Chapter 105: Chapter 105: Determination
"Yu Fei... Wake up. You can’t fall asleep..."
It was as if he’d been dreaming, or perhaps just sleeping deeply for a long time. He slowly opened his eyes.
’Yan Sea... and Su Yue...’
’They look so anxious...’
Yu Fei remained dazed for a full five minutes before he was completely lucid.
"How are you? Are you alright?"
Yan Sea looked at him with concern.
Yu Fei offered a faint smile. "I’m fine, Teacher."
Seeing him completely awake, Yan Sea and Su Yue finally relaxed.
Su Yue handed him a cup of warm tea to help him calm his nerves.
Yu Fei reflected on what had just happened in his spiritual space. ’The third Sword Intent core stored within the Cyan Lotus Sword is simply monstrous. This Sword Intent has no form and is impossible to describe. A single strike from it sends all creation into oblivion.’
’Fortunately, while the essence of this Sword Intent was incredibly powerful, the force it carried was extremely weak.’
’Coupled with the fact that my red-grade talent, [Spiritual Wisdom], had enhanced my soul’s quality by a full tier, my willpower wasn’t destroyed by that one strike. Otherwise, I might have actually been turned into an imbecile.’
"Yu Fei, you should stop," Yan Sea said earnestly. "I thought a Grand Completion-level Sword Nurturing Skill would have at least a fifty percent chance of success. You’ve already surpassed all who came before you. Let’s stop your Sword Intent training here."
Su Yue remained silent, her heart filled with lingering fear. ’From my perspective,’ she thought, ’our preparations for his Sword Nurturing Skill cultivation weren’t perfect—Grandfather’s twenty-year-aged Enlightenment Tea still hasn’t arrived—but they were still more than adequate. I never expected it to be this dangerous.’
If Yu Fei had truly been lost to that endless sleep, she didn’t know what she would have done.
She and Yan Sea had weathered many storms together; they were long prepared for the possibility of death. But Yu Fei? A young man with such a bright future had nearly been ruined.
How would she and Yan Sea ever face Yu Fei’s parents?
Yu Fei could naturally see their concern, but he had his own ideas.
"Teacher, Ma’am," Yu Fei said, "I believe I should continue. In my experience, whenever the Sword Nurturing Skill advances a level, the first attempt is always the most dangerous. As long as I can get through this initial round, the rest will be fine."
Su Yue was still worried. She shook her head. "But Yu Fei, you can’t count on being this lucky every time. We can’t take that risk."
Yan Sea nodded in fervent agreement.
Yu Fei rose and drew the Cyan Lotus Sword. It had now endured two rounds of confrontation with his Sword Nurturing Skill. He could clearly feel the Sharpness emanating from the blade was stronger, yet its essence seemed to have weakened considerably.
After studying it for a moment, Yu Fei sheathed the sword, his tone becoming calm and self-assured.
"Teacher, Ma’am, neither of you has cultivated Sword Intent. That’s why you don’t understand Sword Cultivators."
The young man’s gaze burned as he looked at them, his words carrying the unexpected air of a master!
"I have a premonition. If I give up now, it will be incredibly difficult to advance my Sword Intent to the next level. I’ll likely be stuck here forever."
Though the young man was only in the first realm of his martial journey, he had already traveled far down the path of Sword Intent.
Those who possess Sword Intent are few and far between in this world, and every one of them is an extraordinary individual. Although Yu Fei’s cultivation level was low, the heights his Sword Intent had reached were no different from theirs.
The Green Lotus Sword Nourishing Skill was built upon a strange, unique concept. From the very beginning of one’s training, one had to wage battles of life and death, again and again, within one’s own spiritual space. If Yu Fei’s soul hadn’t been enhanced, he would have been hacked into a mindless fool long ago amidst the endless slaughter.
Fortune and disaster are two sides of the same coin. He had endured the agony of near-mental collapse time and time again, and in return, his Sword Intent had advanced by leaps and bounds. In just a few months, he had covered a distance that took other sword masters decades to travel.
In the space between life and death lie both great terror and great opportunity. Having dwelled there for so long, not only had Yu Fei’s Sword Intent been honed and elevated, but his spirit had also grown more tenacious.
Now, this sword of formless intent had revealed a much vaster path to him. How could he possibly give up?
At this thought, Yu Fei laughed heartily. "Teacher, this matter of the ’Calamity Sword’ is no longer just about whether the two of you can break through to the Grandmaster realm. It’s about my own martial path now. This is my martial intuition."
Hearing this, Yan Sea and Su Yue froze.
Every Martial Artist has a martial intuition. When faced with a critical choice on their path, a Martial Artist will feel a faint premonition, a subtle guidance. If they fail to face the challenge and choose to flee, it often leads to a bottleneck in their cultivation later on.
This sort of thing, however, usually only happened to Martial Artists at the Inner Qi Realm or higher. For Yu Fei to perceive his own martial path so early was nothing short of incredible.
The two exchanged a glance. Su Yue then recalled that Yu Fei could already absorb Yang-attribute Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi, that his body was spontaneously evolving toward a Treasured Physique...
She couldn’t help but think, ’Yan, what kind of monster have you found?!’
SLAM!
Su Yue slammed her palm on the table, making Yu Fei jump. Yan Sea looked at her, bewildered.
"Yan, I think Yu Fei is right," she declared. "Neither of us is a Sword Cultivator. My abilities are geared toward support, and you specialize in direct, frontal assaults. But Yu Fei is different. He may be young, but he already possesses an incredible Sword Intent.
You of all people should know what Sword Cultivators are like. Their martial intuition is exceptionally keen. The best thing we can do right now is give Yu Fei our full support and let him do things his way.
Yu Fei, I’m with you!"
Yan Sea let out a long sigh, and then his expression became resolute.
"Alright. Let’s go all in!"
Yu Fei immediately sat down cross-legged and said directly, "Then, Ma’am, I’ll have to trouble you to help me just as before. Your music is a great help in calming my mind."
Su Yue waved a hand. "No problem. Yan, you stand guard outside, just like before!"
...
Yan Sea had just gotten all fired up, but her words made him feel like he’d burned out in an instant.
He sat on a cushion woven from Wisdom Grass. It was Su Yue’s personal meditation cushion, designed to help focus the mind and achieve enlightenment.
Three sticks of Concentration Incense were lit before him. As the curling smoke entered his nostrils, Yu Fei felt his spirits lift.
He drank down the Soul-Calming Dew and Enlightenment Tea one after the other, and his thoughts grew sharp and active.
Su Yue sat behind a bamboo screen, and the clear, soaring notes of a qin began to sound, helping him purge all distracting thoughts.
Yu Fei sat cross-legged in a meditative posture, palms and soles turned toward the heavens. He controlled the Cyan Lotus Sword, causing it to rise slowly and hover before his brow.
Aided by the effects of the Enlightenment Tea, Yu Fei began to perceive the characteristics of the third Cyan Lotus Sword Intent.
Unlike the first two Sword Intents, which focused on Sharpness and solidity, he could imitate, learn from, and ultimately surpass them.
But this Sword Intent, which could bring space to a standstill and slay all creation—he couldn’t comprehend it at all. Even with the aid of the Enlightenment Tea, as he continuously tried to model his own Sword Intent after it, ten minutes passed without a single spark of insight.
The effects of the first cup of Enlightenment Tea faded. Without hesitation, Yu Fei drank another, keeping his mind in its heightened state of activity.
Suddenly, a flicker of inspiration sparked in his mind. Yu Fei seized the moment and decisively executed the Sword Technique.
"Execute!"
An invisible wind seemed to sweep through his spiritual space. His consciousness was split between two contradictory sensations: one side moved like lightning, while the other was unbearably slow. Everything turned to shades of gray. His Sword Intent once again lost its spirit, slowly dissolving. Gradually, Yu Fei’s perception of the world faded away.
