11 Sword Cultivation
Li Pingjun slammed the book into the ground, he thought about ripping the book to pieces, but decided against it. Although the title of the book seemed to mock him, it should just be a metaphor for people who doesn't know anything about the sword.
With that thought he picked up the book to study it, skipping over the book title he got to the introduction.
'Frist things first, you must know that the sword is meant to be pointed at the enemy, not yourself'
"f*ck this book really is for idiots!"
Li Pingjun fought the urge to rip the book apart, he continued reading, the further he read the more calm he became, although the book explained itself like it's talking to an idiot, if he just filter that out. The book indeed, contained sword techniques, it explains the concept of the sword, along with a few basic sword moves such as a normal slash, thrust, etc.
A sword cultivator must be calm, not only to not let their emotions overwhelm them, a sword cultivator must have the heart akin to that of a sword. Meaning, that they must have the conviction, that their sword will be able to cut down anything. It could be said that hesitation, is the number one enemy of sword practitioner.
A true expert would not even need a sword to cut something, their will is already akin to that of a sword. That is what it means to reach the pinnacle of the sword, The cultivation of sword intent. For most people, it takes years, training with the sword to even develop a hint of sword intent. But even with just a hint of sword intent, you could be considered a top expert of the sword.
The difference between someone who had developed a hint sword intent versus some who hadn't, is like heaven and earth. an expert with a hint of sword intent is capable of fighting a hundred experts without any intent. The more Li Pingjun read about the sword, the more excited he became.
The book also explains the phenomenon of sword communication, to be able to speak with sword there are 2 prerequisite. The first, the sword cultivator must make a connection with the sword through countless battle, the second, the sword must contain a sword spirit. Every sword that had gone through at least one battle develops a spirit, it is up to the sword cultivator to cultivate that spirit.
"which means...." Li Pingjun murmured to himself, he looked at the sword beside him.
With how fluent this sword is able to talk, this sword spirit had definitely been cultivated by someone for a long time. Curiosity overwhelmed Li Pingjun and he activated the sword communication ability again.
'Hey, how did you end up here?, where's your master?'
'Not telling'
Li Pingjung scratched the back of his neck, after that he asked a few more times but the sword didn't tell him anything useful. Since the sword would not tell him, he could only forget about it.
Li Pingjun picked up the sword, he readied himself to try practicing the basic sword move's from the book. He activated the ability he got from the sword shop.
'Don't.. use me for.... practice!!' The sword rebelled in his mind, the book said that he needed to have a calm mind, since the sword was annoying him, he turned of the sword communication ability.
White lines appeared around him, this was the shop owner's ability, if he could perfectly follow these lines, it means that he would've achieved a certain mastery over the basic moves from the book. the first time he used the ability the white lines were a mess, when he tried to follow it, he looked like a kid playing with a stick.
After memorizing the basic moves from the book ,now, the white lines looked more proper. it seems the white lines represented his current knowledge of sword. With that, he started moving his body according to the book, while trying his best to follow the white lines.
The first set of movement he does was wonky, his body was not used to moving like this, and his body was not flexible enough to be moving the way the white lines wanted him to. But then he remembered that he had gotten an ability that increased his flexibility.
After using the ability, he was able to move like never before, the subsequent moves afterward was becoming better and better. An hour later Li Pingjun was already slick with sweat, because of the help from the white lines he was not a kid playing with sticks anymore. he could already follow the lines almost perfectly.
The ability from that uncle was amazing, Li Pingjun wondered, with his ability he saw that the uncle only had a 7th stage water gathering cultivation base. Li Pingjun thought that maybe, he's more powerful than his cultivation base suggests.
Li Pingjun let out a sigh, Cultivation talent and sword talent does not come hand in hand. The opportunity to be able to increase your cultivation talent is nearly zero, if he did not have his current ability, Li Pingjun would probably still be lingering at 2nd stage of water gathering.
Li Pingjun picked up the book again, it was now time for sword techniques. The book said that before learning sword techniques, one must first familiarize oneself with the sword. The basic movements did just that, Li Pingjun opened a section of the book explaining sword techniques.
In order to be able to use sword techniques, one must first know that spiritual energy can not only be used as a fuel for magic techniques, it can also be used as a weapon it self. To use a sword technique is to control your spiritual energy in a certain way, specifically making it sharp. As already said before, an expert does not need a sword to attack, their body and will itself is akin to a sword.
For a beginner, the sword can work as a mold, the spiritual energy can wrap around the sword and follow it's shape. The ability to control your spiritual energy to a from sharp enough to cut something is easier said than done.
"let's try it out then" Li Pingjun's spiritual energy materialized from his hand onto the blade of the sword, he tried his best to make it as thin as possible, following the contour of the sword. When his spiritual energy reached a certain thickness, it became harder for him to maintain the shape, Li Pingjun felt that if he did not entirely focus his mind to it, the spiritual energy would fall apart entirely, let alone maintaining it mid battle.
Before his spiritual energy even became sharp enough to cut tofu, his spiritual energy fell apart completely. But this did not make Li Pingjun give up.
"practice makes perfect" He uttered a sentence that almost everybody knows.
Throughout the night Li Pingjun continued depleting his spiritual energy reserves to train. In the end, by midnight, Li Pingjun was still not able to make his spiritual energy thin enough to cut. He read more of the book for advice, but it turns out, this usage of spiritual energy IS the sword technique that the book contain.
Indeed, it would be weird if a book made to teach idiots contained sword techniques for battle. The book merely helps you learn the complete basics of the sword, it probably never even expects the reader to accomplish anything magnificent. It's probably an achievement if the reader understood that sword's are supposed to be pointed at the enemy.
With that, the book had nothing more tot each to Li Pingjun, he promptly ripped it apart. He used a magic technique and produced a ball of water to cleanse his body that was slick with sweat, After that he promptly fell asleep from the built up fatigue of sword training.
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Li Pingjun opened his eyes, thinking it was already morning he sat up on his bed only to realize that he was not in his room, blue skies and white clouds surrounded him. the ground was like a mirror reflecting the world.
"What the actual f*ck?" Li Pingjun was dumbfounded
"did I die?"
After going through a roller coaster of emotions he finally noticed something. Not far from him, a woman with a beautiful face stood straight with a sword in her hands, no emotion was shown on her face. She looked at him straight in the eyes with deadpan eyes, as if he had murdered her family or something.
Before he could say anything, the woman started swinging her sword. Each of her moves was amazing, it was lightning fast yet elegant. Her sword movement was perfect, along with her amazing footwork. This was truly an expert of the sword, it felt like he was looking at a painting.
Li Pingjun was mesmerized by what he saw, he sat blankly with his jaws wide open. The woman seemed to notice this and stopped, She have him a death stare. only then did Li Pingjun snapped out of his stupor.
The woman immediately started her sword dance again, with that Li Pingjun realized what the woman wanted him to do. He stood up, he wanted to follow her moves, but he realized he didn't have a sword. As soon as he thought that, a sword appeared in front of him, it was a normal sword you can find anywhere. He took the sword in his hands, and he moved closer to the woman, in order to see her moves better.
"This is definitely an opportunity of a lifetime!" Li Pingjun was excited, it's not everyday that an expert is willing to teach you.
He started copying her moves, but he of course failed miserably. The woman seems to have expected this, so she continued her sword dance. This went on for a couple of hours, but Li Pingjun was only able to replicate a few moves before falling behind.
'Damn this is hard' Li Pingjun thought to himself, he even used the sword training ability, but as soon as he used it. his vision was filled with white lines. If the woman wasn't here showing him how it's done, he wouldn't even know which line he should follow.
For the next few hours, the only thing Li Pingjun did was learn the woman's swordsmanship. just when Li Pingjun was able to crookedly do all the sword moves the woman was doing, She stopped.
Li Pingjun was confused.
"Are we done?" He said while thinking maybe it's time to wake up.
The woman said nothing, all she did was turn to face Li Pingjun with her sword raised and pointed at him.
"What?" The moment he said that, the woman suddenly lunged at him.
Indeed, the fastest way to learn something was through practical training, in other words a battle. The woman's sword moved like lightning toward his heart, Li Pingjun was ill prepared, and clumsily put his sword in front of his heart. But it turns out, the woman didn't put any force into the strike, and quickly moved her sword toward his neck.
Li Pingjun wasn't able to react and a sword was held to his neck, close enough to drew a drop of blood. He had lost from a single encounter. The woman quietly removed the sword from his neck, and moved back a couple of steps.
Li Pingjun opened his mouth and tried to say something, but again, the woman started an attack. This time, he was more prepared with his sword held up, but he once again lost after a single move, her sword on his neck.
The woman moved back again, and Li Pingjun realized that there was no point in talking, he became focused, and prepared himself to learn as much as possible from this battle. Although he had an inkling onto what this space is, the only thing he needed to know now was that this woman is here to train him and not harm him.
For a while, the only sound reverberating in this space, was the occasional sword clashes that stopped for a moment before starting again. But after some time had passed, sword clashes seem to resound endlessly throughout the space.
