For the next several days, Ian Song devoted himself to painstakingly studying the Azure Lotus Sword Codex. He was certain that the Heavensnare Saintess hadn't obtained the Codex sealed inside the jade lotus, and in fact, she hadn't even fully refined the lotus itself—after all, Ian had needed to consume a full eighty percent of his spiritual power just to refine it.
His spiritual power had reached over 1100 points—a level even stronger than most ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators. Eighty percent of his spiritual power far surpassed the average Innate Ninth Layer.
After several days of research, Ian had gained a clear understanding of the Azure Lotus Sword Codex—it was, in essence, a Sword Immortal cultivation method, and a top-tier one at that.
So, Ian genuinely felt he'd struck gold with this find.
This sword codex was a top cultivation manual with high requirements. First off, the cultivator needed powerful soul force, because forging the sword fetus consumed a massive amount of it. If your soul force was lacking, you might not even survive the process.
But once the sword fetus was forged, it would in turn nourish the soul...
After briefing the senior staff at the base, Ian went into seclusion. As long as he could forge the sword fetus and cultivate sword essence, his strength would multiply several times over.
Still, he couldn't help but sigh—if the system's functions hadn't been sealed, he wouldn't need to go into seclusion to cultivate.
He chose a high-rise in the center of Huahai City as his closed-door cultivation spot.
Forging the sword fetus required absolute silence—any distraction could ruin the process. So the survivor base wasn't suitable for this.
For safety, Ian ordered Corpse One and Corpse Two to lead several hundred elite zombies to station themselves around the building. If any strangers approached, they were to kill them on sight.
After a round of breathing exercises, Ian's spiritual energy reached its peak.
"It's time to begin!"
A glint flashed in his eyes. He mentally reviewed the hand seals he was about to use several times, then took a deep breath and began cultivating.
His hands moved rapidly, forming one intricate hand seal after another. As the seals activated, Ian began circulating his energy according to the sword fetus forging method described in the codex.
After one complete cycle, a strand of sharp, violent sword-qi formed inside his body.
Outside, Ian's hands kept forming seals. Huge beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. The moment that sword-qi took shape, he felt a stabbing, bone-deep pain.
Sword-qi was a sharp, violent force. Before the sword fetus was forged, keeping sword-qi inside the body was like having a naked blade lodged in your flesh.
Gritting his teeth against the pain, Ian guided that strand of sword-qi through his meridians toward his sea of consciousness.
"Ugh!"
The moment the sword-qi moved, a wave of pain ten times worse than before crashed over him. Instinctively, Ian’s hand seals faltered for a split second.
"Pfft!"
The sword-qi, having barely advanced a few inches, suddenly jerked and tore straight through his meridians.
Gritting his teeth, Ian steadied his hand seals, then activated Radiance of Life to heal the damaged meridians.
The sword-qi continued inching upward, and he felt as if a blade was roaming wildly inside his body—the pain was beyond imagining.
He had no idea how much time passed before the sword-qi finally threaded through every meridian and arrived at his sea of consciousness.
As if drawn by some invisible force, the sword-qi abruptly plunged into his spirit lake, unleashing a wave of agony so intense it nearly knocked him out. Ian couldn’t help but let out a roar of soul-rending pain.
Even as he howled, his hand seals never faltered—in fact, they only grew faster.
"Condense the sword heart!"
With a low shout, the sword-qi in his sea of consciousness flared with a weak glow and began devouring his spiritual power. As it absorbed more, the sword-qi started to take on a tangible form.
Outside, Ian’s hand seals grew increasingly complex, each movement infused with a subtle, indescribable Dao-rhythm.
After half an hour, the sword-qi had devoured a tenth of his spiritual power and finally condensed into a tangible entity.
Seeing this, Ian let out a breath of relief.
After a brief rest, he launched into the second stage: forging the sword fetus.
Although the sword-qi had formed a physical entity, it wasn’t yet a true sword fetus. Only by inscribing Dao-patterns onto it could it become one.
Sword fetuses come in four grades: Human, Earth, Heaven, and God.
Human-grade is the lowest, God-grade the highest.
To forge a Human-grade sword fetus requires nine Dao-patterns; Earth-grade needs thirty-six, Heaven-grade needs seventy-two, and God-grade demands a full one hundred and eight Dao-patterns.
Human-grade sword fetuses are undoubtedly the easiest to make.
But Ian aimed straight for a God-grade sword fetus.
In the next instant, his hands began weaving the intricate God-grade hand seals.
Buzz—
Mysterious laws of heaven and earth were drawn forth, descending onto the tangible sword-qi in Ian’s sea of consciousness at his command.
As the laws descended, his spirit lake’s soul power surged toward the sword-qi entity as if pulled by an invisible thread.
After a while, a strange pattern appeared on the sword-qi—the first Dao-pattern was complete.
Keep going!
Ian took a deep breath and once again performed the technique to draw the laws of heaven and earth into his body.
The second, third, and fourth Dao-patterns appeared one after another, and the sword-qi entity began to change, gradually taking on the faint outline of a sword.
Forming the sword-qi entity had cost a tenth of his spiritual power; inscribing four Dao-patterns had already burned through another half-tenth. By this calculation, even if he exhausted all his soul power, he could only reach about seventy-two Dao-patterns.
The realization made Ian’s expression turn especially grim.
Again!
Suppressing all distracting thoughts, Ian pressed on, inscribing Dao-pattern after Dao-pattern.
At last, after inscribing sixty-four Dao-patterns, his spiritual power had dwindled to just a tenth, and he felt utterly exhausted.
With a flicker of intent, he produced an Evolution Crystal.
He’d anticipated running out of soul power while forging a God-grade sword fetus, so over the past few days, he’d ordered Corpse One and Corpse Two to hunt J-Type zombies and bring him their Evolution Crystals.
They hadn’t let him down: three sixth-tier J-Type zombies, five fifth-tier, and more than ten below fifth-tier—all their crystals were now his.
He swallowed a sixth-tier J-Type Evolution Crystal, and his depleted soul power surged, climbing from one-tenth to about one and a half tenths.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he gulped down the remaining two sixth-tier and all five fifth-tier crystals, restoring his spiritual power to roughly half its maximum.
"Still not enough!"
With a low growl, Ian devoured the last dozen or so lower-tier crystals, barely managing to push his soul power back up to seventy percent.
He resumed inscribing Dao-patterns, forging ahead relentlessly.
With his spiritual power replenished, the sword-qi entity—now unmistakably shaped like a real sword—became covered in more and more intricate Dao-patterns.
Finally, when Ian’s soul power was down to just half a tenth, the one hundred and eighth Dao-pattern was branded onto the sword. In that instant, the sword-qi entity erupted with blinding light, beginning its transformation into a true God-grade sword fetus…