This year's winter was much colder than usual.
Even though it was already the new year, white snowflakes were still falling from the sky, and the snow piled up on the ground, blocking all the roads.
In the snowy fields, only bare tree trunks could be seen occasionally. In this silent world, it seemed like not even an insect could survive.
Fortunately, Buena village had a good harvest this year, and the villagers had stored enough food to survive the winter, so that even if they didn't leave their homes, they wouldn't starve.
All of this was thanks to Shirou, who had been using earth magic to improve the fertility of the village's fields. His special earth magic could not only extract metal elements, but also increase the fertility of the soil.
The villagers were undoubtedly very grateful for this, which led to a further increase in Shirou's reputation.
Of course, Shirou didn't do all this just to gain the villagers' gratitude. He wouldn't go to such lengths just to do good deeds.
The reason Shirou tried to help increase the fertility of the village's land was that he was further practicing his magic.
After mastering sword magic, his magic had been improving slightly, but not significantly.
With his talent limited, advanced magic was really too difficult. He couldn't actively use it.
But this was a skill that Roxy had finally taught him, and Shirou really hoped to improve it further, so that when he met Roxy in the future, he could give her a surprise.
Therefore, Shirou actively offered to use earth magic to increase the fertility of the village's land, and found that it worked very well. His understanding of earth magic was further improved, and he could even quickly cast some simple earth magic spells while omitting some of the incantations.
Of course, even so, his earth magic could still only be considered at the intermediate level, far behind Rudeus, who had advanced to the upper level in all attributes, and even became a saint-level water mage.
Besides magic, Shirou's swordsmanship had also reached a bottleneck.
Since he had fully mastered the Mind's Eye Sword and entered the state of using a sword without thinking, he had made no progress in the next stage of the Sword God Style - the Soundless Sword.
After Paul demonstrated the Soundless Sword that day, Shirou had a rough understanding of the principle.
Simply put, the method of the Soundless Sword is to swing the sword at extreme speed, so that the sword's speed exceeds the speed of sound, achieving supersonic sword strikes!
A sword that sound cannot catch up with is a Soundless Sword.
But although Shirou knew the theory and reasoning, he couldn't understand how a pure sword swing could be so fast that even sound couldn't keep up.
After all, the human body has its limits. The power that the body can release is destined to be lost, which means that the action cannot achieve a perfect strike.
If you want to swing such a sword, you need to not only use 100% of your body's energy, but even exceed the limit, releasing power at 200% or 300%.
Is this really possible?
With this question in mind, Shirou tried every possible way to practice swordsmanship with Paul every day. In the battle with Paul, who was an advanced Sword God Style user, he tried to understand the ability of the Soundless Sword.
But this didn't work well.
Because swordsmanship is not something that can be mastered through research and magic. Swordsmanship is something that needs to be felt through the body and understood through the mind. It is purely a matter of comprehension.
And Shirou's comprehension is not very outstanding, at least it can be said to be quite average.
He never thought that he was someone with special talent.
So for Shirou, there is only one way to practice swordsmanship, and that is to work day and night, giving everything he has, to reach the peak in one area!
To this end, Shirou spent a lot of time practicing swordsmanship almost every day for the past few months. He kept swinging his sword, sheathing his sword, and swinging it again, trying to make up for his lack of talent with perseverance and master the true Soundless Sword.
"Shirou, aren't you pushing yourself a little too hard?"
Seeing Shirou swinging his sword almost all day, as if he was completely burning his life to hone his swordsmanship, Paul couldn't help but remind him.
In fact, not only Paul, but everyone in the Greyrat family was worried about Shirou's condition, fearing that his crazy sword practice would put a burden on his body.
"Pushing myself hard? Am I?"
Shirou asked Paul as if it was only natural.
For him, this level of training was just putting in a little bit of passion. It didn't count as really risking his life.
When he put everything he had on the line to save Miyu and faced the Ainsworth family with the greatest determination, that was when he was really risking his life.
Of course, Shirou's thoughts were destined not to be understood by the other members of the Greyrat family.
The family quickly got together to think about how to solve Shirou's mentality of giving up everything for sword practice.
"Why don't we find Shirou a girlfriend!"
Rudeus came up with a wild idea as soon as he opened his mouth. "As long as there is a gentle and beautiful girlfriend by his side, even Shirou-bro will definitely be completely charmed and immersed in the embrace of beauty."
"This... Will brother really be like that?"
Sylphy heard Rudeus' words and seemed doubtful, even somewhat repulsed.
During this time, Sylphy often came to the Greyrat household to play, and also studied magic with Rudeus, and could almost be considered half a member of the Greyrat family.
"Even if Shirou is interested, we can't find a suitable candidate here."
Paul shook his head. "Buena Village is just a small place, not a royal capital. There are girls, but beautiful girls are rare. How could ordinary girls arouse his interest."
"That's true..."
Rudeus waved his hand, indicating that his idea was indeed not very good and had no chance of being realized.
"I don't think this idea is impossible to realize."
Zenith suddenly spoke up from the side. "There aren't any girls his age, but we can just pretend to be girls his age, right?"
"Pretend?"
The other members of the Greyrat family looked at each other, unable to understand her words.
Zenith smiled and said, "Mom is so naturally beautiful. Looking at my appearance, I'm still in my prime at the age of sixteen. With a little disguise, I'm a beautiful young girl, and it's easy to win over little Shirou!"
"???"
Zenith's words shocked the whole family.
Before the others could say anything, Paul couldn't wait to say, "No, absolutely not!"
"Why?"
"Zenith, you're my wife, how can you seduce that brat!"
"But Shirou is our son, what's wrong with taking care of our son?"
"..."
Zenith's all-too-natural words left Paul speechless.
He couldn't find any words to refute her.
However, just before Zenith's outrageous plan was about to be implemented, Shirou walked out from behind. He put down the sword behind him with a helpless expression, and said, "Are you guys too worried? I'm just practicing swordsmanship, not fighting monsters."
"Shirou?"
Paul and the others were surprised that Shirou had returned so early today.
After all, according to the time, he should still be practicing swordsmanship day and night outside. His sudden appearance at this time was obviously abnormal.
Paul thought of something and said incredulously, "Could it be that Shirou, you have mastered the Soundless Sword?"
"I've made some breakthroughs, I guess."
Shirou nodded calmly, without complacency or humility, but with a calm and unwavering state of mind.
But his response obviously surprised everyone.
After all, the Soundless Sword is the standard of the advanced Sword God Style. As long as you master the Soundless Sword, you can almost be called an advanced swordsman.
And advanced Sword God Style swordsmen are rare in the entire Asura Kingdom, even enough to become a direct subordinate of a lord and hold an important position in the army.
Even among adventurers, advanced Sword God Style swordsmen are rare.
Paul, because he has advanced skills in North God Style, Sword God Style, and Water God Style, is strong enough to serve as the main force of the S-rank adventurer team Black Wolf Fang.
This shows the value of the advanced level.
Paul's first reaction was naturally disbelief. He found it hard to imagine that Shirou, a child who had just turned eleven, had already mastered the advanced Sword God Style.
But when he thought that the other party was Shirou, the child he had watched grow up and who had created countless miracles.
He felt that if it was him, there might really be hope for a breakthrough at the age of eleven.
But in that case, wouldn't he have been overtaken by the other party in swordsmanship?
Could the dignity of the father be completely shattered like this?
No, whether it was to prove whether Shirou had really broken through to the advanced level or to maintain his dignity as a father, Paul could not accept this casually.
"Shirou, come out and fight me!"
Paul said in a loud tone.
In order to prove that his strength as a father had not been surpassed by Shirou so quickly, he decided to have another swordsmanship match with Shirou.
Moreover, this time he made it clear that he would not hold back and engage in pure practice, but would issue a real challenge to Shirou as a swordsman.
The other members of the Greyrat family were undoubtedly very surprised by Paul's attitude, and even wanted to stop him.
But before they could speak, Shirou smiled and replied, "Okay, let's have a real battle, Paul!"
After saying that, Paul and Shirou quickly came to the Greyrat family's yard, intending to have a battle of swordsmen in this winter where the snow had not yet melted.
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