Chapter 12: Left-handed Swordsmans.h.i.+p
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
He was a man who fought with fists. But even he could tell.
Jiang Chen felt a basin of cold water being poured on him. His blood was freezing cold.
He didn’t know why, but when he was brandis.h.i.+ng his sword he felt awkward and clumsy. His movements were not coordinated. Hardly did he exert the first movement when he almost hurt himself.
“Well, I might not be talented. But this is ridiculous.” Jiang Chen looked at the sword in his hand, unwilling to be resigned to such a result. He had had a high expectation for himself due to his achievements in the winter hunt.
“Don’t be frustrated, Young Lord. Just try some other weapons. I’ll carry the weapon rack here.” Fan Tu couldn’t bear to see his young lord’s frustrated look, so he intended to carry all kinds of weapons to him.
Hardly did he get an answer from Jiang Chen when he rushed away.
Jiang Chen sat onto the ground, feeling extremely anxious. Failure is not easy to accept.
Wait.
Jiang Chen got enlightened suddenly, as if all of his doubts had been cleared up.
He raised his left hand and looked at his fingers. He was a left-hander in this previous life. But the previous owner of this body was a right-hander. He had never noticed this detail in daily life. Not until now, when he started the sword practice, did he realize it.
Try the left hand!
Jiang Chen cheered up and switched the sword to his left hand.
He couldn’t explain it, but a new feeling flew to his heart from the palm holding the sword. Everything was so smooth when he brandished the sword again.
I knew it, I knew it!
Jiang Chen couldn’t help laughing, at the same time his sword was brandished faster and faster, steadier and steadier!
“The first movement of The Sword Method of the Holy Spirit – fly to the well with the moon in arms.”
This is the beginning movement of The Sword Method of the Holy Spirit. It’s as powerful as a thunder strike. Enemies are often caught unprepared. The next movement varies with the enemies’ reactions.
The Sword Method of the Holy Spirit has six movements in all. The difficulty is leveled up little by little. To reach the entry level of swordsmans.h.i.+p, you have to learn all of them.
The blade was like a moving silver dragon when Jiang Chen brandished the sword. A fierce wind was started by his aggressive movement.
“Young Lord, here I am.”
Fan Tu came back alone with a weapon rack full of all kinds of weapons, even a mace.
However, hardly did he finish his words when the rack fell onto the ground. He was shocked by what he was seeing, no idea how Jiang Chen had suddenly become so brilliant in such a short while.
From the imposing manner of the sword’s movement, Fan Tu could tell that Jiang Chen had mastered the first movement quickly.
“The second movement of The Sword Method of the Holy Spirit – fly up high to the open sky!”
He started to practice the second movement. And that was still only the beginning.
…
“The fourth movement of The Sword Method of the Holy Spirit – fall into your arms!”
…
“The sixth movement of The Sword Method of the Holy Spirit – fly into the clouds in a sword dance.”
Jiang Chen didn’t stop practicing until he finished studying all six of the movements.
He was so immersed in the practice that he didn’t realize what that meant until the very end. He felt very excited at what he had realized. The yard was full of action aroused by the sword. The yellow leaves were blown into the air, rus.h.i.+ng here and there. When the last leave fell onto the ground, it exploded with a bang.
“Gosh, you’ve mastered the whole sword method on the first try. You must be a sword genius.”
Fan Tu was stunned. He went up to Jiang Chen and asked, “Young Lord, how did you do it?”
“No idea. I am not used to using the right hand with the sword, so I changed to the left hand. I didn’t expect to have had so many progresses. Are there any more powerful sword methods?”
A person doesn’t only practice one sword method for his whole life. Instead, after mastering a sword method, he will turn to another more difficult one. The one he has mastered will become part of his swordsmans.h.i.+p.
“The Sword Method of the Holy Spirit was the most powerful in the east courtyard. For more difficult ones we might have to go to the Martial Art Tower of the Jiang Mansion. The thing is the lord doesn’t want to meet anyone. I don’t think we can get in, ” Fan Tu said regretfully, “The master’s swordsmans.h.i.+p is gorgeous, but at the moment we are unable to rely on him. But Young Lord, please don’t rush to practice a new sword method for now. You’d better get skilled at this one first.”
He was afraid that Jiang Chen didn’t have a solid base, which would be a disadvantage for him in the future.
Jiang Chen nodded. He needed practical fights to have a thorough grasp of The Sword Method of the Holy Spirit.
“Young Master, it’s impossible for one person to find at once the martial technique that suits him best. You’ve showed great talents in swordsmans.h.i.+p, but maybe you have more talents in other things.”
“Uncle Fan, are you implying that I should study fist methods from you?” Jiang Chen joked.
Fan Tu laughed. “As long as you want, Young Lord, I guarantee that I’ll teach you everything I know. There are no limits to my fist methods.”
“Then let’s have a try.” Jiang Chen was curious to know how his talent for fist methods was.
It’s a talent to practice and master a skill rapidly. One’s talent is also defined by the attainments one could achieve in sword methods, knife methods or palm methods.
Only when one has brilliant talents in both could he be called a genius.
As the saying goes, diligence redeems stupidity. But who doesn’t want to possess an extraordinary talent?
Fan Tu taught him a set of entry-level fist methods. This time Jiang Chen didn’t have to consider the right or left hand problem, so he learned it quickly.
“Just as I thought, Young Lord you are highly gifted in almost every martial technique.”
Fan Tu was pleasantly surprised. But he thought it necessary to give his young lord some advice, so he quickly became serious.
“I recommend that Young Lord use the sword. It’s not that we don’t want to use a weapon. The longer the weapon is, the stronger you get. It’s a reluctant and pa.s.sive choice that we use our flesh and blood to fight against sharp weapons.”
“If you adopt a weapon, you have to change it into your third hand. We lack talents, so we can only focus on the two hands we have.”
“Young Lord, you have different talents, but you have limited time. So you should focus on only one thing, otherwise you will become adept in nothing.”
“Don’t worry, Uncle Fan. I know that.” Jiang Chen smiled.
He wanted to enhance his swordsmans.h.i.+p by practical fights. But soon he recalled that the most urgent thing at the moment was to achieve the Gathering Yuan State. The swordsmans.h.i.+p was only icing on the cake.
“It’s impossible to achieve the Gathering Yuan State without any help. Father taught me to be patient, but people should make appropriate adaptations.”
Jiang Chen decided to find an opportunity to help achieve the Gathering Yuan State.
To refine panaceas!
Hua Yuan Pill.
It’s a panacea dedicated to help people break through to the Gathering Yuan State from the Condensing Qi State. It didn’t have a high cla.s.s. Its materials are not rare, either. But it’s monopolized by various powerful forces in the Sacred Zone.
After all, this panacea helps people achieve the Gathering Yuan State easily, which will threaten those forces, so it’s necessary to have it under control.
Of course, those forces allow a certain amount of Hua Yuan Pill to circulate in the Sacred Zone.
As one of the top three forces, the Over Cloud Palace certainly had lots of Hua Yuan Pills.
So he went to the main hall with Fan Tu to talk to his mother. He wanted some money from her to buy medicine.
Arriving at the main hall, he saw all of the servants standing outside, and the door was closed. Jiang Chen walked over as Cher walked to him. He asked, “Cher, what has happened?”
Jiang Chen knew from her, who could never keep a secret, that it was the west courtyard’s trick. The spring festival was close. The four courtyards usually paid extra bonus to their servants at the end of every year. The east courtyard used to store many medicinal materials for the alchemist to work on panaceas. Part of the panaceas would be handed out to the servants, while the others would be sold. Without these medicinal materials, it was impossible for the east courtyard to have a peaceful spring festival. Otherwise, if the loyal servants of the east courtyard didn’t get any bonuses for the spring festival, they would feel not only disappointed, but also inferior to those of the west courtyard.
Now that the west courtyard realized this, they would take every opportunity to give the east courtyard a big blow. They even made the alchemist who had been collaborating with the east courtyard refuse to refine panaceas for them.
He would refine panaceas for them only if they increased his payment from the previous 30% to 50%.
At the moment, Gao Yue was discussing the prices with the alchemist inside.