Chapter 337: Disha Sword Intent (2)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The improvement of his comprehension in the way of the sword was one aspect.
Lu Yuan felt that the greatest improvement this time was actually in his Shapeshifting.
As mentioned before, the essence of a Dharma Idol was the feedback from the cultivator’s heart.
There were only two ways for cultivators to improve their Dharma Idols.
One was to improve one’s state of mind, and the other was to improve one’s understanding of the law.
The former increased the power of the Dharma Idol while improving oneself. The latter increased the power of the Dharma Idol through the method of laws.
The enhancement of the Disha sword intent to the Lesser Celestial Eradication Sword Array was the latter.
Lu Yuan used his inner vision to look into his body.
The blurry Dharma Idol seemed to have become much clearer. The immortal swords surrounding the Dharma Idol had also undergone a considerable change.
The most obvious thing was that many constellations had appeared on the immortal swords.
Lu Yuan roughly sensed that any of his immortal sword Dharma Idols were no less powerful than a peak true magic item now. They were just one step away from becoming legendary spiritual items.
The so-called spiritual items did not refer to a single artifact.
If a true magic item was a magic item that had given birth to an artifact spirit, then a spiritual item was the product that was formed after the artifact spirit grew and completely fused with the magic item.
In Lu Yuan’s own words, true magic items were machines with a certain level of intelligence, while spiritual items were machines with artificial intelligence.
The two seemed similar, but in reality, there was a huge gap.
Although true magic items were precious in the Upper Realm, they were not rare. It was normal for an Apotheosis Stage cultivator to have a few several true magic items with him.
In contrast, spiritual items were different because they were divided into innate spiritual treasures and acquitted spiritual treasures.
Let alone in the current Upper Realm, innate spiritual items were rare even in the long river of history.
At the very least, Lu Yuan had yet to hear of anyone possessing an innate spiritual item.
It was rumored that the sect-guarding immortal sword of the Spirit Sword Sect was an innate spiritual item, the Heaven Extinguishing Sword.
It was a terrifying item that had a certain chance of killing even immortals after making a move.
However, Lu Yuan did not know if this rumor was true or false.
Other than the innate spiritual items that only existed in legends, there were many acquired spiritual items in the Upper Realm.
However, this was only relative to the large number of cultivators in the Upper Realm.
In reality, not even one in a hundred Apotheosis Stage cultivators would have an acquired spiritual item.
After all, the birth of an acquired spiritual item was not something that could be completed with simple forging.
The right time, the right place, and the right people were indispensable.
It was not an exaggeration to call it a natural treasure.
Every time there was news of a suspected acquired spiritual item appearing, the entire Upper Realm would take action to fight for the ownerless treasure.
Lu Yuan felt that his current four Dharma Idol swords were developing toward spiritual items.
Moreover, he felt that these four immortal swords of his were most likely innate spiritual items and a whole complete set of them.
Thinking of this, Lu Yuan felt that he had to be even more careful when he made a move in the future.
Although Dharma Idols were the manifestations of a cultivator’s soul, making them difficult to be snatched, that was only in terms of ordinary cultivators. For an Emptiness Realm expert who had already refined his Divine Void, refining a cultivator’s divine soul was not a problem at all.
Lu Yuan was worried that if his soul was targeted by some Emptiness Realm big shot who wanted to extract his soul and refine it into a sword, he might not be able to escape safely.
Thinking of this, he felt that after the Heavenly Sword Trial ended this time, he absolutely could not walk around casually anymore.
This was because he felt like he was a walking gold bar. Ordinary people could not see how precious his divine soul was, but the big shots could. It was best not to be too high-profile before he fully developed.
Cultivating to the maximum level before leaving the sect was Lu Yuan’s lifelong principle.
After adjusting his aura and returning to his original appearance, Lu Yuan took a sword slave devilish sword that he had not refined and flew in the direction of Swordfall City.
With this sword slave devilish sword as proof, passing the Heavenly Sword Trial this time won’t be a problem at ail.
Sword Slave Forbidden Area, Swordfall City.
Different from the surging crowd when they had come seven days ago, at this moment, Swordfall City was filled with an oppressive atmosphere.
The cultivators who had been eager to participate in the Heavenly Sword Trial and wanted to show off their skills in this trial had now been worn out by life.
Originally, they thought that with their own strength in the way of the sword and their legacies, killing a sword slave of the same level may not be easy but almost certain.
However, the reality was that most cultivators could not defeat sword slaves of the same level in a one-on-one battle.
Only a small number of heavenly pride could defeat sword slaves of the same level head-on.
As a result, the Heavenly Sword Trial became extremely cruel.
Although the cultivators all had the distraught talismans given by the Spirit Sword Sect, oftentimes, they were killed by the sword slaves before they could use the talisman.
Out of nearly a thousand cultivators, only one-third of them returned. Among those who returned, only one-third passed the trial. The rest had only successfully escaped death.
In other words, out of a thousand trial-takers, only about a hundred completed the trial.
A10% ratio might seem acceptable, but in reality, those who could participate in this Heavenly Sword Trial were all people who thought they were talented. Not to mention that they were all Nascent Soul Stage cultivators.
In the Lower Realm, a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator was even qualified to become the patriarch of a sect.
But here, although Nascent Soul Stage cultivators were not bad, that was all there was to it.
In the great thousand worlds, only Apotheosis Stage cultivators could truly be considered powerful.
Nascent Soul Stage cultivators could barely protect themselves.
Even someone as talented as Shen Qing was ultimately stuck at the Nascent Soul Stage and could not advance any further. In the end, he chose to fuse his body with the Dao to reach the Apotheosis Stage.
This was enough to show how difficult it was to reach the Apotheosis Stage.
On the path of immortal cultivation, the further one went, the higher the difficulty.
Moreover, the difficulty was not simple addition, but multiplication.
In the Upper Realm, many did not show their strength before the Nascent Soul Stage, but upon reaching the Nascent Soul Stage, they began to advance by leaps and bounds.
There were also many who were outstanding before the Nascent Soul Stage, but after the Nascent Soul Stage, they became ordinary.
A large part of the reason for this was that before the Nascent Soul Stage, external items would bring great improvements. Whether it was natural treasures, pills, or cultivation techniques, they could greatly help cultivators break through to the Nascent Soul Stage.
However, from the Nascent Soul Stage onwards, the effect of external items on cultivators began to decrease.
The natural treasures that could be effective for cultivators at this stage were no longer things that ordinary people could come into contact with. This led to the fact that after the Nascent Soul Stage, cultivation was almost entirely dependent on the cultivator’s own talent.
Moreover, the talent had to be all-rounded, including one’s bone structure, comprehension ability, mental state, fortune, and so on. If any one of the conditions was not met, it was undoubtedly a fool’s dream to break through to the Apotheosis Stage.
Therefore, there was a saying in the Upper Realm that as long as one was not trash without a spiritual root, even a dog could cultivate to the Nascent Soul Stage with enough spiritual stones.
From this, it could be seen why the various large sects usually arranged trials at this stage.
It was because the Nascent Soul Stage was when a cultivator’s talent could be best displayed.
Lu Yuan stood in the crowd, trying his best to make himself appear inconspicuous.
He observed the reactions of the people around him while thinking about the upcoming stages of the Heavenly Sword Trial.
According to the information he had received, the second stage of the Heavenly Sword Trial was a psychological test. It was also a test of a cultivator’s mental state.
Lu Yuan couldn’t determine what the content of this test was and what his mental state was like.
After all, from the beginning of his cultivation until now, he had never encountered the heart demons that cultivators talked about.
He felt that this might be because his plans for the future were very specific. He had almost never been confused, and every step he took was very stable.
Thinking of this, Lu Yuan felt that the second stage should not cause too much trouble for him.
After passing the second stage, it would be the third stage, the sword intent test.
Lu Yuan believed that this stage was the easiest of all three stages.. If even he could not pass the third stage, then no one else could!