One Sword Faster Than the Wind

The fourteenth day ended with Hao Nhien confirming that both One Sword and Sword Slash were developing in the right direction.

One Sword needed to become faster, more precise, and capable of concentrating all of its power into a single point. Sword Slash required something different: shortening the process of building force so that even after an opponent had already raised a defense, a single slash could still carry enough power to break through it.

Two techniques were not many, but Hao Nhien no longer saw that as a problem.

What occupied his thoughts throughout the evening was something else entirely.

Until now, Spirit Wings and his sword techniques had remained almost separate.

When he needed to close the distance, he used Spirit Wings. Only after reaching the proper range would he strike. If he needed to retreat or reposition, Spirit Wings came into play again after the sword technique had already ended.

In other words, Spirit Wings helped deliver him to the right position, but had never truly become part of the sword technique itself.

On the morning of the fifteenth day, Hao Nhien did not enter the deeper fissure. Instead, he stopped in the broad stretch of ground between the outer and middle regions.

The Black Wind here was weaker than deeper inside the valley, but its changes were still chaotic enough for training. More importantly, the open space gave him room to test speed and changes in direction.

Tieu Lan continued training in the outer region as usual, while Hao Nhien stood motionless amid the wind and closed his eyes, sensing every change around him.

A powerful current swept diagonally from left to right. Behind it, two smaller streams collided and separated, while higher above, a vortex was gradually descending.

After half a month of training, changes he had once sensed only vaguely had become much clearer.

Hao Nhien opened his eyes.

The Fire Spirit Sword appeared in his right hand, while spiritual power stirred behind his back as Spirit Wings slowly unfolded.

The two wings spread wide and trembled faintly with the currents sweeping through the valley.

Hao Nhien lowered his center of gravity and pointed the sword directly ahead.

For the first attempt, he did not move immediately.

He waited until a strong current of Black Wind came from behind, angling across his right shoulder. His sensitivity to wind allowed him to read its direction, while Spirit Wings adjusted their angle to receive part of the airflow instead of relying entirely on spiritual power to propel his body.

The instant the current reached the right position, Hao Nhien drove his right foot into the ground.

Spirit Wings beat at the same time.

The Black Wind struck the wings from behind and merged with their explosive force, launching his body forward.

Sand burst beneath his feet.

A distance of more than three zhang vanished almost within a single beat.

The Fire Spirit Sword stabbed into the cliff wall and penetrated nearly halfway to the hilt.

Hao Nhien came to a stop, but there was no satisfaction on his face.

The sword tip had missed his intended point by almost two cun.

The acceleration had been too great, preventing his shoulder and wrist from fully stabilizing in time. More importantly, once he entered the final burst, his ability to change direction dropped sharply.

If an opponent recognized the trajectory and dodged sideways at the right moment, Hao Nhien was not certain he could correct the sword in time without sacrificing speed.

He pulled the blade free and returned to his original position.

On the second attempt, he reduced the force of Spirit Wings and did not try to take full advantage of the Black Wind behind him.

His speed was lower, but his body was noticeably more stable.

On the third attempt, he stepped forward half a pace first, waited until his center of gravity shifted ahead, and only then released the burst from Spirit Wings.

When the current behind him arrived, the wings borrowed only the portion of force that aligned with his path before immediately accelerating under their own power.

A flash of fire crossed the air.

This time, the sword tip struck the tiny mark he had carved into the stone.

Hao Nhien withdrew the blade, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly.

This was the right direction.

He continued experimenting, but no longer focused simply on increasing the power of Spirit Wings.

Instead, he began studying the differences between each burst: when spiritual power should provide most of the acceleration, when he could borrow additional force from the Black Wind, and when he had to abandon the external airflow entirely in order to preserve the sword’s trajectory.

The Black Wind was not always useful.

Sometimes a current that accelerated him during the first instant changed direction halfway through, causing one Spirit Wing to take more pressure than the other. At those speeds, even a tiny imbalance was enough to push the sword tip away from its target.

Hao Nhien gradually understood that combining Spirit Wings with One Sword could not rely on speed alone.

First, he had to read the airflow.

Only then could he decide whether to avoid it, move with it, or borrow part of its force.

Spirit Wings provided the main burst of acceleration. If the Black Wind happened to align with him, it became additional assistance. The principles he had refined through the Body-Soul Fist Art kept his legs, waist, and shoulders on the same axis so that his force would not scatter when his speed suddenly increased.

And in the end, One Sword had only one purpose.

To deliver all of that force to the same point.

After dozens of attempts, Hao Nhien gradually found the right feeling.

Then, during one attempt, three streams of Black Wind crossed ahead of him before separating, leaving behind an opening that would exist for only an instant.

Hao Nhien did not rush.

He waited until the current behind him shifted into a favorable direction, then drove his foot down as Spirit Wings spread wide.

The Black Wind pressed against the wings.

Spirit Wings erupted.

Hao Nhien shot through the opening the instant it appeared.

A thin red line stretched across the air.

By the time the currents behind him had time to close again, he was already standing before a slab of black stone nearly a meter thick.

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The Fire Spirit Sword had pierced straight through it.

There was no violent explosion, nor did the stone shatter.

Only a narrow sword hole remained, passing cleanly from one side to the other.

Hao Nhien held the final posture for several breaths before slowly pulling the sword free.

The power satisfied him, but he did not mistake that for completion.

The charge he had just made was almost perfectly straight.

Under those conditions, the greater his speed became, the more terrifying One Sword would be. But if the opponent suddenly changed direction at the final moment, Hao Nhien still found it difficult to alter his trajectory while preserving the full force of the burst.

If he wanted a sharp change in direction, he had to slow down.

If he wanted to preserve extreme speed, he had to accept that the path of the attack became more predictable once the final burst began.

That was a limitation he could not solve in a single morning.

Even so, turning Spirit Wings from a simple means of closing distance into an actual part of the sword technique had already taken One Sword to an entirely different level of application.

Hao Nhien looked at the tip of the Fire Spirit Sword.

One Sword was not meant to compete in raw strength.

It was meant to seize the first beat.

Sword Slash was entirely different.

Once the opponent had already raised a defense, what Hao Nhien needed was no longer to move faster than their reaction, but to place enough defense-breaking force into the sword in the shortest possible time.

One technique seized the initiative.

The other broke the opponent’s position.

Two different directions, but both suited the way he fought.

Hao Nhien had no intention of forcing Spirit Wings into Sword Slash and turning it into a copy of One Sword.

Sword Slash required greater stability during the instant of releasing power. If he charged at extreme speed and tried to slash immediately, the strike might not become stronger at all. He was far more likely to throw the axis of his body out of balance.

For Sword Slash, Spirit Wings were better suited to shortening the repositioning step or creating the initial opening.

The true power still had to rise from his feet, pass through his waist and shoulder, and only then enter the blade.

Hao Nhien tested it several more times before stopping.

He did not need to force everything he possessed into a single technique.

Suitability mattered more than complexity.

Higher cultivation realms still possessed deeper reserves of spiritual power, stronger techniques, and bodies tempered over longer periods of time.

Hao Nhien could not erase those differences with only a few days of training.

But he did not need to erase them.

If One Sword arrived before an opponent could fully bring their advantages into play, or if Sword Slash broke through their defense before their full momentum had formed, then the gap in cultivation would no longer be a simple comparison of how much spiritual power each person possessed.

That was the path Hao Nhien wanted for fighting above his level.

Not to make himself imitate a seventh-layer Foundation Establishment cultivator.

But to make sure a seventh-layer Foundation Establishment cultivator did not always get the chance to fight like one.

It was nearly noon by the time Hao Nhien finally withdrew Spirit Wings.

Sweat had soaked the back of his robes. His spiritual power consumption was greater than expected, and both shoulders ached from repeatedly enduring sudden acceleration and changes in force.

This new application could not be used continuously too many times.

Spirit Wings consumed spiritual power, reading the wind required sustained concentration, and his body had to endure tremendous strain every time he accelerated and then sharply slowed himself again.

Just as he put away the Fire Spirit Sword, he sensed a fluctuation of spiritual energy from the outer region.

Hao Nhien immediately turned.

Tieu Lan was still practicing her sword amid the Black Wind.

Her path was completely different from his.

Hao Nhien read the wind to find openings for explosive movement, sometimes deliberately borrowing part of its momentum to increase his speed.

Tieu Lan instead allowed her movement technique and sword momentum to follow the changing currents, minimizing direct resistance as much as possible.

Cloud-Wind Steps shifted continuously beneath her feet.

When the wind came from the right, she tilted her body before its strongest force could press down. Her rear foot slid diagonally backward, allowing her body to glide sideways with the current, while the sword in her hand continued moving with the same flow.

The tip traced an arc through the air.

The Black Wind that had meant to push her off position instead became the force carrying her into the next step.

Watching from a distance, Hao Nhien gave a slight nod.

Several days ago, every change in wind direction forced Tieu Lan to spend a beat regaining her balance.

Now she had begun sensing the signs of change before the current fully reached her.

At that moment, the sword in Tieu Lan’s hand suddenly stopped.

The aura around her fluctuated.

Hao Nhien immediately understood why.

The bottleneck at the fifth layer of Qi Condensation had already begun loosening the day before.

Tieu Lan did not force herself to continue practicing.

She sat down where she was, placed a mid-grade Qi-Vitality Pill beside her in case it became necessary, and began circulating her cultivation method.

Wood-aligned spiritual energy slowly gathered around her.

There was no dramatic phenomenon.

Her already full aura simply became more rounded and complete with every circulation.

The bottleneck trembled several times, and once enough spiritual power had accumulated, the final barrier naturally gave way.

A wave of wood-aligned spiritual power spread outward from Tieu Lan, causing the blades of grass that had been pressed flat by the Black Wind to tremble faintly.

Sixth layer of Qi Condensation.

Tieu Lan did not immediately stand.

She continued regulating her breathing for a while longer to stabilize the newly increased spiritual power.

When she opened her eyes again, the first thing she felt was not a dramatic surge in raw strength, but that her meridians had become more open and the amount of spiritual power she could circulate at once had increased.

She stood and tested a step with a current of Black Wind passing nearby.

Cloud-Wind Steps unfolded.

Her body immediately slid nearly half a step farther than she expected.

Tieu Lan paused for an instant before quickly adjusting.

Hao Nhien laughed when he saw it.

“Even after a breakthrough, you still have to relearn how much force to use.”

Tieu Lan turned toward him, her eyes immediately lighting up.

“Young Master!”

She ran over.

Hao Nhien had barely opened his arms when Tieu Lan threw herself into his embrace.

“I broke through.”

“I saw.”

Hao Nhien smiled and rested a hand on her head.

“You did it without relying on a breakthrough pill, and your accumulation was solid enough. Very good.”

Tieu Lan looked up.

“Only very good?”

Hao Nhien looked at her expectant expression and laughed.

“I am very proud of you.”

Tieu Lan blinked.

“No ‘but’?”

“No ‘but.’”

A smile immediately spread across her face.

Only after a while did Tieu Lan release him, and her gaze quickly fell to the Fire Spirit Sword.

“Young Master was practicing sword techniques?”

“Mm.”

“I heard several loud sounds from this side.”

Tieu Lan looked toward the distant rocks.

“Did you improve much?”

Hao Nhien considered the question.

“I found a new direction.”

“Show me.”

“You just broke through and already want to test swords?”

“We are not fighting seriously.”

Tieu Lan drew her sword.

“Just a little.”

Hao Nhien laughed.

Instead of using the Fire Spirit Sword, he took a wooden sword from his storage ring.

“Fine. I will not use spiritual power.”

Tieu Lan also withdrew most of her wood-aligned spiritual power, keeping only enough to operate Cloud-Wind Steps.

They stood about five zhang apart.

The Black Wind blew from behind Tieu Lan.

She did not rush forward immediately.

After taking a moment to feel the airflow, she stepped.

Cloud-Wind Steps unfolded.

Her body glided forward with the wind, clearly faster than before her breakthrough. However, her stronger spiritual power also made the first step slightly too long, forcing her to adjust midway.

Her sword did not thrust straight ahead.

When the wind changed direction, Tieu Lan’s wrist changed with it, curving the sword tip toward Hao Nhien’s flank.

Hao Nhien leaned aside and raised the wooden sword.

The two blades struck with a light crack.

Tieu Lan did not try to force her sword downward.

The instant she was blocked, her wrist rotated with the rebound while her feet shifted at the same time, allowing her body to slide sideways with the Black Wind.

Her sword tip immediately found another angle.

Hao Nhien had to step back half a pace to block the second strike.

Tieu Lan did not continue pursuing.

She followed the wind backward for another two zhang and landed steadily.

Hao Nhien looked at her for a moment.

“Not bad.”

Tieu Lan immediately wrinkled her nose.

“Not bad again?”

“Very good.”

“Acceptable.”

“Young Master!”

Hao Nhien burst out laughing.

But the satisfaction in his eyes was genuine.

Tieu Lan still lacked combat experience, and her cultivation remained low, but the way she used the sword had already begun to develop its own shape.

She did not force every exchange into a contest of strength.

If one angle was blocked, she changed it.

If there was no opening, she borrowed movement to find another.

Hao Nhien looked at the sword in her hand, then at his own Fire Spirit Sword.

Both of them cultivated with the wind, but their paths were not the same.

One made herself difficult to pin down.

The other made it difficult for the opponent to react in time.

Neither path was inherently better.

Only more suitable.

That afternoon, the two began packing up their small camp outside the valley.

Before leaving, Hao Nhien stood at the entrance to the rock fissure for a while longer.

Forty zhang was not his limit. The Body-Soul Fist Art still had room for refinement, while One Sword and Sword Slash had only just found new directions.

Most of all, the integration of Spirit Wings with his sword techniques still had many problems to solve, from spiritual power consumption to his limited ability to change direction once his speed became too high.

But he had no intention of remaining here simply to squeeze out a little more progress.

Fifteen days was enough.

The communication jade token in his hand still carried no emergency signal.

Hao Nhien looked at it once before putting it away.

Tieu Lan walked over.

“Young Master.”

“Let’s go back.”

“No more training?”

“We can return another time.”

Hao Nhien stored the Fire Spirit Sword in his storage ring and took her hand.

The two left Black Wind Valley.

Behind them, the black wind continued howling between the cliffs as if nothing had ever changed.

Hao Nhien did not look back.

He still possessed only two sword techniques.

But he no longer thought that was too few.

If one sword could arrive before the opponent had even finished forming their own technique, then knowing ten more swords might not be any more useful.