Chapter 19: What Is a Sword?

Seeing her master look up at the moonlight as if his heart were filled with stories, Lin Zhiwei was suddenly stunned.

In her memory, Su Xuan had always been a decadent mess.

She had never seen him like this.

“What… is a sword?”

She murmured softly, looking at the branch she held for practice.

After a long pause, she spoke hesitantly.

“Is a sword a divine weapon used to protect oneself and one’s family?”

Su Xuan was somewhat startled to hear her answer.

It was said that a person’s perspective revealed their character.

He had not expected this disciple of his—who was usually ready to draw a blade at the slightest disagreement—to actually be thinking about protecting her family.

However, based on his understanding, this disciple was a pure Feng Aotian archetype.

No matter what she thought, he had to disrupt her insights.

The more detours she took, the better.

And so, Su Xuan intentionally let out a long sigh.

“Wrong!

Completely wrong!”

His words were blunt, carrying a heavy tone of disappointment, as if he were utterly frustrated with her lack of progress.

“Then… what is it?”

Lin Zhiwei was cowed by his performance and asked subconsciously.

“A sword is a sword.

It is nothing else!”

Su Xuan continued to look up, his voice becoming ethereal and drifting, as if he were reminiscing about something.

The content was intentionally profound yet practically useless.

“Huh?”

Lin Zhiwei was completely confused, unable to grasp his meaning.

“Master, I feel like this sword manual is wrong.

What does that have to do with what you are saying?”

Recovering her wits, she remembered the disappointed tone Su Xuan had used just now.

She gritted her teeth in defiance and pushed back.

“Sigh…”

Su Xuan had anticipated that Lin Zhiwei would not believe him so easily.

He did not panic at all.

He sighed and continued.

“If you do not even know what a sword is, how can you know if a technique is right or wrong?”

“But I just feel like this part shouldn’t be like this!”

As Lin Zhiwei spoke, she flipped open the sword manual and pointed at one of the pages.

She puffed out her cheeks and said crossly, “Since Master thinks it is right, then demonstrate it for me.

Show me what a ‘correct sword technique’ looks like!”

After thinking for a moment, she added that last sentence with a bit of a bite.

Looking at his disciple’s “if you’re so good, you do it” expression, Su Xuan felt like he had been backed into a corner.

He did not know a single sword technique.

If he actually tried to perform, his flaws would be exposed instantly.

However…

Since he was pretending to be profound, he might as well go all the way.

He intentionally acted as though his interest had waned.

“Forget it.

I will teach you just this once.

Watch closely.”

“Lend me the sword in your hand.”

With that, he rolled up his sleeves and secretly circulated his meager Spiritual Power, waving his hand toward the branch in Lin Zhiwei’s grasp.

Under the girl’s astonished gaze, the branch seemed to come to life.

It wrenched itself from her hand and flew obediently into Su Xuan’s palm.

Holding the branch, he gave it a light flick in the air.

The branch moved through the air without even making a sound of rushing wind.

It was light and airy.

“What you hold in your hand is the sword.

Being able to swing it is the sword technique.

Do you understand?”

After the swing, Su Xuan looked at the dazed girl and asked.

Lin Zhiwei’s mouth hung open slightly as she shook her head.

She had no idea what Su Xuan was doing.

Instinctively, she felt like he was fooling her.

However, the sequence of movements when the branch left her hand had felt inexplicably profound.

She actually did not dare to talk back again.

“Forget it, forget it.

Contemplate it slowly.”

Su Xuan patted the branch back into her hand and walked back to his room with his hands behind his back.

Watching her master return to the house, Lin Zhiwei sat down heavily by the stone table.

‘What is a sword…’

‘A sword is a sword.

Being able to swing it is the sword technique…’

With the sword manual in one hand and the branch in the other, she fell into deep thought.

‘Does this even deserve to be called a sword?

Is this sword manual really fine?’

She murmured to herself, frowning.

She felt like her master’s words were just a trick, yet upon closer reflection, they seemed to hold some measure of truth.

“Sword… sword technique…”

Lin Zhiwei repeatedly muttered Su Xuan’s words to herself.

After a long while, she finally seemed to force herself into conviction.

She picked up the branch and, imitating Su Xuan’s manner, made a light stroke toward the sky.

It was silent.

There was no reaction at all.

“Heh… He really was lying to me.

I’d like to see what other tricks you have up your sleeve!”

She let out a light laugh toward the house, as if she had seen through Su Xuan, and tossed the branch away casually.

Just as she was about to turn and go inside, a branch suddenly landed on her shoulder.

She picked it up to look.

It was bright green—a fresh branch with leaves.

There was a cut at the end, smooth and flat.

It didn’t look like it had been blown off by the wind, but rather… like it had been sliced by a sword!

Lin Zhiwei held the branch, her eyes widening as if she had been struck by lightning.

‘Master seems…’

‘To have not lied to me?’

“She really isn’t easy to fool.”

In his room, Su Xuan let out a small sigh of relief.

Fortunately, when he bought the sword manual, he hadn’t just picked up any random piece of trash.

Otherwise, with his eldest disciple’s personality, he would have been exposed long ago.

Judging by her stunned look at the end, his performance must have worked.

When the time came, she would just have to doubt herself.

That alone should waste a significant amount of her time!

Compared to his eldest disciple, who was both talented and suspicious of him, Lu Zhiyi had already turned off the lights and gone to sleep.

Aside from being a bit of a big eater, she had no other faults.

She was much more low-maintenance.

‘Lin Zhiwei, can’t you learn a bit more from your junior sister?’

‘They’re sisters under the same master, so why is the gap between them so large?’

Lamenting this, Su Xuan lay down on his bed.

Between practicing the Ningnian Jue and finding ways to deal with Lin Zhiwei, both his mind and body were exhausted.

Still, it was fine.

Although his Spiritual Power was currently empty, he finally had a means of attack, and he had temporarily fooled Lin Zhiwei.

He felt a wave of relief.

After tossing and turning comfortably on the bed for a few moments, he drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, as usual, that damned system notification sound woke Su Xuan from his pleasant dream.

[Today’s Tip 1!]

[Wu Renyou is at Qi Refinement Level 5. He primarily practices a Body Tempering Divine Ability, making his body extremely hard. However, due to long-term indulgence in wine and women, his body is severely depleted and nowhere near its peak. Specifically, his left shoulder is a weakness for his entire body.]

[Today’s Tip 2!]

[A good horse deserves a good saddle. Beneath the large banyan tree at the Outer Market Teahouse, a fragment of a blood-red short sword is buried. If the host gives it to Lin Zhiwei, there might be unexpected rewards!]

‘Qi Refinement Level 5… Body Tempering… a weakness…’

Su Xuan scrutinized the text before him, feeling a bit fortunate.

Back in the game, he hadn’t had many conflicts with Wu Renyou, so they had never fought a head-on battle.

He originally thought that since Wu Renyou had such a thin and withered face, he wouldn’t have much strength.

He hadn’t expected the man to not only be at Qi Refinement Level 5 but also be a Body Tempering cultivator with an extremely tough physique!

It seemed he needed to study the Ningnian Jue even more deeply to achieve precise control.

Only then could he land a killing blow when the time came!

With that thought, he turned his gaze to the second tip.

“A blood-red broken sword?

Blood-red?”

He frowned, feeling a sense of familiarity.

In his past life, a portion of Lin Zhiwei’s sword had been blood-red.

In every “playthrough,” it had stabbed him so many times he wanted to smash his computer.

‘The system’s meaning is for me to give her a weapon?’

‘And then… have it used to stab me again?’

Su Xuan sneered inwardly.

This wasn’t a game anymore.

Did the world really think he would let himself be bullied a second time?