10 Million Arrives

The cloaked man's position and Xu Ziming's line of sight were completely mismatched; unknowingly, Xu Ziming's vision had been compromised by the sound of the musical instrument.

Not good!

Before his attack even landed on the cloaked man, Xu Ziming knew things were going south.

Because he had no idea when the next strike would come, he immediately shut his eyes.

Why?

Because he needed to rely on the perception granted by the Sword Saint Body Technique to forcibly sense the cloaked man's location.

This attempt was truly extraordinary; sometimes eyes can deceive you, but the body's instincts never do.

Faintly, he could feel a trace of pain emanating from the right side of his body.

"There!" His eyes snapped open, the Jinghong Sword in his right hand instantly unsheathed, and he slashed out in the span of a single breath.

Just as his body's perception had indicated, the cloaked man was indeed right in front of him, and the sword strike landed squarely on his face.

"Squelch!"

The blade knocked off his hood and used the momentum to force the two of them apart.

As he landed back on the ground, Xu Ziming finally saw the face of the cloaked man in the distance.

It was a face that wasn't particularly outstanding, yet not entirely mediocre either.

Regrettably, he had no impression of him whatsoever.

As Xu Ziming knocked off his hood, the man with the ID Guest Among Pines finally showed a hint of emotion on his face.

"Basic Sword Method?" His voice reached Xu Ziming's ears, sounding somewhat incredulous.

Ever since Xu Ziming began cultivating to condense his sword intent, he had used nothing but the Basic Sword Method; he had yet to practice the Five Prison Sword Art gifted to him by Ma Mingyu.

Therefore, up until now, all his attacks had consisted merely of chops, stabs, parries, sweeps, and the occasional sword qi.

It wasn't that he didn't want to use some flashy-sounding sword techniques, but rather that he simply didn't know any.

"It is indeed the Basic Sword Method." Xu Ziming looked ahead, his face expressionless; all his words were contained within his sword.

"Fine, fine, fine. Let me see just how well you've cultivated this Basic Sword Method." A hint of anger appeared on the face of Guest Among Pines.

In his view, someone capable of possessing such sword skill at this age couldn't possibly only know the Basic Sword Method.

The opponent using only the Basic Sword Method to attack was a sign of contempt toward him.

The next moment, a sound more soul-shaking than the last erupted from Guest Among Pines.

This was an advanced musical attack, sufficient to interfere with even Xu Ziming's instincts.

And that was exactly what happened; under this melody, he was completely unable to think.

It was as if his five senses had been stripped away, leaving only his hearing to run wild.

Xu Ziming felt as though he were in a void where time and space could not be perceived.

In this world, nothing existed—only the boundless, grating music and the sword in his hand!

The synergy between the Sword Saint Body Technique and the Natural Sword Bone allowed him to sense the sword in his hand at any moment, as if the blade were a part of his own body.

His body's five senses were sealed, but the sword's were not; in the darkness, he heard the Jinghong Sword's cry.

Since he could not trust himself, he would trust the sword in his hand!

Almost subconsciously, Xu Ziming completely abandoned control over the sword, letting the sword move on its own.

From the perspective of Guest Among Pines, Xu Ziming had stopped moving the moment he heard the melody, his hand merely trembling as he gripped the sword.

"Nothing special, just posturing with the Basic Sword Method." After all, he was a high school student, and he certainly detested such posturing.

The reason for his detestation was mostly: why wasn't it him?

Thinking of this, Guest Among Pines no longer had the patience to waste time with Xu Ziming.

Instead, he clenched his right fist, intending to finish Xu Ziming off with basic fist techniques.

Unfortunately, he was wrong!

The moment his body neared Xu Ziming, Xu Ziming moved—no, to be precise, the Jinghong Sword moved.

Without relying on Xu Ziming's strength, the Jinghong Sword moved on its own, carrying an indomitable momentum that sliced off half of Guest Among Pines's fist.

"Ah!" A scream escaped his lips, shattering the previously balanced influence of the melody, and Xu Ziming's consciousness successfully broke free.

"You could have killed me directly, yet you chose to use basic fist techniques. You're the one who's posturing!"

Xu Ziming didn't give the man in front of him another chance to struggle; he flipped his elbow, thrust the Jinghong Sword forward, and ended the match.

[Ranked match victory, star rating increased by one]

[Current Rank: Silver IV, two stars]

[Please continue to work hard]

Listening to the voice in his ears, Xu Ziming did not immediately choose to queue for another ranked match, but instead rested for a moment.

The brief influence of the melody just now had placed immense pressure on his mind.

"It is time to choose a mental cultivation method."

Thinking of this, he instinctively glanced at his wristband; the wristband existed within the Battle Net space and could receive messages in real-time.

[Account Credit: 10,000,000 Blue Star Coin]

[Nebula Martial Hall martial arts library has been connected to your account wristband; you may browse at any time]

[Congratulations on becoming a distinguished S-Class Contract user of Nebula Martial Hall]

The money from signing the S-Class Contract had finally arrived, and even the martial arts library of Nebula Martial Hall was now open to him.

At this very moment, what Xu Ziming wanted most was to call his father, who was still on the front lines, and tell him to retire and return home as soon as possible. However, due to the tense situation at the front, the time for each contact was fixed, so he had to set that aside for now.

He had originally been unsure of what type of martial technique to choose, but after the battle just now, Xu Ziming decided to select a mental cultivation method.

He opened the library section, and since he was obtaining it for free, Xu Ziming did not need to consider the price.

After filtering out some of the lower-end options, he sorted them by the difficulty of cultivation.

With the Equipment Slot acting as a cheat, he naturally wanted to choose those that were extremely difficult to cultivate but yielded excellent results.

In reality, the total number of mental tempering methods in the entire library was not large, and after Xu Ziming's screening, only two remained before his eyes.

One was called the Great Sun Visualization Method, which required one to catch the first ray of morning sunlight at sunrise every day to stimulate and temper the mind.

Because the daily cultivation time was limited and the direct scorching of the mind by the sun was extremely painful, it was difficult to practice, though the results were quite impressive.

According to the description of the technique, as long as one mastered the basics and persisted for a month, their mental strength would be at least three times what it was before cultivation.

The second was the special Nebula Mental Tempering Method from within Nebula Martial Hall; this technique seemed to have been successfully cultivated by the hall master alone.

It was something Fang Xingyun had brought back from an alien secret realm.

Because his strength was formidable and he did not know its name, he simply named it after himself, changing this mental tempering method into the Nebula Mental Tempering Method.

"These predecessors are truly casual, but why is he the only one who can cultivate it?"