The original form of the Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword Embryo was definitely not like this.
Its current form, a ball of Thunder Radiance, was because it couldn’t maintain its Flying Sword shape. It had degenerated back into a Sword Embryo, revealing the most fundamental nature of its power.
’You will be my first Lifebound Magical Treasure. From now on, we will depend on each other and walk the path of longevity together...’
Bai Zichen’s expression was solemn as he split off a wisp of his Divine Sense and attached it to the Sword Embryo.
The Thunder Radiance pulsed once, swallowing the Divine Sense. In that instant, their mental connection grew closer.
His emotional perception of the Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword Embryo became even clearer.
For the vast majority of Cultivators, they could only have one Lifebound Magical Treasure.
One reason was the load on their Divine Sense. Even Nascent Soul True Monarchs couldn’t simultaneously bear multiple Lifebound Magical Treasures.
This was because as their Divine Sense grew, the Tier of their Magical Treasures also increased.
It’s not as if a Nascent Soul True Monarch would still be using a Low-Grade Magical Treasure. If that were the case, refining four or five Lifebound Magical Treasures at once wouldn’t be a problem.
The higher the grade of a Lifebound Magical Treasure, the deeper and more burdensome the connection to one’s Divine Sense.
The second issue was the time it took to nurture a Lifebound Magical Treasure. It was normal to spend one or two hundred years on a Top-Grade Magical Treasure.
And to refine a Spiritual Treasure into a Lifebound Object, it would typically take several hundred years.
For an ordinary Core Formation True Man, it was already quite an achievement to successfully nurture one Lifebound Magical Treasure within their lifespan.
To break this rule and possess multiple Lifebound Magical Treasures at once, one would either need a special Cultivation Technique.
Like the long-lost Fundamental Great Method of the Taibai Sword Sect, which allowed one to refine an unlimited number of Lifebound Flying Swords.
Of course, this was limited to Flying Swords; it wouldn’t work for other Magical Treasures.
Or, one’s Cultivation would have to be exceptionally high, having reached the level of a Divinity Transformation Great Power, whose Divine Sense could already be solidified.
For a Divinity Transformation Great Power, the burden of a Lifebound Object was manageable, and with their long lifespan, they could often possess several Lifebound Magical Treasures.
Other than these, exceptions were rare.
’I’ll have to go back and redeem all the copies of the Daoist Classic Cantongqi from the Transmission Hall. Right now, it’s probably the only Cultivation Technique in the Sect that’s still of great use to me...’
The Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword Embryo had been in Bai Zichen’s possession for decades. Although it had been dormant the entire time and never truly used in a fight...
...the benefits it brought ranked first among all his Treasures.
Once, it helped him heal when he was severely injured. Another time, it revealed its aura, attracting the Moon Xuan Sword to him.
Furthermore, the arcs of lightning it emitted washed over his Dantian Qi Sea, unconsciously purifying his Magical Power and neutralizing Erysipelas.
It even increased the efficiency at which he absorbed the medicinal power of Elixirs to more than three times that of Cultivators at the same level.
His ability to succeed in Core Formation so quickly was first and foremost thanks to his Mysterious Holy Body.
In that case, the Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword Embryo could definitely be ranked second.
Bai Zichen reached out and gently grasped the Thunder Radiance, channeling his True Essence into it slowly. He watched it shift back and forth between extreme stillness and extreme motion.
It took but a flick of a finger for it to go from a condensed standstill to a surging roar.
The Thunder Radiance slowly entered his body through his palm. A flicker of lightning emerged from his fingertips, but it was at most a few inches long and vanished in an instant.
After two attempts, it still quickly retreated back into his Dantian Qi Sea.
’Nourished by more than half of my Pill Qi and moistened by my True Essence, the Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword Embryo should be able to awaken initially in ten years at most. It’ll be no problem to use it as a normal Tier Three Flying Sword... But for it to become my Lifebound Flying Sword, that will take at least a 60-Year Cycle.’
After entering the Core Formation Stage, Bai Zichen found that while he didn’t yet know if the Pill Discussion helped his Cultivation speed, its range of applications had certainly broadened a great deal.
It could even provide a precise timeframe for nurturing a Lifebound Flying Sword.
In that case, the Daoist Classic Cantongqi, which could greatly shorten the nurturing time for a Lifebound Magical Treasure Flying Sword and even had the effect of an Enlightened Spirit, would be of great use.
After all, this Cultivation Technique was a Basic Cultivation Technique of the Qingfeng Sect. It was said that in the Transmission Hall, only it and the Five Crystal Glaze Body were brought over by the founding patriarch when he crossed the sea.
The rest were all obtained through other means and accumulated over generations.
Having reached the Core Formation Realm, the first thing Bai Zichen wanted to cultivate was the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword. Everything else had to be pushed back.
He had long ago decided on the combination of pairing the Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword Embryo with the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword, and then nurturing it into his Lifebound Flying Sword.
This was all to possess a trump card, a super trump card that could threaten even a Nascent Soul True Monarch across a major Realm.
During his Foundation Establishment Stage, he had faced too many situations where he was helpless before Core Formation Cultivators, left only to sigh in frustration. He was desperate to possess this Great Divine Technique.
’Even a Nascent Soul True Monarch with a thousand-year lifespan wouldn’t dare to take a single strike from the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword that shaves off two hundred years of life... Unless they believed their comprehension of the Great Dao True Intent could resist the Power of Time, the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword is an unstoppable sword of law.’
Bai Zichen had a premonition that sooner or later, he would have to face a Nascent Soul True Monarch.
Coupled with True Monarch Tang Fei’s deliberate reminder that chaos was about to erupt in the Northern Domain...
...being able to master the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword sooner would give him another layer of self-protection.
’There’s one more thing. This Great Divine Technique requires a hundred years of a Hidden Sword to be mastered... If I only hide the sword for ninety years before unleashing it, how much power would it have... Does the Fish Dragon Sect have any methods to speed up the Cultivation?’
All of Bai Zichen’s knowledge of the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword came from a Bamboo Scroll carried by Meng Shigui, a Cultivator from the Youlong Sect.
To use the precious and already extinct Thunder Sound Bamboo to refine a Bamboo Scroll, its contents must be detailed and reliable, truly passed down from the Fish Dragon Sect.
If the Youlong Sect wanted to replicate it, they would first have to cultivate another Tier Three Top-Grade Thunder Sound Bamboo.
However, the space on the Bamboo Scroll was limited, after all. It was already impressive that it could clearly introduce the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword.
As for more detailed content, there would surely be volumes of annotated scriptures, compiled into separate books, just like how the various Cultivation Techniques in the Transmission Hall were surrounded by the notes and insights of later generations.
A hundred years was too long to wait. From entry-level to true mastery, the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword required a very long time.
It was not suitable for general Combat and was more like a trump card to deter everyone.
After all, a Core Formation True Man might only have a few opportunities to unleash the sword in their entire life, so they naturally had to be extremely cautious and couldn’t use it as a common technique.
Back when the Fish Dragon Sect dominated the Ten Thousand Stars Islands, they believed no power in the Outer Sea dared to provoke them, largely because of the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword.
Judging from how that Fish Dragon Sect Nascent Soul True Monarch took a Tier Four Nine-Headed Xuan Turtle with him in a final strike before his death, the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword was countless times more powerful in the hands of a Nascent Soul Cultivator.
One must know that the lifespan of a Tier Four Demon Beast was often double that of a human Nascent Soul Cultivator, not to mention an Exotic Species of turtle like the Nine-Headed Xuan Turtle.
Sword-Encompassing Technique, Wood God Skill, Sword Nurturing Technique—the three were activated in succession, each link tightly connected to the next.
A streak of emerald light was successfully generated. The sense of time being severed was even more severe than the previous two times, and the ends connected to form a circle.
Time stood still inside the circle while flowing rapidly outside. Bai Zichen summoned the Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword Embryo to meet the emerald light, preparing to let the effect of the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword fall upon this temporary Tier Three Flying Sword.
Unexpectedly, the emerald light wavered unstably and then suddenly shattered.
The Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword Embryo passed through the afterimage, hitting nothing at all.
Bai Zichen felt the emotions coming from the Thunder Radiance—dissatisfaction and mockery directed at him, its master.
’A miscalculation. I can’t believe I passed the test of the Power of Time, only to fail at casting the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword because of a hair’s breadth of unfamiliarity with the Sword-Encompassing Technique...’
After the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword was split into three parts by an ancestor True Monarch of the Fish Dragon Sect, greatly increasing the chances of mastering it...
...it’s believed that the greatest difficulty the Core Formation True Men of the Fish Dragon Sect encountered when cultivating the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword was surely the mysterious and untouchable Power of Time.
After all, the three separated Secret Techniques were not very difficult to cultivate individually.
Yet when it came to Bai Zichen, because his plan before Core Formation was to focus entirely on raising his Cultivation, he hadn’t invested time in anything unrelated to it.
As a result, he had only used the Sword-Encompassing Technique a total of four or five times since obtaining it, far from the point of being Refined and Masterful, able to execute it with ease.
When fusing it with the other two Secret Techniques, it was off by just that little bit, failing to integrate harmoniously and causing the Divine Technique’s casting to fail.
But the most difficult parts—drawing upon the Power of Time and binding the three Secret Techniques together—he had already accomplished silently.
You have to remember, when he first obtained the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword, he had predicted it would take him decades to master this Great Divine Technique by relying on the characteristics of his Mysterious Holy Body.
Besides his Cultivation having risen by a major Realm, another factor was the generation of the Pill Discussion related to the Time Path.
Comparatively, the latter might have played an even bigger role.
Back then, among the many Core Formation True Men in the Fish Dragon Sect, not all of them could learn the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword easily. Most had to cultivate bitterly for over a decade just to barely reach the entry level.
For Bai Zichen to draw upon a sufficient amount of the Power of Time with such divine speed, it could only be that the Pill Discussion, which was somewhat related to the Time Path, had played a huge role.
It had allowed him to, without realizing it, begin to touch upon the Time Path.
The remaining problem of his lack of proficiency with the Sword-Encompassing Technique was easy to solve.
At most, it would take a few months of practicing the Sword-Encompassing Technique around the clock to master it completely, ensuring no obvious flaws would appear again.
’I wonder who was the first person to create the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword. It’s definitely a Great Divine Technique that transcends eras, and their control over the Time Path must have reached an absurd level... A single sword strike can shave off hundreds of years of a Cultivator’s lifespan, and when cast at the Nascent Soul Realm, it will have even more variations.’
The more Bai Zichen learned about the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword, the more he was amazed by the creator’s talent.
There weren’t many Divine Techniques that could touch upon the Great Dao True Intent to begin with, and the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword stood out among them because it laid out a perfect path.
As long as you had a superficial understanding of the Time Path and had barely touched upon it, you could use the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword as a vessel and spend a hundred years to achieve something that would normally require a near-profound mastery of the Time Path.
「Two months later.」
Bai Zichen breathed a sigh of relief. He had finally found the right feel for the Sword-Encompassing Technique.
Striking while the iron was hot, he cast the Qing Emperor Longevity Sword again.
This time, the emerald light formed more slowly, but every step vividly displayed the uneven flow of time.
The Thunder Radiance flew out from Bai Zichen’s chest, and the emerald light landed right on it, imbuing the Thunder Radiance with a touch of green.
Upon close observation, one could see that the surging lightning within the Thunder Radiance had become even more violent, as if a fast-forward button had been pressed, dazzling the eyes.
’A hundred years from now, you will deliver a strike that will shock the world...’
Bai Zichen swallowed the Thunder Radiance in one gulp. It returned to lie dormant beside his Golden Core, perfectly still.
The Qing Emperor Longevity Sword was mastered. The Hidden Sword began.