Growth: Seeking Recommendations and Collections

The purpose of "stances" lay in shifting the emphasis between attack and defense in actual combat, and such shifts would be smooth and natural in battle, happening at any moment.

Using the various "stances" skillfully was equivalent to mastering the foundation and core of swordsmanship.

That was right—it was the foundation, but also the core.

Swordsmanship changed in countless ways, but all variations remained rooted in the same principles. Basically, the traces of these basic stances could be found in all of them.

Learning stances alone could not make one a Great Sword Master.

But Great Sword Masters generally began by learning these basic things.

The names of the various "stances" differed depending on the school.

However, they were generally divided into five basic stances: upper, middle, lower, hasso, and waki.

Of course, based on these five stances, there were also flexible applications and extended variations. For example, the lower stance could be divided into left lower and right lower.

The five kendo stances drew on the mutual generation and restraint of the Five Elements. The upper stance was fire, an extremely confident offensive stance;

The middle stance was water, balancing attack and defense;

The lower stance was earth, a counterattacking stance focused on defense;

Hasso was wood, used to observe the enemy's movements and respond accordingly. It could shift at any time into the attack-oriented upper stance or the balanced middle stance;

Waki was metal. Its main purpose was to prevent the enemy from immediately judging the length of one's sword, and it also leaned toward offense.

One-Sword Style, meanwhile, mainly used the middle stance. It emphasized advancing and retreating in a straight line, using a slash to neutralize a slash.

Its core technique was "Cutting Down," which meant cutting down the enemy's attack head-on before counterattacking in the same motion.

It sounded simple, but it placed extremely high demands on one's judgment of distance, timing, and reaction speed. One slight mistake and it would turn into a mutual slash. If you struck later than your opponent, you would be cut down first.

You only had one life. If you killed the enemy while being killed yourself, there was no point.

Therefore, One-Sword Style had a saying—begin with Cutting Down, end with Cutting Down.

Cutting Down was the introductory technique of One-Sword Style, and also its ultimate technique.

When a sword slash came, its trajectory was a line. With one slash, you precisely cut through that line and, following through, sent the enemy crashing to the ground.

The middle stance could also instantly transform into a thrust. It was truly extremely practical.

When Kuina taught the kendo stances and the One-Sword Style technique "Cutting Down," she combined theory with practice.

She explained while demonstrating. Her explanations were easy to understand yet wonderfully vivid, and light kept flashing in Mu Yu's eyes.

Neither of them was very old, but one taught earnestly while the other learned enthusiastically. They really looked the part.

By the time Kuina finished explaining the basic knowledge of kendo stances, night had actually fallen.

Seeing Mu Yu's eager thirst for knowledge, Kuina was thoroughly satisfied.

She had not gotten to teach to her heart's content in the morning, but she had finally made up for it several times over that afternoon.

"That's all for today. Class dismissed!"

"Thank you for your hard work, Senior Disciple Sister!"

Kuina was delighted inside, but she still put on a teacher's stern air. "Not bad. Keep it up tomorrow."

Seeing Kuina acting like a little adult, Mu Yu inexplicably wanted to laugh, but he forcibly held it in.

If he laughed now, Kuina would definitely fly into a rage out of embarrassment!

After dinner and a bath, Mu Yu returned to his room and immediately became excited. Having learned the kendo stances today, he could now openly improve his swordsmanship.

"System, how many Energy Droplets have I accumulated now?"

747200.

"How many?"

Seven hundred and forty-seven thousand two hundred.

Mu Yu was stunned. This was way too outrageous!

"How did I suddenly gain so much energy?"

Sleeping 3200 + running 20000 + breakfast 1000 + Suburi 5000 + Kuina's approval 20000 + correct Bamboo Sword placement posture 2000 + Complete Concentration tree-chopping ten thousand times 500000 + the dojo brats' admiration 20000 + food personally made by Kuina 10000 + Instructor Sosuke's approval 10000 + Koshiro's approval 30000 + Kuina teaching the principles of Isshin-ryu 5000 + kendo stances 30000 + dinner 1000 + miscellaneous energy from breathing, sunlight, wind, and so on 90000

When he heard that chopping a tree ten thousand times with Complete Concentration had earned him five hundred thousand energy, Mu Yu was completely dumbfounded.

Wasn't he a Tree Planter?

He had actually gained so much energy from chopping down a tree. That was not "environmentally friendly" at all!

Master chopped a tree ten thousand times with Complete Concentration, forgot the passage of time, and surpassed the limits of perseverance. In addition, chopping a tree ten thousand times with Complete Concentration allowed Master to nearly master the move of chopping. This also included a reward for a tremendous leap in skill.

Although the System's explanation made sense, why did it still feel so unreal?

Was energy really this easy to earn?

Ahhhhhhh!

He had finally made up his mind to train hard and absolutely not become a slacker.

Wasn't the System practically trying to trigger his laziness by doing this?!

No matter what, the feeling of using cheats was awesome.

"System, use one hundred thousand energy to water the Swordsmanship Seed."

Yes, Master.

With that command, one hundred thousand Energy Droplets immediately watered the Swordsmanship Seed.

Very soon, the Swordsmanship Seed broke through the soil, sprouted, and began growing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In just a few breaths, the Swordsmanship Seed had actually grown into a little sapling the length of a palm.

This showed that the Swordsmanship Seed was of a far higher grade than the little Language Tree. One hundred thousand energy had only allowed the seedling to grow to around twenty centimeters tall.

Swordsmanship LV1. Level: Beginner. (Beginner, Proficient, Mastery, Sword Master, Sword Saint, Sword God)

One hundred thousand energy had only brought it to LV1. Energy was easier to earn than he had imagined, but also less valuable than he had imagined.

"System, roughly how much energy will it take to level up to Proficient?"

Advancing from LV5 to Proficient will require another 2.4 million energy.

Fine. It seemed his road to becoming a Sword Master was still very long indeed!

"Help me allocate the energy reasonably. Raise Swordsmanship to LV3, and put all the remaining energy into Physique."

Yes, Master.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~~~

Under the continuous watering of energy, the little Swordsmanship Tree quickly grew from palm-sized to half a person tall.

As Swordsmanship reached LV3, Mu Yu immediately felt different.

He was no longer a complete novice at swordsmanship. All the basics of swordsmanship had been engraved into his mind, as though he had trained painstakingly for several years.

Mu Yu could not help but be shocked. The feeling of grinding and the feeling of using cheats really were completely different!

Using cheats felt great for a moment; using cheats forever felt great forever!

However, the energy consumption was truly outrageous.

Raising Swordsmanship to LV3 had consumed another two hundred and fifty thousand energy.

The seven hundred and forty thousand energy that had just felt like a huge fortune had, in an instant, dwindled to only three hundred and ninety thousand.

Even if he poured all three hundred and ninety thousand energy into it, it would not be enough to raise it to LV4.

Mu Yu poured the remaining energy into the Physique Tree, but the Physique Tree had only barely evolved to LV3 as well.

Still, the benefits of raising Physique to LV3 were something he could clearly feel.

This sensation of growing stronger at a visible pace utterly fascinated Mu Yu.

He wanted energy—lots and lots of energy!

This system where effort brought rewards was simply wonderful.

Mu Yu felt full of strength from head to toe. He almost wanted to skip sleep altogether and throw himself into training.

However, Mu Yu ultimately forced down the impulse in his heart and chose to obediently go to sleep.

Growing stronger was a continuous process. What one should avoid most was a brief burst of enthusiasm!