On average, a swordsman needs one to five years of technical training to harness sword qi – not accounting for potency. They then accumulate internal energy over the next seven years to harness that as sword energy, which is achieved when their internal energy and swordplay become one. Those at the top of their game can generate qi swords after another seven years of training. For the record, moving from one realm to the next doesn’t just unlock new abilities but also means their physical attributes that contribute to their swordplay performance undergo augmentation – without expending as much or more internal energy. At the end of the day, efficiency needs to be a part of improvement.
To go beyond Qi Sword Realm and reach Sword Spirit Realm, which only around ten percent of swordsmen achieve, the swordsman must make it a life pursuit. Even then, there’s never any guarantee of success, though it didn’t deter some from attempting to gain the glory that would have them lauded across all the land. Think of it this way: Sword Spirit Realm is the most prestigious gold medal a swordsman can obtain.
Sword Spirit Realm swordsmen have shed the rigid restraints of styles and techniques, able to adapt to whatever is thrown at them. Swordsmen who ascend to Sword Spirit Realm have surpassed the limits of their style. Accordingly, they develop a mental cultivation style unique to them. In essence, they imagined the same swordplay as before differently just as someone proficient in calligraphy could add different flairs to their handwriting whenever they pleased.
The primary trait of Sword Spirit Realm is freedom, meaning the swordsman excels in, at least, one area compared to other swordsmen, has foregone discrimination of styles and let go of mental walls they encountered on their journey to the realm.
Shen Yiren took a maverick’s approach in terms of her progress. Instead of polishing and polishing, solving and solving, she threw everything aside when she fought Luo Ming disguised as Abels, effectively breaking through via a different approach. As a side note, most young swordsmen who seemed to excel beyond their years also ascended to higher realms via unorthodox means.
As Shen Yiren didn’t have a desire to become a cream-of-the-crop swordsman, she had less mental hurdles – regarding swordplay – to climb over. On the other hand, some swordsmen struggled to let go of things because they were so fixated on their swordplay and trying to “pull themselves out”. It’s the same as being told not to think of something, only for you to struggle not to think about it. To put it another way: their swordplay dictated them as opposed to them dictating their sword. That’s anything but being “free”. Shen Yiren using a sharp weapon as a blunt weapon was a hallmark of her understanding the idea behind Sword Spirit Realm’s freedom.
Shen Yiren cut from left to right, clanging against Hua Jian’s monk spade deafeningly. Hua Jian lost his grip on his monk spade and suffered whiplash from the impact.
“Heh, too kind.” Shen Yiren proceeded to bludgeon her injured and unarmed opponent dozens of times. A match that would’ve taken her two hours was settled in a fraction of that time and with minimal damage.
Barely possessing any awareness of his surroundings, Hua Jian murmured, “You won’t find the secret passage… You… you won’t find…”
Shen Yiren turned back to her fallen opponent: “What secret passage?”
“My first brother guards the first floor, and he’s superior to Yan Shisan… None of you will… escape with your lives.”
A secret passage? This is getting more bizarre by the minute. Judging from this guy’s style and skill, he’s unmistakably been training under Luo Clan since childhood. How can he be with Luo Sword Manor if he’s partaking in Refining Divine Convention, though? Luo Sword Manor must be hiding something. Maybe this is a good chance to unearth the secret plot behind this event and where Evil Spirits fits into all this.
If Hua Jian is bringing up the secret passage, doesn’t that mean he ambushed us to stop us from finding the secret passage as opposed to competing as a competitor? Since he’s a guard, we must be here the secret passage.
“My first brother guards the first floor, and he’s superior to Yan Shisan… None of you will… escape with your lives,” Shen Yiren recalled Hua Jian saying. “None of you… Drats! Feizhen!”
Glossary
Sword Spirit Realm swordsmen have shed the rigid restraints of styles and techniques, able to adapt to whatever is thrown at them – Think of it like this: in boxing, beginners are taught both hands up. When you get more advanced, you can adjust your stance (e.g. Philly Shell) to suit different situations better.
