented how he had failed to reach such a natural progression of ideas. He was already bubbling with ideas when it occurred to him to stop and finish reading before making any more plans. It was certainly disheartening to read the conclusion that the cultivator had failed. And failed spectacularly. She had lost the entire garden, worth almost a high-grade spirit stone, which was worth 100 mid-grade spirit stones!

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Such losses were unsustainable, and she had given up, though she maintained that her idea had merit and she had only failed to prove it. Try as he might, Ren couldn't forget about the possibilities. The idea had taken root, and he found himself wanting to prove to the cultivator of long ago that she was right.

To distract himself from obsessing, he had changed topics to study formations, which was how he ended up reading about sword cultivators. Now that he had conveyed the information to Hua, he was once again contemplating the concept of a garden of spirit plants of multiple qi attributes. The only way he could temper his expectations was if he delayed this project until he had a much deeper understanding of spirit herbs.

If he attempted such a complex undertaking as he was, it would be no better than throwing money into the sea. Ren resolved to wait until he was confident in his knowledge. In the meantime, he had plenty of projects to keep him occupied. At the Hall of Contribution, he spotted two of his customers from the outer sect. The young man and woman were of the same generation as Senior Chun Wei. He had grown a few spirit herbs and plants for them in the past and had been generously compensated for his work.

Ren got to talking with them and found out they had actually become dao companions after entering the inner sect. He congratulated and wished them happiness before tentatively bringing up his services.

"Have you had much success with foundation realm plants? They are a lot more demanding and fussy about their requirements." Senior Biyu asked with some concern, sharing a glance with her partner. Ren understood their apprehension, as successfully growing foundation realm plants while still in the early stage himself would be extremely challenging. Even the few successful herb growers Ren had heard of failed a third of the time. To placate them, he suggested his usual offer.

"If seniors can give me a list of the desired herbs, I shall bring you those that I can grow. Seniors can pay based on quality." In sync, they both raised an eye at him. It wasn't how things were usually done in the inner sect, as the potential losses were too great if one only got paid for successfully grown herbs. Here, the buyer paid for a number of attempts, and if the grower failed those attempts, then the buyer would just have to accept the loss.

Naturally the successful ones got more business and could set their prices. The only reason Ren felt comfortable offering this risky method was because of his confidence in the sutras the piece of tree bark had given him. Ren knew that promising such results always would stand out and possibly attract unwanted attention, but he needed to launch his business. Unless he could show some history of success, he would have very little chance to grow herbs for those unfamiliar with him.

This way, he was guaranteed to get paid for the first few herbs by trusted customers, and in the future he could follow the norms of the inner sect and grow herbs based on a number of attempts. Though they seemed a bit skeptical, Ren had proven his affinity for growing herbs to them before. The pair gave him 4 different herbs they were interested in and wished him good fortune. Ren was happy to have a specific goal to work towards and headed off to begin research after thanking them.

He gathered all the information on the herbs that he could. He also made copies of a lot of the freely available information in the hall of scripture so he wouldn't have to return frequently. Among the jade slips he copied were records of spirit plants and herbs, formations, forging, and lists of techniques and manuals that were offered at the Hall of Scripture. It cost him a few spirit stones to buy the jade slips to make copies with, but it was worth it. With all this, he had plenty to study for a few months.

Before leaving for his mountain, he bought the seeds for two of the four spirit herbs that he had the best chance of growing successfully. It drained his merit points completely, and he only had a few spirit stones to spare. Unless he wanted to harm his foundation and sell some of his precious treasures, this would be his only opportunity to grow the herbs. Back on his mountain, Ren calculated the best place to grow the two herbs. One was a yin attribute Morning Mist Iris.

With the excessive amounts of yin energy present all around, growing it would be as easy as lifting his hand. The other one was a little more exacting. The gluttonous Heaven Swallowing Gourd had less of a qi type requirement and more of a qi quantity requirement. They were used to make spatial treasures, and the quality of the plant directly influenced the size of the subspace sealed into the treasure. Fortunately, Ren had a spirit spring to provide an abundance of qi.

After planting the seeds, Ren performed the dance and chanting of the sutra for both the rain and the soil. By this point, the embarrassing movements didn't even stir his heart. No one could see him here, and even his pets had gotten used to his eccentricities. In fact, even if someone could see him, Ren would still perform the sutra, all the while burning with shame. It was just that effective! Finally, Ren went to check on the Mutating Bamboo Sword he had planted nearly a month ago.

It was looking healthy and strong, growing next to the spirit spring. As a foundation realm plant sword, it would be more durable and channel qi far better. But that wasn't the main reason Ren had chosen it. The aspect that most interested him was how the spirit plant could change attributes in unpredictable ways. Just like the Myriad Path tortoises, this spirit plant could adopt new properties, but the downside was that the environment around it didn't guarantee a mutation of the same qi type.

The spirit plant had many hidden conditions, and it resulted in strange changes, such as an environment rich in fire qi could make it adopt a metal qi attribute. The Heavenly Sword Sect sure used a bunch of strange things to make swords. Very soon it would be mature, and Ren could choose to harvest it and refine it into a blade. However, Ren was planning for the future. If he let it grow past maturity, it would begin to propagate by growing shoots.

This would take away much of the spirituality from the parent plant, but it would give him a few more shoots of the plant to experiment with. The first blade would be weaker, but if he could manage with the temporary blade until the new shoots were fully grown, then he could possibly influence them into a much stronger mutation and thus have a lot more options to choose from. Even the very first blade he had grown had also been a gamble, so why would Ren back away now?!