Chapter 136: The Eye of Void-Gazing

Pupil techniques...

Song Yan reflected internally that the first time he had ever witnessed a pupil technique in the realm of cultivation was outside the Liyuanze Night Market.

According to Qin Xijun, that night-watch senior brother who called himself "Chen Qi" practiced a rather peculiar pupil technique.

A surge of excitement welled up within him.

In the cultivation world, using divine sense to probe, scan, and gather information invariably left behind some traces.

For instance, scanning another cultivator's cultivation realm would very easily be detected by the other party.

In Song Yan's view, a pupil technique was a means by which one could perceive things without needing to employ a divine sense scan.

The Sword Seeding Art recorded that this Void-Observing Sword Pupil was likewise divided into several stages.

The level he was currently capable of cultivating was, naturally, the simplest and most rudimentary part.

During the execution of this pupil technique, one could clearly see the flow of spiritual energy in the surroundings and pierce through some of the most basic illusions.

It did not sound particularly powerful, but Song Yan was already thoroughly satisfied.

Given that he was still in Changping, the conditions were far from ideal for cultivating the Lingyun Movement Technique, and the same held true for the numerous sword techniques compiled in the Sword Technique Essentials.

This sword-path pupil technique, on the contrary, was something he could begin attempting first.

However, he was in no immediate rush to cultivate it.

Instead, he turned his gaze toward the cosmos sack at his side.

This cosmos sack was identical in appearance to the one he had acquired from Wang Xi during their trip to Jiran Valley.

It was none other than the cosmos sack belonging to Shen Huai of the Xuanyuan Sect.

Inside the Avici Hell, to ensure that this person could not employ any secret arts to evade death and prolong his life, he had been beheaded by a single sword strike from Song Yan, and all the spiritual treasures upon his person had been taken away.

Because of Shen Huai's possessions, Shen Yu and Xu Ziqing had later argued, though the matter was ultimately left unsettled.

These items naturally became his exclusive property.

Directing his spiritual energy, he erased the spiritual imprint left upon it and probed inward with his divine sense.

There was truly a wealth of items inside the cosmos sack.

After a rough sorting, he piled some useless sundries and spare clothing to one side.

Shen Huai's net worth could be described as abundant; the lower-grade spirit stones kept on hand alone numbered over six hundred.

To his surprise, there was also a single cyan medium-grade spirit stone among them.

Lower-grade spirit stones had mixed spiritual energy and generally lacked any distinct elemental classification.

Upon reaching the medium-grade spirit stone level, however, the spiritual energy within them began to exhibit distinct elemental properties.

During the previous battle at Taohuawu, among the items Qin Ying had allowed the few of them to choose from, one had been a medium-grade spirit stone.

The color and texture of that one were remarkably similar to the one belonging to Shen Huai right before him.

Song Yan held it in his palm, feeling it carefully; the wood-attribute spiritual energy within it undoubtedly made up the largest proportion and was also the purest.

Medium-grade spirit stones still contained spiritual energy of various other attributes.

However, compared to lower-grade spirit stones, the spiritual energy of a specific single attribute was already exceptionally prominent.

The spirit stones that Song Yan, Rong, and Wu had obtained by slaying the puppet talisman in the painted world emitted a pale purple hue.

Consequently, among them, the thunder-attribute spiritual energy was the most prominent.

If cultivation techniques of the corresponding attribute could be supplemented with medium-grade spirit stones during cultivation, the progress would undoubtedly be twice as effective with half the effort.

Putting away all the spirit stones, he turned his attention to several other items.

One of them was the magical artifact consisting of a string of ancient copper coins.

Unfortunately, this copper coin magical artifact had first been broken by the ghostly shadows of the Avici Hell, and before its damage could be repaired and its spiritual energy replenished, it had been pulled out once more by Shen Huai in a vain attempt to fend off that trace of sword-path true essence.

Now it was utterly shattered and completely unusable.

To spend energy and spirit stones having someone repair it would be a loss outweighing the gain, making it entirely unnecessary.

Next was the jade pendant.

Holding it in his palm and examining it closely for a while, he failed to detect anything out of the ordinary.

When Song Yan had first struck down Shen Huai, this jade pendant had emitted a verdant spiritual glow, as if repairing his vital life force.

It was precisely because of this that he had proceeded to decapitate Shen Huai, fearing precisely this object.

Without further hesitation, he simultaneously directed his spiritual energy and divine sense into it, wiping away the residual imprint.

Within a short span of time, the refining process was complete.

This was a medium-grade magical artifact. It possessed no offensive or killing capabilities, but during combat, it could automatically utilize the cyan wood spiritual energy stored within it to heal the cultivator's injuries.

Yet, viewed in hindsight, his decision to decapitate the foe for the sake of absolute caution had actually been unnecessary.

For this jade pendant artifact could merely mend external wounds and restore obstructed meridians.

Fatal injuries of the kind Shen Huai had suffered were utterly impossible to heal.

Finally, there was the hair hairpin.

This hairpin was flexible and treacherous, classifiable as a "needle-type" magical artifact, and it was precisely the culprit that had nearly taken his life that day.

However, Song Yan harbored no interest in needle-type magical artifacts.

He stowed it back into the cosmos sack; once he returned to the sect, he would simply find a place to sell it in exchange for spirit stones.

Aside from these, the sack also contained a considerable number of talisman papers, medicinal pills, and other useful items, all of which Song Yan transferred one by one into his own cosmos sack.

Having finished tidying up most of the items, he picked up a jade slip.

This was an item retrieved from Shen Huai's cosmos sack, which appeared to be a secret art for observing spiritual energy and discerning qi.

When Shen Huai had acquired this secret art, it seemingly had no name, though the jade slip referred to it as "Observing Spirit and Discerning Qi."

As it happened, the Void-Observing Sword Pupil he had just discovered today within the Sword Seeding Art possessed a similar function.

Yet it was evidently clear that the two each possessed their own unique strengths.

The Void-Observing Sword Pupil saw through illusions and reality, allowing one to observe the flow of spiritual energy during combat and seize the opponent's flaws.

It leaned far more heavily toward combat and slaughter.

Shen Huai's secret art, on the other hand, placed greater emphasis on tracing origins and tracking down trails.

Through a cultivator's casual actions and movements, one could spot subtle clues and thereby deduce the Daoist chants and secret arts practiced by that person.

It could even enable one to infer what unutilized spiritual talismans or magical artifacts that person might have concealed.

However, the cultivation of this secret art was extremely complicated, requiring one to have a thorough and absolute grasp of the attributes and characteristics of all kinds of spiritual treasures.

The energy and time it demanded were simply too vast.

After much deliberation, Song Yan temporarily shelved it.

Although he had no immediate intention of selling it off, he would not consider cultivating it in the short term.

The profound insights gained within the Avici Hell had led him to decide to place the greater part of his focus on sword-path-related cultivation.

By keeping things as pure as possible, he would be able to travel even further along the path of the sword in the future.

Having methodically sorted through everything, he finally began to embark on the cultivation of the pupil technique.

Calming his mind and concentrating his spirit, gathering his primordial essence into oneness, Song Yan sat cross-legged on the bluestone floor tiles, closing his eyes to focus his mind as he slowly regulated his breathing.

A moment later, he pressed his fingers together, crossing them before his chest.

Spiritual light flickered at his fingertips.

Within the Sword-Dao Sea of Qi, the sword qi lingering and fluctuating around his natal flying sword slowly welled out from his fingertips like a spring silkworm spinning thread.

Guided by a trace of spiritual energy, it climbed toward the space between his eyebrows.

The first wisp of sword qi seeped into the Jingming acupuncture points.

"Hiss—"

His eyelashes trembled violently, and a sharp, piercing pain akin to needle pricks assaulted him from both eyes.

He hurriedly steadied his mind, enduring the intense pain as he slowly dispersed a portion of the sword qi.

"I pushed the circulation much too hastily; it nearly injured my eyes."

A lingering fear stirred within his heart.

The secret art manual recorded that upon practicing the Void-Observing Sword Pupil for the very first time, one must circulate the qi with utmost gradualness and must never act with undue haste.

The speed at which Song Yan had channeled his qi just moments ago had already been exceedingly gentle and cautious, yet he had not expected it to still be too fast.

"Hoo—"

Stabilizing the circulation of his technique, he let out a gentle breath.

"The sword emerges from the void abyss, the eyes are like hanging pearls..."

Silently reciting the key formulas of the secret art, he once more began to slowly guide the sword qi gathered between his eyebrows toward his eyes.

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