Chapter One Hundred and Eight: The Conditions for Cultivating the Way of the Sword

Yu Yang was regarded as the most powerful Saint Spirit warrior in the history of humankind, and the Path of Heaven’s Will was actually the very foundation of his strength. This could not help but shock Chu Feng.

At that moment, the Second Elder spoke again. “To even brush against the Path of Heaven’s Will is, one could say, even more difficult than the Path of Martial Dao. Throughout all of humankind today, only the five of us have stepped onto that path.”

Chu Feng drew a sharp breath at those words, never having imagined that such a formidable road actually existed.

“First Elder, what exactly is the Path of Heaven’s Will? Could it be related to the Sword Dao I cultivate?” Chu Feng asked.

The First Elder nodded and said, “You guessed correctly. It was because you achieved some success in the Sword Dao that we discovered its connection to the Path of Heaven’s Will. And you have indeed already stepped onto that path. I said as much in the Saint Trial Grounds before: the Path of Heaven’s Will is inherently elusive and profound, impossible to express or record through words from ancient times to the present. Yet Senior Xiao actually used the sword as a vessel and created the Sword Dao, recording a singular and unusual Path of Heaven’s Will. It is only that for thousands of years, no one has been able to comprehend its mysteries.”

Chu Feng silently nodded. He felt this description of being elusive and profound very deeply. Even though the Sword Dao contained records, he could not truly grasp it in a concrete sense. Only by continuously elevating his swordsmanship and refining his state of mind did he finally achieve a modest success.

The First Elder looked at Chu Feng and asked, “Have you felt the power that is bestowed upon the sword itself?”

“Yes. There is indeed a mysterious force added to the sword, and it was because of that that my combat strength kept rising,” Chu Feng said.

“That is the power of heaven and earth,” the First Elder said. “The path of cultivation actually has three major directions: one is Heaven’s Will, one is Martial Dao, and one is Human Dao. What is called Human Dao is what is now known as Spirit Dao. Martial Dao emphasizes the body, while Spirit Dao emphasizes the spirit body.

“As for the Path of Heaven’s Will, it is the mastery of the power of heaven and earth and the use of it as one’s own. If one cultivates Martial Dao and Spirit Dao at the same time, there is no stacking effect between those two paths. Whichever is stronger will determine your combat strength.

“But Heaven’s Will is different. It has an extremely powerful enhancing effect on both Martial Dao and Spirit Dao. Once the power of heaven and earth is bestowed upon oneself, one’s combat strength will rise markedly.

“Take you, for example. Judging from your body, you are roughly at the early sixth rank of Earth Spirit Warrior. Yet when you reached the realm of wielding the sword with your aura, your combat strength directly became comparable to a late first-rank Heaven Spirit Warrior. That is the effect of Martial Dao and Heaven’s Will reinforcing each other.

“Moreover, from this point on, whether you advance further on the path of Martial Dao or on the path of Heaven’s Will, your combat strength will rise even more!

“It is hard enough to become a Saint Spirit warrior, and even harder to become a ninth-rank Saint Spirit warrior. Yu Yang not only became a ninth-rank Saint Spirit warrior, with cultivation already at its peak, but also advanced very far on the Path of Heaven’s Will. That is why his combat strength became ever more terrifying!”

“So this is the Path of Heaven’s Will!” Chu Feng murmured, his blood surging as he listened.

After that, the First Elder explained many things to Chu Feng.

To attain Heaven’s Will, one must first cultivate Human Dao. The Path of Heaven’s Will is elusive and unfathomable, and there is no specific method for comprehending or cultivating it. Therefore, from ancient times onward, one could only begin to touch upon the Path of Heaven’s Will after becoming a Saint Spirit warrior.

Even then, success was not guaranteed. Take humankind as it is now: Saint Spirit warriors are by no means rare, but only the five elders have truly been able to touch the Path of Heaven’s Will.

Chu Feng, however, had become an entirely unusual existence. He had touched the Path of Heaven’s Will so early, and had already achieved some success in it. No wonder so many Saint Spirit warriors were shocked and envious.

According to the First Elder, Chu Feng had indeed already stepped onto the Path of Heaven’s Will, though his understanding of it was still relatively limited.

At present, for Chu Feng, the power of heaven and earth could only be bestowed upon the sword. The five elders’ Path of Heaven’s Will, however, was different: they had not stepped onto the path through the Sword Dao. Their power of heaven and earth could be bestowed not only upon every part of the body, but also upon various spirit arts, thereby greatly increasing their might.

This was also the limitation of the Sword Dao. After all, the Sword Dao was a manifestation of the intent of Heaven’s Will conveyed through the sword as its vessel.

Yet in the eyes of the five elders, this condition was only temporary. So long as Chu Feng walked far enough along the Path of Heaven’s Will, he would sooner or later break through the inherent limitations of the Sword Dao itself and thus grasp a more perfect Path of Heaven’s Will.

The five elders sighed with emotion. After thousands of years, the Sword Dao that no one had ever been able to glimpse the secret of had finally had its veil of mystery lifted.

However, they did not yet intend to reveal this secret to all the students of the Spirit Battle Pavilion. After all, a classic that had remained impenetrable to anyone for thousands of years was impossible to comprehend casually.

If it were suddenly made public and once again caused a frenzy, it would instead make people ignore cultivation altogether, which would only harm generation after generation.

The Sword Dao was unquestionably a precious secret classic left by Senior Xiao Butian for humankind. The five elders wanted to find the most suitable method for comprehending it, for if the Saint Spirit warriors of humankind could enter the Path of Heaven’s Will through the Sword Dao, it would undoubtedly bring a tremendous increase to the overall strength of humankind.

The connection between the Sword Dao and swordsmanship was beyond doubt.

The five elders examined Chu Feng’s process of comprehending the Sword Dao in great detail, and even investigated in depth his life before he entered the Spirit Battle Pavilion.

At last, the five discovered another issue, something Chu Feng had never mentioned before: he had long since been able to release spiritual intent.

Even the five elders were startled by this. In their view, it was through his comprehension of the Sword Dao that Chu Feng’s powerful spiritual intent had been drawn forth, and the ability to release spiritual intent in turn provided effective assistance in comprehending the Sword Dao.

As for Chu Feng’s spiritual intent, which far surpassed that of ordinary people, the five elders believed it was related to his persistent and unremitting hard training in the past.

In the end, the five elders summarized three crucial conditions:

First, heaven-defying aptitude in swordsmanship;

Second, powerful spiritual intent, preferably with the ability to release it;

Third, unwavering great willpower.

To others, the second condition seemed easy enough to satisfy; any Heaven Spirit Warrior could release spiritual intent. The third condition was also manageable. Though people of great willpower were few, they could still be found. At the very least, those who could become Saint Spirit warriors were all people of great willpower; otherwise, how could mere talent alone make one a Saint Spirit warrior?

But the first condition was simply too harsh. Whenever they thought of Chu Feng’s swordsmanship, which shook the ages, they felt somewhat helpless. How many people in the present age could raise their swordsmanship to the grandmaster level in one or two months? And how many could reach a flawless state of perfection within a single year?

In the eyes of the five, not only in the present age but even throughout all of history, there might not be more than a few. So after some thought, the five elders lowered the requirement for the first condition, changing it to extremely high aptitude in swordsmanship. In their view, if one were taught by a sword god like Chu Feng, then given enough time, even perfect mastery of swordsmanship was possible.

Even so, when the three conditions were combined, there still were not many in the Spirit Battle Pavilion who satisfied them all.

The five elders came up with these three conditions in the hope of selecting a number of qualified students from the Spirit Battle Pavilion to comprehend it, even if it was not their main path of cultivation.

As for Chu Feng, the five elders also discovered another problem. Such powerful spiritual intent, yet he was unable to summon a spirit body. This made all five of them feel somewhat heavyhearted. In the end, however, they did not say anything to Chu Feng, and did not even mention the matter to him.

After the five elders summarized the three conditions, they also made a decision: they wanted Chu Feng to serve as the guide of the Sword Dao. After all, the key to comprehending the Sword Dao was still swordsmanship, and in all of humankind, there could be no one more suitable than Chu Feng.

Once the secret of the Sword Dao was unraveled, it would surely have to be put to use. They also understood that comprehending the Sword Dao was extremely difficult, but with Chu Feng as a guide, the difficulty would be far lower than when Saint Spirit warriors of the past tried to touch the Path of Heaven’s Will, and moreover, the latter began much earlier.

Becoming a Saint Spirit warrior already required a very long time. If not for a prodigy like Yu Yang, it would take decades, even a hundred years. Among the great majority of humankind’s Saint Spirit warriors now, some had already been Saint Spirit warriors for more than a hundred years and still had not stepped onto the Path of Heaven’s Will. Even the five elders themselves only touched the Path of Heaven’s Will after at least ten years as Saint Spirit warriors.

Having Chu Feng as the guide was mainly for instruction in swordsmanship. As for comprehending the Sword Dao, he would merely point the way; whether one could truly step onto the Path of Heaven’s Will would still depend on the individual.

In response to the Sword Dao, the five elders decided to establish the Sword Dao Hall and appoint Chu Feng as its first hall master. As hall master, of course, he would not be expected to come every day and teach people sword practice. After all, Chu Feng also had to cultivate, and comprehending the Sword Dao was not his main path. The students would be selected from the other camps, whose primary focus was still cultivation, so they could not possibly spend every day practicing swords.

The Sword Dao Hall would have specialized masters of swordsmanship as instructors. Teaching sword techniques would still primarily be the responsibility of those people, while Chu Feng would only offer occasional guidance.

It could be said that the establishment of the Sword Dao Hall was to sow a few seeds, a task of great responsibility and a long road ahead. As hall master, Chu Feng’s main role would be to oversee the bigger picture, but all in all, his work would be quite light.

When Chu Feng learned of the five elders’ plan, he was instantly dumbfounded. He knew very well that the hall masters of the various camps within the Spirit Battle Pavilion were no ordinary figures. If he truly became a hall master, would he not become a laughingstock?

Moreover, Chu Feng did not think he had the ability to serve as a hall master.

“This will count as a rare and valuable trial for you. Isn’t your body refinement in need of a large number of points? Being a hall master comes with a salary: one thousand points a month. You can cultivate while you work, and earn plenty of points too. Why refuse such a good thing?” The First Elder coaxed him kindly.

Upon hearing this, Chu Feng’s eyes lit up at once. One thousand points a month—would that not be twelve thousand points in a year? That was no small sum. One had to know that even Long Yue only earned about five thousand points in an entire year. At that moment, Chu Feng truly could not refuse.

“Such a great many points!” Chu Feng exclaimed.

“Take it as a reward for unveiling the secret of the Sword Dao,” the First Elder said with a smile.

And so, before the Sword Dao Hall had even been established, Chu Feng had already become its first hall master.