Chapter 1095: The Spirit Within the Blade (First Update!)
The mute was startled by him, furious, and glared at him, gesturing wildly in all directions.
The blind man closed his eyes, "looking" at the confrontation between Qin Mu and the Butcher, and said leisurely, "Mute, you have two eyes but see nothing. Let me help you!"
He pressed his palm against the mute's face, covering his eyes.
The mute was about to knock his hand away when suddenly his body trembled slightly. He could actually "see"!
He "saw" Qin Mu and the Butcher standing there, their bodies motionless, yet their "spirits" were shifting in a thousand ways, like streaks of flowing light, as countless blade techniques furiously attacked each other.
The blade light was so bright, so dazzling. There was the grand momentum of a long blade splitting the heavens, and the delicate precision of a fine blade like flowing water. Their "spirits" were so changeable that in an instant, countless moves had passed. The battle was extraordinarily intense, leaving one's "eyes" unable to keep up!
They were like two majestic blade gods, using the ultimate blade techniques to verify what each had learned and realized!
The mute was stunned.
At that moment, it seemed he could hear the sound of war drums in his ears, like rumbling thunder, or like the unyielding cries of billions of people—the spirit emanating from within Qin Mu's body!
In a daze, he seemed to pass through ancient history, seeing blade light cutting through endless darkness. He seemed to see the history of the ancient ancestors' struggle!
Blades and swords clashed. One after another, powerful figures leaped up in the darkness, resisting tyranny, repelling foreign enemies, confronting the most treacherous floods and beasts, and fighting against the injustices of that era!
They shouldered the darkness, traveling through hardships. Group after group fell, and from mountains of corpses and seas of blood, group after group rose again!
They walked from darkness toward light, from the past to the present.
The backbone of this race had never been broken!
The mute watched with boiling blood and couldn't help shouting in a loud voice, "Excellent blade technique!"
The blind man lowered his hand and said leisurely, "Did you see?"
The mute nodded repeatedly, only then realizing his cheeks were wet. He had actually shed tears while "watching" Qin Mu's blade technique.
He blinked his old eyes and laughed, "It's the water pipe smoke stinging my eyes. The smoke is too harsh on the throat."
Long Qilin cautiously stepped forward and whispered, "Two venerable masters, what about this contest? How can I not understand it?"
The blind man and the mute glanced at him. The blind man said in surprise, "This fellow hasn't been put on the table yet?"
"Not yet."
Long Qilin smiled ingratiatingly and said, "Two venerable masters, I don't understand the contest between the Sect Master and Master Butcher, but I hear you both praising it. Please enlighten me."
The mute took a silver pellet the size of a fingertip from his box, tossed it to him, and said, "Throw it between them."
Long Qilin threw the silver pellet. It was a divine weapon. As soon as it flew between Qin Mu and the Butcher, a sudden change occurred!
The silver pellet seemed stimulated, and with a series of clangs, it split apart, instantly transforming into thousands of divine spears!
This was a forging technique from Eternal Peace, a spear pellet designed by the Tian Sheng Academy in Ba Prefecture of Eternal Peace. Countless spear shafts squeezed together, precisely forming a sphere!
Now, Eternal Peace's forging standards, both in design and manufacturing precision, had reached the highest level among all the realms, second only to the Heavenly Court's Zao Fu Heavenly Palace!
The moment the thousands of divine spears separated, it was as if they had been cut by an invisible divine blade. One by one, the spear tips snapped off and fell to the ground!
Then, countless spears turned into swimming dragons, dancing through the air, attacking Qin Mu and the Butcher!
The divine spears were sentient, imprinted with runes designed by the Jiangling Academy. They could autonomously counterattack when ambushed.
This kind of divine spear could save its owner's life in large-scale wars, so it was very popular with the Heavenly Court, which spared no expense to buy them!
However, before the myriad divine spears could fall, they suddenly shattered into countless fragments, raining down like a storm!
Long Qilin was startled. Eternal Peace's forging standards had reached such a level, which opened his eyes wide. Having followed Qin Mu back to the ancient times, he had seen rough divine weapons and tools. Suddenly returning to Eternal Peace, he felt as if he had been in a barbaric, primitive era.
But what surprised him even more was that Qin Mu and the Butcher stood with their eyes closed, yet their invisible blade techniques were unleashed with such sharpness!
They stood there, seemingly without any danger, but if anyone stepped between them, they would likely be shattered into countless pieces in an instant!
"The Sect Master is also becoming more formidable."
Long Qilin blinked his eyes: "After we stole the Glazed Blue Sky Canopy and returned to the ghost ship, we left him in the Dragon Han Era. What did he experience during that time?"
He could tell that Qin Mu must have had a leap-like improvement in his Dao heart during that period.
The improvement of his Dao heart elevated his spirit, and his bearing, vision, and foundation grew by leaps and bounds!
This was also the reason Qin Mu could hold his own against the Butcher in the collision of their blade Dao spirits!
Outsiders watch the excitement, insiders watch the craft. Qin Mu and the Butcher stood there with no excitement to watch. Only the blind man could see the craft.
Under his heart-eye observation, Qin Mu's spirit grew increasingly intense, actually surpassing the Butcher in a short time!
This was due to his experiences.
Without the experience of traveling through the Dragon Han Era, without the emotion brought by witnessing great historical changes, it would be difficult for Qin Mu to cultivate this kind of undefeatable, indestructible spirit that spanned past and present!
"The Butcher can't stand still anymore. He must make a move!"
Just as he thought this, the divine blade inserted in front of the Butcher suddenly leaped up like a soaring dragon, snatched into his hand, and he resolutely struck!
Qin Mu's spirit was too strong. If this continued, the Butcher would not be able to crush Qin Mu's Dao heart; instead, he would be suppressed by Qin Mu and lose without a fight!
This was something a strong practitioner who had entered the Dao through the blade could never tolerate.
Moreover, the Butcher felt that Qin Mu was using him to nurture his blade.
Nurturing the blade meant nurturing the Dao. First, nurture the qi; when the qi is sufficient, the blade becomes fast, and the blade-nurturing technique improves. Good blade technique leads to strong combat power.
Then, nurture the blade method; grasp the method and understand the spirit.
Nurturing the spirit leads to the blade Dao!
For a long time, what Qin Mu lacked was not a deficiency in comprehension, nor a deficiency in blade technique, but a failure to understand the spirit contained within the blade Dao.
Now his spirit had arrived, but merely touching the spirit of the blade Dao was not enough.
To enter the Dao through the blade, one cannot rely solely on understanding; one must strike with the blade.
His spirit was like a seed that had not yet sprouted, growing only within its shell. He needed pressure, greater pressure.
And the Butcher drawing his blade was giving him that pressure!
The Butcher had always been the strictest teacher in the Crippled Village. Every time he taught Qin Mu, he went all out. If not for Ma Ye often watching from the side, Qin Mu would have been chopped to death by him a hundred times over.
This time was no exception!
The Butcher held his long blade and executed the first form of the Heavenly Blade, Night Battle Across the City in Wind and Rain!
This was a battlefield blade technique. In the Butcher's era, the best weapon on the battlefield was the blade—fast as thunder, swift as a hand's fall. On the battlefield, only the swiftest with the blade could survive!
As someone who had comprehended the Nine Heavens of the Blade Dao before even becoming a god, his mastery of blade techniques had also advanced by leaps and bounds during the Eternal Peace Reformation period!
Acting as this whetstone, he could definitely grind Qin Mu's blade to a gleaming sharpness, to an incomparable edge!