I Have a Set of Mountain Yue Saber Technique I Can Teach You

To a military commander, a beloved warhorse was truly like his own flesh and blood.

Zhang Yuan came from a family of Great Qin Martial Guards. Inheritance from father to son—the army, comrades-in-arms, and defending home and country were in his very bones.

While Zhang Yuan's father was alive, he had spoken countless times of the glory of Great Qin warriors and the duties of the Great Qin Martial Guards.

Hundred thousand years ago, Great Qin relied on the martial valor of its forebears and the invincible might of its military formations to sweep across the Ten thousand domains and unite the lands of the Nine Provinces.

Thirty thousand years ago, immortals and demons descended. The Nine Provinces collapsed, and all living things were scattered.

When immortals and demons came into the world and fiends descended from the heavens, thirty million Great Qin Warriors fought to the death without retreating, while nine Qin Kings died beyond the Northern Border Great Wall.

Great Qin had warriors who slew immortals, who dared to fight the heavens, who died after a hundred battles without regret.

Great Qin had emperors who led from the front, royal clans who perished to the last without yielding half a step.

Great Qin had civil officials who died remonstrating, and military commanders who died fighting.

Ten thousand years ago, the last Great Qin Martial King fell in battle. Three hundred million iron-blooded soldiers died to the last, the Northern Border Great Wall was breached, and the Qin lands of the Nine Provinces fell apart, leaving only one province.

Over the past ten thousand years, immortals and demons had encroached while fiends harassed them. The single province Great Qin had held was continually infiltrated and divided, splitting into the Five Nations and Three Domains, locked in endless warfare.

From what he had seen and heard since childhood, the Great Qin Martial Guards would bleed dry their last drop of blood for Great Qin, dying a hundred deaths without regret.

At Zhang Yuan's age, he had not experienced much. His blood had yet to grow cold.

The main hall sank into heavy silence.

"My lord, I saw a pond in the courtyard. We can drain it and scoop out the fish and shrimp. That should provide another day's food..." Zhang Yuan raised his head slightly and spoke in a low voice.

On the way here, he had been thinking about whether there was any other way to find food.

When he had stood in the front courtyard, he had deliberately observed that pond, more than three zhang across, for quite some time.

There were fish in it.

Yu Lin looked somewhat absent-minded. He looked towards Zhang Yuan, and only after a long while did he softly ask, "Zhang Yuan, do you think we can still hold this place?"

Could they hold it?

For a hundred thousand years, Great Qin could lose land and its soldiers could die, but it had never voluntarily abandoned a single inch of territory.

The land of Great Qin had been paved with the bones of its soldiers. Not one inch could be abandoned.

Zhang Yuan had not expected Yu Lin, the Crimson Scale Army Commander and highest-ranking military officer here, to ask him such a question.

Under Qin Law, if a place fell, the commander in charge would be executed.

If Fengtian County fell, the first to die would be Yu Lin, the Crimson Scale Army Commander!

"Even if we cannot hold it, we must hold it. Great Qin has only lost cities, never abandoned territory." Zhang Yuan straightened, his voice ringing out.

To guard the land was one's duty. This was Qin Law carved into Zhang Yuan's bones.

"Right. Not one inch of Great Qin's land can be abandoned." Yu Lin's palm, resting on the table, slowly clenched as he murmured softly.

It was as though he spoke for Zhang Yuan to hear, yet also as though he spoke to himself.

The main hall fell silent once more.

"Zhang Yuan, you want me to give you a cultivation technique, don't you?"

"What technique are you cultivating now? Can you demonstrate it for me?"

After a moment, Commander Yu Lin's voice sounded.

Demonstrate it?

Sixteen years old, Houtian Mid-stage.

His saber and fist techniques had both reached Great Perfection. Would that be enough to catch the Commander's eye?

A bright gleam flashed in Zhang Yuan's eyes as he cupped his fists in salute.

"Yes."

Standing in the middle of the small courtyard, scarcely two zhang across, Zhang Yuan gripped the saber sheath at his waist with his left hand while his right slowly pressed down on the hilt.

The instant his palm held the saber, the aura around him abruptly changed.

It was an indescribable state, one even Zhang Yuan himself did not understand.

Ahead of him, Yu Lin stood on the steps with his hands behind his back, and his eyes lit up.

Clang—

Zhang Yuan's long saber left its sheath. His left foot sprang half a step forward, his single saber traced a circle, then swept out horizontally.

The Saber Light was perfectly rounded, its edge bright and clear.

It was a fine saber, and the stroke Zhang Yuan delivered displayed the weapon's sharpness and weight to the fullest.

With a sideways slash, Zhang Yuan lunged to the right and gave a low shout, "Kill—"

The saber carved a radiant arc as his cape whistled in the wind.

Zhang Yuan's saber was fast. Step Forward and Lift Saber, step back and chop, turn to meet the wind—every move was crisp and clean.

After practicing all eight moves, Zhang Yuan sheathed his saber and stood with a bow.

"Cape Saber Technique at Great Perfection. Good!" Light surged in Yu Lin's eyes as he clapped his hands and spoke.

Yu Lin was a Xiantian Realm expert, so naturally he could tell that Zhang Yuan's saber technique had reached Great Perfection.

After looking Zhang Yuan up and down, Yu Lin Revealed a hint of satisfaction.

"Sixteen years old, Houtian Mid-stage, Cape Saber Technique at Great Perfection. Your talent in martial cultivation is no less than that of the elites from great clans."

He walked forward slowly until he stood before Zhang Yuan, then reached out, held the hilt of Zhang Yuan's long saber, and drew it from its sheath.

"Like this. I have a set of Mountain Yue Saber Technique that I can teach you."

"Watch closely—"

With the saber in hand, Zhang Yuan felt as though Yu Lin and his saber had become one.

As the blade slashed out, it was as if mountains were collapsing, as if ten thousand horses were thundering forward.

After Yu Lin finished the saber technique, he turned back and looked towards Zhang Yuan, who stood frozen in place.

"How many moves did you remember?"

Zhang Yuan paused, then shook his head. "Not a single move."

Zhang Yuan admitted that he was no martial genius.

He truly was merely an exceedingly ordinary Ninth-rank Black Robe Guard from Luyang Prefecture, the sort of ordinary person who should have been unable to step into the Houtian Mid-stage in his entire life.

Not a single move remembered?

Yu Lin's brow furrowed slightly.

It seemed that although Zhang Yuan had talent, his limited knowledge meant he simply could not cultivate profound techniques.

What a pity for such a promising seedling.

"Then tell me, what did you remember?" Yu Lin asked again.

If Zhang Yuan truly could not cultivate the Mountain Yue Saber Technique, then it could only be said that he was fated to have no connection with Yu Lin's inheritance.

Zhang Yuan pondered for a moment, emptying his mind and retaining only the feeling from watching Yu Lin perform the saber technique.

This was the feeling Zhang Yuan had after Chaos extracted his cultivation insights and turned them into a river of memories for him to observe and comprehend.

Several years' worth of cultivation scenes had condensed into an instant. Zhang Yuan could not clearly see the specific moves at all, only the impressions revealed by those moves.

"Weighty, precipitous, mountains collapsing... If I stood before this saber stroke, I would not even have the courage to raise my saber..."

Zhang Yuan murmured.

Zhang Yuan's answer made brilliance burst from Yu Lin's eyes.

What was true talent in martial cultivation?

What Zhang Yuan had displayed was exactly that.

Not remembering the specific moves did not mean he lacked his own understanding and insights into them.

At the level of the strong, what they competed in was no longer moves, but artistic conception—the martial artistic conception revealed within those moves.

It was precisely because Zhang Yuan possessed unimaginable talent in martial cultivation that, despite being unable to see through the moves, he could sense the mountain-like artistic conception within Yu Lin's saber technique.

In truth, Yu Lin's saber technique was still far from producing an artistic conception. It merely possessed the faintest embryonic form.

That only made Zhang Yuan's extraordinary talent stand out even more.

"Good, good. I'll perform it once more. Watch carefully—remember as much as you can."

A trace of excitement showed in Yu Lin's voice.

With his long saber in hand, he slowly thrust it out.

Zhang Yuan had already come back to his senses. He softly murmured, "Chaos, Battle Assist."

In an instant, a murky black pillar of light appeared above Yu Lin's head.

The paths of Yu Lin's saber strikes, his footwork, and his movements were all covered by countless dotted grids.

An Insight Bead shattered, turning into illusory light and shadow that gathered before Yu Lin.