Chapter 296 : When One Arrives at the Imperial Capital, Sword Heart Reaches Minor Mastery!

Chapter 296: When One Arrives at the Imperial Capital, Sword Heart Reaches Minor Mastery!

When Chu Huaixu left the Dao Ancestor Inheritance Secret Realm, his Sword Heart upgrade progress bar stood at 56%.

During these days, he had constantly sparred with Han Shuangjiang, acting as her sparring partner.

He had just pushed 【Six Formations of the Broken Array】 to Perfection as well.

All of these actions could raise the Sword Heart progress bar.

The former actually had minimal effect, because during sparring, he could not bring himself to strike the Big Ice Block too heavily. At most, he would just give her plump buttocks a firm smack, feeling the tremor of flesh—nothing more than a bit of flirtatious banter.

He couldn’t actually injure her, could he?

She was quite weak—she didn’t train her body, couldn’t take hits, and if she got hurt, she could only rely on pills to recover, not even healing as quickly as he or Little Xu could naturally.

As a result, Chu Huaixu always held back too much during sparring, making it of little significance.

However, bringing an Earth-grade sword technique to Perfection—this level of sword comprehension—greatly improved the Sword Heart.

With both combined, the progress bar had now reached 69%.

Chu Huaixu took a look. If he used Experience Points to upgrade, he would still need 960,000.

He did a quick calculation in his mind and soon reached a conclusion.

“In other words, if the progress bar were zero, and it relied purely on Experience Points, then going from condensing a Sword Heart to Minor Mastery would require nearly 3.1 million points.”

At this thought, Chu Huaixu sucked in a sharp breath.

Over three million Experience Points—what did that represent?

It meant he could recklessly throw his life away three times to learn Myriad Swords Converge (Advanced)!

He could be “scammed by telecom fraud” three whole times!

At once, he understood why those with Sword Heart Clarity were so rare in the world.

Why so many sword cultivators had already entered the Seventh Realm and even formed a Sword Domain, yet their Sword Hearts still could not reach the state of clarity.

As mentioned before, 【Domain】 was something that naturally formed upon entering the Seventh Realm.

Sword Domain was not directly tied to Sword Heart.

Take his Second Master, Chu Yinyin, as an example. She had already broken into the Seventh Realm. The reason she previously went into seclusion—aside from advancing all the way to the Third Heaven of the Seventh Realm—was to condense her Sword Domain.

But she had only reached Major Mastery of Sword Heart, not Sword Heart Clarity.

Among all sword cultivators in the Dao Gate, only Jiang Zhi and Shen Man had reached that level.

This was also why everyone had unanimously believed that Chu Huaixu could only take Shen Man as his master.

“Just reaching Minor Mastery already costs 3 million. From Minor Mastery to Major Mastery, it must be at least five to six million. From Major Mastery to Perfection—wouldn’t that exceed ten million?” Chu Huaixu was stunned.

He had never had a clear concept of this before.

Because before he transmigrated, sword cultivator players could at most reach Perfection of Sword Intent—they had never even entered the high-end version of 【Sword Heart】.

This made him realize just how high the level of the Spirit Embryo divine ability awakened by his Spirit Embryo·Heart Sword truly was!

Ever since entering the Gentleman Temple, Chu Huaixu had gained many masters, as well as a rather unreliable Martial Ancestor.

He had made up for quite a bit of high-level knowledge about the cultivation world.

Only recently had he learned that for sword cultivators, when advancing to the Seventh Realm, the grade of one’s Sword Heart would affect the grade of one’s Sword Domain.

The higher the Sword Heart level, the greater the chance of obtaining a more powerful Sword Domain upon entering the Seventh Realm.

“One of the reasons First Master is publicly acknowledged as the strongest in the Seventh Realm is that she had already reached Sword Heart Clarity before advancing, thus forming a powerful Sword Domain.”

“Just… I wonder, since I have two Sword Hearts, will I receive additional enhancement when the time comes?” Chu Huaixu was puzzled.

Of course, he was only at the Third Realm for now and could not obtain an answer yet.

Before him, no sword cultivator in the world had ever possessed two Sword Hearts.

So he had no reference whatsoever.

“Let’s upgrade it,” Chu Huaixu thought after hesitating for a moment.

960,000 Experience Points—he could grit his teeth and spend it.

“Opportunities like the Dao Ancestor Inheritance Secret Realm are unlikely to appear again.”

“And there’s no immediate need to upgrade sword techniques.”

“Upgrading Sword Heart will probably still rely on Experience Points.”

Chu Huaixu no longer hesitated and directly chose to upgrade.

Meanwhile, on the other side, ten enormous Giant Hawks from the Sword Sect flew through the sky.

After obtaining the sword technique 【Azure Firmament Lodged Flame】, the Sword Sect prodigy Geng Tianhe had been sitting in meditation, comprehending it.

Whenever he did not understand something, he would ask the Sword Sovereign.

At first, he had been reserved, not daring to ask too much, afraid that his Martial Uncle would find him annoying or foolish.

But after asking once, Geng Tianhe felt that his Martial Uncle was extremely patient—completely different from his master.

Whenever he had doubts, Situ Cheng would also explain them.

However, every time he explained, he would first boast about himself and then express disdain for his disciple, claiming that his talent was at best only half of his own.

“If you even had half of my level back then, you wouldn’t ask such a question!” This was something Situ Cheng often said.

Moreover, Situ Cheng was actually not good at teaching disciples.

Because in the way of the sword, he was the “experiential type.”

This was somewhat similar to Jiang Zhi.

They comprehended the Dao through fighting—through killing.

Thus, when such people taught disciples, many of their insights were difficult to articulate, because they had been forged between life and death.

“Can only be understood, not explained.” These eight words were also something Situ Cheng often told Geng Tianhe.

Figure it out yourself!

But the middle-aged scholar was different.

His explanations were more detailed.

No helping it—the current Sword Sovereign was a true “theoretical type.”

Situ Cheng often muttered, “You reached the Sword Sovereign realm just by reading books!”

When he answered Geng Tianhe’s questions, he was more specific, and each explanation was presented in a simple and accessible way.

What impressed and delighted Geng Tianhe even more was:

“I was clearly asking about 【Azure Firmament Lodged Flame】, but after hearing Martial Uncle’s explanation, several of my other confusions about the sword suddenly became clear!”

—Master and Martial Uncle were truly incomparable.

Moreover, this technique truly suited Geng Tianhe’s Great River Sword Intent.

Its greatest feature was that each sword strike was stronger than the last.

Until the ninth strike, when it reached its peak!

It resembled a great river surging forward, wave after wave.

While studying this Earth-grade sword technique, Geng Tianhe felt his Sword Intent improving significantly.

In addition, the middle-aged scholar’s teaching style was a rare encouragement-based approach.

Perhaps because he praised his junior brother so often, he had developed this habit.

When teaching Geng Tianhe, the Sword Sovereign would always gently offer a few words of praise.

Geng Tianhe already idolized him, his admiration flowing endlessly like a great river.

After receiving praise, his state of sword comprehension improved even further!

At this moment, atop the Giant Hawk, the middle-aged scholar glanced at the young man meditating with closed eyes and said with a smile:

“Junior Brother truly accepted a fine disciple.”

“At this pace, Tianhe should be able to officially grasp this highly difficult sword technique before the Eastern and Western Continents’ Grand Competition begins.”

“And during the competition, he may even reach Minor Mastery.”

“Such talent is indeed rare,” he casually praised.

After praising him, the middle-aged scholar noticed that his junior brother showed little reaction. Instantly realizing something, he added:

“He rather resembles you in your younger days.”

Upon hearing this, Situ Cheng was naturally very pleased and nodded in satisfaction.

After a while, the middle-aged scholar looked ahead and smiled:

“We’ve arrived at the Imperial Capital.”

After a simple inspection by the major cultivators of the Moon Country, they were allowed to pass.

One of the major cultivators happened to be a sword cultivator.

Upon learning that the middle-aged scholar was the legendary Sword Sovereign, the way he looked at him was filled with reverence and fervor.

The Giant Hawks continued flying forward.

Seated atop one, the middle-aged scholar gazed down at the night view of the Imperial Capital.

In recent years, he had rarely descended the mountain.

He had only come to the Moon Country’s Imperial Capital three times in his early years.

And each of those times, he had come specifically to accompany Situ Cheng.

The Sword Sovereign looked toward a restaurant where the two had once dined together and was just about to point it out to his junior brother when he suddenly froze slightly.

The middle-aged scholar’s gaze immediately shifted from the sky toward the direction where Chu Huaixu resided, and he let out a soft sound:

“Hmm?”