News from the Capital

"Chen'er, the sword technique I'm about to pass down is called Swallow Swordsmanship, there are twelve forms inside, I'll show you the first form."

Fang An then demonstrated the first form of swallow swordsmanship. Fang An deliberately slowed down his movements so that Xiao Chen could observe him properly.

Xiao Chen couldn't help but smile faintly, this swordsmanship was one of the techniques he had studied for dozens of years in his previous life and helped him attain a profound understanding of the art of the sword. Xiao Chen could even perform the twelve moves in the Swallow Swordsmanship with his eyes closed.

"How? Are you having trouble memorizing all the moves from the first form?" asked Fang An after finishing his moves.

Xiao Chen shook his head slightly before explaining that he had memorized all of the moves. Fang An was not surprised when Xiao Chen was able to remember at a glance with the intelligence he had displayed so far.

"Memorizing moves is different from mastering them, in martial arts there are several levels to mastering a style..."

Fang An then explained that there were four levels of mastery in a style. The first was basic mastery, that is, when one memorized the core moves of the move and was able to cast ten to twenty percent of the moves' abilities.

When one was able to use three to fifty percent of the potential of a move, one would be judged to have intermediate mastery. The next level was advanced mastery, when one was able to use six to ninety percent of the move's potential. Finally, perfect mastery is when a warrior is able to bring out ninety to one hundred percent of the ability of a moment.

"Although there is a term of perfect mastery in a style but you must clearly remember Chen'er, that the art of the sword is not a journey to the top of a mountain but a dive into the bottomless ocean…" Fang An reminded.

Xiao Chen certainly never forgot this message from Fang An because he felt that learning the sword art was a never-ending journey.

Fang An then handed a wooden sword to Xiao Chen and asked him to practice the moves he had just taught him.

"It's been quite a while huh…" Xiao Chen muttered under his breath as he held the wooden sword.

In his previous life he belatedly discovered himself proficient in swordsmanship, yet he still attained a level of swordsmanship that is difficult for many people to reach and was eventually named the Holy Swordsman.

Indeed, the nickname was mostly due to his extraordinary inner strength thanks to practicing using the Heavenly Dragon God's Scripture.

In his previous life, when he started practicing the sword, Xiao Chen's hand never left the sword for a single day. It didn't feel like three years had passed since he had returned to the past and during that time he had neither touched a sword nor practiced any sword arts.

Indeed, sometimes he did some basic movements when sweeping the page but the sensation was certainly much different from holding a wooden sword like this.

Xiao Chen took some distance then started to perform the moves of the first form of swallow swordsmanship. His body still felt stiff and unaccustomed to it but his every move was sharp and agile.

Fang An's eyes widened when he saw Xiao Chen's swordplay prowess.

"Middle mastery?! No, he's even close to advanced mastery…" Fang An thought as he stared at Xiao Chen in disbelief, he still couldn't fathom the situation of Xiao Chen being able to achieve such high mastery just by trying once.

"My body really isn't used to doing this kind of movement anymore…" Xiao Chen muttered under his breath.

After completing the first form of movement, Xiao Chen did not stop but started again from the beginning and this time it was seen that his body movements were smoother but also more powerful.

Xiao Chen repeated the moves of the first form several times and with each repetition his mastery steadily increased, now his level of mastery of the first form of Swallow Swordsmanship had reached advanced mastery.

"This…" Fang An was speechless, he knew that Xiao Chen had special talent but found that Fang An's evaluation of him still included underestimating him, "Chen'er, as long as I am not in place, are you practicing martial arts alone?"

Fang An felt that it was impossible for Xiao Chen to master a technique so quickly, which might be that Xiao Chen had learned this sword art before without Fang An's knowledge. Recalling that Xiao Chen had thwarted an assassination attempt on Xuehua several months ago, Fang An was not surprised that Xiao Chen had secretly studied martial arts.

Xiao Chen then explained that he had indeed learned martial arts from books in the Bamboo Sword Villa's library, namely Wolf Fist and Wind Steps.

Fang An then asked Xiao Chen to demonstrate the two skills. Fang An was again shocked to find that Xiao Chen's mastery of the Wolf Fist had reached perfect mastery while Wind Step had reached advanced mastery.

"Chen'er, your Wind Step is still too clumsy because you lack profound energy but being able to reach this level without profound energy is truly amazing…" Fang An gave Xiao Chen a hint that allowed him to improve his mastery of Wind Step.

Despite his shock, Fang An continued to train Xiao Chen. Fang An continued to teach the Swallow Swordsmanship, one form after another, to Xiao Chen.

It only took a few days for Xiao Chen to master the twelve forms of swordsmanship. Fang An was happy but also worried because Xiao Chen's terrifying talent could invite disaster too if he wasn't careful.

Fang An helped Xiao Chen attain proficient mastery for the twelve and strive for perfect mastery. Actually it wasn't easy for Fang An considering that he was such a genius that he had yet to achieve perfect mastery of all forms of Swallow Swordsmanship.

"Actually I teach or I learn…" Fang An smiled awkwardly, he realized that after seeing Xiao Chen's moves, he had the inspiration to raise his mastery of the sword to reach consummate mastery.

Even though he taught Xiao Chen, Fang An also learned a lot of new things.

This training lasted for a full month until one day someone delivered a letter to Bamboo Sword Villa addressed to Fang An.

Xiao Chen could see the seal of the Han imperial family on the envelope, so he could guess that the letter Fang An received was from Yin Song.

Fang An's expression turned ugly as he read the letter and finally heaved a deep sigh as he finished reading it, "Chen'er, Master has to return to the Capital again, something has happened…"

***

If you want to support me and get early access of the update schedule, feel free to visit my pa-treon and get more thant 15 chapter:

Pat reon. com/miraclebringer

Your support will really help me to be more passionate.