Chapter 162 Who’s Carving?
Three saber strokes were made before the gates of the seminary.

Ye Que’s Spiritual Sea exploded thrice.

Ye Que nearly stumbled off the Bridge of Long Life and looked incredulously at the disciples not far away from him. They had still not noticed him and were still practicing their saber techniques. This was because they had also discovered something amazing.

It was common for practitioners to be unable to grasp the essence of their training while practicing saber techniques on their own. Their physical selves, sabers, Spiritual Forces, Spiritual Seas and pathways of their sabers were always in disharmony. Training with thousands of other people, however, would speed things up, causing man and saber to reach a state of harmony very quickly, as if the larger the number of practitioners, the greater the benefits.

Some of the practitioners had not realized this fact during the first round of training, but by the third round, even those who were slower could already begin to feel it.

Their motivation to train was instantly amplified.

The shouts.

Could be heard very clearly.

As for Ye Que, he was no longer in a hurry to reach the seminary. He began to comprehend the situation unfolding in front of him and took an internal measure of his Spiritual Sea. He observed the minute changes in it and compared them against his surroundings. Very quickly, he determined that once the pupils were one with their sabers and were completely concentrating on learning the three basic saber techniques, a response would be triggered in his own Spiritual Sea when their saber energies were congregating at one spot and they were slashing with their weapons. At the same time, it would produce some feedback.

It was a very strange amplification.

Each time the disciples practiced the three basic strokes, Ye Que’s Spiritual Sea would be amplified by five times.

He did not expect that his Spiritual Sea would be increased by such a great amount from thousands of his disciples practicing the three basic saber strokes he created, even though the amplification lasted for a period shorter than one breath cycle. “This is an amplification of five times we’re talking about,” he thought. “What if ten times more students had been practicing at the same time? Or a hundred times?”

He was close to peak Starburst Realm power now, and a five times amplication of his powers would enable him to kill a Formless Realm expert instantly if he used his quickest sword skill in a sneak attack.

“Furthermore, we’re talking about the most basic and fundamental kind of saber technique. What about more advanced fighting skills?”

“What’s the theory behind such amplification anyway?”

“Was it because of the three saber techniques? Or the Divine Sect’s cultivation technique they are learning?”

The technique originated from the Divine Book, and he had inherited the Divine Book. “Could it be because of this?”

Plenty of thoughts came to Ye Que’s mind as he stood on the Bridge of Long Life, as did dozens of questions. The situation happening before him was something he had never encountered or heard of before. He traversed the Three Realms during his past life for dozens of years, and aside from certain specific magical formations, he had never heard of anything else that allowed someone to amplify his own powers by relying on the Spiritual Force of others.

For 15 minutes, Ye Que remained motionless.

Ye Que’s Spiritual Sea was amplified 45 times as the disciples of the seminary practiced each saber stroke 15 times. Each time, it would be amplified for a very quick amount of time.

The Spiritual Sea within Ye Que’s body reverted back to its usual calm state after the disciples concluded their practice.

Ye Que was unable to calm himself down for a long time while delivering that morning’s lecture. He kept thinking about the reason for the amplification and hurriedly ended the four-hour lecture. He reminded everyone to train hard, especially the disciples who had yet to comprehend how to enter the First Stage of the Divine Sect. He told them to learn more from their seniors and communicate more so that they could master the fundamentals much more quickly. The other disciples who had already done so explained what would happen after they entered the realm of cultivation to them excitedly, telling them how different that world would be, as well as painting a vivid picture for their juniors.

Since he was unable to comprehend the sudden amplification, Ye Que was thinking of a way to prove it.

He acted according to his wishes without any hesitation. He went directly to the royal palace and reported his name and told the guards about the purpose of his visit, hoping to meet Li Jianqi.

The reply he got was that the Princess was not in the palace. She had gone to Xuanwu Ceremonial Platform.

Ye Que headed directly there after asking for directions. He wanted to do an experiment and needed a great amount of manpower to make a comparison. However, his own disciples had learned the Divine Sect’s cultivation technique, and he needed a control group of ordinary people who were ideally soldiers who had some fundamental martial arts skills. Otherwise, it would possibly take a long time to teach them the saber techniques.

Xuanwu Ceremonial Platform was located at the central axis of Luoyang City and remotely connected to the royal palace. It was the place chosen for the annual ceremony to honor the Heavens and the ancestors and covered a huge surface area that could hold more than 10 thousand people. Li Chunzhi’s father had been coronated after making offerings to their ancestors at this very platform.

It was still not noon time, but the entire entrance to Xuanwu Ceremonial Platform was already under heavy security. Thousands of soldiers and countless smiths were working under a tight schedule.

Li Jianqi was wearing a suit of light armor in red and shouting something loudly with a long sword in hand.

She seemed to be instructing the smiths to conclude their work sooner.

Construction of the 30 meters military monument was completed after only one day and the smiths were touching it up now. There were no inscriptions on the monument; otherwise it would have been impossible to complete building it over just one day. Li Jianqi was unworried about this fact; she was the girl wonder of Silent Monastery and especially good at carving with her sword.

The soldiers and smiths would just have to concentrate on fixing up the military monument.

Luckily, there was a mountain of rocks at the Southwestern district of Luoyang. It had an abundance of new mountain rocks.

Ye Que did not immediately walk up to Li Jianqi to disrupt her, upon noticing how busy she was. He lifted his head to look and observed that the construction was in its finishing stages. Basically, all was left was to make the inscriptions.

Just at this moment, Huang Shan galloped into the platform, riding a quick steed. He came up to Li Jianqi and passed a piece of paper into her hands before whispering a few words to her. As they were too far away, Ye Que could not hear them clearly. In fact, he was not really concerned about what they were discussing.

After one hour.

“All smiths who are standing in front of the monument stand clear. As do all soldiers.”

“500 meters away.”

“No one is to come close without any instructions.”

Li Jianqi stood before the monument and took out the piece of paper from the sleeves of her robes again for visual confirmation of the words on it. She then took a deep breath, her gaze gradually turning serious. Her qi was also quickly increasing. She was indeed an expert of Formless Realm, and within the time of a few breath cycles, everyone in the surrounding could feel the pressure on them increase by a few times.

The long sword in her hand was slowly raised, and the tip of her sword was pointed toward the monument.

“Piercing Edge!”

The shout which accompanied her first stroke reverberated across the platform, the echoes lasting for a long time.

A string of loose rocks flew off the stone monument.

Huge drops of tears suddenly welled up in Li Jianqi’s eyes as she danced in the air along with the sounds of metal clanging against stone. Beads of sweat appeared on her porcelain white cheeks as green veins protruded from the skin of her arms. Her black hair was swaying.

Ye Que, who was watching a great distance away, squinted and concentrated. Unexpectedly, he could vaguely sense that the young lady who was far away from him looked foreign and strange. She was completely different from the innocent and lovable Li Jianqi, but a battle-hardened God of War who was filled with blood vigor. Sword Qi slashed off chunks of rock from the stone monument with each stroke of her sword, and a row of powerful words appeared on it. She was just a young lady, but the carvings she made contained the blood, sweat and prosperity of all previous generations of the glorious Tang Empire, and they looked as though they were an incredible enchantment that contained immense destructive power.

Li Jianqi’s eyes were already filled with tears after a short while, but the carvings she had made were extremely realistic. They were words in white against the green stone, and extremely powerful.

“The soul of the Tang Empire’s soldiers will live on forever.”

The words looked beautiful and appealed to one’s soul.