Chapter 132 — The Primordial Mystery Art
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
To go beyond the scope of fundamental swordsmanship was no small matter at all; it was a thing that could scarcely be done.
Shen Mu knew full well how difficult it was.
The sword arts of the world, however complex, however manifold in change, however ingenious in invention, could all be broken down into a few most basic sword techniques: the thrust form, the lift form, the cloud form, the chop form, the cleave form, the point form, the snap form, the hang form, the flick form, the smear form, the sweep form, the brace form, the intercept form, the flourish form. Even the most terrifying sword art ever created was but a combination of these forms. But the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping was different: into these most basic techniques he had added new fundamental sword techniques! How dreadful was that?
Shen Mu did not know how many new fundamental techniques he had added, but even one would mean that every sword art of the past must be rewritten, remade, for otherwise, in the Imperial Preceptor's eyes, they would all be riddled with flaws!
"He can be called a god.
.
. " Shen Mu pressed down the shock in his heart and murmured.
The Great Six Harmonies Sword Art that Qu Ping brought forth was truly grand and mighty, its power adamant and fierce, strong to an inconceivable degree!
Shen Mu had seen several adepts of the Six Harmonies realm in the Wilderness Ruins, but none so dreadful as this Qu Ping.
Both were scholars of the Grand Academy, yet the Five Luminaries realm beside the Six Harmonies realm was a vast leap, an appalling ascent!
Scholars of the Five Luminaries realm were strong, but not to an absurd degree; in Shen Mu's view, among all the scholars of the Grand Academy there was not one who was his match. But the adepts of the Grand Academy, even one newly ascended to the Six Harmonies realm, were unbelievably strong!
The Six Harmonies realm was an earth-shaking transformation. No sooner had Shen Mu thought this than the whisk at Lin Xuan's elbow suddenly floated up, its filaments bursting forth in length, strand after strand gathering together, meeting Qu Ping's Great Six Harmonies Sword head-on!
Qu Ping's Great Six Harmonies Sword was not encompassed among the fundamental sword techniques, whereas Lin Xuan used his whisk as a sword; his sword art, by contrast, had moves clear and distinct, all within the craft of basic swordsmanship.
His sword art lacked the Great Six Harmonies Sword's grand sweep, but to Shen Mu's eye there was something uncommon in it.
"Qu Ping will certainly lose. I fear a single move from Lin Xuan will bring him down.
" He had learned the sword under the village warden, learning only one move, "Sword Treads Mountains and Rivers," and all the rest were the most basic sword techniques, yet his eye had already surpassed that of who knew how many masters of the sword. Lin Xuan's sword likewise looked plain and simple, seemingly no more than a thrust at the descending Great Six Harmonies Sword, but each wisp of whisk filament was a slender sword, and a slender sword of infinite transformations!
Too many variations!
Shen Mu opened his Sky-Reaching Heaven Eye and his Azure Heaven Eye, and his heart shook violently: in Lin Xuan's whisk there were a hundred and more filaments, and each filament shifted its move a dozen times in an instant, which meant that in every instant his variations numbered more than a thousand!
With so many variations, there was simply no way to defend! And Qu Ping's Great Six Harmonies Sword held no such multitude of variations; though the sword-light within that pillar of sword was more numerous, most of it used the same entwining form, revolving about one center, advancing layer upon layer.
Facing Lin Xuan's whisk filaments made into swords, it would surely be broken. Moreover Shen Mu noted that Lin Xuan's fundamentals were so solid as to press close upon his own.