Chapter 516: Lou Lan Is Formidable Now, Unity Sword
Translator: TYZ Editor: TYZ, KLKL
The five residences were in ruins and the eight palaces were covered with thousands of holes.
Every time Ai Hui examined his body, he would be shocked and terrified. He was extremely lucky not to have died.
He composed himself. The Northern Underworld King Tree did not have many leaves left. This implied that he did not have many chances left to use the demonic god armor. Fortunately, even though he had yet to find a solution, he’d still managed to make some gains.
For example, he knew that it wasn’t his physical body that was injured, but rather the sword cloud within his body.
He also identified some of the characteristics of the sword cloud.
When he’d used the lightning bolts in the clouds to counter the venom of the Night Moth Fruit, the lightning bolts almost destroyed everything in his body. Even the sword embryo that he had just formed was shattered. However, the shattered sword embryo did not disappear completely. Instead, it absorbed a huge amount of lightning and transformed into a unique sword cloud.
As compared to the sword embryo, the shattered sword cloud had a more outstanding sensory perception.
Right now, the range of Ai Hui’s sensory perception exceeded twenty-five kilometers. He never thought he would achieve such a feat in the past.
However, the sword cloud was much more unstable than the sword embryo. This observation had a direct link to Ai Hui’s injury.
His severely damaged body had a mysterious relationship with his sword cloud. If his sword cloud was stable, the condition of his flesh would be stable as well. If his sword cloud was unstable, the condition of his flesh would be unstable too. If his sword cloud was totally out of control, his flesh would completely disintegrate into ashes.
Ai Hui’s conjecture for this relationship was that both his flesh and sword cloud may have been tempered with lightning. As such, both of them contained lightning.
According to this conjecture, as long as Ai Hui could stabilize the sword cloud, his injury would gradually recover.
Today was the day he was going to verify his conjecture.
Ai Hui was hovering in the sky above the lake in Central Pine Valley. There was a small cloud in front of him. The cloud was only half the size of a house. It was dense and sparkling white, resembling a soft cotton ball.
Ai Hui was half-naked. He stared at the bit of cloud and said, without turning his head, "Lou Lan, help me record the process."
The painful lesson he’d learnt from channelling lightning from a whole sea of clouds last time made him realize that he was still a mortal after all. It was safer for him to channel lightning from a single cloud. Ai Hui had racked his brain to find a suitable clump of cloud. Subsequently, he thought of the bit of cloud floating above the lake in Central Pine Valley.
Not only was the cloud smaller in size, it could be controlled as well. This way, it would be much safer for him.
He had paid a painful price for this lesson the last time around.
On the lakeside, Lou Lan’s glowing eyes were flickering. He replied with a solemn tone, "Ai Hui, Lou Lan is ready."
Ai Hui inserted his arms into the cloud in front of him and carefully initialized the unstable sword cloud within his body.
Buzz.
A slight numbness started spreading along his arms. Ai Hui increased his focus and observed the changes taking place in his body.
The lightning from the cloud was very weak, but it was still able to cause Ai Hui’s hair to stand on end, making him look like a porcupine.
The lightning flowed through Ai Hui’s body and entered his flesh.
Like a slithering, silvery snake, the lightning travelled through Ai Hui’s flesh. His flesh was dyed with a thin layer of silver-white color, resembling fine silver threads which vibrated every now and then.
Ai Hui held his breath and observed every single detail. He clearly knew that many valuable discoveries could be made from observing those insignificant details.
A small portion of the lightning was absorbed by his flesh while the rest was absorbed by his sword cloud.
The loose sword cloud began to contract and thicken.
As the sword cloud absorbed more and more lightning, it became thicker and thicker.
Ai Hui’s eyes lit up. He could sense that as the sword cloud thickened, his vibrating flesh began to stabilize.
The fatigue that had engulfed his body for the past few days reduced significantly.
Ai Hui’s mind jolted. It seemed his train of thought was correct.
At this moment, the numbness throughout his body disappeared and the sword cloud stopped thickening.
Ai Hui realized that the soft and sparkling white cloud in front of him had disappeared. All that was left was a wisp of white mist that was dissipating gradually within his fingers.
"Ai Hui, your conjecture was right." Lou Lan’s tone was filled with a pleasant surprise.
The red glow in Lou Lan’s eyes was flickering non-stop. With a serious tone, he continued, "The sword cloud is indeed resonating with your flesh. This kind of resonance uses lightning as a medium. Right now, I have come up with five conclusions."
"Five?" Ai Hui was stunned.
He felt that he had come up with two or three conclusions. He certainly did not expect Lou Lan to come up with five conclusions.
Lou Lan continued with a solemn tone, "First, lightning is the source of energy for the sword cloud. It consumes the lightning and we will have to replenish lightning for it frequently. Second, when the sword cloud revolves, it will become more stable. This conclusion can be verified by the stability of your flesh. Third, Ai Hui’s body did not have any elemental energy. The lightning in your flesh is strongly repellent to elemental energy. Fourth, the resonance between the sword cloud and your flesh can only stabilize your flesh, not make it stronger. Since your body can’t hold elemental energy, it will lack the nourishment of elemental energy and your flesh will have difficulty becoming stronger. Fifth, Ai Hui’s body will become weaker and weaker. If you want to stabilize your injured condition, you will have to strengthen the sword cloud. You will have to replenish it with lightning. Lightning is strongly repellent to elemental energy, hence, replenishing the sword cloud with lightning will cause your flesh to degenerate. There will be a limit to how much your flesh will degenerate. When that happens, Ai Hui’s body will be weak, yet stable. This is caused by the resonating relationship between the sword cloud and your flesh."
Ai Hui was dumbstruck.
Why did he feel like Lou Lan had now become much more formidable than before?
In the past, Lou Lan had helped him carry out analysis as well. However, he could never analyze things to such an extent. He roughly knew three of the conclusions Lou Lan had just come up with. As for the remaining two, he had no idea at all.
He would know whether or not Lou Lan’s conclusions were correct once he tried them out.
After obtaining a rough idea about what to do next, Ai Hui was filled with zest.
…..
Gu Xuan and the members of Sword of Lightning, who had just finished their training session, looked as if they had just been pulled out from water, completely drenched in sweat. They were lying on the ground all over the place.
Blind He carried a bundle of swords and walked over to them.
Thump. He threw the bundle of swords on the ground and said, "Come and try the new swords."
His voice was hoarse and he looked extremely tired.
Gu Xuan’s gaze was immediately captivated by the new swords on the ground. As an elementalist who had taken on the path of swordsmanship, his love for swords came from within his heart. With a single glance, he could tell whether or not the quality of the sword was good.
When he saw the new swords, the first thought that came to his mind was… Beautiful swords!
A mysterious power gushed through his fatigued body. Gu Xuan stood up and picked up a sword from the heap on the ground. Then, he placed it before his eyes and observed it carefully.
Such a good sword!
The body of the sword was much wider than an ordinary sword’s. At the same time, it was much thinner than most swords as well. It was made of an unknown material. The sword was transparent and dazzling, resembling a crystal that gave off a metallic luster. Sparkling white flower petals could be seen within the sword, looking as if they were frozen in ice.
"What type of material is this?" Gu Xuan could not help but ask.
"Pearblossom Dazzling Silver!"
"Never heard of it," Gu Xuan shook his head.
"Of course you haven’t heard of it before," Blind He retorted bluntly with a tone that was filled with a strong sense of pride, "I just created it a few days ago."
"So it was created by Master He!" Gu Xuan was in awe.
For any weaponsmith, it was extremely difficult to create an excellent type of material.
Gu Xuan became increasingly interested in it. Upon taking a closer look, he saw an extremely fine slit in the middle of the blade of the sword, splitting it into half. This slit was extremely fine. If he hadn’t looked at it closely, he would not have noticed it.
Double-stranded sword? No!
The slit extended from the sword tip to the sword hilt.
Gu Xuan was a connoisseur of swords and yet this was the first time he had seen such an oddly shaped sword. A pondering look appeared in his eyes. Could it be...
He gently brandished the new sword in his hand.
Buzz!
An obvious vibration was given off by the new sword. In the next moment, Gu Xuan’s eyes widened as he looked at the other new swords on the ground in shock.
They were vibrating too!
Feeling lost, Gu Xuan blurted out, "This is…"
A smile appeared on Blind He’s face. As a weaponsmith, what made him prouder than seeing that his works shocked other people?
"The swordsmanship of Sword of Lightning is very strange. It does not focus on moves or elemental energy. It focuses on synchronization. Several hundreds of people move together as one. Generally speaking, this kind of swordsmanship has never been seen before by many. Pardon me for being ignorant, but I had never heard of it as well. The biggest problem of forging these new swords was to figure out, what kind of sword is suitable for all of you and your weird swordsmanship? What kind of sword allows all of you to move together as one? An inspiration hit upon me and I thought of a tuning fork. Isn’t the resonance produced by a tuning fork suitable?"
As Gu Xuan kept on brandishing the new sword in his hand, the rest of the new swords on the ground were vibrating as well. The other members of Sword of Lightning were attracted by the commotion. All of them lit up their eyes as they realized the new swords would be a great upgrade for them.
Everyone was filled with eagerness as they hopped into Metal Basket Sword Pagoda and began to try their new swords.
Blind He had been observing their training sessions. He made a total of six swords for the first batch.
The six new swords were for the pagoda masters of the six sword pagodas. Everyone took up their positions, looking forward to try their new swords. The new swords felt extremely comfortable in their hands, as if they were part of their bodies.
"Ready!" Gu Xuan roared with a deep voice.
Everyone’s faces turned solemn. The relentless training sessions over the past few days had caused their sword moves to become instinctive. They could enter the mental zone of combat and became highly focused in an instant.
Gu Xuan brandished the sword in his hand.
At the same time, the swords in the other five pagoda masters’ hands vibrated too. Due to the relentless training sessions they had been through, they immediately brandished the swords in their hands.
The six streaks of sword gleams converged into one.
Like a comet, a cold and sharp sword gleam flew into the sky and shot through the layer of clouds.
Gu Xuan and the rest were overjoyed. It was as if these swords were specially made for them. They were extremely suitable for Metal Basket Sword Pagoda. With the new swords, the difficulty of synchronizing their movements was greatly reduced.
Why were their sword moves made to be so simple? That was because the difficulty of synchronizing their movements was too high. Only by reducing the complexity of their sword moves could they then synchronize their movements
With this new sword, however, they could try more complicated sword moves.
If the Metal Basket Sword Pagoda was an enormous tiger, then the new swords would be like wings that were attached to it.
"Such an ingenious idea, this has never been done before!" Gu Xuan praised Blind He to the high heavens.
Such a fine sword!
The new swords were not only good at helping them to synchronize their movements. They also had an excellent texture and they allowed Gu Xuan and the rest to channel their elemental energies easily.
Blind He was smiling non-stop. He was feeling extremely pleased with himself.
"What’s the name of this sword?"
Blind He heaved a sigh of relief as he could finally name the swords before Ai Hui did it.
With a resolute and decisive tone, he replied.
"Unity Sword!"