Bright Sword Art

"Good!" Ming Ren continued to cultivate. Breaking through the bottleneck after so many years filled him with joy and expectation.

One hour passed, fifth layer middle stage!

Another hour passed, fifth layer late stage!

Half an hour later, fifth layer peak!

He wanted to break through in one go but frowned after circulating Qi once more, as it would take years at that rate. The spiritual energy required to pass through the bottlenecks in his cultivation more than quintupled. His awakened physique and improved One Breath Luminescence art demanded surreal amounts of energy.

Ming Ren already possessed the experience and knowledge for the physique to progress but lacked spiritual energy. The fastest way would be to find more cultivation resources such as spirit stones, monster cores, or pills. Opening all meridians helped, but the easiest way required a good set of acupuncture needles. He checked Yun Lin Xue's spatial ring. It had been refined before, but how could it be enough to keep him away? Refining a treasure bound it with Qi and blood, leaving the owner's aura as a keyhole, but Ming Ren overwhelmed the mechanism with spiritual sense.

The so-called space (or spatial) ring worked as cubic storage for items, creating a small independent space. Such items were rare and expensive. True spatial rings varied in sizes. Higher grade rings created giant spaces, virtually infinite. The craftsmanship needed for such treasure much above the Lower Realms. Most low-grade space rings, like the one in his possession, were fake. They were created with natural materials that carried an innate spatial power, such as a few rare monster species. Only those blessed with innate spatial power or who opened a spatial power linked spirit gate hoped to inscribe low-grade true space rings.

Inside Yun Lin Xue's fake low-grade space ring, Ming Ren found 10000 gold coins, 30 low-grade spirit stones, a few manuals of the Cloud Clan, and two swords. Cultivators traded with mortals using gold coins, and with other cultivators using spirit stones and treasures. One sword was a low-grade first rank double-edged straight sword, and the other an unranked peak sword. Unranked swords were the Body Tempering Realm of weapon grades and first rank the Spirit Sea Realm equivalent. Higher ranks were rare, even Spirit Gate cultivators generally only carried first rank weapons. A weapon at the second rank, equal to the Spirit Gate Realm, would be a great treasure.

Weapons also had their own merits. Other features increased rarity and cost, such as inscribed skills. Runesmiths inserted skills and other improvements on weapons and other materials. Those swords had no attributes or special features. A low-grade first rank sword sold for at least 1000 low-grade spirit stones, while the unranked peak sword 500. Ming Ren was proficient in forging and runesmithing but lacked the tools.

With a flick of the wrist, the first rank sword came out. As soon as it landed in his hands a fearful sword intent surged forth, threatening to slash everything apart. Ming Ren swiftly cut in various directions, each slash with a graceful flow. Several speed-focused techniques composed the Bright Sword art, he only studied those of the Body Tempering Realm with his true body but experienced many other techniques on the scripture.

Cultivation law merits were divided into the former five categories, all interlinked and dependent on each other. Direct damage martial and mystic arts depended on three factors: might, speed, and spirit consumption. Arts were also classified as human, earth, and heaven tiers. Higher tiered techniques were often difficult to understand. Some required other special attributes, true elements, or rare energies, such as mental energy. Merits classified each art inside a tier, and mastery over the art limited its potential. The Bright Fist was a human tier Body Tempering Realm art with low might, medium speed, and high consumption. As an innate light art, its power increased when combined with the True Element of Light.

A Cultivator mastered an art according to its steps: small accomplishment, large accomplishment, great accomplishment, and perfection stage. Progressing in each step required experience, talent, comprehension, and effort. Measuring according to a cultivator's power, the Bright Fist could generate might equal to the first layer of the Body Tempering Realm at its small accomplishment stage. At the large accomplishment stage, it would be equivalent to the second layer of the Body Tempering Realm. At the great accomplishment stage, the third layer, and the fourth layer at the perfection stage.

The Bright Fist could generate speed equal to the fourth layer of the Body Tempering Realm at small accomplishment, fifth layer at large accomplishment, sixth at great, and seventh layer at the perfection stage. Only the spirit consumption of a technique didn't change with mastery stages, increasing with the might it generated. If the Bright Fist had high might, the small accomplishment stage would be equivalent to the seventh layer, large to the eight layer, great to the ninth layer, and perfection stage to the first layer of the Spirit Sea Realm. Cultivation law and arts relied on each other. A high tier art and a low tier cultivation law combination, or vice versa, would not reach full potential.

A low-grade human rank cultivation law often reduced the final output of power by one level because of low Qi might. A cultivator that reached the perfection stage of the Bright Fist could only display might equal to the third layer of the Body Tempering Realm without pushing his limits or other powers. Middle-grade Qi might maintained the balance of power, high-grade increased the power by one layer, and a perfect grade rose the might by two. A high-grade Qi might heaven tier technique at the perfection stage could reach full might equal to the third layer of the Spirit Sea Realm.

However, reaching that level of power depended on several other factors. First, enough spiritual energy to power the attack, something a common cultivator could not have, especially at the Body Tempering Realm, without access to a complete spirit sea. Second, the body needed to withstand power flowing through the inner channels and meridians at a much higher level than his own. A step linked to good body tempering. Third, Qi distribution. If a bird had divine max flying speed but mortal acceleration, it would still take him forever to reach it. If the strike could reach the Spirit Gate Realm but took three days to power up, how could a cultivator use it on a life or death fight?

Other powers and arts could raise the power level of a technique. Examples were innate physiques, elements, or rare energies. And cultivation itself also limited might. Someone at the fourth layer could only reach power equal to its own cultivation without other factors. Only high mastery of an art allowed someone to display its complete might. Cultivation law might and innate physiques were exceptions to this rule. Someone at the fourth layer with a high might art and perfect Qi might cultivation could bring out power equal to the sixth layer, but his body might not stand repeated use, nor his internal spiritual energy be enough. A technique with low Qi might, like the Bright Fist, could still reach that level of power when used by a seventh layer cultivator, but with a lot more spiritual energy to compensate.

It's like spirit beasts in a race that started at different positions, the one with low Qi might at the beginning, and the one with high Qi might at an advanced position. Both could reach the endpoint, but one had it easier. It all depended on whether the practitioner could comprehend the art. Some arts required extreme comprehension potential and specific powers. Cultivation base was still the most important factor in might.

Ming Ren stepped forward and cut in an arc with speed and grace using the sword art of his clan, [Bright Sword First Movement - Flash]. The sword intent from earlier disappeared, the slash only carried the power of the first layer of the Body Tempering Realm. Ming Ren had only reached the small accomplishment stage. A low might technique with middle-grade speed couldn't be the strongest.

Ming Ren repeated the slash once more, powering the technique with spiritual energy to the fifth layer, the same as his cultivation base. Consumption increased a lot. He practiced the technique for a while, the sword art didn't take long to master by using all knowledge from inside the Bright Scripture.

Large accomplishment stage, second layer might, fifth layer speed!

Great accomplishment stage, third layer might, sixth layer speed!

Perfection stage, fourth layer might, seventh layer speed!

After completely mastering the first movement, Ming Ren cut with the same motion as before. This time he circulated spiritual energy inside the body and activated the One Breath Luminescence. The strike carried a might of the sixth layer peak, and its speed reached the seventh layer peak!

Better, but not enough. Ming Ren calmed himself by breathing in. He activated both One Breath Luminescence art and Divine Light Dragon Physique, increasing spiritual energy to the maximum. This time the slash produced strong might, reaching peak of the eight layer of the Body Tempering Realm in might and speed. It drained his spiritual energy completely but there was no harm to the body, the tempering during the breakthrough to the fifth layer strengthened it enough to resist the power of the eight layer. This was already heaven-defying!

A fifth layer cultivator able to kill those at the eight layer, a feat only heard by those Heaven's Chosen sons and daughters of the biggest clans. Ming Ren gripped the sword, full of expectation and pride. His fate already changed.