One Strike
Mu Yu: I’ve never heard of heart transplants and doubt there’s been any precedent case before. I have zero experience. Xiaoshuai makes it sound easy, but I’m the one under duress. Am I going to be all right?
Xiaoshuai mentioned what Mu Yu had to pay attention to, impressing the latter with anatomy knowledge. Xiaoshuai told Mu Yu not to worry and to just proceed according to his directions, extracting plants’ life force to moisturise the artery he pointed to.
“Yu Die, do you still remember the first time we met?” asked Nameless Swordsman.
“Of course, silly. You won a contest, but you were so badly injured you passed out outside my warm. You scared me silly, hehe.”
“And you resuscitated me.” Nameless Swordsman caressed Yu Die’s face. As much as he didn’t want to leave her, he accepted separation if it meant saving her. He vowed, “I can’t let you die alone in the snow.”
Yu Die lied in Nameless Swordsman’s embrace with a satisfied expression. All she asked for was to leave peacefully in his arms.
“You and Shifu are the two nicest people to me in the world,” shared Nameless Swordsman.
“Now I’m curious about this shifu you’ve never mentioned.”
“There’s nothing worth mentioning, really. Meeting you was enough.”
“Promise me you’ll live on after I pass away. I know your biggest wish is to find a successor for your swordplay. I will aid you from above.”’
“Don’t be silly. Sleep.”
Yu Die obediently nodded and soon fell sound asleep in her sanctuary. Mu Yu felt sorry for her and hesitated to go ahead with the idea, unable to imagine her post-surgery reaction. From a cultivator’s perspective, Nameless Swordsman’s skill labelled him with more value than Yu Die. Mu Yu, on the contrary, argued one should have the right to choose who went and who stayed.
“Let’s begin,” declared Nameless Swordsman.
Nameless Swordsman set Yu Die gently on the ground and gave her one last kiss on her lips. He placed his sword he hadn’t drawn in years and stripped his shirt off.
Dawdling at first, Xiaoshuai instructed “Although it’s going to hurt, bear with it.”
Xiaoshuai extended forth a claw five centimetres long, a tool he had never revealed before to Mu Yu. Hovering in the air, he ran his hand along Nameless Swordsman’s chest and then vigorously cut open his chest.
“I finally found you, Nameless Swordsman.”
Xiaoshuai paused what he was doing and looked over to see a man, who embodied cultivation superior to Alchemist Yao, emerge. The man’s hair was down, eyes aggressive and hands clutching a sword. He whipped his sword and added, “I came here after hearing you headed this way.”
Nameless Swordsman got up. “Now is not a good time.”
“Shut up and fight me. I want to see what’s so amazing about you,” argued the man, laughing cockily. “Or are your stories just myths?”
“I don’t want to kill tonight. Leave. You still have time to live.”
It was another case of someone wanting to contend for Nameless Swordsman’s self-proclaimed greatest swordsman title – a title he claimed based on his undefeated status.
The man smugly replied, “A swordsman mad about swordplay fears death? Dying to another swordsman’s sword is the best burial I could ask for.”
“I don’t kill unknown swordsmen.”
“Sword Cleansing Valley’s Yuan Jian.”
“I’ve heard that name. You’re Sword Cleansing Valley’s Sword Deity’s successor. If I kill you, your sect will be less one prodigy.”
“And there won’t be a Nameless Swordsman anymore if I kill you.”
“You won’t kill me,” declared Nameless Swordsman, looking back at Yu Die.
“Neither will you kill me.”
Mu Yu stepped back. The clash between the swordsmen wasn’t a zone Mu Yu would be safe in. Nameless Swordsman flew off to take the fight elsewhere so that he wouldn’t cause Yu Die harm. He settled on a location and unsheathed his iron sword from the cloth. He declared. “It’ll be over in one strike.”
“Bold Words…I look forward to ramming them down your throat!”
Yuan Jian leapt up. Nameless Swordsman caressed his sword as if he was calming down his old comrade. Next, Nameless Swordsman switched to a piercing gaze and executed a straight thrust, shooting his sword from his hand. The motion appeared in slow motion. The trajectory was clear. There was nothing fancy about it, yet Yuan Jian’s looked at it as if it was his doom. From Yuan Jian’s perspective, swords had him surrounded and were closing in all at once.
“Th-that was Dustfallen Swordplay’s last technique, Regenesis, wasn’t it?” stuttered Mu Yu.
Mu Yu closed his eyes and imagined himself in Yuan Jian’s place. While he could defuse it with a different technique, he couldn’t find what was missing in order to do so. Mu Yu then climbed into Nameless Swordsman’s shoes. He could attack on all fronts. That said, he would need a more complex technique. The more complex a technique was, the easier it was to counter it. In combat, simplicity was the ultimate sophistication. He, unfortunately, couldn’t figure out how to execute Regenesis. He felt he was close to the crux of it, but he couldn’t determine what was missing.
Mu Yu summoned Shadow Splitter Sword to his hand and went through the motions of Dustfallen Swordplay. As he went through the movements, his mind calmed down. At long last, he realised the key to Dustfallen Swordplay’s nine techniques wasn’t the nine profound techniques but executing all nine simultaneously. In other words, the opponent would need to defend nine techniques. In reality, though, it was only one technique – Regenesis.
Mu Yu repeated the technique over and over. At one point, he thrust hard enough to make his sword spit out the wooden sword. Shadow Splitter Sword started vibrating, elated it finally had the chance to display its maximum potential. Dustfallen Swordplay was also called Celestial Sword Nine Guides. One strike could evolve into nine techniques. Nine techniques could evolve into one strike.
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