Assessment IV

Because mist shrouded the night, most of the houses here left ample indoor space. The dining hall they were in now was at least two hundred square meters, exceptionally spacious.

Mingde stood in an open area, his right hand hanging naturally at his side, fingertips pointed at the ground.

"Watch carefully. The first move of the Clear Sword Technique—Formless Wind Direction!"

Whoosh!

His right hand suddenly split into a complex blur of afterimages. The dozen or so shadows slowly drew together like a flower bud.

The next instant, the flower bud abruptly bloomed, and a faintly white sword light shot from its center.

Though it was clearly only a finger, the sword light he thrust forth now was like a real blade, striking the ground in a single point.

Pfft!

A black hole of unknown depth appeared in the floor.

Mingde slowly withdrew his hand.

"Now watch the second move, One-Hand Brushing Clouds!"

He casually swept his right hand to the side, and layer upon layer of afterimages surfaced once more. The next instant, every afterimage abruptly merged together, then exploded outward.

This time, no sword light could be seen. Only invisible wind blew outward in all directions.

The next moment, Lin Hui suddenly felt a chill at his neck. He hastily twisted aside and saw that Mingde had somehow appeared to his right, his finger like a sword and aimed directly at his throat.

Meanwhile, the Mingde who had just been standing in front of him slowly faded away into an afterimage.

"The third move..."

Move after move, Mingde held nothing back, demonstrating the Clear Sword Technique from beginning to end.

Until the final killing move—Three Points of Wind Control. All eighty-one moves were complete.

"Did you see everything clearly?"

"I did! But this disciple is dull-witted. How should I circulate my power to execute such moves?" Lin Hui asked in a deep voice.

Having watched the entire sequence, he had grasped the strength of the Clear Sword. This sword technique centered on one thing: catching people off guard.

Its specialty was attacking when people least expected it, piercing their vital points, and killing them instantly.

This style of swordsmanship emphasized the strange, the treacherous, and the dangerous. Yet once it encountered an upright, flawless fighting style head-on, it was like meeting its natural nemesis.

If there was no opening to exploit, the sword could not break through the defense. The ultimate result was that Daoist Baohe had been defeated by Song Zhanlong in just a few moves despite being in the same realm.

This was not a gap in cultivation, but a gap in fighting styles. If one chose to tread a perilous path, one would naturally expose greater flaws. Once that dangerous path was blocked and one's own weaknesses were so glaring, the result would be swift defeat.

But this martial art had its advantages as well.

That was its ability to kill at first encounter. If an opponent failed to respond in time, the battle would end in a swift victory.

"To circulate your power and execute the moves, you must pay attention to maintaining the state of your heart. The state of the heart is the mental art. The Clear Sword's mental art requires you to maintain a clarity like a bright mirror upon a lake's surface, clearly weave the sword moves, compress them, then seize an opportunity to unleash them in an instant!"

As Mingde explained, he reached into the inner pocket of his clothes and took out a small black scroll.

"This is the visualization diagram for our sect's mental art. It is used to help disciples experience the state of mind at its core. You must remember this: when the heart is in chaos, the hand follows. The heart is the foundation of all things. Keep your heart unmoving, and your swordsmanship will naturally remain orderly."

Lin Hui accepted the scroll and slowly unfurled it. It depicted bright moonlit mountains. A sickle-like moon hung high above, casting silver moonlight that fell over the peaks like threads of silk.

A feeling of tranquility and ease welled up in his heart.

Lin Hui carefully experienced that feeling. Gradually, he seemed to vaguely realize that the continuous flow he had felt when practicing the Seven Section Fast Sword was remarkably similar to the mood evoked by this visualization diagram.

As he looked on, move after move of the Seven Section Fast Sword inexplicably surfaced in his mind.

"Alright. Next, perform the Nine Section Fast Sword and attack me with all your strength. I'll assess your current attainment in swordsmanship." Mingde clapped his hands, interrupting Lin Hui's thoughts.

"Yes."

Lin Hui straightened his body, gripped his sword in his right hand, and closed his eyes.

"Nine Section Fast Sword. This disciple has entered the seventh rank of Body Tempering. Please instruct me, Teacher."

"Go ahead and show me," Mingde said with a smile. Seventh-rank Body Tempering... such progress had indeed reached a level even more gifted than Huang Shan and Qiu Yiren.

Huang Shan and Qiu Yiren's talent lay in their grasp of swordsmanship, while Lin Hui's talent lay in Body Tempering.

Each had their own merits.

But it had to be said that talent like Lin Hui's was easier to overlook. After all, one who accumulated deeply and erupted late could overtake those who started earlier; in the beginning, there would be nothing exceptional to reveal it.

As thoughts flowed through Mingde's mind, he watched Lin Hui two meters ahead of him, waiting for him to draw his sword.

Ting...

At that moment, his expression shifted. It seemed as though he heard a faint, bell-like chime beside his ear.

It was like a silver wind chime hanging beneath a window, swaying in the breeze and lightly striking itself.

"Nine Section Fast Sword..." Lin Hui's voice came with that soft chime. "Illusory Golden Autumn..."

The autumn wind howled and the wind chime rang wildly. In an instant, one illusory figure after another appeared in Mingde's eyes.

They were Lin Hui's figures.

They connected into one, forming a straight line—the continuous phantom trace of drawing the sword, raising it, and striking.

Hiss!!

All the afterimages instantly converged, forming a human figure that appeared behind Mingde and slowly turned around.

The blade silently stabbed toward the center of Mingde's back.

Pfft!!

The blade struck a thin layer of white light, pressing a small dent into it before finally coming to a stop.

"...!!!" The smile on Mingde's face had long since frozen.

His right hand had only risen slightly, shaped like a sword, yet until the very end, he had not made a move. He had merely watched Lin Hui's technique unfold in complete silence.

In the end, he chose to withstand this sword with his internal force. All so he could witness the entire process of that move, without missing a single detail.

He had lost focus.

Yes.

The instant Lin Hui drew his sword, he had lost focus.

He had never imagined that the moves of the Nine Section Fast Sword could reach such a flawless, immaculate realm.

That streak of sword light could neither be added to nor diminished, beyond all faultfinding. It was like the most correct and perfect trajectory between heaven and earth, drawing one's gaze to it against one's will.

After only one look, Mingde felt that the Nine Section Fast Sword he had practiced before was wrong.

Not merely wrong—it had been absurdly wrong!

If practiced as Lin Hui had practiced it, the power of the Nine Section Fast Sword would increase by at least half!

"You... how did you practice this?"

Only after a long while did Mingde ask in a hoarse voice.

"This disciple merely practiced according to Teacher's instructions. Is there some problem?" Lin Hui sheathed his sword as he answered.

Naturally, he could not reveal the existence of the Blood Seal.

To be honest, this was also his first time using the perfect version of the Nine Section Fast Sword in an exchange. He had not expected his teacher's reaction to be so intense.

He felt somewhat uneasy inside.

"Very good. Practiced very well...!" Mingde said forcefully, a smile once again appearing on his face.

But that smile quickly stiffened again.

How he wished a genius like Lin Hui had appeared ten years ago... If he had grown up then... perhaps he might have been able to stop Song Zhanlong.

Unfortunately, it was too late now...

"You. Perform the entire Nine Section Fast Sword for me," Mingde said again, suppressing the turmoil in his heart.

"Yes!" Lin Hui nodded, raised his hand again, and drew his sword.

The wind chime-like sound of the blade piercing the air rang out once more.

The seven afterimages of Body Tempering Rank Seven flickered continuously, each time executing a brand-new perfect version of the Nine Section Fast Sword.

After a long while, following Lin Hui's demonstration, Mingde readjusted his own Nine Section Fast Sword. At once, he felt his attack speed rise considerably. Though it lacked the strange, illusory allure of Lin Hui's near-perfect technique, it had genuinely increased his own strength.

The Nine Section Fast Sword had originally been a simplified version of the Clear Sword Technique. Now that it had improved, the boost to the Clear Sword Technique was considerable as well.

That entire night, Mingde did not rest. Instead, he continuously adjusted his swordsmanship, integrating the new perfect version of the Nine Section Fast Sword into himself.

What disappointed him slightly was that no matter how hard he racked his brains, the Nine Section Fast Sword he performed still fell far short of Lin Hui's.

No matter how many times he imitated it, he could not reproduce that sword technique so perfect it was almost seductively hypnotic.

Fortunately, although he could not replicate it, even the inferior result made Mingde feel that his attainments in swordsmanship had improved by several degrees.

Unlike Mingde, who stayed awake all night in deep contemplation, Lin Hui went to the side room his teacher had arranged for him after demonstrating the technique several times.

He was not there merely to rest, but also to make adjustments for the Blood Seal's next evolution.

The Blood Seal's next target had long been decided: the Clear Sword Technique he had just learned.

Both the Seven Section Fast Sword and the Nine Section Fast Sword had been practiced to perfection. Having reached this point, the Clear Sword Technique at the end of the path naturally could not be missed.

This time, however, Lin Hui did not intend to evolve the whole set at once. Instead, he planned to split it apart and evolve each move one by one.

At that moment, he lay on his back in the dim bedroom, resting on a hard porcelain pillow. He closed his eyes and silently watched the red words at the bottom of his vision.

"Clear Sword Technique: Qingfeng Temple's primary sword technique. Centered on speed and illusion, its sword moves are strange, unpredictable, and perilous. A total of eighty-one moves. Continuously refined by generations of Qingfeng Temple masters. Available evolution branches: 3."

"Hm? There are actually three evolution branches?" Lin Hui's eyes widened in surprise.

The Clear Sword Technique was already Qingfeng Temple's supreme sword art, yet the Blood Seal had now offered three more evolution branches. That was strange indeed.

It reminded him of those inexplicable evolution branches that had appeared whenever he randomly grabbed something before.

Like that chicken leg back then.

"Could it be that this is just like the chicken leg from back then?"

An inexplicable thread of anticipation rose within Lin Hui. He swiftly focused his attention and tapped the evolution branch column.

Hiss.

The blood character blurred, then sharpened once more.

"Current evolution branches available: 1. Perfect Clear Sword Technique. 2. Clear Sword Technique: Hell's Breath Version. 3. Clear Sword Technique: Extreme Cold Whisper Version."

"I knew it. Just like that chicken drumstick back then, it still got tangled up with hell and extreme cold..." Lin Hui fell into thought as he looked at the three newly appeared branches.

A moment later, he separated the first move, Formless Wind Direction, and let the Blood Seal evolve it on its own.

This time, the Blood Seal offered only an evolved version of the move itself. Formless Wind Direction had changed into Boundless Wind Direction.

"Only by evolving the entire set together can I reach the other branches?" Lin Hui's brows drew tightly together. This clashed somewhat with his previous plans.

Looking at the branches for evolving the full set, even a fool knew that Hell's Breath and Extreme Cold Whisper were bound to be incredibly powerful. After all, they stood on the same level as the Perfect Clear Sword Technique.

The perfect version of the Seven Section Fast Sword was proof enough. Its Body Tempering speed was astonishingly fast, and it could even make someone of ordinary aptitude like him pass for a genius.

"It's time to make a choice..."

Staring at the three options emerging from the Blood Seal, Lin Hui fell into hesitation.