Mountain Splitting Saber

Lu Chuan hesitated no longer. Gripping the carefully chosen saber, he turned and walked toward Chen Mo Bai.

"Senior Disciple Brother, this one feels fairly manageable."

Chen Mo Bai nodded.

"Very well, I will first demonstrate the Thirty-Six Basic Forms of the Mountain Splitting Saber for you. This is the foundation of the entire saber art, so watch closely."

With that, he walked with his saber to a small open space and gathered his internal energy in his dantian. "Watch closely!"

Immediately, saber light flashed!

These Thirty-Six Basic Forms sounded simple, but when Chen Mo Bai executed them, the momentum was extraordinary.

As the saber art unfolded, every movement of Chen Mo Bai carried the momentum of splitting mountains and cleaving rocks! Clearly, he had been immersed in this path for a long time.

Lu Chuan held his breath and concentrated, striving to catch every detail.

After finishing the set once, Chen Mo Bai withdrew his saber and stood straight. He looked at Lu Chuan. "How many percentages of those thirty-six forms did you manage to memorize just now?"

Lu Chuan smiled bitterly inwardly and answered honestly, "Answering Senior Disciple Brother, the changes in the stances are complex... I am afraid not even ten percent."

There was no helping it. Although he had tried his utmost, his brain simply could not keep up.

His comprehension was quite ordinary as well... Hearing this, Chen Mo Bai's tone turned somewhat cold.

"Since that is the case, biting off more than you can chew will get you nowhere. You should start by training your strength first."

Lu Chuan felt puzzled in his heart. Could practicing the saber art itself not increase one's strength?

Chen Mo Bai, however, had already dragged over two heavy stone locks.

The two stone locks each looked to weigh no less than thirty catties.

"Like this," Chen Mo Bai pointed at the stone locks.

"You practice with these first. When you can carry these stone locks and stand steadily for a quarter of an hour, we can talk about saber art."

"A quarter of an hour?"

Lu Chuan looked at those heavy stone locks, and his brows furrowed.

How much time would this waste?

Besides, he had paid ten taels of silver just to come here and carry stone locks?

Without waiting for Lu Chuan to raise questions, Chen Mo Bai had already walked to the other side of the training ground.

A young master with fair skin was waiting there.

Chen Mo Bai's face resumed its previous enthusiastic smile.

"Young Master Wang, sorry for the wait. Let us pick up from yesterday. For this form, Splitting Mount Hua, your waist must..."

Lu Chuan stood in place, the sound of Chen Mo Bai's incomparably patient explanations to that young master drifting into his ears.

Yet that young master had sluggish movements and a shaky lower stance, and when he swung his saber, it was utterly devoid of force.

Why did he not have to train his strength?

Yet Chen Mo Bai taught with utmost earnestness, even correcting minute errors time and again.

Seeing this, how could Lu Chuan not understand?

Was he merely being looked down upon?

He was clearly being played with!

This Chen Mo Bai seemed enthusiastic upon first meeting, but once he confirmed that Lu Chuan had neither talent nor family background, he immediately lost his patience.

Make him carry stone locks? That was merely a perfunctory tactic!

Normally this was nothing out of the ordinary, and Lu Chuan did not expect to be loved by everyone.

Yet this fellow had taken five taels of silver from him!

That was the hard-earned money he and his father had risked their lives in combat to earn!

A surge of anger violently rushed to the top of Lu Chuan's head.

Yet he remained expressionless, forcibly suppressing this burst of anger.

Chen Mo Bai was the Senior Disciple Brother of the martial arts hall after all. Even if he reported him to Old Zheng, Chen Mo Bai would at most receive a reprimand.

After that, however, Chen Mo Bai would certainly retaliate against him doubly.

If you search for the book title and cannot find it, you can try searching for the author instead; perhaps it was just renamed!

Besides, I do not necessarily need you to teach me!

Glancing at the thick-backed long saber in his hand, Lu Chuan felt thoroughly confident inside.

Only, the long saber would disappear after being recorded, so he could not do it here.

Just as he intended to find an excuse to slip away from the training ground, a person suddenly appeared beside him.

"This junior disciple looks unfamiliar. Are you a new initiate?"

Lu Chuan turned his head and saw an honest-looking man.

"Indeed," Lu Chuan nodded. "I just entered the apprenticeship of Master Zheng today, and Master Zheng told me to follow Senior Disciple Brother Chen to learn the saber first."

"Senior Disciple Brother Chen Mo Bai?" Hearing this, the Honest Man lowered his voice.

"Did Senior Disciple Brother... ask you to lift these stone locks here first?"

Lu Chuan did not speak, which was taken as tacit confirmation.

"Alas," the Honest Man shook his head. "Senior Disciple Brother Chen... has skills, it is just that... he is a bit too realistic."

A thought stirred in Lu Chuan's heart. It seemed Chen Mo Bai was not doing this for the first time.

The Honest Man took the initiative to introduce himself.

"My name is Zhou Ming Chuan. I also come from a humble background, and after struggling here for several years, I finally won Old Zheng's appreciation and became his seventh Inner Disciple."

"So it is Senior Disciple Brother Zhou!" Lu Chuan hastily cupped his fists in salute.

"No need for such formalities." Zhou Ming Chuan waved his hand.

"Since Senior Disciple Brother Chen has left you hanging here, he surely has no time to teach you. If you do not mind me, how about I take you through it first?"

A warm current swept through Lu Chuan's heart.

In this martial arts hall, not everyone was as snobbish as Chen Mo Bai.

He quickly said, "If Senior Disciple Brother is willing to guide me, this junior disciple will be endlessly grateful!"

The two of them found a secluded corner, and Zhou Ming Chuan asked a very basic question.

"Junior disciple, tell me, when we martial artists engage in enemy combat and strive to win, what is the most fundamental thing?"

Lu Chuan pondered for a moment, and combining his experience from fighting Lu San earlier, he tentatively spoke.

"Is it... strength?"

"Correct!" Light flashed in Zhou Ming Chuan's eyes.

"It is precisely that One Power suppresses ten techniques! No matter how ever-changing your stances are, I shall cleave them open with a single saber! This is the principle our Mountain Splitting Saber believes in!"

"Therefore, the primary task of practicing martial arts is to make our physical bodies undergo transformation!"

"Then how does one transform the physical body?" Lu Chuan pursued the question. "Surely... it cannot really depend on lifting those stone locks every day?"

"Haha!" Zhou Ming Chuan laughed.

"Lifting stone locks? That is the most inferior method of training strength, used for those poor wretches without connections."

"The truly high-efficiency way of body tempering is hidden within our Mountain Splitting Saber!"

"Mountain Splitting Saber?" Lu Chuan looked in surprise.

"Indeed!" Zhou Ming Chuan affirmed.

"The Thirty-Six Forms of the Mountain Splitting Saber appear to be mere stances, but in reality, they are a complete set of body-forging methods! When practiced to a profound realm, your muscles, bones, and internal organs will all be tempered, allowing your physical body to break through its limits bit by bit!"

Seeing that Lu Chuan was listening intently, he continued to explain.

"Therefore, for martial people like us, a crucial step in Tempering Qi and Blood is the progress of martial arts!"

"Only by practicing the Thirty-Six Forms of the Mountain Splitting Saber to the Initiate realm can one truly begin to effectively temper qi and blood and step across the threshold of the Martial Way."

"The Mountain Splitting Saber, just like other martial arts, is divided into four realms: Initiate, Minor Success, Major Success, and Perfection. The deeper your comprehension of the saber art, the better the effect of tempering qi and blood."

He patted Lu Chuan's shoulder and comforted him.

"You only entered today, so there is no need to rush. With me guiding you, you will probably be able to grasp the initiation of this saber art in about half a month."

"Half a month... Initiate."

Lu Chuan repeated in a low voice, and following the flow of the conversation, he asked, "Then... what about a Mountain Splitting Saber at the Minor Success level?"

"Minor Success?" Zhou Ming Chuan scratched his head.

"That is still far off. For ordinary people, even with bitter daily practice and somewhat decent talent, it would take at least half a year..."

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