Soul Severing Saber

2024-07-31

Soul Severing Saber

An hour later.

In the room, Song Changming, bare to the waist, stopped swinging his blade and checked his panel.

[Soul Severing Saber: Not Initiated (2/100)]

Sure enough, the value under the newly added martial arts blade skill section had increased, jumping straight from zero to two points.

This showed that the blade-training method he had figured out on his own, while not necessarily precise or proper, was effective for him.

Barring any surprises, the value displayed on the panel was most likely the total progress bar from not initiated to initiated in blade skill.

Once it reached the maximum of one hundred, he would complete the initial initiation of the Soul Severing Saber.

Of course, that still required further verification.

After all, this was also the first martial art he had ever practiced, and the specifics remained unclear.

"Since that's the case, I'll just grind!"

After drinking a large bowl of water from the table to catch his breath, Song Changming was quite pleased now that he had such a clear-cut goal.

He did not care whether his progress in this blade skill was fast or slow. As long as he could keep improving, that was enough.

Even if it took more time, it did not matter. After all, what he lacked least in this life was time.

In the blink of an eye, five days passed.

During those days, Song Changming still worked night patrols and carried out his duties.

The only difference from before was that he practiced his blade every day during his spare time.

After no longer choosing to lie flat and rot away, even his daily sleeping time had been reduced.

The result of throwing himself into it so wholeheartedly was that his blade skill progress soared, accumulating far faster than he had expected.

[Today's Evaluation: A meaningful day. Lifespan +1. Obtained limited-time status 'Heaven Rewards Diligence']

Heaven Rewards Diligence: Heaven rewards the diligent. Every effort will surely bear fruit. Lasts one day.

Sure enough, it was the Heaven Rewards Diligence status again.

On the nighttime streets, Song Changming was unsurprised as he looked at the status entry that had refreshed once more at midnight.

A large part of why his blade skill progress had surged beyond his expectations over the past few days was due to this new status entry.

Heaven Rewards Diligence was, simply put, a comprehensive upgraded version of the Focused status.

If the Focused status could grant him a twenty percent increase in martial arts training efficiency, then the Heaven Rewards Diligence status gave him a full fifty percent or more—perhaps even higher.

The trigger condition was not difficult either. Work actively and earnestly each day, then practice the blade with utmost diligence. As long as one was diligent and driven enough, this evaluation reward could be triggered.

Over those five days, he had been in the Heaven Rewards Diligence state for at least four of them.

That had raised his Soul Severing Saber progress bar from the beginning all the way to ninety-five points.

Only one step remained before the progress bar was completely filled.

"I can achieve it when I get back today!" Song Changming's eyes shone brightly. At the thought of it, urgency rose in his heart.

But no matter how anxious he was, he still had to continue his night patrol work. It concerned the continuation of his beneficial status effects.

In addition, while the Heaven Rewards Diligence status was good, its lifespan reward only added one day.

Since he consumed one day of lifespan every day, it happened to cancel out. Over those four days, his remaining lifespan had neither increased nor decreased.

Song Changming had also discovered the pattern behind it. The more he slacked off, lay flat, and refused to strive, the more lifespan he gained.

Conversely, the harder he worked and cultivated, the more actively he pushed ahead, the less lifespan he gained.

Heaven Rewards Diligence, Lifespan +1

Focused, Lifespan +3

Muddling Through Life, Lifespan +5

Wasting Away the Years, Lifespan +10

It was rather embarrassing to say, but in the past, Song Changming had basically bounced back and forth between Muddling Through Life and Wasting Away the Years. That was why his lifespan had increased so quickly.

As for Heaven Rewards Diligence, he had only triggered it for the first time recently after more than ten years.

Thinking of how he had desperately worked overtime and stayed up late in his previous life, only to end up dying suddenly, he unexpectedly found these daily evaluation rewards rather reasonable now.

After all, striving too hard really could shorten one's life.

Fortunately, though he was now immersed in blade practice, he still got enough sleep. He had not repeated his past mistakes or overdrawn himself as he had in his previous life.

But if he wanted to continue increasing his lifespan, he could not have Heaven Rewards Diligence every day. Appropriately slacking off was also necessary.

The night passed without incident. When a streak of dawn appeared between heaven and earth, Song Changming's night patrol duty came to an end. After returning to the Patrol Guard Headquarters and handing over his shift, Song Changming went straight home to practice his blade skill.

With the Heaven Rewards Diligence status active, it took only a little over an hour to completely fill the last five points of progress.

The next moment, scenes of his diligent practice over the previous days flashed through his mind. They connected one after another, suddenly bursting forth with countless flashes of insight.

Before this, he had always been building a cart behind closed doors, feeling his way through blade practice according to the contents of the sheepskin parchment and his own understanding.

He had not known whether he was right or wrong, accurate or not. It had been somewhat haphazard and disordered.

But now, the results of those several days miraculously assembled in his mind into a complete and systematic sequence of blade techniques.

This time, Song Changming was utterly certain: this was the Soul Severing Saber!

He had successfully initiated into the blade skill as he wished!

His heart stirred with excitement, and Song Changming immediately raised his blade and slashed again.

This time, the blade in his hand was clearly wielded with greater method. His blade movements were fierce yet elusive, faintly carrying several Yin Gui traits—this was also a characteristic of the Soul Severing Saber.

Only now did the blade in Song Changming's hand truly possess the killing power of a blade skill!

It was far more formidable than ordinary chopping, slashing, and thrusting.

Song Changming was very satisfied with this change. Several days of bitter training had finally borne fruit.

He opened his panel.

Name: Song Changming

Lifespan: 36,002

Spirit: 7

Root: 10

Related Constitution: Hydrophobia (Gray)

Martial Arts: [Soul Severing Saber: Initiated (0/500)]

"The sheepskin parchment says that for an ordinary person practicing diligently every day, it takes as little as half a month and as long as around a hundred days to initiate into this blade skill.

"Yet I achieved it in roughly six days. Aside from Heaven Rewards Diligence, it seems the aptitude points I added over the past years were not added in vain either."

On his panel, aside from lifespan, there were also two major attributes related to him: Spirit and Root.

Based on his observations and deliberations over the years, he believed the Spirit attribute might be related to his intelligence, spirituality, comprehension, and aptitude.

It had started at seven points and had never changed.

As for the Root attribute, he guessed it was related to his physical condition, Bone Structure, and other aspects of aptitude. It had begun at four points, and over the years he had gradually raised it to ten.

He had also gone from being frail and weak when he first transmigrated to gradually becoming sturdy and robust. As a child, he had been sickly and weak, but in recent years he had not even caught so much as a cold. These were undoubtedly effects brought about by the increase in his Root attribute.

That was also the main reason he had kept adding points to the Root attribute. He feared that one day his frail body might be struck by a serious illness and simply perish.

Spirit attribute seven, Root attribute ten.

By Song Changming's own judgment, this martial arts aptitude might not qualify him as a prodigy, but among ordinary people, it was certainly not bad.

Combined with the Heaven Rewards Diligence status granted by his daily rewards, that was why he could initiate into the blade skill faster than ordinary people.

Besides that, his panel also had a Related Constitution section.

At present, there was only one gray Hydrophobia trait.

He guessed that this was most likely an inheritance left behind by the original owner of the body.

When the original owner was six years old, he had died from drowning. Only afterward had Song Changming transmigrated here and come back from the dead.

It was truly difficult not to connect this Hydrophobia constitution with that drowning incident.

As a result, he remained a landlubber to this day, unable to enter the water as easily as others.

Terrible swimming ability—that was the negative effect brought by this Related Constitution.

He considered that if he ever had the chance in the future, he would definitely eliminate this weakness.

(End of Chapter)