Chapter 82: Sword Art

On an isolated island, Song Liangxue sat in a lotus position, eyes closed and breathing steady, following a specific pattern. Ye Jun sat opposite her, focused entirely on her.

’She is beautiful,’ he thought, as he then looked down at the bubbles forming around her.

Ninefold Heavenly Yin Sutra +1

Apparently, this cultivation manual was Low-Grade Heaven Rank. A rank that was so rare that many people considered it extinct. But it was real and controlled by big powers.

As the heiress of the Song Clan, Song Liangxue had access to the rarest things in the world. So he wasn’t surprised to see a Heaven Rank cultivation manual on her.

’I can use it.’

He could pick it up, but he didn’t. It would harm him considering it was of Yin attribute. But then he thought about the Mysterious Techniques he had picked up and a thought crossed his mind.

’When I picked them up, they automatically got added to the system as my skills and I got the knowledge of them. Alongside it, I also got the experience of them, as if I had practiced them for a long time.’

That meant if he picked up an attribute, it automatically got assimilated with his being. So if he tried to pick up this manual’s attribute, he would automatically learn it and assimilate with it.

Ye Jun frowned. ’I’ve been picking up things randomly without thinking. I was too reckless. This can go out of hand if I don’t monitor it properly.’

If he picked up contradictory attributes, his body would become a mess and might even explode. There had been records of that happening.

’I need to control my greed.’

Soon more attributes dropped, one colored sky blue and another with the darkest shade. He quickly identified them.

Ninefold Heavenly Yin Sutra +2

Yin +1

The first one was obvious, though he was surprised to see two of them. The second one grabbed his interest more, as he had seen something similar before.

’Same as Yang attribute then.’

Song Liangxue opened her eyes, exhaling cold misty air visibly. She stared at Ye Jun for a moment, then said, “I completed the first revolution of my cultivation manual. Did you discover anything?”

“I can copy your cultivation manual,” Ye Jun nodded. “But I won’t, as the moment I copy it, it’ll get assimilated with my body and soul. At least that’s what my hypothesis says.”

“You are most likely right,” Song Liangxue said, taking out a towel to wipe her face. “Nothing is perfect, so I was wondering about its weakness. This could be it. Let your greed overtake you and it’ll destroy you from within.”

Ye Jun took the towel from her and helped in cleaning her hair. Using Ninefold Heavenly Yin Sutra caused ice to form around her and attract water from her surroundings.

“What about my innate physique?” she asked as she lowered her head. “Also, thank you.”

“I think innate physiques are the odd ones,” Ye Jun answered. “I can’t copy your Heavenly Yin innate physique directly, but I can copy Yin attribute. The same happened with the Yang one.”

She hummed as both fell into comfortable silence. Surprisingly, he liked running his hand through her soft and smooth black hair, and she liked his touch. He could feel it as she leaned against him, her body relaxed in comfort.

“If I have to guess, then you can build your innate physique from the bottom,” Song Liangxue said thoughtfully. “That’s why I sensed so little Yang from you. It’s above the normal range, but still nothing significant.”

“That’s what I think,” Ye Jun nodded in agreement. “It’s like I can assimilate more and more Yang attribute which would evolve my physique.”

“Interesting!” Song Liangxue smiled. “I really envy your physique, you know. As long as you control yourself, it can make you the strongest in this world.”

“Probably, but I’m sure there’s more to it,” Ye Jun said. “For now, I won’t copy anything outside of my knowledge. It can be dangerous, but if my instincts say otherwise, I’ll take the risk.”

By then, Song Liangxue was dried up so they changed positions as she now helped him dry his hair and body. It wasn’t necessary since they could use other methods to dry quickly, but they wanted to bond over such small things.

“What should we try next?” she asked.

“How about you show me some Mysterious Technique?” he asked, enjoying the feeling of her hands. “Of higher rank, I mean. I want to test if the rank determines the time I need to copy it or not.”

That wasn’t something he had tried yet, or rather hadn’t focused on yet.

’I did get three attribute bubbles in two hours for the cultivation manual. It’s less than the ones I’ve collected previously. Much less.’

Song Liangxue was proficient in the technique, so technically he should get more attribute bubbles. That was something he had noticed.

The more proficient a person was in something, the more attribute bubbles they would drop and at a much faster rate.

“Sure. I’ll perform a Low-Grade Earth Rank Sword Style mysterious technique. It’s named Fallen Star Sword Art.”

After their cleaning session, Ye Jun made some distance to give her a clear ground and watched her from the island’s edge.

She unsheathed her slender-bladed sword, eyes calm and focused as the air around her changed, as if affected by her emotions or perhaps the Qi swirling around her.

Before Ye Jun could comprehend her posture properly, she moved and brought down her sword in a vertical slash. Following her will, a dense white streak of light descended from the sky, slashing the pond before her in a straight line.

Water splattered everywhere as waves formed high and spread across the pond. The stream of light itself disappeared into the water below.

“Fallen Star Sword Art. First Form: Starfall Slash!” Song Liangxue’s voice carried over the rowdy winds as Ye Jun just watched everything in awe.

The power of this technique truly amazed him. If he had something like this, he could have ended his match with Ye Chen in a single blow. Though he doubted he could have pulled it off without that cultivation base.

However, soon he noticed something.

There were no attribute bubbles.

“Any results?” Song Liangxue asked, still having her sword forward.

“No,” Ye Jun shook his head. “I think I was right. I do need more time to copy higher-rank techniques. It was easy to do with the lower-ranked ones.”

“Or perhaps it is because I haven’t shown you the full technique,” Song Liangxue countered. “There are four forms of this sword art and I’ve only shown you the first one. Perhaps your innate physique needs to witness the complete technique.”

“I doubt that’s the case,” Ye Jun said, still looking at the pond’s rippling water. “I can copy your cultivation manual even though you completed one revolution out of nine.”

“Fair enough,” Song Liangxue gazed at her sword and said. “Then we can try two things. I’ll first show you the first form until you can copy it. Then I’ll show you all four forms. Let’s see which is faster.”

Ye Jun nodded. “Good idea, but can you sustain such overuse?”

“We’ll just have to see,” she smiled. “I can test my limits this way too.”

Then she raised her sword above her head and brought it down again, still much faster than Ye Jun could perceive. The dark night was illuminated yet again by the streak of light, making the water waves rise high in the pond.

She didn’t pause after that.

Afterwards, Ye Jun witnessed her graceful form performing the Fallen Star Sword Art multiple times. He counted that too to note how much time and how many tries he needed before the attribute bubbles dropped.

’She has practiced this form many times.’

He could see it from the way she moved, the precise control over her Qi and the technique. There wasn’t a change in her expression during the entire process.

Finally he saw a white attribute bubble glistening near Song Liangxue, so he hurried toward it and absorbed it using his newfound senses.

[Fallen Star Sword Art +1]

He closed his eyes, letting the new knowledge assimilate with his mind. There were no other changes, which was expected considering he only picked one single attribute bubble.

Seeing his actions, Song Liangxue paused and asked, “Did that work?”

He nodded in response. “Eleven tries and I did copy it. But as I’ve told before, it slowly builds up. I can’t copy the entire thing at once, so what I got now is a rough understanding of the Sword Art.”

“Interesting!” Song Liangxue sheathed her sword and said. “It’s admirable how ridiculous your innate physique is, but fortunately it has limits we can identify easily.”

“You know the best thing about it?” Ye Jun grinned. “I’ve discovered it just now.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“I can practice the Sword Art without any manual now,” Ye Jun said. “As long as I train hard and comprehend it more. So it means I just need to copy it once before I can access it completely without any help.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep