“What do you mean by ‘self-castration’? What are you talking about?”
Yang Mi walked in carrying a fruit platter, having just happened to catch Jiang Nian’s words. She couldn’t help but ask with a look of suspicion.
“Nothing, really. I just finished reading the script and had some thoughts,” Jiang Nian said, letting out a deep breath as he pointed to Lin Pingzhi’s script.
“I see…” Yang Mi nodded in understanding, feeling relieved inside. She had been worried that she might have been pushing too hard lately and that Jiang Nian was starting to feel resistant.
She then picked up a piece of jackfruit from the platter and asked, “Want some?”
“No thanks. I’m going to head out to the yard and practice some martial arts.”
Ever since they’d made up a few days ago, Yang Mi had let Jiang Nian move into her villa. That meant he no longer had to trek all the way to the park every day just to train.
Yang Mi nodded. “Alright, then I’ll go watch some TV.”
“Mm.”
Jiang Nian acknowledged her and walked out into the yard, where he began recalling the contents of the Evil-Warding Sword Art that he had seen in Lin Pingzhi’s memories.
Aside from the catchy line, “To master this divine art, one must first self-castrate,” and the boastful claim that “at its peak, it is unbeatable under heaven,”
the actual cultivation chant for the Evil-Warding Sword Art consisted of only forty-eight characters:
“The thirteen grand principles must not be taken lightly. Sink your breath to the dantian; let your heart move with the momentum; let your intent rest on the sword’s tip; let your waist be the lifeline. Find movement within stillness; strike with a single hand; keep your tailbone centered; channel energy from the crown downward. Let sword intent connect with the heart; let bone and flesh unite as one.”
At first glance, it didn’t seem all that difficult.
These forty-eight characters had already laid out the key points—all one had to do was follow them.
That’s what Jiang Nian initially thought too. But as he delved deeper into his practice, he gradually realized that something wasn’t quite right.
There’s a saying that’s long been passed down in Daxia: The fewer the words, the bigger the matter!
And the forty-eight characters of the Evil-Warding Sword Art were a perfect example of that.
Now, it was highly likely that the author, Jin Yong, had no real idea what these words actually meant, nor how the Evil-Warding Sword Art was supposed to be practiced. He’d written this passage purely to give the technique an air of mystique and prestige.
But the problem was that Jiang Nian had a system, and the Evil-Warding Sword Art had been fully incorporated into it.
As a result, those forty-eight characters that Jin Yong had casually penned down became, once filtered through the system, incredibly complex and difficult to grasp.
“Is it because my comprehension isn’t high enough?”
Jiang Nian furrowed his brow, thinking that was a distinct possibility.
After all, the required comprehension stat for the Lin Pingzhi character was 5, while he only had 3. He’d unlocked it by brute force, so it made sense that he couldn’t fully understand it now.
It couldn’t possibly be because he hadn’t castrated himself, right?
If practicing martial arts required strict adherence to every condition, then back when he first started training in the Shaolin Boy’s Art, he would have exploded on the spot—there’s no way he’d still be alive today.
The system would patch up those kinds of flaws, so that wasn’t the issue.
But if he couldn’t understand it due to a lack of comprehension…
After a moment’s thought, Jiang Nian decided to grit his teeth and keep practicing anyway.
“I’ve already bought it.”
“I refuse to believe that, with Lin Pingzhi’s memories at my disposal, I still can’t master this!”
Jiang Nian thought to himself, then closed his eyes and immersed himself in Lin Pingzhi’s memories, scrutinizing every detail with painstaking precision.
At Mount Hua Sect.
After the self-castration, Lin Pingzhi had begun attempting to cultivate the Evil-Warding Sword Art.
Even though he’d only just started,
whether it was because Lin Pingzhi was exceptionally gifted, or because the drive for revenge fueled him,
he managed to get the hang of it in an astonishingly short amount of time.
Unlike Jiang Nian, who had stared at it for ages without understanding a thing,
Lin Pingzhi, after simply holding the cassock and pondering it for a while, had grasped its mysteries.
“The techniques within the Sunflower Manual are truly exquisite beyond compare!”
Lin Pingzhi murmured excitedly, and the terrifying power of the Evil-Warding Sword Art began to show.
Wielding his longsword, Lin Pingzhi’s strikes were blindingly fast, complex, and ever-changing.
Every move was bizarre to the extreme. At first glance, it looked like a single technique, but upon closer examination, it seemed to contain dozens of variations. And when you tried to extrapolate further, it became even more dizzyingly intricate.
Jiang Nian couldn’t help but make a mental comparison.
He realized that, even though he had maxed out all of Yu Huatian’s skills and had received one-on-one training from Yu Huatian himself during his breakthrough,
if he were to face Lin Pingzhi, he wouldn’t stand a chance!
Forget three moves—Lin Pingzhi would only need one strike, and his unpredictable swordplay would run Jiang Nian through.
Of course, that was assuming they were only using sword techniques.
If he were to employ his internal energy, given his current level of cultivation, he might not win, but at least he wouldn’t lose so miserably.
“Holy crap, that’s insane! The Evil-Warding Sword Art truly deserves its reputation as one of Jin Yong’s most supreme martial arts!”
After making that comparison, Jiang Nian’s desire to master the Evil-Warding Sword Art burned even hotter, and his resolve grew ever stronger.
So he kept watching, kept learning, kept experimenting, and kept correcting.
Jiang Nian had no idea how many times he swung his sword.
All he knew was that the motion had become completely numb to him.
The sound of air being cleaved rang out incessantly. Every swing sent out waves of wind that rustled the plants Yang Mi had planted in the yard, making them sway back and forth.
The rustling went on without end.
“Is the wind picking up?”
Hearing the commotion from the yard, Yang Mi curiously stepped outside.
She was about to call for the housekeeper to bring in the laundry and tend to her precious plants,
but then she realized that the source of all this noise was actually Jiang Nian.
Although she already knew Jiang Nian could cause quite a stir when practicing martial arts, she was still taken aback.
“That looks seriously impressive~”
Seeing that Jiang Nian seemed different from before, Yang Mi let out a soft exclamation of surprise.
She didn’t approach to interrupt, just stood off to the side and watched.
She noticed that the sword style Jiang Nian was practicing right now was filled with bizarrely shaped moves.
Yet, at the most unexpected moments, he would suddenly thrust out, sending gusts of wind rippling outward.
Jiang Nian’s swordplay grew faster and faster.
The wind he kicked up grew stronger and stronger.
Even though Yang Mi was several meters away, she could still feel the fierce gusts stinging her face.
This struck her as utterly incredible.
Could there really be such formidable sword techniques in the real world?
“Oh no, my flowers!”
But then, Yang Mi realized with alarm that something was wrong.
If even she was uncomfortable from the wind Jiang Nian was generating, then the flowers she had placed in the yard would surely suffer even more.
She looked closely and, sure enough, under the onslaught of the gusts, many petals had already been blown off.
Yang Mi’s heart ached.
These were flowers she had spent a small fortune importing from abroad.
They were normally kept in a greenhouse, but since the weather had been so nice the past couple of days, she’d decided to bring them out for some sunlight. She never expected them to meet with such a disaster.
She was about to step forward and stop Jiang Nian.
But just then—
“Whoosh—”
A gust of wind swept through.
And then, the fallen petals seemed to be drawn by some unseen force—rather than falling to the ground, they began spinning and drifting toward Jiang Nian’s location.
Those cultivated and refined petals, shimmering under the brilliant light, glowed in a myriad of colors.
Tiffany blue, Schönbrunn yellow, Titian red…
These stunning hues now converged like a rainbow at the tip of Jiang Nian’s sword, moving with it, following its every turn!
“!!!”
At this sight, Yang Mi was completely stunned.
Her eyes wide, she stared blankly at the scene before her, her face filled with utter astonishment.
In that moment, she even forgot to mourn her flowers.
As for Jiang Nian, he remained completely oblivious, fully immersed in his training.
He only noticed that in the blink of an eye, the sky had shifted from daylight to night.
Even though he was a first-rate martial artist with formidable internal energy and physical conditioning, he was now so exhausted he could barely lift his arms.
The reason for this was that the Evil-Warding Sword Art placed an immense burden on the body.
But at the same time, the gains had been substantial.
So after he finished training, he pulled out a notebook and began jotting down new insights.
Time passed quickly.
In the blink of an eye, a week had gone by. Just for recording the training essentials of the Evil-Warding Sword Art, Jiang Nian had filled an entire notebook.
And his hard work finally paid off. One day at noon—
[Proficiency +1]
[Evil-Warding Sword Art – Unranked (1/10)]
“I did it! I finally freaking did it!”
Hearing the system prompt, Jiang Nian was overjoyed.
Hearing his outburst, Yang Mi walked out of the house with a puzzled look. “Did what?”
“I mastered the martial art!”
Jiang Nian let out a long breath and said.
At that moment, his mood was as bright and cheerful as a kid greeting the New Year’s morning in nothing but his birthday suit.
If he had to sum it up in two words: Pure bliss!
Even more so because he had confirmed one thing—you didn’t need to self-castrate to practice it!
Yang Mi didn’t really understand all that.
But she could tell that Jiang Nian was in high spirits, so she suggested, “Then how about we celebrate?”
“Celebrate! Absolutely!”
Jiang Nian beamed, then scooped Yang Mi up in his arms and carried her inside.
After he’d put his clothes back on and basked in the afterglow of satisfaction,
suddenly—
[Proficiency -1]
[Evil-Warding Sword Art – Unranked (0/10)]
The system prompt dropped.
And the smile on Jiang Nian’s face froze solid.
“???”
“Wait, hold on. What the hell is this?! Where did my proficiency go?!”
“Why did it reset to zero?!”
“Are you seriously stealing my proficiency points?!”
Jiang Nian completely lost it at the system notification.
Because he had forcibly unlocked the Lin Pingzhi character, he only gained 1 proficiency point per training session.
But since when could proficiency points be deducted?
Then what was all that grueling training for?
What—just to prove he had plenty of energy and stamina?
“What the hell is going on?”
“Did I mess up somewhere?”
After a brief moment of bewilderment, Jiang Nian began to seriously think about what had caused this.
The system’s uses were boundless, and it was the sole reason he had attained his current level of strength.
They were a symbiotic partnership.
There was no reason for the system to just arbitrarily deduct his proficiency points.
And since the system wasn’t sabotaging him,
that left only one answer—the cultivation method itself!
“Is it a problem with the technique?”
Jiang Nian muttered thoughtfully, then quickly focused his mind inward. Moments later, he indeed found a clue hidden within the Evil-Warding Sword Art!
