All I Wanted Was to Excel at Both Blade and Sword

Ever since he began practicing the sword, Duan Yun had never doubted his one-in-ten-thousand cultivation talent.

Facts proved that he truly was that kind of genius!

What he had told the Murong Brothers, aside from a bit of provocation, had all been the truth.

The Murong Brothers could not handle this "Twelvefold Spring Rain," leading to five melodramatic and unforgettable tragedies of doomed romance, but he could.

His father had fallen on hard times, so where would he get the chance to find him a half-sister born of the same father? Besides, he was the true one-in-ten-thousand cultivation prodigy!

He desperately wanted to know what was so marvelous about such a freakish blade technique.

Unfortunately, he had failed.

Though it was only autumn, the Murong Brothers had already gone into hibernation again like a snake.

Yes, ever since drinking and chatting with him that night, the other man had lain there without moving again.

Duan Yun had even seen a little spider crawl in and out of his nostril, yet he had not stirred.

Duan Yun suspected the man had defecated and urinated, only he had not seen it happen.

Since the other man did not wish to teach him, Duan Yun did not force him. After all, he was a righteous young hero, not some Old Devil bandit, so he could only focus on refining his self-created sword arts.

For five days in a row, Duan Yun practiced his sword beneath the moon each night.

It had to be said that this area near the graveyard mountain really was unlike other places. He always felt that even the night wind carried a chill, as though something were blowing against the back of his neck.

Whenever that happened, Duan Yun could not help looking toward where the Murong Brothers slept.

Imagining the man sleeping in such a place, trying to starve himself to death, he found it an incomparably bleak feeling.

The Murong Brothers really were quite pitiful. Duan Yun wanted to share some of his pain, yet the man did not appreciate it.

At night, he madly absorbed Lunar Essence and refined his true qi. During the day, Duan Yun studied the "Body-Breaking Sword Qi" with his second brother standing at attention.

Body-Breaking Sword Qi could shoot out from every part of the body, but it had one drawback: its power was far inferior to Jade Sword Finger and Water-Moon Slash.

In the backyard, Duan Yun moved through the tall grass.

As he walked, Body-Breaking Sword Qi continuously spilled from his body, shattering and severing the tall grass all around him.

It reminded Duan Yun of a lawnmower.

Right now, he was a human-shaped lawnmower.

Suddenly, a black shadow darted out without warning. Duan Yun reacted with lightning speed and thrust his sword downward.

A black-and-yellow snake was nailed to the ground.

The sword had pinned its tail, so the snake, roughly three fingers thick, kept struggling and even tried to attack Duan Yun.

Snakes possessed tremendous vitality. Duan Yun had once seen a snake's heart dug out and tossed onto the ground, where it still beat for a long while.

Duan Yun stepped closer, and countless hair-fine threads of Sword Qi immediately spilled from his feet, stabbing toward the snake.

Hiss, hiss, hiss.

There was both the furious sound of the snake flicking its tongue and the constant impact of Sword Qi striking its body.

It took a full incense stick's worth of time before the threadlike Sword Qi finally broke through the snake's defenses and killed it completely.

Watching this, Duan Yun thought of a term—"scraping therapy."

It took so long just to scrape a snake to death. If Body-Breaking Sword Qi were used to kill a person, how long would he have to scrape?

Duan Yun could sense that this was currently the limit of Body-Breaking Sword Qi. It relied purely on density and frequency to prevail; otherwise, it could not even kill a snake.

It could be said to work wonders against mosquitoes and insects, but against creatures the size of snakes, it was already somewhat inadequate.

Had this black snake, dead with its eyes still open and its hide pierced beyond recognition, not had its tail pinned down by the sword beforehand, it probably would not have been "sliced by a thousand cuts" like this.

Duan Yun fell into a deadlock for a time.

A swordsmanship prodigy one in ten thousand like him had actually encountered a bottleneck.

Duan Yun knew very well that what limited his performance was the intensity of his Jade Sword True Qi, as well as his own body.

Body-Breaking Sword Qi did not pass through fixed meridians. It shot directly out through the flesh and skin of his body. His skin and flesh could not withstand thicker Sword Qi, so he could only gather it into sword threads and create that scraping effect.

How could he solve this problem?

Duan Yun looked at the black snake, dead with its eyes still open, and sank into thought.

Suddenly, inspiration flashed through his supremely intelligent mind.

Body-Breaking Sword Qi, Body-Breaking Sword Qi—he had been fixated on Sword Qi breaking out from every part of his body. Why not focus it a little?

The Sword Qi of Jade Sword Finger burst out through the fingers via the meridians, and Moonlit Water Sword Qi worked on the same principle.

Then why not develop new routes through which to unleash powerful Sword Qi?

For example, his toes?

Fingers could shoot Sword Qi, so why could toes not?

His elbows would work too!

If he launched a Sword Qi with an elbow strike, it was perfectly reasonable for the Sword Qi to pierce someone through before his elbow even arrived.

"This has potential! It definitely has potential!"

As a one-in-ten-thousand swordsmanship genius, Duan Yun acted the moment he had an idea.

He decided to start with his toes.

Rather than simply drilling it out through flesh and blood, he would find a relatively suitable meridian route, one capable of bearing higher-intensity Sword Qi, and fire it through there.

Duan Yun closed his eyes and sank his qi into his dantian.

He entered a profound state, his consciousness sinking from the sea of awareness into his body.

For a moment, every meridian and acupoint throughout his body appeared within his sea of awareness.

Before he realized it, Duan Yun had entered a state of Self-Illuminating Contemplation.

After training in the Jade Sword True Canon and Body-Breaking Sword Qi, no one understood the body better than he did, and no one understood meridians better than he did!

If Jade Sword Finger caused Jade Sword True Qi to flow in sequence through the Hand Wuli, Pianyang, and Shangyang acupoints before bursting forth—

Then what he needed to do now was find a new route for Jade Sword True Qi to burst from his toes.

This was difficult, like there being no road at all, yet forcing one into existence through sheer walking.

Even a one-in-ten-thousand swordsmanship genius like Duan Yun had to expend vast amounts of energy and several times the effort.

An hour later, Duan Yun opened his eyes and kicked out with his right foot.

With a swish, a silver-white Sword Qi shot from his big toe and pierced through the wall as easily as through tofu.

"It worked!"

Duan Yun let out a long breath.

It had taken him a full two hours just to barely find this one meridian route, showing how difficult it was.

Yet Duan Yun also felt an intense sense of accomplishment.

As a swordsmanship genius, it had now become perfectly reasonable for him to kick out a Sword Qi with one toe.

But excited as he was, Duan Yun ran into a somewhat ball-aching problem.

The shoe on his right foot had been torn apart, exposing the big toe that had just fired Sword Qi.

Damn it, he had forgotten to take off his shoes!

Firing Sword Qi with a kick, especially when used together with Jade Sword Finger to attack from above and below, would make it even harder for enemies to guard against. Yet it ultimately had one enormous weakness.

It consumed shoes!

From now on, whenever he fought, he would have to fling off his shoes first before kicking out Sword Qi.

Still, no matter how one put it, this self-created sword art had succeeded, so Duan Yun needed to give it a name.

Since firing Sword Qi from a finger was called Jade Sword Finger, firing Sword Qi from a toe would be called Toe Sword!

Toe Sword had just taken shape, but Duan Yun did not stop. He chose to delve deeper.

He wanted the Jade Sword Immortal to synchronize with him!

"Grasp Sparrow's Tail!"

Behind Duan Yun, Jade Sword True Qi scattered through the air, forming the Dharma Aspect of the White-Silk Jade Sword Immortal.

The next moment, he kicked, and the jade immortal sword's white-silk jade foot behind him kicked as well.

Two Toe Swords shot out at once, blasting the black snake's body apart with a bang.

It worked!

Toe Sword was more or less complete. Next came Elbow Sword—but once Elbow Sword was complete, then what?

Unable to help himself, Duan Yun thought once more of the Murong Brothers' blade art, "Twelvefold Spring Rain."

He really wanted to get a handle on that cursed blade technique and see whether it might have some miraculous effect on a true one-in-ten-thousand cultivation prodigy like himself.

No, he still had to go try the Murong Brothers again. His martial arts were currently far too monotonous; excelling at both blade and sword better suited his identity as a young hero.