Chapter Ninety-Five: The Threefold Curtain of Swords

"Xiao Nan, that Senior Brother Jiang doesn’t seem like a good person. He looks like he’s targeting you. Maybe you shouldn’t go up there."

Zhang Xiaorou stood nearby, a little worried.

"Senior, please don’t go up. That ugly senior brother will hurt you."

"Go on, then. Who’s afraid of who? Xiao Nan, your swordplay is the best. You’ll definitely beat him."

A few girls’ chattering voices rang in his ears.

So they were offering advice too, was that it? Xiao Nan took them for that.

Some were trying to persuade him to avoid the challenge altogether, truly worried he would only be hurt if he went up.

Others, fired by enthusiasm, waved their small arms with faces full of excitement, urging Xiao Nan to go up and defeat Jiang Lin.

All right, these should be the newly acquired fans.

A little too confident in him.

...

That day during the school’s martial arts test, Xiao Nan had beaten Lin Hao into grave injury on the spot, leaving him disgraced.

Those who had joined Zhang Xiaorou’s cheering squad and seen the senior they supported win so brilliantly had naturally felt quite proud as well.

Especially now, after meeting again and seeing Xiao Nan’s sword dance just moments ago, they were so entranced and intoxicated that they had become even less inclined to think.

As for Senior Jiang’s challenge at the sword hall?

An elite student, what of it? How could he compare to even a single hair on our senior’s head?

Xiao Nan shook his head with a smile, knowing that once again, it was this face of his causing trouble.

By common logic, after he had deciphered the physical constitution of the bear-men, even if he did not turn into a muscle-bound brute, he should at least have become bright and commanding, with a well-proportioned build.

In reality, that had not happened.

No one knew what principles lay behind that kind of transformation.

In any case, even after Xiao Nan replenished his nutrition and strengthened his vital blood, his build still had not changed in the slightest.

He remained sharp-shouldered, narrow-waisted, tall and slender.

Added to that were his delicate fingers and long brows with phoenix-shaped eyes.

When he got up in the morning and looked in the mirror, Xiao Nan would stare a minute longer than he ought to, and never feel the least bit tired of it.

He even suspected that if he looked too long, he might fall in love with himself.

With such a face and figure, Xiao Nan sometimes felt helpless; wherever he went, he drew admirers like moths to flame.

Fortunately, though he looked like this, strangely enough, there was not the slightest hint of delicacy or effeminacy about him.

That too was why Xiao Nan did not trouble himself too much over it.

"Don’t worry, everyone. It’s only a spar, not a duel. How could anyone get hurt? Besides, he may not even be my match."

Xiao Nan was telling the truth.

Jiang Lin, who had been standing on the platform waiting for so long, was already so angry that the veins at his temples were jumping.

Just moments ago he had felt the malice of this world and suffered a truly heartfelt blow from the girls. He was already beyond furious. Now, hearing Xiao Nan dawdle there and still refuse to come up, and even hearing him speak such arrogant words, how could he bear it any longer?

He almost threw his head back and roared in rage. But then he remembered that this was a sword hall, and that today he was, in a sense, acting as an assistant instructor; naturally, he could not be so willful.

He could only force a smile and say, "Please come up, Student Xiao. Good swordsmanship needs an opponent."

Inside, he was saying: handsome, are you? Let me see how I smash that pretty face of yours into a pig’s head.

Such naked malice was obvious to Xiao Nan.

That was exactly the effect he wanted.

Why provoke this so-called chief elite student?

Simple enough: because this fellow had just shown a hand, and it was exactly the thing Xiao Nan needed.

Whether the other man was targeting him or not, he was only a student of a sword hall; Xiao Nan truly did not care.

To him, the scene before his eyes was nothing more than children playing house.

They had no grudges, no enmity; it was merely that this elite student found him unpleasant to look at.

Narrow-minded, and limited in achievement.

Xiao Nan gave that judgment inwardly, but did not forget why he had come to the sword hall.

"I’m here to learn swordsmanship."

The three spring swords of the Four Seasons Sword were good, very good, but in the end they still could not escape the flaw of being weak in offense.

He had originally hoped that today he might learn the subsequent summer sword techniques here at the sword hall, to make up for his shortfall in attack.

It now seemed that this was not to be.

However, unexpectedly, from elite student Jiang Lin he had instead seen a glimmer of hope.

The true meaning of swordsmanship was something felt, not something outwardly visible.

Generally speaking, the higher one’s spiritual realm and the keener one’s mind, the more deeply one could comprehend that intent.

The five sword blossoms Jiang Lin released were dazzling and abundant to the eye.

In truth, to Xiao Nan, he was using nothing of the true essence of spring.

Within those five sword blossoms, each strike moved like thunder and lightning, secretly containing a force of explosive eruption.

"If I’m not mistaken, that should be the force method of the summer thunder sword. He’s cheating."

Cheating was good. Better still if he were forced to the limit and used the complete furious thunder sword form.

Xiao Nan had tested the projection function of the bronze mirror space before. In there, if an opponent did not use certain moves, he simply could not see them, let alone learn them.

Just like Tang Zhixuan at school that day: when she used the move called Wave-Moon Cleave, he could only see that one move and nothing of her other skills.

Unfortunately, Wave-Moon Cleave was a force technique that could only be used once one’s vital blood had reached a certain level.

He had not yet reached that realm, so he could neither learn it nor use it.

But Jiang Lin before him was different. Though his skin was fine and lustrous, the pores on it were still faintly visible.

In other words, he was a martial artist whose flesh and blood had not yet fully closed the gate, and had not reached the pinnacle of first-rank martial cultivation.

Judging by his outward appearance, at most he was at the middle stage of first rank. Any skill used at such a level, so long as he dared to use it, Xiao Nan could learn in full afterward.

...

The two faced each other, swords in hand, silver-white practice blades angled toward the ground.

This was the opening stance of the spring sword style.

No one bothered reading out any empty rules about not injuring one another.

Instructor Yang had prepared long ago.

He had not noticed anything amiss in Jiang Lin’s mood, and was only treating this sword exchange as a teaching spar, preparing to explain it as they went.

He was responsible for all the students, after all.

He would point out its brilliance and also teach the students what mistakes must not be made.

"Student Xiao, draw your sword. You may use Green Thread Coil and Slanting Rain, or the Blossom-Fading move you just learned."

Jiang Lin extended his hand with elegant courtesy.

"Then I’ll use Blossom-Fading," Xiao Nan said with a smile.

Only after he grasped the true essence of this move did he understand that the original sword intent had, in fact, been rather elementary.

When the three spring sword intents merged, the mood became even more subtle, yet in truth its power was more than ten times greater.

Only, this true intent transformed into the intent of nature, hidden within the vital energy surrounding him.

Without spiritual power reaching a very, very high level, one simply could not perceive it or make it out.

It could be called returning to simplicity after refinement; it could be called so exquisitely subtle that no trace remained.

When used in swordplay, not only did it feel pleasant to him, it was also delightful for others to watch.

Plainly speaking, it was beautiful.

And yet no one could quite say why it was beautiful.

Perhaps that was the very reason the three spring swords of the Four Seasons Sword were so often criticized.

"Please enlighten me, Senior Jiang."

Xiao Nan’s sword light moved neither fast nor slow. A blossom formed, and halfway through the thrust it trembled uncertainly...

As though battered by wind and rain, it swayed and then became three white flowers, pointing straight toward Jiang Lin’s chest and abdomen.

"The sword momentum is weak, seeking only form and not spirit..."

The moment Xiao Nan drew his sword, Jiang Lin began to speak, his pace quick and urgent.

As the sword momentum advanced slowly, he had already poured out a torrent of words.

He had been holding it in for far too long.

At the same time, the longsword in his hand moved, stabbing out five sword blossoms before him, the sword ringing with a low buzz.

...

This elite student was far too excited; he had actually snatched even Instructor Yang’s work.

The real instructor was still standing at the side, about to open his mouth and explain, and had not even managed to get out a single word yet.

"Is that so?" Xiao Nan’s smile remained unchanged. Though those three sword blossoms seemed slow and weak, there was a secret hidden in their momentum.

Threads and strands of vital energy were drawn by that sword.

Invisible wind, soundless rain, winding and weaving through the surroundings...

On an unseen level, the sword edge stirred vortexes and eddies.

Though the surface seemed calm, hidden currents raged beneath.

Within a radius of three meters around him, several thin layers of sword curtains had formed.

A curtain of wind, a curtain of rain, and three layers of blossoms.

After the true meaning of the three spring swords changed, their ability to attack enemies had still seen little improvement, but something of this sort had emerged instead.

Xiao Nan was astonished, and since he did not know whether it was truly useful, he brought it out to give it a try.