"The way of sword is something achieved by those who attain Enlightenment. Outside the world of cultivation, there is what's called the martial arts world, Shun Jin. As I once said. Martial arts and cultivation are related. Cultivation without martial arts will only make you a hermit of natural energy. Meanwhile, martial arts without cultivation will only make you an ordinary warrior.
"Cultivation will strengthen your body. While martial arts is the art of moving the body. All martial arts have limitless paths. Just like a vast desert."
It has been a month since Shun Jin trained to the point of collapse. And she managed to break through to the mid Mortal Realm. It's time for me to teach her a technique that will easily defeat King Fong.
During that month, we also traveled toward the Jin kingdom.
Right now, in the middle of a dense black bamboo forest. The noon sunlight fails to penetrate the thick leaves above. Creating a shady and lush forest atmosphere. Bamboo leaves fall, showering the ground in autumn.
Shun Jin stands five steps in front of me. She is setting up a regular sword stance. Sweating after trying to attack me but still failing to land even a single strike.
"You've mastered the basics of swordsmanship without realizing it, Shun Jin. The basics of swordsmanship are swinging, stabbing, and slashing. Seeing you kill the eight-eyed monkey in the Bloody Valley a month ago is proof you've mastered the basics enough. Your footing is strong, your swings are fast. But that alone is not enough."
I pointed two fingers straight. Then made a quick movement that the naked eye couldn't catch.
Shun Jin was confused seeing me make a strange move. Then she realized each falling bamboo leaf was neatly split in the middle. She also noticed the cloth wrapped around her waist suddenly torn.
"Ah!" Shun Jin immediately grabbed both sides of her robe that had loosened. "Perverted lunatic." She said, squatting awkwardly trying to cover her now exposed front. Her cheeks flushed red.
"In swordsmanship, there is agility, precision, and skill. Agility is how fast you slash, precision is how accurate your slash is, and skill is how intelligently you use the sword. And I just showed you all three."
Shun Jin looked at me with furrowed brows. Her lips pouted because she understood.
"Your hand movement that the eye can't see, your accuracy cutting every falling bamboo leaf in the middle, and cutting my robe without me realizing it." Shun Jin tied the split robe cloth around her waist. She now stood upright again, still pouting.
I nodded in agreement.
"You have to use the sword with the mind like painting on paper, Shun Jin. What you paint must be sharp, look beautiful, and neat. You don't need to practice agility for now. Because the technique I will teach you is the sword technique I learned from an ordinary warrior who can even kill gods and cut mountains without breaking his sword."
"An ordinary warrior?" Shun Jin asked, eyes wide open. "Without cultivation power?"
I nodded.
"He purely relies on his martial arts skills. But he's far stronger than someone in the Immortal Ascension. I would even say he is on par with the highest cultivation realm, the Immortal Realm. He possesses a foreign power honed through years of swinging sword. The Enlightenment he has is far higher than any sword cultivator."
Shun Jin became more interested hearing this.
"Who is he? And what's the name of that sword technique?"
"He's just an ordinary old man in a remote island country in the East of this land. People call that place the Wa islands. I met him while tracking down the leader of the devil cult and accidentally fought him because I patted his head during a morning walk without consent."
"That's so typical of you, crazy man." Shun Jin commented, putting on a blank face.
"Ye Jing and I, who were still at the Immortal Ascension cultivation level, were instantly defeated and seriously injured. He only wielded a single long blade about one foot slightly curved. The sword is called a katana. Although slender, and I even thought it would easily break if we clashed swords. However, every slash he made truly taught me the correct way of swordsmanship. And the name of that technique was the Way of Sword."
"Way of Sword..." Shun Jin repeated softly. "What kind of sword technique is that?"
"It's not a complicated technique. Just ordinary slashing motions. But every time he slashed, not only the wind but it felt like the air and vacuum space were also being cut while his sword kept sharpening with every swing."
Shun Jin opened her mouth in an 'o' shape. She looked amazed.
"How can his sword get sharper every time he swings it?"
I shrugged. "He's the only one in this world who knows and masters it. What I'll teach you is the basic Way of Sword that the old man taught me and Ye Jing after we were soundly defeated. We both named this technique;
'Ordinary Slash.'"
Shun Jin tilted her head. "You're joking, right? Crazy man?"
I shook my head. "Simplicity is always the best. Let me show you."
I walked over to Shun Jin and borrowed the slender sword from her hand.
Standing facing the bamboo forest. Getting into a side-slashing stance. I performed a normal side slash, not too fast so Shun Jin could see.
"Nothing happened. Are you lying—"
Crack.
Then dozens of bamboo stalks fell over, sliced sideways. Though the slender sword I held never touched a single bamboo stalk. I was even standing ten steps away from the cut bamboos. Without using any Qi energy at all.
"How is this... What happened?"
Shun Jin said with her mouth wide open. She was truly shocked and amazed.
"What did you see from my movement just now? Did you see me use Qi?"
"No..." Shun Jin shook her head. "You just did an ordinary side slash. But your movement was very straight. So I could see a line created from the tip of the sword."
"Exactly." I handed the slender sword back to Shun Jin. "It's just an ordinary slash. But with extraordinary precision. That's the secret behind Yamato, the old man slash that could even split mountains."
Shun Jin still gaped in amazement. She looked at her own sword and saw the bamboos that had neatly fallen from the slash.
"Can I do it too?"
"If you practice diligently. Besides, it's just an ordinary slash."
I shrugged. I mastered that technique overnight with Ye Jing. Well, that's because I had been wielding a sword for years. So I could easily master it.
"Basically, every swordsman, or cultivator walking path of sword always considers the sword as a friend, companion, even a lover. So you have to do that too, Shun Jin. Treat the sword as more than just a killing tool. Make the sword something closely bound to you. The one who gives soul to the sword will stand with the sword raised high."
Shun Jin nodded.
"So I have to eat with the sword, bathe with the sword, sleep with the sword just like my father's stories say?"
I pinched my chin. Then nodded.
"If you can."
After that day, I never saw Shun Jin leave her sword from her waist or hand even once. She even brought the sword to bath with her and bathed it while singing it a lullaby before sleep. Or she fed her sword like she ate.
I didn't mean to literally give the sword a soul as the phrase suggests. It was just a metaphor. It seems I'll have to teach Shun Jin a language lesson in the future so she can distinguish between metaphor and literal meaning.
***