```
He exerted all his strength to squeeze the inner qi throughout his body, his hands wielding the blade as if it were both light and heavy, and he struck forth with all his might.
In an instant, a three to four zhang-long ferocious blade qi surged forth, as if it were an actual object heavily chopping onto the vast surface of the river.
"Boom."
A deafening explosion sounded, and two waves like walls of water shot up into the sky, drenching the strongmen on the boat who couldn’t get out of the way, chilling them to the bone.
And on the riverbank, Fang Ke and the others, from their perspective, even saw the scene where the rapidly flowing river momentarily stopped, revealing the dark and gloomy riverbed sediment—a miraculous sight!
Although that scene only lasted for an extremely brief moment, perhaps less than a flick of a finger’s time...
But however brief, that was still a draw of the sword that stopped the flow!
This sight directly dumbfounded them!
This strike...
They couldn’t comprehend it, couldn’t understand it at all!
Once upon a time, they were all just skilled hands who could only use inner strength to hurt others with their fists and weapons.
How come it seemed like in the blink of an eye, you’ve soared high into the skies?
Could it be that not just a year has passed...
But many years instead?
Fang Ke and the others doubted their life choices.
Meanwhile, Yang Ge was still dissatisfied with the power of that very slash he had just performed.
He always felt that the breath he had in his chest should not have manifested in just that way alone...
But that very strike had already exhausted all his strength, and he couldn’t even use his Chaotic Wind Leg technique to lighten his body.
"Plop."
Yang Ge heavily crashed into the river water, taking several gulps of river water without managing to maintain a face-up floating position.
This scene gave the strongmen looking over the ship’s rail a huge fright.
"Oh no, the lord is drowning!"
Someone shouted out loud, and a group of strongmen, untying the ox-tailed knives at their waists, leaped into the river like dumplings, clumsily helping the still gulping water Yang Ge.
...
"No, this isn’t right, something is still missing!"
Back on the deck of the boat, Yang Ge was sitting at the bow wrapped in a blanket brought by his men, still pondering the intricacies of that very slash.
The power of that very slash... extremely strong!
It was much stronger than his current most powerful move—The 17th Form of Lingshuang Blade: Arrogant Snow and Frost.
This was perhaps a needless statement.
No matter how strong the Lingshuang Blade was, it was someone else’s technique. To bring out its greatest power, he must spend a lot of time, energy, and understanding to increase the skill proficiency.
Whereas that very slash was something he had comprehended on his own, already levelled up to the max with initial use. Even if the upper limit of that slash was not as high as Arrogant Snow and Frost, the sheer suppression of skill level alone allowed it to wield more destructive power than Arrogant Snow and Frost.
Besides, that very slash, although just beginning to take shape, held... an immensely high ambition!
Of course, what Yang Ge valued most in that slash was not its power.
But rather its efficacy in opening doors.
Yes, he saw that slash as a key, a key that could help him unlock the door to the third floor of blade technique.
Thereby... achieving mastery!
...
Yang Ge had been practising the blade for over a year now.
In this time, he practiced swinging the blade three thousand times a day without fail and had repeatedly crossed blades with many skilled fighters and experts, accumulating some of his own insights and understandings.
Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.
He believed that the first level of blade technique is strength.
That refers to beginners who wield a blade using brute force to hack and slash, without technique or method. Saying they are using a blade is a misnomer; switching the blade with an axe or a hammer would not make any difference... hence the first level is strength.
As for the second level of blade technique, Yang Ge believed it to be skill.
From the basic blade moves like sweeping, chopping, parrying, shaving, skimming, restraining, slashing, and piercing, to moves like ’Sweeping Thousands of Troops’ and ’Night Battle in All Directions’—these are the techniques of blade tactics.
As to the third level of blade technique, Yang Ge felt... it should be intention.
Using one’s own will to command the long blade, unleashing power that surpasses the blade itself!
If the first two levels are about the blade teaching the user how to wield it better.
Then at the third level, it is about the user imbuing the blade with their own personal intention.
At first, this may sound confusing.
But it’s actually easy to comprehend.
```
This is similar to singing, where music academies teach you how to control your breath, how to use vibrato, and how to use falsetto.
Yet, the songs that touch people’s hearts the most are often not the ones full of flashy techniques but those in which singers pour their own experiences and emotions into the performance...
Experience and emotion are what give a song its unique meaning to the singer!
The same applies to swordmanship!
From this perspective, the "Eighteen Frostblade Techniques" are indeed a set of highly sophisticated sword techniques that offer a complete guide from novice to master, without any wasted effort.
Yang Ge had indeed laid a very solid foundation in swordmanship under the guidance of this technique.
But this brought about a problem: he knew only the how but not the why!
At first glance, this seems unproblematic.
After all, as long as you can use the sword technique, why bother contemplating why it should be used that way, what’s the significance of it?
However, the truth is, if Yang Ge only knows the how without understanding the why, he couldn’t comprehend anything that is uniquely his own on the basis of Frostblade Technique.
In other words, he could only follow the path laid out by Frostblade Technique, head straight down that road to darkness, and end up challenging the creator of this sword technique.
But it’s impossible to find even two leaves with identical veins in the world.
How could two people with entirely different experiences attain the same insights from the same sword technique?
By then, his understanding of the swordsmanship would be like a white paper filled with graffiti, already shaping up in the form of Frostblade Technique, and it would be too late to abandon Frostblade Technique and switch to another sword technique...
Of course, this was not a trap left by Jiang Kui.
It was just that his martial arts had advanced too quickly, and unlike other swordsmanship prodigies, he had not diversified his practice by adopting various sword techniques during bottlenecks to broaden his horizons and solidify his foundation, ultimately building up slowly but surely to the third level.
Clearly, geniuses have levels too!
Yang Ge, who could deconstruct the essence of a sword technique from his opponent’s moves,
was obviously superior to those geniuses who had to laboriously step by step to grasp and comprehend the essence of the sword.
No flattery or slander, in aspects like comprehension and imagination...
A brain educated in higher learning and bombarded by the information age indeed has more advantages.
...
Yang Ge sat cross-legged at the bow of the boat, deep in thought for a long time.
It was not until the moon climbed the treetops that he suddenly slapped his thigh and realized, "The problem isn’t with the rifle or the technique, so it must be the bullets!"
He sprang to his feet and habitually assumed the posture for the Mixed Element Stance, mobilized his Inner Qi throughout his body, and circulated it through the Grand Circulation following the Yin-Yang division of the twelve meridians.
"Hoo..."
He exhaled slowly and deeply, his essence, Inner Qi, and spirit - the three treasures - gradually converged with his breath and sank into the Dantian.
"Inhale..."
As he finished exhaling, he began to inhale gently, his essence, Inner Qi, and spirit rising slowly like a balloon from his Dantian and dispersing into his limbs and body.
As the master of his body, Yang Ge could distinctly feel a trace of his essence, Inner Qi, and spirit remaining within the Inner Qi in his Dantian, moving along with it through the twelve meridians and affecting his limbs and body.
That feeling...
was like initially having a murky space within, where nothing was clear, and besides inhaling, nothing could be commanded.
But now, in that murky space, a faint light had turned on, and through that glimmer, he could "see" the contours of his organs and the meridians of his Dantian.
’Oh, this is what "turning essence into Qi" really is!’
An epiphany dawned on Yang Ge.
It was only at this moment that he finally understood...
Despite both being forms of Qi.
Why the Qi in the Qi Sea Realm is referred to as Inner Qi,
While the Qi in the True Essence is called True Qi.
It turns out that the Qi of the Qi Sea Realm is just a kind of internal external force,
Like bullets in a gun chamber, gasoline in a fuel tank.
Though working internally, its effects are exerted externally.
While the Qi of the True Essence is closer to the life force of a living organism.
It’s like the blood in the human body.
Not only does it provide continuous power,
It also sustains the body’s complex structures...
To be more specific.
Inner Qi can only harm the enemy and protect the body.
True Qi, however, can not only harm the enemy and protect the body but also extend life and enhance health!