novelraw Chapter 104
Chapter 104
Su Wangchuan was a formal Martial Artist.
He had cultivated spear techniques, archery, and fist arts.
By now, he had developed a certain understanding of martial arts within 《spirit realm》.
To summarize—
Spear techniques emphasized momentum, especially raw power. Once unleashed, their destructive force was astonishing.
Archery emphasized speed and accuracy. Once the bowstring was released, there was no turning back; the kill had to be completed in the shortest possible time.
Fist techniques focused more on countering moves as they came, developing strength, agility, and stamina in a balanced manner.
After careful consideration, he realized he still lacked a martial art that emphasized finesse and subtle force.
At such a time, cultivating 《Basic Sword Technique》 and 《Wind-Splitting Sword Art》 was perfectly appropriate.
When striking a wooden stake with a longsword, if one did not understand refined force, it was easy to injure oneself—or even damage the weapon.During training, Su Wangchuan discovered that whenever his exertion was incorrect and he used excessive brute force, causing the sword to collide head-on with the stake, the sword’s Durability would decrease by one point.
After a full day of training, he had broken two swords…
Fortunately, as the master of the Weapon Room, weapons were the one thing he lacked least.
By the end of the day, he had finally grasped how to borrow force and follow through with the momentum.
Rip!
Whenever that sharp sound appeared, it meant the blade had cut through the air cleanly—its edge at its most brilliant along the arc of attack.
But when contacting the wooden stake, he had to ensure he did not crash into it directly. Instead, the edge of the sword had to glide across the surface.
The blade sank into the wood, skimming one inch.
A sharp sword mark appeared on the surface of the stake.
Control the distance.
Continue forward.
Rip!
The blade cut two inches into the wood before gliding past.
Su Wangchuan could feel that as the blade sank deeper, the resistance increased.
Yet by channeling his strength properly, he could still unleash astonishing cutting power, slicing a smooth gash into the stake.
Again!
With extreme control, Su Wangchuan let the blade descend in a sweeping motion, tearing through the air with a piercing sound. At last, he successfully cut deeper into the stake, leaving behind a three-inch gash.
Experience +1.
When he saw the experience bars of both 《Basic Sword Technique》 and 《Wind-Splitting Sword Art》 jump simultaneously, an intense surge of joy rose within him.
He had finally found the method.
From here on, it was a matter of repeating the process and maintaining the state.
However, this state was difficult to sustain.
If the trajectory of the blade deviated even slightly, it failed to unleash its sharpness.
If the distance was off by the slightest margin, the result was either a shallow mark—yielding no experience—or the sword becoming lodged in the wood, reducing Durability.
After training for over an hour, he still could not make every strike perfect. Only about one-third of his attacks met the standard.
Stumbling along, strike after strike, he finally heard the system notification:
“Ding!”
“《Basic Sword Technique》 has reached Minor Mastery.”
“Next realm: Practice Makes Perfect.”
“Ding!”
“《Wind-Splitting Sword Art》 has reached Minor Mastery. Reward: 1 Agility.”
“Next realm: Practice Makes Perfect.”
Both martial arts advanced simultaneously.
However, the basic sword technique granted no attribute reward, while the first-rank martial art 《Wind-Splitting Sword Art》 provided an attribute bonus.
Su Wangchuan felt both regret and excitement.
No matter what, the path he had chosen was correct.
His Agility rose to 18 points.
As long as he cultivated both 《Basic Sword Technique》 and 《Wind-Splitting Sword Art》 to Practice Makes Perfect, his Agility would surpass the threshold of 20 points—bringing him one large step closer to the realm of a First-Rank Martial Artist.
After the brief surge of excitement, he calmed himself, ate several meat buns to clear his Hunger, rested briefly, and then returned to the training ground to continue practicing tirelessly, reinforcing his muscle memory.
At Minor Mastery, his sword strikes felt smoother. He could better sense the feeling of cutting through the air.
With 18 points of Agility, his control over the longsword improved further.
Out of every ten strikes, at least five could carve the ideal three-inch gash.
Experience accumulated quickly.
After replacing two wooden stakes, he once again heard the familiar system notification:
“Ding!”
“《Basic Sword Technique》 has advanced from Minor Mastery to Practice Makes Perfect.”
“Next realm: Entry-Level Mastery.”
“Ding!”
“《Wind-Splitting Sword Art》 has advanced from Minor Mastery to Practice Makes Perfect. Reward: 2 Agility.”
“Next realm: Entry-Level Mastery.”
As his Agility reached 20 points—
Su Wangchuan felt his grasp and control over the longsword grow even more precise. His muscle memory seemed to solidify. Even a casual strike would slice through the air with a clear, resonant sound, easily leaving a three-inch-deep mark in the wooden stake.
He maintained the rhythm of his strikes.
Left slash, right slash.
His footwork coordinated with the movement of his upper body.
One sword mark after another appeared rapidly on the stake.
Ten strikes!
Every one of them carved a three-inch-deep gash.
Practice truly made perfect.
At this realm, the sword technique was fully internalized.
He could clearly feel his control over distance and blade improving.
He did not know whether this was due to 《Wind-Splitting Sword Art》 reaching Practice Makes Perfect, or because his Agility had crossed the 20-point threshold—one of the requirements for First-Rank Martial Artist status.
“Only Stamina remains at 18 points.”
“But…”
“I no longer have a suitable technique to raise my Stamina.”
Su Wangchuan felt somewhat frustrated.
The Yulong Gang’s manual vault contained no suitable techniques for him, and even the black market of Huishui County had nothing appropriate at the moment.
With all his martial arts reaching bottlenecks, he felt like a clever housewife unable to cook without rice.
There was no helping it.
He returned to the Weapon Room and picked up the 《Hundredfold Steel Forging Technique》 he had set aside for some time.
If he could not find a breakthrough in martial arts, he could still advance his experience by forging Hundredfold Steel weapons.
He had learned various Hundredfold Steel weapon-forging methods from Qian Sihai—from Hundredfold Steel sabers to Hundredfold Steel longswords and even Hundredfold Steel throwing knives.
He discovered that as long as he forged throwing knives equivalent to a single Hundredfold Steel ingot, he could advance his forging technique experience.
A Hundredfold Steel throwing knife required ten thousand hammer strikes—three times that of a Hundredfold Steel arrowhead—but it was the fastest and most efficient finished product to forge.
Without hesitation, Su Wangchuan set to work on six pieces of refined iron at once.
Seeing the master of the Weapon Room personally at work, the assistants naturally hurried over to serve him.
Clang! Clang!
Su Wangchuan quickly entered the rhythm.
He opened with a One-Breath Quadruple Strike.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
As Qian Sihai listened, he gradually noticed that Su Wangchuan’s hammer swings were growing faster. The tone of the impacts began to change. Focusing his gaze, he saw that the bursts of sparks beneath Su Wangchuan’s hammer were becoming denser.
With each hammer fall, Su Wangchuan was actually dividing his force evenly into five strikes.
“One-Breath Fivefold Strike!”
“Master… your forging technique has advanced again?” Qian Sihai stood dumbfounded.
For over a month, he had forged day and night and was still only at One-Breath Triple Strike.
Yet the master had been out training martial arts and completing missions, and his forging technique had instead broken through?
Qian Sihai was at a loss for words.
Su Wangchuan understood perfectly well.
During this period of martial cultivation, his physical attributes had improved rapidly.
His Strength had broken through to 22 points, his Agility to 20, and even his Stamina to 18—far stronger than before.
The blacksmith profession valued balanced and coordinated physical development above all.
With his three primary attributes rising across the board, it was only natural that his forging technique would break through its shackles—advancing from One-Breath Quadruple Strike to One-Breath Fivefold Strike.
CLICK HERE to Rate/Review