Chapter 55 Not Simple

  "It turned out to be the case!" Lin Feng reviewed the images in his mind again, combining the four words "unity of man and sword", and finally understood the essence of this starting gesture.

  The move in the Jade Annals, regardless of the angle from which it is initiated, actually treats people as part of the sword. Simply put, ordinary people's swords and Qi-refining cultivators' swords generally consist of a blade tip, blade body, guard, and hilt, with the blade tip and blade body being the main focus when facing an enemy, while the hilt belongs to the part used to control the sword; however, flying swords used by Foundation Establishment cultivators and above usually only have a blade tip and blade body, and many are even double-tipped like darts, without a guard or hilt, of course, there is no way to hold it with one's hand, relying on divine consciousness to control.

  However, the move of combining human and sword as one treats the person as the hilt regardless of whether there is a hilt or not. Whether using hands to grip or controlling with spiritual awareness, the human body is the hilt, the great rear of the entire sword. Any attack on the great rear of the sword body must break through the obstruction of the sword's edge formed by the sword tip and sword body, from which it can be known that humans must achieve a close coordination with the sword to make the person always in the direct rear of the direction of the sword's edge, this is also the essence of human-sword unity.

  Lin Feng understood the principle, and he also understood its difficulty. With a casual sword strike, the blade tip points directly at the enemy or the enemy's attack point, while the human body must be behind the blade tip, following the swing of the blade, the human body will also swing along, always staying behind the blade tip.

  It sounds simple, but it's not that easy. When facing an enemy, the opponent is always moving left and right, up and down, and if it's a flying sword, there are even more unexpected angles of attack. But no matter what, their goal is to avoid the blade and aim directly at the human body. In this high-speed movement, you and the blade must remain on the same line like two points on a straight line, moving forward and backward. It's easy to imagine how difficult that would be!

  Although it's difficult, once mastered, its defensive power is also amazing. Think about it, just like playing the game of eagle catching chickens, if the mother hen and the chicks are always in a straight line, then it's almost impossible for the eagle to catch the chicks. The struggle in the Xianxia world is far more complicated than this game, but as the defensive point of the mother hen, that is, the direction of the sword, is often the strongest place. If you encounter an opponent who is far stronger than yourself and directly breaks through this strongest point, then there's nothing to say, in the face of absolute strength, any defense is ineffective, and you are absolutely not your opponent's match; but if your opponent is only slightly better than you, yet not strong enough to break open this strongest point at once, then with this move, you are already in an unbeatable position. So, it can be said that the unity of man and sword is the strongest defense. With this understanding, even if it's difficult to practice, Lin Feng will not give up.

  He drew his sword, a very ordinary one, straight and forward, with the hilt and shoulder parallel, standing sideways, from the tip of the sword looking straight ahead, both he and the sword were on the same line. For Lin Feng, who had practiced for several years, this was still easy to do. He took another step forward, becoming a bow stance, also perfect, his whole body and sword like an open bow and arrow. But Lin Feng always felt that something was not quite right, he brought out the image in his mind and looked at it for half a day, finally understanding that he had already revealed a flaw in the process of changing.

  In the process of transitioning from a standing position to a bow stance, both the sword and the person's body are moving downward. Lin Feng also deliberately maintained the alignment of the person and the sword in a straight line, but the focal point was no longer at the tip of the sword. Because during this process, the entire sword is moving downward, which means that there is a downward cutting motion, and with this motion, the previous direction of the sword's edge, which was pointing towards the tip, has shifted to pointing towards the body of the sword. To be precise, for Lin Feng's three-foot-long sword, during this process, due to the angle of the sword, the strongest point of the sword's power had shifted to a location about two inches from the tip, and Lin Feng had clearly overlooked this subtle detail, neither spiritually nor in terms of his force, treating it as the true direction of the sword's edge.

  A difference of a single hair's breadth, a divergence of a thousand miles. The superior sword technique is often only slightly different from the ordinary one, but this is precisely where its superiority lies. Of course, this also makes it more difficult. At any time, the unity of man and sword requires that the direction of the sword tip and the movement of the body be as one, rather than merely emphasizing the consistency of each changing move at the beginning or end. It's not just a matter of keeping the body and sword in sync, but also requiring the spirit and strength to work together perfectly.

  The difficulty of practicing the sword has increased again, Lin Feng is not discouraged, but instead becomes more excited. From this, he can see that the Nine Heavens Divine Sword is extraordinary, and once it is practiced, it will surely shine brightly. The unity of man and sword requires high consistency in spirit, energy, and body, and the difficulty can be imagined.

  Those who are determined will succeed, and even the most difficult kung fu cannot stop a strong will. Lin Feng had already practiced the Xuanri Sword Technique and achieved some success, but at this time he resolutely abandoned his original technique and started practicing from the most basic sword moves again. Every time he stabbed out with his sword, whether it was the preparatory move or the finishing move, as well as the changing process, he required himself to reach the state of unity between man and sword.

  One sword after another, not only was the muscle tired, but also the spiritual consumption was huge, and he didn't know how many swords had been stabbed out. Even though his body became stronger than ordinary people due to the nourishment of the spiritual energy, Lin Feng soon felt that he had reached his limit, and at this time, he was still practicing the simplest basic sword technique of preparing and then stabbing out.

  His body and mind were exhausted, but Lin Feng's mood was excited. Although he had not yet reached the state of unity between man and sword, he had clearly grasped a little bit of the way. It was a realm where one could clearly perceive their own strength at any time, with both spirit and body in a state completely under control. Although he couldn't freely enter this state himself, he knew that he already stood at the door, and as long as he continued to practice, he would eventually be able to cross the threshold and reach the inner sanctum.

  His body finally couldn't hold on, Lin Feng had to temporarily stop practicing swordsmanship, swallowed a Qi-replenishing pill, and began to cultivate his Qi. The Daoist cultivation emphasizes the natural way of the Dao, although it goes against the heavens, it doesn't force its way through, so Lin Feng wouldn't easily learn Wu Xiu's way of pursuing the limits of the physical body, that doesn't conform to the spirit of Daoist cultivation. However, practicing swordsmanship and cultivating Qi don't conflict with each other, practicing swordsmanship consumes physical and mental energy, while cultivating Qi can recover physical and mental energy, the two complement each other, making Lin Feng's practice even faster.

  For several days, Lin Feng did not go out and hid in his residence to practice swordsmanship and cultivate his energy. Occasionally, when he had some free time, he would use his divine sense to weed the Panlong Ring and continuously plant the spiritual medicine sprouts sent by Liu Kai into the ring. This simple life of cultivation made Lin Feng feel as if he had returned to the good old days at the Yang family.

  The result of calming down and practicing was that Lin Feng felt his cultivation level increasing more quickly. Originally, when he left the Yang family, he was already very close to the fifth layer of the Qi Refining stage. Now, he could even more clearly feel that he had encountered the barrier of the fifth layer. At his current rate of practice, he believed it wouldn't be long before he broke through again. This made Lin Feng extremely happy and he practiced even more diligently.

  Liu Kai's business seems to be doing well, and he is becoming more spirited every day. Every time he comes to deliver Lingyuan or take Dan medicine, he talks non-stop about his latest big deal and how much money he made, followed by flattering words of gratitude. Although Lin Feng always laughs and scolds him to stop, Liu Kai's sincerity can still be felt. In his own words, the money he makes every day is now enough for his cultivation needs, and at this rate, he believes it won't take long for him to become a fourth-layer Qi Practitioner like Lin Feng.

  Lin Feng didn't tell him, perhaps he hadn't even reached the Qi Refining stage fifth layer yet, so as not to crush his enthusiasm. Although Lin Feng's five spiritual roots attribute made his cultivation speed much slower than others, now with one middle-grade Spirit Gathering Pill per day and the concentrated spirit energy in the array being four or five times higher than at the Yang family, he believed that his current cultivation speed was probably already comparable to Zhao Chun's previous cultivation speed.

  As for what kind of state Zhao Chun is in now, Lin Feng did not dare to make a rash judgment. With the strong financial resources of Qingyang Gate, it's possible that Zhao Chun can take upper and middle-grade pills every day now, which would make his cultivation speed even faster, and he might still not be able to compare with him at this time.

  Whenever Lin Feng thought of Zhao Chun, a faint smile would appear at the corner of his mouth. That seemingly silly fat guy was actually very cunning, and this was something that only Lin Feng understood clearly, because every time he played smart, he never hid it from himself. It was also unknown why, during the Yang family days, among the five senior brothers and sisters who were often together, this fat junior brother was closest to him, which even Zhou Lan, who liked him the most and took care of him, couldn't compare with. This made Zhou Lan furious and scolded him for being ungrateful. But after scolding, the little fatty had his own charm, and after scolding, everything would go back to normal.

  Thinking of the bits and pieces of his fellow disciples over the years, Lin Feng suddenly felt a suffocating sensation in his chest again. Dammit, was he going to go crazy again? Lin Feng quickly put down his worries, took deep breaths, and only then did the turbulent energy in his chest calm down.

  Recently, hasn't his cultivation been advancing too quickly? Why is it that every now and then, there's a phenomenon of losing control? In just a few days, Lin Feng has already had two instances of losing control. This immediately raised his high vigilance. In the Cultivation Realm, if one's cultivation advances too quickly while their realm can't keep up, they'll easily appear to have difficulty controlling their own strength. This kind of phenomenon is usually called "losing control". If it gets severe, one will fall into endless demonic tribulations, also known as falling into demonic cultivation. It's said that many demonic cultivators were originally cultivating the Dao, but after losing control and falling into demonic cultivation, they couldn't extricate themselves, and from then on fell into the demonic path, which is truly terrifying.

  But these examples generally occur in high-ranking cultivators, let alone Lin Feng, a Qi Refining stage cultivator. Even for Foundation Building stage cultivators, it's usually impossible to happen. So although Lin Feng was highly vigilant about his own walk fire phenomenon, he didn't have any feasible measures because apart from general handling methods, Yang's family's Shifu had never mentioned the reasons and countermeasures for Qi Refining stage cultivators' walk fire.

  There's no other way, after careful consideration, every time he lost control was because his emotions got the better of him. So now Lin Feng can only try to restrain himself from thinking about these things and focus on cultivating with a single mind.

  ;