Chapter 404: Chapter 37 If Senior Sister An Knew the Truth
During his time at Shushan, Ling Yunpo continued to practice swordsmanship with An Zhisu.
It must be said that, when it comes to swordsmanship attainment, he indeed wasn’t a match for Senior Sister An.
This was quite preposterous because even though he started later than her at Qingluo Peak, his five faculties developed in parallel, and in terms of cultivating years, he had actually surpassed Senior Sister An.
One could only say that Senior Sister An’s Innate Sword Heart was truly formidable.
Beyond practicing swordsmanship, Ling Yunpo also studied footwork with Sister An.
Cloud-Parting Eight Trigrams Step was an ancient method of movement found by the mad Sword Immortal in the Giant Wood Secret Realm, later acquired by Ling Yunpo and An Zhisu when they accidentally entered a cave.
In battle, a Sword Immortal often uses Sword Control Technique to move quickly, but even though the technique is convenient, it requires a split of attention to operate and is not as agile in use.
After mastering the Cloud-Parting Eight Trigrams Step, Ling Yunpo could move swiftly in the blink of an eye in close quarter battles, dodging and moving with greater agility and speed, and short bursts of speed could even surpass that of the Sword Control Technique.
Because of her Innate Sword Heart, Senior Sister An’s learning pace was much ahead of Ling Yunpo’s, but with his Innate Sword Bone, Ling Yunpo’s explosive power and speed when executing the footwork were superior to An’s, resulting in a spirited competition between the two.
After practicing the footwork, Ling Yunpo began to research the methods of Refinement for the External Incarnation.
In the “Supreme Revelation Secret Scripture”, the description of the External Incarnation was somewhat abstruse, such as this passage, “Like a bright mirror, able to reflect forms and images, distinctly detailed, every difference, it is the mirror’s image”.
The meaning here was that the External Incarnation is the “mirror’s image” of the original body, and one must constantly discern the difference between the original and the Incarnation, not mistaking the Incarnation for the original.
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“Ah Jing, do you think my understanding is correct?” Ling Yunpo asked in a low voice.
“Right,” Kunlun Mirror responded lazily.
“What is that attitude!” Ling Yunpo said, dissatisfied.
“More than that, I am quite concerned about something else,” Kunlun Mirror suddenly spoke, “Have you noticed that Senior Sister An seems to really dislike Qiu Changtian?”
“Of course, I’ve noticed,” replied Ling Yunpo, “Senior Sister dislikes people who show off, and Qiu Changtian’s presence is just too overbearing.”
“It’s not about disliking show-offs,” Qing Ping Sword interjected, “She just feels that it’s unfair how Qiu Changtian gets to stand out and be popular, while Ling Junior Brother, with equivalent strength, has to remain obscured in the shadows, hence her sense of injustice.”
Ling Yunpo fell silent for a moment before saying:
“Is this pure speculation, or have you discovered something?”
“Just take it as speculation,” Qing Ping Sword chuckled, “I can’t provide any evidence.”
“That’s not important,” Kunlun Mirror said, “What matters is the upcoming competition at White Jade Capital, how should you, as Qiu Changtian, proceed?”
“If Qiu Changtian loses, it’s going to cause a lot of trouble for maintaining his persona,” Ling Yunpo pondered for a moment before speaking solemnly, “So Qiu Changtian must win first place in the competition.”
“Do you understand what that means?” Kunlun Mirror said ominously, “It means that Qiu Changtian has to defeat both An Zhisu and Ling Yunpo.”
“What do you think will happen to An Zhisu’s opinion of Qiu Changtian if you really win?”
“Probably…” Ling Yunpo started smiling bitterly, “Probably she will dislike him very much.”
After all, An Zhisu is a fiercely protective senior sister. Being her junior brother is a wonderful experience, but for strangers with no relation to her, they would surely think that this female Sword Immortal must be incredibly strong—otherwise, with her extremely straightforward personality, she would have likely been killed long ago.
What does it mean to be fiercely protective? It means all the good things should belong to the junior brother, and if the junior brother makes a mistake, it must certainly be because of your coercion. If you make the junior brother unhappy, I will make sure you are unhappy too.
If Qiu Changtian defeated An Zhisu, that might not have a significant impact, but if he defeated Ling Yunpo and prevented him from getting first place in the competition, An Zhisu would surely have a very poor impression of him—being fiercely protective is not about being reasonable.
However, fortunately Ling Yunpo could also be advised to ease the situation, so Senior Sister wouldn’t go looking for trouble with Qiu Changtian, therefore there was nothing to fear.
“Nothing to fear?” the Kunlun Mirror thought, “If there comes a day when An Zhisu realizes that ‘the disdainful and arrogant Qiu Changtian’ and ‘the loyal and honest Junior Brother Ling’ are actually the same person, I wonder what her reaction would be.”
“Hmm, Chen Guanshui believes he will be able to get away with it when the time comes, so he hasn’t thought about this at all. I might as well not remind him then.”
“It should be quite interesting to see him chased by Senior Sister wielding her sword.”
Ling Yunpo didn’t think too much, but after pondering carefully for a moment, he planned to start preparing for the refinement of his External Incarnation.
The preparations were already ample!
Of course, the most important thing was, with Ah Jing and Qing Ping looking after things, it should presumably be fine… just like the last time he refined the Yangxia Zhuming Pill.
To be on the safe side, Ling Yunpo went to the backyard again to check where Senior Sister An was.
At this moment, An Zhisu was sitting in a pavilion by the stream in the backyard, trying to play a pipa, with a wine jug placed on the table.
“Senior Sister certainly has a taste for elegance,” Ling Yunpo said with a smile, “how come you’ve suddenly started to learn an instrument?”
“I heard from Master that he used to know a Sword Immortal who was very good at playing the pipa,” An Zhisu replied. “It’s said that she could play sounds as piercing as metal, and even form Sword Qi, much more powerful than ordinary Flying Swords.”
“So I also want to try studying it for a while, to see if it can be of help in my swordsmanship.”
“Is that so.” Normally, Ling Yunpo would have liked to discuss music theory with his Senior Sister, but at the moment, more important was to refine his External Incarnation alone, so he chatted with her for a bit and then went back to the Taoist temple by himself.
Since Senior Sister was playing the pipa, she was unlikely to have time to look for him anytime soon.
Still, to be extra cautious, it was best to retreat to the secret chamber Master used before he went into seclusion.
Passing through the rear hall and down the corridor, he finally reached the secret chamber.
During festivals in the past, An Zhisu would always take him here to pray to the secluding Su Jian, so he was very familiar with this place.
Although he did not feel Su Jian would respond, Ling Yunpo still earnestly found a meditation cushion, knelt down, and began to pray to Su Jian:
“Revered Master above, your disciple Ling Yunpo, hereby uses this secret chamber to refine a treasure, hoping Master will bless me.”
After finishing his report, there was no response from Su Jian in the secret chamber, which was surely taken as silent ascent.
Thereupon, Ling Yunpo crossed his legs and sat in meditation, placing the Azure Spirit Divine Bead on his abdomen before beginning to circulate his True Yuan.
Gradually, he entered the “mind like still water” state recorded in the scripture.
Following that, Ling Yunpo began to visualize himself in his mind, while slowly extending his Divine Sense into the Azure Spirit Divine Bead, beginning to construct his own likeness within it.