Regarding the issue of lacking the lotus petals required for enacting the <Golden Splendor> martial arts technique, An Fei was truly ashamed of herself and her laziness.
Being fully cognizant of the approximate relations between the described tiers of the cultivation technique and that of others, the young girl found herself incapable of refute.
Eight layers, with eighteen petals in each layer.
Divided amongst the realms of mortal cultivation with the supposed approximate conclusion being that of the Nascent Soul Realm, the <Golden Lotus of Establishment> had motioned for its practitioners to strive to complete the layers as swiftly and concrete as possible.
Excluding the first and final realms of cultivation, An Fei guessed that the average practitioner of the cultivation technique completed two layers of lotus petals per realm of cultivation. Alas, in her circumstance…
Due to the Sanctum automatically enhancing her physique, spirit, and soul simultaneously each night she slept in the realm of sky-blue crystal, the young girl had completely forgotten regarding the matter of improving her progression in the <Golden Lotus of Establishment>.
In her defense, An Fei could only utter a single statement to save her pride.
Following her conflict with the python, the young girl had not encountered many troubles capable of threatening her life.
…though that was because the handle-less sword was far too tyrannical, and the combination of the mysterious and lethal twin butterfly swords as well as the ungodly <Steps of Underlying Shadow> granting absolute physical evasion – the young girl frankly did not encounter any life-threatening encounter.
Even the old flood dragon at the center of the forest could not threaten her life from a direct impact, save for the nine-tailed fox.
“…truly saving just my pride, ah…”
An Fei scratched her head as her lips broke into a wry and bashful smile, her right cheek adorably puffed in embarrassment.
The young girl closed the book, and set it aside on the bedstand, her gaze drifting towards the closed door barring her way out of the room.
She stared at the cold and silent slab of wood with pensive and calculating thoughts brushing through her mind, but eventually relented with a light sigh.
“At the least, it helps me rest easy in the night, hm?”
An Fei adjusted her position in the bed to be as comfortable as possible, before hurtling the blankets over her head to submerge her figure.
Aligning the blankets to resemble that of the human body, the young girl disappeared from the locked room without a trace as the melodious bells signaled her escape.
–
“Increasing the number of petals in existence…”
An Fei had returned to the armory of the first corridor – the one in which she had obtained the qama and the twin butterfly swords. The young girl glanced at the chaotic sea of cacophonous lights and sensations, then onto the crystalline floor.
Resting neatly against the sky-blue crystal surface were a series of weapons of differing proportions, imposing stature, and proposed lethality.
The weapons were arranged in a specific pattern undefined by any analytical approximation, but that of An Fei’s guesses following the reaction of the two lotus petals clasped in her right hand.
The young girl had allowed herself to partake on a second tour of the menacing and dangerous armory of the Sanctum, randomly picking the slotted weapons depending on the reaction of the lotus petals.
The instant the petals swayed as she brought them closer to either the hilt or blade of the artefact, An Fei would unholster it and bring it to the amassing collection on the ground.
“Lethality, scary appearance, elegant structure, and demonic stature… all seems to be present?”
The young girl clapped her hands to transform the two lotus petals into their respective weaponry – the handle-less sword and a small, green dagger.
An Fei craned her neck back to stare at the two weapons for a long moment, only returning to her senses after a significant period of time had passed.
Now that she thought about it, she was not the only practitioner of the <Golden Lotus of Establishment> – Wei Xuan’s response while she was still at Jiang’an had provided the hint that there were many proficient practitioners engaging in the cultivation technique.
However, what medium did the lotus petals manifest into upon infusing a greater quantity of spiritual essence for those practitioners?
Granted, her experience within the Sanctum had botched the technique and forced it to mutate into an ungodly monster – for only an ungodly monster of a cultivation technique could birth that of the handle-less sword and its insensible penchant for murder. Was…
…was it also why her petals seemed to morph into weapons?
“First a sword then a dagger… will the next be an axe?” the young girl rubbed the base of her chin with her fingers.
“I have numerous sources, being that of the armory’s weapons… can these be used as references for the technique?”
An Fei mused as she planted herself at the center of the arrangement of the weaponry, surrounding herself in all directions by the lethal blades and edges reeking of an unusual sensation and a vividly colored light.
The young girl relaxed into a seated position, her eyes closed as her pores appreciated the baptism of the multi-faceted light.
Taking a deep breath, she extended her right hand to latch onto the hilt of a longsword adorned with a leaf design for the tang, the blade constituting that of a crimson finish with a pale-blue channel.
An Fei initiated the process of searching for a pair of acupuncture points within her body of opposing polarity, only to discover that something was wrong – horrendously wrong.
The mental visualization of her physique allowed her to sit back and airily select two appreciable acupuncture points without having to determine compatibility. However, just as An Fei had located a pair of acupuncture points – the Yunmen acupuncture point and the Shanglian acupuncture point – and mobilized two threads of spiritual essence towards the specified positions, the young girl encountered a shocking discovery.
“Ah…?”
Regardless of her attempts, the spiritual essence was unable to permeate the acupuncture point and acclimate themselves to either Yin or Yang attributed spiritual essence.
A thin substance in the form of a membrane prevented the strands from encroaching any closer to the acupuncture points.
The barrier, from An Fei’s observation of the spiritual essence’s reactions and movements, was considerably soft but highly resilient to the extent of being nigh unbreakable.
In a fit of frustrated confusion, the young girl had unleashed the epitome of her cultivation to allow two torrential rivers to flood the acupuncture points, but to no avail.
The barrier had encapsulated each and every acupuncture point, preventing any spiritual essence from piercing through.
“What’s going… on?”
The young girl pursed her lips as she retracted her spiritual essence back towards the golden sea enclosed in her heart, opening her eyes to discover herself panting for breath. An Fei rubbed at her brows in weariness, her mind flickering with a multitude of conflicting thoughts in the sea of perception.
The cause of the unusual phenomenon could not be due to the injury imposed on her physique – the Sanctum alleviated the negative effects on the disconnected meridians, and the young girl did not experience any incompatibility with spiritual essence whilst in the crystal realm in the first place. Furthermore…
…it did not seem to be caused by any intervention of spiritual essence originating from the mortal world – or she would not be able to nonchalantly assess her circumstances.
“Could it be…?”
An Fei murmured as she closed her eyes, forcefully returning her body to its relaxed state.
The young girl urged the sea of perception to select the Bingfeng and Tianzong acupuncture points – the first combination of acupuncture points that had resulted in the formation of the bizarre handle-less sword.
She sighed as her mind guided the two streams of golden light through the complex paths of meridians towards the two acupuncture points throughout her body.
Just as the threads of light seemed to approach the cyan and orange colored whirlpools, the barrier manifested to bar the spiritual essence’s progress once again.
“No way!?”
An Fei exclaimed in surprise as she hastily attempted to breach into the set of acupuncture points responsible for the second lotus petal, her mind buzzing in confusion at the repeated failures. The young girl glanced towards her right, the appearance of the hovering handle-less sword and dagger clearly etched in her eyes.
Just… what was going on?
An Fei found herself unable to utter a word as she dumbly watched the two floating weapons in the air, her mind gradually grinding to a halt from the inability to discover a clue.
While the young girl remained motionless, the meridian emitted a scarlet light in the mental visualization – the Yin Heel Vessel – began to emit a peculiar aura, the slumbering dragon in her body coming to life.
