A wooden fist smashed into Yin Long's face, his nose bending slightly as blood splashed forth and his body was pushed back. The fist hit him with such force that it rattled his brain and caused him to fall on his back after a few unsteady steps, some blood starting to pool within his mouth. He spat out some of the blood while exhaling a heavy breath, Xue Qiuling leaning over him so that her elegant face covered his entire view.
"This... was a bit unexpected, I must say. I was fairly confident that you wouldn't be able to get past the guardian on the third floor, but I certainly didn't think that you wouldn't even be able to get to the third floor."
Yin Long sat up, Xue Qiuling raising her head so that the two didn't collide. He rolled his neck and spat out the blood that was gathering in his mouth, wiping his chin while looking at the guardian preventing him from entering the lower section of the third floor, a four-armed man-shaped golem made out of dark wood. Yin Long rubbed his chin to get rid of some of the ache, Xue Qiuling handing him a handkerchief while she continued to talk.
"Still, you've only lost three times so it's not something to get too depressed about, I had to fight the guardian on the third floor a total of 19 times before I finally beat it. Now that I've gotten a chance to see a more continuous stream of your fighting, I've also found your greatest weakness, your basics are all over the place. Your instincts and fluidity, marvellous. Defensive capabilities and adaptability, more than acceptable. But speed, power, and the basic understanding of when its best to do what, below average. If I were to guess, your training probably consisted of having to constantly fight someone stronger than you, no? You probably didn't have the chance to retaliate that often."
Xue Qiuling once again showed how sharp her vision was by hitting the nail on the head. Most of Yin Long's sword training consisted of him having to resist Bai Xiang's unseen attacks, it took everything he had to just focus on the defence. As such, when it came to actually being the attacker, his understanding and knowledge left a lot to be desired, forcing him to rely on his instincts most of the time.
Yin Long's gaze narrowed slightly as he observed the guardian, who was silently waiting for Yin Long to step forward again. In truth, Yin Long was actually rather happy right now, despite the taste of blood and defeat filling his mouth. Now that he had spent an extended amount of time fighting with a normal weapon, he realized an important fact about himself. He had been too reliant on his parasitic soul and the sword it created.
He knew that he would leech off of the power of his sword whenever he created it, meaning that he would be stronger if his sword was stronger. But only now, as he fought using just a normal weapon and his own body, did he realize that even the most basic form of his self-made sword strengthened him by a fair bit. Even just making a sword out of the surrounding space or wind increased the power and speed of his attacks by a fair bit.
Of course, the reason he was happy was that this meant he had immense room for growth. If he trained his body and actual skills until he became able to unleash the same level of power as when he wielded his self-made sword, how strong would he be when he actually unleashed his true sword?
He was weak, but tucked away within him was immense potential just waiting to burst forth. And right here he had not just an excellent environment to train himself, but he was also surrounded by other people who he could learn from. Yin Long stood up from his seated position and rolled his shoulders to loosen them up, turning to Xue Qiuling.
"Can you teach me?"
She was right there, had sharp vision, and had more experience when it came to the basics of the sword. As such, asking her was just natural to Yin Long. He would learn from her until he could learn no more, then he would move on to the next teacher. The cycle would repeat until he could learn no more and embarked on his own path, his sword growing sharper with each step. The corners of Xue Qiuling's lips curved up, a confident smile forming on her face.
"Didn't I already tell you that it's only fair that I help train you? Just you watch, I'll turn you from an unpolished jewel into a shining gem. But do beware, I can be really strict if you fail."
Xue Qiuling immediately did what she did down on the lower section of the first floor, she positioned herself behind Yin Long and wrapped her arms around him. She placed her hands on the back of his, her fingers and wrist deftly controlling how he moved his own fingers and wrist. The close contact also allowed her to sense about how much force he used, her warm breath once again tickling his ear.
"You're using too much force in your wrist. Force may be the trick to defeating the guardians on the first floor, but the guardians on the second floor don't care how hard you hit them, they only care about how often you hit them. If you hit him in a spot other than his arms six times within 30 seconds then it counts as your win, hitting the space between the base of his arms counts for twice so that's where you should aim. Lessen the force in your grip and loosen your wrist, otherwise, your movements will be a touch stilted and slowed."
Yin Long ignored the soft sensation on his back and the warm breath tickling his ears, his gaze focusing on the guardian in front of him while he followed Xue Qiuling's guidance. Xue Qiuling remained practically glued to his body, overseeing how much force he used to grip the sword while also taking the chance to move his free left arm a bit away from his body.
"Since speed is your target here, you'll only need to grip your sword with one hand. As a result, the other hand can be used for feints, sneak attacks, or for balancing your body so make sure you always keep it ready. When moving, keep it away from your body for balancing, but the moment you enter close combat you should pull the arm closer to your body so that it's a bit more hidden for when you need to use it for feints or attacks."
Yin Long gave a slight nod of his head, continuing to follow Xue Qiuling's guidance as she directed him on how to hold the weapon and how much force would be suitable. She spent a few minutes to make sure that he had the amount of force and looseness of his wrist down pat and then let go of his arms, stepping back and letting him loose.
"Alright, have at it."
She didn't tell him anything about how to attack the guardian, he knew how to beat it and where its weakness was, his sharp instincts would show him the openings in the guardian's attacks. But still, after landing four hits on the guardian, he was beaten back once more, his nose spurting forth more blood.
He got up straight away, the corners of his mouth having curved up slightly without him noticing it. He blew out some blood from his nose and moved forward again, engaging in a swift battle with the guardian. And standing at the side, Xue Qiuling was looking on while doing her best to hide her surprise.
There was only one word she could use to describe Yin Long, and it was the same word she had used in front of him several times, marvellous. She hadn't spent long telling and showing him what he should do, she guessed that it would probably take a few more tries and some more explanation for it to actually sink in. But there he was, properly utilizing it all and pushing the golem harder and harder, she even guessed that this second attempt after her instructions would be enough to defeat the guardian.
She called him an unpolished jewel earlier, but what he was showing was on a completely different level. And as he landed the last blow on the guardian and defeated it, only getting hit once in return, Xue Qiuling came to her conclusion. This was too fast. This type of learning speed was not normal, humans weren't meant to learn things this fast. She praised him highly before, but that praise wasn't enough. He wasn't normal, he was what could only be called a genius, a favoured son of heaven, a man who was born to carry the sword.
And upon realizing this, Xue Qiuling felt a spark of desire flash to life within her chest. This city, this dojo, was not the place for a heaven-favoured son like this. Just like he said, he would only stay here until he surpassed them, he would move on once that time came. And once he did, maybe, just maybe, he could bring her away with him, he could carry her out to the greater sky so that she could fly freely.
The guardian stiffened after Yin Long landed the sixth blow on it, the four arms pulling back and then hanging powerlessly at its side. It stepped back and announced Yin Long's victory, sinking back into the floor as space around Yin Long returned to normal. Yin Long looked at the staircase to the third floor, tilting his head slightly and moving his gaze over to his sword, weighing it in his hands.
"This reminds me a lot of when I trained with my sister, always pointing out what she did wrong to help her improve. Feels somewhat strange to be on the receiving end."
Yin Long fondly remembered the time he spent training Lang Huo, sharply pointing out her errors and giving her a good whack when she inevitably repeated them. His skills may not all be excellent compared to properly trained swordfighters, but his instincts were more than enough when it came to handling his sister when it came to sword skills. Xue Qiuling tilted her head after hearing Yin Long's mutter, taking this as a chance to learn a bit more.
"Is it the same sister as the brewer or did you have more? And you sound like you had a pretty good relationship with your sister?"
Yin Long put away his sword and used the handkerchief that Xue Qiuling had given him earlier to wipe away any blood that still remained on his face, nodding his head with a fond and gentle smile.
"Different sisters, and yeah, we were as close as we could be, always taking care of each other. Of course, I was the big brother and only son, so it was only right that I took a bit more care of them."
Yin Long didn't go into specifics about the things he had done to take care of Lang Huo and Lang Ru, there was no need to tell others of the lives he had taken to protect them. But even without going into specifics, Xue Qiuling could easily see how much Yin Long treasured his family, his smile was worth a thousand words.
"I really envy you people from smaller families, being able to be close to your siblings must be nice."
Speaking about families, Xue Qiuling's voice contained a nearly unnoticeable trace of longing, as well as a perfectly hidden touch of jealousy and anger. One of Yin Long's eyebrows rose in a questioning manner, Xue Qiuling swiftly giving the reasoning behind her envy.
"Ah, I come from a pretty large family in Heron's Ascension village, where this dojo originated. Since we're a larger family I have quite a few siblings, but we're all forced to fight for the various seats of power in the family so it's more like the law of the jungle than anything else. In my family, it's all about grabbing hold of every little thing you can, even if it won't end up being useful, and making sure that no one else can take it. So I'm slightly jealous of smaller families like yours, who can share things so easily while also being on good terms with each other."
She could only assume that he came from a smaller family as she had grown up with the fact that larger families constantly fought for position. Of course, the truth was so far from her guess that it was laughable, Yin Long came from a family far larger than her's. But that was the difference between a family that could rule a city and one that was stuck within a village, one was able to make its members work together while the other couldn't.
Then again, as the Lang clan was deteriorating it was getting increasingly closer to the same stage as Xue Qiuling's family, which was part of the reason that Yin Long had to kill so many people in his time as the darkness of the clan. Xue Qiuling clearly didn't want to give Yin Long the chance to pry too much into her family, shaking her head while wearing her usual elegant smile.
"But that really isn't a topic that's worth talking about. You'll have to spend a bit of time studying and training before you'll be able to defeat the guardians of the third floor, so how about we take a break here and head out for something to eat? I can show you to some of my favourite restaurants in the city, they've got excellent food."
Yin Long's other eyebrow also rose slightly at her swift changing of the topic, but since she didn't want him to pry then he couldn't be bothered to do so. She smiled delicately at him while wearing an innocent and enticing expression, but he still shook his head while making a few mental calculations.
"That sounds nice, but I'll have to give you a raincheck. I want to spend a bit of time checking out everything on the three floors, I also have to take out Jin Wang for a bit so that he doesn't get antsy. And If I don't give Lan Yun any attention then I don't think she'll let me rest at all. Hmmm, I can join you out for a meal in about half a month, what about that?"
He now had three entire floors filled with manuals, skills, and experiences that he could go through, he'd probably also have to test out several of the things he read about to incorporate them into his own style. That alone would probably take at the very least a month and a half. When he also added in Jin Wang, Lan Yun, and the time he would need breaks, half a month from now was the earliest he felt would be good for him.
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