The next day, at dawn.
The morning light had barely brightened the horizon when Li Qingshan quietly opened his eyes in the silent bedroom.
"Feels great!"
He rolled over and sat up, stretching lazily as comfort coursed through his entire body.
He got out of bed and walked into the bathroom.
Li Qingshan scooped up a handful of cold water and splashed it over his face, then looked up at the mirror.
In the mirror,
his dark circles had long since faded, and he looked full of vigor. Droplets of water slid down his chiseled face.
"They definitely offered too little last time. With this face alone, I should've asked for at least ten million!"
Li Qingshan smiled in satisfaction and turned to walk into the living room.
Looking at the empty living room, he was momentarily at a loss.
Recently, he had never gotten up this early. He simply had no cultivation plan for this time of day.
His gaze swept over the wall on the left, where the chopping knife leaned at an angle.
"Blade technique!"
Remembering yesterday's plan, Li Qingshan raised his wrist, opened the Communicator, and found the separately saved compressed files.
Wind Shadow Blade!
The materials for Wind Shadow Blade were much the same as those for Mizong Step, consisting of illustrated explanations and video demonstrations.
However, compared with the inhuman introductory footwork of Mizong Step, Wind Shadow Blade was far simpler.
The set of blade moves was not complicated. Its only trait was speed!
In the video, after the middle-aged teacher briefly demonstrated the entire set of blade moves, his movements suddenly accelerated.
"When the blade technique is proficient, Strike Like Wind!"
As his words fell, cold flashes flickered like a howling gale, unceasing and endless.
"When the blade technique reaches proficiency, Long Blade Breaks Wind!"
The sound of air splitting rang out as the long blade tore through the gale with incomparable sharpness.
"Blade Light Becomes Shadow!"
The blade light grew faster and faster, afterimages appearing one after another.
Li Qingshan's eyes were dazzled. He could not catch the long blade at all, and he could not help exclaiming in amazement.
"So this is the Great Accomplishment realm of Wind Shadow Blade?"
The middle-aged teacher's demonstration had not stopped, and his movements only grew faster.
"Wind Shadow Follows, blade technique perfected!"
The blade light whipped up a gale that swirled around his body, while one after another afterimage solidified within the wind.
In the blink of an eye, three blade lights, seemingly tangible, extended from different angles.
It was as though three people were striking with their blades at once amid the gale.
Li Qingshan blinked and observed carefully.
Yet no matter how he looked, he could not distinguish the real from the false.
"Or rather, are all three blade lights real?"
Just as Li Qingshan seemed to gain some insight,
the blade light gradually slowed, the wind shadows dispersed, and the middle-aged teacher sheathed his blade.
"Whew!"
Li Qingshan let out a long breath.
Strike Like Wind, Long Blade Breaks Wind, Blade Light Becomes Shadow, Wind Shadow Follows—
these were the respective traits of Wind Shadow Blade's four realms: Mastery, proficiency, Great Accomplishment, and perfection.
"I'll get the basics down first."
Li Qingshan calmed his surging emotions, reopened the video, repeatedly watched the opening blade demonstration, and compared it with the illustrated explanations to understand and memorize it.
Half an hour later,
Li Qingshan picked up the chopping knife by the wall and headed outside.
It was still early. Only a scattered few elderly people were doing morning exercises downstairs in the residential complex. Li Qingshan casually found a patch of grass and drew his blade.
After taking several deep breaths, he began to wield the long blade.
Wind Shadow Blade was defined by speed, yet Li Qingshan's movements were exceptionally slow, looking little different from those elderly people doing their morning exercises.
Chop, slash, sweep, lift, intercept...
Li Qingshan wore a focused expression, recalling every detail of each blade move in his mind before presenting it with the chopping knife in his hand.
Ten minutes later, he had completed the entire set of blade techniques.
Li Qingshan paused, then struck again.
The same moves, the same blade technique,
but this time, the blade momentum was no longer sluggish. It was fierce and swift.
In less than a minute, he had finished the entire set.
"The Status Panel really is reliable!"
A smile curled Li Qingshan's lips. He sheathed his blade and swept his gaze over the Status Panel.
[Li Qingshan] [Realm: Body Forging 12/100] [cultivation method: The Thirty-Sixth Set of Broadcast Gymnastics—The Stars Are Calling 22/1000 (mastery)] [Martial Techniques: Mizong Step 2/1000 (mastery), Wind Shadow Blade 2/100 (Beginner)] [Function: Martial Arts Space Lv1 (1/100)] [Available time: 356 days] [Time Flow Rate: 1:10]
School, Martial Arts Hall.
After Wan Keshan entered through the front door, he swept his gaze around as usual before finally stopping on Li Qingshan.
After examining him,
Wan Keshan revealed a satisfied smile and waved for the students to spread out and begin cultivating.
In the evening, after returning home.
"The break is over. Time to keep working hard."
Li Qingshan smiled, took out a bottle of Nutrient Solution and drank it, then continued Body Forging.
Every session of Body Forging left one utterly exhausted.
Yet Li Qingshan relished it, carefully feeling his body grow stronger bit by bit.
By late at night, he had finally completed four rounds of Body Forging.
Li Qingshan rinsed himself off briefly, drew out the chopping knife, and returned to lie down on the bed.
"Wolf Poison... I won't stretch out my neck and await the slaughter today."
Li Qingshan looked energized as he closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, he had returned to the Martial Arts Space.
Li Qingshan gripped the hilt tightly, twisted his right foot, and instantly turned to face Wolf Poison.
Wolf Poison let out a low growl, kicked off with its hind legs, and pounced.
Wolf Poison needed two seconds to cross a distance of one hundred meters.
Once, those two seconds had been Li Qingshan's "life-saving straw," allowing him to evade Wolf Poison's first pounce.
But now, Li Qingshan realized that perhaps dodging was not his only option!
Instead of retreating, he advanced, charging straight at Wolf Poison.
Man and beast crossed the hundred meters, about to collide in the blink of an eye.
Li Qingshan suddenly shifted his steps. Mizong Step became instinct, his body strangely slipping toward Wolf Poison's right side as the chopping knife in his right hand rose and slashed out in an instant.
Wolf Poison landed with a blade mark across its back.
Li Qingshan did not relax in the slightest, staring fixedly at Wolf Poison ten meters away.
Ten meters was only a single leap for Wolf Poison. Before this, he had never evaded Wolf Poison's second pounce.
Wolf Poison let out a howl and pounced again.
Li Qingshan had no time to react. He could only step according to instinct.
Their bodies crossed, and the enormous form swept past before his eyes.
"I dodged it!"
The thought had barely flashed through his mind when a sharp claw struck from behind...
In the bedroom,
Li Qingshan opened his eyes. After briefly recalling the exchange just now, he began trying again.
Over the course of the night, faced with an absolute gap in speed, Li Qingshan could only rely on bodily instinct to step and dodge.
When luck was good, he could evade three to five of Wolf Poison's attacks.
When luck was poor, he could not even evade the second pounce.
Still, compared to previously dying in Wolf Poison's jaws over a thousand times in one night, this was already much better.
More survival time also made Mizong Step and Wind Shadow Blade improve faster.
Time passed, day after day.
Li Qingshan traveled between home and school every day, living a simple two-point routine.
His daily Body Forging cultivation—twice at school and four times at home—never stopped.
His body continued growing stronger, while his Body Forging progress and the proficiency of The Stars Are Calling also rose little by little.
However, Mizong Step and Wind Shadow Blade improved even faster.
Almost every night, Li Qingshan cultivated in the Martial Arts Space for over twenty hours.
It was worth mentioning that
perhaps because he died fewer times,
when Li Qingshan woke up the next day, though he was somewhat tired, his mental state was clearly better than before.
In the blink of an eye, twenty days had passed.
In the pitch-black bedroom,
Li Qingshan suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze dazzling.
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