Return to Simplicity

No one knew how much time had passed.

Tang Xuan gradually came back to his senses.

Only then did he realize that the sky had already turned dark.

He had practiced sword skills for an entire day while unconscious.

"How much did you comprehend?" Chen Xin asked expectantly.

Tang Xuan had become utterly engrossed just by watching the sword skills.

His talent for the sword far surpassed Chen Xin's.

"Mm... I probably grasped seventy or eighty percent of it, but..." Tang Xuan thought carefully, frowning. "I just feel like something is inexplicably awkward..."

Upon hearing the first half, Chen Xin grinned so widely his mouth practically reached his ears.

But the latter half made his laughter stop abruptly, as if someone had seized him by the throat.

"An awkward feeling... Explain it in detail?" Chen Xin asked with furrowed brows.

This was the first time he had encountered such a situation.

Tang Xuan's brows twisted into a deep frown as he gathered his thoughts. "It's cumbersome. Like an essay with a thousand words, nine hundred of which are nonsense."

"Huh?" Chen Xin was dumbfounded.

His Seven Kill Sword Art was known for ending battles swiftly.

Every move went straight for the enemy's life, famed for being concise and direct.

Yet before Tang Xuan, it was still excessively cumbersome.

For a moment, he was left speechless.

Tang Xuan ignored his silence and began swinging the Mysterious Iron Heavy Sword on his own.

Chop, slash, thrust, lift, sweep.

At first, traces of the Seven Kill Sword Art could still be seen.

But the further he went, the more immature his sword skills became.

He looked like a complete beginner in swordsmanship.

Nothing like someone who had spent years walking the path of the sword.

"Hmm? Brother Xuan, what are you doing?" Ning Rongrong asked, her panda eyes wide.

Yet Tang Xuan acted as though he had not heard her.

He continued brandishing the heavy sword like a madman.

At the sight of this,

Chen Xin's pupils contracted slightly.

This was a sign of Qi Deviation!

Perhaps some would say,

Douluo Continent was merely a low-tier fantasy world.

What right did it have to speak of Qi Deviation?

But no matter how lacking Douluo Continent might be, it was still a fantasy world.

If Qi Deviation did not exist, there would not have been any Evil Soul Masters in its sequel.

"Xiao Xuan, stop!" Chen Xin's voice surged into Tang Xuan's mind like heavenly might.

With a flick of his finger, he shot out a thread of Soul Power.

It struck Tang Xuan's wrist with perfect accuracy.

Tang Xuan's face went pale, and the heavy sword in his hand fell to the ground with a clang.

"Grandpa, Rong Rong, I... what happened to me?"

Tang Xuan's voice was extremely weak.

As though he had been flying nonstop for three days and nights.

"Brother Xuan, you were really terrifying just now..." Still shaken, Ning Rongrong told Tang Xuan everything that had happened.

The more Tang Xuan listened, the tighter his brows drew together.

He had merely found the Seven Kill Sword Art far too cumbersome.

So he wondered whether he had learned it incorrectly.

Just as he wanted to practice it again,

his consciousness had sunk away once more.

As for what happened afterward, Tang Xuan knew nothing at all.

"Xiao Xuan, tell me: in your eyes, what is a sword?" Chen Xin asked meaningfully.

In this day and age, Chen Xin was undeniably the foremost figure in swordsmanship.

In that brief moment, he had already worked out the reason.

This was a conflict between two completely different paths of the sword.

To resolve it, Tang Xuan first had to find his own heart and clarify his own path.

Tang Xuan immediately fell into thought upon hearing that.

The sword was the lord of all weapons.

Even a three-year-old child could blurt out that answer.

But Tang Xuan felt that such a statement was far too broad.

People could not even agree on the definition of a gentleman, much less a sword that was like one.

In Tang Xuan's view,

although everyone understood the sword differently,

there was only one true priority.

Sincerity!

A swordsman had to understand his True Heart and remain unashamed before his sword heart before reaching the heights of the sword.

With that thought in mind,

Tang Xuan gave his answer in a resolute voice.

"A sword is the Blade of the Heart. I Am The Sword, and The Sword Is Me!"

"My Sword Has No Edge; Great Skill Appears Unskilled."

"My Heart Is Simple; Return to Simplicity!"

The more Tang Xuan spoke, the brighter his eyes became.

As if responding to him, the Mysterious Iron Heavy Sword flew into Tang Xuan's hand from thin air.

It resembled the Seven Kill Sword Art, yet it did not resemble the Seven Kill Sword Art.

Each movement, once exquisite and swift,

gradually returned to something ordinary and archaic.

His movements were gentle and slow.

Yet upon closer inspection,

mysterious currents of air curled around the heavy sword's path.

That was neither sword qi nor Soul Power.

It was the mark left behind as the heavy sword cut through the air...

"Th-this is Return to Simplicity?" Chen Xin stared in utter shock. "Just what kind of monster have I adopted?"

"Sword Grandpa, what is Return to Simplicity?" Ning Rongrong asked innocently.

Chen Xin swallowed hard and said with difficulty, "Return to Simplicity is a legendary realm of swordsmanship... no, of Weapon Martial Souls."

"Every move returns to its original form, without the slightest redundancy, like bodily instincts such as breathing or blinking."

"Even I have never glimpsed the slightest true meaning of Return to Simplicity. Yet Xiao Xuan has only just stepped onto the path of the sword and has already caught a glimpse of its threshold... This is... this truly is..."

By the end,

even Chen Xin, one of the most cultured Titled Douluo, could not find the words.

He simply could not use any words to describe Tang Xuan.

Because no matter how exaggerated the praise, it would not be enough to describe Tang Xuan.

Ning Rongrong still only half understood.

She understood nothing about Weapon Martial Souls or swordsmanship.

She only knew that her Brother Xuan seemed incredibly amazing.

"Then how long will it take Brother Xuan to wake up?"

Chen Xin shook his head. "I don't know either."

"But there is no need to worry. Once he fully masters all the sword skills he has comprehended, he will naturally awaken."

Chen Xin then rubbed Rong Rong's head with a pained expression. "As for you, the dark circles around your eyes look painted on. It's almost dawn. Go back and get some rest early."

At that,

Ning Rongrong yawned in agreement, but stubbornly shook her head. "No. I can't sleep without Brother Xuan."

About Nine Months ago,

Ning Rongrong's head had split with pain the first time she practiced Heart Separation Control.

Tang Xuan had no idea whether his brain had been kicked by a donkey or what.

On a sudden whim, he told Ning Rongrong a story to coax her to sleep.

That had been no small matter.

From then on,

Ning Rongrong clung to Tang Xuan every night and demanded that he tell her stories.

Otherwise, she would rather stay awake until she dropped than sleep.

Tang Xuan was helpless as well.

What else could he do but indulge her?

The Little Girl only wanted to hear some stories. What had she done wrong?

But as early as three months ago,

Tang Xuan had exhausted every fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm and Andersen stored in his mind.

He had even told her quite a few childhood cartoons.

In the end, with no other options,

Tang Xuan even used the nonsense fairy tales he made up on the spot to fill the gaps.

But that made things even worse.

Those absurd improvised little stories seemed to unlock some forbidden door deep within Ning Rongrong's heart.

Listening to them made her feel miserable all day, yet going a day without them also made her feel miserable all over.

Ning Rongrong, who had already been clingy with Tang Xuan, became even more attached to him.

"You two..." Chen Xin laughed and poked Ning Rongrong's forehead. "I really don't know where Xiao Xuan gets so many stories... They're strange, yet captivating..."

All this time,

Chen Xin had often lurked outside the Two Little Ones' window.

He called it checking on the children.

But in truth, he also wanted to listen to the stories.

After all, Chen Xin looked quite proper on the surface.

But in the eyes of those who knew him, he was nothing more than a secretly flirtatious man.

Otherwise, Bone Douluo would never have given him the nickname "Old Bastard."