Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

As Alex began thinking, he entered a soft trance as the question in his mind grew bigger and bigger.

Who was the 'man' that was supposed to be taken away for a Sword Heart to form? Was it the 'man' in the 'swordsman' or the man that was not a swordsman?

To begin with, what was a man?

Was a man not just a brain that sat inside a skeletal cage, surrounded by muscles and membranes and skin and organs and blood and whatnot to make him function? Or was it the soul? The spirit. The ethereal, untouchable thing that lived inside nearly everything in some capacity.

Or was it both? Together.

'No,' Alex thought. It was a thought based on instinct more than evidence or proof. He didn't know why he thought that, but he did. And he knew to trust his instincts.

Alex's thoughts wandered for some time, quickly forgetting about the woman who was waiting before him. He forgot where he was or what he was doing, completely lost in his thoughts.

The deeper his trance became, the more his thoughts expanded, reaching into ideas he likely wouldn't have thought about if not given the time.

'Separate the man,' Alex thought. 'The man they're talking about cannot be such a simple thing as the body or the soul. Beasts have bodies and souls. So do plants. They do not learn swordsmanship at all, do they?'

Alex's thoughts deepened.

Beasts and plants could learn swordsmanship. They could learn any weapon. Pearl was learning spear, so there was nothing stopping them.

'Then is the answer that they have to first become a human before they can become a swordsman?' Alex wondered. 'Is the 'man' that needs to be removed… a human?'

That thought led him through many loops before dropping him off right where he started.

'No, it's not because they're a human that they finally use weapons,' Alex thought. 'It's because they can only use weapons when they become a human.'

A spark of inspiration came through at that thought.

'Beasts don't use weapons, not because weapons are useless to them, but because they can't. They can't hold a sword. They can't pull a bowstring.'

'Not just that, they have their own weapons. They have their claws, their tongues, their tails, their horns. It's a part of them. They don't need weapons.'

'Need. Want. Can.'

Alex finally stumbled upon the crux of the entire matter. The man that needed to be removed.

'People use swords because they can. Because they want to. Because they need to. It's desire that leads them to it. Necessity. Curiosity.'

'Emotions. Attachments. Personality. They are what make a person a person,' Alex thought. 'I need to get rid of them from my sword and my intent. My sword cannot be clouded by my desires, my emotions. I need to keep my sword away from all of it.'

'All three of my Sword Intents are infected, marred with me. They are a copy of me, so they cannot find their true self. I stand in their way.'

'My animosity toward my enemies covers them. My fear of not being able to protect causes them to falter.'

'My sword cannot progress until I stop infecting it with myself.'

The sword was his mirror; his reflection clear on it every time someone looked through it. So long as he kept staring at the mirror, nothing else could be reflected upon it. And there were dozens of Daos waiting to be reflected.

So, it was now time for Alex to move away, to let the sword be free of him so something better could take his place.

'Get rid of the man,' Alex thought, satisfaction filling him as he finally understood what it meant. Everything fell into place.

A dark wall had stood on his path to becoming a swordsman ever since he fought the Dragon Emperor. When he learned the Sword Domain so many years ago, he didn't know what lay before him or how he was going to get past the dark wall.

And today, the dark wall cracked, and light began spilling through those cracks.

Alex hadn't entirely gotten rid of the wall just yet, but he could see what lay on the other side now, understand what it took to reach it.

All that was left was for him to punch through the wall until he made a hole wide enough for him to climb through.

Alex opened his eyes some time later, waking up out of the trance to dawn far in the distance. He still stood right in the middle of the fighting ground, overlooking the river to the side.

The woman no longer stood before him, but he wasn't entirely surprised. A part of him had kept attention on the outside, and he had a vague recollection of the woman leaving during the night.

'I'll have to thank her when I next see her,' Alex thought and placed her out of his mind. He lifted his palm, his eyes focused on the ground where the woman had stood. He took in a deep breath and forced himself to separate his thoughts and desires from his sword.

The three Sword Intents surfaced from within him, all of which he did his best to not infect. They were now tied to nothing at all. Not one specifically belonged to his Sword Aura or his Sword Domain, or just his regular sword.

Each one was free, as he had made them free from everything, and so now they competed against each other as not one of them was the core of his sword.

For that, he had to combine them.

Alex had to force them to get closer, condense, and become one. It was rather difficult to do while he was also focusing on keeping his desires from infecting it, but he managed to do it.

And unlike the last time when he failed at the last moment, nothing stopped the three from combining.

Alex felt a satisfying hum from inside him, and a few flickers of light appeared in the distance.

It was just a few, but those were all that Alex needed to know the truth.

He had found his Sword Heart.