Chapter 29: Combat Skill Proficiency
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
‘It seems that I had another nightmare last night.’
‘Forget it. No matter what, I have to practice, practice, and practice.’
Early in the morning, when the sun had not appeared yet, Lin Yao would naturally not practice military boxing. He trained himself at unsheathing and sheathing the sword repeatedly.
This boring training continued, and it was not necessary to adopt a special breathing technique. Lin Yao trained like this for more than two hours. It was not until the sun appeared that Lin Yao began taking nutrient drinks and practicing under the sunlight.
He repeated what he had done yesterday. There were three training sessions a day—morning, noon, and afternoon. During the rest of the time, Lin Yao practiced swordsmanship. In the evening, he visited the orphanage.
Lin Yao b.u.mped into Yan Yan again. This time, the pet.i.te Qin Xue was also present.
Qin Xue was a barrel of laughs and made the orphanage children feel very happy. Originally, Lin Yao had also been very popular. However, he had brought a few sacks of reference books, so his popularity could not beat that of Sister Qin Xue.
Fortunately, the children were grateful and knew that Lin Yao had done this for their own good. Therefore, they did not feel any repulsion toward Lin Yao.
Lin Yao was no Virgin Mary, neither did he think of being the world’s savior. He would not force the children if they were not willing to learn.
‘G.o.d only helps those who help themselves.’
His att.i.tude made the children in the orphanage have more respect for him, as though he was their parent. On the other hand, Qin Xue was like their playmate. As for Yan Yan, they were so scared that they would tremble at the sight of her.
Lin Yao helped the children for the sake of gaining energy points. Nevertheless, when he looked at the smiling faces of the children, he also felt his soul being redeemed. His exhausted mind after an entire day of training would gradually feel more relaxed.
‘It would not be bad to continue doing this.’
Days pa.s.sed. Soon, it was the penultimate day of the Spirit Energy Festival holiday.
Early in the morning of that day, a strong and muscular figure stood in the middle of the courtyard in a forward lunging position. At the edge of the courtyard were two junior high school students who were running around the courtyard.
If one were to take a closer look, one would see the running teenage boy and girl throwing special beads the size of ping-pong b.a.l.l.s at the figure standing in the middle.
Although the teenage boy and girl were pet.i.te, they had trained for several years and were not weak. The special beads were not big and were suitable for throwing. These factors caused the thrown beads to smash toward the figure in the middle at the speed of an arrow.
Although the beads were fast, the figure standing in the middle seemed even more majestic.
He did not intend to dodge the beads. Whenever a bead smashed toward him, a clang echoed in the courtyard. It was the sound of him drawing the long sword in his hands. At the same time that the clang was heard, the reflection of a cold light would appear in the courtyard.
The cold light flashed, appearing only for a moment. In an instant, the beads would be completely hit away.
If one were to take a closer look, one would notice that the cold light was in fact the long sword reflecting the sunlight. The cold light appeared suddenly because the blade of the unsheathed sword reflected the sunlight and it faded because the sword returned to the sheath silently.
This way, beads were continuously thrown from the edge of the courtyard toward the figure in the middle. Beams of cold light also burst forth from the hands of the figure from time to time.
After a dozen times, a voice was heard in the courtyard.
“Make fake movements.”
When this voice spoke, the movements of the two figures walking at the edge of the courtyard immediately changed. Although they were still throwing b.a.l.l.s, they were raising their palms from time to time without actually throwing a thing. At the same time, the small b.a.l.l.s thrown out were also shielded by their sleeves, making it difficult for the figure in the middle to spot them.
This posed great difficulty to the figure in the middle. The flashing cold light could not hit the tiny flying b.a.l.l.s all the time. The wielded sword hit the air from time to time. The flying b.a.l.l.s suddenly broke through the sword light and hit the body of the figure in the middle of the courtyard.
After the figure was. .h.i.t by the small b.a.l.l.s several times in a row, a voice came from the figure in the middle of the courtyard.
“Let’s stop.”
As soon as he finished his words, he sat on the ground and sighed.
“I didn’t even make small progress.”
“Brother, you’re already very good. You’ve reached the proficiency level in just a few days. You’re already considered a genius.”
“Genius? I’ve practiced a lot. I can absorb sunlight and have gone through half a month’s more training than ordinary people.”
Of course, Lin Yao was the one speaking. After several days of training, he had discovered that sunlight absorption not only accelerated physical training but was also good for learning combat skills.
In order to attain proficiency, ordinary people had to learn combat skills by practicing them constantly. The same applied to an extraordinary genius.
However, there was a limit to a person’s physical strength. One would need to rest after consistently training for a long period. Lin Yao enjoyed this very much. His sunlight absorption ability enabled him to train thrice more than ordinary people.
It was precisely due to this fact that in just five or six days, he had already become proficient in the Sword-Drawing Technique.
Making his younger brother Lin Ye and younger sister Lin Xiaodie throw b.a.l.l.s was also Lin Yao’s training method.
Swordsmanship required one to be fast, ruthless, and accurate, as well as to launch a surprise attack at lightning speed, resulting in fatality with one strike.
Lin Yao had only begun to practice unsheathing the sword two days ago and was aiming for speed. After a few days, he had also trained to become more accurate.
The ball-throwing training was meant to train his ability to slash his target with the sword accurately.
At the beginning of the training, Lin Ye wouldn’t run or move. It was as if he was playing baseball. His siblings pitched the ball right in front of Lin Yao, and Lin Yao stood still and slashed the ball.
For the first two days, the fake movement method had been applied while he was standing still. When Lin Yao had gotten used to this, his siblings had then started throwing the ball while running, and finally, they’d added fake movements while they ran and threw the ball.
It was arduous training. Lin Yao succeeded in the first few phases but got stuck in the last one.
As a result, Lin Yao was now proficient in unsheathing the sword. He was only a step away from small progress.
Proficiency and small progress described the extent of one’s mastery of combat skills.
However, combat skills could not be used immediately after they were learned. There was not such a good thing in this world. They could only be unleashed through rigorous learning. Besides, some advanced combat skills could not be picked up without a strong comprehension ability or physique.
The government officials also categorized the mastery of combat skills into the following categories: rudimentary, proficiency, small progress, profoundness, and transcendence.
There were five cultivation levels. The first three were the domains of ordinary people, and the last two were the patents of geniuses.
The rudimentary level was easy to understand. It was the beginner stage, and the skill could not be used in actual combat.
Proficiency meant that the skill could be used in actual combat, but one would not be able to cope with some unexpected situations.
When small progress was made, one would be able to cope with all kinds of emergencies. For example, if Lin Yao had attained small progress, when his young siblings added a fake movement when throwing the ball, Lin Yao would be able to recognize the fake move and then deal with all the attacks by quickly drawing his sword.
Profoundness would enable one to use fatal moves. Only by mastering and understanding the true meaning of the skill could one unleash the powers of profundity.
The final transcendence level meant that, besides mastering the skill, one had simultaneously derived one’s own unique understanding and surpa.s.sed the former level. This meant that one had created a profound meaning that uniquely belonged to them.