Chapter 4

The blue sword blade was covered with tiny, rice-grain-sized scales. When touched gently, it felt as smooth as a mirror. As his fingers moved, the scales on the sword shimmered like ripples on water.

The dark red hilt of the sword was simple and unadorned, but it had a very solid feel in the hand.

This was a sword artifact, a mid-grade magical weapon known as the Dragon-Soaring Sword!

Among all magical treasures, sword artifacts were extremely special. The reason was simple: sword artifacts were easy to handle and had great power. Therefore, among all the weapon techniques, sword techniques were the most widely spread. Various sword techniques were prevalent throughout the cultivation world, so almost every accomplished cultivator had a flying sword as a magical treasure and knew a sword technique. Wang Tong was no exception. After all, his ancestors had been wealthy, even though they had fallen to the point where only he remained, and most of their assets had been sold off. However, they had passed down many cultivation techniques and spiritual formulas.

Wang Tong's father had cultivated a powerful sword technique passed down from their ancestors, the Star River Sword Technique.

However, in Wang Tong's view, his father was overly ambitious.

This sword technique had been obtained by his ancestor, the powerful cultivator Wang Baichuan, who had reached the Golden Core stage. It was the most powerful and the most difficult to cultivate among the Wang family's ancestral techniques. His father, with ordinary talent, might not have been able to successfully cultivate even an ordinary sword technique, let alone a technique that only top students could qualify to learn. It was simply a delusional dream.

In his previous life, Wang Tong, being a poor student, naturally understood the terrifying gap between poor students and top students. In this life, he did not consider himself a top student either. In fact, he leaned more towards being a poor student. The original owner of this body was a poor student among the poor students of Xiaohanshan. As a poor student, he naturally wanted to learn something simple. For example, although he could recite the Star River Sword Technique by heart, he would not learn it now. Instead, he was practicing the basic sword technique of Xiaohanshan, the Seven Plum Blossom Swords.

The Seven Plum Blossom Swords were the most basic sword technique of Xiaohanshan, consisting of seven forms: Snow Plum Bud, Five-Fortune Plum, Hidden Fragrance, Three Plum Melodies, Wind-Playing Plum Shadow, Snow-Seeking Plum, and Cold Plum Bloom.

These seven forms were inspired by the founding ancestor of Xiaohanshan, the Seven Marvels Immortal Meishanmin, while practicing sword techniques on a snowy day, gazing at the sea of plum blossoms.

Although there were only seven forms, they integrated the nine fundamental actions of swordsmanship—thrusting, pointing, collapsing, hanging, sweeping, wiping, intercepting, lifting, and wrist movements—into a complete system. Mastering this set of techniques meant mastering the entire art of swordsmanship. Moreover, the power of this set of techniques was also considerable, making it a mandatory technique for all disciples of Xiaohanshan. However, people often looked down on it because it was considered a basic technique. Wang Tong was no exception; he had only learned it to comply with the rules of the sect.

"Learning" meant being able to perform the techniques of a set of swordsmanship with a sword, which was called the initial stage of practice.

Cultivating any technique, whether it was a magical power or a spell, a sword technique or a saber technique, involved a matter of proficiency.

What was proficiency? It referred to the degree of mastery of a technique. For example, a basic sword technique, when cultivated to a deep level, could potentially defeat a higher-level sword technique. This was a matter of proficiency.

The proficiency of cultivating a technique was divided into three realms and nine levels: the initial stage (beginner), the proficient stage (skilled), and the thorough stage (enlightened) for the minor realm; the advanced stage (master), the insightful stage (comprehended), and the perfected stage (refined) for the major realm; and the ultimate stage (peak), the pure stage (reverted), and the divine stage (transcendent) for the supreme realm.

If one could cultivate a sword technique to the divine stage, they would become a legendary Sword Saint.

Of course, due to the different grades of techniques, not all techniques could surpass the major realm. Most techniques stopped at the major realm. For example, the Seven Plum Blossom Swords, even if cultivated to death, could only reach the major realm, even if a Sword Saint were to cultivate it. However, the power of a Sword Saint who had reached the major realm would be incomparable to that of an ordinary Sword Immortal who had reached the major realm, and might even achieve the effects of the supreme realm. However, this was no longer a matter of the sword technique but of the user themselves. In terms of realm, it stopped at the major realm.

This was why many cultivators did not like to cultivate low-grade sword techniques like the Seven Plum Blossom Swords. They were all ambitious, thinking about cultivating high-grade sword techniques to the divine stage. However, how many people in the world could be called Sword Saints? If they couldn't even master basic sword techniques, what could they use to cultivate high-grade techniques?

This principle was clearly explained by the elders of various sects and families, and the teachers of various schools. The logic was clear, but it could not eliminate the disciples' admiration for high-grade techniques and their disdain for low-grade techniques. Even some accomplished elders and seniors held the same view.

There was a deeper reason for this. Regardless of the grade of a technique, the first two levels were relatively easy to achieve. With hard work, any technique could be cultivated to the proficient stage, which was just a matter of time. In the first two realms, the power difference between techniques of different grades was very obvious, so most people preferred techniques with greater power, as they would not be at a disadvantage in battles.

As for the third level, the thorough stage, it was a threshold. The cultivation world was a place where talent mattered. Those with high talent could easily cross this threshold, while those with ordinary talent, even if they cultivated basic sword techniques, could never cross it. Only 20% of all cultivators had high talent.

In other words, 80% of cultivators' cultivation realms were stuck in the first two levels, unable to break through to the third level. Since this was the case, why not choose a technique with greater power?

Everyone had similar thoughts, and Wang Tong was no exception.

Therefore, in addition to the Seven Plum Blossom Swords, he shamelessly asked Wang Huai for a more powerful sword technique, the Lesser Heavenly Star Sword Technique.

The Wang family was a fallen cultivation family. The old man had left him only a bit of ancestral property, the Unshaped Jun Tian Great Power, the Star River Sword Technique, and a bottle of Zhu Huang Pills. As for other cultivation techniques and spells of the Wang family, they all came from Xiaohanshan and had not been passed down.

Wang Tong's father had ultimately chosen the Star River Sword Technique, but he had not even reached the proficient stage. Apart from a few powerful moves, it was not even comparable to basic sword techniques.

Wang Tong was a bit smarter. He learned from his father's mistake and realized that the Star River Sword Technique was not something people of their talent could aspire to. However, he was unwilling to only cultivate basic techniques, so he sought the Lesser Heavenly Star Sword.

The Lesser Heavenly Star Sword was considered quite good among the various sword techniques of Xiaohanshan. However, unfortunately, Wang Tong, limited by his talent, could not break through the initial stage after several years of practice. The more he failed to break through, the more anxious he became, and the more anxious he became, the harder it was to break through. Over time, this formed a vicious cycle, leading to his decline.

The current Wang Tong did not have the psychological burden of his predecessor. As a soul from the end of the Dharma era who had never even touched a controlled knife in his previous life, he was willing to practice even the most basic sword movements with a magical sword. Moreover, he was clear that the Lesser Heavenly Star Sword might be too advanced for someone of his talent and might not be suitable for him to cultivate.

Therefore, he focused on practicing the Seven Plum Blossom Swords.

As a basic sword technique, although his predecessor had only reached the initial stage, he had at least memorized the basic movements and the method of exerting force. Now, although Wang Tong had a new soul, he did not find it too difficult to practice. There were only seven forms in total. Wang Tong started with the first form, Snow Plum Bud, then moved on to Five-Fortune Plum, Hidden Fragrance, Three Plum Melodies, Wind-Playing Plum Shadow, Snow-Seeking Plum, and finally Cold Plum Bloom.

At the beginning, the seven forms were somewhat stiff, especially the flow of true qi within his body, which was not very smooth. After all, this was the first time Wang Tong was practicing. However, after three or four rounds, it became smoother, and the stiffness disappeared. However, there was still some hesitation in the transitions between the forms, which was due to his predecessor's limited understanding of the technique.

After practicing the seven forms about ten times, which took more than an hour, Wang Tong was already panting and drenched in sweat, as if he had just taken a bath.

Next came the soreness in his muscles and bones, making it difficult to move even slightly.

"Looks like this simple sword technique isn't so simple after all!"

Sitting cross-legged on the bed, he took out a jade bottle from his chest. Inside was the Zhu Huang Pill.

He poured one pill into his palm. It was about the size of a soybean, a dull yellow, and looked a bit like the Huang Lian Su he used to take when he had diarrhea in his previous life.

"I wonder if it's bitter," Wang Tong thought. He recalled the method of exerting force for the Unshaped Jun Tian Great Power and swallowed the pill in one go.

The Zhu Huang Pill dissolved in his mouth, and a warm current flowed down his throat into his dantian.

The Unshaped Jun Tian Great Power began to circulate, instantly refining the medicinal power. In his dantian, it transformed into a drop of silver-like Unshaped Jun Tian true qi.