Martial King's Retired Life

Volume 9 Chapter 32 Primordial. The Line Between Illusion and Reality. (Part 1)

Repository Sword Theory has existed for, at least, a millennium and was once one of the three most extoled swordplays thanks to a group of martial artists who never had anything to identify them by, although a case could be made for their constant introspection. Luo Sword Manor is one of six branches that the original group divided themselves into and passed the style down to. Unfortunately, Luo Sword Manor is the only lineage to remain of the six over the course of history. That is how it became a style exclusive to Luo Sword Manor.

Suffice to say, it was difficult for one branch to harness the full essence of Repository Sword Theory when it took the knowledge and insight of six branches to formulate it until Luo Ming came along, though his brush with death was the trigger that enlightened him and not his intellect.

God-Shocking Theory, Abyss, Mountains, Fleeting, Seven Emotions and Millennium, are six questions that the six swordsmen, who invented the Repository Sword Theory, asked of the world and studied until their deaths. Grasp all six theories and one will be able to comprehend things in a realm beyond what martial artists who don’t can, a dream of all martial artists.

In spite of improving his internal strength eighty percent and grasping the overall picture of Repository Sword Theory, Luo Ming only mastered one of the six theories. He plateaued at certain points of every other and couldn’t force his progress as doing so after the third theory would result in him hurting himself with his sword qi. What he needed was the other five branches’ mental cultivation styles to understand the minute, yet indispensable, alterations. If you make a deduction based on an incorrect data point, your deduction will be wrong. What’s more, he was out of time and patience.

Although regrettable, Luo Ming had every intention of pitting his incomplete version of Repository Sword Theory against the rest of the world in a gamble for more power. Additionally, he found a replacement in Repository Sword Realm, a component that isn’t part of any theory but a component that only those who understood its secret could employ.

In a nutshell, Repository Sword Realm is a world that the wielder produces while deducing the origins of all things. Each theory can be used to manufacture a different type of Repository Sword Realm. For example, Abyss Theory can produce Abyss Realm. Luo Ming leveraged his knowledge of God-Shocking Theory - the only theory he mastered - to deduce the remaining five theories at the expense of the remaining five only being a third of what they could be.

Luo Ming cast Fleeting, a theory that changed what one saw, only to trap Ming Feizhen in the autumn mountains as any Divine Realm adept would soon see through the illusion in no time. Besides, killing Ming Feizhen using Fleeting Theory would leave traces behind even if he was fodder.

Luo Ming stepped into stepped into a field of snow and harsh winds that he deduced: “This is the mind of Mount Daluo’s senior disciple, huh?”

The complete version of Seven Emotions Theory equipped the user with the ability to kill using their gaze. More specifically, they use their gaze to occupy the mind of their target. Luo Ming, however, was only capable of deducing Ming Feizhen’s mind. Nonetheless, as long as he killed Ming Feizhen’s consciousness, then Ming Feizhen would physically perish.

For Luo Ming, deducing Seven Emotions Theory wasn’t too difficult because, while he was subjected to plenty of ordeals growing up and possessed a personality, he had plenty of hate to draw on.

One’s mind doesn’t have a background but will have their life on display. Luo Ming walked past jugs of wine, weapons, the four treasures of study, numberless miscellaneous items strewn across the ground as if he was living life for several people. Upon opening a door, Luo Ming wondered how Ming Feizhen was still even alive. A hundred and eight thousand porn books were piled up inside aforementioned room…

Luo Ming disintegrated the room then kept sauntering until he came to a jet-black mountain that rose up to confront the clouds.

I heard Mount Daluo is a towering mountain, but I never heard anything about it being black… There isn’t anything cast a shadow over it. I smell… soy sauce from it?

It took a while for Luo Ming to realise the mountain was actually braised pork shoulders stacked up that high…

Despite having yet to use Repository Sword Realm on anyone since mastering it, Luo Ming knew that one’s consciousness was the only mobile component. Put another way, the black hole at the bottom of the mountain that oozed tonnes of pressure had to be where Ming Feizhen’s consciousness was, except he couldn’t explain where the pressure was coming from.

“It’s been a long time since anyone has come here.”

One’s consciousness is not them but another them, a self whom lives in the depths of one’s mind, possessing all of the same thoughts and experiences. By no means is it common for one to ever locate where their consciousness is.

Why does this consciousness sound like it knows where it is and has lived for a long time here?

Luo Ming blasted his hostility upon seeing a pair of eyes emerge from the blackness. If he was in the outside world, he would’ve imploded everything within ten metres using that same sword qi. The stare was different to the stare of his nemesis, but he recognised the terrifying cruelty and power that filled those eyes of the most primeval entity.

“Who are you?!”

“That’s my question. You must be quite competent to have made it here.” That wasn’t the voice of a lazy young man; that was the voice of a reaper. “If you want to know who I am, how about you come inside?”

Luo Ming loathed being subjected to someone else’s will; however, the light that eradicated the darkness in the cavern convinced him to do as he was told even though he was a genius who defined “under someone else’s control” considerably different to others.

Once he was at the entrance, Luo Ming discovered the unspeakably congealed liquid was from the ubiquitous blood inside the cavern; every breath induced a choking sensation. The only distinct features he could see of the youth on bone throne in the centre of the scarlet ocean were the red eyes and slight upward curve on the latter’s lips.