I Thought This Was a Slice of Life

She smiled at this heartwarming scene.

This kind of ripple-free daily life might seem dull to a young person, but...

This is what a continuous miracle truly is.

ps2: By the way, I combined some ideas and came up with a new book title: The Road to Becoming a Big Shot from Zero. How about this one?

Section 66 57 Snow Without Trace

Daily life was merely an embellishment; Shuya was primarily obsessed with studying martial arts and could not extricate himself.

He hadn't even been paying much attention to Alien Baby Hikari-chan, but Inoue Hikoo would take care of that anyway.

As long as things remained stable, it was fine.

Early the next morning, he followed Li Shuhong to the unfinished building.

"Starting today, I will teach you swordsmanship... although I've never understood why it's called swordsmanship when it's clearly blade-work, but anyway, as long as you understand."

Li Shuhong said, "Enough talk, I'll demonstrate it once, watch closely."

He knew that Shuya basically understood everything after seeing it once, so he taught very quickly.

Li Shuhong used a wooden sword, and after he finished practicing, he tossed the sword to Shuya.

Come to think of it, swordsmanship and kendo are actually different.

Swordsmanship is the art of killing, while kendo is a sport.

Japanese swordsmanship doesn't emphasize thrusting and flicking like Great Hua swordsmanship, but rather focuses on hacking and slashing.

After all, Japanese swordsmanship uses blades, not swords, to begin with.

Before learning the Northland New Snow Thousand-Fold Style, Shuya practiced basic swordsmanship for a full three days.

He used a wooden sword for the first two days, and on the third day, Li Shuhong brought a real blade.

Shuya didn't delve into where the blade came from.

Given Li Shuhong's abilities, getting his hands on a blade was hardly an issue.

Li Shuhong didn't let Shuya use a real blade for the first two days to prevent him from getting injured due to lack of familiarity.

But after two days of arduous study, Shuya's swordsmanship improved greatly.

After all, he was someone with a cheat code.

On the third day, Shuya practiced swordsmanship, simply repeating the basic techniques he had learned over the previous two days with the real blade.

Basic swordsmanship is relatively boring, but to learn the art well, one must start with this.

On the fourth day, at Shuya's request, Li Shuhong taught him Iaijutsu.

The reason for focusing on this was simple: it was cool enough.

As mentioned before, being cool is a lifelong pursuit.

On the fourth day, when Shuya followed Li Shuhong to the rooftop of the unfinished building, many things were already placed there.

A pile of straw mats, bamboo, wood, iron rods...

There was even a wooden post so thick it would take several adults to wrap their arms around it.

It must be said that the latter few materials were clearly not meant for ordinary people to practice with.

Using straw mats and bamboo for Iaijutsu is quite normal, but the rest were very abnormal.

It required the use of qi.

Only by combining qi with technique could one cut through those things.

It was easy for Shuya to cut the straw mats and bamboo.

Cutting the wooden rods was also fine, but he had to start using qi.

Cutting the iron rods wasn't much of a problem either; after cutting the wooden rods, Shuya had already gained quite a bit of insight into channeling qi into the blade.

When cutting the iron rods, he was able to channel his qi into the blade quickly and evenly.

Every iron rod was cut by Shuya, and Li Shuhong checked the cross-sections; they were very smooth and uniform, truly perfect.

But when Li Shuhong asked Shuya to cut that massive wooden post, he was at a loss.

What the hell, the blade in his hand wasn't even as thick as the circumference of that post, so how was he supposed to cut it?

Was he supposed to use it like an axe?

"It's nothing, I was just teasing you; cutting that thing requires the external projection of qi."

Li Shuhong chuckled as he pushed the wooden post away.

Shuya was also speechless and chuckled along; the old man was truly mischievous. He had wasted over ten minutes measuring it up, which was a complete waste of time.

After satisfying his craving for Iaijutsu, Shuya was now going to formally learn the Northland New Snow Thousand-Fold Style.

But before learning the sword techniques, he first had to learn the footwork.

Shuya had already learned the basic footwork that accompanied the swordsmanship; he knew how to walk, slide, dodge, and step.

What we are going to learn now is footwork that coordinates with qi... in essence, it is light-body technique.

"First is the most fundamental light-body technique of the Northland New Snow Thousand-Fold Style, Snow Without Trace."

Li Shuhong wasted a heap of flour by pouring it onto the ground, then walked across it casually.

After he stepped away, Shuya looked down and saw that there wasn't a single footprint in the flour.

"Next is Snowfall."

Li Shuhong leaped high into the air, then drifted down slowly, just like a snowflake falling leisurely from the sky.

"And then there is Flying Snow."

Li Shuhong tapped his toes, and Shuya felt his vision blur for a moment, as if a shadow had swept past him, bringing a hint of coolness.

The Li Shuhong from before had already circled behind Shuya.

"You should practice these three forms well first; I will teach you sword techniques afterward. Furthermore, once your qi can transform into attributes, there will be advanced moves."

"No problem."

Shuya nodded.

Li Shuhong began to instruct Shuya on the method of circulating qi, having him walk on the flour; only when he could leave no traces would he be allowed to practice the next two forms.

Snow Without Trace is the foundation for Snowfall and Flying Snow.

The day's teaching ended amidst Draw-Blade Slash and light-body technique practice.

Shuya had basically mastered the three forms of light-body technique.

After he learned the light-body technique, Li Shuhong didn't take him home, instead setting him free to return on his own.

Light-body technique is different from swordsmanship; it can be practiced while walking, so Shuya used it to make his way back.

The Snow Without Trace footwork primarily uses qi to make the body lighter; once lighter, speed naturally increases, endurance is logically enhanced, and movement becomes more agile and free.

Shuya used Snow Without Trace to travel without leaving a trace, and no one along the way noticed anything unusual about him.

On the surface, Snow Without Trace looked normal, but if one looked closely, they would find that although Shuya's stride was normal, his forward speed was very fast.

Walking all the way home, Shuya only broke a light sweat, but that was from the sun, not from exhaustion.

The consumption of qi wasn't very severe either; he had walked for about half an hour, and had used less than ten percent of his fist-sized pool of qi.

Because his qi was sufficiently refined, it was durable.

After returning to his apartment, Shuya didn't take the elevator; he used the Flying Snow footwork to dash up the stairs, his speed even faster than the elevator.

Having martial arts skills was simply amazing.

Of course, the best part was having a cheat code; otherwise, heaven knows how long it would take to see results.

Humming a tune, he went home to finish his beloved wife's bento, then set off for the gym.

This gym was quite useful; Shuya set the treadmill to its fastest speed and practiced his light-body technique on it.

The passing trainers looked at him as if he were a god.

Mai looked at Shuya: "Are you planning to become a reporter in the future?"

Shuya hummed twice, not falling for the trap; he wouldn't end up on any execution lists.

Mai jogged slowly and said: "By the way, Shuya. What do you want for your birthday present?"

"Huh? Whose birthday?"

Shuya asked back, confused.

"Yours, of course. Isn't your birthday on July 10th? That's the day after tomorrow."

"Wow, I even forgot; I can't believe you remembered."

Mai-chan said as if it were only natural: "Isn't that normal? Of course I'd remember a friend's birthday."

"..."

That's only because you have few friends that you remember... Shuya naturally wouldn't say that out loud, only thinking it secretly to himself.

"Hmm, let me think, what would be good...?"

Shuya rubbed his smooth chin, lost in thought for a moment.

"I really can't think of anything; I don't really want anything."

Shuya was too lazy to think, so he smiled and said: "Whatever you give me, I'll like."

"Sigh."

Mai sighed: "Hey, hey, Shuya."

"What is it, Mai-Mai."

"Can you stop saying things that make people misunderstand so often?"

"How is that a misunderstanding? Is this what they call 'the eyes of a fujoshi see only BL'?"

Shuya retorted.

"You had better be self-aware and not say things like that to girls so casually. This is sister Mai's advice to you, for the sake of your future personal safety."

"I'll worry about the future when the future comes."

"What does that mean?"

Mai did not understand what Shuya meant, because he had said it in Great Hua Language.

"It's nothing, I was just saying that you look very cute today as well."

"Well, obviously."

Mai paused for a moment and said, "Then I'll just buy something random."

"Alright."

The two did not speak again after that, silently continuing their workout.

58 Big Sister

"Shuya-kun, your birthday is coming up soon, right?"

When Shuya went to study music, Senior Sister Seisen also asked.