Fang Yuan took a brief look over the conceptual framework of the killer move Tian Wu had cobbled together. After analyzing the flow of its prospective gu worms, he offered his critique: "I believe this move is currently about thirty percent complete."
"Only thirty percent?" Tian Wu's face immediately fell, and he let out a dejected sigh. "I've been trying to develop this independently for months. I wanted to accomplish something entirely on my own, you see, without relying on my clan's pre-existing inheritances. We don't even have that good of a Sword Path Inheritance for that matter. I could ask them to buy me one, but then my grandfather will never accept that . But if the absolute best I can manage is thirty percent, then perhaps I really am not cut out for wandering the world."
"There is no need to be so disheartened," Fang Yuan said smoothly. "Even though it is only thirty percent complete, it provides us with a solid foundation to work with. Speaking of which, why don't you simply search for a similar conceptual Sword Path move on Treasure Yellow Heaven and purchase it to fill the gaps?"
"I wanted to do this completely from scratch," Tian Wu admitted, scratching his neck. "Just to prove to myself whether I could do it or not."
"An admirable attempt," Fang Yuan replied. "Furthermore, there is an additional, vital benefit to forging your own unique killer moves: they are incredibly difficult for enemies to counter. If a killer move is openly bought and sold on Treasure Yellow Heaven, it has likely been circulated multiple times. In that case, many external experts will recognize its flaws, making it easy to neutralize in a real battle."
For the rest of the afternoon, Fang Yuan and Tian Wu meticulously reviewed the technique. Tian Wu explained the intricate properties of several specific Sword Path gu worms so that Fang Yuan could fully understand their interactions. Fang Yuan processed the information rapidly using his vast cognitive capabilities. By the time the late afternoon sun began to cast long shadows across the desert, his eyes flashed with a sudden breakthrough.
"Ah, Brother Fang Yuan, have you discovered a solution?" Tian Wu asked expectantly.
"Yes, I have. However," Fang Yuan sighed, shaking his head with a wry smile, "it is not exactly the result you were hoping for, Brother Tian Wu."
"Huh? I don't understand," Tian Wu blinked.
"Step aside for a moment, and I will demonstrate the result of this killer move," Fang Yuan instructed.
The core inspiration for this breakthrough had, surprisingly enough, been birthed directly from Tian Wu's rambling words. Tian Wu kept insisting that a sword could be sharp like a thought. However, Fang Yuan's mind had naturally flipped the concept on its head. He was, after all, a Great Grandmaster in the Emotion Path.
If a sword could cut like a thought, then thoughts could also cut like a blade. By extension, intense emotions could act as a blade, carving directly through an opponent's mind. Cultivators usually thought of this in an abstract sense - emotions influencing their enemy's behavior. But what if one solidified that concept into a physical materialization? What if emotions themselves became a tangible sword?
In the Wisdom Path, there were already various physical manifestations of thoughts, such as Vajra thoughts, which were hardened thoughts used primarily for defense. There were also purely offensive variations, like malicious thoughts. However, those variations still predominantly targeted the opponent's consciousness and possessed very little raw physical force unless they were stacked atop each other.
Even then, their offensive prowess was limited as the impact was spread over a wide range of thoughts and emotions, and could not rival a true offensive method.
Fang Yuan soared into the sky, his robes billowing in the desert wind. He began mobilizing a multitude of Emotion Path gu worms within his aperture, attempting to weave a new killer move. His very first attempt destabilized midway, collapsing into bursts of harmless light - but he had expected this, as very few killer moves were successfully finalized on the first try.
Modifying the alignment of the gu worms slightly, he channeled his Immortal Essence and cast it a second time. This time, the raw emotions coalesced into a physical form, but the shape was flawed; it resembled a blunt club rather than a sharp blade, drastically reducing its impact when it struck the sand below.
"Still too unrefined," Fang Yuan muttered.
After two more meticulous adjustments, he finally secured the perfect structural shape. He named the newly minted technique - Emotions Cut Like a Sword!
With a flick of Fang Yuan's fingers, several Emotion Path gu worms synchronized and unleashed their power. The raw, condensed emotions manifested into the physical world, taking the form of a translucent, razor-sharp sword aura. It shot forward violently, slicing into the desert floor and blasting a deep, clean trench into the heavy sand below.
"Brother Fang Yuan! Is that the new killer move you managed to create?" Tian Wu asked, his jaw dropping in sheer awe.
"Yes, it is," Fang Yuan answered, descending smoothly.
Internally, he was highly satisfied with the result. He hadn't wanted to even bother helping Tian Wu in the first place, but given that he was in their territory he couldn't very well keep declining the request. Not to mention he had to stay here in order to unravel the secret behind Impossible Boulder.
Initially, he had been annoyed by Tian Wu's constant pestering and had intended to simply procrastinate and delay answering the youth's requests or do the bare minimum while staying in Tian clan territory. He hadn't expected anything substantial to come from their chat. Yet, analyzing Tian Wu's unorthodox ideas had unexpectedly yielded him a brand-new offensive method - one that did not rely on his notorious Blood Path techniques.
While his Blood Path killer moves were naturally far more destructive than this, Emotions Cut Like a Sword was a Rank 5 mortal killer move that Fang Yuan could use openly in broad daylight without exposing his dark secrets or drawing the wrath of the righteous path.
Every path had its unique strengths and weaknesses; the sword path was universally renowned for supreme offensive power. Because Fang Yuan possessed a Great Grandmaster attainment level in the emotion path, he was able to mimic the characteristics of the sword path, forcing abstract emotions to mimic a physical blade that could cut through solid objects. While it was technically slightly weaker than a native sword path move of the same rank, it was incredibly versatile and more than sufficient for his current needs.
'It is a pity that my current body lacks Emotion Path dao marks so there will be no amplification of its effect,' Fang Yuan thought to himself. At the same time, he knew it was a blessing in disguise; he had no intention of actually cultivating the Emotion Path as his primary discipline, regardless of how staggeringly high his attainment level was.
"Well... it seems at least one of us managed to get something incredible out of this session," Tian Wu said, his voice dripping with despondency. Fang Yuan had effortlessly birthed a brand-new killer move, yet his own project remained a broken, incomplete mess.
"There is no need to be discouraged," Fang Yuan said, placing a reassuring hand on Tian Wu's shoulder. "It is getting late today, but we can easily continue our work in the coming future. I have managed to create an Emotion Path move that mimics the Sword Path. Your goal is to use the Sword Path to mimic the Wisdom Path. Now that we have a finalized my own successful move to serve as a reference point alongside your incomplete draft, our future progress will be significantly easier. Soon enough, we will forge a complete move for you. I didn't expect us to succeed so early anyway."
"Thank you for your guidance, Brother Fang Yuan," Tian Wu said, his bright spirits quickly returning. "And again, I apologize for my terrible lateness when we first met. By the way... it's a real shame we weren't able to budge the Impossible Boulder. Have you managed to come up with any new ideas on that front?"
Fang Yuan wasn't entirely certain if the youth was asking out of personal curiosity or if he had been subtly instructed to fish for answers by the Tian Clan elders, but his response remained the same. "No, I'm afraid I haven't found a definitive solution just yet. However, I still fully intend to solve it."
Having fulfilled a portion of his social obligations to his hosts, Fang Yuan returned to his quarters. He laid his Immortal aperture down once more and began combing through the text of The Legends of Ren Zu. If the absolute solution to the Impossible Boulder lay within a human path method as his deductions suggested, the answers would undoubtedly be hidden within the profound allegories of the ancient scripture.
Fang Yuan chuckled as Tian Wu sent him a message through Yellow Treasure Heaven. It looked like the youth was truly desperate for a solution, as he was plying Fang Yuan with his own Sword Path research and asking whether or not Fang Yuan could make use of them to work on the killer move. 'To have handed over this kind of information without asking for payment... hehe... alright I'll take a look through them to see if there is anything I can deduce.'