Zhang Qingyuan practiced over and over. Every time he practiced the Tianyang Nine Swords, he could feel clear improvement.
It was the feeling of each attempt flowing more smoothly, growing more familiar, and striking with greater power than the last.
Zhang Qingyuan practiced again and again, and his temper grew fiercer with every attempt.
Zhang Qingyuan threw himself into his practice, forgetting everything else.
He practiced the Tianyang Nine Swords a full ten times, feeling he was just a hair away from major mastery, but he could never grasp that final hair.
He began practicing the Tianyang Four Extremes Sword Art instead, repeating the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise over and over as well.
Old Eldest and Old Second stood watching from the side. Old Eldest watched their youngest junior brother practice his sword like a madman, the entire courtyard battered to pieces by Sword Qi.
Sword light shone as bright as day, Sword Qi whipped up fierce winds, and his True Qi, one Yin and one Yang, had wisps of Dao resonance entwined within it.
Old Eldest stared in horror at the scene before him, his lips trembling as he stammered a question to Old Second. "H-h-he... his internal cultivation art isn't ours, is it?"
Old Second said with certainty, "Of course it isn't. This is a fucking Daoist internal cultivation art. How did he learn to use it?"
"No, shouldn't we be asking where he learned it?"
Old Eldest grew even more worried. Secretly learning another sect's martial arts was a grave taboo in the martial world.
If anyone found out, crippling his meridians and dantian would be getting off lightly. It would mean a feud that would not end until one side was dead.
Had Qingyuan gone bad?
Old Second said, "I was wondering why he'd suddenly seen the light. So he's been practicing another sect's martial arts!"
"Does this count as betraying our sect?" Old Eldest suddenly asked.
Old Second gave him a look reserved for idiots, leaving Old Eldest a little embarrassed.
"And here I was wondering where he got those sword arts he gave me." Old Second thought back to the Flying Immortal from Beyond Heaven and One Sword Separates Generations he had been practicing.
Qingyuan had said he had dug them out of the sect's library. Now it seemed they were nothing of the sort-he had stolen them all!
But where had he stolen them from?
They had never even seen him leave, had they?
"What do we do? Such a powerful internal cultivation art can't possibly belong to an ordinary sect. What if they come looking for him? Daoists are famous for avenging every grudge. They won't sit down and negotiate with us!" Old Eldest was so anxious he stamped his feet.
Old Second shook his head. "That doesn't really matter. Qingyuan probably wouldn't target any sects that still exist. He might have found these in some Daoist sect that's already been wiped out."
"But the Daoists still won't let him off! That's their heritage!"
He could already picture the Daoists coming to attack them in the future.
Old Second calmly considered it for a moment, then said, "How about this? Hurry and buy a large batch of Daoist scriptures, then bring them up here for those teachers to study.
"That way, if anyone asks in the future, we can say we developed it ourselves."
Old Eldest's eyes lit up. "Clever, junior brother!"
"Also, buy Buddhist scriptures too." Another thought occurred to Old Second: what if Old Seventh stole from the Buddhists next?
They had to mend the roof before it rained and avoid any disputes.
The Buddhists were harder to beat than the Daoists. Neither was easy to provoke.
"Understood."
Old Second only spoke this much when talking to Old Eldest. After all, Old Eldest knew exactly what he had been like as a child.
Only with him did he have no image to maintain.
Once the arrangements were made, Old Second looked at Zhang Qingyuan again and said, "Why does it feel like our youngest junior brother's worked himself into a temper practicing?"
"I get that feeling too."
Zhang Qingyuan really had worked himself into a temper.
Because he felt that his talent did not match his level of cultivation practice.
His talent was at the genius level, but the feeling of encountering no bottlenecks whatsoever when practicing the Yin-Yang Limitless Skill was absent when he practiced swordsmanship.
Although it did feel great to notice clear improvement every time he practiced,
the smooth flow he experienced when practicing internal cultivation was missing from his sword practice.
This made no sense!
This internal cultivation art was so difficult, and Daoist to boot, yet I could learn it in a single run-through.
But my own sect's sword arts were clearly much simpler than that internal cultivation art, yet I needed to practice them dozens of times to reach major mastery.
This was a paradox!
But after thinking it over and over, it was his sword practice that made sense.
His talent was that of a genius, but he was neither a prodigy nor the protagonist of an invincible-protagonist novel.
Even geniuses needed a process to learn martial arts.
Improving with every attempt, needing a month or so to learn an advanced sword art, or even half a year to reach major mastery-that was the normal pace for a genius.
Even a genius would need a year or two in seclusion to begin grasping a supreme divine art.
So was my internal cultivation practice the abnormal part?
Zhang Qingyuan had a flash of inspiration.
He suddenly stopped what he was doing and recalled the moves of Flying Immortal from Beyond Heaven.
The first move, the second move...
Sword Qi flowed like the waters of the Yangtze, like wind sweeping away tattered clouds!
That smoothness was exactly the same as when he practiced internal cultivation!
When he finished executing the final move, Zhang Qingyuan understood.
Since the system wanted to follow the show-off-and-face-slapping formula, practicing martial arts it rewarded me with wouldn't require talent. I had to be able to use them as soon as I learned them.
Only that way could I quickly show off and slap faces, completing the wish-fulfillment novel formula!
If it depended on talent, with the talent I used to have, I'd never manage it even if I worked myself to death.
So those martial arts rewarded by the system were bound to be easy for me to practice.
At that thought, Zhang Qingyuan suddenly tossed his sword aside.
Then what the fuck was I practicing for?!
Why the fuck didn't I just practice the martial arts the system rewarded me with?!
He suddenly figured it out. When he had nothing to do, he could practice the system's martial arts to pass the time.
They were things he could learn in a single run-through anyway.
The invincible-protagonist route!
He raised his head and saw two people standing at the entrance.
"Eldest Senior Brother, Second Senior Brother, when did you get here?"
Both froze at the same time. Old Eldest hurried forward. "Qingyuan, are you all right?"
"I'm fine." Zhang Qingyuan looked taken aback.
"No, what's going on with that cultivation art of yours?" Old Eldest asked.
"What cultivation art?"
"Your internal cultivation art!"
"The one you're practicing now, and that Nine Yin Manual. One look tells you they're Daoist cultivation arts." Old Eldest asked urgently, "Where did you steal them?"
"Uh..."
Zhang Qingyuan suddenly froze. Fuck, I forgot!
In a martial arts world, martial arts had identifiable traces!
Some martial arts had very distinctive characteristics; one glance told you whose they were.
The Tianyang Sect was a martial-world faction without any religious affiliation, yet it had Daoist martial arts.
There was no explaining this!
"Hey, what are you thinking about, Qingyuan?" Old Second asked.
Zhang Qingyuan said, "I'm thinking of a solution. We can't leave ourselves open to criticism."
Although Nine Yin, Nine Yang, and the Yin-Yang Limitless Skill he practiced had not been invented by any sect in this world, their religious characteristics were far too obvious.
If someone used that as a reason to demand the cultivation arts, it would be like mud falling into his crotch-even if it wasn't shit, it would be shit.
Old Second smiled faintly and said, "Heh-heh, your big brother's already worked it out for you."
Then he explained his plan to buy Daoist scriptures and have the second-year teachers study them and invent the arts.
When he finished, he asked smugly, "Well? Pretty good plan, right?"
Zhang Qingyuan knitted his brows, considered its feasibility, then shook his head and rejected it. "No."
"Huh?" Old Second could not believe it. Such a genius idea of his had actually been rejected?
"What's wrong with it?"
He refused to accept that!
Zhang Qingyuan explained, "For the Nine Yin Manual, that explanation might work. But the Yin-Yang Limitless Skill is far too heaven-defying. A cultivation art of that level isn't something a few people merely in the Fifth-Grade Realm could casually develop, especially when they aren't even Daoist priests."
"What if they could? We'll just say everyone here is an inventive genius, that a blind cat stumbled onto a dead mouse. Do they have any proof?"
Old Second was getting a little unreasonable.
Zhang Qingyuan thought for a moment. "I have a solution!"
Both looked at him at once. "What solution?"
Zhang Qingyuan did not answer immediately. Only after pondering for a long while did he say, "Looks like I'll have to go away for a while."
He paused, then added instructions. "I'll leave in about five days. While I'm away, put Second Senior Brother's plan into action first. It's not too late to mend the pen after losing a sheep!
"Eldest Senior Brother, find another spot on the mountain and build me a Daoist temple!"
The two exchanged a glance.
Just what was Old Seventh planning?