Chapter 1095: Seeing the Spirit Within the Blade (First Update!)
The mute was startled by him, furious beyond measure, glaring at him angrily while making all sorts of hand gestures back and forth.
The blind man closed his eyes, "watching" the clash between Qin Mu and the butcher, and said leisurely: "Mute, you have two eyes but see nothing at all. Let me give you a hand!"
He pressed his palm against the mute's face, covering both his eyes.
The mute was about to knock his hand away, but suddenly his body trembled slightly—he could actually "see"!
He "saw" Qin Mu and the butcher standing there, their bodies motionless, yet their "spirits" were changing in a thousand ways, like streams of flowing light, with ten thousand blade techniques madly attacking each other.
That blade light was so bright, so dazzling. There were long saber momentum like splitting the heavens, delicate knife work as exquisite as flowing water. Their "spirits" were so changeable—in an instant, countless moves had already passed, the battle exceptionally fierce, leaving one's "eyes" too busy to take it all in!
They were like two towering blade gods, using the ultimate blade techniques to verify what each had learned and comprehended!
The mute stood dumbfounded.
At that moment, it seemed he could hear the sound of war drums beside his ears, like rumbling thunder, or like the unyielding cries of countless millions—that was the spirit emanating from within Qin Mu's body!
In a daze, it was as if he had passed through ancient history, seeing in endless darkness a blade of light cutting through the blackness. He seemed to see the history of the ancient ancestors' struggle!
Blade light and sword shadows—one after another, powerful muscular bodies leaped up in the darkness, resisting tyranny, repelling foreign enemies, confronting the most treacherous floods and savage beasts, defying the injustices of that era!
They carried the night upon their backs, blazing trails through hardship. Batch after batch fell, yet from mountains of corpses and seas of blood, batch after batch rose again!
They walked from darkness toward light, from the past toward the present.
The backbone of this people had never once been broken!
The mute watched with boiling blood, unable to help shouting in his loud voice: "Excellent blade work!"
The blind man lowered his hand and said leisurely: "You saw it?"
The mute nodded repeatedly, only then realizing his cheeks were wet—he had actually shed tears while "watching" Qin Mu's blade technique.
He blinked his aged eyes and laughed: "Choked by this water pipe smoke. The smoke is awfully harsh on the throat."
Dragon Qilin cautiously crept forward and whispered: "Two venerable masters, how is this contest going? How come I can't understand it?"
The blind man and the mute glanced at him. The blind man said in surprise: "This fellow hasn't gotten on the table yet?"
"No, not yet."
Dragon Qilin smiled ingratiatingly and said: "Two venerable masters, I can't understand the contest between the Cult Master and Master Tu, but I hear you both praising it. Please enlighten me a little."
The mute took a silver pellet the size of a fingertip from the box and tossed it to him, saying: "Throw it between them."
Dragon Qilin tossed the silver pellet out. The pellet was a divine weapon. The moment it flew to the midpoint between Qin Mu and the butcher, a sudden anomaly occurred!
The silver pellet seemed stimulated—clang, clang, clang—it split apart outward, transforming in an instant into thousands of divine spears!
This was the weapon-forging technique of Yankang, a spear pellet designed by the Tiansheng Academy of Bazhou in Yankang. Countless spear shafts pressed together, precisely forming a perfect sphere!
Yankang's weapon-forging standards had now reached the very pinnacle of craftsmanship and manufacturing precision across all the heavens and myriad worlds, second only to the Zaofu Heavenly Palace of the Celestial Court!
The moment the thousands of divine spears split apart, it was as if they had been struck by an invisible divine blade—spear tip after spear tip snapped off and clattered to the ground!
Then countless great spears transformed into roaming dragons, dancing through the air, attacking Qin Mu and the butcher!
The divine spears were sentient, branded with runes designed by Jiangling Academy, capable of autonomously counterattacking when ambushed.
This kind of divine spear could save its master's life in large-scale warfare, which made it very popular with the Celestial Court, which spared no expense to purchase them!
Yet before the ten thousand spears could descend, they suddenly shattered into countless fragments, raining down like a storm!
Dragon Qilin was startled. Yankang's weapon-forging standards had already reached such a level—it truly opened his eyes. Having followed Qin Mu back through time to the ancient era, the divine weapons and sharp implements he had seen were all crude and rough. Suddenly returning to Yankang, he felt as if he had previously been in a barbaric, ignorant age.
But what surprised him even more was that Qin Mu and the butcher both stood with their eyes closed, yet their invisible blade techniques unfolded with such ferocity!
They stood there, appearing to be in no danger at all, but if one were to step between them, they would likely be shattered into countless pieces in an instant!
"The Cult Master has grown even more formidable."
Dragon Qilin blinked his eyes: "After we stole the Liuli Qingtian Banner and returned to the ghost ship, we left him in the Longhan era. What exactly did he experience during that time?"
He could tell that Qin Mu's dao heart had undergone a leap-like elevation during this period.
The elevation of his dao heart sublimated his spirit, causing his bearing, his vision, and his foundation to grow by leaps and bounds!
This was also the reason Qin Mu could hold his own in the collision of blade dao spirits with the butcher!
Outsiders watch the excitement, insiders watch the craft. Qin Mu and the butcher stood there with no excitement to watch—the only one who could see the craft was the blind man alone.
Under the gaze of his mind's eye, Qin Mu's spirit grew ever more intense, actually overwhelming the butcher within a short moment!
This was the result of experience.
Without the experience of traveling through the Longhan era, without the emotion brought by witnessing the great transformation of history, Qin Mu would find it difficult to nurture this undefeated spirit, this undying spirit that spanned past and present!
"The butcher won't be able to stand still—he'll have to make his move!"
The moment he thought this, the divine blade planted before the butcher suddenly leaped up like a soaring dragon, snatched into the butcher's hand as he struck out fiercely!
Qin Mu's spirit was too strong. If this continued, the butcher would not be able to shatter Qin Mu's dao heart—instead, he would be suppressed by Qin Mu and defeated without even fighting!
That was something a strong practitioner who had entered the dao through the blade could absolutely never tolerate.
Moreover, the butcher sensed that Qin Mu was using his hand to nurture his blade.
Nurturing the blade was nurturing the dao. First nurture the qi—when the qi is full, the blade is fast. Then nurture the blade technique—when the technique is good, combat power is strong.
Then nurture the blade method—attain its method and understand its spirit.
Nurture the spirit and one attains the blade dao!
For a long time, what Qin Mu lacked was not insufficiency in enlightenment, nor insufficiency in blade technique, but rather his failure to understand the spirit contained within the blade dao.
Now his spirit had arrived. But merely having his spirit touch the blade dao was not enough.
To enter the dao through the blade, comprehension alone would not suffice—he must wield the blade.
His spirit was like a seed that had not yet sprouted, growing only within its shell. He needed pressure—greater, more powerful pressure.
And the butcher drawing his blade was precisely giving him that pressure!
The butcher had always been the harshest teacher in the Crippled Elder Village. Every time he taught Qin Mu, he struck with deadly force. If not for Master Ma often standing guard nearby, Qin Mu would have been split apart by him a hundred times over.
This time was no exception!
With the long blade in hand, the butcher unleashed the first form of the Heavenly Blade—Night Battle, City-Connecting Wind and Rain!
This was a blade technique born of the battlefield. In the butcher's era, the best weapon to bring to war was the blade—fast as thunder, hand rising and blade falling. On the killing field, only those with the fastest blades could survive!
As one who had comprehended the Nine Heavens of the Blade Dao before even becoming a god, by the era of the Yankang Reform, his mastery of blade technique had advanced by leaps and bounds!
Serving as this whetstone, he could absolutely grind Qin Mu's blade until it gleamed bright, until it was incomparably sharp!