Parents' Legacy

"60 million has already arrived; that was fast!"

After Guan Ning sighed with emotion, he clicked on the button flashing incessantly on the page, which bore the text: "You have two new messages."

Guan Ning tapped his finger lightly on the wireless keyboard's touchscreen to open the inbox.

"Whoosh!"

The first message opened, and a video immediately appeared.

"Hello, Mr. Guan Ning." A middle-aged man in a black suit appeared on the giant screen, smiling. "I am Supervisor Yu's assistant. The Supervisor once promised that as long as the price of the secret manual does not exceed 100 million, it will be reimbursed directly through the internal network without deducting a single cent from you. If the price exceeds 100 million, you will need to pay the excess amount yourself, Mr. Guan Ning. At the same time, on behalf of the Supervisor, I congratulate you on your successful Warrior Combat Assessment."

After he finished speaking, the video ended abruptly.

"Limit Martial Hall treats me quite well." Guan Ning clicked to open the second message.

The message also contained a video.

"Respected new warrior 'Guan Ning', hello. On behalf of the Limit Martial Hall, I welcome you to our big family." A sweet-looking young girl smiled. "This is your first time entering the internal network of the Limit Martial Hall—Limit Home! Allow me to introduce you to the functions of Limit Home."

"First, in Limit Home, you can purchase various levels of weapons, Guiding Techniques, movement secret manuals, offensive secret manuals such as blade techniques, spear techniques, sword techniques, and so on. There are also thermal weapons, vehicles, armor and protective gear, communication systems, specialized explosives, special medical agents, gene agents... and even some special materials and treasures. As long as you have enough money, you can purchase them."

"Once you pay, the goods will be delivered within 24 hours."

"Through Limit Home, you can even hire War General-level warriors, or even War God-level warriors, to provide you with one-on-one teaching and guidance via the network. Naturally, you will need to pay enough money for this."

The girl in the video smiled, "If you have enough contribution points, the prices of the aforementioned items will all be halved!"

Guan Ning skipped the rest; after all, he had already learned about these things through his parents.

Thinking of this, Guan Ning suddenly remembered his parents' dying instructions. He went to the basement, where a dark gray safe sat in the corner—a legacy left by his parents.

They had specifically warned him never to leak any information about the safe. Their expressions at the time had been exceptionally grave. According to them, the safe had a special structure; besides requiring a fingerprint verification, it also required a certain level of physical strength to retrieve the items inside.

Guan Ning was very curious about what was inside. He had tried before, but his strength hadn't been enough. He wondered if his current strength would suffice.

"Beep!"

After the fingerprint verification, the surface of the safe recessed, revealing a layer of gel. Guan Ning focused his mind and gathered his energy, throwing a punch that carried a fierce gust of wind as it slammed into the surface.

"Bang!"

His fist, containing 4,500 kilograms of immense force, landed on the gel layer. The gel trembled, and a dark gray box was suddenly ejected from within it.

"Cling."

The box landed on the floor with a crisp sound of impact.

Guan Ning opened the box to find a yellowed paper booklet, a flash drive, and a letter.

"Ning'er, the booklet below is a set of martial arts manuals your grandfather collected when he was young. Back then, martial arts novels were sweeping the country, and your grandfather followed the trend and bought many manuals, like the Nine Yang Manual, the Nine Yin Manual, the Yi Jin Jing, and so on. In that era, no one took these martial arts manuals seriously."

"Unexpectedly, after the Great Nirvana, I managed to learn one of the manuals by chance. The name of this manual is Dugu Sword Art. The hero who created this sword technique was called Dugu Qiubai; in martial arts novels, one only hears his name but never sees the man. We used to think he was a fictional character, but now it seems he might have truly existed in history..."

"I won't ramble on. I was only seven or eight years old when the Great Nirvana broke out, and by the time the situation stabilized, I was already twenty. Our aptitude wasn't very good, and we only reached the High-Level Warrior rank thanks to this manual. We learned less than one percent of it, so you must never leak it until you have sufficient strength, or it will surely bring a fatal disaster upon you. Remember this well. --Guan Hong"

"Ning'er, when you see this letter, it means your father and I have met with misfortune. In the days to come, we cannot be by your side. You must live well, you must. --Tang Xuan."

Seeing that familiar handwriting, Guan Ning thought of the warm scenes of their family reunited in the past. A mist of water clouded his eyes, and his vision gradually blurred.

Guan Ning wiped away a tear and carefully examined the yellowed booklet.

The cover only bore the four characters Dugu Sword Art, and on the title page was a sentence: "A tree that fills the arms grows from a tiny sprout; a nine-story terrace rises from a pile of earth; a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Guan Ning nodded; he deeply agreed with this sentiment. If he hadn't focused on his foundation, how could he have mastered Micro-Level movement and Mastery-Level sword techniques now? This was the importance of a foundation.

The second page was an overview of the manual, along with Guan Hong's annotations.

"This manual integrates sword techniques, movement, and Guiding Techniques into one."

"The first layer consists of nine ordinary sword moves and one ultimate sword move."

"The first layer focuses on speed; of all martial arts under heaven, only speed cannot be broken. The final ultimate sword move is also called the 'Swift Sword'."

"Speed can leave the opponent with no time to defend!"

"Speed can make your sword invincible! Whether from the perspective of attacking weak points or absolute power, making your sword fast is the best method!"

Guan Ning nodded as he read. This principle was actually understood by the vast majority of warriors in human society today; basically, everyone knew the mass-energy equivalence.

With a fixed mass, the faster the speed, the more terrifying the energy it contains! When the speed reaches a certain level, even a water jet can pierce steel—isn't the most intuitive example a waterjet cutter?

Below was another line of text in a clearly different handwriting—Guan's Father's annotation:

"Completion of the first layer means integrating the 'Swift Sword' into every strike. The body amplitude is 2x, meaning a 1x increase in power; after practicing the Guiding Technique, cultivation speed increases by 1x. The sword technique realm reaches 'Mastery'; movement will also enter the 'Micro' realm."

Seeing this, Guan Ning's breathing became rapid, and he hurriedly read on.

"The second layer consists of thirty-six ordinary sword moves and one ultimate sword move."

"This layer focuses on technique; the sword takes an unconventional path, never starting where it ends. The final ultimate sword move is also called the 'Hidden Edge Sword'."

"The sword body is slender and light, prioritizing speed, taking the initiative, and focusing on offense. The sword user must have agile movement, exquisite moves, and rely on strange tactics to win."

Guan Hong's annotation: "Completion of the second layer means integrating the 'Hidden Edge Sword' into every strike. The body amplitude is 4x, meaning a 3x increase in power; after practicing the Guiding Technique, cultivation speed increases by 3x; sword technique is perfected; movement becomes Perfect-Level."

As he read, Guan Ning felt a sense of familiarity and thought of something unbelievable. He immediately looked down, and sure enough.

"The third level consists of nine ordinary sword moves and one ultimate sword move."

"This level focuses on power; a heavy sword has no edge, for true skill lies in simplicity. The final ultimate move is called the 'Mountain Crushing Sword'."

"The heavy sword is a higher level of technique, the ultimate manifestation of power. When a heavy sword strikes, though it lacks exquisite speed, it carries a force that one must block, yet cannot possibly block."

Guan Hong's annotation: "I have not yet cultivated the third level, but here is my conjecture: upon perfecting the third level and integrating the 'Mountain Crushing Sword' into every strike, the body amplitude will reach 8 times, meaning a 7-fold increase in power; after practicing the Guiding Technique, cultivation speed will increase by 7 times."

The more Guan Ning read, the more excited he became. His face gradually flushed, his breathing grew rapid, and his body trembled slightly.

"The fourth level contains only one hundred and eight ordinary sword moves."

"This level focuses on Conception-Level. When these one hundred and eight sword moves are fused into one, one can reach the realm of 'Ten Thousand Swords from One'."

Guan Hong's conjecture: "Upon perfecting the fourth level, 'Ten Thousand Swords from One', the body amplitude will reach 16 times, meaning a 15-fold increase in power; after practicing the Guiding Technique, cultivation speed will increase by 15 times."

After finishing, Guan Ning's heart was in turmoil. He affirmed Guan's Father's conjectures regarding the Dugu Sword Art.

First level perfected—Sword Technique "Specialized", Movement Technique "Micro-Level".

Then second level perfected—Sword Technique "Perfect-Level", Movement Technique "Perfect-Level".

Third level—Sword Technique "Conception-Level", Movement Technique "Conception-Level"?

Could the perfected fourth level truly be "Domain"?

A secret technique pointing directly to Domain is not exactly common even in the universe. According to the descriptions in the original work, before Babata was revealed, there was not a single secret technique on Earth that pointed directly to Domain.

Perhaps Hong's World Destroyer spear technique had a trace of Domain?

And it didn't end there.

First level—body amplitude 2 times, cultivation speed increased by 1 time;

Second level—body amplitude 4 times, cultivation speed increased by 3 times;

Third level—body amplitude 8 times, cultivation speed increased by 7 times;

Fourth level—body amplitude 16 times, cultivation speed increased by 15 times.

This could be called a massive "surprise"!

Surprise, my foot; this is a massive shock, alright!

Moreover, the secret manual with the highest body amplitude on Earth is Thor's Nine-Layered Thunder Blade, which only has an amplitude of 7 times. For the Basic Sword Technique to reach 16 times is simply horrifying.

The increase in cultivation speed not only accelerates the growth of strength, but also the speed of soul transformation. For Guan Ning right now, this is a blessing from the heavens!

"Whether it is the sword technique realm, body amplitude, or cultivation speed, the leak of any one of these would absolutely drive the martial artists on Earth insane. The matter of this secret manual must never be leaked."

Guan Ning now realized the preciousness and terrifying nature of this secret manual.