C2 (1/2)

”Brat, tomorrow the Heavenly Mountain Sword Sect will send over a few newbies, I'll leave them to you. One month later, bring them and the others to hunt for the sword spirit. As for where, that's up to you.” Li Xun didn't notice where the old man was speaking, so he casually caught the gourd and received it.

”That's right, if you want to know your origins, you can take this chance to go down the mountain and search for them. Remember, you can always do whatever you want and never ask.”

At dawn, Li Xun was lying on a Sword Testing Stone as he watched the sky for the entire night. His mood could be said to be mixed; he once again recalled when he was born and was led by Uncle Saber to flee for his life.

Although most of the people came here to muddle through, there was no lack of people who wanted to learn true skills. However, they were limited by their innate talent, and they all knew that they would not be able to achieve much in their lives.

All of the disciples knew that the person staring blankly at the Sword Testing Stone was their senior apprentice brother. None of them had ever defeated him, but they had never lost to him, because they all realized that their senior apprentice brother only knew defensive sword moves and never used any offensive sword moves. Even when they saw him practice occasionally, they only knew that he was slashing around randomly without any sort of pattern, which was far worse than their own exquisite attack moves. They also discovered that their eldest senior brother had become increasingly silent for some reason these past few years. He was often in a daze, and even when he was practicing his sword, he would be in a daze. Some newcomers often secretly laughed, thinking that their senior brother would turn into a fool. However, those who had hunted down the Sword Soul did their best to protect Li Xun, because they all felt that Li Xun was an expert, but they were not sure. However, one thing was certain; Li Xun was a good person.

The Martial Arts Practice Field gradually became lively. Compared to the other academies, the Sky Worm Academy was the easiest and most undisciplined. If they wanted to practice, they would do so. If they wanted to sleep, they would do so. Only on the fifteenth day of each month did the old man take a look at everyone's practice and demonstrate some new moves to explain the main points. Other than maintaining the usual order in the Martial Arts Practice Grounds, Li Xun also prohibited private duels. Most of the time, he played the role of a sparring partner.

Li Xun would place a bowl full of water on a 1.5m high wooden stake in the training field. As long as someone was able to overturn the bowl under Li Xun's defense, then it would be considered as his win. And if he won, it was said that he would be able to obtain the first move of the Golden Sword. Most people relied on improving their physique to comprehend a few moves that matched with their own. But most of them were too simple, as long as they could enter a few sword sects or large families, they would be able to learn Bronze-ranked sword moves, and for those with a bit of comprehension, they might even be able to learn Silver ranked sword moves. As for Gold-ranked sword moves, they were considered very profound sword moves, and generally, only an old sword faction like the Heavenly Mountain Sword Sect and some super powers would be able to learn them.

This old man's monthly sword moves were all Silver rank. This was also the reason why all the Heavenly Court disciples had no objections towards this extremely lazy swordmaster. They also knew that the disciples of the other academies would usually take out a few bronze level sword manuals and practice. Although swordsmen would often give guidance, only those who had mastered it would be selected by their masters and would be taught to practice silver level sword moves. However, there wouldn't be many silver level sword moves, and only those who had become elders of the sword faction would be able to learn gold level sword moves.

On the other hand, the old man often saw Silver ranked sword moves. They were truly something that could only be encountered by chance and not sought for. Furthermore, the majority of those who came here were the children of nobles, and this satisfied their vanity even more. Even if they couldn't learn even a single move, they still had the qualifications to boast to others when they returned home.

Another thing was that in the past ten years, there had never been any accidents while the other academies had always had disciples who had died or been injured while they were hunting for the sword spirit. However, the other branches all attributed this to the fact that the level of the demon beasts hunted by the disciples of the Skysword Academy was too low. There was no way to compare with them.

When it was late in the morning, the six of them arrived at the training field of the Heavenly Academy. The person leading the group was a middle-aged man in his thirties. Just by looking at his clothes, one could tell that he was a Rain Level Elder from the Sword Sect. Wind, rain, lightning, and as for the early advancements of the Elders, they were all at least at the level of Wind, and the standard was that the Elder would be able to last ten moves under the hands of the Rain Elder. The Wind Elder could learn three of the Gold rank sword moves and could then advance to a Rain Elder, which would take him about twenty years to advance to a Wind Elder, while the Rain Elder could learn six of the Gold rank sword moves and could be promoted to a Thunder Elder, which would take about fifty years to advance to a Rain Elder. As for Elder An, he was just an old fogey who would not die. The standard for advancement was to learn a Platinum-level sword move. The reason why the Heavenly Mountain Sword Sect was able to flourish for a thousand years was because the Heavenly Mountain Sword Sect had Platinum-ranked sword techniques as a deterrent, and also because in the past thousand years, there had been outstanding people who managed to learn the sword sect's inheritance. Some sword sects might have Platinum-ranked sword techniques, but once a talent gap appeared, it would become the sect's greatest crisis.

He should be the third youngest Rain-ranked elder in the history of the Heavenly Mountain Sword Sect, Duan Peng. Oh my god, someone who could become a Wind ranked elder at the age of forty in the Heavenly Mountain Sword Sect is considered a genius. This Elder Duan Peng is definitely a genius amongst geniuses.

”Waa, there are beauties, and they even come here as the three of them. Could it be that the Sword God opened his eyes and heard my daily prayers, so he intentionally sent them to me to pursue me?”

”You idiot. Don't you know that the female disciples of the Heavenly Mountain Sword Sect all come from the Mystic Maiden School? That place is full of violent and notorious women, and those who offend them are unlucky.”

”...”

The female disciples of the Heavenly Mountain Sword Sect were all gathered here, and the number of disciples here was more than in a single branch. However, the requirements for the Mystic Maiden School to accept disciples was also the most harsh. Therefore, the competition at the Mystic Maiden School was also very intense. After all, there were too many people with good aptitude.

”Li Xun.” Duan Peng walked in front of Li Xun and called out.

Li Xun didn't seem to hear him, but he continued to look up at the sky. Duan Peng only smiled as he looked at the dumbstruck Li Xun; he wasn't angry. He then said to the five people behind him, ”The one behind you is your Senior Brother Li Xun. I presume you've all heard of some things in the Sky Harmony Academy, and if you're lucky, you'll be able to learn one or two Silver rank sword moves in the next month. If you can defeat Li Xun in the challenge, you'll still have a chance to learn Gold-rank sword moves.