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 was already dark.

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

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

Simply watching the sword skills had been enough to immerse him completely.

Tang Xuan's talent in the Sword Dao far surpassed his own.

"Mm... I probably grasped seventy or eighty percent of it, but..." Tang Xuan thought carefully, frowning. "But I keep feeling an inexplicable sense of awkwardness..."

When Chen Xin heard the first half, he grinned so widely his teeth nearly showed.

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

"An awkward feeling... Explain in detail?" Chen Xin said with a frown.

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

Tang Xuan furrowed his brows and gathered his thoughts. "It's too complicated. Like a thousand-word article where nine hundred words are nonsense."

"Huh?" Chen Xin was dumbfounded.

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

Every move directly targeted the enemy's life, famous for being concise and straightforward.

Yet it still seemed excessively cumbersome before Tang Xuan.

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, sweep, wipe.

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

But as he continued, the sword skills became increasingly immature.

He looked like a beginner in the Sword Dao.

Nothing like someone who had walked the path of the sword for years.

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

Tang Xuan turned a deaf ear.

He continued wielding the heavy sword as if possessed.

At the sight.

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 Evil Soul Masters in the sequel.

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

With a flick of his finger, he fired a strand of Soul Power.

It struck Tang Xuan's wrist with precision.

Tang Xuan's face turned pale, and the heavy sword in his hand clanged onto the ground.

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

Tang Xuan's voice was extremely weak.

As though he had stayed awake for three days and three nights straight.

"Brother Xuan, you were really frightening just now..." Still shaken, Ning Rongrong told Tang Xuan what had happened.

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

He had merely felt that the Seven Kill Sword Art was too cumbersome.

So he had wondered whether he had learned it incorrectly.

Just as he was about to practice it again.

His consciousness had sunk away once more.

Tang Xuan knew absolutely nothing about what happened afterward.

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

In this age, Chen Xin was the undisputed foremost figure of the Sword Dao.

Within moments, he had already figured out the reason.

This was a conflict born from two completely different Sword Daos.

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

Tang Xuan immediately fell into deep thought.

The sword was the lord of all weapons.

It was an answer even a three-year-old child could blurt out.

But Tang Xuan felt that such an explanation was far too general.

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

In Tang Xuan's view.

Although everyone understood the sword differently.

There was only one true focus.

Sincerity!

A swordsman had to understand his True Heart and remain without shame before his Sword Heart before reaching the heights of the sword.

With that thought.

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 palm from thin air.

It was like the Seven Kill Sword Art, yet unlike the Seven Kill Sword Art.

Each movement, once exquisite and swift.

Gradually returned to plainness and antiquity.

His movements were gentle and slow.

But upon closer observation.

An incomprehensibly profound current of air coiled along the heavy sword's path.

That was neither sword qi nor Soul Power.

It was the trace left behind as the heavy sword cleaved through the air...

"Th-this is Return to Simplicity?" Chen Xin's eyes were filled with shock. "Just what kind of monster did I adopt?"

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

Chen Xin swallowed hard and said with difficulty, "Return to Simplicity is a legendary realm of the Sword Dao... No, of Weapon Martial Souls."

"Every move returns to its origin, without the slightest redundancy, like bodily instincts such as breathing and blinking."

"Even I have never glimpsed the slightest true meaning of Return to Simplicity. Yet Xiao Xuan has only just entered the Sword Dao and already caught a glimpse of its threshold... This truly is... truly..."

By the end.

Even Chen Xin, one of the most cultured 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 him.

Ning Rongrong still only half understood.

She did not understand Weapon Martial Souls, nor did she understand the Sword Dao.

She only knew that Brother Xuan seemed incredibly impressive.

"Then when will Brother Xuan wake up?"

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

"But there is no need to worry. Once he completely masters the sword skills he has comprehended, he will naturally wake up."

Chen Xin then affectionately rubbed Rong Rong's head. "As for you, your eye circles are so dark they look painted on. Dawn is almost here. Go back and rest early."

At those words.

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

About nine months ago.

When Ning Rongrong first practiced Heart Separation Control, her head had hurt terribly.

Tang Xuan did not know whether his brain had been kicked by a donkey or what.

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

That had become a serious problem.

From then on.

Ning Rongrong insisted on Tang Xuan telling her stories every night.

Otherwise, she would rather stay awake until dawn 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 was wrong with that?

But as early as three months ago.

Tang Xuan had exhausted every fairy tale by Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen that he remembered.

He had even told her quite a few childhood cartoons.

In the end, with no other choice.

Tang Xuan had even used made-up Grimm-style fairy tales to make up the numbers.

But that made things even worse.

Those absurd little stories he made up seemed to open some forbidden door deep within Ning Rongrong's heart.

Listening to them made her feel uncomfortable for a day, yet not listening for a day also made her feel uncomfortable.

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

"You two..." Chen Xin said with a smile, reaching out to tap Ning Rongrong's forehead. "I really don't know where Xiao Xuan gets so many stories... Strange, yet captivating..."

All this time.

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

He claimed it was to check on the children.

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

After all, Chen Xin looked rather serious on the surface.

But to those who knew him, he was simply a repressed man.

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