"Phew!"
"Inhale!"
"Phew!"
"..."
As the sounds continued, everyone seated cross-legged in the quiet room adjusted their breathing in time with them.
Using visualization alongside breathing to cultivate the mind, visualization was important, but breathing mattered even more.
The rhythm of one's breathing, however, wasn't set in stone. It had to be adjusted according to each person's constitution; there was no such thing as everyone breathing at exactly the same pace.
Still, although no two people breathed in precisely the same way, the human body wasn't a machine that needed accuracy down to the tiniest fraction. A slight difference in rhythm wouldn't cause any ill effects at worst, the results would simply be less effective.
The Swordsman's eyesight and swordsmanship expertise were undoubtedly exceptional. When it came to this basic breathing method, he guided Zhao Cheng and the others with ease.
Even though he used an average breathing rhythm, the results couldn't compare to one-on-one instruction. But they were still far more effective than figuring things out on one's own or following an audio or video found online.
There was a reason private lessons from a Swordsman were so expensive.
Of course, Qingyuan also had students who could afford them. They looked down on the school's public swordsmanship classes and instead paid for one-on-one instruction after class.
But for ordinary students, the school's swordsmanship classes were the best teaching resource available.
That was one reason people online had claimed it was unfair to the other students in Xiangnan.
Being guided through practice was more effective, but more importantly, the guidance helped correct bad breathing habits.
The benefits might not be noticeable in the short term. But extend the timeline to five, ten, or twenty years, and the difference would grow immense through years of accumulated practice.
Zhao Cheng breathed along with the guiding voice, his hands resting on the wooden sword across his legs as he visualized inwardly and let his body go slack.
The delicate fragrance in his nose cleared his mind and helped him focus even more.
The source of the scent was an incense burner in the quiet room. The incense had a calming effect on the mind and was quite expensive—not something an ordinary person could afford.
Although the voice guided his breathing rhythm, Zhao Cheng didn't follow it completely. Over the course of each breathing cycle, his rhythm differed ever so slightly for about five percent of the time, sometimes a little faster, sometimes a little slower. Overall, though, it remained close to the guided pace.
Zhao Cheng's body was adapting—or rather, naturally assimilating the breathing method, making it better suited to him.
As long as he practiced, he made progress, however infinitesimal it might be.
This was undoubtedly a kind of ability akin to an "innate power."
Of course, there was still a difference between making progress by figuring things out on one's own and making progress under someone's instruction and guidance.
If some piece of future technology had been monitoring Zhao Cheng's body at that moment, the changes would probably have looked something like this: Breathing Method proficiency +1, +1, +1.
It wasn't until nearly twenty minutes later that the voice suddenly called, "Stop!"
At once, everyone's breathing caught. Their rhythm was interrupted, their visualization ended, and their minds snapped back to reality.
"Cultivation depends on balancing tension and release. Visualization without restraint isn't a good thing. Even a spirit that endures ten thousand calamities cannot attain sainthood. A fragile body cannot support a powerful mind; it will only consume the source of your life."
"Everyone up. Assemble in District 3 outside!"
The voice abruptly shifted from gentle to stern.
After nearly twenty minutes of practicing the Breathing Visualization Method, everyone in the room was now brimming with energy, showing none of the fatigue that came from a full day of classes.
That was the effect of the Breathing Visualization Method: nourishing and cultivating the mind!
Of the two, nourishment outweighed cultivation.
To truly reap the benefits of nourishment and cultivation, they still needed to practice Dynamic Practice.
By combining stillness and movement, they could effectively train both their bodies and their minds.
However, there were limits to how long one could practice the visualization breathing method, at least for someone like Zhao Cheng.
It wasn't possible to practice Static Practice first to rest and recover, then train Dynamic Practice until utterly exhausted, and finally use Static Practice to recuperate.
That was because the nourishment provided by the breathing method wasn't genuine rest. It stimulated and excavated one's potential and the source of one's life.
Practicing the breathing method once in a short period excavated one's potential; practicing it twice would consume the source of one's life. It wouldn't refresh the mind at all—instead, it would leave one even more exhausted.
Forcing oneself past one's limits would lead to premature aging in the short term, and, if prolonged, sudden death.
When Zhao Cheng had first awakened his memories, he had studied this subject in depth, hoping to find the most efficient way to practice.
District 3 was tucked away in a corner of the facility. Inside, the only enclosed rooms were the quiet room and the changing room; the rest of the space was divided into sections with lines on the floor.
When practicing Static Practice, the space needed to be small, making it easier to enter Quietude. But when practicing Dynamic Practice, the surroundings had to be open. Only with an expansive view could the mind move freely.
As he walked toward District 3, Zhao Cheng's gaze lingered on the instructor at the head of the group.
The instructor looked to be only in his thirties, though in truth he was nearing fifty. He was a tall, middle-aged man with broad, sturdy hands.
What drew the most attention, though, was his back. It remained straight as a towering mountain, radiating a powerful presence.
Zhao Cheng knew this was one of the traits of a Swordsman. Once the mind had become sufficiently pure and solid, it gave rise to a presence of its own.
But compared to the mind, a Swordsman's body was even more formidable.
At the pinnacle of the Swordsman realm, when the mind had been purified to the utmost and the body refined to its limit, every movement could concentrate all one's strength into a single point within an inch.
Ordinary people could make use of only twenty percent of their strength—and that was assuming they were skilled in force-generation techniques. Otherwise, they could use even less.
This wasn't a matter of Skill but of differences in the human body's structure.
Scientific research had shown that a Swordsman's nervous system was far more developed than an ordinary person's.
This was a form of spontaneous bodily evolution—or, one might say, adaptation—triggered by the purification of the mind.
Using the mind to drive the body and force it to evolve: that was the key to this world's cultivation system.
Once they reached District 3, the instructor didn't need to give any orders. The group formed up on their own, then spread out to leave space between them. At the call to begin, they each took up a wooden sword and started going through the motions, one move at a time.
This was Dynamic Practice!
Together with the Static Practice they had done earlier, this made up the complete 17th Basic Swordsmanship 6th Revised Edition.
The earliest version of this swordsmanship had originated a century ago. At the signal of a prominent national leader, the country had gathered a large number of renowned martial artists. After five years of exhaustive research and countless revisions, they had finally produced the first draft of a basic swordsmanship system.
Over the century that followed, the system had continued to evolve.
By now, this swordsmanship might not have been the fastest way to build a foundation, nor the most effective, and its foundation might not have been the deepest. But it was certainly the most reliable, the easiest to learn, and the best suited to ordinary people.