Tiger-and-Dragon Two Forms, Dragon-Form Great Cleave

At the third quarter of the hour of the Rat, the moon shone bright and the stars were sparse.

Having crawled out of bed, Du Chengfeng always felt that his recent schedule had become somewhat strange. This habit of sleeping by day and moving by night did not seem very healthy—but when it came to sharpening blades, he still felt it was better done at night. Especially when the moonlight was bright: sitting quietly in the courtyard and sharpening a blade simply felt more fitting, and made it easier for him to lose himself in it.

It was at this moment, when he was at his most attuned, that Du Chengfeng took out the long saber named Broken Horse once more.

With the long saber in hand, Du Chengfeng first practiced the saber technique from his memories known as the "Tiger-and-Dragon Two Forms."

Though Liu Qingyun, the saber's original owner, had given the technique an imposing name, its underlying principle was not especially complicated—the so-called tiger and dragon referred to the posture of the spine. The tiger was contraction, the dragon expansion. Between contraction and expansion, the entire torso became like a spring, fully converting the force of one's feet pressing against the earth into the power of a forward saber swing.

Though the principle was simple, the practical application of the Tiger-and-Dragon Two Forms went far beyond that. While Liu Qingyun himself was most skilled at that exceedingly swift draw slash, Du Chengfeng had also come to understand, while sharpening the saber, that Liu Qingyun had once used contraction and expansion to practice other saber techniques.

For instance, Tiger Leap was a method for swiftly pouncing upon an enemy. Those who mastered it could cross five paces in a single rise and fall. Or Flying Dragon Blade: this upward saber stroke was a means of extending one's striking range. Once mastered, one could, in the instant between contraction and expansion, slash a full foot farther than one's opponent.

Yet there were also techniques involving contraction and expansion that Liu Qingyun himself could not use.

"...Dragon-Form Great Cleave?"

Recalling that saber technique in his mind, then looking at the Broken Horse long saber in his hand, Du Chengfeng quickly understood why.

The saber technique called Dragon-Form Great Cleave was a cleaving strike that poured all one's force into the blade's edge. The spine contracted and expanded like a soaring dragon, while both hands chopped down like a tiger descending the mountain. It could be called the pinnacle strike of the Tiger-and-Dragon Two Forms, and the most formidable slash Liu Qingyun had envisioned—yet this most tyrannical stroke, born from the principles of contraction and expansion, was one Liu Qingyun himself had been unable to use.

At its root, it was because this Broken Horse could not withstand such a move.

Its overly long blade gave Broken Horse a tremendous striking range, but that same excessive length also meant that when the saber delivered a heavy, powerful chop, the forward portion of the blade could very well shatter on the spot. Liu Qingyun had once used five-foot wooden sabers, comparable in length to Broken Horse, to test this technique. Without exception, every wooden saber had snapped.

Only two paths remained before Liu Qingyun: either change sabers, replacing it with a relatively shorter but sturdier blade, or abandon the move and continue researching other techniques.

After weighing the pros and cons from every angle, Liu Qingyun ultimately chose to abandon the move.

The advantage in attack range brought by a five-foot saber was simply too great. Once he had solved the issue of draw speed, that advantage in range allowed Liu Qingyun to utterly crush his opponents in most battles.

Thus, even after seeing a farther road ahead, Liu Qingyun had ultimately chosen to seek another path.

And that choice, in a sense, had also doomed Liu Qingyun's death in that duel.

"Ah..."

Thinking of this, Du Chengfeng could not help sighing.

In his view, Liu Qingyun had risen from a poor saber wielder who possessed only a single string of coins to build such a great name for himself. He lacked neither ability nor skill. Yet his flaw of looking before and behind, hesitating and wavering, had persisted all along.

Indeed, in ordinary times, this might be regarded as making plans before acting, as the bearing of a mature and prudent man. But in the instant of a fight to the death, if one could not make a judgment in the blink of an eye, the only outcome would be blood staining the yellow earth and tears scattering across the vast sky.

And this was also where the gap between Liu Qingyun and the swordsman Cui Yuan was greatest.

Though the swordsman Cui Yuan was somewhat insane, he had relied on his own peerless willpower to suppress the Wind-Riding Sword in his hand, a sword that had already slain more than two hundred people. It was only when he needed to fight a life-and-death duel that he came here to sharpen his sword, so as to preserve his best condition.

But Liu Qingyun was different.

Accustomed to looking before and behind, Liu Qingyun simply could not suppress the Sha Qi of this Broken Horse. Thus, like ordinary saber wielders, he could only frequently spend great sums to hire sharpening craftsmen to help sharpen his saber.

And that was another reason Du Chengfeng had taken this saber out.

"Interesting..."

Inspecting the Broken Horse long saber in his hand, now sharpened until it looked brand-new, Du Chengfeng narrowed his eyes.

When he had sharpened it during the day, as he experienced the long saber's past, he had indeed felt everything it had gone through. Yet the scenes of slaughter, the images of lives being taken, had all seemed somewhat blurry—like ink spreading through a wash painting. He could sense that something, or some method, had softened all of its savage and terrifying side.

In fact, it was not only that savage and terrifying side.

By rights, when experiencing this saber's past, he should have been able to feel the sharpening process from back then as well. Yet this very thing that interested Du Chengfeng most was a complete blank, as if it had never happened.

"Don't tell me this saber has amnesia?"

At the thought, Du Chengfeng shook his head and laughed.

Could a saber lose its memory? That sounded rather unlikely. After all, before going to sleep during the day, he had already tested it: even if the weapons he had sharpened were sharpened again, he could still see the memories attached to them.

In other words, at the very least, his own sharpening definitely would not cause a weapon to lose its memory.

"So it isn't the sharpening itself that is the problem."

Du Chengfeng quickly reached a conclusion.

Then, since there was nothing wrong with the process of sharpening itself, the only difference between the two sides was their methods.

Clearly, the sharpening craftsman Liu Qingyun had sought used a method completely different from Du Chengfeng's own. This had directly caused the weapons they sharpened to display entirely different conditions.

"How exactly was this done?"

Du Chengfeng grew ever more puzzled.

So he placed Broken Horse beneath the moonlight.

Indeed, when it came to the memories of being sharpened, Broken Horse had truly lost its memory. But every sharpening would ultimately leave traces upon the blade.

And now, what Du Chengfeng intended to do was use the sharpening marks left upon this long saber to sense in reverse the method used by that sharpening craftsman back then.

This perception was extraordinarily subtle, so slight as to be nearly imperceptible. Only in the stillness of midnight could it be pondered.

And as his palm gently stroked the blade, an image vaguely emerged in Du Chengfeng's mind.

It was a bowl of ink and an inkstone.