Chapter 57

"Master Brother, what do you think of Tian Boguang's saber techniques?" Yue Fangxing asked. He had fought Tian Boguang before and naturally knew how good his saber techniques were, but he wanted to take the opportunity to guide Linghu Chong.

Linghu Chong thought for a moment and said, "Now that I think about it, they are not particularly exquisite. I only watched once and remembered them clearly. However, I couldn't break through them. Tian Boguang's saber is too fast, and my sword is far from matching his. Even if we fought head-on, I would inevitably lose."

"What if we remove the 'fast' aspect?" Yue Fangxing asked.

Linghu Chong replied, "If we remove the 'fast' aspect, although they are still exquisite, they still fall short compared to our Huashan Sword Technique."

"Of course, our Huashan Sword Technique has been perfected by many predecessors. Tian Boguang is just a lone wanderer; how can he compare to our Huashan Sword Technique, which has been honed through countless trials? If the speed were the same, could you use the Huashan Sword Technique to break through Tian Boguang's saber techniques?" Yue Fangxing asked.

Linghu Chong laughed and said, "There's no need for me to break them. When I practiced Tian Boguang's saber techniques, Shiniang had already found a way to counter them. It was easy to break his saber techniques!"

Yue Fangxing said, "Good. Since that's the case, let's add the 'fast' aspect back in. You said Tian Boguang's saber is fast. How fast can it be?"

Without waiting for Linghu Chong to answer, Yue Fangxing continued, "That day at Qunyu Courtyard, Tian Boguang fought with the Qingcheng Sect's Master Yu. You must have heard about it, right?"

Linghu Chong nodded. Although he was seriously injured at the time, he had heard about it.

Yue Fangxing said, "The Qingcheng Sect's Songfeng Sword Technique is known for its speed. At that time, Master Yu used this technique, which was on par with Tian Boguang's fast saber. Later, Tian Boguang even fled voluntarily. From this, we can see that he had no confidence in defeating Master Yu. Therefore, we can infer that Tian Boguang is at most on par with Master Yu, don't you think?" In fact, there were other reasons, such as the crowd surrounding him and the small room, which limited Tian Boguang's agility, but Yue Fangxing didn't mention these at the moment.

Linghu Chong said, "Of course. Master Yu, as the head of a sect, may be despicable, but his skills are solid. Even if he were to defeat Tian Boguang, it wouldn't be surprising."

"Then, how do you think Master Yu compares to our Master?" Yue Fangxing asked.

Linghu Chong laughed and said, "Of course, our Master is far superior to Master Yu. Otherwise, Master Yu wouldn't have waited so long to interfere in Hanzhong. When our Master arrived at Qunyu Courtyard that day, he was scared out of his wits." He laughed again, clearly delighted by the Qingcheng Sect's humiliation.

Yue Fangxing also smiled and said, "So, our Master can naturally defeat Tian Boguang, right?"

Linghu Chong said, "There's no need for our Master to do it. Even Shiniang can defeat him!" This was the truth. In the original story, Ning Zhongze had defeated Tian Boguang, and now that she had practiced the Yi Jin Duan Gu Zhang, her internal skills had improved even more. Although Tian Boguang seemed to have made some progress, he was still far from matching Ning Zhongze.

Yue Fangxing said, "Then, if Tian Boguang were to fight our Master and Shiniang, how fast would his saber be?"

Linghu Chong said, "Of course, it would be fast, and faster than when he fought me. However, our Master and Shiniang are highly skilled and experienced, so they would naturally defeat him."

Yue Fangxing said, "Then, which is faster, our Master and Shiniang's sword or Tian Boguang's saber?"

Linghu Chong pondered and said, "That's really hard to say. Although Tian Boguang's saber might be a bit faster, our Master and Shiniang wouldn't be much slower and could still handle it."

"Why wouldn't our Master and Shiniang be slow? They don't practice fast sword techniques," Yue Fangxing said, getting to the key point.

Linghu Chong said, "Our Master and Shiniang have deeper internal skills. Although they don't practice fast sword techniques, they wouldn't be much slower."

Yue Fangxing clapped and laughed, saying, "That's right. Your sword technique is already on par with Tian Boguang's saber technique. If you can match the speed, even if you can't win, you can still protect yourself. How can you improve your speed? Besides practicing in water like me, which is a shortcut, you still need to improve your internal skills! With higher internal skills, your speed and reaction will naturally be faster. So, the key to your current practice is not sword technique but internal skills!"

Linghu Chong suddenly understood. Why hadn't he thought of this? He slapped his forehead hard. Since his defeat by Tian Boguang, he had always thought his sword technique was lacking. After Yue Buqun taught him the Zhenyue Sword Technique, he had been practicing sword techniques for the past few months, neglecting his internal skills. Now, he realized this was a big mistake.

Yue Fangxing said, "Master has decided to teach you the Zixia Divine Skill. He will come to check your internal skills progress in the coming days. You must seize this opportunity."

Hearing this, Linghu Chong was overjoyed. He then thought of something and said, "Junior Brother, you..."

Yue Fangxing naturally knew what he was going to say and said, "My Hunyuan Skill is not yet complete, and in the future, the Zixia Divine Skill won't be limited to the sect leader." He then explained to Linghu Chong about his suggestion to reorganize the sect.

Linghu Chong listened to this. Although he knew Yue Fangxing might also practice the Zixia Divine Skill in the future, the expectation in his words to take over as the sect leader was clear. He was deeply moved and said, "Junior Brother..." but couldn't continue.

In the following days, Linghu Chong focused on recovering his health to prepare for the upcoming assessment. Yue Fangxing shared his insights on practicing internal skills to help him avoid detours. They also studied the Gumu Sect's lightness skills together to improve speed and used various methods to train Linghu Chong's instinctive reactions to prevent another situation where he was caught off guard by Tian Boguang.

A few days later, Linghu Chong's health improved significantly. In addition to practicing internal skills, they began to dissect the Zhenyue Sword Technique, taking turns using various techniques and countermeasures from the Five Mountains Sword Sect. With their cooperation, they made rapid progress and became proficient in just half a month.

The month passed quickly. On the day Yue Fangxing was to leave Si Guo Cliff, Yue Buqun and Ning Zhongze, along with Yue Lingshan, Liang Fa, Shi Dai, Gao Genming, Lu Dayou, and others, went up to Si Guo Cliff to take Yue Fangxing down and assess Linghu Chong's martial arts progress to decide whether to teach him the Zixia Divine Skill.

Linghu Chong did not disappoint. He passed the internal skills assessment smoothly and fought hundreds of rounds with Ning Zhongze before accidentally losing. Yue Buqun was very pleased and announced to everyone that he would teach Linghu Chong the Zixia Divine Skill.

The other Huashan disciples, who had always respected Linghu Chong, saw his outstanding performance and, although some were reluctant, had no objections.

However, as a master, Yue Buqun naturally didn't forget about them. He then asked Liang Fa, Gao Genming, and Lu Dayou if they were willing to switch to the Jingxu Skill, which was the technique Yue Fangxing had contributed, derived from Qu Yang and named by Yue Buqun. They naturally agreed, as this technique progressed much faster than the basic Huashan internal skill. As for Shi Dai, he had always practiced the Hunyuan Skill, and the other junior brothers were still building their foundation, so they didn't need to consider it.

From then on, everyone received advanced techniques and diligently practiced, making rapid progress. A new wave of enthusiasm for internal skills swept through Huashan.