576: Like a Storm

Like a Storm

"What if I just emulate a storm? But not just any storm, it needs to be something unique to me", she thought to herself. 1

Since she had the Wind Dao and the Thunder Dao, merging the two together would create the Dao of Wind and Lightning or the Storm Dao. However, such a thing wasn't very rare or new. In fact, there were sects dedicated to this Dao. 

Ming Yue needed something different but what?

She thought about all of her techniques and experiences, wracking her mind around what she could possibly do. 

"Wait, Waning Moon... Combining the moon with the storm, would that work?" she wondered. 

Waning Moon was her strongest technique, a culmination of what she had achieved in the Sword Dao. 

"If I can incorporate the moon with a storm, that would be something only I could use but how do I even do it? What do those two have even have in common?"

Ming Yue couldn't help but feel irritated by this. One moment, she felt relief from finding something only to plunge into frustration once again. But there was something that Ming Yue had that could help her, something that she remembered she had. 

"Maybe this could help me."

Thinking this to herself, she pulled out a large book from her spatial ring and opened it up, flipping through the many paintings. Her eyes lingered on each painting for just a moment or two before moving on to the next one

"Huan Shi Ti's paintings, this was the book from the Ruins of a Broken Banner. I'm sure I saw a painting that has both the moon and a storm in it! Which pages was it?"

There were several hundred pages, each one was a depiction of a different storm. Ones at the darkest of night and the brightest of days, storms that had nothing but lightning and storms that had only rain and thunder. Violent ones that were short-lived and calmer ones that lasted days, there were even paintings of darkened clouds. 

Her hands moved quickly until she finally stopped at a page near the end of a book. 

"This is it! The storm and the moon together! And there's a couple more too!"

She looked and studied each of the paintings. They all featured the Moon but each of them portrayed a different storm. Soon enough, she stopped at a particular one, admiring and contemplating its design.

Among the other paintings, it was one of the grander ones, a storm that stretched over a mountain range.

Billowing black clouds seemed to cover the night sky as droves of lightning struck down, illuminating the painting. It was a powerful storm that looked as if it would reduce the mountains to rubble. 

"With how large the storm is, this must've been painted from afar. The mountains are at the bottom, the storm is in the middle and the moon is above", she observed.

But there was something else as well.

Ming Yue leaned forward, looking more closely into the clouds, squinting her eyes. 

"There's light shining through", she said, "Even though the clouds are thick, there are still some gaps where moonlight shines through. It's difficult to discern because of the lightning but it's there."

She gazed at all of the little details, going through the painting inch by inch. Her eyes seemed to light up as she did so. 

"The storm is fierce and chaotic, carrying destructive power and the clouds completely cover the moon. Even then, it doesn't mean that the moon is not there, in fact, it shows itself when the clouds shift. But one would be so focused on the storm that they wouldn't notice the moon", she muttered. 

Her eyes then widened as a connection was made.

"Just like Blood Moon and the Black Blade."

Ming Yue thought back to the two swords and how she had planned to fight with them. 

"At the core of it, Blood Moon will be the fierce and chaotic storm but the Black Blade is always there, like the moon. Then could I use the Black Blade for Waning Moon?" 

Having made this breakthrough, she did nothing but sit and think. Every now and then her hand would move as if to mimic her sword and her mind just continued to go, contemplating what she had thought up. 

Soon enough, she could no longer hold back and unsheathed both swords. Ming Yue could not just think and theorize without actually putting it into practice. Even if it made sense in her mind, putting her ideas to the test would show her just how it would work. 

With Blood Moon in her dominant hand and the Black Blade in a reverse grip of her offhand, the young woman started slow, building up a tempo and grew faster as time passed. 

Soon enough, Blood Moon was nothing but a wild blur, flashes of light as if it were lightning. And the Black Blade would make itself known, coming out as a killing blow. In truth, each of these strikes had the potential to kill but when the Black Blade came out, a deadly strike was more than likely. In fact, it would be practically unavoidable. 

"Waning Moon."

Her strength surged into the blade and through it, a crescent moon of light was released. But she didn't stop there, it grew faster and fiercer, and her eyes showed nothing but utter focus. 

"It still needs work", she thought, "But the essence, it is there."

The two swords continued to twirl and dance until she was content with the progress she made. Even as she lowered the swords, Ming Yue was still too absorbed with these matters. 

"Hm, how should I change my techniques then? I don't think I need to completely abandon them but they have to be better. Combining the three daos with the swords... I can incorporate the sword pendant to it as well."

She sat down again, resting her cheek on her knuckles. 

Weeks passed like this, Ming Yue knew what she wanted to do, she just had to figure out how she was going to get there. But trying to get to where she wanted was harder said than done. Even if her line of thinking made sense, there were too many variables to consider. 

"This path you're going through, it's a very difficult one."

During one of these days, Senior Zhen commented on her efforts. Ming Yue looked at the Black Blade, her breath was a bit rough as she spent hours honing this new style of fighting. 

"Yes, it is", she replied. 

"Combining three Daos with the three swords, let alone that sword pendants, you're dealing with two Weapon Spirits as well. The amount of depth and potential that you can bring out is immense. However..."

Senior Zhen took a short pause. 

At this point, she stopped her sword practice, catching on to his sudden silence. 

"What? What's wrong?" she asked him. 

"In your current state, this way of fighting is too difficult for you to use. You must master Realm of a Hundred Swords in order to find any success in this endeavor", the weapon spirit explained. 

"This... why is that? Why must I master that in order to do this?" 

It was an earnest question coming from her. Even if she learned that all of the practice she had done was in vain, she didn't quite mind. 

"I felt as if I had been missing something while doing this, to think it was because of this", she said. 

"Indeed, it is because you have yet to reach a high level of mastery in Realm of a Hundred Swords. As I said before, you're using two weapon spirits and that pendant. That requires a level of control that you can only achieve. But that is just the bare minimum, you would need to reach the final stage of the Sword Path for something like this."

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