"Are you really not joking?"
Old Master Jiang Dou's nose twisted as he asked again.
He felt that Lu Ran was deliberately messing with him.
Teaching Silly Husky swordsmanship? Wasn't that even more ridiculous than teaching an eagle?
No, both were ridiculous.
One had gotten so obsessed with a TV drama that he insisted on raising an eagle.
The other had something wrong with his head...
"No, I'm serious. Take a look if you don't believe me."
As he spoke, Lu Ran took out the Black Card.
The Black Card seemed to burn like a flame between his fingertips. Then a summoning array appeared in the dojo's open space.
General Ha appeared in the array, looking rather blank.
"Woo..." After emerging, General Ha looked around in confusion, glancing at the distinguished old man and the bewildered Senior Brother He beside him.
But when Lu Ran held his Wind-Slaying Sword up to General Ha's mouth, General Ha understood what Boss Lu wanted.
Show them a thing or two. With a sword!
"Awoo!" At that, a glimmer of intelligence flashed through General Ha's eyes, and he grew excited. Of all the flashy things Lu Ran had taught him, General Ha thought wielding a sword was the coolest.
The reason was simple: using a sword clearly made him stronger. Pursuing strength was the instinct of every living creature!
Click.
General Ha clamped his jaws around the Wind-Slaying Sword and unleashed his best move, the Gale-Draw Sword Technique!
"Woof!" He sprinted out at such incredible speed that, to the onlookers, his figure suddenly vanished.
By the time they reacted, all they saw was a flash of sword light appearing before General Ha himself.
It was like a sharp blade being drawn at lightning speed, breaking out of the darkness like dawn.
General Ha hung in midair. Having leaped up, he had already slashed out a gleam of sword light, which flashed briefly in the air with a ringing hum!
Thud.
General Ha landed calmly, carrying himself like a master as he glanced at Old Master Jiang Dou and the wide-eyed Senior Brother He.
"Holy crap." Senior Brother He was stunned. This Silly Husky really knew how to use a sword?
That move had looked pretty practiced, too!
More importantly, was this what a supernatural creature was like? He was so fast... Senior Brother He hadn't even gotten a clear look.
He felt that he might not be able to beat this dog!
"All flash and no substance!"
"And you expect to grasp sword intent at that level?" Old Master Jiang Dou, however, was clearly much stricter.
He had spotted all sorts of flaws at a glance.
As well as the immaturity of General Ha's sword technique.
"Ha... ha... Sure, it's not perfect yet, but remember, he hasn't even integrated a trait..."
Lu Ran laughed sheepishly. General Ha really had been improving at an astonishing pace, partly because of his incredible aptitude, and partly because Lu Ran's Reverse Super Beast Mimicry, which could tentatively be considered a preliminary success, had successfully fed Lu Ran's swordsmanship experience back to General Ha.
"Once he integrates a trait, his potential definitely won't be inferior to anyone's!" Lu Ran said.
Old Master Jiang Dou still couldn't accept that teaching Silly Husky swordsmanship could lead anywhere.
But General Ha couldn't stand hearing things like that.
With the sword in his mouth, he stared at Old Master Jiang Dou in displeasure.
Who said I can't grasp sword intent?
I'm remembering this grudge!
Just you wait.
At that, a terrifying aura spread from General Ha as he held the sword in his mouth. It was as sharp as a howling north wind, making Master Jiang Dou and Senior Brother He shudder and turn toward him with suddenly grave expressions.
"Grrr!!!"
General Ha growled. Sword intent!
Jiang Dou, Senior Brother He, and Lu Ran were dumbfounded: ???
"Ha..." Old Master Jiang Dou's expression gradually turned incredulous.
The sensation he had experienced when facing Lu Ran's Beast Sword Intent returned.
Looking at General Ha, Old Master Jiang Dou suddenly felt as though he stood in the north wind, confronting a wolf king.
The biting wind chilled him to the bone, leaving him momentarily dazed.
"Impossible," Jiang Dou blurted out.
Meanwhile, Lu Ran stared at General Ha in shock yet again.
Have you learned another new skill, your esteemed elderness?
No, this probably isn't a skill. It's a way of using his aura!
I kept using Reverse Super Beast Mimicry to help General Ha learn my sword intent, and it's finally paid off!
"Hahaha! Look, Master! Isn't that sword intent? Who dares say Silly Husky can't learn swordsmanship now?" Lu Ran was delighted. General Ha had really made him proud.
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In the past, people hoped their sons would achieve greatness.
Now, he hoped Silly Husky would become a sword saint. What a rush!
Across all of Xia Country, there probably weren't even ten people who had mastered sword intent.
Now even a dog could do it. Who would dare say he wasn't suited to learning swordsmanship? With this, General Ha should have an easier time fighting the Demon Cat, right? After all, sword intent was effectively a minor crowd-control technique... Perhaps it could briefly daze the Demon Cat.
"What the hell!" Old Master Jiang Dou's worldview was crumbling.
He had studied swordsmanship since childhood, and his father had praised him as someone born for the sword. Even so, he had only grasped sword intent after more than twenty years of grueling practice.
Even in ancient times, when martial culture had flourished, that level would have made him a renowned expert.
And what was he seeing now? A Silly Husky... had actually displayed sword intent!
He couldn't accept it!
This was even harder for him to understand than those two youngsters, Lu Ran and Jiang Man, easily learning sword intent with the help of extraordinary power.
"Woof!" General Ha exuded overwhelming confidence, his gaze imperious, as though saying, Old man, times have changed!
Senior Brother He could hardly bear to look General Ha in the eye, afraid the notion that he was inferior to a dog would take root in his mind.
"How could this be? How could this be?" Old Master Jiang Dou seemed to be rebuilding his worldview. "Is this what Beast Tamers are? Is this what supernatural creatures are?"
"It still makes no scientific sense. How can a dog grasp sword intent?"
"Boy, how on earth did you do it? What on earth possessed you to teach a dog swordsmanship?"
The crucial part was that he had actually succeeded!
He had brought the dog to a realm that countless swordsmen had never reached.
"Uh, well..." Lu Ran said, "It was a coincidence, really. Back then, I happened to learn about the mythical image of Yazi, one of the dragon's nine sons. A sword in his mouth, his image on sword guards and all that..."
"Yazi has the appearance of a jackal or wolf..."
"And I happened to know a little swordsmanship and own a Silly Husky. I was bored out of my mind and wanted him to cosplay as Yazi, so I got him a wooden sword."
"Who knew he'd be pretty good at learning..."
"But before that, it was just for fun. I only decided to have him seriously study swordsmanship after we encountered the Beast Tamer profession and gained extraordinary power."
"Yazi?" Jiang Dou said. "I suppose there really is such an image, but that's just something people made... Never mind. Now that a civilization from the remote past has appeared, those historical legends about divine beasts might really be traces left behind from ancient times."
After hearing Lu Ran's explanation, the old man actually felt more at ease.
Old Master Jiang Dou's expression kept changing as he wrestled with his thoughts.
Finally, he gritted his teeth, looked at General Ha, and said, "You're not bad. This old man acknowledges you."
General Ha: ?
Old Master Jiang Dou said, "Would you be willing to become my disciple? Can you understand me?"
Senior Brother He and Lu Ran: ???
General Ha put on an intelligent expression. Huh? I don't understand. Still, I preferred that defiant attitude you had earlier.
"Master, give it a rest. You can't teach him," Lu Ran hurriedly interrupted. "You're getting on in years. With your old bones, I'm afraid he'd run you ragged."
"Ahem. If you have any other signature techniques, why not teach me instead? I can teach them to him afterward. It's the same thing."
"I read in Senior Brother's diary that you mastered sword intent ages ago, Master. He even mentioned something called sword will?"
Lu Ran asked his questions. General Ha really wasn't someone just anyone could teach... He was, one might say, firmly bound to Lu Ran.
"Is that so? What a pity!" Seeing that General Ha did indeed seem rather dim and unable to understand him, Jiang Dou shook his head regretfully.
Then he answered Lu Ran's questions.
"Of course. Your master grasped sword intent long ago, but mine is different from yours."
"Your sword intent and this Silly Husky's are closer to strengthening your aura to put pressure on the enemy and interfere with them."
"It's like how, in nature, the king of beasts only needs to give off its scent to send a whole bunch of animals fleeing in terror."
"As for my sword intent, I don't know whether you've heard the expression 'sword intent like a rainbow.' Look at our dojo's name: the Rainbow Sky Dojo. Our swordsmanship focuses on speed. Speed taken to the extreme, like a streak of rainbow light. This sword intent strengthens the speed of your swordplay, dazzling and overwhelming your opponent, creating pressure and leaving them unable to react."
"You were still little when you studied at the dojo. You were only learning the basics, so you never encountered any of this. But that's not much of a problem."
"When it comes to sword intent, what suits you is best. The two of you should focus on studying the sword intent you've already mastered. There's no need to force yourselves to pursue another kind."
"Just as you asked, pursuing the realm above sword intent-sword will-should be your goal!" Old Master Jiang Dou looked at Lu Ran with an excited expression.
"I've never entered that legendary realm of swordsmen, and your Senior Brother Jiang Man never had the chance to reach it either."
"But after he became a Beast Tamer, he discussed it with me quite a bit. What we call sword intent is a kind of resolve bestowed upon a swordsman by tremendous confidence and superb skill after cultivating swordsmanship to a certain level. It's a technique you can only comprehend once you stand at a certain height and possess a powerful inner self."
"This sort of technique actually exists in every field. Many masters who hold high positions and have achieved extraordinary things in a particular field possess an aura far beyond that of ordinary people."
"Sword intent is the realm of integrating that aura into a sharp sword and imposing it more clearly upon your opponent."
"If sword intent still has something tangible to trace, then sword will is rather elusive. Like something out of legend, ancient swordsmen believed that a swordsman who grasped sword will could inflict not only physical wounds on an enemy, but also devastating mental blows!"
"It's a manifestation of turning your own spirit and will into a sword. Before your sword even leaves its sheath, a single glance can become a sharp blade and cut down your enemy's convictions... Doesn't that sound intangible? Fantastical?"
"It does..." Listening beside him, Lu Ran felt it sounded unreliable. If it really was that amazing, the old man wouldn't have looked so deflated when asked whether a gun or a sword was stronger.
Sword intent sounded impressive, but it only went so far. One gunshot could still put you down.
But this sword will sounded like it violated science. Even a gun would have said, That sounds pretty uncanny to me.
"It was always an extremely fantastical realm, something found only in legends. But things are different now. As you saw in your Senior Brother Jiang Man's diary, he seemed to have found a path to cultivating sword will. Unfortunately... he wasn't able to continue down it."
"Back then, everything about the Beast Tamer profession was still being explored. Now, three years later, some of the theories should be relatively mature, right? You two might just be able to reach it!" Old Master Jiang Man looked at Lu Ran and General Ha with great confidence, his eyes full of anticipation.
But looking at the Silly Husky beside them, who was itching to try, he grew somewhat troubled at the thought that a dog might be the first to attain the realm of sword will that countless exceptionally gifted swordsmen had failed to reach. What kind of absurdity was this?
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