Chapter 313 – Polishing the Blade on a Tranquil Sea; Formless Nine by Nine Formless Blades - Part 3

August arrived, the summer heat beating down like a hammer.

At dusk, beneath an ancient tree near the Tang Sect’s lodge, Li Yuan moved his blade as slowly as an old man practicing Tai Chi.

In the clamour of the mortal world, he had finally grasped the blade’s subtleties. He had

felt

true restrained force.

A bird cried overhead; its shadow skimmed the branches.

Li Yuan flicked his wrist. A thread-thin slash of blade qi snapped out, shearing every feather from the bird without so much as nicking the skin.

The now-naked bird flapped stubby wings, panicked, and started to plunge, until an invisible ripple from a second twist of the blade cushioned it gently to the ground.

“Got it,” Li Yuan murmured, delight sparking in his eyes.

And in the corner of his mind, at last, two new entries appear in his skill list.

NEW! Unnamed Skill - Rank 5 (1/50)

NEW! Unnamed Skill - Rank 4 (1/500)

Everything was moving again.

That’s different.

Li Yuan blinked. Starting from fifth rank, it appeared the skills required far more points to level up.

A glance at his 29,594 stat points sitting idle settled the matter.

Li Yuan allocated 50, 100, 200, 400, 799—1,549 points in total straight into the new fifth rank skill, maxing it on the spot.

In an instant, months of insight crashed over him like a breaking wave, leaving him giddy as though drenched in honey.

A fifth rank blade carried no

domain force

; all its power lives inside the weapon itself.

Draw the blade and qi flowed on; return it and the qi dissolved.

Li Yuan had labored to create a style that generated a storm within stillness—a sea without a ripple, yet deep enough to swallow the world.

Until now, he could hold that balance only by taut, unblinking focus; lose it for a heartbeat and the hidden storm exploded.

The bird-plucking stroke he’d managed earlier had been his very best.

Now, with the skill perfected, that

best

became a casual flick.

Testing, Li Yuan shaved a mote of dust from mid-air, carved a grinning mask in a snail’s shell, sliced a chunk of iron over 30 meters away into slivers thin as a cicada’s wing—all with lazy swipes.

Then, gathering his will, he walked into the empty hills.

Before a bare cliff-face, Li Yuan raised the blade—steady, silent—and merely touched rock.

A tidal surge of blade qi burst forth. A deep-sea swell materializing from silence, devouring everything ahead.

The mountain wall yawned open—a deep crevasse more than 30 meters across—rock within ground to powder that skirled toward him, only to whip aside the instant it met his aura.

More power stored, yet released or withheld at a whim. No more flashy theatrics with City Toppler, just one quiet stroke.

Li Yuan smiled. “I’ll call it the Tranquil Sea Blade.”

The entry on his skill list updated accordingly

Master Tranquil Sea Blade - Rank 5 (800/800)

His gaze shifted to the unnamed fourth rank entry, clearly his nascent

blade qi

.

Maxing it out would cost 14,999 points, but obtaining a hidden trump card like this was more than worth it.

He allocated all the points at once, leaving him with 13,046 points remaining.

NEW! Master Unnamed Skill - Rank 4 (8,000/8,000)

This skill will only work in a fourth rank body,

Li Yuan thought. He pressed his ancestral seal to his heart and summoned heavenly thunder through his veins.

The twin blades slipped away; he strolled empty-handed while blades of pure force condensed around him.

Below sixth rank, one saw only rippling air; at sixth rank, one felt a suffocating pressure; only from fifth rank upward could a martial artist glimpse the 81 invisible blades circling him—placid on the outside, packed with ruin within.

At peak mastery, the 81 blades merged into one.

Li Yun vaulted skyward; the blades followed like trailing comets. High above the mountain ridges, he joined finger and thumb, blade qi fusing, and flicked his sleeve. One casual sweep, and the peaks bobbed like heads under an executioner’s blade.

Booom! Boom! Boom!

Explosions rang out for kilometers around.

A clench of his fist and the blade qi dispersed.

Alone on a crag, Li Yuan threw back his head and laughed. “Amazing, truly amazing!”

A quick look at his own stats confirmed it. The upper limit of his power had leapt from 31,638 to 41,341.

Li Yuan couldn’t be happier. So far, the strongest person he had ever met was the head of the Holy Tree Temple, Qing Hancheng, a fourth rank powerhouse whose stats read 9,316~36,948.

Now, at last, Li Yuan had edged past him, if only by a hair.

That was fine; he had patience. Seeds still had to ripen, and his martial arts still begged refinement.

His new skills had hardly reached the level of

Ultimate

yet, much less

Divine

, and he hadn’t even taken the real step into fourth rank.

Li Yuan glanced at the blank entry in his skill list once more. “Let’s name it Nine by Nine Formless Blades.”

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

The next morning.

After learning the Tranquil Blade and Nine by Nine Formless Blades, Li Yuan resigned from his position as chef at the Springcharm Palace and returned to the Tang Sect’s restricted grounds.

Everything else was running smoothly; it was time to see Xue Ning.

Li Yuan knew why she hadn’t sought him out. Apart from being busy, she was quietly looking after their son.

Ping'an had reached sixth rank, which meant he had to roam the wider world to gain experience. Out on the road, he kept bumping into trading caravans—always ready with food, supplies, even snippets of intelligence—run by managers who soon called him friend.

Every one of these

coincidences

was Xue Ning’s doing. She dared not approach her son herself, so she watched and guarded from afar.

It took Li Yuan a six days’ flight to find her.

He dropped into the courtyard of a quiet villa. Inside the study, a refined woman sat poring over stacks of intel.

Xue Ning was no natural merchant mogul, so running the Flying Nimbus Group—and keeping it invisible between great powers—took grinding effort.

Outside, cicadas shrilled under deep shade; crates of timber and metal lay stacked in cool corners.

Li Yuan landed openly—whereupon a hulking figure, stats floating 615~625, strode out to bar his path.

Metal clacked; the thing unfolded six arms, each brandishing a blade or shield—a sixth rank puppet fresh from Tang Nian’s workshop.

The study, of course, bristled with other traps and poisons; even a fifth rank intruder would pay dearly unless he bombarded it from the sky.

“Xue Ning! Call off your toy,” Li Yuan called.

Xue Ning thought she’d misheard. She looked up, and in the shimmer of midsummer sunlight stood a white-robed youth, none other than her husband.

Surprise flickered, then pure delight. Her voice, unheard by anyone else, carried a soft, playful lilt, “The awe-inspiring Master Li afraid of a

little

puppet?”

“I’m afraid I’ll break it,” he shouted back.

She laughed, rose—tall, willowy in gauzy sleeves—and flicked one long sleeve. The puppet folded away; every lurking danger in the courtyard faded.

Gathering the bottom of her long dress, she ran straight into Li Yuan’s arms. He swept her up, spun twice in mid-air, and alighted.

Dizziness hit her; she swayed, then bent in a rough fit of coughing that left her breathless.

“What’s wrong?” he frowned.

“Nothing, just worn-out lungs,” she wheezed, forcing a smile.

“You’re still overworking yourself.”

“But I’m happy.” Her smile softened. “I can help you

and

keep an eye on our son.”

“I’ll find someone to share the load.”

“Who, exactly? Nian Nian? Our clan is still too small.” A tired grin, her fingers brushed his chest. Then, she said teasingly, “Why don’t you father a few more children. Adopt a few, too?”

Li Yuan scooped her up bridal-style and grinned. “Deal, let’s start tonight.”

Xue Ning pounded his chest, cheeks aflame. “Oh, you beast~!”

Translator’s Note

I thought Li Yuan was finally turning a new leaf and would stop being a menace to the local wildlife. Then he goes off and destroys an entire mountain range ecosystem...