New Sword Skill Realm

"Huh?! My friend said Xu Ziming made a bet with Zhao Yong from Class 3 to duel during the streaming assessment in four days!"

A cry of surprise shattered the standoff.

The person who had been acting fearful a moment ago burst into laughter.

"Hahaha, Zhao Yong? Is that the Zhao Yong who's in the school's top ten and receives a first-class scholarship?"

He looked at Xu Ziming with an arrogant expression, as if he were Zhao Yong himself.

Xu Ziming didn't speak; he wasn't the type to be easily provoked, so he simply stared at him with an indifferent gaze.

He had no time to waste here messing around with this trash.

"Then I'll wish you a great victory in advance, hahaha."

He laughed loudly, clearly just looking for a show and convinced that Xu Ziming couldn't possibly win.

It wasn't just him; most people, even those who had just been admiring Xu Ziming, felt he was being far too irrational.

Zhao Yong had been in the school's top ten for three full years; the Martial Way was like a snowball—the stronger one's strength, the better the resources.

The better the resources, the stronger one's strength naturally became.

Xu Ziming was just from an ordinary family; where did he get the confidence to say he could definitely beat Zhao Yong?

"What kind of bullshit Zhao Yong? It'll only take one sword strike for A-Ming to crush him!" Dai Fei shouted immediately, stepping aggressively between the two.

"Fine, then I'll just wait and see."

Although the powerful one wasn't him, once a competition started, he absolutely could not back down.

He gritted his teeth, agreed, and then slunk away in embarrassment.

"What kind of people are these? We're all in the same class, yet they're so hostile." Dai Fei scratched his head and looked back at Xu Ziming with a grin.

"A-Ming, are you really confident you can take down that Zhao Yong guy?"

"When have I ever lied to you? Just wait; I'm going to win!"

Dai Fei: ...Didn't you tell me before that you'd never secretly grind and that we were going to go to college together?

Of course, he didn't say that out loud.

Leaving the classroom, Xu Ziming immediately went to the combat training room and entered the Virtual Pod.

In yesterday's match, the marksmanship of that "Angry Haki-mi" seemed to have reached a new realm.

Every movement combined the application of his spear techniques with his blood-qi, achieving zero wasted energy.

Today, he wanted to see if he could reach the threshold of that realm.

Picking up the Type-1 Zero-Energy Sword, he assumed the stance he had used when he first started practicing sword techniques—the Opening Stance of the Basic Sword Method.

[Basic Sword Method (Entry, 87.9%)]

After five days of practice, the Basic Sword Method was almost about to break through the entry level.

At first, he had also wondered if mastering the sword intent was possible just by reaching the entry level, but after finding many cases online, he realized that wasn't the case at all.

Sword intent was purely a matter of talent; if one's talent was good enough, they could master it even without reaching the entry level, but if the talent was lacking, it was useless even if one practiced the Basic Sword Method to perfection.

And for Xu Ziming, who possessed the Natural Sword Bone, there were no issues regarding talent.

This allowed him to immediately master a realm that children of wealthy families took over a decade to achieve.

However, spending too much time focusing on the Basic Body Forging Method had made him somewhat lax in his sword practice, leaving him with nothing but repetitive routines and a lack of the agility that should be uniquely his own.

Thinking of this, he tightened his grip on the sword, calmed his mind, and fully immersed himself in the sword technique.

Ten minutes, twenty minutes, an hour.

Time ticked away bit by bit. Xu Ziming stood motionless with the longsword in his hand, as if a pause button had been pressed on time itself.

Yet, the aura around him grew increasingly imposing, several times stronger than when he had first condensed his sword intent.

Finally, after two hours of stillness, he moved, as if his Ren and Du meridians had suddenly been opened.

Streams of blood-qi surged through his body, forming the shape of a sword, circulating through his meridians, and radiating sword-qi from his entire body.

Then, his movements accelerated: thrust, flick, hack, parry. One by one, the movements he had performed countless times came to life in his hands.

The surrounding air seemed to cheer for him, emitting a series of sonic booms under his sword dance.

The sword-qi surged, at times like a gale, at times like a drizzle, at times full of vitality, and at times filled with murderous intent.

Finally, the dance of the sword seemed to reach a certain limit, and everything became a little different.

He stood there as if he had merged with the sword, becoming the sword itself, the incarnation of the blade.

"Bang!" The aura on his body surged violently, only to be retracted in an instant.

The blood-qi that had been surging within his body gradually calmed down.

"Hoo—" Xu Ziming let out a long breath.

The entire day had passed, and by now, the moon outside had climbed high into the sky.

Yet he felt not the slightest fatigue, for through the constant practice of his swordplay, he had thoroughly mastered the manipulation of his internal qi and blood, no longer wasting them recklessly.

Within his status panel, his Basic Sword Method had finally stepped into a new realm.

[Basic Sword Method (Minor Accomplishment 1.8%)]

Refreshing; it had been so long since he felt this refreshed. Ever since he obtained the Equipment Slot, he had been pushing himself relentlessly for the past week.

He could not let his teacher down, he could not let his parents down, and he must not waste this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

He simply had not realized that he had actually sacrificed so much in the process.

But at this very moment, he understood that cultivating the Martial Way was a process of enduring hardship.

And these hardships were merely the things he would one day dismiss while standing at the pinnacle of the world as: "Nothing but a little wind and frost!"

Exiting the Virtual Pod, Xu Ziming strolled out of the campus.

The night breeze brushed past, cool and comfortable. It was only March, the perfect season for spring blossoms.

However, it was already late, the moon hung high in the branches, and he had no heart to admire it.

"Damn, it's almost eight o'clock. I wonder if my family is worried."

Usually, Xu Ziming would leave shortly after school and arrive home by seven at the latest, but now he was a full hour late.

He could not help but worry, yet when he opened his watch and saw no messages from his mother, his heart finally settled.

After quickly sending a text to his mother to explain that he might be home a little late, Xu Ziming found his bicycle.

Although it was spring, Suzhe Province had no nightlife; by eight o'clock, there were hardly any pedestrians on the streets.

Most of the places still lit up were martial arts tutoring centers, where children were sweating profusely, all diligently practicing the Basic Body Forging Method.

Just as he returned to his residential complex, Xu Ziming sensed that something was slightly off.

He could not quite describe it, but it was a visceral sense of physical discomfort.

"Hum, hum, hum." A strange sound rang in his ears. He looked up to see a bizarre figure emerging from the darkness.

The only thing he could see clearly was a deep, jagged scar on the man's left cheek.