Chapter 382: Golden Blade Technique!
Jiang Chen was taken aback for a moment before quickly offering a polite smile. “Senior Brother Qin, you flatter me. If there is any way this junior brother can assist, I will naturally spare no effort.”
The response was exactly what Qin Hao wanted to hear. He smiled and continued, “As you likely know, I am a core disciple of the Vajra Peak. Coincidentally, one of our martial uncles needs someone to tend to his spirit plants. The task strictly requires a cultivator with dual water and wood Spirit Roots. If you have the time, we can head over tomorrow.”
Jiang Chen didn’t agree immediately. Instead, he shot a discreet glance at Chen Tian. Seeing the older man give a slight nod of approval, Jiang Chen grinned. “Consider it done.”
Qin Hao nodded in satisfaction and set the schedule. “Good. I’ll come find you tomorrow.”
Jiang Chen assumed the gathering was finally over, but to his surprise, Qiu Su suddenly stepped up to him. Her eyes crinkled in a warm smile as she called out, “Junior Brother Jiang!”
Jiang Chen blinked, looking at her in confusion. “Ah?”
“I’d like to buy some Top-quality Spirit Rice from you,” Qiu Su explained, “as well as some of the Spirit Wine we just drank.”
Jiang Chen immediately waved his hand dismissively, his mind already calculating the immense networking value of a freebie. “Senior Sister, speaking of buying makes us sound like strangers. Given your close relationship with Senior Brother Chen Tian and Senior Brother Qin, why would you ever need to pay for mere Top-quality Spirit Rice and Spirit Wine?”
With a grand wave of his hand, he pulled fifty pounds of Top-quality Spirit Rice and five jugs of Spirit Wine from his storage and presented them to her as a gift.
Standing in the background, Long Ao and Chen Bo remained completely unfazed, clearly accustomed to Jiang Chen’s calculated generosity.Han Xin, however, couldn’t hide her reaction. Her eyes locked onto the jars of Spirit Wine, practically gleaming with a desperate thirst. It had been far too long since she last visited, and her own stash of Spirit Wine had dried up ages ago. Fortunately, she wasn’t foolish enough to act recklessly with Golden Core experts like Qin Hao and Qiu Su present.
Qiu Su blinked in surprise at the generous gift. “You misunderstand me,” she clarified. “I meant that I wish to establish a long-term purchasing arrangement with you.”
Jiang Chen’s expression shifted to one of pragmatic business. “Ah, I see. If you’re looking for bulk orders, you’ll need to discuss that with Senior Brother Chen Tian. The vast majority of my Top-quality Spirit Rice must be prioritized for his supply lines. However, if you only need small, personal batches, that won’t be a problem.”
Qiu Su understood the underlying politics immediately. She didn’t press Chen Tian on the matter right then. Instead, she temporarily suppressed her craving for the Top-quality Spirit Rice and walked back over to Qin Hao. It was getting late; she would negotiate the details tomorrow.
Finally, Qin Hao and the rest of the Golden Core cultivators summoned their flying swords and departed into the night sky.
Only when their auras completely faded did Jiang Chen let out a heavy sigh of relief. “The pressure of interacting with these Golden Core cultivators is exhausting. One wrong word, and I could offend them or leak a fatal secret.”
He quickly shut the heavy stone door of his house, locking the world outside.
Drawing upon the water spiritual power in his Qi Sea, he sketched a glowing Cleaning Talisman in mid-air. The spell washed over the table, instantly scrubbing the bowls and chopsticks spotless. With the chores done, he headed up to the second floor.
He didn’t sleep. Instead, he sat down to study the Golden Blade Technique.
During his last battle, the true destructive potential of Sword Nest No. 1 hadn’t been fully realized, primarily because he lacked a suitable metal-attribute spell to power its ammunition. He intended to fix that tonight.
…
…
In a flash, the night passed.
It was around nine in the morning when Jiang Chen, having studied the manual for hours, finally felt a spark of comprehension. He immediately pulled up his attribute panel.
[Golden Blade Technique: Level 1]
[Effect 1: Condenses a golden light blade one foot long and one finger wide using metal spiritual power.]
It didn’t look particularly impressive. In fact, it seemed downright ordinary.
[Consume 8 years of Lifespan to repair the Golden Blade Technique to completion?]
“Yes.”
Instantly, Jiang Chen’s mind was pulled into an Epiphany. Decades of theoretical experience, intricate mana pathways, and combat techniques regarding the Golden Blade Technique flooded his consciousness. Because the Lifespan cost was relatively low, the trance didn’t last long.
When his eyes snapped open, the panel had updated.
[Golden Blade Technique: Level 1]
[Effect 1: Condenses a golden light blade ten feet long and one foot wide using metal spiritual power.]
[Effect 2: Light blade damage against ordinary iron and low-grade Spirit Weapons increased by 30%.]
Jiang Chen nodded approvingly. “Not bad.”
[Consume 3 years of Lifespan to raise the Golden Blade Technique to max level?]
“Yes.”
This time, the Epiphany lasted barely the span of a single breath.
[Remaining Lifespan: 697 years]
[Golden Blade Technique: Level 3]
[Effect 1: Simultaneously condenses 3 golden light blades of variable size using metal spiritual power.]
[Effect 2: Golden blades temporarily reduce the defense of low-grade Spirit Weapons by 40%, and high-grade Spirit Weapons by 20%.]
[Effect 3: Light blades cause kinetic shockwaves upon impact, creating severe tearing wounds in flesh and blood.]
[Effect 4: Golden blades can split into thirty-six hair-thin golden rays, causing devastating area-of-effect damage.]
[Special Effect 1: Cutting power increased by 40% against Spirit Weapons, 30% against energy shields, 20% against flesh and blood. Ignores 10% of total defense strength.]
Reading through the final modifiers, Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow in sheer appreciation. “No wonder everyone says metal Spirit Roots boast the highest combat power. Even a standard high-level spell becomes this utterly unreasonable? Fortunately… I have a metal Spirit Root too.”
Without wasting another second, his figure flickered, and he vanished into his personal space.
Sword Nest No. 1 materialized in his grasp. But before integrating the two, Jiang Chen wanted to test the raw output of the Golden Blade Technique itself.
He channeled the Carved Gold Art, drawing upon the sharp, metallic spiritual power in his Qi Sea. With a flick of his right wrist, three finger-thick golden blades materialized in the air.
With a mere thought, they floated upward and began to expand.
From a foot long, they rapidly grew to ten feet. Pushing his mana further, he expanded them to their current absolute limit: three massive blades, each over fifty feet long and six feet wide.
He hadn’t even tested their cutting power yet, but the sheer visual scale was intimidating.
The three fifty-foot golden blades hovered in the air, radiating a blinding, metallic luster. Their serrated edges whirred and ground together like living, mechanical teeth, shredding the surrounding oxygen with a harsh, hissing shriek.
When Jiang Chen dismissed two of the blades and funneled all his power into the remaining one, its dimensions violently expanded again—swelling to nearly ninety feet long and ten feet wide.
The atmospheric pressure in the personal space plummeted. The visual impact of the colossal weapon was staggering.
Yet, Jiang Chen wielded the skyscraper-sized construct of solid light as easily as his own arm. He swung it through the air like a giant butcher’s cleaver, the blade effortlessly cleaving the empty space with terrifying momentum.
“Interesting!” Jiang Chen muttered, his eyes gleaming. “Feels like I won’t ever need a kitchen knife again. Now… let’s try the splitting effect.”
Acting on a sudden whim, he cranked his metal spiritual power output to the maximum.
Instantly, the colossal golden blade began to unravel at a visible speed, peeling apart like threads of silk until it divided into thirty-six distinct rays.
The dense, crisscrossing golden beams wove themselves into a massive, razor-wire grid of pure cutting force. As the beams intersected, they emitted a high-pitched, mechanical whine that made the scalp tingle with primal danger.
However, Jiang Chen quickly noted the drawback. While metal-attribute spells possessed overwhelming destructive power, their Qi consumption was equally atrocious. If a cultivator only possessed a single metal Spirit Root, even at Foundation Establishment Perfection, they could sustain this output for barely fifteen minutes before running dry—assuming they didn’t rely on pills or special buffs.
Fortunately, for someone with dual Spirit Roots where earth naturally generated metal, that duration could be doubled.
Next came the main event.
Jiang Chen locked the Golden Blade Technique into the rotary mechanism of Sword Nest No. 1.
*BOOM!*
The Spirit Weapon violently shuddered in his grip. The honeycomb payload engaged, and thirty-six fingernail-sized sword pellets erupted from the barrels in a devastating barrage, unleashing a kinetic roar that blasted a visible shockwave of golden exhaust into the air.
Each pellet was encased in a spiraling drill of golden light, spinning at terrifying RPMs. They tore through the atmosphere with a deafening, rhythmic *da-da-da* of mechanical fury, spitting half-foot-long trails of blue-gold kinetic flames from their rears.
Their velocity had reached terrifying new heights. Originally, they could cover a thousand feet in a single breath. Now, they crossed that distance in half a second. At full throttle, they reached an astonishing two thousand feet per breath, moving so fast the human eye could only register the lingering, neon-gold afterimages of their trajectory.
The moment the thirty-six sword pellets fanned out, they wove an inescapable, razor-wire grid of absolute destruction over a thousand-foot radius. The semi-transparent golden blades locked together, the mechanical roar of their overlapping firing arcs sounding like a relentless industrial grinder.
Wherever the barrage swept, even the ambient light was shredded into glittering, broken fragments!