Translator: 549690339
In the forest, only Xu Yan was left.
He stood in the middle of the woods, looking around. Sword marks crisscrossed everywhere, and numerous holes had been pierced in the trees.
Trees, neatly severed, lay on the ground, cut into dozens of pieces.
Traces of swordsmanship and sword moves could be vaguely seen.
The more Xu Yan observed, the more he seemed to understand yet not understand fully. In his mind, he visualized a chaos of sword moves that his master had once demonstrated.
Only, he had forgotten them.
No!
Not that he had forgotten, but he had forgotten the sequence of the sword moves, and which move corresponded to which demonstration.
The mixed-up sword moves in his mind and the traces around him
cross-verified each other until suddenly, a particular move overlapped with a sword mark on the ground.
“This sword mark was made by this move,” Xu Yan murmured to himself.
“The clarity of sword intent is the key, starting with a clear sword heart, not being bound by sword moves and techniques, followed by transparency…”
Xu Yan felt he had some insights.
However, the clarity of sword intent was still far from his reach.
At this moment, he felt as if he was back in his small village, at the beginning of his martial arts practice, not understanding much, yet having some insights.
“Forget the sword moves, forget the techniques, don’t be restricted by forms… The first thing to do is to clear my sword heart, and for this first step, I should try to completely forget the swordsmanship that the master demonstrated.
“No! Forgetting does not mean truly forgetting, but rather forgetting the form and freeing myself from the framework of swordsmanship…”
“Then what I have to do next is to sort out the traces of swordsmanship, reproduce them one by one, then forget the framework, select sword moves and techniques freely to eventually form my own sword art.
“This is the first step; once this step is completed, I should not be far from the clarity of the sword heart!”
Xu Yan felt an enlightenment, understanding how to comprehend sword art and how to step into the realm of the clarity of the sword heart.
He jumped onto a tree trunk, sat on a horizontal branch, looking down at the sword marks below, and silently overlaid them with the sword moves in his mind, verifying them against each other.
“This sword mark overlaps the previous one, the previous one is barely visible, how can I verify…
“How did I end up getting stuck in sword techniques and sword moves?”
“Even though one sword mark is covered by another, the prior pattern still exists… It should correspond to this move.”
As it grew darker, Xu Yan returned to Yunshan County.
However, his head was filled with sword moves and sword techniques.
Seeing his apprentice return, Li Xuan observed in silence, letting him find his own path. Saying too much might become a distraction.
Li Xuan remembered the scene of Xu Yan practicing in the small village and felt that today was much the same as Xu Yan once again went through the process of understanding.
Li Xuan believed that Xu Yan would be able to comprehend it.
The Sword Dao that Li Xuan had devised was much more comprehensive than the hastily improvised one from years ago; he had also personally demonstrated the sword moves to Xu Yan.
“A clear sword heart is the foundation of training in the Sword Dao. The starting point of my Sword Dao imposes higher demands on talent.
“Once stepping into the Sword Dao, its power naturally becomes much stronger.
“It’s like a frame in which any sword move or sword technique can be placed. Once Xu Yan arrives in the Inner Domain, no matter what sword arts he learns, once it fits into this frame, it becomes his.
“Moreover, it can evolve, forming a new Sword Dao.”
These were the thoughts of Li Xuan.
Xu Yan practices Sword Dao, while Meng Chong, a muscular man with a different talent, is more suited to Knife Dao.
Li Xuan decided to prepare lessons on Knife Dao, which he could teach to Meng Chong.
“Xu Yan memorized my swordsmanship just by watching it once, showing that his memory is exceptional. This forms the foundation for the clarity of the sword heart. With this foundation, his comprehension should be much easier,” thought Li Xuan, impressed with Xu Yan’s memory.
Xu Yan was able to remember everything after just one demonstration.
And Li Xuan’s demonstration was not slow at all.
In the following time, Xu Yan spent every day comprehending the Sword Dao aiming to achieve clarity of the sword heart.
He would go to the forest early in the morning to practice.
And only return after dark.
Inspired by Blood Unconscious, Meng Chong trained even more diligently. His progress in refining golden bones was accelerating.
Shi’er had also started refining his skin, and he was making decent progress.
Nothing unusual happened in Qi Country.
In the capital, Qi King, Guo Rongshan, remained the first among all ministers.
The Third Prince paid his respects daily.
The Crown Prince had already left to seek guidance from a sage.
The heat for seeking sages among other ministers and their children was not reduced in the slightest.
Although the Minister of War’s son and his party had turned into dry corpses and the cause was not known, Xu Yan gave no answers, and no one dared to ask.
Everyone guessed that they might have encountered an unknown monster, and thus died.
They ventured cautiously into the endless mountains, not daring to go too deep.
There were countless mountain peaks in the endless mountains. It would take endless time to explore one peak after another. Teams moved through the mountains.
Most of them tacitly avoided the direction explored by the Minister of War’s son and his party.
It was too dangerous there.
A month passed.
Meng Chong’s golden bones almost reached perfection, and he was about to hit a bottleneck where he could no longer refine.
Shi’er had completed refining his skin.
Given his expertise as a top-notch rivers and lakes expert, it took him such a long time to refine his skin that it showed his potential was not as good as Xu Yan and Meng Chong’s.
Moreover, Li Xuan found that after Shi’er had refined his skin, the strength of his skin and his blood qi were not as strong as Xu Yan’s and Meng Chong’s..
