Borrowed Sword

Chapter 270 : The Origin of 《Dao Canon》

Chapter 270: The Origin of 《Dao Canon》

Chu Huaixu looked at the scene before him, feeling somewhat puzzled.

In the current scene, the world seemed as if the pause button had been pressed.

Only the Dao Ancestor continued endlessly practicing his sword.

Chu Huaixu was not in a hurry at all—he carefully observed from the side.

Then, he discovered something very interesting.

“Actually… he’s repeating it?”

“Or rather, am I watching a replay on loop?”

At first, he thought everything around had frozen, leaving only the Dao Ancestor moving.

But later, he realized that after each complete set of sword movements, the next time the Dao Ancestor practiced, every motion was exactly the same as before—without the slightest difference.

That alone wasn’t the key point. After all, with extremely precise control over one’s body, it was possible.

But even the fluttering of his robe was identical.

Even each strand of hair moved in exactly the same way.

This meant that Chu Huaixu was actually watching a “replay.”

“So what is this for?”

After watching for a while, a thought arose in his mind, and he began trying to follow along.

The sword technique taught by the Temple Master was simply too basic.

Its nature was practically the same as those elderly people practicing sword routines in the park.

Chu Huaixu learned it effortlessly.

Before long, he could smoothly perform the entire set.

When he completed the final movement—

a gust of wind suddenly arose.

The wind swept from afar, and wherever it passed, the entire scene before him was blown away.

Soon, everything around him dissipated with the wind.

Chu Huaixu once again found himself in complete darkness.

At this point, he began to vaguely form a guess about this journey.

On the other side, Han Shuangjiang’s progress was about the same.

She also quickly realized that the scene before her was repeating.

After she imitated it, using her fingers as a sword to practice once, she too fell back into endless darkness.

After about another half-incense’s time, before their eyes, the scene of the east brightening and the rising sun appeared again.

Darkness was dispelled, but the scene before them was no longer inside the Gentleman Temple.

This was a cave—or rather, a secret realm of inheritance.

A young Daoist in robes sat cross-legged.

Beside him lay the standard black wooden sword of the Gentleman Temple.

However, the scabbard was intact, while the sword itself had already broken into two pieces.

Chu Huaixu had heard Li Chunsong mention that after the wooden sword broke, the Dao Ancestor had only carried the scabbard with him ever since.

An ordinary scabbard had followed him for decades and was eventually nurtured into a supreme-grade spiritual artifact.

“So it broke in this cave?” Chu Huaixu wondered.

In front of the young Daoist, a bamboo slip was spread out, and beside it lay a manual.

Chu Huaixu stepped forward to take a look.

On the cover of the manual were four large characters: Wind-Chasing Sword Technique.

But he couldn’t read its contents, because he couldn’t touch it—everything was just an illusory scene.

The bamboo slip, however, lay open on the ground, so he crouched down to examine it.

The more he read, the more familiar it felt.

“Isn’t this the first volume of 《Dao Canon》?”

“But it’s not quite the same.”

“More precisely, it’s just a prototype—a half-finished product.”

Chu Huaixu had already thoroughly mastered volumes 1 to 3 of 《Dao Canon》, so he could tell at a glance.

Looking at the young Daoist meditating, he couldn’t help muttering:

“Don’t tell me he’s completing it himself?”

He clearly remembered that according to Dao Gate records, the Dao Ancestor had obtained an unnamed cultivation method by chance in his youth.

He had never given it a name, and later generations respectfully called it 《Dao Canon》.

“So the Dao Ancestor actually got a half-finished cultivation method and then just… kept practicing and figuring it out himself?” he guessed.

Because from what he saw on the bamboo slip, it was impossible to cultivate spiritual energy with it.

He sat cross-legged beside the young Daoist and carefully observed him.

He could tell that beneath the Daoist robe, the body was quite sturdy.

After a while, the young Daoist suddenly let out a miserable scream.

The heart-wrenching cry echoed throughout the cave.

If others heard it, they would probably think he had gone astray while trying to complete the technique—falling into Qi deviation.

But Chu Huaixu immediately understood.

“Success!”

Because this kind of scream was far too familiar to him.

When he first embarked on cultivation, he often made such sounds. After Little Xu followed him in cultivating “peerless divine techniques,” she was the same.

—There was no body cultivation without screaming.

But when he thought about how this person would later become the Dao Ancestor, that scream suddenly sounded incredibly pleasant.

“So even the Dao Ancestor screamed in pain while cultivating.”

Chu Huaixu laughed heartily at the side, amused for quite a while—even letting out actual laughter.

After a long time, the young Daoist finally calmed down, panting heavily.

As the pain subsided, he spoke with a hint of excitement:

“I succeeded?”

“It seems that senior’s original line of thinking was wrong,” the young Daoist said aloud.

“Only by cultivating both internally and externally can success be achieved.”

Chu Huaixu listened to these words and glanced again at the bamboo slip.

“The bamboo slip only contains a half-finished first volume of 《Dao Canon》.”

“So the later stages… were all deduced and created by the Dao Ancestor himself?”

The young Daoist stood up and began moving his body, adapting to his strengthened physique.

Chu Huaixu glanced at his waist.

The black bead pendant was no longer hanging there—it had already been tied to the scabbard.

After a while, the young Daoist picked up the manual and began flipping through it while standing.

Chu Huaixu directly moved behind him, leaning forward to read along.

As he read, he commented:

“Looks like only Yellow-rank technique level—and a pretty poor one at that.”

But the Daoist read very seriously, fully focused.

From time to time, he even raised his left hand and made slight gestures in the air.

After reading once, he couldn’t help saying:

“It’s quite simple.”

From the looks of it—had he already learned it?

The young Daoist placed the manual on the ground, picked up the broken black wooden sword, and began practicing swordsmanship inside the cave.

“He actually learned it just like that?” Chu Huaixu muttered inwardly.

Then—

everything around them froze again.

Even the faint sound of wind disappeared.

Only the Dao Ancestor—

continued practicing his sword.

Once you’ve seen it once, the second time is familiar.

“Follow along and learn,” Chu Huaixu said to himself.