Late at night, when all was quiet, Lu Guan returned to his room, shut the door, and sat on the edge of the bed.
He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
"Panel, add points!"
All the cultivation he had saved up finally had a use again.
[Year one: you looked at the Four Symbols Heaven's Will Saber and frowned. After studying it for an entire year, you suddenly felt a little tempted to ask for a refund.]
The corner of Lu Guan's mouth twitched as he read that line on the panel.
[Year two: you finally grasped a few superficial aspects of the martial art, only to discover, to your surprise, that you could not practice it.] [For Gang Condensation Realm martial arts, the first requirement was to condense Gang Qi. Every technique depended on Gang Qi to execute, while you only had True Qi.]
At this, Lu Guan felt like cursing.
Had he really needed two years to figure out something so simple?
Then he consoled himself.
Those involved were lost in the maze, while onlookers saw clearly. Surely there was a limit to how dull he could be?
His aptitude might have been mediocre, but he was not stupid.
At that thought, he fell silent again.
It seemed that with this aptitude, he could not cultivate to the Gang Condensation Realm anyway. Breaking through to the True Qi Realm in this lifetime would already be cause to burn incense in gratitude.
Just as Lu Guan thought the panel would stop there, he was surprised to find that prompts for one year after another kept appearing before his eyes.
[Year three: you continued trying every possible way to study it. Why should Gang Condensation Realm martial arts require the Gang Condensation Realm to practice? As someone in the True Qi Realm, I refuse to accept this!]
Lu Guan nodded. Yes, he refused to accept it.
Good job. Keep that spirit up.
[Year four: you accepted your fate. Gang Condensation was Gang Condensation, and True Qi was True Qi. The two absolutely could not be treated as one.]
Lu Guan: "..."
[Year ten: you seemed to have found some ideas. You could absolutely take a roundabout route to save the nation.] [Year fifteen: a smile appeared on your face. Your idea was correct. Since Gang Qi could not be replaced, why not use True Qi to replace Gang Qi?]
Lu Guan's eyelid twitched.
Replacing Gang Qi with True Qi was like trying to forge an iron sword out of wood. With such a fundamental difference in materials, how could one replace the other?
[Year twenty: so difficult. Though you had an idea, putting it into practice was as hard as ascending to heaven. Once again, you confronted your own talent.]
Messages flashed across the panel one after another.
[Year sixty: you had already broken down, but you were still trying.] [Year sixty-two: you suddenly had a flash of inspiration and followed that line of thought.] [Year seventy-three: you felt as though you had found some ideas.] [Year one hundred and five: a smile appeared on your face. Success. You had succeeded!] [Your idea was correct. You successfully worked out the correct True Qi circulation route, attained basic mastery of the Four Symbols Heaven's Will Saber, and comprehended the Azure Dragon Form!] [You could wield methods comparable to those of the Gang Condensation Realm while in the True Qi Realm!] [Remaining cultivation: two hundred and ten years.]
Lu Guan closed his eyes, and countless intricate insights came flooding in.
The memories of failure, adjustment, failure again, and adjustment again, accumulated over those long years, all became his body's instincts at that moment.
Replacing Gang Qi with True Qi.
The very idea was insane enough, and putting it into practice was harder still, as hard as ascending to heaven.
Yet he had truly succeeded.
The next second, a streak of silver light flashed through the room.
Lu Guan burst through the door and danced with his saber beneath the moonlight.
Following the True Qi circulation diagram, True Qi surged through the young man's body and gathered toward his long saber.
Then it adhered to the blade!
The True Qi was thick as syrup, spreading along the blade and covering every inch of its edge.
Beneath the moonlight, a pale azure film of light appeared on the Primordial Saber's edge, thin as a cicada's wing, faintly resembling Gang Qi.
As the long saber swung again and again, the surging True Qi faintly revealed the body of an azure dragon baring its fangs and brandishing its claws.
The azure dragon had horns and scales, whiskers and claws all complete. Formed entirely from True Qi, it coiled around the blade.
Its head faced outward, its tail wound around the saber, and it rolled and wheeled with the sweeping blade.
It even let out a clear dragon's cry!
Clear and lingering, it spread throughout Qianqiu County in an instant.
Whether they were sound asleep or had yet to retire, the people's minds were all stirred by that dragon's cry, and their bodies could not help trembling slightly.
"You useless piece of trash, how are you finished when you've only just taken off your pants?"
A woman's disgusted voice came from a brightly lit room.
At home, Wu Yong, who was diligently practicing his saber late into the night, lost his grip on his long saber. Its tip struck the top of his foot, making him bare his teeth in pain, but he could not spare a thought for crying out.
Deep fear rose on his face, and the hand that had held the saber trembled slightly.
"Is a great demon passing through?"
Outside Qianqiu County, the instant a figure wrapped in black wind heard the dragon's cry, he silently withdrew the foot he had already stepped forward with.
The figure was tall and imposing, black wind churning around him, revealing faint glimpses of deathly pale skin and a gaunt frame beneath.
A trace of apprehension flashed through his scarlet eyes. Then he turned and left, vanishing into the depths of the night in the blink of an eye.
Across the county, reactions to that dragon's cry varied.
"..."
At the Lu Household's ancestral residence, Yu Qianqian was likewise drawn by the dragon's cry and pushed open her door.
She knew clearly that the sound had come from this very courtyard.
Beneath the moonlight, the young man stood tall and straight, his long saber hanging diagonally from his hand. A few lingering traces of True Qi remained on the blade, slowly dissipating.
He raised his eyes to look toward the woman.
Looking at the young man bathed in moonlight, Yu Qianqian's lips parted slightly, her expression dazed.
If she was not mistaken, what the young man had executed was precisely the Four Symbols Heaven's Will Saber she had given him only a short while ago.
How much time had passed?
The time it took an incense stick to burn? It did not seem to have been even that long.
Besides, wasn't this a Gang Condensation Realm martial art?
Everyone knew that one first had to reach a realm before practicing the external martial arts corresponding to that realm.
He was not even in the Gang Condensation Realm. How could he practice a Gang Condensation Realm saber art?
How had he done it?!
Although Yu Qianqian had given him this martial cultivation method, she had never intended for Lu Guan to learn it now.
Her feelings were somewhat complicated. She suddenly understood what it meant for the gap between people to sometimes be greater than the gap between a person and a dog.
Could it be because my talent is too poor, and after cultivating all this time I'm still only in the Qi and Blood Realm, that Father wants to...
At this thought, the woman's spirits sank somewhat. She lowered her lashes, her fingertips unconsciously tightening around her sleeve.
"Miss Yu, what's wrong?"
Lu Guan's voice reached her, interrupting her thoughts.
Yu Qianqian steadied her emotions and forced a strained smile.
"Nothing."
"Lu Guan, have you mastered the Four Symbols Heaven's Will Saber?"
Lu Guan nodded.
"I've only attained basic mastery."
"By the way, Miss Yu, do you have any Gang Condensation Realm internal cultivation methods?"
Only while dancing with his saber had Lu Guan realized it.
I've put the cart before the horse!
Why practice Gang Condensation Realm martial arts before even advancing to the Gang Condensation Realm?
What a waste!
If I were in the Gang Condensation Realm, why would I need to take some roundabout route to save the nation?
How much cultivation have I wasted?
If he had possessed a Gang Condensation Realm internal cultivation method and used those hundred and five years of cultivation just now to attempt a breakthrough directly, he might already have broken through.
At that thought, Lu Guan felt a pang of heartache.