3 months into the training, Alex came across his first bottleneck. It happened around the time when his Sword Intent became equivalent in strength to Saint Soul 2nd realm cultivation base.
The next week and a half, he couldn't improve his Sword Intent at all, and at long last, he had to defer to an expert of some sort. Godslayer.
Alex wasn't sure if Godslayer was an expert on Sword Intent and such, but given that he was a Sword spirit, he would still certainly know a bit. Not to mention his age.
He went into his Spiritual Sea during one of his breaks and found the spirit.
"My Sword Intent isn't improving anymore, what should I do?" he asked him.
Godslayer hadn't been paying much attention aside from a few times he sensed some strong cultivation bases, so he wasn't exactly sure what was going on.
"When did it stop improving?" Godslayer inquired.
"About 2 weeks ago. There hasn't been much change to my improvement, even though I know there must be so much more," Alex answered.
Godslayer thought for a bit and remembered something. "You've only used Sword Intent in your battles, correct? No Sword Qi or Aura?" he asked.
"Yes, I've only been improving my Sword Intent," Alex said. "Why?"
Godslayer gave an affirming grunt. "I know what is happening. You've hit the barrier of how strong your Sword Intent can be," he said. "You haven't stopped improving, but improving will be very slow and difficult from here on out."
"What?" Alex couldn't believe his ears. "I've hit a barrier? What sort of barrier is there?"
"There is usually just one barrier when it comes to improving your Sword, and that is your Intent itself," Godslayer said. "Now, Intent itself depends on your cultivation base a lot of the time, and that is what stops the improvement of one's sword."
"That is why you rarely see people with Sword Intent stronger than their cultivation base, as their Intent is just not capable of moving past the level of their Spiritual Sea. Only in rare conditions like yours do we see Intent stronger than one's cultivation base."
Alex took a moment to understand what was being said to him, but he understood it. "Since Cultivation base determines how much Spiritual Energy one has, and that determines the strength of my Intent, which then is how strong my Sword Intent can be."
"Yes, but there is something else that can be a barrier itself," Godslayer said. "And that is your level of Sword Qi and Sword Aura."
Alex was taken aback. "Huh?" he asked. "What do you mean?"
"When was the last time you trained Sword Intent alone without ever focusing on the other 2?" Godslayer asked.
"Umm… never," Alex said. "Not after I learned them."
"That's the thing," Godslayer said. "You can't grow one too far away from the others. The dissonance between them will cause one to drag the other down. If you want to improve your Sword Intent, bring the other 2 up to speed first. Then you can improve it more."
"Oh," Alex said, a little surprised. "So I was holding myself back from improving by not using Sword Qi and Sword Aura?"
"Yes," Godslayer said. "There is a reason why people need to enter the next stage of Sword so they can become stronger. Gaining Sword Qi isn't just to become stronger, but also to push the ceiling much higher."
"So I should stop what I've been doing," Alex said.
"No, that's not what I said. What you did resulted in a problem, but what you did itself is not a bad thing. Many people train that way. They just know when to stop and move on to the rest to push their ceiling even further above."
"As long as you do that, you are fine too."
Alex nodded to himself.
"Don't worry. Since your Sword Intent is so high up, the others will take no time to catch up, and then you can train the same way once more," Godslayer said.
"I see. I will do that then," Alex said. "Thank you."
"One more thing," Godslayer said before Alex could leave.
"If you want to improve your Sword skill overall, there is one thing you can do to aid your journey," the spirit said.
"Hmm?" Alex was made curious now. "What do I do?"
"Make a sword skill," Godslayer answered.
Alex paused for a moment. "Sword skill? Like… a sword technique?" he asked.
Godslayer nodded. "Better yet, make a bunch of them. Each with a different purpose," he said.
"What sort?" Alex asked excitedly. He had made techniques before, but they had all been random. Never had his techniques been similar at all.
"What sort? That's for you to figure out," Godslayer said. "I cannot tell you what your techniques are. Create one. And don't worry about if they are strong at the start. You are going to be improving them throughout your life along with your sword."
Alex slowly fell into a thought. He couldn't come up with something instantly, so he thanked Godslayer and left his Spiritual Sea. He ate a cultivation pill and started cultivating, but even as he did, he thought through what Godslayer told him.
'My techniques,' he thought. 'I've done that before. I should be able to do it again.'
He thought of a bunch of techniques that he had made. Golden Spear Punch, All Swirling Elemental Shield, and Bursting Blaze were all techniques that were crafted by him.
However, he also realized that all of these techniques were something that were either fusion or already had a base to them.
The Golden Spear Punch was a mix of Iron Fist Punch and the Golden Spear technique.
All Swirling Elemental Shield was a mix between Swirling Water Shield and 5-Elemental Barrier.
Bursting Blaze was his attempt at adding the Dao of Explosion onto a simple Fire slash. If any, this was the one that he could say was his the most of all.
Even then, he didn't feel like it belonged to him.
'A bunch of sword techniques, that do different things,' he thought silently.
Godslayer's final words ran through his head. 'I don't have to make a strong one. Just a good one to start with is enough,' he thought.
The question now was what was he going to make as his first technique?
Alex had a rudimentary idea of what it could be, but he would have to give it some more thought. 'I have to keep the technique simple at first,' he thought. 'But it can't be very simple. It needs my signature.'
Thinking of the techniques, especially what they would do would take some time, so Alex focused on improving his Sword Qi and Sword Aura for the time being.
Sword Qi he used against his opponents for the next few weeks, surprising many, and Sword Aura he used on his own against the puppet to train.
He did not want to showcase his Sword Aura just yet to strangers. It took Alex just 2 weeks to improve his Sword Qi and Sword Aura. Since they were up to par, he returned to just using Sword Intent.
However, this time around, it wouldn't just be Sword Intent alone. After all, in the last 2 weeks, he had figured out what his first technique should be as well.
