Liu Kaiwei was absolutely furious.
As the son of a famous actor from Hong Kong,
he had money and he had connections.
He had never been treated like this or suffered such a loss since he was a child!
So, the moment he found out that Jiang Nian was just a poor kid with no money or power, only able to throw his weight around because Yang Mi was backing him up,
almost instantly, over a dozen ways to get revenge flashed through Liu Kaiwei’s mind!
But he quickly dismissed those ideas.
It wasn’t because Liu Kaiwei was magnanimous.
It was because he felt that kind of revenge wouldn’t be enough!
He wanted to use the harshest, most ruthless methods to make Jiang Nian understand the consequences of crossing him and make him regret it!
“You think you’re someone just because Yang Mi has your back?”
“You dirty little country dog, I’m going to make sure you never recover from this!”
“You, go tell those directors right now that from today on, anyone who dares to hire this Jiang Nian is disrespecting me, Liu Kaiwei.”
“I don’t believe you’ll ever get another acting job!”
Liu Kaiwei viciously instructed his agent beside him, a chilling glint flashing in his eyes.
He was going to use his own power to crush Jiang Nian and make sure he never got back up again!
Hearing this, the agent nodded, then stepped aside to start making calls.
Relying on Liu Kaiwei’s fame and influence,
news of Jiang Nian being blacklisted quickly spread through various channels to the ears of many directors.
Even Tsui Hark, who was busy with the pre-production work for Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, found out about it through his assistant.
“Director Tsui, Mr. Liu Jr. has made his statement. What do you think about this Jiang Nian…?”
“No replacement!”
Unlike his assistant who was wary of Liu Kaiwei, Tsui Hark was completely calm and gave his answer very decisively.
If he hadn’t witnessed Jiang Nian’s acting skills himself,
he might have considered Liu Kaiwei’s father, Lau Dan, and done Liu Kaiwei the favor of kicking Jiang Nian out of the production crew.
But he had seen those flawless acting skills. Even as a top domestic director, Tsui Hark had rarely seen anything like them!
Although the eunuch character ‘Du Gao’ that Jiang Nian played in the clips was completely different from the ‘Yu Huatian’ that Tsui Hark had written,
if Jiang Nian could bring even half of that unique charm to this role, it would significantly elevate the quality of Flying Swords of Dragon Gate!
“But…” The assistant hesitated, wanting to say something.
But before he could get the words out, Tsui Hark slammed his pen down heavily on the table and turned his head, his dark, piercing eyes locking onto the assistant. “Are you deaf? Do I need to say it twice?”
“I’m sorry.”
Seeing this, the assistant immediately swallowed his words and quickly apologized.
“Get out!”
Tsui Hark barked.
Hearing that, the assistant hurriedly left, not daring to bother him again.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, a week had passed.
Since Jiang Nian wasn’t really part of the director’s circle, he had no idea that Liu Kaiwei was trying to blacklist him.
And Yang Mi had blocked Liu Kaiwei on all platforms right after their fallout, so news like that naturally hadn’t reached her ears either.
This made the week quite uneventful for the two of them.
Their daily routine was basically waking up in the morning, discussing the ‘standards of reinforcement bars’ (a playful euphemism), then having breakfast. After that, Yang Mi would go to work, while Jiang Nian stayed home practicing martial arts and trying to improve the [Sword-Breaking Technique]. Then in the evening, they’d play a game of League of Legends together before heading to sleep.
And after a week of trying to improve it,
after much thought, Jiang Nian finally made a decision: to give up on the [Sword-Breaking Technique]!
It wasn’t that he lacked drive or didn’t want to push through.
It was that this system was just too damn frustrating!
During these seven days of trying to improve it, Jiang Nian discovered the system’s rule for gaining proficiency.
It was: ‘You cannot change the movements; you must perform them exactly as they are!’
Once he violated this rule, no matter how well he modified the technique, he wouldn’t gain any proficiency.
This made Jiang Nian feel incredibly frustrated.
Because if he didn’t change the movements of the [Sword-Breaking Technique], practicing it would activate his internal energy, leading to continuous depletion and harming his own body.
But if he did change the movements, he couldn’t gain any proficiency, making his practice pointless.
“Argh! Why does it have to be like this?”
Lying on the sofa, Jiang Nian scratched his head in frustration, feeling very dejected.
He had exhausted his brain cells trying to improve this damn Sword-Breaking Technique, and in the end, he had nothing to show for it.
This made Jiang Nian feel quite discouraged.
He was increasingly feeling that choosing to unlock Yu Huatian might have been a mistake.
Sensing his low mood, Yang Mi, who had been getting a lot of ‘nourishment’ lately (her skin looking radiantly fair with a hint of pink), came over and asked, “What’s wrong? You look unhappy.”
“Yeah, I’ve run into a problem I can’t solve. I’m really frustrated right now!”
Jiang Nian let out a long, heavy sigh.
If this were any other day, hearing him say that would have been her cue, and Yang Mi would have been considerate enough to help him ‘relieve his frustration’.
But today was different.
“Don’t even think about it. My aunt is visiting.”
Yang Mi refused.
Hearing that, Jiang Nian frowned.
He thought, why such bad timing?
Not earlier, not later, but right when he needed Yang Mi’s ‘comfort’ the most.
But this didn’t stump him.
Mr. Lu Xun once said, there is no path in the world, but when many people walk the same way, a path is created.
Coincidentally, he and Yang Mi had never tried that particular path before.
Jiang Nian was just about to discuss this quote from Mr. Lu Xun with Yang Mi.
But then, suddenly, a flash of inspiration shot through his mind, cutting off his words.
Path?
Jiang Nian realized something, and his eyes slowly lit up!
It seemed he had found a way to improve the [Sword-Breaking Technique]!
Regarding improving the [Sword-Breaking Technique],
Jiang Nian had previously been stuck in a dead end, thinking that improvement had to start with changing the physical movements.
This led him to spend a whole week on that approach without making any real progress.
After discovering the system’s proficiency judgment rule, he even started thinking about giving up on practicing the [Sword-Breaking Technique] entirely.
But actually, that was completely unnecessary!
The reason he couldn’t practice the [Sword-Breaking Technique] was that its movements stimulated his meridians, causing him to uncontrollably expel his internal energy, leading to leakage.
But what if he did the opposite?
Meridians are just channels for transporting internal energy.
In a sense, they are like paths.
And as paths, they certainly aren’t one-way streets.
Since internal energy can be sent out along them, it can also come back in along them.
Building on this idea,
“What if, while practicing the [Sword-Breaking Technique], I go in reverse, circulating my internal energy backwards?”
“Wouldn’t that mean that even if the technique’s movements affect my meridians and try to mobilize my energy, it wouldn’t really matter?”
“Or even…”
“Because I’m doing it in reverse, could it actually absorb internal energy and strengthen itself?!”
After a little reverse reasoning and arriving at this conclusion, Jiang Nian’s mind was shaken.
So, to test it out,
he immediately put on his shoes, hurried into the courtyard, picked up his longsword, and began to practice.
