"Mother, after we wash up early later, I still need to find Junior Brother and practice swordsmanship."
After returning to Gazing Sky Cliff.
Once she had been led into the rear courtyard of Celestial Star Hall, Ouyang Lan grew somewhat impatient.
She casually hung the purple azalea wreath in her hand on the coat rack behind the door, thinking that Junior Brother had only just arrived and was probably quite unaccustomed to everything. Seventh Senior Sister might be a woman, but she was bold and rough by nature—how could she possibly know how to care for someone?
"Xiaolan..."
Hearing this, Qin Huaiying's expression stiffened slightly, and a strange look entered her eyes.
Her gaze swept over the purple wreath, but she said nothing about it, merely asking softly, "Is that child Wubing's swordsmanship truly that good? I heard Yun Chong say that he learned at a glance and mastered it as soon as he learned it?"
"Mother, he's even better than you imagine. Look, look."
As she spoke.
Ouyang Lan drew the longsword from her back and casually flourished it. Her feet advanced and retreated in flashes, sword light whistling as it traced one circular arc after another before her, large and small.
Large circles wrapped around small ones, ring upon ring interlocking, seeming to stretch on without end.
"This move, Three Rings Encircle the Moon—you actually made a breakthrough with it, Xiaolan?"
Qin Huaiying's eyesight was exceptional.
At a single glance, she saw through it. Her precious daughter's sword move combined attack and defense, brimming with chilling killing intent.
It was no ornamental flourish put on for display.
"More than that—there's this too..."
Ouyang Lan grinned so widely that her teeth showed, her eyes narrowing slightly. Proudly, she sent her sword momentum circling back and forth, her feet stumbling and lunging as her body swayed like a drunken person.
The longsword in her hand drifted nimbly around her body...
The sword light gleamed like freshly washed silk, as though she had donned a robe of swords.
Then, the sword momentum changed again...
The whistling sword light instantly turned gentle, like a clear wind, like flowing clouds, without the slightest trace of killing intent.
Yet it was light and graceful, drifting everywhere at once.
"You have practiced both Drunken Cosmos and Clear Wind Flowing Clouds until their form and spirit are one. Good!"
This time, even Qin Huaiying's voice trembled slightly with excitement.
She had always worried about her daughter's talent for swordsmanship and inner cultivation.
Even more, she had hated that her daughter drifted through her training, feeling bitter frustration that iron could not be forged into steel.
As for the cultivation of inner power and swordsmanship, Ouyang Lan had begun her foundations at eight and had trained for a full ten years.
Yet whether in swordsmanship or inner power, she could not truly be considered outstanding among the disciples.
The eldest disciple was one thing.
There was simply no comparison to be made.
The second disciple, Tie Zhongshan, had come under their master already skilled in martial arts, with deep foundations, so there was nothing to say there either.
The third disciple, Wu Yunchong, had studied under their master for eight years.
The fourth disciple, Zhang Dexing, and fifth disciple, Zheng Fangming, had been on the mountain for seven years as well.
All three were a notch stronger than her.
Even the sixth disciple, Yuan Fei, who came from a poor family and had trained for only six years, and the seventh disciple, Lin Wenjing, had gradually caught up. Their cultivation and swordsmanship had reached her daughter's level.
In terms of endurance and tenacity in battle, they even surpassed her daughter.
With only this one precious daughter, Qin Huaiying had tried every method she could think of. Seeing her daughter about to become the last among Celestial Star Peak's direct disciples, how could she not be anxious?
She feared that if danger came one day, her foolish daughter would surely suffer a terrible loss.
This time, she had hardened her heart and allowed her to go down the mountain to gain experience and see more of the world. She had hoped it might change her outlook and make her more mature.
She had not seen any maturity.
But this realm of swordsmanship had given her a tremendous surprise.
A swordsmanship realm was something one either understood or did not.
No matter how ruthlessly one trained, it was actually of little use.
It was just like a person's talent...
Some people trained all their lives and still could not break through that barrier in their hearts.
Being able to practice sword forms until familiarity gave rise to fluidity was already quite remarkable.
This was precisely the limit that the dullest people in the martial world could reach through painstaking effort.
But the Proficient Realm was different.
It was no longer rote recitation or rigid adherence to rules, but having one's own understanding of swordsmanship and comprehending the true spirit of the sword.
No matter what craft it was, once one reached the Proficient Realm, one became among the finest in that field—one in a thousand, spoken of by all.
Among the disciples on the mountain, the reason eldest disciple Yue Lingfeng was called a genius was that he had practiced a set of basic sword forms to the Proficient Realm.
Even within the advanced sword art Shadowless Sword, nearly half his moves had reached proficiency.
Though his cultivation was only Fifth Rank, relying on his realm of swordsmanship, he was already exceptionally outstanding among second-rate martial artists in the martial world, and it was not easy to find an opponent for him.
The lineage of the sect master at Celestial Star Sect's Gazing Sky Cliff had always been able to suppress the Gold Jade Hall's Shen Family lineage and Li Feiying's Fierce Tiger Valley lineage. Yue Lingfeng's swordsmanship and cultivation had contributed greatly to that.
Even the Violet Sun Sect and Bright Moon Sect knew that Yue Lingfeng, eldest disciple under Celestial Star Sect Master Ouyang Zheng, was a rare swordsmanship prodigy. One day, he was highly likely to carry Celestial Star Sect to greater heights.
This showed just how valuable it was for one's swordsmanship to reach the Proficient Realm.
"Why are they all defensive moves?"
As she carefully observed Ouyang Lan's swordsmanship, Qin Huaiying was overjoyed, yet doubts also arose in her heart.
Logically speaking, basic swordsmanship was easy to learn but hard to master. Yet once one understood the sword's rhythm within it, the first moves to break into the Proficient Realm should have been offensive ones.
After all, however much a sword might be called a gentleman's weapon, it was still a murderous tool.
With a sharp sword in hand, three parts of killing intent naturally arose in one's heart.
When ordinary people practiced swordsmanship, they naturally gained greater insight into offensive moves.
As for defense, they would comprehend it faster with a shield in hand.
But with her daughter, it was the reverse.
Several sword moves that emphasized defense over attack had been practiced until both spirit and energy were complete, while her offensive moves had only reached familiarity.
"That has to do with Junior Brother's sword.
Mother, you haven't seen it. That fellow's sword strikes are especially vicious—he hits wherever it hurts most. I think it's far more useful than having Father and Mother feed me moves."
Ouyang Lan said with a proud smile.
"Really that miraculous?"
Qin Huaiying could not understand it.
If facing an opponent who used overwhelming inner power or exquisitely unusual swordsmanship could force out all one's potential, everyone would have done so long ago.
In truth, if it really worked, Ouyang Zheng and Qin Huaiying would not have stood idly by without using such a method.
The disciples' talent was what it was; their capacity for comprehension was insufficient.
No matter how hard they were driven, they would only be driven to collapse.
Because things beyond another's understanding often did not give them a sudden flash of insight. Instead, they crushed their confidence and left them at a loss.
Yet the speed at which her daughter's swordsmanship had improved was right before her eyes.
She had no choice but to believe.
Could it be that her daughter had suddenly awakened to it on her own?
Believing that would be less believable than believing the golden-feathered crow on the mountaintop that often stole meat could speak.
"Tell me how that child Wubing came to take a master, and how he performed on the road."
The curiosity in Qin Huaiying's heart could no longer be restrained. It was like a hundred claws scratching at her heart, itching unbearably.
The information she had received was not detailed...
She only knew that the newly initiated junior disciple was a swordsmanship genius who learned things quickly.
His combat strength was also extraordinary.
He was only sixteen. Though he had entered the sect rather late, he had still caught the tail end before adulthood.
If the weakness of slow inner-power cultivation could be offset by a profound realm of swordsmanship, then he could still become a pillar of Celestial Star Sect.
Before you continue