Lu Chen had studied martial arts with Huang Rong for a month. Though he spent most of each day practicing swordsmanship, even if he was merely cultivating true qi from the outside in and did not need to meditate, he still had to understand the meridians and acupoints.
Thus, long before he had cultivated Internal Energy, Huang Rong had already taught him this foundational knowledge.
Following Huang Rong's guidance, he circulated his true qi, kicked off the ground with both feet, and instantly sprang more than five feet into the air.
That standing jump far surpassed even the strongest basketball players from his previous life. Even in the Main World of this life, it was a height ordinary people could never reach.
Of course, in the eyes of Movement Technique experts, a jump of just over five feet was still nothing worth mentioning.
But there was no helping it. Lu Chen's cultivation was still shallow, and he could only support a jump that high.
After teaching him how to leap vertically from a standstill, Huang Rong taught him how to increase his running speed, how to breathe and regulate his qi while running to greatly reduce true qi consumption, as well as the tricks of suddenly leaping, stopping sharply, turning, and more while sprinting.
These seemingly scattered application methods were actually Peach Blossom Island's superior Movement Technique.
Now that Lu Chen had cultivated true qi, he naturally learned the methods of applying it very quickly.
In less than half an hour, he could already cover more than a zhang in a single step. While racing about, he could leap, stop sharply, and turn as he pleased. His posture was also rather graceful and unrestrained, carrying several traces of Peach Blossom Island's Movement Technique essence.
With the breathing method Huang Rong had taught him reducing his true qi consumption, even his still-meager reserves could sustain him for a long time. He felt that he could run nonstop for an hour or two without exhausting either his true qi or stamina.
After teaching Lu Chen Movement Technique, Huang Rong told him to continue training. She then went to the main house to prepare a bedroom for Huang Yaoshi and obediently invited her father inside to rest.
Seeing that his daughter had arranged him in the main house, with only a quiet room separating his bedroom from hers, Huang Yaoshi knew that at such close range, she would have no chance to sneak away at night without escaping his notice.
Teacher Huang therefore assumed that after securing decent terms for Lu Chen, his daughter had accepted his arrangements and was willing to obediently return to Peach Blossom Island with him to wait for Lu Chen to fulfill the wager. He was immediately greatly comforted and went to his room to meditate and rest.
Of course, even while meditating, he still kept part of his attention on the activity in the small courtyard, lest Rong'er try to deceive him.
Huang Rong did not try to deceive him.
At least, on the first night of her father's arrival, she made no unusual moves. She washed up early and returned to her room to rest.
Only the sound of Lu Chen's robes cutting through the wind remained in the courtyard as he diligently practiced his Movement Technique until midnight.
Huang Yaoshi had thought Lu Chen was working so hard until midnight merely to leave a good impression on him.
Yet before dawn the next day, the sound of a long sword slicing through the air rose from the courtyard again.
By the time Huang Rong came out yawning, daylight had already fully broken.
Huang Yaoshi stood beneath the eaves of the main house with his hands clasped behind his back, watching Lu Chen practice the Stabbing Sword Style with complete focus. Lu Chen had performed that most basic move hundreds, perhaps thousands of times, yet showed not the slightest boredom or impatience. Huang Yaoshi said to Huang Rong:
"Does he train like this every day?"
Like her father, Huang Rong stood with her hands behind her back and watched Lu Chen, her little face brimming with pride.
"Yes. He trains until midnight every day, then gets up again at the fifth watch the next day to continue. Ever since he met me, he has done this every day, rain or shine, without ever slacking."
Huang Yaoshi frowned.
"Then doesn't he sleep only two or three hours a day? You haven't taught him internal cultivation either. Aren't you afraid he'll train himself into ruin by practicing external martial arts so hard?"
Huang Rong smiled.
"Lu Chen is extraordinarily gifted and recovers remarkably well. No matter how exhausted he gets, sleeping for two or three hours lets him recover completely. Rong'er didn't believe it at first either and worried there might be hidden problems. Only after carefully examining him with Internal Energy did I learn that he truly recovers completely, without even the slightest hidden injury or lingering danger."
Huang Yaoshi was somewhat surprised.
"That truly is an extraordinary gift."
But China was vast, and since ancient times, strange people and exceptional talents had emerged without end. Some were born with immense strength, some with all their meridians naturally open, and some with extraordinary intelligence.
Though Huang Yaoshi had never heard of anyone possessing a recovery ability as abnormal as Lu Chen's, the existence of one such case was hardly unbelievable.
Yet no matter how exceptional his talent or astonishing his recovery, sustaining such relentless training still required extraordinary resolve and perseverance.
Huang Yaoshi himself was far from focused when practicing martial arts, and his daughter had inherited that flaw. Still, he did not dislike those who trained diligently. He had even once hoped his daughter would be more focused and hardworking in her practice.
Unfortunately, her disposition was simply too much like his, and he had never been able to correct it.
Nor could he bear to be too harsh with her, so he could only let her have her way. Thus, despite her exceptional talent, comprehension, and natural aptitude being no inferior to those of the heroine Lin Chaoying in her youth, and despite having a Five Greats Grandmaster like him personally instructing her, her martial arts could only be considered mediocre.
As for Lu Chen, he possessed peerless talent and was also so focused and diligent. If he maintained this momentum, he might join the ranks of the Five Greats before reaching thirty.
And he was not merely a martial arts fanatic. His learning and literary talent were quite impressive as well...
Huang Yaoshi glanced at Huang Rong beside him. Seeing the smile at the corner of his daughter's lips and the pride and expectation filling her bright, lively eyes as she stared unblinkingly at Lu Chen practicing his sword, a surge of irritation rose within him. He simply flicked his sleeve and entered the house, deciding that out of sight was out of mind.
Seeing her father lose his temper again for no reason, Huang Rong curled her lips upward, made a face at his retreating back, and skipped into the West Wing to make breakfast.
After breakfast, she tested Lu Chen's Movement Technique before beginning to teach him the Falling Blossom Swordplay.
Lu Chen had been greatly anticipating this. After unlocking Sword One, there were two prerequisites to unlocking the second layer of the Sword Intent of Extermination of Immortals. First, he had to master two more Extraordinary Sword Techniques. Second, he had to gain complete control over Sword One.
To master Sword One, he merely needed to keep comprehending the Sword Intent Imprint and practicing without pause to improve his proficiency. Sooner or later, he would be able to wield it freely and control it with ease.
But Extraordinary Sword Techniques were not so easy to acquire.
Within the Martial Arts World, sectarian barriers ran deep, and every school had rules forbidding their martial arts from being passed outside.
Apart from commonplace sword arts like the Maiden of Yue Swordplay, one had no chance of learning profound sword arts such as the Falling Blossom Swordplay without kneeling to take a master and joining a sect. Even the Maiden of Yue Sword had cost Rong'er a great deal to acquire. As for taking a master or joining a sect, that depended on whether they were willing to accept you.
Without some opportunity or the favor of a renowned master, ordinary people might not even be able to enter a sect after finding its gates. Moreover, Lu Chen was not an "ordinary person." He was an undocumented drifter with no roots or background. If he wanted to take a master and learn martial arts through normal means, he did not even have a guarantor...
Yet thanks to Rong'er, he could now directly learn a high-level sword art like the Falling Blossom Swordplay. The first prerequisite for unlocking Sword Two—"two Extraordinary Sword Techniques"—would soon be halfway complete.
As one of the principal precursor sword arts of Peach Blossom Island's core supreme art, the Falling Blossom Divine Sword Palm, the Falling Blossom Swordplay was exquisitely complex, full of feints and substance, with unpredictable variations. It was far more difficult than the commonplace Maiden of Yue Swordplay.
Previously, when Lu Chen had studied the Maiden of Yue Swordplay, he could learn only three moves in a morning.
But ever since he had comprehended Sword One and touched upon the Ultimate Sword Principle, his talent for swordsmanship had begun to soar. Learning the more exquisite and intricate Falling Blossom Swordplay, he was actually faster than when learning the Maiden of Yue Swordplay. In just one day, he had already learned nearly half the set.
That evening, as he practiced the half-set of moves he had learned, Huang Yaoshi sat at the stone table playing chess with Huang Rong, occasionally glancing over. After watching for a while, surprise gradually appeared in his eyes.
When Lu Chen had first begun practicing the Falling Blossom Swordplay, he had been like every beginner, copying the moves by rote. Everything had been proper and conventional, with nothing remarkable about it.
But after practicing several rounds, his swordplay gradually began to gain spirit. The originally rigid and conventional forms seemed to come alive, giving off a feeling of effortless freedom and unrestrained elegance.
And for someone of Huang Yaoshi's temperament, that "effortless freedom and unrestrained elegance" was precisely the essence of Peach Blossom Island's martial arts.
Huang Yaoshi truly had not expected that Lu Chen, who had only just begun learning and had mastered barely half the swordplay's forms, could grasp the spirit of Peach Blossom Island's martial arts so quickly after only a few rounds of practice!
"Is this what a swordsmanship prodigy is?"
The talent for swordsmanship Lu Chen displayed at that moment was something Huang Yaoshi had never seen before, even with his breadth of experience. He could not help marveling inwardly.
Thinking of Lu Chen's bearing—daring to stand equal with emperors, unmoved even by wealth and honor—then looking at his gift for swordsmanship and the unrestrained flair he showed when wielding a sword, Huang Yaoshi could not help thinking:
Perhaps this boy was born to be a disciple of Peach Blossom Island?
Two more days passed. Lu Chen learned the entire Falling Blossom Swordplay and wanted to spar with Huang Rong to test his moves, but Huang Rong firmly refused—
Using only the Maiden of Yue Swordplay, Lu Chen could already fight her for more than three hundred moves. Now that he had also learned Movement Technique and the Falling Blossom Swordplay, if she sparred with him again, wouldn't her record of never losing to Lu Chen be shattered?
That absolutely could not happen.
So Huang Rong acted spoiled and begged her father to personally instruct Lu Chen.
Over the past three days, Huang Yaoshi had actually long since felt the urge to test his skills. But his temperament was awkward, and he was proud of his status. No matter how much he admired Lu Chen's talent for swordsmanship, he had restrained himself from stepping in to teach him personally.
Now that his daughter was pleading sweetly, he readily went along with it. After pretending to ponder for a while and putting on an expression of being unable to refuse his daughter, he accepted the Wooden Sword she offered with both hands, rose to his feet, and walked over to Lu Chen.
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