12. One with the Sword and Will Manifestation

Then Kai started training with the wooden sword in the secret realm. It's already been six months since he began his training.

'I can say that I almost mastered all the basic moves, but I am still missing something crucial for complete mastery, and I don't know what it is.' thought Kai contemplatively.

"Dad, why can't I completely master my moves? I can feel my moves are not as smooth as yours." Kai asked his dad because his dad definitely knew the mistake he was making.

"You are just imitating my moves. If you ever want to master them instead of just copying me, you need to change the moves for yourself," Alex explained the reason.

Kai got inspired by this idea and tried to change the moves a little bit to better suit his preferences, fine-tuning each move to his liking. Whereafter Kai started practicing his own moves now instead of just imitating his father.

After practicing them for a week, Kai finally mastered the moves and made them completely unique to himself. Now that he had mastered the moves, it was time for him to learn the moves from the Nameless Scripture.

There aren't any battle moves or techniques for swords in the scripture; it only talks about the applications and principles of the sword.

All the sword techniques in the world use the basic moves in a specific combination to achieve a powerful result. The result depends on the user and the combinations he makes. Ultimately, only the result matters, not the process.

Then Kai started trying to combine the basic moves to make a combination. There are endless possibilities for a combination because it's possible to combine two, three, or even all the basic moves in a different but suitable way, so the possibilities in this path are very high, but it is equally hard to find the right combinations.

Kai started trying all possible ideas to create a unique move, and he eventually forgot about himself and only focused on the sword.

A very mysterious and profound aura appeared around him, and he felt that his thoughts became crystal clear. So Kai took the opportunity and practiced with even more vigor. As time passed, a combination of sword moves didn't come to fruition; instead, each and every move became separate and clear.

A sharp aura emerged around his sword, seemingly capable of destroying anything in existence, but it vanished abruptly as if it never existed in the first place.

Then the mysterious aura that surrounded him also faded, and everything returned to normal.

"Kai, you are really lucky. You actually had an epiphany when you learned about sword techniques for the first time. I never saw a person with such a crazy amount of luck." Alex said it enviously.

"Dad, don't look at me with such a face. You will also get your chance one day." Kai replied as he saw his father's envious face.

"Well, I don't care about that; I just got carried away. But your talent for the sword must be very amazing; I can't understand your sword moves even though they look so simple."

"I tried combining the sword moves as described in the Nameless Scripture, but I feel like it is still restricting the potential of the basic moves, and instead of combining them, I tried adding the principles of other moves into a single sword strike. Thereby, I can achieve the result of a combination without changing the form of my sword. This is what I comprehended in the epiphany, and I am going to create my own scripture and add this technique to it. The scripture will be called Freedom Scripture." Kai explained in detail.

"Okay, I can understand that, but how did you comprehend the sword intent without any cultivation?"

"Dad, it is not sword intent. It is a special state I comprehended, and when I used it on the sword, it became something that resembles sword intent."

"Your special state has great potential, so develop it well, and it will become your trump card in future battles."

The special state Kai comprehended applies his willpower to the sword, making it resemble sword intent. It isn't as good as sword intent for now, but if he develops it to a high level, it will be better than sword intent. There is also the possibility of fusing it with sword intent.

For the intent of the sword, it is basically an artistic conception of the sword. The level of sword usage is divided based on this artistic conception. The first level is sword beginner, followed by sword master, sword god, sword saint, and finally the sword emperor.

At the sword beginner level, the person only masters the basic moves of the sword. To reach the sword master level, one needs to master a sword intent of their own. The intent of the sword can be expressed through anything; it can be fire, water, lighting, or even sharpness. They need to understand the desired concept and integrate it into the sword, and this state is called sword intent. Then, in the sword god realm, it is to materialize the sword intent in the real world. It can be used for any purpose, based on the wishes of the user.

As for the sword saint realm, it involves making a suitable sword domain. Finally, to reach the sword emperor realm, one needs to create a sword world or world of swords.

The sword cultivation path is only a minor path, and one's lifespan won't increase even if the person becomes a sword emperor. It only increases the attack power, and most people won't cultivate a minor path. It takes a lot of time to cultivate, and there won't be any benefits other than increasing one's attack power.

The division of realms is the same for all other weapons or other professions like formation, alchemy, etc. The only thing that changes is the name; for example, spear emperor, shield emperor, formation emperor, etc.

Kai decided to call the mysterious state "one with the sword," because in that state the sword felt like an extension of his arm. Because he is not familiar with the state, he needs to master it first before displaying its full potential.

"Kai, now rest for a few days. You didn't sleep for a whole week now," Alex advised Kai to rest since he didn't want his son to get injured.

'Wow, the epiphany lasted for a week.' thought Kai in amazement. After Alex's reminder, Kai felt hungry, and his body felt sore without any energy.

"Baby, come and eat. I just made this food after you woke up from the epiphany." Riya arrived in a timely manner with a warm smile.

"Okay, mom," Kai replied, and he started eating the food that Riya had made for him without any manners.

Riya looked surprised by his way of eating without any manners, but she didn't say anything as he had been hungry for the past seven days.

"Dad, I want to rest for two days. My body isn't in a suitable state for any training." Kai said and started to move towards the bedroom without even hearing Alex's answer.

He slept like a log for two days and only woke up for food in these two days. But after this small rest, he was full of energy again. Kai also noticed that his soul power increased a little.

'I think the mysterious aura that surrounded me could be the reason for my increase in soul power,' thought Kai.

The mysterious aura is the power of heaven, and it will appear whenever someone is having an epiphany. It had a very good effect on him; other than increasing his soul power, the aura also cleaned or purified his soul a little bit.

After this brief period of rest, Kai started training in the secret realm again. But this time, Alex didn't supervise him because he also gained some insights from Kai's idea, and now he is trying to break through into the God-King realm.

It took Kai around a month to completely master the mysterious state. Well, it is not a state. It is an application of willpower, and in his case, he subconsciously used his willpower on the sword to make it look like a sword intent. Thus, Kai named it [Will Manifestation]. He can basically manifest willpower in anything if it doesn't possess spiritual intelligence.

The [Will Manifestation] isn't a technique; instead, it is the first level of a new cultivation path that Kai created. Yes, it is a new path that he created, and now Kai is basically a cultivator, but on a different path.

The will path that he created focuses on using willpower to control everything. This path has the potential to make the impossible possible.

But he can't teach this path to anyone because they won't be able to learn it for now since heaven won't allow that, and if he wants to teach it to others, he needs to prove that this path has potential first. In other words, he had to become an emperor using the Will path.

But for now, Kai is still a mortal, so he won't be able to display the full potential of [Will Manifestation] until he reaches the body-tempering realm.

But he can easily defeat a cultivator at the peak of the body-tempering realm with the help of his "one with the sword state".

"Kai, now that you have mastered the basic moves of the sword to perfection, it is time for you to start learning about footwork." Alex decided on Kai's next training.

Alex also broke through the god-king realm successfully during this month, and his looks also became more youthful.

Good footwork is necessary for all higher-level battles. Because every unnecessary movement will give the opponent an advantage and put you at a disadvantage. If a person has no footwork, then it's basically a certain death scenario against an opponent with good footwork.