"You... how could you be..."
Even with his neck caught, Chen Chenchen had no intention of surrendering. He clamped both hands tightly around Lan Yan's arm, his fingernails seeming to dig into the flesh.
Yet his voice sounded like that of a little boy about to cry.
"Because my hair is black? Because I'm already older than the average Sword Hider? Or perhaps..."
Lan Yan adjusted his glasses. "You don't know that there's actually a second way to practice Hidden Sword Combat Arts?"
"Wha... what..."
"Yin, tell everyone outside not to panic. The banquet is still going on."
Lan Yan called out to Yin Guyue, then looked toward the members of the Silver Blood Society and asked, as casually as if he were chatting over a meal, "Everyone, do you understand Hidden Sword Combat Arts?"
"I understand them very well." Le Yu spoke first. "I know everything about cultivating, using, and refining Hidden Sword Combat Arts."
"First, Sword Hiders need the help of other martial artists at the beginning. Those martial artists use light bursts to injure the Sword Hider's body until the Sword Hider learns, through being beaten, how to guide light with Mental Power. After that, they can use the light to torment themselves."
"They combine Mental Power with light to form 'Substantial Flowing Light' and force it into their bodies. This process is extremely painful. When the flowing light courses through the body, it's like a durian running through your blood vessels. However, the process doesn't last too long, because Hidden Sword apprentices either die from the pain or produce an 'organ' capable of containing the flowing light within ten days."
"This is the greatest threshold of Hidden Sword Combat Arts: 'Ten-Day Flowing Light.'"
"After one to three years of training, the Sword Hider's hair turns completely