Chapter 176: Chapter 156: Bitter Cultivation

In other words, for anyone at the Demon Sword Master level or higher, advancing again wasn’t something that could be solved by arduous training alone!

And Spiritual Power... for a Cultivator like Ling Xiao, that was his Mental Cultivation!

Ling Xiao’s physical strength was only on par with a Fifth or Sixth Rank Great Sword Master, but his Mental Cultivation, as of several months ago when he descended from the Vendia Great Snow Mountain, had already reached the Mid-Golden Core Stage!

Based on Ling Xiao’s comparison of cultivation between the Cultivation Realm and this world, the strength of the Golden Core Stage should be slightly stronger than a Sword Sect, but definitely inferior to a Sword Emperor. A Sword Emperor had already transcended the scope of the Martial Dao. Although Ling Xiao had never seen an expert at the Sword Emperor’s level, he could tell from fragmented accounts that Martial Artists above Sword Emperor could already absorb Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi. What did this imply?

’Masters above Sword Emperor, even if they don’t have the techniques of Cultivators, are still practicing a form of cultivation!’ Ling Xiao thought. ’As for the goal, whether it’s someone like me wanting to become an Immortal, or people of this world wanting to become a Sword God, it’s all the same thing in the end.’

’That is, the pursuit of the ultimate limit! The attempt to transcend life and death!’

’In other words, they were defying the heavens.’

The sword techniques Ling Xiao had been using all came from the Swordsmanship practiced by the Outer Disciples of the Shushan Sword Sect in his memories. They were, one might say, truly genuine Sword Techniques!

They primarily consisted of Sword Techniques and skills, which could unleash immense might when combined with powerful Spiritual Power.

Once he reached the strength of the Golden Core Stage, the first thing he could cultivate would be the "Sword Control Skill." This was, one could say, the greatest initial wish of every Shushan Disciple!

’Sword Flight! What a glorious thing! To watch the mountains and rivers flash by beneath one’s feet, coming and going like the wind... only then could one be considered a true Cultivator, right?’

At the Golden Core Stage, all the Spiritual Power in one’s body is converted into True Essence, which represents a qualitative leap in strength! True Essence can provide a continuous and powerful supply of energy, and only then can various Immortal Sword techniques truly be unleashed!

The ultimate technique of a Shushan Sword Cultivator, however, was to refine one’s consciousness into a sword, capable of wounding an enemy from a thousand miles away! However, that was a level of power only possible at the Mahayana Stage! Those were Quasi-Immortals on the verge of ascension! In his past life, Ling Xiao had never dared to dream of such a cultivation level. Even now, with this world’s abundant Spiritual Qi, Ling Xiao didn’t let his mind dwell on such things. Cultivation was inherently an act of defying the heavens, so when it came to one’s attitude toward practicing it, it was better to let nature take its course.

For now, the pitiful amount of Spiritual Power in Ling Xiao’s body was only enough for him to execute a single move.

And that was an overestimation. An Immortal Sword technique... he could only use it once!

By using his Mid-Golden Core Stage Mental Cultivation, which was to say, his Spiritual Power, in coordination with the Spiritual Power in his Dantian—using the former to compensate for the insufficiency of the latter—he could just barely manage to unleash a single, immensely powerful sword technique!

"Fleeting Light, Glancing Shadow!"

The four words flashed through Ling Xiao’s mind, instantly pulling him back to his training days at Shushan. Back when he was at the Golden Core Stage, after mastering this sword technique for the first time, he had eagerly run off to test it. Standing at the bottom of a cliff, he had recklessly unleashed this one sword strike against the steep rock face!

The result was an earth-shattering display of might that had the effect of sundering the mountain. Meanwhile, Ling Xiao, who had unleashed that strike, was completely drained of Spiritual Power, and his mental Spiritual Power felt as if it had been suddenly sucked dry. He was nearly buried by the subsequent rockslide. Fortunately, a Golden Core Stage body was already incredibly tough. Otherwise, Ling Xiao’s arrival in this world... might have happened a bit sooner.

A self-deprecating smile touched Ling Xiao’s lips, and his face twitched slightly. He marveled at the mysteries of the Celestial Dao, that his soul could actually transmigrate to such a world. ’Perhaps the founding patriarch of Shushan lent me a hand from the great beyond... hoping to see the Shushan Sword Sect flourish even more?’

At this thought, Ling Xiao calmly opened his eyes, and a flash of purple qi flickered through them!

’Mid-Foundation Establishment Stage Spiritual Power with a Mid-Golden Core Stage Mental Cultivation,’ he mused. ’Throughout the entire Cultivation Realm, I doubt there’s another freak like me, is there?’

Ling Xiao stood up, took a deep breath, and thought, ’At least now... I have one life-saving trick up my sleeve! If I’m pushed into a corner, the worst that can happen is we both go down together!’

"Alright, I’ll start by training my body, starting now!" Ling Xiao leaped down from the roof. ’At least that way, when my Spiritual Power is gone and my mind is drained, I won’t be completely paralyzed!’

For three months straight, Ling Xiao trained every day alongside his private army, which had been renamed the Lightning Legion. At first, this caused the rough men in the unit to nearly have their jaws hit the floor. ’Has our Lord gone mad? Or is he just so bored he has nothing better to do?’

This strange sight quickly spread throughout all of Penzes City. What Ling Xiao hadn’t expected was that his unintentional act would actually spark a fitness craze throughout the city!

Countless commoners even scrambled to send their children to train in the Lightning Legion. It was well known that any child selected by the Lightning Legion would not only get to eat meat and wear fine clothes but would even receive a monthly stipend of one Gold Coin!

That was a Gold Coin... not some damn copper coins!

Ling Xiao’s personal prestige soared. As for the former City Lord Li Houlin, the lord who had controlled Penzes for many years, he was long forgotten. At the mere mention of his name, many people would even spit on the ground in disgust!

"Pah! If he had just gotten lost sooner, our new Lord would have arrived earlier, and we’d have been living the good life all this time!"

That’s right. Giving half of the grain produced on the land to a nobleman might seem harsh, but the issue was that before this, the commoners had never owned even a single inch of land!

But now, as long as they kept cultivating it, the land would not be taken back! You probably couldn’t find another nobleman like him in the entire Lanyue Empire!

It wasn’t that other places didn’t use this method to attract commoners to farm the land, but the minimum tax collected was sixty percent! There were even nobles who collected seventy to eighty percent! The commoners endured even under such exploitation. So in comparison, Ling Xiao collected a mere fifty percent and even provided a subsidy for seeds in the first year. In the hearts of the commoners, the Lord’s prestige... had even surpassed that of the crown! He was more important than His Majesty the King!

And that was why, if even the Viscount was training so hard, what reason did they have to be lazy? Just look at all those well-equipped private soldiers! The commoners were green with envy, and they all began to lecture their own children, "If you train hard, you can become one of the Lord’s personal guards in the future!"

A force of three thousand men, perfectly uniform! Their gazes were sharp, their breathing synchronized. When silent, the oppressive atmosphere they generated was enough to make an ordinary person feel terrified, or even break down!

They wore uniform attire, their light armor all forged by the Empire’s finest armorsmiths! Every man was equipped with a Hundred-refined Steel Sword—a fine weapon that far exceeded standard military issue! On their left arm, a palm-sized, pure copper armband emblazoned with a lightning bolt had become the soldiers’ greatest source of pride!

This... was their very soul! Even the soldiers with slave brands on their foreheads—so long as they wore this armband, no one dared to look down on them!

It was a source of esprit de corps, forging this unit ever closer into an Iron Army!

In three more days, it would be the Empire’s traditional Blast Flame Lion King Festival. The whole of Penzes City was already shrouded in a festive atmosphere, and Ling Xiao decided to remain on his territory to celebrate his first major holiday in this new world.