Master of Kaidan
Chapter 266: The Fruit After Green Leaves and Red Flowers

Chapter 266: Chapter 266: The Fruit After Green Leaves and Red Flowers

The ground was dyed black-brown, the sky seemed to be obscured by dark clouds, and between heaven and earth, the only thing visible was a cold gleam shuttling back and forth, much like a poison dragon ceaselessly reaping numerous lives.

Regardless of gender, age, or species, any creature beneath this cold gleam met only one end: death.

Wisps of Demonic Qi squeezed the last bit of life force from the corpses, then rose like thick smoke, gathering in the sky and wantonly searching for a suitable host; however, the hosts Demonic Qi could capture were often devoured by the poison dragon before it could even begin to erode them.

The boundless Demonic Qi kept swirling, condensing, incorporating all the surrounding stones, soil, and trees into the options for hosts, but soon, this Demonic Qi would dissolve completely due to lack of "nourishment."

It was as if the Demonic Qi possessed intelligence, as it followed the motion of the poison dragon. The Demonic Qi, parasitic on surrounding dead matter, kept reducing as they all gathered together and clung onto the dark armor, yet unable to adhere steadfastly or penetrate, merely waiting for the right moment.

Before this, the prey killed by the poison dragon were their only source of nourishment. As time passed, the lower-quality Demonic Qi was eliminated, leaving only the most refined batch, which became even more concentrated by competing with its own kind and extracting nutrients from the corpses.

Nourished by the blood and killing intent, the poison dragon also became increasingly lively and agile.

If it began primarily as a metaphor, now, it almost seemed to have transformed into a genuine demon, capable of devouring all vitality.

More and more, always more!

Driven by killing intent, Feng Xue’s body continually sought fresh creatures, using their deathly vital energy and resentment to nourish this demonically infused sword technique.

The swordplay gradually broke free from the mere shell of techniques, evolving into a will that drove Feng Xue, driving the blade, all for the sake of devouring more creatures.

It was born from slaughter and could only flourish on slaughter.

But at this moment, Feng Xue was not truly controlled by this power of carnage; he had long mastered "Quiescence in Motion" and "Quiescence in Stillness," with his Martial Arts True Intent already shaped as his True Self, not to mention that the poison dragon was initially released by his own hands.

Now, what was driven by the Demon Sword was merely a strand of consciousness split from the state of "One Thought to God," while his True Self was maintaining a state of Meditation, calmly sitting at his spiritual platform and observing everything in the external world.

Although the Demon Sword proved more sinister than he expected, as long as he stayed inside, there was no worry of being influenced by the killing intent. Of course, this didn’t mean he locked himself away; having the precedent of the Demon Driving Heart Method, he could always apply the mental method of "Wave of Nothingness" to force out any inner killing intent at any time.

At present, he was simply contemplating—the nature of this Demon Sword, the variations of the Demonic Qi, and also how to tame them.

Even the strongest Martial Arts needed human mastery; otherwise, it would be putting the cart before the horse.

"Perhaps, I shouldn’t have used an illusion to perform this sword strike," Feng Xue tasted the nature of the fifteenth strike, resembling a poison dragon, and made a decision.

The Masked Rider Armor, which had seemed almost entirely transformed into a ’scabbard stand,’ suddenly paused, and the roaming poison dragon, as if its neck was clenched, slowly faded away with the blade sheathing.

But Feng Xue was clear—the poison dragon was but an outward form of the technique; the real Life-taking Fifteenth Sword, nourished by killing intent, was the "Sword Heart."

Although that Sword Heart was merely a strand of his consciousness, as long as he didn’t discard it, it would exist forever.

After checking the current state of the Masked Rider Armor, Feng Xue reached behind and pulled out a jelly bottle.

The endless Demonic Qi seemed as if drawn by something, madly surging into the jelly bottle.

However, the amount of Demonic Qi around Feng Xue was truly terrifying now, with less than five percent being absorbed by the jelly bottle before the transformation was completed.

Feng Xue was not surprised by this, and after putting away the "Magic Bottle," he took out a long sword from his Storage Bag - the very one that had initially acted as the "Holy Relic" used to open the gates.

The moment the sword was drawn, massive amounts of Demonic Qi, as if seeing a new host, crazily rushed into the blade, infecting and eroding it.

However, not much Demonic Qi acted this way, with the previous lessons learned, these seemingly intelligent forces were undoubtedly much more cautious.

Feng Xue had no immediate plans to further study these Demonic Qi. Holding the long sword, he strode forward, continuing deeper into Qing Province.

The Poison Dragon was awakened again; the Demon Sword nurtured by slaughter and the Evil Sword tainted with Demonic Qi seemed to also make the very sky mourn.

The Swordsmanship, seeming to have its own will, and the Demonic Qi, apparently with its own agenda, Feng Xue watched as these two wills repelled each other, collided, and compromised, with sparks of inspiration continuously emerging in his mind.

[Revision] Power combined with [Martial] Power, those sparks of inspiration were continually augmented and updated, then transformed and evolved again and again.

"The initial thought of ’Taming’ was indeed somewhat naive. Compared to the demon nature of psychological disorders like that of the Life-taking Thirteen Swords’ fifteenth strike, Demonic Qi is more like a physiological malformation, with mutation being its inherent attribute.

"To make it non-harmful is like trying to make bitter melons not bitter, or stinky tofu not stink. In such a case, it would be better to choose non-bitter, non-stinky ingredients from the start.

"If one wishes to resolve and utilize the Demonic Qi for good, taming is not advisable, but perhaps trying to tame them is worth attempting. Since they seem to be alive, why not treat them as living beings, and the first step in taming them involves removing oneself from their diet."

Feng Xue gradually constructed a more complete Cultivation Technique model in his mind, and gained new insights into the Life-taking Fifteen Sword technique, which can cause the user to develop a "homicidal personality."

The Life-taking Thirteen Swords, the first thirteen strikes are just the roots drawing nutrients, the fourteenth is merely the leaves, and the fifteenth is the blossoming flower.

Behind this blooming man-eating flower, Feng Xue vaguely saw the fruit that had set.

After boundless slaughter, the fruit that was bred, rich with life.

"Is this what they call ’extreme turns’?" Although Feng Xue had guessed this, he found it slightly amusing when he actually saw it because, stripping away those descriptions filled with mystical colors, it was like the greatest medical master, when advancing medical skills to the extreme, also learned how to put people to death.

It’s just that having killed so much and understanding all means of killing, he realized how not to kill and prevent the opponent from killing.

It was not a "Non-Killing Sword" or a "Life-saving Sword," but a "Sword that holds the power of life and death," where life and death were thoroughly understood at that moment, both were controlled by the one holding the sword.

With this thought, the dark Poison Dragon seemed to shed its ferocious scales, the sword, wholly tainted by Demonic Qi was, at this moment, controlled by the Swordsmanship that seemed like a manifestation of slaughter just a second ago.

The intent to slaughter returned to normal at this moment; Feng Xue "walked" out from his meditative space, reclaiming control over his body.

The restless Demonic Qi tried to break free from the long sword, but Feng Xue crossed over a thread of Inner Strength.

That Inner Strength, like feed thrown into a cage, immediately attracted massive amounts of Demonic Qi fighting over it, and Feng Xue’s taming of the Demonic Qi also began at this moment.