Time slipped away in the blink of an eye.
Lin Hui followed the routine, grimly drilling the Seven-Section Swift Sword daily within the Clear Wind Temple. His proficiency climbed, and his physical stamina and reaction speed crept upward alongside the relentless practice.
Though he had promised his parents not to train too hard, having truly witnessed the mist zone—and the monstrous shadow that flickered within it—the fragile sense of safety Lin Hui had barely constructed began to rot.
He ran a brief mental simulation: that shadow lunging from the mist, straight at him. Could he react in time?
The results of that simulation instantly fueled him with even more desperate motivation.
As the days bled together, aside from his own gradual mastery of the Seven-Section Swift Sword's moves, the Blood Seal's evolution of the first move—Ascending High to Gaze Far—was drawing to a close.
Early morning. The rear courtyard of the Clear Wind Temple. The martial drill grounds.
Disciples stood scattered across the packed earth, wooden sticks in hand, endlessly repeating the sword moves in isolation.
Some had postures slightly crooked, but most were relatively proficient, repeating this sword technique that resembled calisthenics more than combat.
Then, a sudden, inexplicable surge of impulse flooded through him.
Watching the Blood Seal's evolution timer tick toward its end, he'd spent days guessing how the transformation would manifest.
Now, it seemed to be a method that induced the body to spontaneously generate guidance and change, ultimately leading to qualitative metamorphosis.
Swish.
The wooden stick in his hand accelerated—faster, faster. Though he repeated only the first move, few among the entire student body could train at this speed while maintaining such flawless precision.
But the sky remained dim, dawn just cracking. Most were absorbed in their own practice, oblivious to the details unfolding in his corner.
Soon—roughly three minutes later—
Pa.
The stick in Lin Hui's hand paused. He slowly retracted his stance, standing motionless, quietly regulating his breath.
In that moment, the Blood Seal on the back of his hand flared violently, restoring itself from a circle back to its rhombus shape.
Waves of indescribable insight—sword-practice experience—flooded into Lin Hui's mind like a dam breaking.
His body trembled as he fell into a peculiar state of sudden enlightenment.
Massive amounts of memory regarding the first move's flaws, perfection methods, optimization techniques, and even exploratory research were poured into his brain.
It was as though he himself had spent many years slowly testing, failing, and gradually perfecting and optimizing this single sword move to the point of absolute mastery.
Dozens of breaths later—
Lin Hui slowly raised his hand again. The wooden stick sliced forward with incomparable lightness, tracing a perfect arc, then hooked downward before slashing diagonally upward. The footwork beneath him shifted in tandem—natural, fluid, and utterly harmonious.
Done.
A sudden sense of certainty rose in Lin Hui's chest.
The move he'd just executed was still Ascending High to Gaze Far—but perfected to a degree beyond question. Thus, it could be called Ascending High to Gaze at the Mountain.
And with the mastery of this flawless sword move, he gained significant insight into the subsequent moves of the Swift Sword.
'Swift Sword, Swift Sword... so this is the nature of its speed. The Seven-Section Swift Sword is essentially a method of muscle accumulation. The first six moves are like a spring constantly being wound tighter and tighter, twisting until the final sword enters a state of being poised to strike. The entire set doesn't actually release a true killing move. Clearly, the killing move belongs to a different sword technique.'
Lin Hui absorbed the realization.
He had trained for two months. Now, looking back at the moves practiced by the other students, every single one of them looked crooked, distorted, riddled with errors.
"A-Hui, why are you hiding over here practicing alone?"
A familiar voice drifted from behind.
It was Chen Zhishen.
He yawned, carrying his wooden stick as he ambled over.
"Why didn't you call me to practice?"
His progress was actually similar to Lin Hui's—this was the standard pace for most disciples learning the Seven-Section Swift Sword.
This sword technique belonged to the category of training methods, not fighting methods. The hidden force exertion within it was extraordinarily complex, requiring the tempering of over fifty Force Nodes throughout the body.
If even one of these fifty Force Nodes was wrong, the effect would be largely lost. But once one had completely mastered the technique and aligned all the Force Nodes correctly, the tempering of the body would officially begin.
For an ordinary student starting from zero, it would take at least three years to completely master all the force exertion points and thoroughly learn the technique.
And that was just rough mastery. When practicing alone, if one could complete the routine without a single error in the Force Nodes once out of ten tries, they'd be thanking the heavens.
This was also why so many students eventually couldn't endure it and quietly left. After all, knowing how to do something was one thing; executing it with extreme stability and zero errors every time was another entirely.
Lin Hui calculated his own time cost. With his grueling training plus the Blood Seal's evolution, it would take roughly a year to completely master it—and master it perfectly, at that.
Moreover, during his practice just now, he'd discovered something formidable.
After evolving Ascending High to Gaze at the Mountain, every time he practiced this move subsequently, it was perfect—without the slightest error. That incomparably smooth feeling—no need to think, no hesitation, everything flowing out naturally.
He knew very well what this implied.
"What did you do last night? Why do you look so listless?" Lin Hui came back to his senses and glanced at Chen Zhishen.
"Don't mention it. Dreamed all night. The dream was full of..." Chen Zhishen's cheeks reddened, and he didn't finish his sentence.
"How is your sword technique coming along?" Lin Hui was speechless and changed the subject.
He knew the guy had recently gotten very close with a new female student. The two had been interacting for days, helping each other with small favors, and had slowly grown familiar.
"Not bad. I feel like it won't be long before I can completely master all the sword moves. As for the Force Nodes, I've got a handle on them. I already got four right a few days ago!" Chen Zhishen's attitude turned serious at the mention of sword practice.
"That's decent progress," Lin Hui nodded.
"What's decent about that? Huang Shan and Qiu Yiren—now they're formidable. One mastered it completely in a week, the other only took four days... I really don't know how the brains of these geniuses are built," Chen Zhishen sighed.
Lin Hui fell silent.
He had observed these two geniuses who'd recently entered the temple. They were newcomers who had arrived only half a month ago.
Yet, in an absurdly short time, they had perfectly mastered all the moves of the Seven-Section Swift Sword, and the accuracy of their Force Nodes had reached over eighty percent. Simply terrifying.
Compared to them, his Blood Seal was practically moving at a snail's pace...
Sighing internally, Lin Hui stopped dwelling on it. At the very least, the Blood Seal's greatest benefit was that once something was correct, it stayed correct forever. During the test just now, that terrifying accuracy rate was more mechanical than a machine.
Though he started slow, he'd catch up faster in the later stages.
He comforted himself with this thought.
The two chatted idly for a few moments, then paired up to practice swords together.
Midway through, aside from resting, drinking water, and visiting the latrine, the two didn't stop for a moment.
In the blink of an eye, it was noon. The logistics helpers hauled up large buckets of various meals.
Thick, dark red multi-grain rice. Large chunks of braised pork ribs. A soup mixed with green wild vegetables and sliced brown mushrooms.
Meals took place in a dedicated cafeteria on the side. The rows of wooden benches inside reminded Lin Hui of the university canteens from his previous life.
At this time, men and women filed in successively.
Many students with better family backgrounds formed small circles around First Senior Brother Chen Sui and Second Senior Brother Zhao Jiang'an.
First Senior Sister Mu Qiaozhi didn't come here often; she was only seen occasionally.
Aside from them, several small groups gathered around the newly promoted geniuses—Huang Shan and Qiu Yiren.
The rest sat in twos and threes at their spots, waiting to eat.
The food was served by dedicated staff carrying large ladles and wooden buckets, walking down the rows and filling bowls one by one.
Lin Hui had always sat with Chen Zhishen before, but this time, he'd just sat down and was about to call out when he saw the guy scurry eagerly over to sit opposite a girl with shoulder-length hair. Both of them were blushing, heads lowered, murmuring about who-knows-what.
"Only been a few days... sword technique isn't even learned yet, and he already has the mind for romance?" Lin Hui was speechless.
Though he said that, Chen Zhishen hadn't actually been affected much—his sword practice these past few days had been punctual and full volume, not lacking a bit.
Without his friend to chat with, Lin Hui ate much faster than usual. Coupled with the perfect mastery of the first move—Ascending High to Gaze at the Mountain—all eight Force Nodes of the first move could now be practiced without a single error.
This put him in a great mood, and his appetite opened up considerably. After finishing a large bowl of rice and gnawing on seven or eight ribs, he spent money to add another portion of meat and continued gnawing.
He was eating the second portion, about seventy or eighty percent done, when suddenly a commotion of noise and fighting broke out nearby.
It was accompanied by the pained scream of a student.
Lin Hui frowned and quickly looked up.
In a corner of the cafeteria, around the vegetable buckets, two groups of people were already in fierce confrontation.
In one group, a girl was clutching her buttocks, her face flushed scarlet as she glared furiously at a tall, grinning boy opposite her.
The boy was laughing while his hand made a kneading motion in the air.
Both sides were cursing, shoving, and hitting.
To prevent himself from getting caught in the crossfire, Lin Hui quickly stood up, abandoning his food, and retreated to a distance.
Chen Zhishen also dodged over, bringing the new girl he knew with him.
"It's Huang Shan. Someone pinched her backside!"
"Who's so bold? Huang Shan has high talent; the teachers are watching her, aren't they?" the girl beside him asked in a low voice.
"It's Chen Chong, that bastard. Quite a few pretty girls in the temple have been harassed by him. As for high talent... what use is talent against his Chen clan background? Even though he's a distant relative, that's still the Chen family," Chen Zhishen said, frowning.
After explaining, he quickly introduced the girl to Lin Hui.
The girl was named Lu Baihua. She came from a family of herb farmers. She looked delicate and pleasant, and though her body was a bit thin and weak, her personality suited Chen Zhishen's tastes well.
"Huang Shan might have to swallow this humiliation. However, the few boys beside her aren't of common origin either. To dare confront Chen Chong head-on, they must have some backing. Let's stay far away and not get mixed up in it," Chen Zhishen warned.
"That Chen Chong is so arrogant... do the temple teachers not care?" Lu Baihua couldn't help but ask.
"How can they care? Clear Wind Temple can't afford to offend the Chen family. There's no way," Chen Zhishen shook his head.
"But this time it's Huang Shan. If it were a girl with no talent or background... what would happen then?" Lu Baihua worried.
Chen Zhishen fell silent for a moment.
"Can only hide. Before, I heard a Senior Brother say that two years ago, two female students were harassed by Chen Chong. Later, they went home. And after that... one managed to hide, but the other... someone saw her near Chen Chong's house, raving mad, no longer looking human..."
The atmosphere instantly tightened.
Lin Hui clearly saw Lu Baihua's eyes tense up, her face turning pale.
Clearly, she was worried about herself.
"It's okay, don't worry. Just dress yourself a bit uglier and dirtier on normal days. Chen Chong won't set his eyes on you," Chen Zhishen comforted.
Lin Hui said nothing. He simply sighed, turned, and walked away.
Returning to the large communal sleeping quarters, lying on his own bunk, he silently focused his attention on the second move of the Seven-Section Swift Sword—Hundred Turns, Thousand Windings.
[Hundred Turns, Thousand Windings — Seven-Section Swift Sword Second Move. One of the basic sword moves. Contains eight Force Nodes. Upon reaching Great Accomplishment, it can accelerate the cultivation of the sixth move. Evolvable Branches: 1.]
[1 — Hundred Turns, Thousand Intents.]
[Evolve into Hundred Turns, Thousand Intents?]
[Required Resources: One wooden sword, sixty days of reserve energy.]
[Time Required: Sixty days.]
Selecting 'Yes', Lin Hui recalled the panic and worry in Chen Zhishen and Lu Baihua's expressions today, recalled that arrogant, long horse-face of Chen Chong...
'It seems, sometimes, just running fast isn't enough...'
Meeting someone like Chen Chong... even if Huang Shan ran away, she still had parents and family. There was simply no way out.