Chapter 98: Chapter 97: Sword Practice
By the end of July, the daily maximum temperature in Jinling had approached 40 degrees.
Hardly any students remained in the open-air practice field for the Three Arts.
In the back mountain, the indoor Sword Control Technique training field had been excavated. However, since the second edition of the textbook had not yet been made public, currently only Yan Yu Squad was training there.
Everyone had received their Flying Swords last weekend, complete with so of the latest research findings, such as the sword’s elental attributes, whether it was more suited for slashing or piercing, whether it had a strength advantage or a speed advantage, and so on.
After receiving them, everyone started to settle on nas for their swords—after all, when these swords were discovered in the Mysterious Realm, they didn’t co with na tags on the blades, so now the sword owners had to co up with nas themselves.
Su Yunjin nad her sword “Coral Tear,” which, of course, received unanimous praise from the girls. After all, the frosty sword was completely blue and transparent, which absolutely could remind one of the beautiful Great Barrier Reef, and if Yan Yu were to comnt, it really did sound a bit better than “Frosty.”
Lin Ning also wanted to show off her talent for naming, but Yan Yu had already been calling her sword the “Green Bamboo Sword,” which, in turn, left her feeling a bit conflicted and speechless—Green Bamboo, Lin Ning; actually, when you think about it, it did seem quite fitting.
Zhao Yuanzhen thought for a long ti and decided to na her sword “Nine Heavens Ten Earths Demon Slaying God Eradicating Yin Wind Evil Thunder Sword.”
“Are you serious?” Yan Yu looked at her with a very speechless sidelong glance.
“Not domineering enough?” pondered Zhao Yuanzhen.
“The na’s too long,” Yan Yu said, “Just think about it, if you had to borrow it for scientific research and had to fill out forms, just in the ‘Sword Na’ column, imagine how many more characters you would have to write than others?”
Zhao Yuanzhen thought it made sense and asked:
“Then is there a na that’s both short and domineering?”
“Yes,” Chen Lingyun said with a smile, “How about ‘Pink Bunny’?”
“Why?” Zhao Yuanzhen was baffled.
“Because those who die by your sword will be said to have been ‘killed by the Pink Bunny,'” Chen Lingyun said with a smile.
Zhao Yuanzhen hesitated for a mont but shook her head. The na would be great for humiliating the enemy, but she did not want to beco the sword master known as “Pink Bunny.”
“Let’s just call it ‘Yin Wind Sword,'” Yan Yu suggested.
Dying under the Yin Wind Sword… That didn’t seem too bad either?
So the sword once dubbed the “Malevolent Spirit Wicked Essence Sword” was renad “Yin Wind Sword,” leaving only Chen Lingyun and Yan Yu without nas for their Flying Swords.
“Let’s save so ti,” Yan Yu suggested, pointing to the Purple Extre Essence-Gathering Sword, “Purple Extre.”
Then he patted his heavy sword:
“Huangting.”
“Alright, naming is complete! Let’s start practicing the Sword Control Technique.”
“How casual!” Lin Ning couldn’t help but complain, “As casual as my Green Bamboo Sword!”
“The na of a sword isn’t important,” Yan Yu said as he deployed the Sword Control Technique. The Huangting Kunwu Sword suddenly flew up and then hovered in front of him.
He slightly flexed the middle finger of his right hand and lightly flicked the blade, emitting a dull and potent twang as he calmly stated:
“What’s important is whether it can kill soone.”
The girls had no response.
“You’d better take this seriously,” Yan Yu said, looking at everyone’s expressions as a reminder, “because the Sword Control Technique we’re about to learn is currently the most efficient, convenient killing technique in the world…”
With a change in the sword technique in his hand, the Huangting Sword suddenly shot out like electricity, swiftly moving in front of Lin Ning and stopping just three inches from her nose, startling her so much that her eyes bulged and her body hair stood on end.
But Yan Yu didn’t stop there. The Huangting Sword shifted direction once more and quickly chopped towards the neck of Chen Lingyun who was standing nearby, stopping just before touching her skin.
Chen Lingyun put away her smile, reached out her finger, and gently pushed the Huangting Sword away, saying coldly:
“This isn’t fun.”
“That’s right, this isn’t fun,” Yan Yu said seriously, “When you’re on the battlefield and attacks are coming at you, can you use that line to persuade the enemy?”
“Law, Sword, Support, Command— the basic concepts of the four professions, you’ve all familiarized yourselves with them from the textbook in advance. To avoid misunderstandings, I must emphasize one point here: It’s not only the Sword Immortal profession that needs to study the Sword Control Technique.”
“In my squad, every mber must master the Sword Control Technique. This is to ensure that when you step onto the real battlefield, you will have the basic ability to protect yourselves. Ling Yun, why do you think that is?”
Chen Lingyun looked at the Flying Sword hovering in front of her, and with raised eyebrows, said:
“Because the Sword Control Technique, unlike the Three Arts and Five Spells, is a rare thod that combines offense and defense into a convenient approach.”
“Correct,” Yan Yu said in a deep voice, “Lin Ning, if I activated the Flying Sword to kill you, just like earlier, what would you do?”
“Use the Earth-Elent Sturdiness Curse?” Lin Ning tentatively asked.
“That’s an option,” Yan Yu chuckled, “But if my Flying Sword entangles you and the mont you deactivate the Barrier Charm it imdiately kills you, wouldn’t you have to keep the Barrier Charm activated for defense all the ti?”
Lin Ning silently nodded.
The Earth-Elent Sturdiness Curse was a very effective defensive Curse Technique, with the only issue being its purely passive nature, while a cultivator can only operate one Curse Technique at a ti.
aning, if the opponent’s attacks don’t stop, then you won’t be able to deactivate your Barrier Charm, and you’ll end up only being beaten without the ability to counterattack.
“Chen Lingyun,” Yan Yu suddenly said, “Attack with your Sword Control.”
Chen Lingyun didn’t speak; she simply ford a Sword technique with her hand, and the Purple Extre Sword imdiately shot out like lightning, thrusting at Yan Yu.
With a “clang,” the Huangting Kunwu Sword already intercepted the Purple Extre Sword horizontally. The blades forcefully collided, emitting a ringing sound akin to iron forging.
The Purple Extre Sword was repelled, but the Huangting Kunwu Sword then took the opportunity to strike back towards Chen Lingyun. Before it could reach her, it was intercepted by the Purple Extre Sword swinging back around, and the swords clashed once more, resounding violently.
By now, the girls had mostly figured it out: Unlike the passive defense of the Earth-Elent Sturdiness Curse, the defensive aspect of the Sword Control Technique was “active defense.”
After blocking an attack with the blade, one could imdiately switch from defense to offense without the need to change spells or alter one’s breath circulation, rely requiring a thought in one’s mind… and even the consumption of True Yuan was minimal.
It saved ti, effort, and most importantly, peace of mind!
Of course, whether it saved ti or effort may not have made a major impact in low-level combat. However, in high-stakes battles where life and death hung by a thread, even gaining a half-second ti advantage or conserving a little more True Yuan could be the difference between defeat and a close victory.
Yan Yu didn’t intend to educate everyone on how dangerous “high-end battles” can be. He simply laid out his attitude:
Everyone must practice the Sword Control Technique!
The textbook’s Sword Control Technique learning process was divided into three parts:
First, practice accuracy. Control the Flying Sword to hit a stationary target, aiming to hit as close to the center as possible.
Second, practice reaction. Propel the Flying Sword at moving targets with various speeds, trying to hit the faster ones.
Third, practice strength. Each target has a force sensor behind it that displays the exact force figure, so you want to make this number as high as possible.
Yan Yu declared that all this was nonsense — his squad wouldn’t stick to these dogmatic rubbish practices.
If you want to train, then train with actual combat!
“As the old saying goes,” Yan Yu began with his hands clasped behind his back, pacing with ease in front of the girls, “to learn offense, you must first learn defense.”
“I have a question,” Lin Ning raised her hand to interject, “where is that saying from? I don’t think I’ve seen that in the textbooks…”
“Don’t mind these details,” Yan Yu impatiently waved his hand, lecturing her, “Ningning, your problem is you often can’t differentiate between the primary and secondary, always focusing on so trivial things. This habit really isn’t good, and you must change it.”
Lin Ning shut her mouth and silently seethed. So, if you’re wrong in the details, I’m not even allowed to ask?
“To learn defense is simple,” Yan Yu continued to speak confidently, “I’ll be in charge of the offense, and you will take turns defending. As long as you can block my three successive sword strikes using the Sword Control Technique, that will an you’ve initially mastered it.”
The girls looked at each other.
“Who’s first?” Yan Yu asked as he controlled the Huangting Kunwu Sword into the air, “Hurry up now, let’s not waste ti.”
“How about Sister Zhao goes first?” Chen Lingyun ventured to ask.
“Let’s have Sister Zhao go first then,” Lin Ning and Su Yunjin quickly echoed.
Zhao Yuanzhen: ?
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