Chapter 13: Rain Sword Imbued with a Splinter of the Dao
The profound, terrifyingly deep azure light that had swirled within Lin Yuan’s pupils slowly receded, sinking into the vast depths of his Sea of Consciousness. The heavy resonance of his Dao that had temporarily descended upon the courtyard faded, leaving behind the ordinary air of the outer city.
Yet, within Lin Yuan’s heart, a permanent transformation had occurred. The Dao of Rain was no longer a foreign concept he merely borrowed; it had become an intrinsic part of his very being.
To test this newfound comprehension, he needed a medium.
Without a single word of warning, Lin Yuan triggered the movement art he had received for washing his wife’s feet just days prior.
Immortal Cloud Step.
In the eyes of Bai Chen, who was still kneeling respectfully, reality seemed to simply skip a frame. One moment, his Lord was standing three paces away with his hands clasped behind his back. The very next infinitesimal fraction of a second, a gentle breeze brushed past Bai Chen’s face, and Lin Yuan was gone.
Before the young disciple’s mind could even register the disappearance, the breeze reversed.
Whoosh.
Lin Yuan stood in the exact same spot, his posture unchanged. The only difference was that his right hand now casually gripped the hilt of an ordinary mortal iron sword. He had zipped into the bedroom, retrieved the weapon that had belonged to the body’s previous owner, offered a warm smile to his startled wife, and returned to the courtyard—all within the span of a single blink.
Bai Chen’s jaw went slack.
Instant teleportation?!
A wave of shock crashed into Bai Chen’s soul. It was widely known that movement arts were divided by profound limits. Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment cultivators could move fast enough to leave afterimages. Core Formation experts could control the sky and traverse the world freely.
But instant teleportation? Tearing the void and crossing space without physically traversing the distance? That was an ability reserved exclusively for the legendary Nascent Soul cultivators!
He tore through the void! Could Lord Lin be a Nascent Soul expert disguised as a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator? Bai Chen’s heart screamed, his reverence for the man before him shattering the very heavens. But wait... even if it is a flash step, what kind of flash step makes a cultivator completely vanish from the physical plane and reappear without disturbing a single speck of dust?
Bai Chen was profoundly confused, his limited worldview entirely incapable of processing what he had just witnessed.
In truth, Lin Yuan was well aware that it was not actual teleportation.
He had not torn the void, simply because his Foundation Establishment cultivation was vastly lacking, unable to shatter spatial laws. What he had just executed was indeed a flash step, but it was a flash step born of an ancient immortal spell.
When he activated the Immortal Cloud Step, his physical body temporarily assimilated with the ambient moisture in the air. He literally became a wisp of untouchable mist, bypassing any physical resistance. To the untrained eye, it looked like teleportation, but to Lin Yuan, he had simply drifted through the air like a cloud passing over a mountain peak, only accelerated to an imperceptible speed.
This spell is terrifying, Lin Yuan mused internally, looking down at his free hand. And yet, I am only using it in a severely limited capacity. I am fueling an ancient immortal art with mere Foundation Establishment spiritual energy.
He wasn’t entirely sure what the absolute limits of the Immortal Cloud Step were. But he knew, with absolute certainty, that this spell could definitely do more than this. If he were to fuel it with higher-tier qi or the power of laws, he might truly be able to step across dimensions or walk through the gaps between stars. The Millionfold Return System had handed him a tool of the ancient gods.
Pushing the thoughts of his movement art aside, Lin Yuan turned his attention to the mortal sword in his hand.
It was a pathetic weapon. The steel was impure, the edge was dull, and rust spotted the crossguard. If a Foundation Establishment cultivator were to ruthlessly channel their spiritual qi into this blade, the fragile metal would instantly shatter into a thousand useless fragments. It was akin to pouring a raging ocean into a fragile teacup.
But Lin Yuan did not intend to use blade in its current state.
He slowly raised the blade, leveling it before his eyes. He immediately spread out his Divine Sense, wrapping it around the sword like an invisible cocoon.
Divine Sense was the manifestation of a cultivator’s soul, an intangible perception that allowed them to see the world beyond the physical realm. With his three years of comprehension, his Divine Sense was terrifyingly sharp. He peered into the very structure of the steel, seeing the flaws, the impurities, and the brittleness of the metal.
To break a mountain is the work of a brute. To weave a river through a needle is the work of an immortal, Lin Yuan thought.
Closing his eyes, Lin Yuan tapped into his Dao Heart. He recalled the absolute epiphany he had just experienced. The impartiality of the heavens. The rain that falls on gold and the rusted iron alike without discrimination.
If the Dao of Rain was truly impartial, then it would not reject a mortal sword.
Drawing upon his qi, Lin Yuan forcefully extracted a splinter of his newfound Rain essence. It was a conceptual droplet, glowing with a profound, vibrant azure light within his Sea of Consciousness.
With precision guided by his Divine Sense, Lin Yuan slowly pushed this splinter of Dao essence into the mortal blade.
This was an act of supreme delicacy. There was so much he could do to destroy the surrounding area, but because his cultivation was still technically lacking, forcing his will onto the world required a different approach. Due to his newfound understanding of the Dao of Rain, he was able to decipher that he didn’t need to fill the sword with energy; he only needed to change its nature.
Hummmmm.
A low vibration began to emit from the rusted steel.
Kneeling on the ground, Bai Chen watched in utter bewilderment. He had absolutely no idea what Lin Yuan was doing. He saw no massive eruption of qi, and no grand martial arts forms. He just saw his Lord holding a piece of scrap metal with his eyes closed.
Even if the Patriarch of the Bai Clan—a mighty Core Formation expert who ruled the inner city with an iron fist—were standing here right now, he would be equally as confused. No Core Formation expert could understand what Lin Yuan was doing.
What Lin Yuan was doing—infusing a physical object with a splinter of a conceptual Dao—was an operation strictly and exclusively reserved for experts who had begun to shape their own domains!
Suddenly, the rust on the blade began to flake away, dissolving into the air like dust caught in a storm.
The dull steel began to shift, taking on a translucent, crystalline quality. Faint, azure ripples flowed across the surface of the metal, mirroring the ripples of a calm pond disturbed by a gentle drizzle. The ambient moisture in the courtyard eagerly gravitated toward the weapon, forming a fine, swirling mist around the hilt and the crossguard.
The temperature in the courtyard plummeted, replaced by the chilling sensation of a coming monsoon.
Lin Yuan opened his eyes, the deep azure light flashing brilliantly within his pupils.
He had done it. He had successfully dropped a splinter of his Dao inside the mortal steel, elevating it. He had successfully transformed it into a Rain Blade.
Though he was only at the Foundation Establishment realm, the pure, conceptual weight of the Dao of Rain housed within this blade meant that it could effortlessly cut through plenty of defenses. With this sword in hand, Lin Yuan possessed the lethality to face, and even butcher, peak Core Formation experts.
With the transformation was complete, Lin Yuan lowered his arm, the newly formed Rain Blade resting casually at his side.