Chapter 81: Swordsmanship (5)

Chapter 81: Swordsmanship (5)

Lan Xiaohuis extreme training regiment gives her no time to rest. Every four to eight hours, she has a sparring session with Lady Yue who peels off the layers of her strengths only to leave her weaknesses blatantly on display.

After this sparring session, Lan Xiaohui meditates under Lady Yues Sword Domain, timing her breaths to the rotating cycles of her spinning crescent while simultaneously getting torn to shreds in the Inner World Sphere time and time again.Ñ00v€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Even though Lan Xiaohui can only spend twenty to forty minutes at a time inside the Inner World Sphere, I begin to observe a strange effect training within this space has on Lan Xiaohui.

Perhaps it is exactly because of the time dilation that her mind in the real world is able to process and digest each event that happens inside the Inner World twelve times over or perhaps even more. Every second she spends in that world, her mind is also experiencing for twelve seconds.

For every ten minutes Lan Xiaohui spends fighting inside the Inner World Sphere, it appears as if it has the effect of Lan Xiaohui practicing two or more hours in the real world. The exact number is difficult to judge because this training is so hyper-focused.

For example, during the one-hour sparring session Lan Xiaohui has with Lady Yue, a significant part of that training is dedicated to preparations, such as positioning, talking, and, in general, things that are not particularly useful to improving Lan Xiaohuis swordsmanship.

But in the Inner World Sphere, every moment she experiences in combat is useful to her, and this effect is amplified.

This also avoids the issue of learning fatigue, where the mind is simply less able to absorb the lessons after too much training which is also likely why Lady Yue spaces out her sparring sessions in the way that she does.

Finally, with the advancement of her Emptiness Prana method, Lan Xiaohui is able to withstand the mental shock of agony better and the breathing method also improves her focus, further improving her learning rate.

After an entire month of this extreme training regime, Lan Xiaohui is finally able to force Lady Yue to move her dominant foot when she attacks during the spars. It is an achievement that Lady Yue does not immediately recognize or praise.

Three days later, while sitting in the crystal clear basin that seems to contain a powerful lightning Qi after absorbing it during our tribulation Lady Yue remarks with a warm tone as Lan Xiaohuis recovery period is approaching its end and the sparring session is about to begin: Your improvement is tremendous. It is difficult to come to terms that someone like you exists.

Lan Xiaohui, who decided to forgo training in the Inner World Sphere this time, was luckily well aware of Lady Yue and could reply in a shy manner. I am sure that Lady Yue is just offering praise.

Lan Xiaohuis lower lip trembles and it takes a great deal of effort to steady her tone. Everyone I have met in recent years has betrayed me, degraded me, or tried to kill me, she says. Yet you gave me expensive medicine, cultivation techniques, showed me your Domain, and helped me become a better version of myself. And you havent asked for anything in return. Not even my name. I cant express

Here, her voice breaks and the tears rush down her cheeks faster than she can wipe them off with the back of her hand. When Lan Xiaohui speaks these words, Lady Yue is not the only entity in her mind.

Lady Yue moves over to Lan Xiaohuis side and cradles my owners head in her arms and towards her bosom. Gently, the older woman strokes Lan Xiaohuis hair who, perhaps for the first time in many months, allows herself to feel the great magnitude of bitterness and regret that her past has sowed in her heart.

She cries like a helpless infant. The image of the proud, daring, and arrogant swordswoman shatters in an instant, replaced by something that is far more human and ordinary in itself, that act alone makes her seem all the more extraordinary.

Lady Yue does not say anything, but it takes me but one look at her smile to understand her true motivations and the true reasons why she is helping Lan Xiaohui.

The path of the sword is lonely.

I have never understood such a thing as loneliness not even my dysfunctional sentient core could teach me the concept. Sometimes, I miss Wukong but only because the lack of firepower is inconvenient to my existence. If Wukong were still around, where would I be now? What heights would I attain?

Would my path cross with Lan Xiaohuis? Would Lan Xiaohui die in this forest without me?

Would I regret it?

Before my Qi deviates further due to these questions, I silence the wayward processes of my sentient core.

I know I wouldn't regret it.

I am a sword.