They set off for the training grounds, but they didn't choose the Central Grounds where most of their Sect's disciples were gathered at the time, including the main disciples and the 2 main disciples, as well as their classmates.
Instead, they chose a site on the outskirts of the Sect's territory, deep in the forest, so as not to attract unwanted eyes.
After walking for 20-25 minutes, the two boys finally arrived at the training ground. It was located away from the main buildings of the Sect and their residential part.
The training ground itself was nothing more than a field consisting of 18-20 stone slabs.
Each slab was 2-3 steps in size. The stone slabs were laid out without a small gap between them, although here and there one could see broken and cracked stone slabs or deep cracks caused by the strong blows of the Sect's disciples.
Stepping onto the slabs, Trevor took a few steps and immediately began training his second sword technique «Forest of Swords», which was almost bronze difficulty, but with the help of his teacher and a stable core of energy, he could already reach a high level of proficiency in the technique.
Seeing that Trevor had already started training, Mac decided to join him.
Looking around, he saw a narrow path that led him and Trevor to the site, which was surrounded by a dense, dense forest with tall trees stretching to the sky, and not a single living soul around.
After walking a little further, Mac chose a whole stone slab without any damage or irregularities. Without any further ado, Mac calmly took out his one metre long training sword, which was made of wood and had a straight, thick blade. Taking the sword in his hands, Mac began to practice the basics of fencing.
To practice the basics of fencing, one did not need to have spiritual energy, nor did one need to be of a certain age. Anyone could practice the basics of fencing. It was not a popular activity among the Sect's students, but everyone had to practice it to better understand sword techniques and improve their overall body tone. Although not everyone did it.
Mac started the training with a warm-up of all parts of the body.
Next was a special stance with a balanced posture and evenly distributed weight. He also practised footwork techniques such as stepping and sliding to maintain mobility and manoeuvrability during the fight.
The last stage was the practice of basic fencing strokes, namely chopping and slashing, and finally barbed blow and blocks. Mac spent more than an hour practising the basics and warming up.
When he had finished practising the basics of fencing, Mac stopped.
He wiped the sweat from his brow and looked around the training ground. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make any new progress in his fencing technique.
Everything remained at the same level - complete knowledge of the technique. Is there any higher level of knowledge than complete knowledge of the technique? Mac thought for a moment. However, the sound of Trevor's heavy breathing coming from a distance interrupted his thoughts. Mac closed his eyes.
A light breeze blew over his body and allowed him to relax for a second. As wild birds chirped melodiously, Mac opened his eyes and with renewed vigour and determination, he began to train his sword techniques.
Mac practised 2 sword techniques of bronze difficulty.
The first sword technique was a chopping stroke technique called the "Decisive Heavy Sword Stroke". The technique consists of a main stroke, which consisted of a strong and decisive strike from top to bottom with a step forward and the transfer of the entire body weight to the front leg.
As well as additional strikes, which were only an adaptation of the main strike and had changes in the direction of the front leg step, which were aimed at increasing the force of the strike. One of these strokes was performed holding the sword with both hands.
The second sword technique was a slashing technique called the "White Blade Wind Flash". This technique could be performed standing on the ground or with a step forward or to the side, or for defence with a step back.
And the main thing in this technique was the stance from which the swordsman began to perform the blow, which was a vertical swing of the blade, moving along a trajectory from the bottom, taking the sword out of the scabbard, and moving diagonally upwards.
One of the features was the speed with which the strikes were delivered, which looked like flashes of white light to the enemy, and combined with the accuracy with which they were delivered, the enemy simply had no chance of winning.
But Mac could not let anyone know that he was practising these sword techniques. In the Silver Blade Sect, there were clear and unbreakable rules regarding the ratio of techniques to the cultivation level of disciples.
Those who were at the 1st to 3rd stage of the Energy Core Formation level could only practice techniques of wooden complexity, but only techniques for cultivating spiritual energy.
From the 4th stage of the Energy Core Formation level, students could study sword technique books.
At stages 4-6, students could practice techniques of wood and copper complexity.
And at the 7th and 8th stages, the techniques of bronze and silver difficulty.
And only at the 9th stage, the student was allowed to practice golden techniques.
This division was related to the amount of energy needed to perform the techniques, the depth of knowledge of the technique, and the stability of the energy core in the student's body.
The rules of the Sect forbade violating this distribution of techniques and levels of difficulty. And those who practised sword techniques without reaching the 4th stage of the Energy Core Formation level were expelled from the ranks of the Sect without further ado.
The reason for such a harsh punishment was that a disciple could harm the formation of the energy core by such rash actions and thereby stop his development altogether or form the core poorly, and then even if he had an incredibly high talent, he could not rise above the level of Energy Core Formation, and even if he could, few of them could practice the techniques of the level of Energy Core Saturation, and if they could, it was much more difficult for them than for others and they could not achieve full cognition. That is, such cultivators could not have a great future.
That is why the disciples of the Sect spent a lot of effort on the rapid progression of the stages of cultivation, which allowed them to more easily master various sword techniques of higher levels of difficulty.
For example, someone who was at the 9th stage of the Energy Core Saturation level would only need a few hours to understand a bronze difficulty sword technique of the Energy Core Formation level, while someone who was at the 2nd stage of the Energy Core Formation level might not have a lifetime to understand a copper difficulty sword technique of the Energy Core Saturation level.
And although Mac was only at the 3rd stage of Energy Core Formation, he still practised sword techniques of bronze complexity, which, according to the rules of the Sect, could be practised without harming their core and future development only by those who were at the 7-8th stage.
And despite this, he achieved an average level of knowledge in both.
The main reason for this good result was that the techniques of the White Blade Wind Flash and the Heavy Sword Decisive Strike were actually just improved versions of the main strikes from the basics of fencing, with spiritual energy added to them.
Although they were not popular with the Sect's disciples, they were quite easy for Mac to learn.
The main difference between fencing basics and sword techniques is the use of spiritual energy.
The other reason for this progress was that, unlike his peers, Mac wanted to understand the very essence of the Wood Complexity Energy Core Formation cultivation technique, so he was much slower than the others.
At the same time, Mac's energy core was more stable, and with it, his control over his spiritual energy was better.
Since the main difference between the basics of fencing and sword techniques is the use of spiritual energy, with the proper level of control and a deep understanding of the technique, anyone could practice them without harming their energy core within the same level.
Although the amount of energy in Mac's body was much smaller than that of a Stage 7 student, it didn't affect his technique practice too much, he could just keep practising the bronze level sword techniques for a shorter amount of time.
No one even realised that Mac was training two sword techniques. But when Trevor stopped to rest for a while, he saw Mac's strokes and immediately had images of the older disciples practising bronze level techniques at the Central Sect Grounds.
After watching for a few more minutes, he said with undisguised suspicion in his eyes.
"Mac, what kind of sword technique are you practising?"
This, of course, instantly puzzled Mac, and he jokingly replied.
"What sword technique? Have you been overtraining? Don't you know that I'm at the 3rd stage of Energy Core Formation, and you can only train techniques from the 4th stage?" Mac's voice was worried and his eyes were angry.
But it was hard to tell if he was angry because of the hard training or because of Trevor's question.
After he calmed down a bit, he said calmly, "Sit down, take a breath. Drink some water and remember the time when you practiced the basics of fencing yourself."
Trevor scratched his head and replied with doubt in his voice, "Did I ever learn those moves in basic fencing?" After asking this question, Mac just continued to stare at him in silence, as if waiting for him to remember.
Trevor didn't know what to think, his eyes moving rapidly, constantly changing their focus, as if he were looking for clues around him.
He turned his gaze to Mac, who by then had calmed his breathing and was looking directly at him. Trevor stopped scratching his head, smiled broadly and said, "Yeah, I guess it is. I've just been practising them for a long time and have forgotten what they look like."
Smiling lightly, Trevor decided to continue his training, to which Mac just pursed his lips and shook his head as if he had been unfairly accused.
Trevor was practising the Forest of Swords sword technique, which was of copper difficulty.
Although it was a defensive technique, its mobility combined with rapid sword movements created the impression of a dense forest of sharp swords, where each sword protected its owner from enemy attacks and thus formed an impenetrable defence.
Although this technique was indeed good, Trevor trained it because it was a good match for the Swallow's Swing technique, so Elder Re insisted that Trevor learn it.
The three hours of training were not in vain. That's what first comes to mind when you see Trevor looking tired. The sweat that poured down from his furrowed brow quickly trickled down his tired face.
Trevor's hands had long since ceased to be able to hold his iron sword. And even so, there was not a drop of doubt or fatigue in Trevor's eyes, but only the joy of reaching a new peak. That is, until Trevor looked in Mac's direction.
Unlike Trevor, who was drenched in sweat, Mac looked as if he had just finished warming up and was just now starting to practice his sword techniques.
This striking difference could not help but affect Trevor's mood. To say that Trevor was very surprised is an understatement. His joyful eyes, which had been burning at the thought of his greatly improved sword technique, instantly became empty. And now his whole face expressed only one word: "How?".
Despite the same training time, and the roughly equal difficulty of the training itself, Trevor had the upper hand. After all, with each stage of cultivation reached, a cultivator increased their strength, speed, and endurance.
And the difference between Mac and Trevor was 3 stages, in favour of Trevor.
But if you look at them now, you may get the impression that this difference meant nothing at all, and that, on the contrary, it was Mac who overtook Trevor by 3 stages.
And although there are several reasons for this result, there was one main reason. It was that Elder Stry, when Mac was a little boy, had taught him a simple but extremely effective technique for managing energy in the body.
Although it could not increase the amount of spiritual energy in a cultivator's body, nor could it expand the channels of energy in the body, it did not affect the speed of energy in the body.
But the one who practised it had a great advantage. The essence of the technique is that with each inhalation, the practitioner of the technique should inhale the world energy along with the air, and then absorb it and distribute it throughout the body, thereby filling the body with new spiritual energy, which refreshed and gave new strength to the body.
Instead, through the exhalation, the practitioner had to exhale all the harmful energy that had stagnated in his body, thereby creating a feeling of lightness in the body.
And so it should be with every inhalation and exhalation. But at the same time, the practitioner had to control his body perfectly and keep every muscle in a slight tension to be able to move freely.
Performing this simple technique helped to avoid fatigue in the body and increase the endurance of the whole body and the stability of the muscles several times.
Looking at Mac and not understanding what had happened, Trevor found the reserve strength in his body and began to practice the Forest of Swords technique with renewed enthusiasm.
Although he knew that his teacher had forbidden him to practice «Swallow Swing» technique, Trevor was surprised and unwilling to lose to his opponent, and because he was used to combining «Forest of Swords» technique with «Swallow Swing» technique, he inadvertently performed a combination of the two techniques.
The next moment, he suddenly felt a great pain in his body.
Trevor's face turned pale. His hands stopped performing the sword technique and his left hand went to his face to cover his mouth.
But it was all in vain, because a thick clot was already travelling down his larynx and the next second he spat out a mouthful of blood and bent over sharply.
The sword fell from his hands. His right arm dropped down towards the stone slabs, preparing for a gentle fall from unconsciousness.
At the same time, Mac calmly continued to perform the sword technique and at one point heard a strange sound. Turning around, he saw Trevor's hunched body with red blood flowing from his mouth. Mac instantly realised that the strange sound was Trevor spitting blood out of his mouth.
Without hesitation, Mac ran over to Trevor and took him under his arms to prevent him from falling onto the slabs. In a worried voice, he asked, "What's wrong? What just happened?" While asking questions, Mac tried to examine his friend's body for external injuries.
Trevor told Mac in a barely audible trembling voice how he had been training and everything seemed to be fine, and as soon as he combined "Forest of Swords" with "Swallow's Wing" he felt a great pain and blood came out of his mouth. Mac listened carefully to Trevor's words and did not interrupt him.
After listening, Mac thought for a moment, because he knew something was wrong. After he finished thinking, he looked at Trevor and asked in an interested tone, "Did your teacher, by any chance, before you started to stand in the rider's stance, press his fingers on your body?"
Having said that, he did not even look away but waited patiently for Trevor's answer. The latter thought for a second and shook his head with the last of his strength, agreeing with Mac's words.
A harsh obscenity came out of Mac's mouth.
He was furious.
Trevor, on the other hand, was a little shocked, because it was the first time he had ever heard his Big Brother swear.
A displeased frown lingered on Mac's face, but when he looked over at Trevor and saw his shock, he immediately began to explain what was wrong.
Trevor's teacher, Elder Re, had deliberately blocked certain channels of spiritual energy in Trevor's body, and he had done so so that he could improve his physical performance in the fastest and easiest way possible.
When Trevor began to practice "Swallow Swing" sword technique, he forced spiritual energy through these channels and created internal injuries in his body.
Hearing Mac's explanation, Trevor's face, which had been pale before, now looked like that of a living dead man.
He had a blank stare that was directed downwards, his head was down and his arms seemed to have lost all their strength. Nervous breathing and uncontrolled twitching of the lower lip...
What will Mac do?
