Task

Wen Xu:...

"Actually, I had no choice either, so... could Little Martial Granduncle think of something?"

Lu Nian, his junior nephew, secretly peered through the crack in the door: ...Little Martial Granduncle, you mustn't let Junior Martial Uncle's honeyed words lead you into a trap! Everyone on Artifact Refining Peak has suffered from Junior Martial Uncle's pitiful-act routine!

Yet things went contrary to his wishes. Little Martial Granduncle was still too innocent. Lu Nian silently clenched his fist. It was all because his position was insignificant and his voice too weak; he had no ability to protect Little Martial Granduncle.

Wen Xu was forced into becoming an unofficial member of Artifact Refining Peak. Of course, he did not believe Senior Brother Zheng truly had no way to solve the problem of the forging furnace about to explode, but... this really was a fine place to practice swordsmanship.

Though Wen Xu looked as clear and bright as moonlight after rain, he was actually someone who could endure great hardship.

His martial arts foundation was indeed extremely weak—so weak it could practically be ignored—but he was clever. Wind was everywhere, and on this mountain, he was the one most sensitive to it.

Naturally, when his stamina was lacking, riding the wind with his sword allowed him to preserve his strength to the greatest extent and keep the Nine-Turn Sword Technique running. When his strength was abundant, wielding his sword against the wind allowed him to temper his body to the utmost.

Wen Xu immediately understood that he needed to forge a tougher body to adapt to the leap in his cultivation. But on a deeper level, it was so he could better sense the wind, let it pass through his body, and comprehend its power.

After practicing swordsmanship for five straight days, Wen Xu finally grasped a trace of the Nine-Turn Sword Technique's basics. He could finally rely on nothing but a swing of his sword to draw in the wind brushing past his body.

Wind was everywhere. Most of the time, it was gentle, warm, and sluggish. But a sword was a bladed weapon, one that could wound from either edge. When the wind became sharp enough, when it revealed enough cutting brilliance, it could become—Wind Blades.

Perhaps I could try practicing with a saber.

On Artifact Refining Peak, weapons of every kind were the one thing never in short supply. Wen Xu did not need any high-grade spiritual saber; he simply picked up a random blade from the peak's rubbish heap and began practicing.

But he soon discovered that Chen Zui had been right. He truly was not suited to practicing with a saber.

In his hand, the saber was not nearly as obedient as a sword.

Then what about a spear? A staff? An axe? A hammer?

Wen Xu tried all eighteen kinds of weapons. Some felt reasonably natural in his hand, while others did not suit him at all. In the end, the sword was still the most handy. Yet the weapon that could make the most extreme use of wind was not a sword, but a bow and arrow.

More precisely, a bow. The arrows themselves did not need to be physical objects at all; long, narrow, razor-sharp Wind Blades could completely replace them. What was more, that jade slip describing how to lay formations with wind was actually more compatible with a bow and arrows in his hands.

At the very least, Wen Xu was not a genius of swordsmanship, so the speed of his strikes was far inferior to wind arrows. Even his only magical artifact, the Windfold Fan, could not compare to the combination of bow and wind.

But bows had a disadvantage as well: drawing the bow and loosing an arrow took time. During that time, he had no way to defend himself. It was more of a weapon for teamwork.

Scholars often said that a gentleman did not stand beneath a crumbling wall. With no danger at hand, one could slowly draw the bow, take aim, and shoot; archery was the martial pursuit most suited to scholars.

But now, he was no longer a scholar. He was a cultivator.

Wen Xu did not like relying on others. He preferred possessing the absolute power to protect himself.

So, between the sword and the bow, perhaps he could make some adjustments to the Windfold Fan. Perhaps I could learn a little about artifact refining and try modifying the Windfold Fan myself.

Just then, he suddenly received a transmission talisman from Bian Chunchou: "Aaaah! Wen Xu-xu, I did it! I broke through! I really am an utterly ordinary little cultivation genius!"

Wen Xu froze with the transmission talisman in hand, then laughed. Who praised himself as a genius? Only Bian Chunchou would.

Task

"Congratulations."

"Hehe, I've also broken through to the Seventh Layer of Qi Refining. Master even praised me for being talented." Bian Chunchou cupped his face and smiled smugly, his joy entirely undisguised. "Now I won't fall behind, and I've even found a temporary way to balance water and fire! Aren't I amazing?"

"Very amazing. Extremely amazing." At least, if it were him, he feared he would not have found such a practical and effective solution as quickly as Bian Chunchou had. "But temporary?"

Bian Chunchou immediately began gesturing with both hands. "It's a kind of water-and-fire, um, dynamic balance. Since I still need to cultivate and advance, the Qi Sea in my Dantian needs to keep expanding, and the Fire-Water Spiritual Root naturally has to progress as well. So I have to maintain this dynamic balance constantly. By temporary, I mean that I still need to control it myself for now. But I think that once my body and Spiritual Root have adapted to this state of dynamic balance to a certain extent, they'll be able to maintain this state on their own, naturally and spontaneously."

"Do you know what muscle memory is?"

Wen Xu shook his head.

"It means that if you swing your sword once, ten times, you'll still need to rely on your mind to move the spiritual sword the next time you practice. But after ten thousand times, a hundred thousand times, a million times—when an action happens continuously, your body will remember it. The next time you use it, your body will act faster than your mind. That's called muscle memory."

Bian Chunchou continued speaking in a flood of words. "Spiritual energy circulation and Spiritual Root cultivation are both parts of the body. So when this dynamic balance has been maintained countless times, my body will remember it, and it'll begin operating on its own. But for now, I still need to control it myself."

"Eh? Wen Xu-xu, what's wrong? Did I explain it wrong?"

Wen Xu immediately shook his head. "No, you explained it very well. I should thank you—I know how I ought to practice swordsmanship now." He had gone down the wrong path.

"Huh?"

I really was overthinking things. Every time he practiced swordsmanship, he thought about how to draw upon the wind, how to make the wind work with his sword, how to let the sword display greater power with the wind's support—and every time, he could not stop himself from thinking.

Thinking too much meant he could not wholly immerse himself in practicing swordsmanship. He had even felt that the sword did not suit him and gone off to try all sorts of other weapons. But in truth, with an impure heart, practicing anything was useless.