Vol 1 Chapter 11 (1/2)
Book 1, Chapter 11 – Sword Training
Ning, listening to this, felt totally confused, as though his head was covered by mist and clouds “Father, you say that I must prepare my body before I can train with a sword I can just barely understand that But I must also prepare my ‘mind’? What does that mean?”
“Don’t be impatient”
Yichuan looked at his son A thick book appeared in his hands out of nowhere He tossed it towards Ning “First, closely read through this boxingtechnique It contains the simplest yet most fundath Once you havetechnique, your entire body will act as you will and you will be able to exert strength with ease”
“The sword is born from your body If not even your body acts as you wish it to, how can your sword act as you wish it to?” Yichuan looked at his son, worried that his son would bite off more than he could chew “First, you must calm your mind”
Ning understood the logic that ‘sharpening the knife didn’t slon the cutting process’
“Yes, father” Ning said as he lowered his head to begin reading the book He began to closely review thedescribed in the book The book was quite thick, but actually, it was because it was e very thick
After an to train His father constantly gave him advice and pointed out hisunderstand
Actually, the [Shadewind Steps] also contained so force, but the [Shadewind Steps] were pris Because he had so learned relatively quickly
Two hours later
“Rest a while” Yichuan looked at his sweaty son “In the future, you will spend two hours every day training your boxing, unless and until I judge that your body is prepared to train with the sword”
“Preparing your body to train with the sword is just one aspect”
“You must also prepare your ‘mind’ to wield the sword” Two black metal swords appeared in Yichuan’s hands, and he tossed them to his son “Take them!”
Ning took the tords
Yichuan pointed to an empty area Hu A le saber
“This is a puppet” Yichuan said “Ki Refining practitioners of the I these puppets This one is just a very ordinary puppet, with the power of a master-level Houtian coh”
“Father, what are those red spots on its body?” Ning wondered
The black metal puppet had over ten red dots on its body The red dots were located between its forehead, on its throat, on its chest, on its arms, hands, back, and some other areas
“Try stabbing at the red dot on its forehead” Yichuan said “You have to be fast”
“Yes” Ning stabbed out fiercely with his right hand
Hua!
The tip of the sword pierced forward, but it struck the head, roughly an inch away from the red dot
“But…” Ning was slightly startled He clearly had ai three htly off
“Have you discovered it?” Yichuan said calh you want to stab it in the middle of the forehead, when you actually try to do so, you aren’t able to do so accurately How can you stab accurately? First, you have to have to control your body perfectly Second, you have to train countless times”
“Every single sword technique can be described as being composed of thirteen specific movements; chop, pierce, scrape, sweep, break, tap, cleave, support, intercept, twist, lift, draw, and sheath”
“Chop, pierce, scrape, sweep, tap, cleave; these are used to attack”
“Support, break, intercept, twist, lift, draw, and sheath; these are used to defend”
Yichuan pointed at theat all, and it has nine red dots on its body Execute the ‘chop, pierce, scrape, sweep, cleave, and tap’ ainst it I will teach you the secrets to every single movele basic movement must be practiced at least ten million times!”
“In the future, the puppet will begin to move and chop at you with its own saber techniques You will then use the ‘support, intercept, twist, lift, draw, break, and sheath’ movements, the seven basic defense movements, to defend yourself You will train all of these movements ten million times as well”
“Attack!”
“Defend!”
“After you have becoe in battle against you, and you will use the coainst it” Yichuan looked at his son “When the day corained into your mind and your bones, and when you are perfectly accurate, that is when you will have absorbed the essence of the sword into your mind Only then will your mind be ready to train in the sword”
Ning listened with his breath held
“Prepare your body”
“Prepare your mind”
“Afterwards, you will be able to truly start training in sword techniques” Yichuan looked at his son “Sword techniques are very complicated, but they are still formed from these thirteen basic movements If you aren’t even able to memorize and absorb these thirteen basic move with the sword?”
“After you have truly become familiar with the sword techniques I will pass down to you, then you can be considered to have reached the first, ‘basic’ level of wielding a sword”
“The sword has three levels as well”
“The basic level, the advanced level, and the ‘one with the world’ level!”
“The ‘advanced level’ for footwork requires precise control over the body But the ‘advanced level’ for the sword requires one to have precise control over both the body and the sword, and then e them into one! It is ten times harder!”
“Beco ‘one with the world’? That’s even farther off”