Chapter 413: What Makes A Sword? (2/2)

”You went out... for a branch?” they asked.

”Oh yes, I need it for training. Please continue with your patrols, I'll be going now.”

She moved along with her two pets and looking for a place to practice her swordsmanship. The patrol watched her go before looking at each other. They looked at her strangely but shrugged.

”Must be some strange cultivation or something, having to use a stick.”

”Maybe... still a stick? She could've asked one of the craftsmen for a wooden sword or even borrow one of our spare ones.”

”Don't bother questioning it, it's not like any of us are going to understand. Besides, someone like her doesn't have to explain to us.”

They nodded at each other.

To soldiers like them, they had no need to learn or know what she planned to do. If it made her stronger that was all that really mattered. Still, they couldn't help but wonder, why would she need a branch?

As they continued their patrol, Ming Yue couldn't find much empty space and so decided to practice on the lakeshore. Standing on the sand, Hei Yue and Xiao Ying stood to the side as they watched her wielding that stick.

She looked at the branch and swung several times, getting used to the lightness and the fragility. Moments later, she stopped and began to recite the Sword Sage Path. While she no longer had the manual, she had long memorized it.

”After Return to Simplicity is Realm of a Hundred Swords, to understand this stage is to know that everything can be used as a sword. The limbs of your body, leaves, grass, anything can be a sword if you will it to be, even a branch.”

Reciting the words in her mind, Ming Yue started to contemplate these words.

”Anything can be a sword if I will it... What does this mean? If I will it... then I just use my energy, is that it?”

As she muttered those words, her Quintessence Energy began to circle through her body. Slowly and carefully, Ming Yue moved it into the branch one speck at a time. It shuddered and hummed as her strength flowed through it.

And for a moment, it released a small aura.

She smiled at this.

”This doesn't seem too difficult”, she thought.

But as soon as she said that, the energy suddenly escaped out of the branch, dispersing into motes of light.

”Wha- what?”

Ming Yue opened her mouth wide with surprise.

”What happened? Why did it all scatter?”

She tried once more but failed as the energy she gathered went away. After several more attempts, Ming Yue stopped and put the branch down, going back to what the Sword Sage Path described of Realm of Hundred Swords.

”The purpose of this stage is to be able to make anything a sword, further one's understanding of the Sword Dao. You must be able to execute any attacks and techniques using anything. You must understand what makes a sword.”

As the manual stated, Realm of a Hundred Swords is a stage in which it focuses on the essence of a sword. To be able to make anything a sword, that is the goal of this stage. But as far as Ming Yue knew, she was stumped with this.

”What makes a sword?” she pondered this question.

”It would be the materials? What it's made of? No, that can't be it. It's something else.”

Unfortunately, the manual didn't contain the answers she was looking for. Everyone had to reach a conclusion of their own and the same applied to her.

As it was late at night, Ming Yue continued to contemplate but to no success. And soon enough the sun rose for a new day had begun, she was still on the lake swinging the branch around.

Even if they were just casual swings, there was an elegance to them, like flowing water.

She was focused solely on the branch in her hands, not noticing a small crowd watching her, admiring her skills. It was like a dance almost, one that was unpredictable but beautiful.