Chương 28: The Way Of My Blade
Shin Sumi decided against going too far from the chasm to train this time. Constantly gathering Shinsoo while moving was too strenuous to take risks.
"Until I become proficient at cultivating while moving, yellow level spirit beasts are definitely not a good idea. In fact even an orange level might be a bit too much."
She had never been too reckless in the past and now was definitely not the time to start. What mattered the most at the moment was her training.
Shin Sumi knew she had gained a lot of experience from her previous fights but after consideration she thought it would be best to find only low level spirit beasts.
Her plan was to get the maximum amount of beast cores to open her Shinsoo passageways while training with her sword at the same time. She only had a short period of time before the beginning of the Rising Star Tournament, hence why she didn't want to waste time by waiting for her dantian to stabilize her new level of Shinsoo.
For any other disciple it would have been completely impossible to do all this simultaneously but Shin Sumi was unaware of this. She was only really beginning to realize how her level could compare to other people's anyway. But, the excess of confidence that would come when she fully realized how blessed she had become could only have a negative impact on her.
For now it was better for her to believe that she was only a bit above average.
Taking the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword out had become a habit for her. In fact she almost always had it in her hand, only putting it back in her bag of holding when she was sure of her safety.
Holding the sword gave her a sense of security as well as a moral support. Shin Sumi was far from the shy and afraid girl she had once been.
All that said, though, she still proceeded with caution.
For a couple of hours, she did her best to find low level beasts and fight them, looting their red beast cores.
Cultivating at the same time was not easy, her fights with red level beasts now comparing to the ones she had with orange beasts a few days before.
Shin Sumi found herself out of breath multiple times, obligated to stop and sit cross-legged between every two or three fights to keep her dantian from spiraling out of control.
Worst case scenario it could even completely flow out and internally damage her dantian in an irreversible manner, returning her cultivation base to that of a mortal with no chance of cultivating ever again.
Although it was strenuous, Shin Sumi acclimated to it in a relatively short time. She even found herself being more proficient with her use of Shinsoo to power her physical body, using energy with less useless dissipation than before.
As she slowly rebuilt her foundation, her amount of internal Shinsoo rocketed and her battle prowess underwent a gradual change.
It was during this second session of battling spirit beasts that she discovered the strange properties of the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword.
She would usually open the carcasses with Chao Long's dagger and remain immersed in picking out the spirit beast cores from them. By chance as she was taking the core of a Snow White Fox, she happened to cast a glance at her sword.
It was only by seeing the blade of the sword glimmer with the blood as it was being absorbed into the metal that Shin Sumi realized that none of her previous fights had left even a stain on the blade.
"The Gold Tyrant Flying Sword is absorbing the blood!" she exclaimed.
Somehow the sword was changing.
Instead of crushing her target with brute force, the sword had slowly turned into somewhat of a cleaver. It was far from the clean cut expected from any sword, but it was progressively getting there.
Shin Sumi had been mostly puzzled by the fact that the sword didn't show any physical change whatsoever, the rusty blade looking as dull as ever..
"I am on the right track. To obtain a balance between me and the sword..."
Shin Sumi had conjectured it since her visit to the Myriad Sword Pavilion, even before she met the mysterious 'Elder Xi'. His words had reinforced her original idea.
"Just like the Copper Bell balances the types of Shinsoo, a sword will accept a master only if they share a common wavelength. As the name implies, the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword is a proud sword with a lot of intent. It's own personality differs a lot from mine."
Shin Sumi pensively recalled the slow changes of the blade.
"Currently the blade is feeding on the blood of the beasts that it has attacked. By battling constantly, my own personality is changing, tuning in with that of the sword."
She didn't know when exactly the switch had occurred, but Shin Sumi realized that she had come to view the sword as an independent being with its own personality. Only some weapons of a certain quality could ever hope to achieve some kind of intelligence.
By being passed down from one generation to the next by countless experts, the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword had taken on traits from the personality of each one, progressively becoming more than a simple crafted tool.
"For the balance to be perfect, it also needs to follow my personality" Shin Sumi thought.
She remembered the first Purple Devil Hedgehog she had fought and how sad she had felt for an instant when she took it's life in a barbarian manner. Now she had come to view the spirit beasts as just some kind of resource.
Although it was a common thing for cultivators to kill spirit beasts, especially when they were roaming around sects, it pained Shin Sumi's mental state a bit.
There were some limits she had set up for herself, for example by not attacking an animal when it was protecting its family or when it was especially peaceful.
She wasn't a monster and had refrained from attacking a Red Eyes Flaming Squirrel when she saw that it was hiding its babies.
Yes, Shin Sumi had moved from her old ways to match the intent of the sword in her hand.
And as a result, the piece of metal that used to be as dull as a wooden stick was slowly regaining its quality.
"But I need to reaffirm myself in a way that the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword will accept."
Shin Sumi didn't even know where to begin with that half of the process.
She tried her best while she was cultivating and battling spirit beasts in the dense forest beyond the chasm.
With her added familiarity with the natural flow of Shinsoo and the heavy weapon in her hand, she soon reached the level where she could go back to fighting beasts comparable to yellow robed disciples.
Some of the slowest ones she could beat within a certain amount of time, all the while cultivating internally.
For some others Shin Sumi had to concentrate a lot more in order to fair well. Reaching a certain level, the beasts were more resourceful, even cunning at times.
These fights were always a bit risky but also forged better experience. Shin Sumi would then stop her dantian from absorbing external Shinsoo, focusing her whole mind and body on the present moment.
Shin Sumi's other objective, besides her work on the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword, was to open as many Shinsoo passageways as she could.
After a few more days of fighting, according to her own estimates she had enough beast cores to attempt a third opening session.
Because her dantian was functioning at all times, the Flowing Shinsoo breathing technique was much more efficient and had purified all that she qualified as 'muddy Shinsoo' that would impede her further progression.
As soon as she arrived back at the waterfall in the dark chasm, she started cultivating, half immersed in the water.
With all her constant fighting, Shin Sumi had received some light injuries that also needed tending to, and the best and obvious way for that was definitely the little nut's powers when plunged into water.
As her skin reformed after a poisonous Thousand Eyed Vine had bruised her deeply, her dantian rapidly tuned in with her breathing rhythm.
One of the other good aspects of cultivating constantly made it so that it was much easier to achieve a perfect tuning necessary for meditation.
A few more weeks of cultivating the way she did and Shin Sumi knew that she would be able to simply close her eyes and immediately enter a state of proficient meditation, completely disregarding the place she was at.
Shin Sumi ingested all of her refined beast cores at once, continuing Shinsoo opening from where she had left it, this time ramming open the twentieth door in one go.
The energy flowing through her meridians was going strong and although a small portion was depleted with each opened Primal Door, Shin Sumi flew rapidly through the last remaining ten Primal Doors.
She had about twenty five percent of her initial amount of Shinsoo left when she attempted to break open the first Outer Door.
Although the Outer Doors were simply a name given to the second set of openings, from the thirty first to the fifty fourth, it was only then that Shin Sumi fully realized how different they were.
As her Shinsoo made contact with the blocked opening, a loud bang echoed deep in her meridians. The next instant all of her energy that had tried to pierce through was scattered.
Shin Sumi opened her eyes, trembling, a spurt of blood erupting from her lips.
It had taken her by surprise and the entire flow of Shinsoo from her dantian had been destabilized.
A weakness from deep down to her core took over, almost making Shin Sumi faint on the spot.
Not having any other choice, Shin Sumi ingested a dozen high grade spirit stones from her bag of holding in rapid succession. Thankfully they managed to replenish enough of her lost energy to keep her dantian functioning.
The trail of blood from the corner of her lips drying, Shin Sumi entered a deep meditative state, rotating her dantian at full speed until her health was improved.
All of it happened suddenly. A little voice in her mind made Shin Sumi involuntarily realize how important fighting experience was in day to day cultivation.
Listening to only her instinct, she had managed to somehow reduce the internal damage her door opening backlash had caused. In a way it was very similar to how one would react in a fight with a high level spirit beast, countering attacks and preparing subconsciously for a surprise move.
It took a full two days for Shin Sumi to recover. She was nowhere close to full capacity yet but at least all danger had been reduced to minimum.
As she opened her eyes and sighed deeply at her misfortune, a growling from her stomach made its way to her ears.
"I am famished!" she exclaimed.
Cultivators relied heavily on Shinsoo, and in the process of leaving their mortal state towards the Liquid Realm, Shinsoo tended to replace all of her daily needs. It was without a doubt the reason why after Shinsoo Gathering the Honorary Disciples ceased to feel the need to eat and sleep.
But due to the unforeseen backlash, Shin Sumi had been almost emptied and was now facing one of the biggest rushes of hunger that she had ever felt.
Thankfully, she had prepared herself beforehand and had one of the most incredible variety of high quality resources of the sect in the form of her own refined spirit plants.
Chewing on the roots of several flowers one after the other, Shin Sumi quickly satiated her hunger while also filling her dantian with renewed Shinsoo.
Her stock of spirit plants was rapidly diminishing under her teeth, but the spatial dimension pocket that was her bag of holding held an unbelievable amount of seeds of all sorts.
Shin Sumi planted them in the same location as usual, next to the waterfall at the bottom of the chasm. Sadly she couldn't spend her high level spirit stones rashly, since the Rising Star Tournament beginning was approaching fast. All cultivation ressources she could find to aid in her Shinsoo openings was precious.
Shin Sumi thought about the insane amount of spirit stones she had wasted just in order to make her plants grow faster.
"There is nothing to regret. It was all investment to make more plants and make even more spirit stones in the end. I must not spend too much time thinking about it" she sighed.
During the days spent fighting after her last attempt at a breakthrough, Shin Sumi found herself working harder than before.
Maybe it was the fear of a cultivation backlash happening again or simply the thought of all the Outer Doors that seemed like one mountain to surpass after another, anyway she doubled her efforts.
Spirit beasts fell one after the other as Shin Sumi progressed deeper and deeper within the forest.
She never would have thought that she would one day be able to an animal kill in cold blood with one strike of a sword.
"It is all due to the confrontation in the clearing" she realized. "If I had never met the three Affairs Pavilion disciples, I would never have understood what it meant to take a life."
"Now I know that all life is precious. But I also understand that in the world of cultivation, death looms over all. It is after all the law of the strong. Only by reaching the top of the top can I become free of worries."
Without even realizing it, Shin Sumi was progressively changing her principles. What did it mean to be just and act like a saint?
Justice was defined by the victorious. She had understood that point in'Elder Xi''s monologue about the history of the Dark Sky Starry Sect.
Any disciple of the sect instinctively viewed the rival Sky Earth Sect as an enemy since the splitting of the original Sky Sect. The Dark Sky Starry Sect had labelled the Sky Earth Sect as rebellious and had chased them off the land. But if the Sky Earth Sect had won the internal strife... Who was to say what would have happened to the Dark Sky Starry Sect?
Shin Sumi always acted according to what she thought was the right thing. Nevertheless, the right thing sometimes changed according to the point of view.
Pursuing the Dao was in essence a selfish act. Becoming strong was the only way to ensure that one's path was righteous. The emperor's words were law even when they were wrong and everybody had to abide by it.
The last drop of blood from a strange bird with leave-like feathers disappeared from the blade of the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword.
Shin Sumi was panting. The bird had been a strong opponent. As Shin Sumi sliced its chest cavity open, the pure yellow core that shone outwards provoked a small exclamation on her part.
"One more yellow core! This time I have twice as much resources as last time. If I can't open the Outer Door with that, no one can!"
Shin Sumi gave the core to the nut and put the open carcass in her bag of holding. After the previous rush of hunger, she had wished she had a bit of meat instead of just plants. Spirit beasts were known for having a delicious flesh filled with energy, able to enhance one's cultivation.
Besides, she didn't want to simply hunt all these living beings simply for their core. At least she could feed on them instead of just using them to achieve a higher level of cultivation.
There were about twenty days left until Shin Sumi had to go back to the sect for the Tournament to begin. It was time for her to open more Shinsoo passageways.
This part of the forest was completely deserted by all disciples. In fact besides Shin Sumi not many disciples could even adventure themselves this deep into the wilderness. Yellow robed disciples had been waiting for an opportunity like the Rising Star Tournament and were almost all in deep meditation sessions, staying in the best shape possible for the time being.
After all her deambulations, Shin Sumi had become an expert in the area. The little nut was virtually not needed anymore to warn her about possible dangers.
Shin Sumi sat down on her usual rock under the waterfall, setting her breathing and her dantian to the right tune.
Shinsoo Opening could begin again at last.
Controlling the flow of internal energy with more concentration and better ability than ever, Shin Sumi finally felt confident in attacking the first Outer Door.
The mental fight against the barrier lasted for what seemed like a long time inside her mind. She manipulated her Shinsoo flow relentlessly but the door kept resisting like a huge shield immune to Shinsoo attacks.
The door radiated a certain aura inside Shin Sumi's passageways, the sort that went against her own aura.
It was only after her final assault, when Shin Sumi's confidence had started to crumble in fear of another backlash that the door had finally burst. Shin Sumi's Shinsoo was flowing with freshness into a previously unexplored part of her meridians when she realized what had made the door so strong.
In fact she should have recognized the certain aura that had blocked hers and reduced the efficiency of her attacks. Some Primal Doors had also possessed that aura, albeit in a less intense way.
"Yang type Shinsoo!!"
Shin Sumi understood everything now. The obstacle was one of the Yang type openings. Every passageway of the sixty-four total was of one type or the other. Because Shin Sumi primarily possessed Yin type Shinsoo and had even cultivated with almost only Yin type resources, the corresponding doors were easy to open with a single salvo of Shinsoo.
"To break down the Yang type Outer Doors is going to be more trouble than I expected. Unless..."
A crystalline vibration resounded as Shin Sumi had opened her eyes and fetched something from her bag of holding.
"Unless I can change the attribute of my Shinsoo..."
Her small hand was slowly shaking the Copper Bell, making the engraved character shine in the dark.
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