Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

Lin Zhao stood on a protruding boulder, with waves crashing in his face. He raised his hand and unleashed a cyan sword light.

The sword light flew hundreds of feet, cleaving the wave in two. Seawater roared past on both sides of his body, splashing him with spray.

The next wave came, and another sword strike.

Lightning roared overhead, and a storm, carrying seawater, pressed in from all directions.

Lin Zhao neither dodged nor avoided, standing on the giant rock, his sword light cleaving through the waves time and time again, his feet remaining perfectly still.

When lightning struck, he deflected it with his sword; when waves crashed in, he cleaved them in two with his sword.

Amidst the interplay of storm and lightning, he stood firmly, like a nail driven into the sea.

It is endlessly joyful to fight against Heaven, endlessly joyful to fight against Earth, and endlessly joyful to fight against Man.

The endless sea of ​​demonic beasts is a unique geographical advantage that has evolved from this sea area.

Wind, rain, thunder, and lightning represent the power of nature.

Human nature, rules, morality, and desires represent the aspect of humanity.

Lin Zhao now understands a little.

Why did he create this clone, Qinglian?

It's not just about understanding the way of the sword, but also about breaking free from constraints.

Sects have their own order, the cultivation world has its own rules, and people have desires, calculations, and gains and losses. These things accumulate on a person over time and eventually become a constraint.

He should be the one who controls these things, not the one who is controlled by them.

Just like in Kendo, it should be that people control the sword, not that people are bound by Kendo.

He might not be able to do it yet.

But we should have this heart, to embrace the world with our own.

He embodies the spirit of the sword within himself; this is his way of the sword.

Lin Zhao looked down at the Azure Lotus Sword in his hand.

The azure light on the sword flickered uncertainly in the storm, and his handsome face was reflected on the blade.

His face was wet from the seawater, and his hair was stuck to his forehead, making him look somewhat disheveled.

Lin Zhao grinned.

Whether a sword is a weapon of slaughter or a weapon of protection, it doesn't matter.

He can use his sword to protect all living beings in the mortal world, or he can annihilate billions of lives with a single strike.

It all depends on his single thought.

The tsunami is about to pass.

The final giant wave surged in, nearly a thousand feet high, like a mountain rising from the sea and pressing down on us.

Lin Zhao clasped her hands together.

The Azure Lotus Sword hung high above his head, its blade unleashing a beam of azure light that shot skyward.

The sword light stretched for hundreds of feet, piercing straight into the sky from the reef.

He gripped the sword with both hands and swung it with all his might.

The azure sword light met the giant wave head-on. The sword energy collided with the wave, and the sword light, unstoppable, cleaved a huge gash in the thousand-foot-high wave.

The attack spread for dozens of miles, with the seawater being forcibly cleaved open by countless sword energies, revealing the dark seabed beneath.

The reefs and silt on the seabed are clearly visible, and the seawater on both sides is blocked by the sword energy, unable to close for a long time.

Lin Zhao flew high into the sky, soaked to the bone, her robes fluttering in the sea breeze.

But his eyes were sharper than before.

Everyone present could see that his swordsmanship had improved once again.

This is the essence of sword cultivation: the more they fight, the stronger they become. Once they gain some understanding of the sword's way, their strength can advance even further.

That's completely unreasonable.

------

After the storm passed, the sky was still gray, but it was a little brighter than before.

The corpses of monsters, shattered by the wind and waves, appeared on the sea surface, and the smell of blood attracted many more monsters.

The group moved to a nameless, deserted island.

The island is small, and half of it is sandy beach.

Someone lit a bonfire on the beach, and the firelight illuminated a circle of faces around it.

Dozens of Core Formation cultivators sat around the campfire.

We talk about everything.

Some talked about how to temper one's magic domain in a chaotic spiritual environment, some talked about the techniques of monsters for crafting magical artifacts, and some talked about how to condense lightning crystals in a thunderstorm.

There are also various cultivation tips, near-death experiences, and new ideas about cultivation techniques.

The ideas are strange and unusual; some sound unreliable, but others are refreshing.

Lin Zhao also shared some of his insights into swordsmanship, and the relationship between swordsmanship and sword heart.

Finally, Master Mu spoke, and he spoke about the path of cultivating divine consciousness.

It begins with the outward projection of spiritual consciousness during Qi cultivation and continues all the way to the physical manifestation of the nascent soul's spiritual consciousness.

Everyone fell silent.

The ability to manifest one's consciousness is generally something that can only be achieved after the formation of a nascent soul.

Only a very few exceptional talents can achieve the transformation of divine consciousness into physical form at the Core Formation stage.

Master Mu was one of them.

This stage is no less difficult than the Nascent Soul Tribulation. The Nascent Soul Tribulation is an external test, while the transformation of divine consciousness is an internal transformation.

The reason why Master Mu has been able to occupy the top of the popularity rankings for so many years is precisely because of this.

He began to talk about the consciousness of the nascent soul.

After the nascent soul takes physical form, it can temporarily break free from the constraints of the physical body and form an independent point of consciousness.

With this marker, the Nascent Soul's sense of time will slow down, and everything around it will seem to be in slow motion.

It can form a state of super-speed perception, and the time perception of the Nascent Soul stage is on a completely different level from that of the Core Formation stage.

The combination of super-speed and divine sense marking allows a Nascent Soul cultivator to unleash bursts of power several times greater than a Core Formation cultivator.

Nascent Soul cultivators can tear through space and teleport, requiring them to condense extremely strong explosive power in a very short time. This explosive power can only be achieved after the divine consciousness takes form.

Legend has it that the strength of Nascent Soul cultivators is largely determined by their instantaneous burst of power.

Of course, this state consumes a lot of spiritual energy, and Nascent Soul cultivators usually only use it in battle. Only Deity Transformation Heavenly Lords can maintain this state year-round.

Upon hearing this, Lin Zhao finally found the answers to several questions that had been on his mind.

He recalled how, back at Camp Three, Master Kou was trapped inside the ancient yellow bell, and how he cleaved through a Nascent Soul level life-saving technique with a single axe stroke.

Kou Zhenren's divine consciousness probably hadn't fully taken shape yet, but at the moment of the Golden Core transformation, his instantaneous explosive power had already reached the level of the Nascent Soul stage.

He recalled his previous battle with the gray-robed Nascent Soul Dharma Body.

The gray sword energy that the opponent casually flicked out was not infused with much magic power. Even though he used ten times the magic power, it still pierced through five of his shields.

He didn't quite understand where the difference lay back then, but he does now.

With the same spiritual power, the Nascent Soul's instantaneous explosive power is five times that of his.

That's not a difference in magical power, but a chasm in the realm of divine consciousness.

He secretly made a calculation.

Back then, he hadn't broken through in cultivation level, but his understanding of swordsmanship had deepened, and his explosive power was much stronger than before.

If they were to face a gray-robed Nascent Soul cultivator again, the gap would likely shrink from five times to three times.

However, if he were to rely on the Heavenly Heart Dharma Wheel on his own body—he had never actually reached the limit of just how strong the Heavenly Heart Dharma Wheel's deduction and amplification capabilities were.

If we could borrow the power of the Heavenly Heart Falun, perhaps we could barely close the three-fold gap.

Let him reach the combat strength required for the Nascent Soul stage.

Of course, that's a stretch.

The manifestation of divine consciousness is only one aspect of the Nascent Soul's power.

Nascent Soul cultivators can enter a super-speed state at any time, and can use their Dharma forms to push their control and explosive power of spiritual energy to the limit.

He needs the help of the Heavenly Heart Dharma Wheel to barely get close to it.

His abilities are still far from reaching the Nascent Soul stage.

There is only one way to bridge the gap: a fourth-tier magic weapon.

Only a Core Formation cultivator with a fourth-tier magic weapon in hand has a chance to contend with a Nascent Soul cultivator.