But in the end, she still won. It wasn't because her swordsmanship was superior, but because Zhao Cheng's stamina could no longer keep up.
"Though I don't want to admit it, you really are a swordsmanship prodigy seen only once in a hundred years..."
"Damn it!"
Li Huang'er said. Though she was drenched in sweat, her breathing remained fairly even.
As for Zhao Cheng, he was panting like a toad, gulping down breath after breath as if he wanted to finish all the oxygen he would ever need in one go.
"It's just that your stamina is too poor. When I was twelve, I was stronger than you."
Li Huang'er said.
At this point, Zhao Cheng no longer cared about her sharp tongue. When he had been swinging his sword with all his strength earlier, he hadn't felt it, but now that he had suddenly stopped, he only felt as though he were about to drop dead.
"As for sword techniques, there's nothing more I can teach you. Your combat instincts are outrageous. What you need most now is to cultivate an inner method and refine yourself."
Li Huang'er said.
"Though the path of swordsmanship is endlessly varied, put simply, it consists of two paths: external arts and inner methods. External arts are swordsmanship techniques, the power to kill enemies. Inner methods are ways of strengthening the body—through visualization and breathing, they improve the brain's focus and the speed of neural reflexes."
Zhao Cheng found this easy enough to understand. The attributes raised by external arts were skill and strength, while inner methods raised willpower and Agility.
Roughly speaking, external arts alone could only train dead muscle. You might have strength, but you couldn't fight. When strength was combined with Agility, that strength came alive and became explosive power.
And