No matter how clever or intricate a mortal sword technique was, its reach amounted to no more than an arm plus the length of the blade. It could not stretch another inch.
If a swordsman faced several spears blocking every line of attack, he was stumped. He could either charge in and get stabbed beyond recognition, or slink away in disgrace.
Long beat short; far beat near. That was only natural.
But the masters refused to accept it. From their refusal sprang two schools of thought on how to solve the problem of a sword's limited reach.
One school wielded swords in hand, turning cultivated power into Sword Qi or even Sword Intent to strike distant foes. The other used spells to control flying swords and attack from afar.
The sword-in-hand school saw little variation after that. Its practitioners simply cultivated deeper power and fiercer killing intent, until a single stroke could cut through almost anything. They called it "one sword breaks ten thousand arts."
Ren Changsheng, the Ancestor of the Ren Family on Peaceful Peach Mountain, who thought highly of Pan Long, was a prime example.
The flying-sword school was another matter. Swords could take countless forms, and the Sword-Controlling Technique could change in countless ways. One could talk for a day and a night without exhausting them. Hence the saying, "one sword gives rise to ten thousand arts."
Within that school, one branch chose to refine solid flying swords into sword light. That light could lengthen or shorten, grow or shrink, divide or reunite. It could merge with spells, talismans, and formations, producing still more variations.
Pan Long alone knew of several: Sword Light into Threads, Sword Light into Illusion, and Sword Light Division.
Sword Light Division was among the most profound. It could split one beam into