Wizard: Starting from the Skill Tree

Duke picked up the Cyan Sun Sword. It felt slightly heavy and cold to the touch, but not piercingly so; rather, it had a unique texture that was warm like jade and resilient like steel.

The leather-wrapped hilt seemed to fit perfectly with the curvature of his palm. The moment he tightened his grip, the blade seemed to vibrate faintly, and the three characters glimmered briefly as if it were an illusion.

There was no influx of information as anticipated, nor was any energy activated.

It remained silent, like a genuine, though exceptionally sturdy and exquisite, cold weapon.

Yet Duke knew it wasn’t that simple.

The subtle sensation akin to a bloodline connection upon gripping it, that instant of light tremor, all indicated that the sword was not a lifeless object.

Perhaps the key to activating it wasn’t conventional magic power or spiritual power, but something else.

Generally, creations from other civilizations could provide some information through spiritual power.

Much information is left in the form of spiritual power, so it can be directly read and understood.

However, this sword was different; it left no obvious spiritual power marks.

Duke took a deep breath and decided to conduct a deeper investigation.

He knew clearly that this sword was no ordinary object; something equivalent to a second-tier witchcraft artifact couldn’t be this simple.

The people at the auction didn’t provide too much detailed information. They must have examined it themselves and might know something; otherwise, they wouldn’t have offered such a starting price.

This item must contain a certain value, a value that can be recognized by the wizard civilization system.

Since a superficial scan of its appearance and spiritual power yielded no information, a more concentrated and deeper spiritual penetration might be the key.

He laid the Cyan Sun Sword flat across his knees, hands hovering over the blade, closed his eyes, and calmed his mind entirely.

This time, he no longer just skimmed the surface with his spiritual power. Instead, like the finest probe, a highly concentrated wisp of spiritual power was slowly and resolutely directed into the interior at the junction of the sword hilt and blade, usually the location of the energy core or an important rune.

At first, his spiritual power encountered an extremely dense barrier, as if trying to penetrate eternal profound ice.

But Duke didn’t give up; he continued applying a gentle yet firm pressure, persisting in his attempt to find a possible entry point.

Time passed by little by little, and just as Duke was feeling the considerable depletion of his spiritual power and was about to give up temporarily and seek another method.

"Buzz..."

The blade emitted another vibration, so faint it was almost imperceptible, yet clearer than when he had first grasped it.

Soon after, the wisp of his spiritual power that had delved into the sword was suddenly absorbed into a strange space as if breaking through an invisible barrier.

This wasn’t a real space but information engraved in the deepest structure of the sword’s material, preserved in a special way.

It didn’t exist in the common, easily readable forms of spiritual power imprints or images but was forged or imprinted into incredibly complex, intricate three-dimensional patterns. These patterns themselves seemed to carry inherent meaning.

Duke’s spiritual power immersed within, and immediately he saw a nebula-like structure composed of countless golden light dots, slowly flowing and rotating.

The dots were connected by fine threads, forming dynamic patterns and texts full of profound meaning.

These were ancient seal script characters, with simple strokes and graceful structure, containing a unique Dao rhythm.

They weren’t arranged statically but moved as if alive, floating, shifting, and combining within the light point nebula.

Duke focused all his attention on reading and understanding, and thanks to his previous life’s memory and cultural foundation, he could barely discern the meaning of most characters, though the sentences they formed were deep and obscure, filled with metaphors and cultivation terminologies.

Gradually, a complete ancient text called the Cyan Sun Qi Mastery revealed itself in his consciousness.

This wasn’t merely a user manual but a comprehensive cultivation and control method compatible with the sword.

"Before chaos divided, a single Qi started all. Yang, clear as the heavens; Yin, turbid as the earth. Cyan Sun is the essence of the East’s first rise, the Qi of Lesser Yang’s emergence. Absorb Qi from the void, refine essence into spirit, unite spirit with sword, and let Qi pierce the long rainbow. The sword is not a weapon of slaughter but the ship of life, the ladder to the azure void."

"Focus intent on the Dantian, envision the grand sun rising in the east, purple Qi pervading. Draw in Lesser Yang’s Qi of the heavens and earth, guide it through channels and meridians, pass through three barriers, penetrate nine orifices, nourish the sword spirit. Qi is like spring water, gently enduring, cleansing impurities, with bones singing in response. When Qi is full and spirit complete, the sword moves with the body, like an arm guiding fingers."

...

Upon finishing the full text, Duke was immensely shocked and simultaneously enlightened.

This wasn’t a creation of the common civilization system; it was a product of a cultivation civilization or a similar high-energy individual evolutionary civilization.

The essence of the Cyan Sun Qi Mastery is a cultivation technique that involves refining true Qi and integrating it with a specific artifact. It requires the practitioner to start from their inner self, mobilizing a particular type of energy from the universe, tempering themselves, ultimately achieving a state of unity between person and sword, controlling the sword across the land.

Its source of power, operational logic, and philosophical foundation differ from those of the wizards who construct models via spiritual power, mobilize external elemental energy, and pursue the understanding of rules.

This also explains why ordinary spiritual probes were ineffective, as the sword’s information recording method wasn’t a mere spiritual power imprint.

Duke could perceive it because his spiritual power was strong and his probing method was deep, and also because he was literate.

Literate, as simple as those two words may seem, if one doesn’t understand these ancient writings, they couldn’t comprehend this cultivation formula.

"It requires true Qi to drive, and it must be cultivated according to the True Formula, cultivating Qi first before one can wield the sword," Duke pondered.

He had spent many years carefully reading the True Formula word by word, continuously chewing over the text to understand its meaning.

Duke discovered that the Cyan Sun Qi Mastery contained a wealth of information.

The information itself wasn’t particularly important; what mattered was the meaning behind it.

"Refining Qi Chapter... Foundation establishment... The truth is just like the myths and legends. It seems those legends from a past life weren’t unfounded," Duke inferred more information from this.

What he saw was a far grander cultivation civilization, where the Cyan Sun Qi Mastery was just an ordinary cultivation technique in that world, and numerous cultivators existed.

The cultivators practiced breathing techniques, using the spiritual energy of the universe as their source to cultivate, developing true Qi within themselves.

This process is somewhat similar to wizard meditation, and the source of magic power is almost the same.

For Duke, there was no need to start from scratch with the Cyan Sun Qi Mastery, as it would take too much time.