453 Observing the Sword for A Whole Night and Drawing i (2/2)
It was very thin and felt like normal paper. It was only the size of two fingers and around rough edge, there were inky lines. Beyond the lines were some rough sides of the paper.
In the beginning, it was a picture of a sword drawn on the paper, then someone tore the sword off the paper. It could be seen from the uneven lines that the person who had drawn it was not good at drawing, but his state was so high that those lines looked like real sharp blades of a sword.
The paper looked more dim and yellowish under the dim yellowish light.
Ning Que stared at the paper sword and his face looked more and more serious and tense.
At the lake, the yard at night was not as hot as at daytime, but there were beads of sweat on his face, and gradually sweat flowed down along his cheeks.
He became more and more sweaty. The sweat dripped from his back and legs and wet his clothes. And when his clothes were soaked in sweat, it flowed down the legs of the chair and to the ground.
His body was like a puff of cotton soaked in water, and after being squeezed by the invisible sword style of the paper sword, it started to drip water continuously.
His Psych Power already pushed through the edge of the paper sword which hurt his sense of perception badly and entered into the paper sword. That was why he could feel the real picture the sword style.
A couple of days ago, when they fought and Ye Hongyu took the paper sword out, he felt the sword style of the sword, which made him feel like an endless waterfall was falling from the sky.
Now the paper sword was lying in his fingers, he could feel the sword style slower and clearer. After thinking for half of the night, he finally got it. The sword style was not just imitating a waterfall which poured down from the sky, it was the great river itself.
It proved Ning Que's guess before.
He felt this sword paper, insignificant in weight before, suddenly become exceptionally heavy.
He felt those huge waves of the river beating his body and hitting his sense of perception. It was so strong as if it could destroy the dams of his sense of perception and rush out to the wilderness.
He felt like he was drowning in the depth of the river and was stuck between the great pressure of water coming from all directions. In this summer night, he was like a real drowning man. He was pale and panting heavily. His sweat poured out like a waterfall.
...
Ning Que woke up from his meditation in the morning.
The armchair in which he was sitting was all soaked in water.
The bricks around the chair were also drenched.
The paper between his fingers was also drenched by his sweat and it even became transparent. But the sword drawn on it was still so clear as if the ink was magical and not influenced by any substances in the world.
Sangsang was looking at him, and her face was full of worry.
Ning Que looked at her and managed to squeeze a smile, ”I am fine.”
He was scared by his own voice. It was so dry as if he had been in a desert without any water for a couple of days.
He soon realized it was because he was dehydrated. He said to Sangsang, ”Make some porridge and put the Sealwort stored in the study in the porridge, I need to eat something very nutritious.”
”I have already made you porrige with the Sealwort. I also added lots of salt in the porridge because you looked so sweaty.”
Sangsang got a bowl of porridge on the table, which was preserved in well water. She said carefully, ”Do you still have the strength to eat it? Do you need me to feed you?”
...
...
After getting his energy back, Ning Que went to the side yard and returned the paper sword to Ye Hongyu. After observing it for a whole night, he had made clear on many things. He knew that at his state in cultivation, this was already the most he could learn from the sword. He wouldn't make any more progress even if he spent two more nights watching it.
Ye Hongyu saw his pale face and said, ”You know very well where the utmost of your ability is. You are not too greedy and able to resist the tempt of the paper sword. I have to admit though you are not that talented, your self-discipline ability is among the first class in the world.”
If it was in the past, Ning Que would be very proud after the Taoist Addict praised him like that. But there was something on his mind today so he didn't talk much with her. He was still thinking of the sword in his sense of perception and left quickly.
He left the Yanming Lake by the carriage and went to the Academy as quickly as he could. He went through the Cloud Gate array to the back of the mountain and walked past the Mirror Lake to the cliff cave. He furrowed his brows and mumbled to himself all the way. His expression kept changing between confusion to determination. He was so absorbed in thinking that he forgot to greet his Senior Brothers and Sisters at the lake.
Seventh Sister stopped her stitchwork, and put the niddle down.She looked at Ning Que disappearing into the wood. She frowned and muttered, ”Youngest Brother looked... a little odd today, he looks a little bit crazy.”
Sixth Brother was repairing the waterwheel near the stream while passing fish to the goose Wooden Fish to play with. He straightened his body and also looked at that direction. He shook his head and said, ”Why does Youngest Brother look so much like Eleventh Brother today?”
Ning Que didn't even notice their discussion. He was like a silly and crazy man, who staggered along the path down to the cliff cave and walked towards the table of the scholar.
The scholar was still reading without looking up at him.
Ning Que stopped talking to himself. He stood next to the scholar in silence for a long time. His eyes lightened when the lines in his sense of perception combined into a certain shape, and then he walked behind the table and pushed the scholar away from the stool. He took a piece of paper, and dipped a brush pen into the ink and started drawing.
The scholar was the most strange person at the back of the mountain. He was always good in temper, but if someone dared to annoy him when he was reading, he would become very angry. So even Eldest Brother and Second Brother didn't dare to interrupt him when he was busy at reading. Therefore, he became extremely angry when Ning Que pushed him away roughly when he was concentrated on reading a book about agriculture. He rolled up his sleeves and was going to beat Ning Que hard.
But his fists dropped down slowly when he saw what Ning Que was drawing. He walked behind Ning Que and started watching him drawing carefully.
After a while, Ning Que finished what he was doing. He put the brush pen on the ink stone and raised the paper against the sun rays to watch it. He knew he couldn't copy the same sword style, but this was the best he could do.
He suddenly found the scholar standing behind him and looking at the paper in a daze. ”I know it is ugly, but it is not my fault,” Ning Que explained and said.
”It is not bad.”
The scholar put his hands behind him and bent to see the small twisted sword on the paper. He said in amazement, ”I haven't seen such a nice sword for many years.”
Ning Que was very shocked. He thought to himself, maybe the scholar knew about swords too? So he asked subconsciously, ”Have you seen anything like this before?”
The scholar pointed to the cliff cave behind him without turning his head around, ”There are many books about Sword Formulas and Skills. Some authors liked to use pictures as notes, so I have seen some swords.”
Ning Que understood how he had learned about swords now. He asked curiously, ”What do you think of this sword?”
”If you are asking about the sword you just duplicate, then it is not very good compared with the thousands of swords stored in the cave, but your sword reveals some of the spirit of the original drawer, and that makes it wonderful.”
The scholar continued to say, ”I don't understand drawing or swords. But I can see the spirits of the sword.”
”In my view, this sword can rank the top five among all the swords stored in the Academy for the thousand years.”
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