Duncan's mind slowly concentrated on the lone petal in his hand.
The sword aura hidden in the edges was very sharp. Earlier, he had tried to probe them with his spirit consciousness and had ended up getting his consciousness shredded within moments.
So, Duncan didn't try to probe the sword aura in the petal directly.
What he tried to do was to perceive the mysteries behind it by establishing a symbiotic connection with it. So, Duncan enveloped his consciousness with his own understanding of the sword and tried to make it resonate with the sword aura in the petal.
It didn't work immediately.
But, Duncan wasn't deterred at all. Rather, he became more adamant in figuring out the sword aura in the petal. Moreover, it wasn't as if he didn't gain anything while trying to make initial contact with the sword aura.
During the few moments his consciousness tried to establish a connection and got ultimately shredded, Duncan was able to figure out a few things. Despite his consciousness getting shredded to pieces within moments after making contact, Duncan's impression of these things still remained.
First, his understanding of the sword and the sword aura infused in the petals were very different. Duncan wasn't just talking about the varying quality between the two. He felt that the sword aura in the petal was different from his in a fundamental way.
The nature of the sword aura in the petal and his own understanding of the sword were completely different. That might be the reason that they were incompatible even when he tried to only establish some connection.
While his understanding of the sword was hard and dominating, the sword aura in the petal was unassuming and hiding its edge. But, it didn't make it any less lethal than his. They were like two completely different aspects of the same thing.
Secondly, even though he could continuously mask his consciousness with his understanding of the sword and supply it for a long time, it wouldn't even be equal to one percent of the purity exhibited by the sword aura in the petal. They were in different leagues altogether.
While he could spam in quantity, the quality of the sword aura in the petal beat his by miles. Duncan understood that this was because he didn't have a proper understanding of the sword yet. He had only scratched the surface as of now. This sword aura contains a core concept making it qualitatively superior to his own understanding of the sword.
This also let him know that his approach would not benefit him in any way. No matter how long he tried, the qualitative superiority of the sword aura in the petal meant he would never be able to establish a connection with it. So, trying to form a symbiotic bond will never work.
This made Duncan reaccess his approach.
He realized that it was possible for him to understand the sword aura in the petal in its entirety. His own understanding of the Sword Dao hasn't reached that level. It will be like an ant trying to eat a whole elephant in a single bite. That was impossible.
If his understanding of the sword had reached the same level as the sword aura, he would have been able to establish a connection and understand it. Even then, there were other factors to take into consideration as well.
For one, the very nature of his sword style and the style contained in the petals were contradictory. His took the route of domination and aggression. The sword aura in the petal took the route of subtlety and unassumingness. These contradictory natures might not gell well. So, even that was a big problem to face.
Duncan frowned as he realized he didn't know how to cultivate with the ever-present sword aura in the garden. It was like having a treasure box, but not having the right key to open it. And he was naturally not strong enough to crack it open either.
His lack of cultivation knowledge was once again coming to bite him in his rear. Even though he had tried to supplement his knowledge by reading a lot of information from the sect archives, Duncan realized that this kind of information on how to cultivate was too personal to be written down.
The only way the method to decipher this can be obtained was either from self-realization or being guided by a mentor or master. Duncan twitched his lips as he thought about his master.
His master's way of instruction was to chuck him into a cannibal cave and let him figure it out. He didn't give pertinent information to Duncan. He rather took an approach of sink or swim.
While Duncan had benefited from it so far, he didn't think highly of such a teaching method. In his mind, his master was obviously not inclined to share his knowledge with him. So, Duncan had long lost the hope of getting help from his master.
Even now, when he was being hunted by righteous cultivators, Duncan didn't even think about asking for help from his master even once. His mindset had been that it would be fine if he stayed away from his master and the sect. With such a mindset, one can easily imagine the level of trust Duncan had towards his master.
With such a level of trust, Duncan would even do the exact opposite of what his master advised him to do in his paranoia. Shaking his head, Duncan wondered idly whether his master had heard about his deeds and how he reacted to them. He also wondered if his master would come to his rescue.
Duncan had a feeling that his master already had the cultivation of the Nascent Soul realm or higher. Even though the general knowledge to most sect members was that he was at the peak of the Golden Core realm, Duncan refused to believe such silly things.
Not just him, most cultivators in the sect never took anyone's outright spoken cultivation level to be the truth. As a demonic sect, the trust factor in the sect between members was very low. It was par of the norm in demonic sects. Almost every demonic cultivator cultivated a technique that could hide their true cultivation level.
In such an atmosphere where everyone hid their true cultivation, trust is a hard thing to foster. Even Duncan didn't fully trust his Senior Brother Fatty Chen. And Senior Brother Fatty Chen had helped him out a lot of times. So, the level of trust he had in his master's cultivation level can be imagined easily.
Duncan's only reference of his master's strength came from his knowledge of other sects in the region. He knew that to become an Elder in a first-rate sect, one needed to be at the Nascent Soul realm. And theirs was a hegemonic sect that ruled over first-rate sects. So, having only Golden Core cultivation and becoming a Vice-Sect Master didn't make much sense to him.
Sure, his master wasn't an elder. But, in a demonic sect, the respect people give you is determined by your strength. If his master didn't have the right strength, then he could never be the Vice-Sect Master.
Duncan shook his head to clear his thoughts regarding his master and the sect. He turned to look at the garden in front of him with a frown. No matter how he tried, he couldn't find a way to capitalize on the treasure land in front of him. This bothered Duncan a lot.
"It looks like I can only explore bit by bit. I need to rely on myself from now on. I can't expect someone to show me the way. Not that I haven't done it earlier. Didn't I try to cultivate a soul technique on my ow…"
Duncan trailed off as his mind flashed with an image of him sitting and trying to perceive the immensity of the mountain in the Grotto Heaven. Duncan felt enlightened immediately.
This situation wasn't that different from him trying to understand the immensity of a mountain. At that time, he had no clue regarding how to create an authentic visual for his soul to focus on. But, he had somehow ended up finding a mountain and enlightening himself.
Taking a deep breath, Duncan focused on that particular thread of thought. He began to list out the similarities between the previous scenario in the Grotto Heaven and his current situation. To his surprise, he found it to be very identical. But, the only difference between the scenarios was that he wasn't in a dangerous location at that time. Here, the garden he was in was dangerous in itself.
"This entire garden is filled with sword petals. Instead of concentrating on a lone petal, I can try to meditate on the garden itself. This way, I might end up benefitting from something," Duncan mumbled looking around.
And it was true.
There were petals everywhere in the garden. The place he was sitting was on the outskirts. Inside the region, the petals were present in all places. They lazily drifted through the breeze hiding their sharp edges.
The more he thought about it, Duncan felt it was indeed suitable to try this out. After all, he was only taking a shot at the dark. If he failed, he would be back to square one. However, he wasn't in a hurry currently. He could easily spend months here without worrying about food or anything else.
Even though he hadn't completely gotten rid of his dependence on food, Duncan had ample food stored within his ring to sustain him for a long period of time. So, Duncan felt that he could try to meditate on the lingering sword aura in the garden as a whole. Who knows, this might bring him some unexpected benefits.
With a direction in sight, Duncan immediately decided to try it out.
