[ Attainment phase. ]
The glass floor cracked and caved under Zhu Xuelian's steps, glittering glass particles obscuring the blur of her motion. Zhu Xuelian's sword whistled harrowingly as it cut the air with such speed and strength that the vibrating air played an ode to the instrument of death.
Despite this sudden attack, her replica met the deadly qi-forged blade with merely the tip of the nail of her index finger. The cloud of glass dust rolled under the replica's feet, and pulled in by the overwhelming sword force emanating from her, rose into the air, and then curled on itself, like a crashing wave.
The sword force where the sword and finger met blasted out in both directions; Zhu Xuelian's foundation vibrated under the suppression, while a crack appeared under the replica, then elongated to web for a dozen meters behind her.
The replica then retaliated with her sword and slashed horizontally, bidding the wave of glass dust to move again and to fall like a tsunami. Not only the glass dust cloud but also the floor rose, ripping free and falling toward the blade that was only one step below perfection.
The sound of crashing glass and the roaring howl of shifting geography filled the world.
Zhu Xuelian evaded the counterattack via Star Crossing, the movement technique of Fractured Sword, though she had not yet perfected the first layer. She couldn’t use Star Burial or Collapsing Cosmos, and even using Star Crossing came with a significant effort and limit.
Standing high above her replica, on a platform of collapsing sword qi that resembled a galaxy of stars, Zhu Xuelian’s foundation pillars groaned under the extreme load and stress of these fighting conditions. Her replica was also a Foundation cultivator, but her sword energy was orders of magnitude more potent than Zhu Xuelian’s. This was the power of a cultivator who could obtain the second layer of Fractured Sword in the Foundation period.
To Zhu Xuelian, her replica appeared like a monster. All strategies and tactics fell apart at the point where they reached her replica. Approaching close was a death sentence, but there was no safety in distance either. Even here, far above, she was not outside her replica's reach.
However, over the dozens, if not hundreds, of Attainment phases she went through, Zhu Xuelian became more comfortable fighting such an opponent and even began to understand the main difference between herself and her replica.
Her replica did not think. Each move was perfectly executed on instinct alone. There was no delay between thought and action. It wasn’t merely a difference in sword energy or martial arts superiority, but this crucial detail opened a chasm between them that Zhu Xuelian could not overcome.
Her replica wasn’t merely a human representation of the perfection of the Fractured Sword martial art — but it was an expression of the perfect, supreme sword itself.
Bit by bit, Zhu Xuelian had begun to emulate her replica in that regard, and without thought, she plummeted from her platform toward her opponent.
She drew in a long breath, and flames appeared in her hair, as she circulated the Salvation Ashes inner art, to resist the suppression and recover her energy.
When she struck out with her sword, it impacted her replica's parry, emitting a sound like a crystal bell ringing. Yet it was so loud that it caused the ground to crack and crumble beneath the two once more, as, this time, her replica sunk two full steps into the glass crater below.
The pulse of sword force expanded from there, rolling through the ground and causing a cascade of dancing and leaping glittering glass fragments. Those fragments flew up from the expanding circle of wreckage, glittering in the constant, ever-present light of the featureless sky. For a moment, when they were weightless, the fragments hovered in an orbiting pattern around the two before falling.
Using Star Crossing, Zhu Xuelian appeared behind her replica and, with a new qi-forged sword, slashed horizontally at the back of her look-alike. However, her new sword parted only air. Likewise, using Star Crossing, her replica appeared behind Zhu Xuelian and thrust forward, the light bending strangely around the sword, forming luminescent rings and shadows.
Several more Star Crossing chains followed, and a ravine had opened in the floor, dozens of steps wide, and hundreds more in length, as the two pushed their Foundations to the limits to gain an advantage over the other.
Each slash that missed its mark ravaged the environment more until it resembled an apocalyptic transformation. Spires, ravines, and craters dotted the featureless landscape and produced shrapnel that followed their motion and eventually bombarded them with the consequences of their action.
Both Zhu Xuelian and her replica turned toward the incoming shrapnel and unleashed waves of sword force to divert it toward the other, eventually only accomplishing in channeling the debris to pass right in between them to the ruinous consequence of whatever they impacted beyond them.
“Blazing Sword Art,” Zhu Xuelian whispered within the roar of crashing glass, glancing at her replica from the corner of her eye. “Purification Wheel.”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
She slashed out in a circular pattern, from below, where her sword cleaved into the glass of the floor, to above, parting through everything in its path.
Flames exploded from her sword, crawling outward like lightning in slow motion, consuming the air and turning all to ashes. The glass melted from the heat, spraying into the air in molten pearls of material that ended up being pulled back into the flames that created them, as the vacuum of the consumed air tugged on the glass rain.
Her slash expressed a perfect circle with white-hot flames serving like an ink brush that impressed the blazing symbol in one's vision for moments longer even after the flames consumed their fuel and faded.
However, by then, her replica was no longer in the path of the slash.
A thread tugged on her consciousness and spiritual perception, and she turned toward the unsettled storm of floating glass debris and molten pearl spray.
Zhu Xuelian's form flickered into the billowing cloud of glittering dust, her sword like a red line drawing the peaks and troughs of a heartbeat as it flapped like a butterfly's wings in the darkness. Dance of Molten Glass Rain found only shadows, debris, and air to cleave through, but could never even come close to finding its intended target that remained just out of reach.
As the glass and debris ejected from the rising cloud, the cloud suddenly collapsed toward her replica's sword and Zhu Xuelian turned toward the elusive expert, who attacked from behind.
“Brutal Convergence,” her replica uttered, and Zhu Xuelian briefly saw the sword headed her way — or rather, she saw the way the light bent around it. The molten glass churned underneath the invisible sword, and at one point, when the sword was closest to her, she felt as though she could see two swords coming at her from both sides because of how the light lensed around it.
She didn’t even feel an impact.
[ Comprehension phase. ]
Zhu Xuelian frowned, and sat down once more, recovering her energy.
Immediately, a sphere of fire qi developed around her, and she practiced her Volcanic Breathing technique, which allowed her to use her flames like sword energy. Over the dozens and hundreds of Comprehension phases, she had managed to cultivate Salvation Ashes to the second layer — Blazing Soul — and even develop its martial art, Blazing Sword Art.
However, her progress in Fractured Sword stalled near the peak of the first layer.
Like this, she even cultivated to the peak of the Foundation realm, using the incredibly dense sword qi in the silver threads of light via the essence breathing method of Volcanic Breathing, but she did not cross the boundary yet, in favor of creating the same gold core as she possessed in the past.
The flames around her vibrated, and the motes of sword qi went through several transformations — turning to flames and then reverting to a primary sword qi type, cyclically. Each transformation was vital for her cultivation, and this both excited and disappointed Zhu Xuelian.
Even now, she could not comprehend the purpose of this Secret Sword Realm Nexus. She thought it would help her advance her Fractured Sword, but most of its benefit was in Salvation Ashes.
In the Inner World, Zhu Xuelian faced two challenges in the past. Her first challenge was withstanding one blow from Wukong, and the second one was the Challenge Pagoda. Each challenge she overcame unlocked additional features of the Inner World.
She knew that this Secret Sword Realm Nexus was the third challenge, but even now, after hundreds of attempts, she didn’t even know what the goal of the challenge was.
Defeating her replica, she thought, was simply impossible. Her replica was perfect — it could most likely kill ten Sovereign beasts in the Foundation period.
Zhu Xuelian snorted, her heart wavering for a moment, as the sphere of fire qi trembled and then solidified once more.
Killing Sovereign beasts in the Foundation period. It was outrageous. Who could defeat a monster like this? Zhu Xuelian could spend a hundred years in this place, perfecting her martial arts, and still not come even close to matching her replica. Yet, at the same time, her replica was never too far ahead of her. Every time they clashed, her replica was only slightly stronger, or slightly faster. Yet, these minor differences were enough to doom her every time they crossed blades.
Just this tiny difference was the great chasm between their abilities and the statement that her replica could kill Sovereign beasts, while she could not.
But this difference was something Zhu Xuelian could not define. She knew the symptoms of the difference — speed, power, technique, attainment…
Attainment…
Zhu Xuelian opened her eyes and looked at her replica. She didn’t use any strange cultivation method — no sign of Salvation Ashes or an internal method developed through Fractured Sword. She simply breathed in the environment of the falling sword qi.
Zhu Xuelian knew a thing or two about sword attainment. It was one of the more mysterious factors of sword energy. Sword intent was largely based on imagination, through a deep sword attainment; sword intent became sword qi, which was also sword energy.
Now that she thought about it, she could never comprehend Fractured Sword on her own because she lacked the sword attainment.
It wasn’t her Salvation Ashes that benefited the most from crossing blades with her replica, but her overall attainment.
Zhu Xuelian stopped her Volcanic Breathing and stood up. Slowly, she approached her replica, who remained seated.
A few steps from her replica, Zhu Xuelian summoned her qi sword and looked down at her perfect look-alike.
“I have been chasing your shadow this entire time,” Zhu Xuelian said and broke the qi sword over her knee. It was a symbolic gesture of abandoning her martial arts, and the pursuit of embodying her replica's mastery.
“I hope senior can give advice," she said and cupped her fist.
Her replica opened her eyes, and then also stood up.
[ Attainment phase. ]
A qi sword appeared in her replica’s hands, but instead of striking Zhu Xuelian down, her replica also shattered the sword over her knee, sending its glittering fragments everywhere.
Zhu Xuelian observed the movements of her replica, trying to find some meaning in the reciprocated gesture.
After a moment, Zhu Xuelian asked. “Are sword attainment and martial arts unrelated to each other?”
Her replica smiled darkly.
“Sword Dao Domain — Shattered Light Cataclysm,” she uttered softly, and the sky darkened above Zhu Xuelian who immediately lost all will to resist.
The third layer of Fractured Sword. And without even using a weapon or sword qi.
“Using only your sword attainment…?” Zhu Xuelian asked, completely dumb-struck, as a galaxy of sword singularities and extinction descended on her and erased every trace of her.
[ Enlightenment phase. ]
