Tak! Tak! Tak!
A week had passed since Emery started his tedious kind of training - hitting the targets on a wooden pole. By now, the young man had long since passed the milestone of 700.000 hits and was on his way to a record of 800.000.
Throughout the week, he had been patiently and diligently hit all the 36 targets according to what Grand Magus Atika told him on how they were supposed to be hit.
Emery had done many repetitions of multitude variations of strike, slash and thrust. The numbers he did for each basic move amounted to well over hundreds of thousands.
And finally, today, Grand Magus Atika arrived and told him to stop.
With Emery's current physique and cultivation level, completing about 700.000 hits continuously would certainly have taken a toll on his overall condition. In fact, he was slightly out of breath and some throbbing pain appeared in his arm. However, Emery would definitely do whatever training his master would give him.
The female master took one of the wooden swords and walked to the center of the courtyard where Emery was currently at.
"Come. Spar with me."
Although he was surprised for a moment, Emery nodded his head. "Yes, Master."
He knew the time of a renowned figure such as Grand Magus Atika was invaluable, so he immediately gripped the sword in his hand and shot towards her, employing the technique that landed him under her tutelage, Dao Divine Sword.
Emery's steps as his figure darted towards his master were as soft as a floating leaf, but how and the momentum his sword swinging was furious and forceful like a raging wave. What Emery showcased at the moment was the culmination of his understanding.
TAK!
A familiar dull, yet slightly softer sound reverberated in the air when Master Atika received Emery's attack with a soft parry. She received and redirected the force his sword carried and subsequently delivered a counter attack.
The sequence was so fast that, before Emery realized and could do anything, the wooden sword had appeared right next to his neck.
"Again!" Master Atika said, as she withdrew the sword.
After all the grueling practice he went through, Emery was confident his swings had been refined. However, reality struck and presented the harsh truth right before his eyes - in the face of a true master, the perfect swing in his eyes could easily be stopped with a simple parry.
Tak! Tak!
"Again!" said Master Atika calmly, after striking the opening Emery showed.
Tak! Tak!
"Again!"
Tak! Tak!
"Again!"
Emery was obviously trying his best, but he found that, no matter what he tried to do, he was still unable to stop and counter the attacks that his master sent him. And if that wasn't bad enough, Master Atika didn't seem to have any intention of telling him what he was lacking in his moves.
The woman with a scar on her cheek just kept saying 'Again', while beating the helpless Emery one-sidedly!
After a few clashes, Emery who was thinking hard about finding a way to break through Grand Magus Atika's seemingly impregnable defense suddenly noticed something similar in the way his master was fighting now.
He immediately put everything in his mind aside and focused all his attention on his master's movements. Then, Emery realized why he felt a sense of familiarity
How her arms and her feet moved, her every stance. It was definitely the steps of [Weeping Phantom] in combination of the sword moves that follow the concept of Dao - Coalescence of soft and hard, slow and fast.
Tak! Tak!
However, knowing what his master's moves did not necessarily mean he could actually follow them.
Emery kept getting his sword bounced and repelled back and forth by his master until she finally stopped and lowered her sword.
"Enough."
To be honest, Emery was currently feeling really embarrassed he couldn't keep up with her at all. His master was a sword grandmaster, indeed. She could easily do his moves better than himself.
"I will show you the first six. Watch closely."
While Emery was shocked by the unexpected words and still tried to comprehend, the female sword grandmaster had already started showing a mind-blowing combination of sword hand movements and footwork technique.
It was a six simple-looking movements that embodied a perfect harmony between basic strike, slash and thrust with the dodge, parry and block moves of the [Weeping Phantom]. Emery was completely stupefied, as he witnessed firsthand what he strived to achieve.
"Master, this..." Shock was evident on his face. "Isn't this...?"
"I can only give you 6 moves. All the insight came from my observation of you, therefore the creator of this technique should not be me." She said calmly. "Come look for me when you have managed to make 36 moves out of them."
Grand Magus Atika threw the wooden sword aside and left the courtyard without even waiting for Emery's response, leaving him alone who was still trying to process what had just happened.
Immediately after, he dropped to the ground as he sat in the lotus position. Closing his eyes, he quickly focused his thoughts and recalled what he had seen, trying to make sense of the insight he had just received.
A set of six movements, which Emery had to understand and subsequently develop to 36 combinations of attacks, integrating the [Weeping Phantom]'s steps and the concept of Dao.
Time flowed and hours passed, without realizing it Emery had been meditating all night.
It wasn't until the next day when Silva arrived with a basket of food that Emery awoke from his deep contemplation. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at Silva's figure who was approaching him.
"Silva, come spar with me."
"Eh?" Silva saw Emery walking over to the rows of wooden swords. "Alright!"
He grabbed a random wooden sword and threw it at her. Now that the two were armed, they walked to the center of the courtyard.
Looking at the beautiful girl in front of him, Emery's gaze was calm. "Let's start."
Swish!
Their figures shot forward at almost the same time and quickly began to clash against one another.
Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak!
The two of them knew quite well about each other's strength, as they had countless spar during their time on that desert island. At that time, the only way Emery could defeat Silva in swordsmanship was through overwhelming her with strength or spells.
This time, however, Emery put those two things aside and completely focused on fighting with a new sword style.
Tak! Tak! Tak!
In just a mere six moves, Emery was able to put an end to the spar by bringing his sword on Silva's neck. Unknowingly, Emery repeated the scene of himself and his master Grand Magus Atika.
"Impressive!" Silva said with a smile. There wasn't the slightest hint of irritation in his voice. In fact, because of this defeat, a fighting spirit has ignited within her. "Again!"
Emery nodded his head as he also wanted to further test his limits. Hence in the next second, their figures disappeared again as they swung their swords at each other.
Tak! Tak! Tak!
Tak! Tak! Tak!
The two fought and the fight ended almost as fast as the first one. This second round, however, it took Emery 10 moves to checkmate the girl. The subsequent round took him 20 moves and then in the fourth round they somehow were on par until Emery was defeated a minute later.
The reason Emery kept losing his ground before being finally defeated was because he had a limited number of moves. To be exact, only 6 of them and he had no other combination. Therefore, anyone who had met and tasted his move would be ready to overcome them in the next round.
"Thank you, Silva, for sparring with me." Emery looked into her eyes, his expression serious. "I'm sorry to say this, but I was wondering if you could do me a favor."
"Err… Yes, of course… what do you need?"
Emery's eyes gleamed when he heard that.
…
An hour later, the courtyard where Emery trained was filled with dozens of the Dojo saint-level disciples.
Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak!
The moment they arrived, Emery went ahead and fought them one by one. The duration of the fights was roughly between 5 to 10 minutes each.
Thanks to that, at the end of the day, Emery managed to fight them all. A total of 50 saint-level swords experts, hundreds of fights and a loss in all of them. He had been defeated constantly, but Emery seemed more elated than before he started his losing streak.
When the night arrived and the disciples were about to leave, Emery approached Silva with a wry smile and said, "You are a princess, right? I… err.. Can you ask some of them to stay and practice with me all night?"
"..."
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Written by Avans, Published exclusively by NovelFull,
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