Chương 14

The basic principle behind Metal Gathering Art was simple: use qi to control metal-aspected matter. Once that foundation was established, however, the art could be extended into countless different applications. The player who had pioneered combat-oriented Spirit Gardening in Elara's previous life had specialized in an evolved form of Metal Gathering Art known as Myriad Sword Convergence. Elara guided her qi into the earth veins beneath her feet.

If her concentration slipped for even a few seconds, the soil swallowed the qi without a trace. Several breaths later, she could no longer sense any of the energy she had released.

"Improving this art is going to be brutal. The amount of control it demands is ridiculous." Her first attempt had already revealed the technique's greatest difficulty. If she released too little qi, it disappeared into the earth veins almost instantly. If she released too much, the excess energy overwhelmed her perception and made precise control nearly impossible. Elara steadied her breathing and focused again. She released another stream of qi into the soil and guided it toward the earth veins below.

On her first attempt, she had sent everything down in a single current. This time, she gradually divided the flow into several smaller streams, then dozens. Elara carefully adjusted the output of each thread, using them to search the surrounding earth for the nearest traces of metal-aspected matter....

"Found them. This training ground contains far more metal than I expected." The Ember Sanctum had provided an environment perfectly suited to practicing the art. The dark, fertile soil held an enormous concentration of mineral particles. Once Elara knew what to search for, she detected them almost everywhere.

"Now I need to use my qi to guide all that metal-aspected material into one place." Elara closed her eyes and concentrated on the soil beneath her. Her hands shifted through one sign after another. The strain of controlling so many separate threads of qi soon drew a sheen of sweat across her forehead. As the guiding force took hold, different substances began seeping from the dark gray soil. Pale crystalline fragments emerged first, followed by black iron sand and several other kinds of mineral grit.

The soil contained an astonishing variety of metal-aspected matter. Elara could identify more than a dozen visibly different substances in the material she had extracted from this single attempt.

"Metal Gathering Art normally pulls every metal-aspected substance from the soil without distinction. If I want to turn it into an offensive art, I'll need to be selective from the extraction stage onward. Iron sand and other hard metallic particles would be best. They can actually hold an edge and inflict damage." Elara formed another hand sign and attempted to compress the jumbled collection of minerals into a single shape.

No matter how hard she tried, the mixed materials would only gather into an irregular lump. The different substances refused to bind tightly enough for her to shape them. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. So the filtering stage really is essential. But how am I supposed to extract only the metals I want? Troubled, Elara crouched beside the pile and began sorting through it by hand.

She pinched out a small amount of black iron sand along with several other hard metallic grains, then released her qi and examined them more carefully.

"The qi in these particles does feel a little different." Although every sample contained metal-aspected qi, the energy within the harder materials felt sharper and more aggressive. It carried a faint quality suited to cutting and killing. By comparison, the mineral substances normally used to enrich spirit-field soil possessed a much milder metal affinity.

"So there are subtle differences between them. That gives me something to work with."...

"Metal Gathering Art!" Elara formed the required hand signs. Dozens of threads of qi entered the earth veins, searching for substances that contained metal-aspected energy. This time, she filtered each discovery according to the character of the qi within it. Countless grains of iron sand slowly emerged from the soil. Guided by Elara's qi, the tiny black particles gathered in front of her. They compressed, aligned, and gradually took shape. A dark iron sword formed in the air.

[Metal Gathering Art (Modified) successfully cast. Proficiency +10.] [10/100] Creating a single iron sword had nearly exhausted Elara's entire reserve of qi. She forced out the last of her strength and brought two fingers together. The sword shot forward. It tore through the air fast enough to leave a visible ripple in its wake. A small hill stood well over a hundred yards away. In the blink of an eye, the iron sword crossed the entire distance. Only a dark blur remained visible before it struck.

The blade pierced the hillside as easily as if it were cutting through soft clay. It vanished deep into the rock, leaving behind a narrow opening with smooth, clean edges.

"That's already powerful, but it isn't finished yet." Elara changed her hand signs. Before launching the sword, she had focused on compressing the iron sand as tightly as possible to maximize its hardness and cutting power. Now she reversed the process. Her new hand signs commanded everything she had compressed to burst outward at once. The moment she completed the final sign, the sword vanished from her spiritual perception. A violent explosion erupted inside the hill.

Broken stone and dust blasted in every direction. The force of the detonation churned the surrounding white mist and sent clouds of debris rolling through the air. When the dust and mist finally cleared, Elara focused on the distant hill again. A massive section had been blown apart. The crater spanned more than thirty feet. Only then did Elara allow herself to smile. She dropped onto the ground without the slightest concern for dignity. Her dantian was completely empty. She had squeezed out every last trace of qi.

But the result had far exceeded her expectations. All the effort had been worth it.

"The first stage is a piercing attack. Striking a hill doesn't show its full potential, but the sword's speed and sharpness are obvious. Any cultivator below Qi Refining Tier 4 who lacks combat experience would have almost no chance to react." Elara carefully assessed the power of her modified Metal Gathering Art. The first stage alone could silently kill many low-level cultivators before they even noticed the dark blur approaching.

Its speed and penetrating force weren't much weaker than those of a proper Sword Control Art. Yet the piercing strike wasn't the technique's most destructive feature. The second-stage explosion was far more powerful. The iron sand had been infused with qi and compressed until almost no space remained between the individual grains. In that state, the sword was like a spring forced down as far as it could possibly go. All Elara had to do was reverse the direction of the guiding qi and force the particles outward.

The iron sand and the qi binding it together would explode at the same time. The resulting power was no weaker than a full-force offensive art cast by a cultivator at Qi Refining Tier 4. It might even approach the destructive power of Qi Refining Tier 5. That was Elara's best estimate. And this was nowhere near the modified art's limit. There were several straightforward ways to make it stronger. She could raise her cultivation Tier and use more qi during the extraction and compression process.

Alternatively, she could search for metallic materials with a higher concentration of spiritual qi and use those to form the sword.

"The flexibility and power of this art are both far beyond what I expected. No wonder that combat Spirit Gardener became so formidable." Elara considered the technique's weaknesses just as carefully.

"The power is impressive, but using it at Qi Refining Tier 2 comes with plenty of problems." Extracting the iron sand and compressing it into a sword had required her complete concentration. It had also taken nearly a full minute. If an enemy attacked and interrupted her during that preparation period, the entire technique would fail. Worse, most of the qi she had already committed would still be lost. I need to raise my cultivation as soon as possible.