Chapter 921: Practice Comes Before Saber
As long as the showroom was open, the college’s students could enter freely with their student identification.
The moment the showroom opened, Zhou Wen swiped his student ID and entered.
There weren’t many students here usually, and it was still early. When Zhou Wen entered the showroom, the staff were still organizing the items. There wasn’t a single student.
Since he was already here, Zhou Wen wasn’t in a rush to look at the sabers. He looked at the first item on display.
What was displayed here were all Essence Gold weapons produced by humans after the dimensional storms. However, most of them were replicas for show.
Sabers were mainstream, followed by spears and bows. Swords and other weapons were non-mainstream. There were also s.h.i.+elds and armor made of Essence Gold. However, there were very few of them because the effects weren’t very good.
Then, there were all kinds of Essence Gold bullets and firearms. Most bullets were gilded or mixed with a certain amount of Essence Gold. Pure Essence Gold bullets were relatively rare, and they were usually only a.s.signed to high-ranking officers.
Rockets and sh.e.l.ls were also made of Essence Gold, but they could only be used to attack large groups of dimensional creatures, so they weren’t suitable for ordinary battles.
Most of them were used to repel large-scale dimensional creature tides or deal with immobile plant-type dimensional creatures.
There were even more types of sabers. They could be as small as being only palm-length. The big ones were like Steed Slaying Saber. It left Zhou Wen dazzled. However, no matter how he looked at them, he felt that they were just tools without much difference.
In terms of something that was pleasing to the eye, they were inferior to the Bamboo Blade that Zhou Wen often used.
However, Zhou Wen had already tried. Even though he was thinking about Bamboo Blade, he had no way of advancing the Essence Energy Pill.
“Don’t tell me there’s no weapon that can make one fall in love at first sight?” Zhou Wen was somewhat helpless. He wasn’t a hot-blooded person to begin with. He really couldn’t see a weapon as something more important than his life.
No matter how good a weapon was, no matter how valuable it was, Zhou Wen would definitely abandon it when his life was at stake.
“Lad, there are no weapons in this world that can make you fall in love at first sight. There are only veterans that remain alive,” a staff member said when he heard Zhou Wen mutter to himself.
Zhou Wen turned his head and saw that the person speaking was a man in his forties. Although he was wearing sungla.s.ses, Zhou Wen could tell that it was because one of his eyes was blind. One leg was a prosthetic limb.
“Can you elaborate on the meaning of that sentence?” Zhou Wen asked.
As the man wiped the weapons on display, he said, “Most people don’t really like weapons, but in times of danger, they need to use them to protect themselves and their families. Apart from a small number of people who like weapons, weapons are just tools to ordinary people.”
Zhou Wen nodded. He shared the same view as the man.
“But—” The man wiped a saber clean and carefully placed it on the saber rack. He straightened it and continued, “—once you pick up a weapon and fight with it, no matter if you love it or not, or no matter how much you despise it, it will become your most important companion. This thing is even more important than your woman or brothers. On the battlefield, it’s the only one you can truly trust.”
“That’s right.” Zhou Wen nodded.
The man continued, “That’s why, on the battlefield, no matter if you like it or not, no matter how proud you are, you have to understand it and familiarize yourself with it. You have to constantly practice and get used to it. You have to put in more effort than chasing women. Otherwise, on the battlefield, it might take your life. If you want to become a veteran, you have to get along with it no matter how terrible it is. After some time, you will realize that the weapon is already a part of your body, a tool that can’t be easily abandoned. Because without them, your body seems to be missing a part, making you appear like a disabled person. The chances of a crippled person dying on the battlefield are naturally higher than a normal person.”
Zhou Wen fell into thought when he heard the man’s words.
“Why do we have the verb ‘practice’ come before the noun ‘saber?’ Young man, practice well.” The man patted Zhou Wen on the shoulder and continued cleaning.
“Thank you. How should I address you?” Zhou Wen asked.
“I’m just a crippled veteran. My name isn’t important.” The man ignored Zhou Wen and continued his work.
Zhou Wen felt a little upset. War had brought misfortune to most people. No one liked war, but sometimes, war was inevitable.
He didn’t continue looking at the exhibits because he knew very well that he wasn’t a person who liked weapons. Therefore, no matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t treat a tool as his life.
Just as the veteran had said, when it came to practicing sabers, practice was more important than the saber.
Zhou Wen already had an idea as he walked out of the showroom and prepared to return to his dorm.
Halfway there, he saw Li Xuan, Sadie, and Gulli walking towards the Xuanwen Club.
“Old Zhou, what a coincidence. Where are you going?” Li Xuan greeted.
Zhou Wen’s eyes lit up when he saw Li Xuan. He went over and tugged at Li Xuan. “Come, practice with me.”
“No, you should find someone else. I’m dizzy. I won’t do…” Li Xuan held his chest as though he was about to faint.
He wasn’t afraid of being beaten, but he couldn’t accept being beaten into a deformed person by Zhou Wen.
“Coach, what do you want to practice?” Sadie asked.
“I’d like to practice my sword technique,” Zhou Wen said.
“If you don’t mind, I can be your sparring partner,” Sadie’s eyes lit up as she said to Zhou Wen.
“Alright, let’s go to the training room.” Zhou Wen nodded.
Sadie’s combat abilities were inferior to Li Xuan’s. If she really fought with her life on the line, she wasn’t Li Xuan’s match. However, in practice, she had the Eye of Odin. Her performance in combat was stronger than Li Xuan’s, making her more suitable as Zhou Wen’s sparring partner.
After all, with the Eye of Odin’s ability, Sadie could crack all sorts of moves in battle without risking her life like Li Xuan.
The four of them went to the training room together. Sadie picked up a sword.
There were two types of swords in the North District. One was a broadsword-type heavy sword, while the other was a narrow and thin armor-piercing sword. The two swords had their own specialties and their usage was completely different.
Sadie was originally good at armor-piercing swords. With her Eye of Odin, it was very easy for her to find the other party’s weakness and deliver a fatal strike.
However, ever since she came to Sunset College to study, Sadie had learned quite a number of East District sword techniques. Furthermore, she had fused the East District sword techniques into her own.
As she had never competed with a true East District sword expert, Sadie didn’t know how well she had mastered her sword techniques. When she heard that Zhou Wen wanted to practice, she wanted to test how well she had mastered her sword techniques.
The practice sword she chose was naturally the commonly seen armor-piercing sword in the North District. The blade was long and thin, much narrower than the swords from the North District.