Recording the Sword Manual, Talent Rises

Amid the ringing of swords, the world spun.

When he regained consciousness, Li Mu's entire awareness had entered the Sword Talisman Space.

Before him stood the black iron table, now with a brush and a book upon it. The book lay open, its pages entirely blank.

The table was no longer dim either, but glowed with a faint white light.

"Evolution Two, the Sword-Inquiring Platform?"

Li Mu sat down in his consciousness form, picked up the brush, and ran his fingers over the pages. The sensation was clear, no different from reality.

A notification immediately appeared.

[Dripping Water Swordsmanship has reached the Beginner level and may be recorded.]

"Recorded?" Li Mu froze for a moment, then immediately understood the purpose of the Sword-Inquiring Platform.

As long as he sat down and held the brush, it could automatically draw out his memories and insights from the swordsmanship he had cultivated and record them.

Only swordsmanship that had reached Beginner level or above could be recorded.

"Each time a swordsmanship is completely recorded, my swordsmanship talent will increase?" Once Li Mu clearly sensed the information, he was stunned.

The white-robed instructor had said it before: without talent, ascending to the heavens would be easier!

Talent was the threshold for all martial arts.

Without talent, even if a divine technique lay right before one's eyes, one still could not master it.

Yet now, he could improve his talent by recording the sword techniques he had learned?

Record it! He had to record it!

At a thought, vast amounts of training memories and insights regarding Dripping Water Swordsmanship surged forth.

These memories and insights had not come from reading a sword manual, but from the genuine experience of practicing the sword hundreds of times.

He did not need to exert any force. The brush moved with his thoughts.

What he wrote was the content of his mind; he did not need a drop of ink.

As the brush danced across the page, every move Li Mu had practiced became diagrams of little figures accompanied by explanatory text.

The more he wrote, the deeper his understanding of Dripping Water Swordsmanship became. He even faintly sensed that several imperceptible flaws had been filled in.

His understanding of the "Rain Thorn" sword intent also rose to another level.

The brush stopped.

The sword manual was complete.

[Beginner-level Dripping Water Swordsmanship completely recorded. Swordsmanship talent +10.]

A notification appeared.

Li Mu saw that the recorded information on the Evolution One wall beside him had changed:

[Talisman Master: Li Mu]

[Qi and Blood: 4.7↑]

[Spirit: 10.0]

[Swordsmanship Talent: 20.0 (White)]

[Recorded Sword Manual: Beginner-level Dripping Water Swordsmanship completely recorded. Swordsmanship talent increased by 10.0.]

[Evolution One: Clear Sword Eyes; Evolution Two: Sword-Inquiring Platform]

"Recording it once gave me 10 points of talent." Li Mu smiled.

Ten points of talent was truly no small amount! It was enough to widen the gap between him and the other sword-testing slaves.

Next came Proficient, Minor Accomplishment, and Major Accomplishment.

If each one gave him another 10 points of talent...

Wouldn't recording this sword manual alone raise his talent to 50 points, reaching the Green grade?

Then he would be just like Steward Leng Shuangyu.

"Steward..." Li Mu's heart stirred.

Once he became a steward, he would not be far from becoming a core disciple. A steward held considerable authority and could move freely through nearly the entire manor, entering many important places.

One of them was the Sword Canon Tower, which Li Mu had quietly kept in mind.

The Sword Canon Tower stored eight thousand sword canons and had eight floors. Non-official disciples were forbidden from entering.

Stewards could freely access all eight floors, while ordinary disciples could only go as high as the fourth.

"I have the Great Expansion Sword Register. I need sword manuals, sword manuals of different levels... Sooner or later, I have to compete for the position of steward."

Li Mu's gaze was resolute.

At present, he had no great ambitions. He simply wanted to live well.

In this world where strength reigned supreme, to live well, he first had to strengthen himself and seize control of his circumstances.

At Hidden Sword Manor, that meant status, resources, and information.

None of these things would fall from the sky. Every one of them had to be fought for, starting with the servant examination.

"It's a pity I'm not surnamed Ye..."

Hidden Sword Manor belonged to the Ye family. During this time, he had also learned that the official disciples were actually all members of the Ye family, and most of them were men, including the stewards.

For an outsider like Leng Shuangyu, and a woman at that, to possess such talent and become a steward was truly rare...

Now that his swordsmanship had reached the Beginner level, Li Mu felt broad-minded, and his thoughts naturally turned toward two months later.

He slightly gathered his thoughts and turned to look at the enormous meteorite iron boulder on the right side of the black iron table.

"Evolution Three..."

Li Mu was greatly looking forward to the boulder's function.

Evolution Two could improve swordsmanship talent, so Evolution Three would surely aid his cultivation as well.

Clearly, the evolutions of the Great Expansion Sword Register were interconnected.

To unlock Evolution Three, it should be related to recording sword manuals.

"But the sword manual for Dripping Water Swordsmanship contains only this much. I completed one recording, yet Evolution Three has not opened."

"Could it be that I need to cultivate Dripping Water Swordsmanship to Major Accomplishment and record it four times before it counts as one complete recording?"

Li Mu faintly felt that he was right.

But that would take much longer.

"Besides, Evolution Two improves talent. I wonder whether Evolution Three can improve Qi and Blood?"

Li Mu had already deeply realized that Qi and Blood was a comprehensive manifestation of physique and strength.

It was the source of martial arts power and an important standard for measuring combat strength.

Cao A-Man's Qi and Blood was fully twice Li Mu's. Even without using sword moves, that brute strength alone could crush Li Mu.

His Qi and Blood was still at the bottom, which remained Li Mu's greatest concern.

This would likely affect the later sparring assessments.

"If I want to win steadily in sparring against anyone other than Cao A-Man, my Qi and Blood has to reach at least 6.0."

Li Mu had assessed it clearly.

With the cheat's support, reaching Proficient in Dripping Water Swordsmanship within two months and meeting the threshold for the servant examination would not be difficult.

Raising his Qi and Blood above 6.0 within two months, however, was the real challenge.

The fastest way to improve Qi and Blood was either eating meat or buying medicine.

But meat was too expensive. Li Mu had asked around: adding one piece of braised pork to his meal at the kitchen cost five copper coins.

A servant's monthly pay was pitifully low, only twenty copper coins. He could not even afford four pieces of meat!

Medicine was even more expensive than meat. The manor had a pharmacy, and one dose of Blood-Nourishing Powder cost one tael of silver.

In the end, it came down to one word: poor. Too poor... Li Mu sighed softly.

He withdrew from the Sword Talisman Space, and a slight wave of mental exhaustion washed over him.

Using the Great Expansion Sword Register consumed a considerable amount of mental energy each time.

Suppressing his discomfort, Li Mu quickly returned to the dormitory building and pushed open his door.

The sword-testing slaves' rooms were utterly plain: a small single-person compartment, a narrow door only one person could pass through, a bed, a table, and an oil lamp.

Li Mu was long accustomed to it. He dropped headfirst onto the hard wooden bed.

In the blink of an eye, four days passed.

On the training ground, figure after figure swung their swords in diligent practice.

The white-robed instructor, Zhao Meng, strolled through the grounds and nodded slightly.

More and more people were showing signs of reaching the Beginner level.

Wang Que, Cao A-Man... These few should be the fastest. Next would be...

Zhao Meng casually glanced at Li Mu. His swordsmanship was already very smooth; it only lacked that final trace of sword intent.

Li Mu had given him the impression of possessing average talent but a solid foundation. Over the last few days, he seemed to have caught up.

Zhao Meng stopped before Li Mu and offered a few pointers before moving on to the next person.

Many people cast envious looks his way.

"Are these people wasting their talent? Why haven't they reached the Beginner level yet?"

Li Mu paid them no mind. He did his best to suppress the urge to unleash his sword intent with every slash, unable to keep himself from feeling helpless.

During this time, he had secretly observed the others' progress. Gradually revealing strength close to the Beginner level had earned him Instructor Zhao Meng's attention.

However, Zhao Meng's pointers no longer did him much good.

His progress in Dripping Water Swordsmanship had already risen to 81 points.

After his swordsmanship talent increased to 20.0, each practice session gave him two points of progress, greatly accelerating his advancement.

He had also exchanged all of his monthly pay for one serving of braised pork each day and eaten every bit of it.

Yet his Qi and Blood remained at 4.7↑, never converting into an actual increase in points.

This made Li Mu unable to restrain his anxiety.

It seemed his body lacked meat more severely than he had thought.

His past nutrition had truly been too poor. Now that he was practicing martial arts, there was far too much deficiency in Qi and Blood to make up for.

"It's Wang Que! He's reached the Beginner level! That was so fast!" someone cried out.

"Instructor." Wang Que turned around, looking somewhat smug despite his freckled face.

"You've reached the Beginner level? Demonstrate it once more." Zhao Meng walked over and stared at Wang Que.

"Yes."

Facing the crowd, Wang Que fiercely thrust out his sword. Sure enough, a sharp sword intent shot forth.

Zhao Meng nodded in satisfaction. "Not bad. That is the 'Rain Thorn' sword intent. Wang Que, you may remain."

"Thank you, Instructor." When Wang Que returned to the line, a wave of envious discussion immediately arose.

Within the crowd.

Li Mu revealed a faint smile. At last, someone had broken through. Still, he had not expected Wang Que to reach the Beginner level before Cao A-Man.

In another couple of days, more people would do so. Later on, he would not have to hide his strength so painstakingly.

Right now, practicing the sword felt like being a prisoner wearing shackles.

Wang Que's earlier strike involuntarily flashed through his mind. Li Mu compared it to the thrust he had made when he first broke through and discovered something strange.

Why did Wang Que have so many flaws?

"Both are at the Beginner level, and both used the same move, 'Rain Thorn,' yet he has several flaws? In actual combat, those flaws... would be enough to kill him."

After thinking it through, Li Mu realized that without the enhancement of Clear Sword Eyes, even if he had successfully reached the Beginner level, he likely would not have done better than Wang Que.

"It is the effect of the Great Expansion Sword Register... It allows me to constantly summarize and correct myself, always keeping me on the most correct path."

Li Mu understood.

He had not expected that even martial arts at the same level could still differ subtly in quality...

However, with Clear Sword Eyes, he could reduce those flaws to the absolute minimum. That was likely something others could not achieve.