Demon Sword Sect’s Undercover
Chapter 285 - 285 284 The Secret of Tongxuan 3 Seeking Minimum Guarantee at the Beginning of the Month

285: Chapter 284 The Secret of Tongxuan 3 [Seeking Minimum Guarantee at the Beginning of the Month] 285: Chapter 284 The Secret of Tongxuan 3 [Seeking Minimum Guarantee at the Beginning of the Month] After familiarizing himself with the cultivation techniques on the fourth floor, he moved up to the fifth floor, which housed supplementary skills.

Instantly, he was astonished by the dazzling array of items before him.

In stark contrast to the sparse selection on the fourth floor, there were at least three hundred kinds of supplementary skills on the fifth floor, covering every aspect of cultivation.

Alchemy, talisman drawing, artifact making, formation setting, pet nurturing, and other external skill methods accounted for more than half of these abilities.

These skills were not only applicable to combat but also provided a means to earn resources.

They were practically standard for every cultivator.

At the very least, learning one was essential to supplement household expenses.

Mastery wasn’t required, but one should at least dabble in them, if only to at least satisfy their cultivation needs, right?

The higher a cultivator’s realm, the greater their need for resources.

Simply put, the difference in absorbing the Heaven and Earth Spirit Mechanism with and without supplementary methods was vast.

If you treat elixirs as mere jelly beans, your cultivation will increase much faster.

Knowing Spirit Summoning and Gathering Formation means you can absorb the spirit mechanism within a certain range, greatly improving efficiency, and so on.

This diversity in cultivation practices was achieved through extensive learning and exploration, which gradually broadened one’s horizons and provided another means to improve cultivation by drawing parallels from various domains.

Hou Niao had no special interest in these things.

Considering that swallowing elixirs would affect his Purple Mansion Vortex and his preference for swordsmanship over talismans, he would likely choose either artifact making or formation setting.

Besides these, there were combat-related supplementary skills, several of which were very important.

For instance, escape techniques, including the standard for sword cultivators – Sword Control Technique.

Of course, there were other escape techniques as well, which shared similarities with those of the Daoist Sect.

For example, the Perception Skill.

Once a cultivator in the Tongxuan Realm has fully developed their Six Consciousness, they can begin to establish their own perception system, which is extremely important.

Body Skills, which involve various Solid Body Skills that strengthen bodily functions from different perspectives and angles.

There’s Blood Refining, Bone Training, Inner Strength Training; including Fire Forging, Thunder Forging, Water Shaping, and so on.

He must learn these three directions to detect enemies earlier, withstand more damage, and move faster.

They are the basic skills for fighting and brawling.

All these form a systematic set of supplementary skills, and then there were some rather special ones that seemed very tempting.

But he knew he should not get carried away for now.

One should eat one bite at a time; he needed to tackle the compulsory subjects before considering others.

After gaining a general understanding of the many supplementary skills on the fifth floor, he finally climbed up to the sixth floor.

Here lay his most important choice – selection of Sword Technique.

It was also the core secret of the Quanzhen Sect.

All one hundred or so sword techniques were categorized based on prerequisite criteria, dividing them into hand-held Sword Holding Skills before developing Sword Consciousness, and Flying Sword Skill after developing Sword Consciousness.

This division was an unspoken understanding within the Quanzhen Sect about the hierarchy of one’s status.

Only the Flying Sword Skill that had developed Sword Consciousness was revered as the treasure of the Quanzhen Sect.

And only those cultivators who could master Flying Sword were recognized as genuine core disciples.

If you could not master Flying Sword, you would not be considered a True Sword Cultivator.

But as an organized sect, they couldn’t outright say that.

Otherwise, where would that leave those cultivators who couldn’t develop Sword Consciousness?

Within the true Flying Sword Skill, further distinctions were made between Extreme Sword and Magic Sword.

The former sought the essence of the sword, with greater emphasis on raw attack power and the capacity for long-distance attacks.

The latter focused on the integration of swordsmanship and spellcasting, more suited for the public and offering greater endurance, allowing for prolonged battles with Daoist Sect cultivators, albeit at the cost of lower burst damage.

This is a broad classification, and within the details, there are many branches; for instance, under the category of Magic Swords, there are techniques like Bihai Chao Sheng Sword, Burning Sky and Radiant Sun Sword, Myriad Wood Eternal Life Sword, Golden Sharp Punishment Sword, Thick Earth Thousand Catties Sword, Thunderbolt Secret Sword, and so on.

Spell is an endless ocean, and when swordsmanship is combined with spells, it’s imaginable how many types of sword techniques can be derived.

Among the hundred or so sword techniques, the vast majority are Flying Sword Skills, and only a small portion are Sword Holding Skills.

When compared, their status within the Quanzhen Sect becomes crystal clear.

There are many Flying Sword Skills, and besides the Five Elements sword techniques mentioned above, there are also Sky Jumping Killing Sword, Cloth Sword Technique, Demon Sound Sword Law, Indestructible Sword Curse, Soul-shocking Sword, Floating Life Illusion Sword, Invisible Sword, Shape-following Sword Attachment, Soul-attached Machine Pulling, Ram Horn Skill, Beidou Star Cutting, Sirius Killing, and many more, too numerous to count, making his head spin.

But he couldn’t possibly choose a specific sword technique direction yet because his Flying Sword had not yet taken shape.

Without a formed sword, what swordsmanship could he talk about?

There was only one basic Jade Scroll that he must take, which every Sword Cultivator who developed Sword Consciousness must have, that is the Quanzhen Sword Form True Understanding.

Quanzhen Sword Form True Understanding teaches how a Sword Cultivator should refine a sword that has developed Sword Consciousness into a Flying Sword, with all subsequent variations deriving from it.

This, he had no choice in.

It’s like no matter how timeless the poetry and essays are, they too need the foundation of a comprehensive dictionary.

Hou Niao tried hard to control himself not to look at those dazzling sword techniques with their irresistible features.

He knew his own temperament; once he delved into it, he feared he might never be able to climb out, and would fall easily into the mental barrier of sword techniques.

Sometimes, intuition might not be accurate, as it is mixed with too many assumptions and childhood dreams that, although illogical, may affect a Sword Cultivator’s judgment.

In terms of Heart Realm, he was still far from mature, a common phenomenon for cultivators at this stage.

It required time and experience to polish.

He dared not look at Flying Sword Skills, afraid of sinking into them and affecting his rational judgment.

Yet, he didn’t wish to leave like that, so he turned his attention to the mere dozen or so Sword Holding Skills, curious to know whether these techniques were developed by Quanzhen Sect predecessors to fill in for those Fake Sword Cultivators who hadn’t developed Sword Consciousness, or if it was an original direction in itself?

He dared to carefully observe this part of the sword techniques, because he knew he was destined not to learn them.

Who would use a wooden branch if they had an iron sword, or care about a lame donkey after riding a fine steed?

Upon careful inspection, he couldn’t help but smile.

As he had guessed, the core of all Sword Holding Skills was teaching how to get close to an opponent.

Since the sword couldn’t fly, distance was the biggest embarrassment for these Fake Sword Cultivators.

The so-called Sword Holding Skills of cultivators in the Tongxuan Realm had a more fitting name, Body Sword Skills.

Combining the person with the sword, Heart Sword Penetration, Sword Wings, Close-range Sword, Nine Curves Flowing Light, Wind Raid, Inner Realm Sword Substitute Skill, Drawing Sword as Prison…

But all these sword techniques boiled down to one core idea: how to bring the opponent within one’s attack range?

Cultivators above the Tongxuan Realm could all fly and maneuver well; they wouldn’t just wait for you to approach with your sword to chop them.

Merely comparing Escape Techniques, they may not be as fast as Sword Control Techniques, but in terms of the variety of escapes, Quanzhen Sword Cultivators fall short.

For example, the obfuscation of Blood Escape, the confusion of Illusion Escape, the invisibility of Light Tunnel, and the intricate routines of Daoist and Buddhist Sects aren’t just solvable with speed.

Therefore, in Hou Niao’s view, if a Sword Cultivator couldn’t develop Sword Consciousness, real combat would likely leave them deeply frustrated to death.