A Variable

"A top-grade spirit artifact." Yaoguang worked steadily at his workbench. On the path of sword cultivation, practitioners began by continuously nurturing and tempering their true qi and flying sword from the start of their training, eventually refining their life-bound flying sword into something akin to an external elixir. However, an external elixir was not the sword cultivator themselves. Thus, the farther a life-bound flying sword moved from its master, the weaker the cultivator's perception and control over it became. Lacking control, no matter how fast or lethal a life-bound flying sword was, it could only fly in straight trajectories, easily dodged by nimble sword cultivators. Great Cultivators fared somewhat better; their control range over a life-bound flying sword reached several tens of li, and those who practiced specialized arts, such as the Grand Superior Perception Sword Art, could command their swords as effortlessly as their own limbs from over a hundred li away. Yet high-tier sword cultivators... Their effective strike range dropped drastically to ten li, or even just a few li. Therefore, to ensure lethal efficacy, high-tier sword cultivators often had to close in within a few li, or even less than one li, to engage in life-or-death combat. Such combat was exceedingly perilous and could easily inflict catastrophic casualties on sword cultivators. So... The flying sword Yaoguang was refining—or rather, the modified Zixiao Type 12 flying sword—placed its core focus on "control." Yet this "control" was not wielded by the sword cultivator over the blade. Rather, it belonged to Origin Spirit Great Cultivators. "Since the Nine Cauldrons Sect aims to crush the Xuanming Sect with thunderous momentum, they naturally deployed even more Origin Spirit Great Cultivators... The Jiuxiao Domain is one of the three domains directly facing the East Sea Archipelago. Originally, it was garrisoned by two hundred body cultivators, fifty sword cultivators, thirty spell cultivators, and twelve spirit cultivators. Recently, to counter the Xuanming Sect and prevent them from lashing out in desperation, those numbers were significantly reinforced: the great sword cultivators already exceed a hundred, and the Origin Spirit cultivators number over twenty." Twenty spirit cultivators. That lineup could not be called anything less than formidable. Leveraging this advantage... "Spirit cultivators specialize in different areas depending on their cultivation arts. Some focus on scanning and reconnaissance, capable of precisely pinpointing every target within several thousand li, including those concealed by invisibility or breath-suppression arts. Some excel at guidance and tracking, guiding flying swords to launch beyond-visual-range strikes against targets. The final category is counter-interference. Previously, Zhang Jianlin recommended that I pursue that route, but with features like the Taiyuan Spirit Refining Art, Myriad Spirit Sovereign, and God King, the one best suited for me is clearly guidance and tracking." He looked at the flying sword schematics taking shape before him. "To ensure that these flying swords can become part of what Myriad Spirit Sovereign commands in the future... the modified Zixiao Type 12 must start from these aspects... and serve them entirely." This was an unprecedented path. A path demanding extraordinary standards from spirit cultivators. By logic, such a path was not very suitable for the Nine Cauldrons Sect, where spirit cultivators were scarce. However... Spirit cultivators were in dire shortage in every faction. Except for the Six Great Immortal Sects... No! Except for the Wuji Astral Palace, the Myriad Beasts Sect, and the Immortal Alliance, even the Fatian Pavilion, the Golden Divine Temple, and the Taiyin Sect had few powerful spirit cultivators they could present. Let alone small and medium sects like the Xuanming Sect. Therefore, while the Nine Cauldrons Sect lacked them, the Xuanming Sect lacked them even more. Yet a cultivation system like the spirit path, which placed supreme emphasis on "realm," suited Yaoguang best. Were it not for concerns that the spirit cultivator system lacked sufficient direct combat power, he would have maxed out his spirit cultivation realm long ago. But if he could utilize arts, secret techniques, and talents like the Taiyuan Spirit Refining Art, Myriad Spirit Sovereign, and God King to control swarms of flying swords and forge his own combat system, there was no reason he could not set aside the Martial Path for now and focus on the Divine Path. After all... Riding the wind into boundless space, roving the blue vaults of heaven, roaming the blue seas at dawn and the Cangwu peaks at dusk. *That* was what it meant to be an immortal. "Compared to an Origin Spirit cultivator guiding ten thousand swords to slay enemies tens of thousands of li away, a Star Lord bashing people with fists... is far too un-immortal." Of course, martial arts still had to be trained. From the current perspective... The Martial Path guaranteed his personal safety. The Origin Spirit guaranteed the safety of his surroundings. Combining the two would ultimately... Pave a path uniquely his own. A path he tentatively named the "Martial Immortal." He would be an immortal who supped on the wind and sipped the dew, detached from the mundane world, carefree and eternal. Yet if an enemy insisted on disrupting this immortal tranquility and ease, he could just as well sit down and talk martial arts. "Done." Soon, drawing upon his wealth of Artifact Refining experience that hardly seemed to belong to the Cangwu Great World, he completed the modifications for the Zixiao Type 12 flying sword in a single night. "Maximum speed increased to Mach 4.4, lethality increased to 8.1, and spirit consumption grew to 455. However, stability was almost completely sacrificed; an Origin Spirit Great Cultivator is required to unleash its proper power. That said, I managed to add a new property: compatibility. An Origin Spirit Great Cultivator's divine mind can coexist with a sword cultivator's divine sense inside this flying sword. Empowered by an Origin Spirit Great Cultivator's divine mind, the sword's optimal strike range increases to eighty li." This figure surpassed that of ordinary Great Cultivators. Furthermore... Eighty li was merely the optimal strike range, within which a sword cultivator could manipulate the blade as effortlessly as their own limbs. The maximum strike range... Reached an astonishing one hundred and sixty li. In other words, even launched one hundred and sixty li away, the flying sword could still maintain a peak speed of Mach 4.4 and a lethal rating of 8.1. At most, the blade would be unable to make agile turns or change bearings at that distance, resulting in a somewhat rigid flight path that was easier to anticipate. Yet an attack range of one hundred and sixty li gave sword cultivators the opening advantage of an entire salvo, or even two salvos, of preemptive strikes. If an Origin Spirit Great Cultivator coordinated the battle, an entire squad could unleash all four flying swords at speeds exceeding Mach 4 to focus fire on a single target. Even if the swords lacked agility, so what? It wasn't as though they couldn't turn at all. Guided, tracked, and coordinated by an Origin Spirit Great Cultivator, an opponent might dodge one or two swords, but could they dodge a third and a fourth? If all went well, before the two sides even formally engaged, two rounds of opening strikes could eliminate two members of the enemy squad. "The advantages are obvious: high attack power, high speed, and long range. The drawback... total reliance on Origin Spirit Great Cultivators... It all depends on what the Nine Cauldrons Sect's upper echelons decide." Yaoguang checked it over once more before archiving the design. Completing the modification of the Zixiao Type 12 in a single night was far too astonishing; he couldn't submit it just yet. It wouldn't be too late to hand it over in two or three months, once the current orders for the Zixiao Type 12 were nearly fulfilled. "In fact, the Zixiao Type 12 flying sword still has room for improvement, and that lies in formations... Although a flying sword doesn't provide a platform for deploying formations due to its compact size and demand for speed, top-tier formation grandmasters could optimize it and elevate its performance to a new level." Yaoguang felt a touch of regret. Because formations lagged behind, the Zixiao Type 12 flying sword reached the world's apex in the realm of low-grade spirit artifacts. However... It was merely at the world's apex. It was still shy of being unmatched globally, let alone epoch-making. *** With the addition of the teams led by the two Grandmasters of Artifact Refining, Wei Yan and Lu Yuan, the refining efficiency of the Zixiao Institute climbed to another new peak. They had already reached the point of producing six hundred spirit artifact flying swords a month. To fulfill this order as quickly as possible, his divine mind blanketed the Zixiao Refining Institute almost around the clock, ensuring that refining work throughout the facility progressed swiftly and methodically. While Yaoguang worked overtime to manufacture the Zixiao Type 12 flying swords, the Nine Cauldrons Sect's sword cultivators campaigned across the East Sea Archipelago, sending back reports of victories almost daily. Broadcast through the Virtual Spirit Realm across the entire Nine Cauldrons Sect, these victories sparked immense excitement throughout the sect, and confidence reached an unprecedented high. Yet the Xuanming Sect clearly was not going to sit idly by. No one knew what kind of deal they struck with the Great Sun Sword Sect. In the third month of this contest between high-tier sword cultivators, the Great Sun Sword Sect abruptly announced that it would conduct large-scale military drills around Haige Island the following month. The Great Sun Sword Sect made a high-profile announcement declaring that the exercise would mobilize several Origin Spirit cultivators, over two hundred great sword cultivators, more than a hundred spell cultivators, and various supporting high-tier sword cultivators. Furthermore, they proclaimed that the exercise was not targeted at any individual or faction, but was solely to practice coordination among the Great Sun Sword Sect's many sword cultivators. When the news broke, an uproar ensued. Two hundred Foundation Establishment great sword cultivators! The scale could only be called massive. Especially since... Almost all two hundred of these great sword cultivators were equipped with second-generation magic treasure flying swords. A select few were even equipped with third-generation magic treasure flying swords. With the mainstream great sword cultivators of the Nine Cauldrons Sect mostly equipped with first-generation flying swords, the combat power of such a massive force of over two hundred sword cultivators could likely rival half the sword cultivator strength of the entire Nine Cauldrons Sect. If such might were unleashed against the Xuanming Sect, the Xuanming Sect would likely face the peril of outright destruction. That was not even the crux of the matter. The crux was... Haige Island was an island occupied by the Nine Cauldrons Sect. Furthermore, it lay a mere sixteen thousand li from the mainland territory of the Nine Cauldrons Sect. How was the Great Sun Sword Sect drilling around Haige Island any different from saber-rattling on the Nine Cauldrons Sect's doorstep? If the Nine Cauldrons Sect failed to mount a firm response to this action by the Great Sun Sword Sect and allowed them to normalize such drills, over time it would effectively amount to granting them de facto control over Haige Island and its surrounding waters. At the same time, the Nine Cauldrons Sect, which had only projected its reach some twenty thousand li into the East Sea, would be compressed to within fifteen thousand li. For great sword cultivators whose top flight speeds often reached tens of times the speed of sound, fifteen thousand li was equivalent to having their front gates blockaded, stripping them completely of control over the East Sea Archipelago. *** "No longer needed?" Yaoguang looked at Zhang Jianlin, who had brought the news, slightly taken aback. "The current orders for the Zixiao Type 12 flying sword will still be fulfilled, but the modified model... will have to be shelved for now. Our focus must shift to Haige Island." The branch elder said grimly, "Unlike Posuo Island, which merely secures a stretch of sea, Haige Island hosts a spiritual energy node. Over the past few years, we mobilized thousands of formation masters and finally established a Rank 4 Spirit Gathering Formation there. According to our estimates, that spirit formation could yield an additional two hundred thousand spirit stones annually. Who could have expected that no sooner had the formation been set up than those ungrateful wolves of the Great Sun Sword Sect would catch the scent and come prowling?" "And what about the Xuanming Sect?" Yaoguang asked. "We still have to fight them, but our strategy must shift primarily to defense." Zhang Jianlin let out a helpless sigh. "Given the disparity in strategic importance between the two, the higher-ups are already deliberating whether, if necessary, we should temporarily shelve the dispute over the Posuo Island waters."