28 The Way Of My Blade (1/2)

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.