Chapter 35: Learning the Blade
The sword was the most common and most revered weapon in the Eastern Continent. Countless sects and academies regarded sword techniques as the most powerful form of Daoist practice. The Changsheng Sect governed countless mountain gates, yet the true foundation that allowed this southern religious stronghold to stand against the Li Palace was still the Lishan Sword Sect—perhaps this was the reasoning behind it.
The blade, on the other hand, was generally used in the military, deployed in formation to kill enemies on the battlefield. It had long been considered unfit for refined circles, until a thousand years ago, when Zhou emerged and defeated all the world's experts with a single blade. This situation changed, but after Zhou Dufu, masters of the blade remained rare.
Why was this so? Because Zhou Dufu's blade was too sharp, and even more because he had created a set of astonishing blade techniques himself.
That set of blade techniques, along with his blade, was named Two Severances.
This was the legendary Two Severance Blade Art.
Staring at the words and images on the obsidian coffin wall, Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong were struck speechless. Rumors had long circulated that Zhou Dufu's legacy lay within the Zhou Garden, but only now, seeing it with their own eyes, did they confirm that the rumors were true.
Compared to this blade art, the martial arts manuals, rare elixirs, gold, jade, and jewels in the nine stone chambers were utterly insignificant. Time was indeed powerful—it could render elixirs ineffective and tarnish jewels, but it could not devalue wisdom and knowledge. The Two Severance Blade Art on the obsidian coffin wall was, without a doubt, the pinnacle of wisdom and knowledge in the cultivation world.
"To hear the Way in the morning, to die in the evening is acceptable." The beast tide was approaching the tomb, and the massive shadow of death in the sky was about to loom over their heads. Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong forgot all these matters and began to study the words and images on the coffin wall, hoping to learn as much as possible in their final moments.
Their gazes fell on the beginning of the text—the general outline of the Two Severance Blade Art. The words were very simple and easy to understand, but the principles they conveyed were profoundly deep. A simple blade, a single edge, was depicted in the text in a way that connected with the world between heaven and earth from such unexpected angles. Truly, it was a brilliantly original and magnificent composition.
The Two Severance Blade Art consisted of one hundred and eight blade techniques, divided into three parts, referred to in the general outline as segments, each containing thirty-six techniques.
The first segment was called Rise. It focused entirely on the concept of rising—how to raise the blade, how to raise the edge, how to raise the wind, how to raise the momentum. It was the most fundamental part of this blade art, yet also the most imposing. The second segment was called Sustain. It mainly dealt with defense. When practiced to the extreme, it could sustain the changes of heaven and earth. However, these thirty-six techniques were not purely defensive; the hidden edge lurked within, like a dragon in the clouds, ready to strike at any moment. It was both steady and perilous. The third segment was called Fall. This word "fall" could simply be understood as bringing down the blade, but in reality, it derived from the original meaning of the term "azure fall." Where the blade pointed, there was a vast, open image of a clear blue sky, encompassing everything in the world, capable of severing whatever lay before it.
After reading the general outline of the Two Severance Blade Art, Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong paused not a moment before moving on to the next image and text—the first technique in the Rise segment.
This was also the first technique of the Two Severance Blade Art, with an especially simple name: Origin of Rise.
The image contained no blade, nor any person wielding a blade—only a few simple lines.
Chen Changsheng had experience studying the steles at the Heavenly Book Mound, while Xu Yourong had spent day and night at the Saintess Peak studying the art of deciphering celestial texts. They each had their own way of seeing things, understanding that those lines represented the pathways of true essence flow, as well as the blade intent. Yet precisely because they were simple, they were difficult to decipher. The sparse lines on the coffin wall immersed them so deeply that they gradually forgot the passage of time. It was only at a certain moment that both of them finally comprehended this single blade technique, awakening almost simultaneously. They instinctively exchanged a glance, seeing the shock in each other's hearts.
The iron blade unsheathed, rising into the sky—how could such a seemingly simple action contain such complex variations? How could such complex variations be remembered and applied in battle? This blade art, like Zhou Dufu himself, was supremely domineering, yet also profound and unfathomable. Even with their knowledge, they found it utterly astonishing.
There was no other reasonable explanation except that Zhou Dufu was a genius with wisdom far beyond that of ordinary people.
This seemingly simple first technique of the Rise segment had consumed countless of their mental energies before they finally mastered it. Of course, once they comprehended it, the exhilarating sensation—like a silver vase shattering, water bursting forth, or iron cavalry charging out, blades clanging—was so intense that they felt an urge to shout and cry out several times to vent the wonderful emotions of that moment.
Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong merely gazed at each other in silence, the shock in their eyes gradually turning into unease. Just the first technique had taken them this long. How much time would they need to comprehend all one hundred and eight techniques and integrate them fully? Their biggest problem now was that they had no time.
If it were merely a matter of insufficient time, they could try to memorize a few techniques here and there. But as mentioned earlier, this Two Severance Blade Art was a magnificent composition. Its most peculiar feature was that the one hundred and eight techniques, though seemingly separate, were actually a single whole. You had to understand the entire set of blade techniques to grasp the meaning of this composition.
Though they seemed to have mastered the first technique earlier, that mastery was far from sufficient—or rather, it was not true mastery.
"Memorize first," Chen Changsheng said to her. "Buy time. Record all these words and images."
Even if they sought only to replicate the entire blade art in their minds without understanding it, it was an extremely difficult task.
Xu Yourong calculated the time until the beast tide arrived and how long it would take her to memorize the blade art, confirming it wasn't enough. She said, "We'll memorize separately."
"Alright," Chen Changsheng said, looking at her slightly pale face. After a brief pause, he added, "I'll start from the back, and you start from the front."
If this blade art were a composition, reading from front to back was sequential and naturally easier, especially compared to reciting it backward.
Xu Yourong knew he was thinking of her still-unhealed injuries and had deliberately arranged it this way. She didn't refuse. She walked to the image and text of the second technique and began recording it in her mind.
Chen Changsheng glanced at her, confirming she could stand and endure for a while, then walked to the left side of the obsidian coffin, before the final image.
This was the last technique of the Fall segment, with an especially domineering name: Burning the World.
His gaze fell on the lines of that image, and at the same time, the explanatory text entered his field of vision.
In an instant, the image and text vanished, and before his eyes appeared a dim sky, filled with falling stars trailing long tails of fire. The world seemed on the verge of destruction...
The next moment, he realized that the trajectories of those falling stars looked somewhat familiar. He recalled that those trajectories were exactly the rising momentum of the first technique of the Two Severance Blade Art, named Origin of Rise. So the end was indeed connected to the beginning. He finally confirmed the content of the general outline—this blade art indeed required complete mastery to be truly grasped.
This blade art was an indivisible whole. In other words, the one hundred and eight techniques of the Two Severance Blade Art were actually a single technique.
It had to be this way.
One technique, to achieve two severances.
(Just this chapter today. Updates will be very sparse over the next few days. If I don't have time to write, I'll inform you all in advance. Wishing everyone a peaceful and joyful 2015, and may all your wishes come true. Sincerely.)