Sword Spirit

Chapter 40: Improving Martial Skills

As the sword stroke was made, there was the indistinct sound of thunder.

At this time, Lu Xuan had already put his whole entirety into it at this time. This sword technique’s number of moves wasn’t that much, only eight in total. When the first four were displayed, there was the sound of thunder, and in the later four, on the sword itself there appeared indistinctly flashes of lightning, striking out in lethal bursts!

The Thunder Light Sword Skill was indeed worthy of its name!

After finishing a set of the sword skill, the stone carving did not stop and began presenting it for the second time. It repeated again and again, over and over.

Lu Xuan stared at the stone carving without even blinking. With each display, his impression and comprehension of the Thunder Light Sword Skill became deeper and deeper, bit by bit.

However, this alone was not enough. Even if he memorized the entire sword skill, using it would only be just the form, and not the essence. If comparing sword strokes, it was much more important to comprehend it.

Only if one could perceive the sword skill’s essence could they truly learn the sword skill. As for how much of it one could feel, that depended on the martial artist’s perception. This was the purpose of this round. The higher one’s perception, the deeper their experience, and the stronger the sword skill shown in the end.

After continuously watching it five times, Lu Xuan didn’t watch anymore and closed his eyes, slowly comprehending what he had just experienced. In the experience, Lu Xuan couldn’t help but stick out his right hand, two fingers becoming a sword, and began acting it out.

And as he began acting them out, the yuan force in his body subconsciously began to move, circulating in the meridians.

In the entire stone room, those that were motioning like Lu Xuan was not a small number. They were all thinly experiencing the martial skill contained in the stone carvings.

The first try, the second try…

Each sword stroke was slowly acted out by Lu Xuan, however it was very difficult. The sword strokes he acted out, compared to the one’s demonstrated by the stone carving, was like the difference between heaven and earth.

Wanting to completely act out the Thunder Light Sword Skill having only watched it five times was impossible.

Having performed all eight parts of the Lightning Sword Skill with difficulty, Lu Xuan immediately stopped making further attempts. Because his experience was too shallow, the sword strokes he had made were nothing like the originals. It was too embarrassing. It couldn’t even be considered as all style and no substance.

(TN: Poor Lu Xuan doesn’t even have style.)

So he watched the stone carving’s demonstration one more time. Only by combining theory and practice could one improve.

Many of the other martial artists were in the same situation as Lu Xuan. These martial artists could be said to have understood what the elder had previously said. Even a lower Huang tier weapon skill wasn’t something that they could learn so easily. Some martial artists with lower perception, and even more so for the ones that couldn’t perceive anything, could only forcefully remember the moves.

Xia Ye was also the same. After testing it once, his eyebrows knit up tightly.

As Lu Xuan was watching the demonstration for the second time, the sword crystal in his dantian suddenly moved. A soft sword qi slowly was released. Lu Xuan, who was deeply immersed in perceiving, was completely unaware.

This sword qi quietly circulated through Lu Xuan’s meridians, and as it circulated through, at the same time, it slowly affected the yuan force in his body to circulate with it.

Lu Xuan, who was still perceiving the sword strokes, under the pull of the sword qi, subconsciously ++ controlled his yuan force to follow its circulation. What was strange was that the rate that the sword qi circulated was synchronized with the Thunder Light Sword Skill. And as for Lu Xuan was still perceiving, he didn’t have any kind of feeling, except that he felt that his experience with the Thunder Light Sword Skill felt deeper and deeper.

(TN: Yes, that ++ was there. I don’t know why.)

The sword qi circulated again and again, dragging Lu Xuan’s yuan force through the circulation again and again. After continually circulating five times, the sword qi slowly fused back into the sword crystal and disappeared.

But in Lu Xuan’s subconsciousness, it had already memorized the circulation path. Although the sword qi had stopped, his yuan force still continued to go along the previous circulation path.

This time, Lu Xuan looked at the stone carving’s demonstration ten times before stopping. As Lu Xuan left the perceiving state, Lu Xuan was suddenly startled. He discovered that half the yuan force in his body had actually already been consumed.

He clearly hadn’t been doing anything before, but his yuan force had just disappeared without any warning. It was truly bizarre.

“Could it be that during the perceiving just now, I unconsciously circulated the cultivation technique?” Lu Xuan said to himself in confusion.

Although he couldn’t figure it out, but time was of the essence. Lu Xuan didn’t have that much time to go and study it. He felt that his comprehension had become much deeper, and he couldn’t wait to try it out again.

But just as he acted out the first move, Lu Xuan was shocked!

Because as he was acting it out, his yuan force automatically began circulating. It was as if it had already circulated countless times. This kind of feeling was very similar to when he had used his own Blinking Sword Skill!

However he had inherited the memory of the Blinking Sword Skill from the sword crystal which is why he could clearly understand the yuan force’s circulation path and perform that way. As for the Thunder Light Sword Skill, Lu Xuan dared to say, that before this, he had never had contact with it before. And also, during his first time using it, it wasn’t done very well. In this short period of time, less than a half stick of incense, he had actually made large steps of improvement. It was truly too bizarre.

“Could it be the sword crystal again?” Lu Xuan’s mind spat out an idea. He wasn’t stupid. Such a miraculous matter, other than the sword crystal being able to cause it, he couldn’t think of any other reason for it to happen.

However at this time, Lu Xuan couldn’t be bothered to pursue that thought. No matter what the reason was, at least for him, it was definitely a good thing.

Settling his mind, Lu Xuan once again practiced the Thunder Light Sword Skill. The yuan force in his body naturally circulated without the slightest feeling of hindrance. After a set of the sword skill, Lu Xuan felt that he was about 60-70% similar to the stone carving’s demonstration.

And in addition, Lu Xuan also felt that the Thunder Light Sword Skill he had practiced was actually more powerful than the one demonstrated by the stone carving.

Although they were the same eight moves, the Thunder Light Sword Skill demonstrated by the stone carving was very rigid. One move after one move. The eight moves were all unconnected. Lu Xuan felt that in the eight moves he used, each move was a subtle connection. Every stroke that he made accumulated some hints of “power,” up until the last move was made, all of the accumulated “power” would all explode out at once. The last move’s power would receive an enormous increase!

“It’s definitely the sword crystal!” Lu Xuan delightedly said to himself. The enchantment technique that the sword crystal had leaked was the ancient enchantment technique, which had powers far beyond the current enchantment techniques. As for improving a martial skill, it couldn’t be considered as something too difficult to take in.

With this discovery, Lu Xuan immediately stopped looking at the stone carving. He had already fully memorized the eight moves anyway. Compared to pondering the stone carving’s demonstration again, it would be better to take a step towards the Thunder Light Sword Skill with the power the sword crystal had changed.

Time flew by quickly. While other martial artists were still had their eyebrows tightly knit while pondering, Lu Xuan already become more and more skillful with the Thunder Light Sword Skill. Right now if he used the Thunder Light Sword Skill, he’d already be able to reach about eighty percent of the stone carving demonstration’s likeness.

One hours passed by quickly.

The door to the stone room suddenly opened. The voice of Elder Sun quickly transmitted, startling all the martial artists awake.

“It has been one hour! All martial artists leave the stone room and enter the third round of testing!”