Chapter 14 - Flowing River Sword Style

.

.

.

"Flowing River Sword Style?" Tian Ye asked in confusion but a hint of interest, visible in his face. 

Han Yi nodded, "That's right. The Sword Technique is called Flowing River Sword Style and it's an all-round sword technique that can be used to attack in short distance, long distance, and defend."

He waved the sword made out of spiritual qi slightly like some sort of habit, before taking a stance and explaining, "The first form is called Drifting Current."

He positioned his feet shoulder's width apart then casually waved the sword.

With the wave of his sword, a subtle-blue crescent form appeared in the air as the sword cut through it.

Tian Ye's eyes that were fixed on Han Yi's sword were calm, analyzing every detail of the martial arts he was being taught.

'The name of the first form is called Drifting Current?' He thought in his mind then nodded in understanding, 'The spiritual qi extends briefly for 1 meter further from the tip of the sword leaving those who don't know about his martial arts unguarded for the attack. If used properly by an experienced martial cultivator, it's hard to guard against. Truly… a drifting current.'

As Han Yi held the sword subtly in his right hand, he explained, looking at Tian Ye who was paying attention to him completely in satisfaction. "The Drifting Current extends 1 meter further than the tip of the sword making it difficult for the other person to dodge and as they dodge, if they don't have prior knowledge about Flowing River Sword Style, they'd be jumping towards the spiritual qi extension like a pig entering a tiger's den voluntarily."

"The first form's utility is fairly simple but…" Han Yi waved his sword again faster and a blue crescent-shaped line instantly appeared in mid-air.

Tian Ye's eyes widened slightly as thought, 'So fast!'

With a smile on his face, he enlightened, "When you reach the higher realms of Qi Refinement Realm, even a fraction of a second can decide the result of a fight because they don't try to save so much spiritual qi so they use it to move faster and stronger every time. Naturally, it can decide their life and death in a single instant. Furthermore…"

Han Yi's eyes flashed, seriousness filled his expression, and a larger crescent-shaped slash much larger than 1 meter in width appeared again in a single instant.

"The first form can still be improved. If reaching 1 meter is the beginning stage of the first form, the middle stage is reaching 1.5 meters, and reaching the final stage is 2 meters! Any further is wasting spiritual qi because spiritual qi consumption at more than 2 meters is like pouring water from a container into a river expecting to make the river higher."

Tian Ye nodded in understanding, 'The spiritual qi was already subtly disappearing like smoke rising from a fire at the tip of the 1 meter mark, much less than 2 meters. Even reaching 2 meters is wasteful in my opinion but in higher realms, it's natural that the spiritual qi consumption would be minimal compared to the 1st layer and second layer but…'

Tian Ye raised his hand to ask a question.

Han Yi replied, "Go ahead."

"Um…" Tian Ye, a little embarrassed, scratched the back of his head, asked, "Master, how high is your cultivation exactly?"

Han Yi blinked a couple of times then chuckled before answering, "Oh, I haven't told you yet, have I? You didn't exactly take the initiative to ask so I never told you but… it's at the peak of the 9th layer of Qi Refinement Realm."

"9th Layer!" Tian Ye muttered in surprise, although he expected it somehow, he still couldn't help but be surprised and now that he knew, he asked in excitement, "Master, how much spiritual qi does a 9th layer of Qi Refinement have compared to a 1st layer?"

Han Yi rubbed his chin as he dispersed the sword made out of spiritual qi for a moment and answered, "Hm… I never thought about it but… the first 3 realms the increase would double every time but as you go higher, the spiritual qi becomes lower and lower but in return, it refines the body more."

With Han Yi's explanation, he thought of it in his mind then asked, "Is 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 in increase of spiritual qi accurate?"

Han Yi's eyes widened slightly but nodded, "I don't know the exact value as I didn't exactly take note of it but it should be around that number. Why do you ask?"

Tian Ye replied with a chuckle, "I was just guessing, please continue, master."

"Then let's proceed." Han Yi summoned a sword made out of spiritual qi again, "The next form, or the second form of Flowing River Sword Style is called Turbulent Wave."

Grabbing the sword in his hand with both hands, he squinted his eyes in focus, explaining along the way. "The difficulty of the second form of the Flowing River Sword Style is more than double compared to the first form. It can be said to even be tripled or even quadrupled… As to why…"

Han Yi condensed spiritual qi on the tip of the sword like it was some kind of small marble.

Tian Ye, who was watching, looked over in excitement. 'This was possible with spiritual qi at the Qi Refinement Realm?!'

As a person who was an avid fan of cultivation novels, he had also read a lot of fantasy novels alongside it. Just on cultivation novels itself, he could be considered to have read billions of words in total. Naturally, he had a lot of theories in mind, one of them is this theory.

As you condense spiritual qi, it will get denser and denser, and it will result in an uncontrollable force.

He could deduce that his master would be teaching him how to release that uncontrollable force in a certain direction or else he'd be injured along with it if he just let it explode all over the place.

As he reached a level of force that he was satisfied with, with a shout, Han Yi thrusted his sword towards the entrance of the cave. "Hah!"

Like a piercing lance extending indefinitely, the spiritual qi condensed began to expand in width of 10 centimeters in diameter and stretched out from the tip to a few meters in away.

Tian Ye looked at the force generated from the sword in excitement.

"Fu…" Han Yi exhaled with a slight flicker reflected in his eyes then held the sword with both hands again, "The damage and the distance is doubled with the second form along with it, the consumption of qi is dramatically increased, even more so in the improved version…"

Han Yi gathered a huge amount of spiritual qi on the tip of the sword, unlike before where it was the size of a marble, it began to expand more and more until it stabilized into the size of a baseball.

"Hah!!!" Han Yi once again thrusted his sword, and the energy from the orb of spiritual qi began to expand to a width of 50 centimeters in diameter and stretched to at least 10-15 meters away.

As the spiritual qi disappeared, Han Yi breathed heavily as he waved his sword and said, laughing slightly, "Although I'm at the peak of the 9th layer of Qi Refinement Realm, even for me, the spiritual qi consumption is not that practical but when it hits, you should know what happens right?"

Tian Ye nodded, calming down the excitement within himself, "Yes, master."

Han Yi dispersed the sword made out of spiritual qi and waved his hand, "Why don't you go ahead and let me see, if you're able to do it? The 3rd form is fundamentally different from the 1st and 2nd form so I'll show you the third form later on whilst you focus on the 1st and 2nd form for now."

Tian Ye simply stood up and drew his sword that was given by Han Yi.

The sword's total length was 1 meter or 100 centimeters. The blade was 80 centimeters long, and the hilt alone was 20 centimeters.

Grabbing the sword with one hand, he copied Han Yi's casual motion when he raised the sword and waved it to form a blue crescent shaped line with spiritual qi.

Swish!

Tian Ye thought he would succeed in the first try but not even a trace of blue crescent shaped line and that made him frown.

Han Yi, who was watching from the side, couldn't help but chuckle. Tian Ye was a genius after all, he was able to learn the swordless martial arts technique of the guard earlier easily, his frowning right now was not something he didn't expect.

He saw that Tian Ye was a little distressed at his maybe first failure in cultivation so he comforted, "You don't have to display the distance exactly as the first version, even making just 10 centimeters in distance with the first form is enough, after all, the spiritual qi density, comparing the 9th layer to 2nd layer isn't that much different but there's still a subtle difference, furthermore, a 9th layer has so much more spiritual qi compared to that of a 2nd layer."

"Yes, master." Tian Ye agreed, a perfunctory tone noticeable in his voice, not taking the words of Han Yi seriously and closed his eyes to focus and recall Han Yi's first form.

Han Yi just laughed as Tian Ye now seems to really be like a child compared to his usual mature and full of ideas self.

.

.

.