Chapter 3 (1/2)

Translator: CKtalon Editor: CKtalon

Meng Chuan carefully read the biographies. Many of these were written by large clans about a particular ancestor of theirs for publicity! Some of them were independently written by commoners because the G.o.dfiend in question was truly famous. Some of the most famous G.o.dfiends’ biographies had dozens of versions. Some sects had voluntarily written down biographies for G.o.dfiends. The most exaggerated ones were the autobiographies. The G.o.dfiends who wrote those hoped that their descendants would remember their deeds.

These biographies are mainly telling stories. Sometimes, only a few sentences in one book are useful to my cultivation. It’s even possible that I can’t find anything useful in a single biography. Also, some of these stories are highly credible and some are less trustworthy. They need to be cla.s.sified accordingly.

Meng Chuan came from a G.o.dfiend family clan after all. With the guidance of Mirror Lake Dao Academy’s system, his foundation was very solid. His top-notch saber art had reached the Greater Mastery stage, and he was only a step away from reaching Unity.

With such a foundation, he was better equipped to distinguish the utility of each biography.

In one of the biographies, Meng Chuan saw a maxim from the North Sword Emperor that was directed towards his descendants. Not putting your heart and mind into sword practice makes one merely a slave of the sword. Only by putting your heart and mind into training will you become the master of the sword.

As he stared at these words, he pondered. The descendant that North Sword Emperor gave pointers to was a Seamless realm expert. The latter’s sword technique should have reached Unity at the very least. He should have put his heart and mind into it during his usual training, but the North Sword Emperor still said that… Clearly, he didn’t consider the Seamless realm expert to have put his heart and mind into his cultivation.

…

Meng Chuan continued reading the G.o.dfiends’ biographies.

Occasionally, the maxims left behind by a particular G.o.dfiend or certain deeds led to Meng Chuan speculating.

To normal people, it was only a story.

But in the eyes of someone looking for inspiration, one could see the reasons behind the strength of G.o.dfiends.

One skill to eat your fill; one skill to kill. All you need is one skill without the frills. This was a quote from one of the biographies. It came from a conversation between a powerful G.o.dfiend—Fiend Saber Wei Feng—and his disciple three thousand years ago. There were a total of fifteen versions of Fiend Saber Wei Feng’s story sold in the Eastcalm Prefecture.

Amongst them, there were similar sayings to “one skill to eat your fill; one skill to kill. All you need is one skill without the frills.” Meng Chuan also recorded this down.

Apart from the biographies, he also valued the family teachings from the famous G.o.dfiend family clans.

Family teachings were left behind by G.o.dfiends. Generally speaking, they were matters G.o.dfiends believed were extremely important.

The more he recorded, the more shocked he became.

Aim for the skies; not doing so will only result in mediocrity. It’s indeed right to learn from the most powerful G.o.dfiends in history! However, the biographies are just the tip of an iceberg. Without a strong foundation, it’s very easy for one to go astray. Meng Chuan realized this because he noticed that many family’s teachings emphasized one’s cultivation foundation.

All members of the family were to enter the Dao Academies and receive a complete education in cultivation.

This was because the Dao Academies were established by the oldest sect in the world—Archean Mountain. They were in every large city in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and all Dao Academies’ education system was established by Archean Mountain. Only by cultivating in the Dao Academies could one have a solid foundation.

Of course, it only taught him the basics. His saber arts were only one step away from reaching the Unity realm. The Dao Academy had taught him all he needed in his seven years of cultivation. What he needed was to figure things out himself now.

My foundation is sufficient. What I need now is the final step to make a breakthrough. Much of what I’ve recorded today has inspired me. However, there’s no rush. I’ll read through these books briefly before consolidating them. I need at least three G.o.dfiends to have shared similar cultivation principles before I consider them trustworthy.

…

Day after day, Meng Chuan gathered and consolidated knowledge in ever-increasing amounts. He also included the “Immutable Laws” of Mirror Lake Dao Academy—they were cultivation rules that Archean Mountain had set in stone.

The combination of the two allowed Meng Chuan to understand even more.

It’s done.

In the evening, Meng Chuan looked at his notebook and smiled. These five days have been more important than the past five years of my cultivation. Meng Chuan looked at the notebook in excitement. He now had a clearer understanding of cultivation.

The first commandment of cultivation emphasized the extreme importance of one’s foundation. It was akin to the foundation of a house. Entering the Dao Academy and undergoing a complete cultivation system was the best choice.

The second commandment emphasized frequency. No matter how much one imagined inwardly, it couldn’t be compared to cultivating ten thousand times! Sayings like drawing one’s saber ten thousand times and repeating Sanguine Shadow Thrust daily were mentioned by twelve G.o.dfiends.

The third commandment was one skill to eat your fill! It was similar to the second commandment; he only needed one skill to kill enemies. If he cultivated one skill to the extreme, it would be more useful than cultivating ten other relatively powerful killer moves.

The fourth commandment involved the difficulty of cultivation. Even if one endured hards.h.i.+ps and grit their teeth to cultivate, they would only be novices! Only those who truly enjoyed and immersed themselves in cultivation and carefully studied the profundity of each move, could become a grandmaster.

He also understood the true meaning behind the North Sword Emperor’s words “not putting your heart and mind into sword practice makes one merely a slave of the sword. Only by putting your heart and mind into training will you become the master of the sword.” The typical cultivator trained hard, but this wasn’t them putting their heart into it. To truly enjoy the swordplay, be obsessed with it, to abandon everything external, and completely indulge in training like a crazed demon would one become a grandmaster. Otherwise, one would only be a novice.

The fifth commandment: “Progress in the day, change over the months, success will ultimately come…”

The sixth commandment…

…

There were a total of nine commandments.

All of the commandments had at least three G.o.dfiends mentioning them. Furthermore, with what Meng Chuan knew, he found them extremely reasonable.

I’ve been practicing my saber every day for several hours to exhaustion. But no matter how tired I was, I’d just grit my teeth and endure it. In the past, I thought I was putting in the effort, but clearly, that doesn’t mean putting my mind and heart into it. I need to be enjoying and immersing myself in the saber arts while I seriously ponder over every move. Meng Chuan felt that this was the biggest problem he had. To begin with, cultivation was very tiring.

Normally, he would draw for two hours in the afternoon. This was his only guilty pleasure. It was a hobby he had since childhood. Through painting, his acc.u.mulated fatigue from cultivation would be forgotten, and his heart would also be extremely calm. This allowed him to persevere one year after another.