Shi Lei turned the armor frame. Chen Xiuyuan's wooden saber caught between two leather straps, and by the time it returned in front of him, the staff tip had already struck his chest once.
"Still too late."
Chen Xiuyuan lowered his head to look at that spot of dust and did not immediately try again. He moved sideways and put his rear foot back where it had been, only then realizing that his toes still pointed toward his original landing point.
The armored surface had already turned, but he remained in the same place, forcing the movement of his hand to travel an extra half circle for his whole body.
"A little slower."
Shi Lei braced the staff tip against the back of the frame without touching the saber first. He waited until Chen Xiuyuan had sent the wooden blade between the two leather straps before slowly turning the frame sideways. This time, Chen Xiuyuan did not rush to pull his hand back. His front foot first yielded a little in the direction of the force, his waist and hips drew back with it, and the wooden saber slipped free of the straps.
The staff tip followed close behind toward his chest, but his saber had already returned.
The two lengths of wood knocked together.
"Like this?" Chen Xiuyuan asked.
Shi Lei withdrew his staff, then suddenly pressed downward again. The wooden saber sank with it. Chen Xiuyuan tried to retreat with the same step as before, but his own heel tripped him up, leaving him no choice but to relax the force in his hand first and evade the strike.
"The direction changes, and you're back to reciting moves."
Chen Xiuyuan marked two footprints on the ground with his scabbard, comparing the successful attempt just now with this failed one. If he took the same step whenever he met resistance, he would still get stuck against a different sloping surface. He had to first identify what blocked the edge, then make room with his body in a direction he could retreat.
Shi Lei did not hurry him. He drank a bowl of water before returning behind the frame.
The afternoon's practice was reduced to a few very short sequences. Send the saber in, meet resistance, withdraw-starting slowly enough to see clearly. When the armor frame turned left or right, Chen Xiuyuan could turn his body with small steps; when it pressed downward, he first relaxed the elbow braced forward, leaving room for the saber's spine to yield. His steps covered only the distance needed, rather than flinging his whole body out just to bring the saber back an inch.
By the time the sun slanted past the side of the frame, he finally blocked the staff strike Shi Lei sent after his withdrawing saber.
No new mark joined the spot of dust on his chest.
[Original version limit breaking accumulation: 96%.]
Holding the wooden saber, Chen Xiuyuan knew what he still lacked. His bladeless practice now flowed smoothly, but he had yet to fully handle the additional resistance of a real edge cutting into hard armor. If switching to a real saber left him focused only on pulling it free, he still would not be able to guard against the next strike.
He told Shi Lei this. Shi Lei glanced at his right arm and confirmed that no fresh blood showed beneath the cloth sleeve before moving the cork frame to a spacious spot.
"You can switch sabers, but I won't follow up with an attack yet. If you can't pull it out, stop. Don't fling the edge toward me just to be quick."
Chen Xiuyuan took his agreed position. Shi Lei pushed the frame with his long staff from behind and to one side, leaving ample distance between them. They shifted the armor to an uncut section. Chen Xiuyuan first tested the original method, leaving a short, shallow mark, and only then cut in with the blade adhering at a slant.
The edge passed along a raised ridge, and resistance traveled through his wrist.
Shi Lei pushed the frame a little to the side.
Chen Xiuyuan changed his footing with it. His initial habit of hauling hard with his wrist surfaced, but he checked it in time. His elbow yielded toward his side, the saber's spine retreated past the gap in the armor, and he turned the edge with the motion, completing the return to a guard before his body.
The saber did not catch again.
But after Shi Lei had him rest and change directions, he was still slow on the second attempt. Chen Xiuyuan turned that armor piece over, saw clearly that the edge had been pinched by tough hide curled up on the inside, and made separate notes of the two kinds of resistance he had previously failed to distinguish.
It was not until the following afternoon that he managed to perform steadily in succession on several different armored surfaces.
On the last piece of thick armor, the saber bit only a shallow line before Shi Lei suddenly pressed the frame inward. He retreated just under half a step to redirect the force coming straight at him, drew the saber back from the side, and still connected into the Bloodstone Saber Technique's returning hook. He neither froze against the armor nor left his chest unguarded.
The saber stopped, and the words appeared at once.
[Bloodstone Saber Technique, original version limit breaking accumulation: 100%.]
The blade paths Chen Xiuyuan had tested over the past few days connected before his eyes. When to adhere, when to yield, how to retrieve a complete strike after meeting resistance-he no longer needed to search through his few successes one image at a time.
[Limit breaking complete.] [Acquired: Blade-Adhering Force Redirection.] [Original version has undergone limit breaking once; verified results retained.]
He did not wait for a second threshold. The path he had just opened was already in his hands. Not a single move of the old saber technique was missing, and the changes he had previously managed only by chance on a few familiar pieces of material could now be clearly explained and executed.
Still holding his staff, Shi Lei asked why he had suddenly stopped.
Chen Xiuyuan dismissed the words and looked toward the intact piece of ironback hide beside the frame.
"This time, I want to try that."
Elder Shi arrived as the ironback hide was spread over the wooden frame.
The old man held a small piece of old material, the very piece Chen Xiuyuan had hacked a white mark into on the first evening. He placed the old and new pieces together, selected sections of similar thickness, and made Chen Xiuyuan rest first. He would not allow the depth of the cuts to count when one arm was sore and the other had recovered.
Shi Lei went to fetch water. When he returned and handed him the bowl, he asked casually, "What if you still can't cut through?"
"First, I'll see where it's being blocked. I won't throw away everything before this just because this one piece won't open."
"You certainly take it well."
Chen Xiuyuan finished his water without explaining further. He had just applied everything he had practiced repeatedly over the past few days against the moving armor frame. He had confidence in this strike.
Once both arms had recovered, he stood before the wooden frame.
The old short saber was still wrapped in the same piece of cloth. Its edge had not been replaced, and he circulated the same amount of Qi and blood as in the earlier comparison. From the left, Chen Xiuyuan first delivered a diagonal slash with the original method. The edge struck the hide, jolting the frame's feet with a clatter. It left a slightly deeper cut than his first test, but did not penetrate the inner layer.
Elder Shi told Shi Lei to spread the cut open and confirmed that thick hide still connected it inside.
"Leave the right side. Use what you've just practiced."
Chen Xiuyuan returned to his starting point and took another clear look at the hide's curvature.
This time, the saber did not smash straight into it. The edge first adhered to a slightly slanted line, then, as his front foot turned, advanced into the gradually thickening resistance. By the time the hide pressed against the blade, his elbow had already shifted position, and the edge continued along the narrow path he had made for it.
The short saber drew free from the other side.
A small piece of thick hide drooped down.
At first, it still hung by the last few fine strands. Shi Lei reached out and flicked it, and the piece fell beneath the wooden frame. Light showed through the complete cut. Its edges lacked the raggedness of repeated sawing, and the whole sheet of hide had not been torn loose.
Elder Shi bent over it for a long while, then suddenly turned both cut sections over.
The old method's cut on the left remained connected; the right had gone through.
Chen Xiuyuan looked at that narrow opening, his hand not immediately releasing its grip on the saber. The first time he had tested his saber against this armor, he could not even explain why the edge slid away. Later, he had changed angles and supports until marks of failure nearly filled half a page. Now the cut lay right before him. He did not need to ask anyone to supply the word "success" for him.
Shi Lei picked up the piece of hide beneath the frame and fitted it against the cut. It matched exactly.
"You really didn't use more strength?"
"My shoulder didn't press down. You were watching."
"Let me see it again."
Chen Xiuyuan laughed once. After his arm recovered, he made another cut through an intact section that remained. This time, Shi Lei watched his shoulder and waist, while Elder Shi watched the edge. When the saber withdrew, neither called a halt.
That opening also passed through the inner layer.
Holding the two severed pieces of hide, Shi Lei finally stopped asking about strength.
"None of the moves I taught you went like that."
Chen Xiuyuan lowered his saber. Only then did the joy in his chest truly surge up. He wanted to answer that he still had far to go, then felt there was no need. What lay before him was indeed something he had practiced into being himself, taking one more step forward.
"I can connect it to the original returning stroke now," he said.
Elder Shi nodded, but took another piece of hard black armor from his cloth bundle and set it on a wooden block.
This piece was thicker, its cross section like several tightly compressed layers of hard shell. Chen Xiuyuan had never tested it before. The old man first pressed it with the tip of his staff and told him to look at its thickness, then had Shi Lei leave a small notch in its edge using his usual strength.
Shi Lei's saber did not enter deeply.
"It demands much more strength than that last piece," Elder Shi said. "Stop once you've tested the difference. Don't cling to how fine those earlier cuts looked."
Chen Xiuyuan picked up the short saber and set its edge against the black armor near the side. The blade path was correct, and the tip did indeed bite a little way along the sloping surface, but deeper in, the opposing force traveling through his arm rapidly increased. He tried to sustain it with Qi and blood, but the strength he could still draw from his chest and abdomen was no longer enough to maintain the strike.
Chen Xiuyuan immediately yielded with the spine to withdraw the edge and retrieved the saber.
A narrow groove had appeared in the black armor, but it remained unsevered.
He lowered his head to check the edge, then tried moving his wrist. He was uninjured, but that resistance had been unmistakable. Forcing it further would only sacrifice his own wrist.
The "Limit breaking complete" notice remained on the Panel.
He sheathed the short saber and said to Elder Shi, "I can't cut this piece open yet. The blade path can get inside, but beyond that, I'll need more Qi and blood, and a more suitable saber."
"Good, as long as you know."
Elder Shi put away the black armor and told him to take back the piece he could cut through. Shi Lei, however, was in no hurry to leave. Holding the two different cuts side by side, he studied them for another long while.
"When I learned the Bloodstone Saber Technique, once my master taught me this far, that was everything. If I encountered anything harder, my first thought was to switch to a heavier saber."
"Switching sabers helps too," Chen Xiuyuan said.
"Of course it does." Shi Lei handed back the thinner piece. "But what you used today was still that old saber from the wall."
Chen Xiuyuan gripped the scabbard without touching the cloth worn white on the hilt again. Once, that saber in his hands had failed to cut even white vine steadily. Now the same edge had passed through hide it previously could not cleave.
Back in his room, he spread his test diagram over the table and drew the foot positions along the final returning stroke he had completed. The original version had already undergone limit breaking once. To go farther next time, he would have to truly connect the new elements with the advances, retreats, and transitions of the entire saber technique, making a more complete method. Merely giving Blade-Adhering Force Redirection some imposing new name would not add a fraction to the skill in his hands.
Beside the diagram, he noted the situations he still did not know how to handle, without drawing a second limit breaking box.
Elder Shi brought dinner. Seeing the piece of hide he had cut through spread beside the table, he first moved the bowl aside to keep soup from spilling onto it.
"Tomorrow, slow down both your entry and your returning stroke, and show me."
Chen Xiuyuan looked up. "You want to try it?"
"Mm."
The old man sat down and placed his wooden staff by the wall.
"Explain it clearly. I'll learn it too."