Chapter 136: Each With Their Own Agenda
Eye techniques… Song Yan recalled in his heart that the first time he had seen an eye technique in the cultivation world was outside the Linyuan Marsh night market.
According to Qin Xijun, that senior night-watch brother who called himself “Chen Qi” had cultivated a special eye technique.
He felt somewhat excited.
In the cultivation world, using divine sense to probe and scan for information always left some trace, however slight.
For instance, probing another cultivator’s cultivation realm was very easily detected by the other party.
And in Song Yan’s view, eye techniques were a means of gaining knowledge without needing to sweep with divine sense.
The Sword Planting Art recorded that the Void-Gazing Sword Eye was divided into several stages.
What he could cultivate at this stage was naturally the simplest and most elementary portion.
While the eye technique was active, one could clearly see the flow of spiritual energy in the surroundings and see through the most basic illusions.
It did not sound very powerful, but Song Yan was already content.
He was still in Changping, without particularly good conditions to cultivate the Cloud-Surpassing Intent movement technique, and the same was true of the many sword techniques in the Sword Technique Compendium.
This Sword Dao eye technique, on the other hand, could be attempted first.
However, he was not in a rush to cultivate it either.
Instead, he turned his gaze to a Cosmos Bag at his side.
This Cosmos Bag was identical in appearance to the one he had obtained from Wang Xi during the earlier trip to the Silent Valley.
It was none other than the Cosmos Bag of Shen Huai of the Xuan Yuan Sect.
In the Infinite Hell, to ensure that this person could not use any secret arts to avoid death and prolong his life, he had been beheaded with a single sword stroke, and all the spiritual items on his body had been taken.
Over these possessions of Shen Huai, Shen Yu had later argued with Xu Ziqing again, but the matter ultimately came to nothing.
These items naturally became his own.
He channeled spiritual energy to erase the spiritual imprint upon it, then sent his divine sense inside.
There was truly no shortage of things in the Cosmos Bag.
He sorted through them roughly, piling some useless miscellaneous items and clothing to one side.
Shen Huai’s wealth could be considered substantial; there were over six hundred low-grade spirit stones alone in hand.
What surprised him was that among them was also a single cyan middle-grade spirit stone.
Low-grade spirit stones contained mixed spiritual energy, and there was usually no talk of elemental attributes.
However, with middle-grade spirit stones, the spiritual energy within had distinctions in nature.
In the earlier battle at Peach Blossom Wharf, among the items Qin Ying had let them each choose from, one had been a middle-grade spirit stone.
That one’s color and texture were very similar to this one that Shen Huai possessed.
Song Yan held it in his hand and felt it carefully. The wood-attribute spiritual energy within should have been the largest in proportion and the most refined.
Within a middle-grade spirit stone, there still remained spiritual energy of many other attributes.
But compared to low-grade spirit stones, one particular attribute of spiritual energy was already remarkably prominent.
The spirit stones Song Yan and Rong and Wu had obtained after slaying the talisman puppets in the painted world were pale purple.
Therefore, among those, the lightning-attribute spiritual energy was the most prominent.
If a cultivation technique of the corresponding attribute could be supplemented with a middle-grade spirit stone for cultivation, the speed should yield twice the result with half the effort.
He stored away all the spirit stones.
He turned his gaze to several other items.
One of them was that artifact made up of several copper coins.
Unfortunately, this copper coin artifact had first been damaged by the ghost shadows in the Infinite Hell, and before its damage could be repaired and its spiritual energy replenished, Shen Huai had taken it out again, attempting to block that wisp of Sword Dao true essence.
Now it was thoroughly shattered and completely unusable.
To spend effort and spirit stones finding someone to repair it would not be worth the cost, so there was no need.
Next was that jade pendant.
He held it in his hand and examined it carefully for a while, but did not find anything special about it.
When Song Yan had first killed Shen Huai, this jade pendant had emitted some emerald-green spiritual light, seemingly repairing her vitality.
That was why he had beheaded Shen Huai afterward — she was worried about this very item.
Without further hesitation, he sent both spiritual energy and divine sense into it simultaneously, erasing the residual imprint.
In a short moment, the refinement was complete.
It was a middle-grade artifact with no offensive effect, yet it could automatically channel the stored Azure Wood spiritual energy to heal a cultivator’s injuries during battle.
However, looking at it now, his earlier decision to behead the body for certainty had actually been unnecessary.
Because this jade pendant artifact could only repair some external injuries and restore reverse damage in the meridians.
A fatal wound like Shen Huai’s could not possibly be healed.
Last of all was that hairpin.
This hairpin was agile and treacherous, classifiable as a “needle”-type artifact — it was also the very culprit that had nearly cost him his life that day.
However, Song Yan was not interested in needle-type artifacts.
He put it back into the Cosmos Bag; once he returned to the sect, he would find a place to sell it for spirit stones.
Beyond these, there were also many useful items such as talismans and pills in the bag, which Song Yan transferred into his own Cosmos Bag one by one.
After tidying up somewhat, he picked up a jade slip.
This was something found in Shen Huai’s Cosmos Bag, seemingly a secret art for observing spiritual energy and sensing qi.
This secret art seemed to have been unnamed when Shen Huai obtained it; the “observing spiritual energy and sensing qi” described in the jade slip was…
Quite coincidentally, the Void-Gazing Sword Eye he had found in the Sword Planting Art today also possessed similar functions.
However, it was clear that each had its own strengths.
The Void-Gazing Sword Eye saw through truth and illusion, able to observe the flow of spiritual energy during battle and seize upon the opponent’s openings.
It placed greater emphasis on combat and killing.
Shen Huai’s secret art, on the other hand, placed greater emphasis on tracing origins and tracking.
It could perceive clues through a cultivator’s every gesture and movement, thereby deducing the techniques and secret arts that person cultivated.
It could even deduce what unused talismans and artifacts the person had hidden.
However, cultivating this secret art was extremely complex, requiring one to know the attributes and properties of all manner of spiritual items like the back of one’s hand.
The energy and time required were truly excessive.
After much deliberation, Song Yan set it aside for the time being.
Although he had no intention of selling it yet, he would not consider cultivating it in the near future.
The insights gained in the Infinite Hell had led him to decide to place greater emphasis on cultivation related to the Sword Dao.
To remain as pure as possible, so that he could walk further on the path of the Sword Dao in the future.
Having sorted through everything in an orderly manner, he finally began cultivating the eye technique.
Calming his mind and focusing his spirit, he held to the origin and guarded the unity.
Song Yan sat cross-legged on the bluestone tiles, eyes closed in concentration, slowly adjusting his breathing.
After a moment, he pressed his fingers together and crossed his hands before him.
Spiritual light flickered at his fingertips.
Within the Sword-Forging Palace, the sword qi generating and dissipating around his natal flying sword now surged slowly from his fingertips like a silkworm spinning silk.
Guided by a trace of spiritual energy, it climbed toward the center of his brow.
The first wisp of sword qi seared into the Jingming acupoint.
“Hss—”
His eyelashes trembled violently, and an intense, stabbing pain like needle pricks shot from both eyes.
He hurriedly steadied his mind, enduring the searing pain, and slowly dispersed some of the sword qi.
“The circulation was still too hasty; it nearly damaged my eyes.”
A wave of lingering fear arose in his heart.
The secret art recorded that when cultivating the Void-Gazing Sword Eye for the first time, one must circulate the energy slowly and must not be overly hasty.
Song Yan’s circulation moments ago had already been extremely gentle and careful, yet he had not expected it to still be too fast.
“Hoo—”
Stabilizing his practice, he exhaled softly from his mouth.
“The sword emerges from the void abyss; the eyes are like hanging pearls…”
Silently reciting the secret art’s incantation, he continued guiding the sword qi condensed at his brow slowly toward both eyes.