Chapter 8 Heaven-Slaying Sword Drawing Technique

With a thought, Chen Mu activated his mind.

A status panel surfaced before his eyes.

[Chen Mu: Seventeen years old. Remaining Lifespan: One year. (Plundered Lifespan): One hundred and fifty-four years]

[Mastered Martial Arts: Broadsword Technique (Minor Achievement)! Taibao Horizontal Training (Perfection)! Sword Drawing Technique (Perfection)!]

[You may inject Lifespan into martial arts to enhance your martial attainment!]

[Note: Injection is not possible when Lifespan is less than one year!]

[Note: Plundered Lifespan cannot be converted into personal Lifespan; it can only be infused into martial arts!]

One hundred and fifty-four years.

Chen Mu's gaze fell upon 'Broadsword Technique'.

Minor Achievement.

This was simply too weak!

If the Foundation is unstable, the mountains and earth will shake.

Now that he had plundered Lifespan in hand, he naturally had to make the most of it!

"Inject Lifespan, upgrade Broadsword Technique!"

[Infusing...]

[One year has passed. You have swung your blade a hundred thousand times. Sweat has soaked your clothes. You have finally touched the threshold of the Broadsword Technique. Entry Level!]

[Three years have passed. The blade never leaves your hand; you even practice saber Moves in your dreams. Your blade becomes faster and steadier. Broadsword Technique: Minor Achievement!]

[Seven years have passed. You begin to grow dissatisfied with fixed Moves and attempt to integrate cleaving, hacking, parrying, and stabbing, executing them at will. Broadsword Technique: Major Achievement!]

[Ten years have passed. You no longer need to memorize any saber Moves. Returning to simplicity, all paths become one. Your blade consists of the simplest cleaves and hacks, yet it is the ultimate form of slaughter! Broadsword Technique: Perfection Realm!]

It only took ten years!

Chen Mu opened his eyes.

He didn't Move, nor did he reach for the broadsword in the corner.

Yet he felt a newfound intimacy between himself and the blade.

However, before he could savor it further...

Text continued to emerge.

[The saber is the commander of a hundred weapons; its momentum is majestic and unstoppable.]

[The sword is the gentleman of a hundred weapons; its intent is light and agile, seeking a one-hit kill.]

[Saber drawing techniques take from its dominance. Sword Drawing Techniques take from its speed.]

[The Origin of both lies in the instant of drawing, pursuing an extreme burst of power.]

Chen Mu's heart began to throb uncontrollably.

The System would not display this for no reason.

Sword and saber.

If the two were fused, using a saber to execute the speed of a sword draw...

What kind of scene would that be?

With one strike, blood would spray; the enemy wouldn't even have time to react before being decapitated.

"Inject Lifespan, upgrade Broadsword Technique!"

[Infusing...]

[The first year: You attempt to perform saber drawing methods using a sword drawing stance. The blade is too wide, and its curvature differs from a sword, causing immense resistance when unsheathing. You forcefully exert power several times, tearing your thumb web and snapping the meridians in your arm. Failure.]

[The fifth year: You suddenly realize—why must there be a sheath? You abandon the idea of a physical scabbard and instead research how to make your body the sheath in any posture, letting the contraction and burst of muscles assist the draw. You observe the moment a tiger pounces down a mountain and a hawk dives for a rabbit, comprehending the importance of 'momentum'.]

[The thirteenth year: You integrate the internal energy burst methods from the Perfection Realm of the Sword Drawing Technique into every swing of the blade. The blade edge pierces the air, producing a sharp whistle, possessing thirty percent of a sword draw's swiftness. But the saber momentum remains scattered; the dominance of the saber and the speed of the sword are like fire and water, unable to truly coexist.]

[The twenty-seventh year: You fall into a long Bottleneck. Day after day, you stand beneath a roaring waterfall, striking only once, attempting to sever the ceaseless flow. You strike ten million times, yet the waterfall remains. Doubt grows in your heart: can power and speed truly not be reconciled? Is this path a dead end?]

[...]

[The thirty-ninth year: On a stormy night of thunder and lightning, you stand alone on a mountain peak, feeling the pressure of heaven and earth. A pale bolt of lightning tears through the heavy clouds without warning, piercing the pitch-black sky and earth. Your whole body trembles as you experience an Epiphany. You were wrong! Utterly wrong! Why try to sever it? Why be constrained by form? The lightning didn't 'cut' the sky; it used extreme speed and power to pierce through every obstacle between heaven and earth! Your blade should be the same!]

[...]

[The fiftieth year: You have deduced this in your mind hundreds of millions of times, finally fusing all insights into one. You open your eyes amidst Chaos and deliver a world-shaking strike. There is no blade light, no sound of the blade, only a silent black line of annihilation. You name this Move to commemorate the grace of the lightning-night Epiphany and to manifest your ambition to shatter the heavens.]

[Infusion successful! Congratulations to the host for creating a brand-new martial art: Heaven-Slaying Sword Drawing Technique!]

Heaven-Slaying Sword Drawing Technique.

Just its initial creation had cost him a full fifty years of Lifespan.

"Inject Lifespan, upgrade Heaven-Slaying Sword Drawing Technique!"

What he wanted was never just a mere glimpse of the threshold.

Either don't do it at all, or do it to the extreme!

[Infusing...]

[The twenty-second year: You travel across mountains and great rivers, using the Heaven-Slaying Sword Drawing Technique to slash the wind, the waves, and the drifting clouds. You find that while the power is immense, its traces are too heavy. That black line of annihilation is a leakage of your Saber Intent, a waste of power. You begin to restrain your Saber Intent, pursuing ultimate internal collection.]

[The thirty-seventh year: You discard the physical blade and sit cross-legged atop a lonely peak. You visualize a blade of the mind, practicing the draw within your Divine Soul. Initially, the mind-blade is sluggish and the intent is blocked. You spend ten years and finally make the mind-blade Move with your thoughts—formless and substance-less. As soon as a thought arises, the blade has already struck.]

[...]

[The ninetieth year: You begin attempting to sever concepts. You strike at your own shadow, but the shadow remains unmoved. You strike at the light in the Void Realm, but the light remains the same. You realize that your blade cuts the tangible, not the intangible. Your intent has not yet truly touched the Origin of all things.]

[...]

[The one-hundredth year: You deliver one final strike in the Void Realm. Before the blade is drawn, the intent has arrived. In your eyes, all things in existence can be cleaved in two with a single strike.]

[Infusion successful! Heaven-Slaying Sword Drawing Technique: Perfection Realm!]

Chen Mu opened his eyes.

The sounds of the entire world became clear.

He could hear mice gnawing on wood.

He could hear a street vendor yawning three blocks away outside the window.

In this moment, his six senses were infinitely heightened and sharpened!

"Ugh..."

Chen Mu let out a muffled groan, feeling as if every bone in his body was itching.

Black sludge began to seep from the surface of his skin.

The sludge increased, emitting an odor and soaking through his clothes.

Marrow Cleansing!

This was the hallmark of a Martial Artist shedding their mortal coil and stepping into the Dao Entry Realm!

With a thought from Chen Mu, the panel appeared once more.

[Chen Mu: Seventeen years old. Remaining Lifespan: Eleven years. (Plundered Lifespan): Four years]

[Mastered Martial Arts: Broadsword Technique (Perfection)! Taibao Horizontal Training (Perfection)! Sword Drawing Technique (Perfection)! Heaven-Slaying Sword Drawing Technique (Perfection)!]

[You may inject Lifespan into martial arts to enhance your martial attainment!]

[Note: Injection is not possible when Lifespan is less than one year!]

[Note: Plundered Lifespan cannot be converted into personal Lifespan; it can only be infused into martial arts!]

As expected!

The 'Remaining Lifespan' column was no longer the previous one year, but eleven years!

Chen Mu was immediately overjoyed.

As long as he could continue to grow stronger and keep achieving Breakthroughs, his Lifespan would only increase!

This was the true path to survival!