Chapter 51: One Move of Swordsmanship

  Business is just a path, once decided, Liu Kai will operate it himself, whether it's profitable or not, Lin Feng won't worry about it anymore. The two of them raised their glasses to celebrate and the banquet lasted until late at night before dispersing. On the second day, early in the morning, Lin Feng arrived at Baibao Hall again, today he wanted to buy some swordsmanship manuals and talismans, the pressure from Qian Dele was still great, and the Xuri Sword Art he learned from the Yang family could only be considered basic sword art, not exquisite.

  Originally, the requirements for swordsmanship during the Qi Refining stage were not high. By the time one could control flying swords, ordinary sword techniques would be difficult to adapt to the fighting style of flying swords. Therefore, most Qi Refining cultivators only began practicing more suitable sword techniques when they gained control over their swords, and did not pay much attention to ordinary sword techniques, merely using them as a means to practice footwork and body movement.

  But Lin Feng now had to intensify his sword practice, facing the dangers that could arise at any time, having more guarantees was always good, and the Xuan Day Sword Technique obviously couldn't meet his current needs.

  Baibao Hall seems to always be crowded with people, Lin Feng arrived early today but the place is still packed. Fortunately, the counters selling cultivation methods, spells and sword techniques are not as crowded as those selling elixirs, talismans and other items, which makes sense since these things are not daily necessities, no cultivator would change their cultivation method every few days or master a new spell or sword technique in just a few days, so naturally there aren't many people coming to buy them.

  "May I ask, fellow Taoist, are you here to observe the Quan Fa or the Jian Fa?" The one serving was a pretty female cultivator with a cultivation base of six layers in the Lian Qi period. She had probably discerned that Lin Feng's cultivation level made it unlikely for him to practice magic, so she directly ignored him.

  "I'd like to see the secret manual of swordsmanship." Lin Feng replied casually.

  The female cultivator smiled and nodded, turning to take out a dozen or so jade slips. Afraid that Lin Feng wouldn't understand, she especially reminded him: "Put your mind into it, there's a detailed introduction inside." Jade slips were a tool used in the cultivation world to store information, most of which were written by cultivators using their divine sense to carve words onto the jade slips, and some even had images or dynamic pictures. When reading them, one would put their mind into it and be able to retrieve the information. Of course, some cultivators would set up spiritual barriers or restrictions on the surface for confidentiality reasons, making it harder to read.

  The jade slip of Baibao Hall can be seen directly, but it is not possible to read the specific skills further. Lin Feng nodded and took out a jade slip, putting his heart into it and looking at it seriously.

  This sword technique is called Light Wind Sword Technique. The technique emphasizes body movement and footwork, using softness to overcome hardness, making it suitable for women to practice. Lin Feng directly gave up on it.

  He picked up another one, called the Thunderbolt Sword Technique. The sword technique still emphasized footwork, with swift and fierce movements, but didn't pay much attention to self-defense, a way of fighting that disregarded one's own life. Lin Feng quietly compared it to the Dawn Sword Technique in his mind, finding its power was slightly greater, but not by much. However, that reckless style of fighting wasn't suitable for him either, so he also gave up on it.

  He then asked, "Are there any others? I want a sword technique that has a bit more power and is good for both offense and defense."

  In fact, this swordsmanship suitable for martial artists is almost the same in the eyes of cultivators. Baibao Hall only equipped some because someone had a demand, and didn't deliberately collect them, so having this many is already quite good.

  The female cultivator seemed to be accustomed to this situation and still smiled as she said, "Wu Xiu's swordsmanship is probably only useful for us cultivators until the Qi Refining stage. It's not very practical and isn't used often. Fellow Daoist can choose a similar one to use for now, and when you reach the Foundation Building stage later, you can learn the flying sword techniques, wouldn't that be better?"

  Lin Feng's mouth twitched, but the bitterness in his heart couldn't be expressed to the female cultivator. Normally, this choice would be fine, but his current situation didn't allow him to casually choose a set of sword techniques.

  The woman was an old hand at business, and just by looking at Lin Feng's appearance, she knew that this business would probably go bankrupt. Her specialty counter didn't look like other counters, every day there were many people, but not even one customer came to buy, so she said: "If you must choose a set of powerful sword moves, I have one here, but this set of sword moves only has one move."

  "One move!" Lin Feng exclaimed in surprise. He had heard that the simplest sword techniques should have at least three to five moves, but he had never heard of a sword technique with only one move.

  "It's not that this sword technique only has one move, the sword technique itself has nine moves, but we only have one move here." Seeing Lin Feng's uninterested expression, the female cultivator hastily explained: "Although it's only one move, it's said to be incredibly powerful, at least for Qi Refining stage cultivators. This sword technique is actually a flying sword technique, it's just that Qi Refining stage cultivators can also use it."

  "Can a cultivator in the Refining Qi stage also use the Flying Sword technique?" Lin Feng's interest was suddenly piqued, and upon receiving the female cultivator's affirmative nod, he hastily said: "Let me take a look."

  The woman turned around and took out an ancient jade slip, Lin Feng released his mind to take a look, only to see that there was a line of words engraved inside: Nine Heavens Mysterious Sword, one sword, one heavy heaven, first move, human sword unity, main defense. Just a few simple sentences, but Lin Feng could feel that there should be something deeper inside, but his own divine sense couldn't break through that barrier.

  The female cultivator apparently saw through Lin Feng's thoughts and said, "This jade slip is somewhat special. The original divine sense barrier set inside can be broken through by a Qi Refining stage cultivator, but after breaking through, this jade slip will completely disintegrate. Therefore, our Treasure Pavilion has set up an additional safety barrier on it. If you decide to buy it, I'll remove that barrier."

  Lin Feng was somewhat stunned. He had only seen a dozen or so words, but this sword technique had no special features, strengths or weaknesses, and there were no hints at all, making it impossible to judge its power, how could he decide?

  The woman seemed a bit embarrassed, but she quickly regained her professional smile and said: "This thing was obtained with great difficulty by a master of the foundation period in our sect from a secret realm. According to his inference, this should be a sword technique of some sword cultivator. The meaning of 'one sword, one heavy sky' may correspond to the nine stages of the cultivation world, with each stage representing one style."

  Lin Feng's head suddenly swelled up again, another master, secret realm, these terms, he had heard them so many times at the street market yesterday that his ears were numb, and he didn't expect to hear them in a big market like Baibao Hall. Ignoring the female cultivator's boasting, Lin Feng casually asked: "How much spiritual stone does this cost?"

  Lin Feng didn't care about those masters or the secrets of the mystic realm. What he cared about was what the female cultivator said: this was a flying sword technique that could be learned by Qi Refining stage cultivators, and although it was only used for defense, since it was a flying sword technique, it shouldn't be bad.

  "One thousand two hundred low-grade spirit stones."

  The woman's voice sounded obviously lacking in confidence, and Lin Feng also went from casually fiddling with the jade slip to being as still as a stone statue.

  "How much?" Lin Feng thought he had misheard. To buy any of the dozen or so sword techniques from earlier, the cost would never exceed 100 spirit stones. Yet this sword technique, which only had one move and no other information apart from its name, was asking for 1200 spirit stones right off the bat. Did they think spirit stones were rocks that could be found anywhere?

  Looking at Lin Feng's obviously displeased face, the female cultivator, though unafraid, felt a bit apologetic and accompanied her words with a smile: "This jade slip is actually something we're selling on consignment, the price was set by the owner himself. He said that even if you don't learn this sword technique, just taking a look at the quality of the jade itself is worth it - it's an exceptionally good piece of jade. Think about it, would an ordinary sword technique be worthy of using such fine jade?"

  Lin Feng also thought it made some sense, as the Xian Tian Territory often used jade stones. Being able to distinguish between good and bad jade was a basic ability. Ordinary jade stones were usually used to make jade bottles, boxes, or vases to hold spiritual pills, medicines, minerals, or liquids, preventing the leakage of spiritual energy. Better quality jade could be made into pendants with engraved arrays for protection, or into jade slips for storing information. Even better jade could be made into jade talismans or array disks, requiring even higher standards. Of course, there were even more superior types, but they had special uses that Lin Feng couldn't understand yet.

  The quality of the jade used to make this jade slip is obviously good enough to be made into a jade pendant or an engraved disc, and now it's being used to make a jade slip, which suggests that what's inside is not ordinary, and this may also be one of the reasons why the owner thinks it's valuable.

  Of course, Lin Feng wouldn't spend over a thousand spirit stones to buy this sword technique, but when it came to jade quality, Lin Feng immediately thought of the precious jade in his body, and he split his mind to use the precious jade to investigate.

  "Huh? It's actually emitting heat, although it can't compare to the Panlong Ring, but it's also hotter than ordinary second-grade spiritual grass. What's going on?" Lin Feng used the jade slip to investigate and found that it could make the jade emit heat, indicating that this thing was not ordinary either. Jade is generally not imbued with spiritual energy and doesn't easily absorb spiritual energy, otherwise it wouldn't be used as a tool for storing spiritual materials and treasures.

  Lin Feng thought for a moment and finally decided that the thing sealed in the jade slip contained spiritual energy, which was detected by Bao Yu. To be sure, he picked up several more jade slips to test again, and indeed, Bao Yu had no reaction to these jade slips.

  "Even if the jade quality of this jade slip is a bit better, isn't 1,200 spirit stones too expensive?" Lin Feng had already decided that there was something good in the jade slip, and for the sake of being able to practice flying swords in the Refining Qi stage, he also decided to buy it.

  "One thousand one hundred and fifty spirit stones, this is the lowest price." The female cultivator originally didn't think much of this deal. Firstly, Lin Feng's offer was too low, and it was uncertain whether he could even afford over a thousand spirit stones. Secondly, it was a set of sword techniques with only one move, without any detailed introduction, making it hard for people to be convinced, which was why it had been left here for several years. But as soon as Lin Feng started haggling, she immediately entered her professional role.

  One thousand.

  "One cent less and I won't be able to account for it!"

  The woman's voice was filled with emotions and her appearance was captivating, but Lin Feng remained unmoved and replied expressionlessly: "One thousand."

  The woman said discontentedly: "How can I have reduced so much and you haven't added a single bit?"

  "Do you think I look like a rich man? One thousand, and no more, or I won't be able to afford it." Lin Feng's face was bitter, but his expression was very determined.

  "A thousand is just a thousand, I've never seen a young man like you, more refined than those seniors in the foundation period." The female cultivator was around twenty years old, while Lin Feng was only fifteen, and it wasn't wrong to call him a young man.

  "In the foundation-building period, seniors have money, and a few hundred spirit stones are nothing to them. I'm just a small cultivator in the Qi-refining stage, how can I compare with them? Oh, there's another problem, I only have over 700 spirit stones on me now, can you...?" Lin Feng searched around and realized that he had only been in Yaoguang City for two or three days, and his original over 1,000 spirit stones were now less than 800.

  The woman's face suddenly turned ugly, her counter was originally short of people, and she had finally managed to get a customer after much effort. She had made this sale with great care, but in the end, Lin Feng said that the money was not enough. Even with good breeding, it was unlikely that she would still have a good face at this time, so she didn't wait for Lin Feng to finish speaking and interrupted him with a loud cry: "Impossible!"

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