"Dingyun? You and the Dingyun Trading Company-"
"My father owns it."
"Right."
After chatting for a while, Pei Ye had rested enough. He picked up his sword and rose, leaving Zhang Dingyun to continue enjoying the autumn day while he went aside to practice his swordsmanship.
It was the first move of the Cicada Section, Soil-Breaking.
Pei Ye had already dissected this move thoroughly. It was a clean opening stance, committing three parts of his strength and holding seven in reserve, probing more than attacking, like a cicada climbing out of the earth after a rainfall, most of its body still buried in the hole.
There were three places in this move that could serve as openings, but before learning the Sparrow Section, it was best not to expose them.
And if it was not used as a hook for the Sparrow Sword, but treated as an independent sword move, it was probably only a little stronger than the Willow-Supporting Sword. Its sense of sudden openness and its grounds for advancing and retreating were worth studying, but it mainly laid the groundwork for the six sword moves that followed.
Learning the sword move after thoroughly understanding it truly yielded twice the result for half the effort. Pei Ye continually checked his insights from the past few days against his current practice. Gradually, knowledge and action became one, while his Clumsy Realm body kept adjusting his sword's path. Every stroke was more beautiful than the last.
In just half an hour, Pei Ye had learned the move.
It was not crude and strained like his Flying Copper Shadow, but had become a precise, proper part of his body's memory. Further improvement would have to come through familiarity and insight.
After learning the move, Pei Ye waited a while before the two-hour