Chapter 135 — The Circling Sword Stance
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
"A remarkable achievement — no wonder he is the first man beneath the gods. " Shen Mu could not stop marveling inwardly. Imperial Preceptor Jingping's thinking was far ahead of its time — or perhaps it could not be called ahead of its time; rather, he pushed the age forward, pushed the divine abilities and the Dao arts forward, pushed the people of this age forward! "Therefore, on the foundation of the fourteen basic sword techniques, I have opened up several more moves. These two days, I shall teach you these few most basic sword techniques; of other swordsmanship I shall speak not a word.
" Imperial Preceptor Jingping halted, the smile vanished from his face, and his expression turned grave: "But before that, I want you to forget the form of the sword.
The sword can be light, can be sound, can be color, can be a glance, and so the sword needs no fixed form. It can be long or short, hard or soft; it can attack from any angle.
If you can forget the form of the sword, then you may learn my swordsmanship.
The first move of my swordsmanship: Circling.
" His fingertip stirred, and at once countless threads of primal qi, fine as sword light, came surging out and became a sword pillar that thrust forward: "This is Circling! " This was a move from the Great Six Harmonies Sword Art.
It looked like a thrust, but in truth the sword pillar was woven from countless blades of sword light, and those blades of sword light were forever flowing, forever shifting position! Shen Mu had once seen similar swordsmanship in Qu Ping; only, what Qu Ping had displayed was cleaving.
Thrust and cleave — both looked like basic sword moves, but what formed the core of these basic moves was Imperial Preceptor Jingping's Circling Sword Style.
The Circling Sword Style was still different from the Coiling Sword Style among the fourteen basic stances: the Coiling Sword Style exerted force from the hilt and coiled around the opponent's weapon, whereas the Circling Sword Style gathered power and burst forth in a world-shaking strike.
The greatest difference between Imperial Preceptor Jingping's Circling Sword Style and Qu Ping's was that in his sword pillar every blade of sword light changed differently, whereas Qu Ping's sword control made every blade of sword light change identically — and so he had been defeated by Daozi Lin Xuan, who used a whisk as a sword. Had it been Imperial Preceptor Jingping in his place, he would have been able to block Daozi Lin Xuan's whisk. Not only that — in Shen Mu's eyes, this sword of Imperial Preceptor Jingping's was a single whole.
His sword pillar was composed of countless blades of sword light, every blade an individual, and yet when he thrust with that one sword, it was a single whole; to break this sword of his, one would have to, while contending with the sword pillar, overpower the might of the pillar — only then might one break each blade of sword light within it.
The method Daozi Lin Xuan had used against Qu Ping was utterly useless against him!
"Imperial Preceptor Jingping's fundamentals are as solid as mine — even a little more solid than Daozi Lin Xuan's!
" Shen Mu marveled.
How could such a being exist? He was practically a god of the heavens!
Imperial Preceptor Jingping explained in fine detail the secrets of exerting force in the Circling Sword Style on the steps; his explanation was so meticulous that Shen Mu felt as though the village head were teaching him swordsmanship. The Circling Sword Style was an extension of the basic swordsmanship.
Shen Mu's fourteen basic sword techniques were already incomparably solid, and having gone through the village head's instruction, he had no difficulty learning this Circling Sword Style — one hint and he understood, one word and it was clear; he listened as though drunk. But that was only him.