So she went back inside, took out the Lost Jade Sword, and practiced for four hours. By then, the sky had gone completely dark.
All around her was silence.
She noted a few minor problems in her mind and rehearsed several more times to ensure she would make no mistakes tomorrow. The young girl stood there a while, feeling the surrounding silence about to hook something up from within her heart again. She drew a soft breath, sheathed her sword, and walked back inside.
Lighting a candle, she opened "Yellow Jadeite" at the table. Its pages were densely covered with notes from her earlier practice, the oldest dating back two years.
Li Piaoqing carefully turned through the pages one by one. Although there probably would not be a Sword Theory question-and-answer session tomorrow, a person's understanding of Sword Theory could show through their swordplay. She had heard that, compared with self-taught practical fighters, the Sword Cultivation Academy favored those with a clear grasp of Sword Theory. She needed to pay particular attention to this.
[Treading Water, Plucking Scales]
[Cloud-Hiding Sparrow-Catching]
[Fire-Sweeping Through the Waterfall]
[Immovable Perilous Wind]
The young girl turned through the pages one by one, carefully reading each sword move's guiding principles and analysis alongside the notes she had made at the time. The lamplight swayed, her expression remained still, and she held a Finger Sword, occasionally tracing gentle movements.
She turned to the next page.
[Fallen Leaf Returning Tide]
Suddenly, her brow furrowed as she noticed a sentence: "The dividing line of the third section lies in this sword move. Before it, the mundane; after it, the spiritual."
She had read this sentence many times, and its meaning was easy enough to understand-from Fallen Leaf Returning Tide onward, this sword art did indeed become a degree more