A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 1-Chapter 200)

He had long thought of a best candidate to handle this matter——Li Feiyu, the famous Senior Disciple Li.

According to Han Li’s observation, perhaps the reason Li Feiyu consumed the Essence Extraction Pill was because he greatly valued being in the center of attention far greater than a common man and possessed no small amount of ambition. He had always dreamed of entering the upper divisions of the Seven Mysteries Sect, further becoming the focus of attention.

Han Li had previously suspected that Li Feiyu probably thought he was in the last stage of his life, and thus he became even more frantic and hungry for fame.

If Han Li allowed Li Feiyu to perform a large contribution to the Seven Mysteries Sect, Li Feiyu would certainly be excited to no end. This way, Han Li would be able repay Li Feiyu for stealing the sword manuals.

Thinking of the Blinking Sword Art, Han Li felt a wave of emotion.

Han Li did not tell any lies regarding the Blinking Sword Art to his good friend. This sword art truly did not suit Li Feiyu. However, Han Li did not reveal many of the details.

An essential rule of survival was that one should always keep a few secrets, regardless of who they were being kept from.

Although Li Feiyu and Han Li seemed to have a close relationship, it was hardly exceptional.

However, the contents written in these secret manuals were quite different from common martial teachings.

It seemed to Han Li that, rather than to say it was a sword art, it would be more appropriate to call it sword ingenuity. It was a complete integration of weather, timing, favorable positioning, and secretive assassination techniques against all kinds of factors and people; such a skill was rarely seen. It was pure killing skill; as soon as the sword was drawn, death approached.

These books described different environments, times of day, and the utilization of diligently practiced secretive sword skills. There were all kinds of sure-kill techniques that would cut down an enemy in a single strike.

The manuals taught those that learned these sword skills to make use of every tree and strand of grass in the terrain, as well as light rays of all intensities and angles, in order to hinder the opponent’s vision. During the split second the opponent was weakened, the user would take advantage of it and kill them in an instant.

This was a mysterious technique that required much attention and skill to execute. Without the slightest talent, it would be impossible to understand this sword art.

Therefore, those who learned this mysterious technique must excel in the five senses. Their vision and hearing must far exceed that of an ordinary person by many levels if there were to be the promise of even the slightest results.

Even if they had the requirements to achieve that stage, there would inevitably be a few disciples who would covet the Blinking Sword Art’s formidable power and choose to cultivate it immediately after reaching the minimum requirement.

However, mastering the sword art required an excessive amount of effort. In addition, it had even harsher requirements. Those who cultivated this mysterious technique could not possess pure inner strength. Otherwise, their body would suffer from complications when trying to execute the technique. This made cultivating the sword art quite difficult.

Even if someone with True Qi was lucky enough to succeed, if the True Qi in their body became too vigorous during actual combat, the sword maneuvers would unwittingly produce deformations. These deformities left large gaps for the opponent to take advantage of, thereby causing life-threatening calamities.

These requirements basically severed away the majority of those attempting to cultivate the technique. In Jiang Hu there was a common saying: “To practice the fist and neglect skill will end with one’s effort in futility.”

To not practice inner strength was an enormous taboo. Anyone who would abandon their cultivation of True Qi and spread their name with ineffable sword swordplay would truly be the laughingstock of Jiang Hu.

Therefore, only the remaining few still had the intention to continue cultivating the technique.

However, even if those individuals had plenty of talent and had no problem with abandoning True Qi, the final difficult barrier would thoroughly dispel their intentions of continuing down this path.

The final obstacle was the excessively complex nature of the Blinking Sword Art and the painstaking memorization of the meticulous conditions in which each of the sword maneuvers within the sword manuals could be applied.

Seeing such a large pile of thick secret manuals would intimidate any average person at first glance.

Each sword manual represented a sword maneuver, and each sword maneuver could be broken into hundreds of sword forms. Every sword form must be carefully selected for different environments and different times of day. To fully master the Blinking Sword Arts, one had to make complete use of different techniques for every situation.

The tremendous quantity of sword skills, let alone cultivation, could make one’s head ache. Not to mention that this further required the complete memorization and comprehension of every sword maneuver and sword form.

The previously mentioned abnormal requirements have obstructed an innumerable number of motivated disciples, making them endlessly curse in their heart at the Elder who had established this sword art.

With the passage of time, the Seven Mysteries Sect gradually lost interest in this sword technique. Believing it impossible for someone to train in this martial technique, many disciples thought that the Elder had baselessly and casually fabricated these martial teachings as he was facing death’s door. Otherwise, why would there be these excessive requirements? This was deliberately designed to be difficult for disciples that were unaware of how things stood. As a result, these secret manuals were put away on a shelf, no longer catching anyone’s interest.





Chapter 40: Origin of the Secret Technique


Those who complained did not know that the Elder who created this particular sword art had a very deep and profound level of skill. However, his meridians were injured during a battle against another cultivator of Jiang Hu. As such, he had been unable to cultivate True Qi.

In order to protect his status in the sect, the Elder had kept the matter a secret. From then on, he acted mysteriously, pretending that he had overwhelming strength to deceive all of the members in the sect.

Ever since then, however, it had been undeniable that he lacked the ability to protect himself. He had to rely on wit and experience from that moment on, protecting himself through deception

That era was when the Seven Mysteries Sect stood at the height of its power.

When this Elder realized that his power would never recover, he became depressed and organized many covert raids on the smaller sects. He acted behind his superiors’ back by using deceptive schemes that hid his movements.

During the raids, he forcibly seized many secret martial arts manuals, hoping to find a top-level skill that he could cultivate without True Qi.

After many years of research, the Elder did indeed discover many mysterious techniques that didn’t require True Qi. However, none of them suited him.

He was greatly depressed.

However, this Elder had talent and intelligence that far surpassed the norm. Suffering from depression and frustration, he decided to combine all the unfathomable martial techniques that he had discovered, thus creating his own set of top-tier skills.