The blade shuddered.
A dark sheen ran across its surface and bled downward like liquid shadow. The colour shifted from red… to orange… and finally to a shine of a pure, radiant white.
At first, the air around them turned suffocating. Lian felt as if invisible hands were wrapped around his throat.
"Hufff....Hufff." he struggled to breath his hands around his neck.
.....
Calm!
The crushing aura vanished. The violent Qi around the grey entity settled into an eerie stillness.
"Stare… and behold the absolute beauty. May your heart be pure and your strike true. Now roar, Guǐ Shā Shǒu."
As the words left his mouth, petals began to bloom behind him, drifting silently through the air like falling memories.
"If you still do not understand by the tenth blade… You will die."
The entity's entire presence changed. He no longer felt sharp or violent.
He felt… inevitable.
"So that is Guǐ Shā Shǒu's true form…" Lian muttered.
All the murderous energy it once carried was gone. The sword simply existed. Quiet. Unassuming.
Yet he could almost hear it.
His eyes dimmed to grey as Qi rose from his dantian.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
His heart began pounding wildly.
"What is this feeling…?" he whispered, clutching his chest. It felt hot. Heavy.
"Nice…" the entity murmured under his breath.
He began tracing the sword through the air. At certain intervals, he paused—and at each stop, a dense sphere of Qi remained suspended in place.
Lian's eyes widened.
"That's—"
"Yeah… you should recognise it," the grey entity said calmly.
"All the laws you managed to learn, your understanding of them was shallow. You let the lotus do all the work for you. Let me show you how they are truly used."
The massive spheres of Qi began to change.
They folded inward… then bloomed.
Lotuses.
Each one radiated a different law.
One burned with deep orange flame.
Another exhaled white frost that made the air tremble.
A third crackled with violent lightning.
The last was dense and heavy, formed from earth itself.
"Shit!!" Lian gasped as the petals expanded.
"Seven Heavens Technique First Form: Asura Lotus Bloom."
The moment the entity whispered it, the petals shot toward Lian one after another like descending moons.
Lian vanished backwards using the Fleeting Shadow Technique.
The place where the petals struck turned into a catastrophe.
Flame devoured the ground endlessly, turning the air unbearably hot.
Frost spread in the opposite direction, making the air painfully cold.
Two extremes of weather collided in a single space.
"I have to end this now… I just hope this works."
He planted his feet firmly and looked up as the remaining petals loomed overhead, ready to crush him.
BOOM!
The earth petal slammed into him, his body became unbearably heavy, as if the world itself was pressing him into the ground.
Just then,
He brought his palms together.
"Ahhhhhhh!" Lian screamed, forcing himself to steady his stance.
His hands split apart, leaving afterimages in the air as they moved.
"Sword Resonance… + Eighteen Buddha Palm Technique!" he roared.
In the martial path, every practitioner carries intent.
Fist practitioners cultivate and refine the fist intent.
Sabre practitioners, the sabre intent.
Sword practitioners, the sword intent.
At the highest realm of mastery, they reach what is called the realm of Becoming.
At that level, a true sword master no longer needs a blade. A twig, a straw, or even a finger can serve as a blade that can cut steel.
But what Lian was doing now is different.
He was fusing sword intent into a palm technique.
The result he created something unique that hasn't been done yet.
A palm strike that cuts like a blade.
His palms swept through the air.
The incoming lotuses were sliced perfectly in half and exploded before they could reach him.
"Hahaha… he's done it," the grey entity thought to itself.
"He's nearing the Realm of Sovereign. Once the body finishes the forge, he will break through. How unorthodox… that man Bo is something else."
Outside the mindscape :
The second hammer had already shattered.
All that remained in the Alrick's hand was the hilt.
"Mmm… this is better than I expected," he muttered.
Lian's body no longer looked human.
His skin clung to his bones like thin parchment. He resembled a corpse long dead from starvation, as if the flesh had been stripped away and only a fragile shell remained over his skeletal frame.
The Alrick stepped to the side and lifted a large basin filled with liquor.
He checked it briefly, then tossed the now-empty basin aside.
It hit the ground with a loud crack.
He took a deep breath and exhaled.
Instead of air, a stream of blue flame poured from the Alrick's mouth.
He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a small vial. Inside, a golden liquid swirled, buzzing with ancient Qi.
"Tsk… you lucky brat. I've kept this treasure for over a millennium, and now I'm wasting it on you." He shook his head.
"But you will be my greatest masterpiece. Anything less would be unacceptable."
He poured the liquid into Lian's mouth.
It flowed over his pale skin like shimmering root-vines, spreading, threading, sinking inward.
The Alrick raised the final hammer.
"Secret Art complete: Muscle Forge Open!"
He brought it down.
The hollow parts of Lian's body inflated, lean muscle filling the empty spaces beneath his skin.
"Again."
He struck Lian's chest.
Pannnnnng!
Again.
Pannnng!
And again.
PANG! PANG! PANG!
Lian's toes twitched.
His eyes snapped open, bloodshot, feral. He looked feral like people from the blood cult.
"Hold it in. We're at the finish line now," the Alrick muttered.
Inside the mindscape:
"I see you," Lian whispered.
"You look just like me. You know all my moves. But you're not really me… are you?"
He shifted into a different stance, hands cupped as though holding an invisible blade.
"Isn't that right, Fragment of the Lotus? For a treasure as old as you, it's only natural you'd develop sentience by now."
The grey entity smiled faintly.
"So you can finally see me. Tch… unfortunate timing though. Your body and soul are refining me right now. It seems this is the end."
Its voice carried a strange sadness.
"I would have loved to show you all my techniques."
"Let's end this with the next attack, Lian."
"Hm." Lian nodded.
Between his cupped hands, the silhouette of a sword formed from pure Qi began to flicker into existence.