Mysterious Swordsman's Night Raid

By nightfall, Ji Boying had finally obtained the manual for the Stone Splitting Jade Breaking Fist.

Yue Buqun handed the manual to Ji Boying, gave him a few instructions, and left without worry. Ji Boying was to return it once he had learned it.

Sitting on his bed, Ji Boying gently opened the thin booklet.

The Stone Splitting Jade Breaking Fist manual did not contain much, and its moves were extremely concise.

Yet despite their simplicity, they were exquisitely subtle. They also involved many routes for circulating internal energy, making them quite powerful.

Ji Boying read through the manual once.

A prompt appeared on the panel.

"Fist Technique 'Stone Splitting Jade Breaking Fist' detected. Simplify?"

"Simplify!"

"'Stone Splitting Jade Breaking Fist' simplifying... Simplification successful... 'Stone Splitting Jade Breaking Fist' → Hitting the Wooden Dummy."

After the skill simplification was completed, one Energy Point for the month was consumed.

Once the martial art had been simplified, he directly reached the beginner level. Many of the finer points of the Stone Splitting Jade Breaking Fist surfaced in Ji Boying's mind.

Ji Boying also felt a faint swelling in both arms, subtle enough to be almost imperceptible. Upon careful sensing, he understood that when the Stone Splitting Jade Breaking Fist was learned, the meridians in his body had memorized the circulation route.

Learning another martial art filled Ji Boying, a transmigrator, with excitement.

He even wanted to do a couple of somersaults on the bed. His mood was briefly elated, but he suppressed the excitement in his heart and decided to rest first. Tomorrow morning, he would fetch a wooden dummy and practice properly.

Just as he thought this, Ji Boying suddenly felt every hair on his body stand on end, as though he had been targeted by a wild beast. A premonition of danger surged through his heart.

Cold sweat seeped from his forehead. He wanted to cry out and make enough noise to summon help, but the pressure of life and death weighed on his chest, making it difficult for him to speak.

Ji Boying knew the person in the shadows was doing this deliberately.

Whoosh!

A fierce gust flew against the wind from the darkness, passing through the window and shooting straight at Ji Boying.

The chilling killing intent enveloped Ji Boying and rendered him unable to move, but he forcibly circulated his energy. It surged from his Dantian through his meridians and instantly spread throughout his limbs and body. Ji Boying rolled across the bed and swept up the Precious Sword hanging beside it with his right hand.

Rolling to the foot of the bed, he followed through with a horizontal slash toward the fierce gust in the darkness.

Bang! Clang~!

At that moment, the power of his proficient Mount Hua Swordplay revealed itself. Ji Boying's swordsmanship was extremely precise, and his sweeping slash struck the dangerous concealed weapon rushing toward him.

Sparks scattered as the concealed weapon was knocked to the ground.

Ji Boying only felt an immense force strike his iron sword, numbing his palm.

The iron sword continued to tremble from the impact, its ringing echoing on.

He's an expert. An internal martial arts expert!

Ji Boying had already reached his conclusion.

His eyes remained fixed on the window. With a glance from the corner of his eye, he saw that the concealed weapon he had just knocked down was nothing more than an ordinary stone commonly found everywhere on Mount Hua.

"Come out!"

The person in the shadows gave a low shout.

The voice was not loud and did not seem out of place in the darkness.

Yet it caused the blood and energy in Ji Boying's chest to tremble faintly.

His internal cultivation was truly extraordinarily profound.

Ji Boying could still feel the pressure at this moment, but the killing intent had vanished.

With his fate in another's hands, Ji Boying had no other choice. He could only carefully open the door and step outside.

"May I ask which senior has come to play such a joke on this junior?"

Ji Boying asked the darkness neither arrogantly nor humbly.

Once the door was open, his view broadened. A tall, upright figure stood atop the wall of the small courtyard.

Though he could not make out the figure clearly in the darkness, a sharp, awe-inspiring sword intent pierced to the bone.

The visitor was a master of the sword, and Ji Boying felt even more at ease.

Still, he was somewhat annoyed. He feared that his wild and uninhibited words earlier that day had offended the person before him.

He simply had not expected someone like this to be eavesdropping during Mount Hua's minor tournament!

"Senior..."

Before Ji Boying could finish, the man leaped forward, closing in like a ghost.

With a shing, a bright flash of sword light streaked through the darkness.

A strand of Sword Qi locked onto Ji Boying.

"Draw your sword!"

The man gave another low reminder.

Ji Boying felt even more reassured and drew his sword in response.

Seeing that Ji Boying had drawn his sword, the man no longer held back. He raised his hand and attacked, wielding his iron sword in the Welcoming Pine stance, the move Ji Boying and Linghu Chong were most skilled at.

Ji Boying showed no fear and used Welcoming Pine as well.

The man gave a cold snort, and with a rapid clatter of steel, exchanged four or five consecutive moves with Ji Boying.

This man was clearly using Mount Hua Swordplay too, yet it was even more exquisite than Ji Boying's proficient Mount Hua Swordplay.

The iron sword flowed in his hand, rising and falling unpredictably, turning at will. Only in his hands did Mount Hua Swordplay fully display Mount Hua's strange grandeur and elegant beauty.

This man's swordsmanship was astonishingly intricate, and Ji Boying could only barely cope.

Though they were both using Mount Hua Swordplay, Ji Boying felt a mountain-like pressure bearing down on him.

The man had even gone all out to suppress his own attainments in swordsmanship. His Mount Hua Swordplay had long since reached perfection; every movement came naturally, light and ingenious to the extreme. He had no need to remain bound by the forms, yet he still performed every stance and move of Mount Hua Swordplay in full. As he fought Ji Boying, Ji Boying felt that his proficient Mount Hua Swordplay was riddled with flaws and openings everywhere.

But Ji Boying's talent was no joke either.

At first, dealing with such exquisite Mount Hua Swordplay was extremely strenuous, but gradually, he actually began to adapt to it.

The longsword in his hand also became increasingly obedient to his will, and his Mount Hua Swordplay proficiency continued to rise.

"Proficiency +1"

"Proficiency +1"

...

Mount Hua Swordplay: Proficient (278/600)

In that brief exchange, Ji Boying learned a great deal of Mount Hua Swordplay from the swordsman before him, gaining seventy-five points of proficiency outright.

What disappointed Ji Boying was that the man had already stopped.

They had fought back and forth through the Mount Hua Swordplay set two or three times. Though the man could still suppress Ji Boying, he seemed to have lost interest.

He casually planted his longsword in the ground, stood with his hands behind his back, and faced away from Ji Boying. He did not look at him, nor did he fear that Ji Boying would launch a surprise attack from behind.

His figure stood erect in the darkness, yet in the empty courtyard, he seemed strangely desolate.

"Senior..."

"You truly possess peerless talent and are a rare genius in swordsmanship, but why do you look down on swordsmanship so much?"

The swordsman sounded rather troubled. It was clear from his voice that he was also a highly respected elder.

He had initially been quite dissatisfied with Ji Boying, but after their exchange, he had indeed seen that Ji Boying was a swordsmanship prodigy and could not bear to waste such talent.

That was why his tone had become so gentle now.

Yet such a supremely gifted swordsmanship genius looked down on swordsmanship itself. It reminded him of many past events and filled him with a sense of desolation.

"Senior, when have I ever looked down on swordsmanship?"