The Wheel Of Samsara - 21 A Sword Cultivator X

Lya gazed at Amon, her eyes full of expectation and excitement, but her expression was deadly serious. The last sign that she had cried disappeared from her face as she asked a very simple question, yet, it was enough to leave a deep impression on Amon.

“What do you know about swords?” She asked with a mild voice, her eyes looking deeply at his reaction.

“Do you mean Sword Arts?” Amon asked, confused. He cocked his head as he thought and his golden eyes were full of doubt.

Lya shook her head. “Your Sword Arts are not Sword Arts. I read all of the manuals you bought. Not to my surprise, they were nothing like the true Sword Arts of the past.”

Amon raised a brow hearing that, to which Lya continued explaining. “What you understand as Sword Arts is nothing more than channeling Elemental Qi into the sword and using it as a medium to concentrate and attack. The sword is no more than a catalyst, if you will.”

“A true Sword Art should be based on the sword, not on the element being channeled.”

Listening to her, Amon was still clueless. Lya sighed seeing his expression, so she raised a hand, beckoning for the crude sword lying on the floor. The sword trembled once, and shot through the air, stopping near Lya’s hand.

“This is the Earth-shattering Sword.” She said as the sword hovered in the air. Its blade started humming, as if resonating with something. It floated through the window, as if a ghost was holding it. Lya lowered her hand, making the sword swing once.

The air seemed to be split by the sword as a deafening howl echoed through the room. The ground quaked and nearly made Amon fall. As the blade lightly touched the ground, a dust of cloud rose and the ground quaked even further.

“It is a somewhat powerful strike, but it is not fitting for a sword.” Lya’s emotionless voice echoed in Amon’s mind as the dust settled.

He expected his room to be in shambles, but somehow everything was in place. “Don’t worry, I protected the house.” Lya eased his worries.

Amon slowly approached the open window, being greeted by the night sky. Outside the window, illuminated by the moonlight, Amon could see a gigantic hole on the ground, surrounded by a web of cracks. The hole was so big it could probably swallow his whole house.

“Such a crude technique. It looks more like someone smashed the ground than used a sword to strike at it.” Lya sighed and moved a finger. The sword stuck to the ground shook and hovered to her side again.

“This is the Myriad Streams Sword.” She waved a finger again. The air around the sword seemed to ripple and droplets of water condensed around it, covering the blade in what seemed to be morning dew.

As Lya started waving her fingers, the sword started dancing. A beautiful, complex dance. Every movement of the sword sent a wave, that left shallow gashes on the ground. When the sword finally stopped, it was at the center of what seemed to be a catastrophe.

The gashes it created twisted around each other like snakes, looking more like a complex web of small riverbeds than anything else.

“This technique is all about the rhythms, the flow. It might be shallow and somewhat weak, but if you grasp it, it will be very hard to stop your attacks.” Lya looked at Amon as she said that. Amon was still looking confused, even if his mouth was agape with her display.

“This is a real sword strike.” Lya said, her face serious. She made the sword hover to her again, but this time, something was different.

Amon’s hair stood on end as he saw Lya focusing. Thin lines of light started glowing in the blade, turning more and more numerous as they connected with each other and spread in a strange pattern. The sword flashed with light, and started vibrating violently, making a low buzzing sound and the air around it ripple.

This was the imbuing of Qi that Amon learnt, but on a completely different level. He watched without blinking as Lya raised and arm and the sword stopped vibrating. It slowly rotated, point its edge to the sky, standing parallel to Lya’s arm.

“Pay attention.” Lya glanced at Amon as she cut the air with her hand, chopping down. The blade swung downwards, and a blinding light shone from it. Like a wave, a strange mass of light shot from the sword at an incredible speed, whistling like and arrow and leaving a deep gash on the ground as it cut through it.

The wave looked like a crescent moon as it shot to the distance, hitting the trees behind his house and cutting them down. Amon could see clouds of dust and a storm of fallen leaves rising as the wave of light moved on without stopping.

As Amon heard the trees still falling from far away, he looked at the sword hovering next to Lya with a pale face. In front of the sword was just a long gash on the ground that lead to a trail of destruction.

“Can you tell me what’s different in this strike compared to others?” Lya asked as she looked at Amon. She had no expression, but Amon was sure she was grinning inwardly.

“The power was miles ahead the others.” Amon observed, still impressed.

“Yes, but not because of the reasons you might think.” Lya shook her head. “I used the exact same amount of Qi in the three times I used the sword.”

“What was it them? Wind instead of earth or water?” He asked while still lost.

“There was no Elemental Qi involved in that strike.” Her eyes glistened as she spoke. “What I used was what we call Sword Qi.”

“Sword Qi?” He cocked his head. “What would that be?”

“We use the Qi as a sword, and that increases the power of a strike to an overwhelming degree.”Lya raised a hand and extended her forefinger and her middle finger. “If you manage to condense the Qi enough, you can even launch it just like I did.”

Qi swirled around her fingers, so condensed it seemed solid. It shone with a bright light as it took the shape of a small blade that surrounded her extended fingers. Lya waved her hand, and the Qi in it shot out, assuming a similar form to her previous strike.

“That… how can it be that powerful?” Amon was dumbstruck. “If it is simply condensed Qi in the form of a blade, at most it should be sharp, that strength is absurd!”

“The secret is not in the Qi itself. It is in the blade.” Lya said dismissively.

“I said to you, the soul can affect the material world through your will and emotions. The Nebula is a manifestation of that.” Amon listed to her words attentively, eager to understand.

“The strength of your will determine the limits of the power you can use, as it is the will that moves the Qi and makes it do your biding.”

“Now, tell me, what is the purpose of a sword?” Lya glanced at him as she asked.

Amon didn’t have to think for too long. Even if he wanted to deny it, the sword had only a single purpose. It was a weapon made for battles. A weapon made for wars.

“To kill.” He answered in a serious tone.

“Yes.” Lya nodded very satisfied. “Now, if you give the Qi the properties of a sword, what would it entail?”

“A blow used to kill an opponent.” Amon said as he stroked his chin.

“The true Sword Qi is not simply manipulating the Qi and making it sharp. True Sword Qi is formed when you have an unbearable will to kill. That is when your Sword Qi will be the strongest, and that is when you must draw a line.” Lya looked seriously to Amon as she said that, making sure he understood that point. “Because those that can kill on a whim are the ones that must value life the most.”

“Soul Cultivation was mostly the same for every Soul Cultivator, but the weapons each one of them chose told a lot about who they were. The Soul Cultivators that used swords were called Sword Cultivators.”

“We had a saying back then: you know the value of a Sword Cultivator by seeing what it takes to make him draw his sword.”

Hearing this, Amon turned ashamed again. It was as Lya had said before, because of a few words he had almost killed Amber.

“Nevertheless, every single Sword Cultivator had one thing in common: they never drew their sword to make threats. A sword leaves its sheath to draw blood, nothing more, nothing less.” She closed her eyes for but a moment as she focused. “Never forget this, for this is the Path of the Sword.”

“If you walk this path, death and destruction will forever follow you.” When she opened her eyes again, they shone with a fierce and merciless light. “You must understand them, embrace them. Because if you ever reject them or refuse to accept that this is how things are, no matter how strong you might be, you will certainly fall.”

“Still, you must never enjoy them. I’ll say it again. Those that can kill on a whim are the ones that must value life the most.”

“If you act any different from this, then you are nothing but a rabid animal, and such animals were put down without hesitation by true Sword Cultivators.”

Amon stood in silence, trying to understand all of which he just heard. He closed his eyes, calming his mind. After the outbursts of Qi that Lya caused, the surrounds of the house were silent, as if all animals had escaped. There was just an unnerving silence in the night.

Amon now understood even more why Lya got so mad at him before. If he was going to inherit the way of a Sword Cultivator from her, killing must be nothing more than a last resort.

‘You know the value of a Sword Cultivator by seeing what it takes to make him draw his sword’. Amon engraved these words deeply in his mind.

When he finally opened his golden eyes, Lya was staring at him, waiting for him.

“Now, do you know why I had you buy all of those Sword Arts?” She asked out of nowhere.

“No, I don’t.” Amon was honest. Hadn’t it been a waste of contribution points?

“You will learn them all.” She said with a mischievous smile.

“But I just have a weak affinity to wind…”

“The point is not using them; the point is grasping their essence.” She approached and bumped his forehead. All he felt was a light breeze as she continued. “Any Soul Cultivator worth their names had a degree of mastery over all elements.”

“A true master in the art of combat has a grasp over all elements, because even if faintly, combat involves all of them.” Lya turned away and held her hands behind her back as she started talking. Amon stood quiet, paying close attention.

“Your attacks must flow like water, so you can understand and control the rhythm of the battle.”

“Your attacks must be unpredictable like fire, so you can catch your opponent unprepared to receive them.”

“Your attacks must be as swift as the wind, so you can attack before he can defend.”

“Your attacks must be stable as the earth, so they may never waver.”

“You must be able to adaptable, fierce, precise and powerful.”

“Most of all, you must learn to understand.”

“Look around you, try to pry into the secrets of this world. You do not need to make a flame to be like fire; but to do so you must understand what fire is and how it works.”

“Being able to observe and understand are basic requirements for any decent cultivator or warrior.”

“Understand where you are, so you know where you will be in the next move. Observe what is around you, so you can use it to your favor.”

“Understand yourself, so you know your weaknesses and how to make up for them.”

“Understand your opponent, so you can predict his decisions and know where, when and how to strike him.”

“If you understand everything, then you can defeat anything.”

“However, never be too arrogant. One misstep, a small mistake in your judgement and something you oversaw may make you lose everything.”

“Be prepared for failures and be suspicious of those around you. In the moment that might spell victory or defeat, someone might do something that even they didn’t expect, and that will bring disaster.” He voice turned somewhat heavy as she said that, as if it was hard to say those words.

“So always see what is around you, Amon, and pay close attention to the ones close to you. It is exactly because they are close that it is easy for them to hurt you.” She turned around, facing him with a sad smile.

“Do you understand?” She looked at him, and her eyes told him not to lie.

“Yes.” Amon nodded sincerely.

“So, what do you think?”Lya looked away, gazing at the stars. “Can you walk though such a path?” She asked almost in a whisper.

Amon approached her and looked deep into her eyes. “I can.”

“Then prepare yourself, boy. I promise I will make you the best Sword Cultivator this world has ever seen.”

She had already promised this to herself. This time, she was promising it to Amon.