Chapter 11: Sword Practice

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Gao Yue said helplessly, “Jiang Chen, don’t be too upset. It’s better to break up with that kind of woman.”

“I will not sign the disengagement agreement,”Jiang Chen said, “I will write a certificate of divorce instead.”

“But in this way the Sus won’t send people over here.” Cher felt this was a losing proposition.

“With the Su’s attitude, even if they send people over here, it would be difficult to send them away later. We will probably have to try our best to please them, but they won’t necessarily give us any help,” Jiang Chen said.

“Son, are you sure?” It was difficult for Gao Yue to make a decision.

“Yes.”

Jiang Chen was sure. He took pen and ink to write the certificate of divorce and then asked a servant to send it over to the Su’s.

The Su’s could refuse to accept the certificate of divorce. Su Qian could claim that she hadn’t been cheating on Jiang Chen, so he couldn’t divorce her for no reason.

But they were the ones who wanted disengagement. Jiang Chen had put them into a dilemma.

“But what should the east courtyard do?” Gao Yue was very worried.

“Mother, we should reduce the establishment and focus on our core industries. As for the other things, it’s fine to hand them over to the west courtyard.”

Jiang Chen went on, saying, “After all, it will depend on grandpa whether the west courtyard can replace the east. The industry is only one of the things that grandpa evaluates. The more important thing is me.”

Gao Yue nodded. She understood what her son meant.

“If I can achieve the Gathering Yuan State before the spring festival, whatever the west courtyard has done it will only be in vain,” Jiang Chen said.

“Only three months to go until the spring festival. Won’t it be too difficult?”

“Mother, did you forget?”

Gao Yue recalled that old man with the white beard and nodded seriously.

“Besides, I am already in Cloud Seven.”

Jiang Chen’s state had been enhanced in seven days through panaceas and the sky level method.

“You are?” Gao Yue looked at her son excitedly. All of her worries had disappeared instantly.

…

The news that Gao Yue hadn’t gotten any help spread quickly, as well as the disengagement with the Su’s. This way, the east courtyard’s decline had become a consensus in the Southwind Ridge. Even Jiang Chen’s brilliant achievement in the winter hunt couldn’t reverse people’s opinions. There even had been rumors floating around about the west courtyard petitioning the old lord to give the east courtyard to them.

Jiang Chen didn’t bother with those rumors. He contributed all his time to practice. He achieved Cloud Nine in two months. Maybe it was because he had been in Cloud Nine. Although the loss of genuine Qi resulted in state degradation, starting all over again and repeating the whole process, of course, was faster than the first time. However, he was at a crucial point that he was unable to break through.

It will be a qualitative leap to cross the big gap between two states. With the aid of the sky level method and the holy pulse, it’s a piece of cake to break through. But the thing is, there is only a month to go until the spring festival. But it’s no use to be anxious. I’ll just take the chance to study some martial techniques.

At the time of the spring festival, things wouldn’t end with reporting your state level. There probably would be a fight.

Jiang Chen could hunt fierce beasts, but beasts didn’t have wisdom. The human beings would be much more difficult to deal with. People gain strength from practice. But that’s not enough. They have to make use of the strength they get. If you have the strength to move five hundred kilograms, but not even 10% of it can be put into use, your strength has no use. But things were like this a long time ago until forefathers with great wisdom created effective fighting methods like the fist method, palm method, sword method and the knife method. All of these are called martial techniques.

The practice of martial techniques is very stringent. For example, the powerful sword method can be given full play only when the person practicing it has great swordsmanship attainments. Swordsmanship doesn’t come from nowhere. It requires practice of entry-level swordsmanship and accumulation of experience. The swordsmanship and other martial techniques collected in the Over Cloud Palace are for master level powerhouses.

If Jiang Chen insisted on practicing them, they would only do him harm instead of good. So, Jiang Chen called Fan Tu over. He asked Fan Tu to show him a basic martial technique, better than a sword method.

“Young Lord, you’ve been back to Cloud Nine? That’s fantastic. You will be someone big even without the holy pulse!” Fan Tu was a direct man. No one else in the east courtyard had the nerve to mention the holy pulse in front of Jiang Chen. Fan Tu continued, “The master learnt his swordsmanship from the Taoist Priest Skywind. It cannot be spread out. Even though it could be, it wouldn’t be useful to Young Lord.”

Jiang Chen understood what he meant. It was for the same reason that he was unable to practice the swordsmanship of the Over Cloud Palace. In short, if a person who practiced it with level one swordsmanship attainments persists in practicing a level four sword method, he will get nowhere.

Of course, martial techniques and swordsmanship attainments are not classified in such a simple way. But the logic is the same. Jiang Chen’s current state didn’t allow him to practice any of the martial techniques collected in the Over Cloud Palace. He gave Fan Tu that Dorje Subduing Demon because the latter was in the Gathering Yuan state and he had been practicing fist methods for decades. But even Fan Tu was only able to achieve the entry level after months of practice. Among all the martial techniques Jiang Chen knew, Dorje Subduing Demon was an inferior one.

Jiang Chen wanted to find a sword method suitable for him. It was for this purpose that he called Fan Tu over.

“Young Lord, wait for a second!” When Fan Tu got Jiang Chen’s attention, he left the room and soon came back with some servants, who were carrying lots of books. The floor was heaped with books instantly.

“These martial techniques are the east courtyard’s collection. Although they were dedicated to the Jiang Mansion, people from the east courtyard are not allowed to practice them, let alone the Young Lord.”

Jiang Chen watched the sword methods carefully. He had a yearning to be a swordsman. No one knew why. But in the Sacred Zone, eight out of ten top-level masters were swordsmen.

“Young Lord, what do you want? Generally speaking, what you like is what suits you.”

“Swords.”

Once he got the answer, Fan Tu picked the sword methods out for him.

Jiang Chen browsed them one by one and kept shaking his head. He thought to himself, these are insignificant for swords. What’s really important is only the sharpness of a sword.

Jiang Chen finally found a suitable one. The Sword Method of the Holy Spirit.

“Young Master, you want to practice swords now? All right!”

The two of them came to the spacious yard. Fan Tu found him an extremely sharp iron sword, which had been edged.

Jiang Chen felt very emotional holding the sword.

The number one Sword Master in the Sacred Zone Yin Qianmo picked up a wooden sword when he was three. Without any experiences of practicing any sword methods, he reached the entry level just with some casual waves of the sword, and in this way beat his ten-year-old brother, who had practiced sword methods for five years.

The Sword Saint Dugu Yu was a knifeman at the beginning. He gave up the knife and picked up the sword when he was twenty. He became enlightened overnight on the ‘The Sword Method to Kill’ and then killed ninety-nine brutal vicious scoundrels in three days. The whole Sacred Zone was shocked by his feat.

How far will I get?

The Sword Method of the Holy Spirit was laid open to the first page on the ground. The first movement was shown by a little man on the page, with annotations below it.

Jiang Chen didn’t stop reading until he memorized everything. With key points in mind, he started to wave the sword in his hand.

“Can’t wait to see Young Lord’s sword skills.” Fan Tu looked hopeful. His master was adept in using swords. For sure, the young lord had inherited this ability!

However, soon after, his face became embarrassed for what he was seeing.

Jiang Chen looked so clumsy when he was practicing sword methods.

Yes, very clumsy.