Gateway of Immortality

After planting the Nine-Illusion Heavenly Orchid, Qin Sang sealed off his cave dwelling and took out his Five-Elemental Breaking Sword. Once he had refined it, he set it aside, withdrew his spiritual consciousness, and began studying the Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment.

The Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment, a fragmented art, consisted of five stages. The first stage guided the practitioner through the process of drawing the sword into the primordial spirit, nourishing the sword with the primordial spirit, and visualizing a killing symbol. The path of true cultivation only began with the second stage. The second through fourth stages corresponded to the Foundation Building Realm, while the fifth stage corresponded to the early stage of Golden Core Realm. Beyond that, the art was incomplete.

Just reading through the process for the first stage was enough to make one’s scalp tingle.

Qin Sang read through the entire method. Although he had the protection of the Jade Buddha, which prevented his mind from being eroded by the intent of slaughter, he still felt uneasy.

To draw the sword into the spirit, the primordial spirit first had to endure the excruciating pain of being cut by the spiritual sword. When the sword was lodged in the primordial spirit for nurturing and began to merge with it, the pain of the sword’s sword qi devouring the spirit had to be constantly endured.

During cultivation, one needed immense willpower to stay calm and focused. Only after condensing the first killing symbol would the control of the sword qi become smoother over time.

Nurturing the sword with the primordial spirit was also a process of refining the sword.

At each stage of the art, one had to visualize the killing symbol within the art, drawing in the purest intent of slaughter into the primordial spirit. Using the primordial spirit as a furnace, this slaughter intent would temper the spiritual sword until the killing symbol was engraved onto the sword's body.

Once the killing symbol was successfully engraved, the sword qi of the spiritual sword would carry an intense killing intent.

In battle, when the spiritual sword was unleashed, its killing intent would explode, causing a terrifying psychological effect. Opponents with weak resolve could even be frightened to death, losing the fight without a single strike.

In addition to this, the killing symbol could assist the cultivator in drawing spiritual qi into the body, thus increasing the cultivation speed. This was the primary reason Qin Sang had chosen this art without hesitation.

Due to his limited talent, he needed to seize any opportunity to improve his cultivation speed. One killing symbol might not be enough to compensate for his lack of talent, but as his cultivation level increased, condensing two or three killing symbols might allow his cultivation speed to rival that of true spiritual root cultivators—something he had never even dared to imagine before.

It was no wonder that Senior Qingzhu had progressed so rapidly in his cultivation. Though his talent was not as poor as Qin Sang’s, the enhancement from the killing symbol allowed him to surpass even true geniuses. However, the price he paid was the splitting of his primordial spirit, leaving him half-mad. His current fate was unknown.

Moreover, the Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment had another requirement for its cultivators: they needed a high-quality spiritual sword that could merge with the primordial spirit, becoming their life-bound spiritual sword.

The killing symbol was the ultimate condensation of slaughter intent.

Since the symbol would be engraved on the body of the spiritual sword, the sword itself had to be of exceptional quality. If the material or strength of the sword was insufficient, the sword would collapse under the pressure of the symbol before it could even finish forming.

For most people, this would mean selecting an appropriate top-grade or high-grade artifact, but Qin Sang intended to use his ebony sword.

The ebony sword was originally a fragment of an astra, and its strength was beyond question, though it still didn’t fully meet the method’s requirements.

The Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment demanded that the sword’s material be pure to the extreme, selecting only one from the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. A mixture of materials could not withstand the pressure of the killing symbol.

The ebony sword had later been re-refined by a master craftsman of the Song Family, allowing it to be used by a Foundation Building cultivator. However, this process had introduced many impurities into the sword, and its quality was now far inferior to that of a true astra. All of these impurities would need to be slowly refined away by Qin Sang as he nourished the sword with his primordial spirit.

Based on Qin Sang's estimation, the ebony sword should be able to withstand at least two killing symbols, which would support his breakthrough to the middle stage of Foundation Building Realm.

Once all the impurities in the ebony sword had been refined, transforming it into a sword embryo, Qin Sang would need to collect as many spiritual woods as possible, refining them little by little into the sword embryo to strengthen the ebony sword.

According to the art, once the ebony sword had absorbed enough spiritual wood, and if its material was strong enough, by the time he reached the fourth stage of cultivation—the late stage of Foundation Building Realm—after engraving the fourth killing symbol, the power of the spiritual sword would rival that of an astra.

This spiritual sword would also become one of his life-bound astra after he broke through to the Golden Core Realm.

The reason it was considered "one of" his life-bound astra was due to another remarkable feature of the Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment: after breaking through to the Golden Core Realm, the spiritual sword nurtured by the primordial spirit would not take up a slot for a life-bound astra.

If the cultivator had sufficient wealth, they could still refine another life-bound astra, which could be stored in their dantian and nurtured with Pill Fire[1].

However, since the Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment was a fragmented text, it lacked any further methods after the middle stage of Golden Core Realm. If one wished to switch to another art, they would have to abandon their life-bound spiritual sword, reducing it to an ordinary astra.

Of course, this wasn't something Qin Sang needed to consider at the moment. The mere thought of possessing a life-bound spiritual sword that could rival an astra in the Foundation Building Realm was enough to make his mouth water.

After the ebony sword had all its impurities refined out, only a small fragment of an astra would remain, and the gap between it and a true astra was immeasurable. How much wood-based spiritual material would be needed to reach the level of an astra?

After obtaining the Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment, Qin Sang took the opportunity to research some records about refining astra at Treasure Tower Peak.

Even Golden Core Realm cultivators, when refining their life-bound astra, had to travel across the world, entering dangerous secret realms, and spend ten or even dozens of years just barely gathering enough spiritual materials.

Some Golden Core Realm cultivators still used top-grade artifacts or talisman astras just to keep up appearances.

Qin Sang, still in the Foundation Building Realm, even if he stopped cultivating and spent years constantly traveling, might be lucky enough to gather enough spiritual wood in his lifetime. But if he sacrificed all his cultivation time for that, what good would having an astra be?

Unless Qin Sang could find one of the ten legendary divine woods of the cultivation world, only then might he be able to achieve success in one stroke, possessing a spiritual sword in the Foundation Building Realm that could rival a true astra.

Yet, those ten divine woods existed only in ancient texts and legends. Even if they once existed in the mortal world, it was in the ancient times when spiritual power was abundant, and natural treasures were everywhere. Now, they had long since vanished.

Qin Sang carefully read through the Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment again, paying particular attention to the five killing symbols. They were incredibly profound and came in various forms, but without exception, each exuded a terrifying killing intent.

The first two were manageable, but Qin Sang didn’t even dare to touch the fifth killing symbol with his spiritual consciousness.

If not for the protection of the Jade Buddha, his mind would have been pulled into an illusory battlefield drenched in blood the moment he touched it, with his spiritual consciousness consumed by the terrifying killing intent, leaving him a mindless husk.

Qin Sang sat motionless in his cave dwelling, meditating on the Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment.

Ten days later, he suddenly opened his eyes, his thoughts stirred, and the ebony sword flew out from his dantian, hovering before him.

Recalling the requirements of the first stage of the Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment, Qin Sang guided his spiritual consciousness to activate his spiritual power, engraving runes onto the ebony sword.

Before long, the ebony sword was densely covered in intricate runes, and its form began to change significantly.

Qin Sang gazed at the ebony sword for a long time, his eyes growing resolute. Finally, he took a deep breath and guided the ebony sword into his sea of consciousness, positioning it before his primordial spirit.

1. This refers to fire used to refine pills. ☜

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