Soul Severing Saber

2024-07-31

Soul Severing Saber

An hour later.

In the room, Song Changming, bare-chested, stopped swinging his saber and checked his panel.

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

Sure enough, the value under the newly added saber martial art section had risen, jumping straight from zero to two points.

This showed that the saber practice method he had worked 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 yet initiated to entering the saber art.

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

Of course, he still needed to verify that further.

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

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

He drank a large bowl of water from the table to catch his breath. Now that he had such a clear goal, Song Changming was quite pleased.

He did not care how quickly or slowly he progressed in this saber art. 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 these days, Song Changming still worked his night patrol shifts, carrying out his regular duties.

The only difference from before was that he practiced his saber every day in his spare time.

After no longer choosing to lie flat and rot away, even the time he spent sleeping each day had been cut down.

The result of throwing himself into it so completely was that his saber art progress surged. The rate of accumulation exceeded his expectations.

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

Heaven Rewards Diligence: Heaven rewards those who are diligent. Every effort expended will be repaid. Lasts one day.

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

On the streets at night, Song Changming looked at the status entry that had refreshed again at dawn, unsurprised.

A large part of the reason his saber art progress had soared beyond his expectations these past few days was this new status entry.

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

If the Focused status could bring him a twenty percent increase in martial arts practice efficiency, then Heaven Rewards Diligence gave him at least fifty percent, perhaps even more.

The trigger conditions were not difficult either. Work diligently and earnestly each day, then practice the saber with unmatched effort. As long as one was diligent and driven enough, this evaluation reward could be triggered.

Of these five days, he had been under the Heaven Rewards Diligence status for at least four.

This had brought the progress bar of his Soul Severing Saber from the beginning all the way up to ninety-five points.

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

"I'll reach it when I get back today!" Song Changming's eyes shone. At the thought of it, he felt a few traces of impatience 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 favorable status effects.

Also, it was worth mentioning that while the Heaven Rewards Diligence status was good, its Lifespan reward only added a single day.

He had to consume one day of Lifespan each day, which happened to cancel it out. His remaining Lifespan had neither increased nor decreased over these four days.

Song Changming had also discovered the pattern behind it. The more he loafed about each day, lying flat and refusing to strive forward, the more Lifespan he gained.

Conversely, the harder he worked and trained, the more aggressively he pressed ahead, the less Lifespan he received.

Heaven Rewards Diligence, Lifespan +1

Focused, Lifespan +3

Muddling Along, Lifespan +5

Wasting Time, Lifespan +10

It was rather embarrassing to say, but in the past, Song Changming had basically bounced back and forth between Muddling Along and Wasting Time. That was why his Lifespan had increased so quickly.

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

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

Overexerting oneself really could shorten one's life.

Fortunately, although he was now immersed in saber practice, he still got sleep. He had not repeated the same mistakes or drained himself dry like he had in his previous life.

Still, if he wanted to continue increasing his Lifespan, he could not have Heaven Rewards Diligence every single day. Properly loafing about was also necessary.

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

With the Heaven Rewards Diligence status in effect, it took just over an hour for him to completely fill the final five points of progress.

The next moment, scenes of his diligent practice over the past few days flashed through his mind, linking together one after another as countless sparks of insight abruptly burst forth.

Before this, he had always been reinventing the wheel behind closed doors, following the contents of the sheepskin parchment while combining them with his own understanding to fumble his way through saber practice.

He did not know whether it was right or accurate, and it had been somewhat haphazard and disordered.

But at this moment, the results of several days came together, miraculously piecing together a complete and systematic sequence of saber techniques in his mind.

This time, Song Changming was utterly certain.

This was the Soul Severing Saber!

He had achieved the initiation of the saber art as he wished!

Filled with excitement, Song Changming immediately raised his saber and slashed again.

This time, the saber in his hand was clearly wielded with far greater form and method. His saber movements were fierce and elusive, faintly carrying a few Yin Gui traits—one of the characteristics of the Soul Severing Saber.

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

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

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

He opened his panel.

Name: Song Changming

Lifespan: 36,002

Spirit: 7

Root: 10

Related Physique: Hydrophobia (Gray)

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

"The sheepskin parchment says that with daily diligent practice, ordinary people need as little as half a month or as long as around a hundred days to initiate this saber art.

"Yet I did it in roughly six days. Aside from Heaven Rewards Diligence, it seems the aptitude points I added over the past few years were not added for nothing."

Other than Lifespan, his panel also had two major attributes related to him: Spirit and Root.

From 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 never changed.

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

He had also gradually gone from being frail when he first transmigrated to becoming sturdy and strong. As a child, he had been weak and sickly, 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.

This was also the main reason he had kept adding points to his Root attribute. He feared that his weak body might one day suddenly be taken away by a serious illness.

Spirit attribute seven, Root attribute ten.

Song Changming judged that even if this martial arts aptitude could not be called that of a prodigy, it was certainly not poor among ordinary people.

Combined with the Heaven Rewards Diligence status from his daily rewards, this was why he could initiate the saber art faster than others.

Besides that, there was also a Related Physique section on his panel.

At present, it only contained one gray Hydrophobia trait.

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

The previous owner had drowned at the age of six. Only afterward had Song Changming transmigrated here and come back from the dead.

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

It had left him a complete landlubber, unable to enter the water as easily as others.

He was extraordinarily poor in water—this was the negative effect brought by that Related Physique.

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

(End of Chapter)