Dugu Nine Swords differed from other martial arts. It had no fixed techniques and instead needed to be improved by constantly absorbing the essence of other people's techniques.
However, among the martial arts preserved by the Mount Hua Sect, swordsmanship made up the overwhelming majority. The other categories were few and far between, making them practically useless for improving Dugu Nine Swords .
The fact that you had reached minor mastery in Sword Breaking Form and introductory mastery in Blade Breaking Form, Spear Breaking Form, Whip Breaking Form, Rope Breaking Form, and Palm Breaking Form was already thanks to your exceptional talent.
Three days later, as your Dugu Nine Swords hit a bottleneck, you decided to ask the world with your sword and use other people's martial arts to aid your cultivation.
When you told your master, Yue Buqun, that you wanted to travel abroad, he did not stop you. He merely instructed you to stay safe before allowing you to descend the mountain.
After descending the mountain, you returned home once. After leaving most of the silver notes on you for your parents, you officially embarked on the path of challenging others.
However, challenges inevitably resulted in deaths and injuries. This would bring countless troubles to you, the Mount Hua Sect, and your parents.
You had prepared for this long ago: disguise yourself and change your name, then carry out these deeds under a false identity.
In the fifth month of the twenty-second year, you darkened your skin, glued on a beard, covered your face with a mask, assumed the name Zhang Wei, and traveled all the way to Kunlun Mountain in the Western Regions, beginning your challenges with the Kunlun Sect.
In the world of The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, the Kunlun Sect was a prestigious orthodox sect as renowned as the Qingcheng, Kongtong, Emei, and Diancang Sects. It stood only below Shaolin and Wudang, and was roughly on par with the single Five Great Sword Sects.
Of course, the Five Great Sword Sects varied greatly in strength. The Songshan Sect alone was comparable to the other four major sword sects combined.
As for the Sun Moon Holy Cult, which stood in a league of its own, it naturally was not included.
The current master of the Kunlun Sect was named Zhen Shanzi. His cultivation was about equal to that of Yu Canghai, whom you had killed; both were at the peak of the Houtian Realm.
His signature technique was called Universe Sword , an explosive sword technique resembling the Mount Hua Sect's Great Yue Three Pure Winds .
Besides that, the Kunlun Sect also possessed many other Houtian-level martial arts, such as Righteous Two Principles Swordplay , Light Splitting Swordplay , and Falling Goose Palm .
After witnessing them all, your bottlenecked Dugu Nine Swords also began to improve slowly.
In the ninth month of the twenty-second year, you traveled from west to east and then from north to south, fighting across thousands of miles and witnessing the martial arts of countless sects.
The Diancang Sect's Flowing Cloud Swordplay , Diancang Jade Sleeve Skill , and Azure Sky Single Finger ...
The Qingcheng Sect's Pine Wind Swordplay , Crane Cry Nine Heavens Divine Skill , Heart Breaking Palm , and Shadowless Illusion Leg ...
The Emei Sect's Golden Summit Divine Sword , Emei Dagger , and Cloud Piercing Palm ...
The Bagua Sect's Eight Trigrams Roaming Palm ...
The Long River Gang's Great River Mad Blade ...
These martial arts encompassed everything: sabers, spears, swords, halberds, fists, palms, fingers, legs, hidden weapons, traps, internal and external arts, strange techniques, formations... Almost nothing was excluded.
After witnessing so many martial arts, the might of your Dugu Nine Swords also advanced at a staggering pace.
Sword Breaking Form was still at the minor mastery stage, but its power had increased by at least twofold.
Blade Breaking Form, Spear Breaking Form, and Palm Breaking Form, which had barely reached the introductory stage before, successively reached minor mastery.
Whip Breaking Form and Rope Breaking Form also improved greatly and were not far from minor mastery.
Besides that, you successfully reached introductory mastery in Arrow Breaking Form as well.
Unfortunately, even though you had deliberately searched for and studied many internal cultivation methods, your Qi Breaking Form still failed to reach the introductory stage.
As for General Principle Form, you naturally succeeded in reaching introductory mastery in it as well. However, because it lacked the most important Qi Breaking Form, your General Principle Form could only counter martial techniques and was helpless against other people's internal force and true qi.
However, you yourself were a powerhouse at the peak of the late Innate stage, and every move you performed contained powerful true qi.
Therefore, even if it could only counter martial techniques, it was enough for you to sweep invincibly through the Innate Realm.
During your many challenges, you also discovered the nemesis of Dugu Nine Swords : body-tempering techniques.
The highest realm of martial arts was precisely victory without techniques!
Body-tempering martial artists relied on bodies impervious to blades and weapons and terrifying brute strength. They basically had no refined techniques.
This made them as stinking and stubborn as a rock in a latrine, leaving you with no technique to counter. Naturally, your Dugu Nine Swords had no way to display its strength.
However, body-tempering techniques were much harder to practice than internal arts.
So far, you had encountered only a handful of body-tempering martial artists. The strongest had merely reached the late Houtian Realm. He was already over fifty, and his qi and blood had begun to decline. In this life, let alone the Innate Realm, he had no hope of even reaching the peak of the Houtian Realm.
Moreover, the physical body of an Houtian body-tempering martial artist could not possibly withstand an attack infused with Innate True Qi.
Thus, you had merely found a possible nemesis of Dugu Nine Swords . Whether it truly was one remained open to debate.
After challenging so many sects over the past few months, your reputation had naturally spread throughout the entire martial world. Good-for-nothings had even dubbed you the Mysterious Sky Swordsman.
It meant that your swordsmanship was peerless and mysterious, as though it had been passed down from the highest heavens.
The martial world had never lacked hidden dragons and crouching tigers. No one knew how many experts were concealed in remote mountains, secluded forests, and powerful clans.
Most of these people had lost interest in fame and profit. What they possessed was merely a thirst for knowledge regarding martial arts.
If you searched for them yourself, it would be no different from seeking a needle in a haystack—or a tiger trying to eat the sky, with nowhere to begin.
As the saying went, a large tree attracted the wind. Now that your reputation had soared, these people emerged of their own accord, wanting to witness your swordsmanship.
This was exactly what you wanted, greatly accelerating your progress in cultivating Dugu Nine Swords .
Of course, everything had its good and bad sides. Although these people helped accelerate your cultivation of Dugu Nine Swords , everyone was different, and these challengers also brought you countless troubles.
Some lost to you and attacked you with concealed weapons out of shame and anger. Some offered exorbitant prices to buy your Dugu Nine Swords . Others wanted to recruit you to work for them, and some even wanted to hire you to kill people...
Faced with these unreasonable demands, you naturally rejected every one of them.
Those who attacked you from the shadows were killed without exception. As for those who wanted to buy martial arts, recruit you, or hire you to kill someone... you dealt with them according to the circumstances. If they refused to listen to reason, your sword was not blunt.
After you killed people, you naturally formed enmities with others, and you were ambushed countless times along the way.
However, before absolute strength, all these people were like clowns and caused you no real trouble.
In the tenth month of the twenty-second year, you arrived at Mount Song and began challenging the many experts of the Songshan Sect.
The reason you did this was that you had received word that the unrepentant Zuo Lengchan had actually found a successor of the Mount Hua Sword Sect and wanted to help him seize the Mount Hua Sect.
Although he had ultimately failed, you could not swallow this insult.