Chapter 855: Sword Qi And True Qi

"Sever!" A low voice was heard from Lin Mu.

The disciples who just watched Lin Mu split apart a Formation array like it was a piece of paper. They didn't know how Lin Mu had done it, but Jing Luo and Elder Weimin had a clue. 

'Sword intent? He already has sword intent?' Jing Luo thought to himself.

While Lin Mu had started developing his sword intent a long time ago, most of it was hidden within his attacks and was rarely seen. It would silently increase the power of his attacks whenever he used sword type weapons. 

That was also why he used his short sword more often than his other weapons. It was not only a strong weapon on its own, but the extra power from the sword intent made it stronger.

Lin Mu could technically use his sword intent without a sword, but he never did. Simply because it became far too weak to be significant. Of course, it could still cut apart the flesh of a normal person, but a cultivator would be able to resist it with just their normal defenses.

What Lin Mu had done here was slightly different from that. He had learned the limitation of Meld that he had at his current proficiency and knew that if he wanted to manipulate such a complex formation array, it would be very difficult.

After all, it could interfere with his skills with spirit Qi and a formation array usually contained a large amount of it. Thus he could at most affect a few tens of layers at once if he used meld directly.

Thus, to overcome it, he used a different method that he had come up with. After using Meld to 'grab' the space, he used his hand to slash it open using his sword intent. He even used severing heart sutra on top of it to increase the power slightly.

And it truly turned out to be a success.

~Phew~

Lin Mu took a breath of relief and saw the end result.

'It truly did work. The amount of sword intent I could use at once increased as well…' Lin Mu thought to himself.

"Your body has been constantly improving all this time. I reckon you already had the capability to do this, but you simply never had the chance to try it." Xukong suddenly spoke.

"Hmm… after that transformation, I do feel like there are some extra things within me I did not sense before. It's hard to explain them, but they now feel like they've existed for a long time." Lin Mu replied.

"If you were able to further improve your sword intent, it wouldn't be hard for you to condense sword Qi as well. Or more accurately sword spirit Qi, condensing true Sword Qi is beyond what you can do right now." Xukong explained.

"True Sword Qi? There is a difference?" Lin Mu questioned.

"Of course. As you know, there are different forms of Qi in the world. The ones of different qualities, the elemental ones and the derivative one, these are the three types. In the different qualities, you have things like spirit Qi and the Immortal Qi. Then in that, you have the elemental qis and derivative sis.

So there can be fire elemental spirit Qi as well as fire elemental immortal Qi. The same applies to the derivative qi's like Sword Qi." Xukong answered in detail.

"I see. But then what do you mean as True Sword Qi?" Lin Mu asked.

"That is something that comes directly from the sword path. It is not something that one cannot just gain from cultivating normally. It can only be obtained from comprehending the Sword Dao and walking on the Sword path.

True Sword Qi is something that can overpower other types of Qi even if a cultivator is weak." Xukong replied.

"How far does that extend to senior? Like… what can a Qi refining realm cultivator that comprehended True Sword Qi do?" Lin Mu questioned after thinking for a second.

"Hmm… killing someone at the Immortal Realm wouldn't be a problem if someone can truly comprehend and Condense True Sword Qi." Xukong said shocking Lin Mu.

"REALLY?! Then isn't that very strong?" Lin Mu said in a shocked tone.

"It is very strong indeed. But it's not something that anyone can do. A Qi refining realm cultivator gaining True Sword QI is just a hypothetical situation that would never really occur in the universe.

To even start on the sword path, they would need to condense a Dao Embryo and comprehend the traces of the Sword Dao. Which is something that a cultivator can only do at the Dao Treading realm.

And even then, a Dao Treading Realm cultivator would barely be considered to have started on the sword path. It could not even be said to be one step it; it was simply standing at the beginning point.

Comprehending the Sword Path to a point where one can condense True Sword QI would take thousands upon thousands of years. There are many steps that come before that, like obtaining sword intent, then refining sword Qi, and many more that can't be explained to you at this stage." Xukong explained in detail.

Hearing all this information, Lin Mu was both intrigued and shocked. He understood just how much he had beyond him and where he stood at this moment.

"Then if the Sword Path has True Sword QI, do the other paths have their own versions? Like True Demonic Qi or True Beast Qi?" Lin Mu questioned, having comprehended a bit.

"Correct!" Xukong answered. "Every Path will have its own True Qi and it will take comprehending that particular path to gain it. Even gaining True Qi of a single path would be enough to make that person worthy enough to stand on top of the world." 

Lin Mu's eyes glittered as he couldn't help but imagine himself in that position one day. It was an attractive dream, but he also knew it wouldn't come easy. The peak of the cultivation was built on top of harsh hard work and tireless effort.