Saber Mastery Complete—Do You Truly Wish to Join My School? Receive the Tortoise Snake Great Pillar!

Lu Manor, before a courtyard of gray brick.

Ji Wei held Ji Xiu's hand as she stepped down from the carriage.

Looking at the clean, orderly courtyard walls, fresh and new,

she stood there awkwardly, not daring to move. She feared that if she took one step too far, she would leave marks on these bluestone bricks, so utterly different from the yellow earth of before, and invite someone's scolding.

Yet she had only taken a step back when she bumped into a broad, solid chest.

Then,

with her shoulders being pushed, she helplessly

made a full circuit of this new home.

When she saw her own clean and tidy bedroom, its large smoked-wood bed already made and neatly folded, and a small bronze mirror decorated with patterns on the desk,

Ji Xiu placed the bedding and cotton clothes on the rack and said:

"Little girl, you won't have to squeeze into one bed with your brother anymore."

"You'll have your own room, your own private matters, your own thoughts."

"Once these next few days pass and we're settled in,"

"I'll have you study and learn to write here in the manor. Once your brother has made something of himself in martial arts, I'll begin teaching you hand techniques."

"Whether you want to become a refined young lady in the future, or dress in fine clothes, ride a horse, and become a valiant heroine,"

"it will all be as you wish."

"Your life has only just begun."

Ji Xiu stood with his hands behind his back, a warm smile on his face. After looking around, he said:

"If there's anything you lack or need,"

"just find any servant in this manor and order them to get it for you."

"From now on, you need no longer bow and scrape before anyone else."

With that said,

Ji Xiu leaned on his saber and walked out into the courtyard.

There, he swung his steel saber and began practicing the Heaven River Saber.

He worked as hard as ever.

Even though he had gone from a shabby, drafty mud house to a clean, orderly gray-brick home,

that persistence in relentless bitter cultivation

had never changed.

Through the paper window, Ji Wei could clearly see her brother. She no longer had to peer through a crack in the door, and this time, he had finally grasped a true steel saber.

With every slash, his robes fluttered and fierce winds swept forth.

Once upon a time,

she had dreamed of such a scene countless times.

But when it suddenly became reality,

she instead did not dare to accept it.

Another five days passed.

Lu Manor, a gray-brick courtyard.

At this moment, saber light blazed coldly like a celestial waterfall rushing sideways, even slicing through the air!

After the youth completed a full round of saber practice, his blood and qi boiled, while his eyes alone resembled deep, shadowed springs.

The setting sun sank, and evening arrived.

When he completed the final round of the Heaven River Saber Technique,

Ji Xiu sheathed his saber.

Devoutly offered saber, cultivated bitterly without pause. Heaven River Saber Technique advance progress +1!

Current: (10000/10000)

Ordination Master has completed the advance and completely mastered the Heaven River Saber Technique!

Ordination Master: Ji Xiu

Current cultivation: Toughening Tendons Realm (Entering Force)

Martial arts, Dao arts: Mastery in horsemanship, Heaven River Saber Technique!

Traits: Man and horse as one, Ten Steps, One Kill!

Current advances available: 1

"Finally."

"I've practiced it to completion!"

Looking at the words appearing upon the Primordial Dao Talisman,

Ji Xiu gripped his long saber. So long as he thought of the forms and trajectories of the Heaven River Saber, he could display all its intricacies, even its artistic conception, to the fullest!

Although

it was only a martial art that aided one in Entering Force,

after drawing the saber ten thousand times and completing his practice,

Ji Xiu vaguely felt

that he himself had been forged from a lump of scrap iron into a steel saber tempered a hundred times.

He had long since undergone a complete transformation!

"Phew."

He let out a long breath.

He looked toward Ji Wei beneath the window ledge to one side. The paper window was open, and she sat at the desk reading and practicing her writing, occasionally knitting her brows.

The waxy yellow had faded from her face after these days of nourishment, and she was gradually looking better.

That inferiority and timidity born of years of hardship had also, under his subtle influence, ceased to make her distant from others. Instead, it had become inward wisdom.

He could not help but nod in satisfaction.

My little sister has finally grown up.

Over the past few days, Ji Wei had asked Ji Xiu if she could practice martial arts.

Naturally, he was glad to see it. But at present, Ji Xiu could scarcely even support and train himself, so he could only tell her to wait.

Once he became an expert in Bone Tempering and Skin Refinement, once he had gained a voice in this five-hundred-li Anning County, then he could afford to raise her into a martial artist.

To forge iron, one must first be hard oneself.

Everything Ji Wei possessed outwardly stemmed from Ji Xiu's own strength.

If he himself could not make it, then everything before them would merely be flowers in a mirror, the moon in water.

Ji Xiu understood this point quite clearly.

Therefore, whether at dawn or dusk,

beneath the stone altar inside Lu Manor's arched gates,

or in the quiet courtyard of his own home,

his saber practiced from morning until night, never stopping.

Whenever retainers or other people passed by, they could not help but praise his formidable determination.

Practicing saber or practicing sword

was work that ground away like water polishing stone.

Especially after reaching Minor Accomplishment, it was not as though swinging a saber or sword hundreds or thousands of times would guarantee progress each time.

Many people trained for years and still remained where they were. Such examples were everywhere.

Thus, after many martial artists reached a bottleneck in their hand techniques, they merely went through the motions to keep their skills from growing rusty, rather than pursuing the highest realm.

Someone as diligent as Ji Xiu was already exceedingly rare.

"The saber technique is complete. It's time to move on to pile stance!"

Looking at the Primordial Dao Talisman, Ji Xiu's eyes burned with fervor.

Five days ago,

Duan Chenzhou had promised him a superior pile stance.

This pile stance was not the "horse stance walking pile" from the very beginning.

It was a genuine method concerning the very foundation of one's body!

Over these past days since joining Lu Manor,

although the work assigned to Ji Xiu had not yet been distributed,

the place was filled with retainers and martial artists. As they became acquainted and he absorbed what he heard and saw,

Ji Xiu came to understand quite a few crucial points concerning martial artists.

For instance, what exactly pile stances and cultivation methods represented!

The Toughening Tendons Realm required one to "nurture mercury blood" and "temper willow tendons."

Once the sinews and flesh within one's body could bear force, sufficient to support a frame of Steel Tendons Iron Bone, one could begin attempting to advance into Bone Tempering.

For ordinary people without resources, this step required time to wear away at it, enduring bit by bit.

But

if one had a pile stance, a unique cultivation method, and medicinal pills and mountain delicacies to aid them, their speed of advancement could increase drastically!

Among certain great martial sects, this was also called Hundred Days Foundation Establishment!

The meaning was plain.

In less than a hundred days, Sinew Tempering could reach great accomplishment!

From what Ji Xiu had learned,

the entirety of Lu Manor

did not possess a single method worthy of being called a "superior pile stance."

Even as a Saber-Wearing Retainer,

at most, he could only consult an ordinary pile stance.

As for the so-called cultivation methods,

they concerned the Bone Tempering Realm!

In all of Lu Manor, there was only one cultivation method, Tempering Iron Bone. As for silver bones and gold bones beyond that,

it was said that every step required untold hardship to achieve, and even a thousand gold could not buy them!

That Duan Chenzhou was willing to give him a superior pile stance

could be called a favor greater than mountains and seas.

Thus, now that he had become more well-off, Ji Xiu deliberately brought two jars of Hua Diao Wine. He declined Hong Jiang's suggestion to take a carriage and instead led a Brown-Templed Horse from the stables himself.

With a tug of the reins, beneath the setting sun, he tucked away this month's Leopard Fetus Pills and Tiger Blood Powder from Lu Manor—two ninth-rank common-grade medicinal pills—and headed for Duan Residence!

Duan Residence.

"Creak."

The instant the doors opened,

Duan Chenzhou, his drunken eyes hazy, lifted his gaze.

Ji Xiu led his horse in, head held high.

At this moment,

he wore a fitted black outfit, his back straight and his eyes bright, like a treasured saber drawn from its sheath.

Duan Chenzhou's severed arm froze in midair. The large bowl of wine he had just raised slipped from his grasp and fell with a crisp crash.

At his side,

Gu Baichuan turned his head. Seeing Ji Xiu approach in high spirits, carrying two jars of wine and leading a horse, he smiled.

"What, did seeing him in the blink of an eye remind you of your younger self?"

Beneath the sunset,

the youth who had once been sallow and emaciated, clad in rough cloth,

slowly overlapped with this young hero in fitted black, vigorous and high-spirited.

The change between the two was as vast as mountains and seas.

Duan Chenzhou slowly rose to his feet. His eyes narrowed, and his half-empty sleeve hung loose. Behind the black-clad saber wielder leading the horse, he seemed to see a vast bronze mirror.

Within that mirror,

there was reflected a thick-browed youth with wild, unrestrained hair, offering incense before the ancestral hall and swearing to completely inherit the Secret Martial Path, to become a great master of the Qi Threshold.

In that instant,

three figures seemed to cross, overlap, and pass through half a century of time.

As Gu Baichuan's words fell,

Duan Chenzhou's brows gradually drew together, and a tangle of emotions filled his eyes.

After a long while,

he watched the youth tie up his horse, straighten his collar, and cup his hands in salute.

Watching this lad who had transformed step by step under his own hand,

Duan Chenzhou sighed.

"Ji Xiu."

"Do you truly wish to join my school?"

Ji Xiu was slightly stunned upon hearing this, then immediately delighted. His expression turned solemn as he bowed at once.

"This disciple has long admired you!"

Gu Baichuan had been smiling, but at the sight of the two, his heart suddenly skipped a beat. He looked toward Duan Chenzhou and frowned.

"You—"

Before he could finish, he was interrupted.

"I ask Great Xuan's Northern Garrison Envoys, under Cangzhou's banner, Centurion Gu, to bear witness today."

Duan Chenzhou spoke each word heavily:

"I, Duan Chenzhou, today will take a 'final disciple.'"

Centurion Gu shot to his feet, his expression changing drastically:

"Have you thought this through? Your master is gone, you have lost an arm, and your enemies are spread across every prefecture and province."

"In such circumstances, you want to pass on your true teachings here? Have you lost your senses in drink?!"

"I was joking with you before. I only happened to come here because of a mission; others do not know you are here. Do not act on a burst of hot blood."

Yet all those words

vanished like smoke at a single indifferent glance from the man with one empty sleeve:

"I will bear all of this upon myself."

With that, he looked toward Ji Xiu, who was kneeling on the ground.

He raised a hand.

"Get up, boy."

"Didn't you want a 'superior Pile Stance'?"

He smiled.

"I have a road of no return here."

"It only depends on whether you dare to walk it."

With that said,

he took out a scroll of Silk Book.

Ji Xiu raised his head slightly and cast it a glance.

Upon it were written:

Secret Martial Arts Prelude: Tortoise Snake Great Pillar!