Yu Zhengxing corrected him. "No. Sword techniques have a thousand variations and ten thousand transformations, but wielding a sword in hand is their ancestor. A good Sword Cultivator with a sword in hand can hold off a million soldiers, but has an inherent disadvantage when attacking. Range is a crippling weakness. If you only take blows without striking back, defeat is only a matter of time.
"Your close-quarters swordsmanship is very good. Keep it up, and when the occasion suits it, you'll give your opponent a surprise."
Hou Niao nodded. He thought so too. Although he still could not block flying swords, that was a matter of cultivation realm, not swordsmanship.
Yu Zhengxing continued, "Of the six realms of the Sword Dao, you've attained two: sword gall and sword intent. They're also what ensures the sharpness of your attacks. Your next hurdle, then, is sword consciousness. This is the prerequisite for whether you can become a true Sword Cultivator."
Hou Niao asked in puzzlement, "Not everyone can use flying swords? You need sword consciousness?"
Yu Zhengxing explained, "The earliest origin of 'sword consciousness' lay in observing a sword to know a weapon. It meant that if a cultivator wished to master a weapon, he should spend every morning and evening with it, as with a sword worn at his side, becoming acquainted over time. Later, its meaning broadened and was applied to flying swords, referring to the connection between a person's mind and a flying sword through the Unseen.
"Once a sword flies out and leaves your hand, without muscles to drive it, how do you control it?
"Crane-controlling techniques, object-controlling arts, and the like are common in the cultivation world. In truth, they manipulate flying swords through the use of law power, treating law power as that connecting thread.