After Cao Xuan left, Chu Xisheng sat alone in the wooden chair, deep in thought for a long while, before rising to clear the tea set from the table.
There was little water left in the courtyard, so Chu Xisheng had to pick up a carrying pole and fetch two buckets from the well outside.
At that moment, he especially missed Chu Yunyun, who was condensing her Spirit Seed at the Daoist Temple.
Not because he missed having someone to do the heavy lifting, but because the Storage Yard was too secluded. There was no one around, and living there alone was too lonely.
Chu Xisheng also cleaned the two rooms and gave himself a quick wash before returning to lie on his bed.
Full of anticipation, he spent one Martial Dao Point to redeem a session of Virtual Practice from the Martial Dao Treasury.
Of the eleven products remaining in the Martial Dao Treasury, this was the only one that truly interested him.
Before this, Chu Xisheng had clung to those few Martial Dao Points, not daring to spend them.
Now he had no such reservations. Although he had yet to fully understand where these Martial Dao Points came from, he had a rough idea.
Besides, he had as many as 26 Martial Dao Points now. He could afford to splurge.
The instant the exchange was completed, Chu Xisheng felt his consciousness waver, and the world before his eyes changed.
He was standing in an immensely vast plaza paved with white marble.
The plaza was at least a thousand zhang long and wide, with an enormous, conspicuous ball of white light at its center.
When Chu Xisheng focused his gaze on the ball of light, a piece of information appeared in his mind.
-Pause Virtual Practice and end the dream?
Chu Xisheng looked around and discovered ranks upon ranks of palaces surrounding the white marble plaza. All were hidden amid clouds and mist, with only their outlines visible.
After a moment's thought, Chu Xisheng headed east.
He wanted to see what these palaces concealed in the mist actually looked like.
But then he discovered something strange: no matter how he walked, he could not move more than fifty zhang away from the white ball of light.
Those palaces stood right ahead, within sight yet beyond reach.
Chu Xisheng shook his head helplessly and abandoned his desire to explore.
Instead, he reached toward his waist, preparing to practice his saber, but his hand found nothing.
Chu Xisheng blinked before remembering that he could not bring his Hundred-Forged Light Steel Saber into a dream.
Just then, countless wisps of cloud and mist gathered around him, transforming into rows of weapon racks before his eyes.
They were laden with sabers, spears, swords, halberds, hidden weapons, bows, and crossbows-all eighteen classes of weapons were present.
There were over a hundred choices for each type of weapon. Sabers, for instance, ranged from unranked ten-forged steel sabers to the first-rank Sun-Shrouding Saber. Everything one could want was there.
When Chu Xisheng took a Hundred-Forged Light Steel Saber from a rack, all the weapon racks dissolved into mist and vanished, as though they had never existed.
The Hundred-Forged Light Steel Saber felt cold to the touch. Its feel, weight, and texture were exactly the same as those of the saber he carried.
Chu Xisheng clicked his tongue in wonder, unable to believe he was dreaming.
Then he gathered his thoughts and began practicing his saber technique.
On the afternoon the system awakened, Chu Yunyun had adjusted his saber-drawing posture to better bring out his talent for swift strikes, but he had yet to find time to practice.
The first move Chu Xisheng practiced was Empty Cave Brings Wind.
This was the drawing stance of the Wind-Chasing Blade. The move was quite simple, much like the drawing technique of the Qi Family Saber or the iaijutsu of Eastern Japan.
It merely added the use of true essence, multiplying the saber's speed.
Chu Xisheng followed the instructions to the letter, adhering to the key points Chu Yunyun had explained as he methodically drew and struck, practicing over and over.
Low-level martial cultivators like them did not need to consider variations when wielding a saber.
In a fight between martial cultivators, a thousand changes could occur in an instant. Where would they find time to think?
Most of the time, they had to rely on instinct to respond.
Only when their instincts were sufficient to handle the vast majority of combat situations would martial cultivators have the leisure to think and apply their martial arts more effectively in battle.
So all he needed to do now was turn these saber moves into instinct as much as possible, forming muscle memory.
The practice was extremely tedious, but Chu Xisheng savored it like honey.
In the past, his physical condition had limited his daily saber practice to no more than half a shichen.
Once that time was up, Chu Xisheng would feel a gripping pain in his heart and numbness in his limbs, leaving him unable to continue.
Now, however, Chu Xisheng had practiced for a full shichen without feeling anything wrong with his body.
Only his stamina and true essence were being consumed little by little.
Gradually, Chu Xisheng grew tired, his muscles becoming somewhat sore and weak.
He had to exert every ounce of his strength to maintain the proper form of his saber moves and keep fatigue from distorting them.
To Chu Xisheng's delighted surprise, once nearly eighty percent of his stamina had been consumed, it stopped declining.
His eyes lit up. He knew that practicing when one's stamina was depleted and muscles were fatigued was often the most effective, and most closely matched the conditions of combat.
Chu Xisheng grew even more eager for the moment he woke from his dream.
According to the explanatory notes for the product called Virtual Training, practicing in the dream produced the same cultivation results as training in reality, without consuming stamina or mental energy.
But how would those results manifest?
In the early morning, a shaft of sunlight shone through the window.
Chu Xisheng felt waves of burning pain across his skin, jolting him awake from his dream.
Then a surge of intense pain struck him, as though countless ants were biting him. Every muscle was unbearably sore and swollen, with an almost tearing pain mixed in.
Chu Xisheng was in such agony that he could not help rolling around on the bed. It took him a long while to recover.
Once the pain had completely subsided, Chu Xisheng panted for breath and sank into puzzled thought.
His Six Yin Soul-Returning Incantation mostly manifested as gripping heart pain, numb limbs, and sensitivity to light. Nothing like today had ever happened before.
A realization suddenly struck Chu Xisheng. Taking his saber into the courtyard, he tried performing Empty Cave Brings Wind.
As a flash of snowy saber light gleamed, three falling leaves before him silently split in two.
Chu Xisheng stared at his right hand, astonishment appearing in his eyes.
He could clearly feel that his saber had become faster!
It was exceptionally practiced, as though he had repeated the move thousands upon thousands of times.
Understanding also dawned in Chu Xisheng's mind. The pain he had experienced earlier must have come from the system pouring the results of his dream training into his body.
What was remarkable was that, after enduring that intense pain, Chu Xisheng felt fully refreshed, without a trace of fatigue.
It was just as the notes had said: no stamina or mental energy was consumed.
The corners of Chu Xisheng's lips could not help lifting slightly. He felt as though an incomparably broad road had opened beneath his feet.
He did not need to rely on the system to add points, nor did he even need talent.
As long as the system let him practice martial arts like a normal person, he was confident he could reach the very end of the martial cultivator's path.