Chapter Fifty-two: A Life Like Flying

  Gu Xiao Fan's strength was the same as Fang Tian Nan, both were in the early stages of the Refining Qi Realm. However, after witnessing the outcome of Fang Tian Nan and Wu Yun Bao's battle, Gu Xiao Fan naturally understood that he wouldn't be a match for Fang Tian Nan. As soon as he thought about it, he would have to face Fang Tian Nan, even if it was just a friendly spar, Gu Xiao Fan still felt a headache coming on.

  "Why am I so unlucky?" Gu Xiao Fan muttered to himself, "I finally managed to avoid the plague at home, but now I've entered another wolf's den..."

  "What did you say?" Fang Tian Nan asked strangely.

  "Alas, nothing." Gu Xiao Fan sighed and looked at Fang Tian Nan with a serious face, asking, "Really want to compete?"

  "That's natural." Fang Tian Nan nodded, "Is there anything that can improve a person's combat experience more than actual combat?"

  "Alright......" Gu Xiao Fan nodded his head slightly, seemingly acknowledging it.

  However, after just a few rounds of simple exchange between Fang Tian Nan and Gu Xiao Fan, Gu Xiao Fan felt that he had lost big time this round. Compared to the experience of being abused at home during combat training, this trial with Fang Tian Nan made Gu Xiao Fan feel like he was suffering in silence.

  Fang Tian Nan's moves were almost all the same every time. Back and forth, it was just those few moves.

  No matter how hard Gu Xiao Fan tried, no matter what posture or sword technique he used to attack, once it landed on Fang Tian Nan's side, it would be directly blocked. This was tolerable, but every time being blocked by the same move made Gu Xiao Fan feel a great deal of frustration. Facing Fang Tian Nan's completely defensive stance, Gu Xiao Fan always felt that his long sword, after attacking, was like encountering a sea of water, and the result was always being rendered formless.

  Clang! ——

  Gu Xiao Fan put away his long sword and rushed towards Fang Tian Nan, saying: "I'm asking you, can't you not defend and try attacking for once?"

  "Uh,......" Fang Tian Nan seemed to have also realized his own problem and awkwardly said, "That's it, I wasn't just thinking about mastering my moves, was I...?"

  "You're not going to stop at just these few moves, are you?" Gu Xiao Fan asked casually.

  "Is there something wrong?" Fang Tian Nan asked in confusion, "There are only six moves in total, I haven't even learned them all yet."

  "Alright, I lost...” Gu Xiao Fan's face was filled with helplessness. However, in his heart, he couldn't help but look at Fang Tian Nan with a bit more respect. With just six moves of sword technique, it seemed that Fang Tian Nan had only used two moves when fighting Wu Yun Bao. And earlier, when Fang Tian Nan and Gu Xiao Fan were testing each other, he had also only used three moves, yet was still able to defeat Wu Yun Bao and leave Gu Xiao Fan feeling like he couldn't find a way to counterattack.

  It has to be said that Fang Tian Nan's swordsmanship is very powerful in terms of level.

  。。。。。。

  When Fang Tiannan started wielding the long sword and launched an attack, Gu Xiao Fan finally felt the speed and powerful energy contained in Fang Tiannan's moves.

  "It's better for him to defend wholeheartedly from start to finish." Gu Xiao Fan looked at Fang Tian Nan's elegant figure, secretly spitting out bitter water in his heart.

  When Fang Tiannan fought with Gu Xiaofan, he naturally wouldn't use the sword technique "Sword Energy Like a Rainbow" that only a martial artist in the Huajing realm could perform, like when he was fighting Wu Yunbao on the arena. Instead, he followed the sequence of gradual progress, and most of the time, Fang Tiannan controlled the speed and quality of the internal energy circulation in his body, performing the first three sword techniques he had just learned.

  "Jian Sui Shou Dong", as the first move of this set of mysterious sword techniques, still focuses on controlling the long sword in hand. In terms of power, compared to Gu Xiao Fan's own initial strength at the beginning of his Qi refinement stage, it won't cause too much trouble for the opponent.

  Fang Tiannan continued to use this sword technique, mainly to familiarize himself with the way of circulating the entire set of sword techniques and breaths, in order to reach a state of complete mastery.

  Later, the two swordsmanship techniques "Sword Follows Energy" and "Sword Follows Intention", once they are unleashed with their strongest combat power, are not inferior to those of ordinary Qi Jing practitioners in the initial stage. Therefore, during the battle between Fang Tian Nan and Gu Xiao Fan, most of the time was spent practicing these two swordsmanship techniques.

  "Jian Sui Qi Dong" can be said to be a purely offensive sword technique, while "Jian Sui Yi Dong" emphasizes defense more.

  The former is to burst out all the internal energy that has been circulated through a special meridian, with the strongest power, and attack outward; The latter is to see the opponent's sword move, according to the consciousness of the opponent's sword move, completely control the long sword in one's hand, find the weakness of the opponent's sword move, and counterattack.

  As Fang Tiannan's mastery of these two sword techniques grew, whether Gu Xiao chose to attack or defend, Fang Tiannan was able to cope with ease relying solely on these two moves.

  It's no wonder that after fighting for a while, Gu Xiao Fan once again put away his long sword and said he didn't want to try using it anymore.

  "I say, your expression is just like that of a discarded daughter-in-law?" Fang Tian Nan calmed his breathing and put away the long sword in his hand, smiling as he said, "I feel that this kind of sparring is still very necessary for improving our individual strengths. Otherwise... shall we continue again tomorrow?"

  "Wait, absolutely not..." Gu Xiao Fan hastily jumped up and shouted, "For you, it's naturally a big improvement. Moreover, I've discovered that your sword moves are becoming more and more refined. But for me, it's not so optimistic."

  "How is that possible?" Fang Tian Nan was taken aback, saying, "Didn't you use a series of moves in your previous battle, with great momentum? Moreover, I also discovered that your techniques are changing even faster now."

  "Isn't all of this because of you?" Gu Xiao Fan's face was speechless.

  It seemed that Gu Xiao Fan felt his reason was not enough, so he specially explained that this was his first time fighting against Fang Tian Nan, and naturally would give Fang Tian Nan a fresh feeling in terms of moves. However, if the fight continued, he could only repeat the same routine over and over again.

  In the end, Gu Xiao Fan couldn't help but sigh and say: "Do you really think that everyone's sword skills are as abnormal as yours? Can they constantly produce changes within the same move?"

  "Isn't that right?" Fang Tian Nan was slightly taken aback. To be sure, before becoming an outer sect disciple, Fang Tian Nan had not exchanged any sword techniques from the sect, and during his cultivation, he mainly focused on the most basic foundation sword techniques. And in the process of fighting with Wu Yun Bao, Wu Yun Bao's "Sword Movement Like a Mountain" seemed to be quite mysterious as well.

  This gave Fang Tian Nan a misconception that basically, as long as it was a slightly stronger sword technique, there would always be endless variations.

  It's just like the sword technique that Fang Tiannan cultivated. Because Fang Tiannan was focusing on cultivating his sword technique for the first time, most of his understanding of sword techniques is limited to this set of techniques.

  But listening to Gu Xiao Fan's words, it seems, isn't like this?

  。。。。。。

  "Sword techniques are also divided into levels. You know this, right?" Gu Xiao Fan explained.

  Fang Tiannan nodded naturally upon hearing this. This was a common understanding among cultivators. Otherwise, Fang Tiannan wouldn't have been so satisfied with the acquisition of a sword technique that could transcend boundaries.

  "Different sword techniques correspond to different levels of cultivation." Gu Xiao Fan continued to explain, "However, for the level of martial artists, basically the vast majority of sword techniques are about being 'stable', that is, rarely changing. Only when your strength reaches the True Person realm, through the changes in the true yuan within the body, can you cultivate some advanced sword techniques."

  "No, that's not right..." Fang Tian Nan interrupted, saying "In the past, when I was still an ordinary young master, I also encountered a few opponents who had cultivated sword techniques. Their moves seemed to have variations..."

  Gu Xiao Fan couldn't help but roll her eyes at Fang Tian Nan and said, "You really think so?" Then, she let out a sigh and continued, "The change I'm talking about is the change in sword moves, it's the same kind of internal energy skill, corresponding to one sword technique, that's where the change comes from. If the opponent uses a different way of circulating their internal energy during battle, naturally there will be changes in their sword moves. Besides..."

  Gu Xiao Fan glanced at Fang Tian Nan and said, "Unless it's the same sword move, with variations in strength control. Otherwise, I'd rather learn from those ordinary disciples you know... Ah, speaking of which, I'm actually envious of your possession of such a set of sword skills."

  "This, heh heh, is enviable." Fang Tian Nan scratched his head and said, "I also obtained it by chance, and I've studied it for a long time. In short, it's very complicated."

  "I understand." Gu Xiao Fan, however, was not bothered by Fang Tian Nan's evasive words and said directly and frankly, "Otherwise, you wouldn't have been an ordinary disciple for three years, would you? With just this set of sword skills, you'd have a chance to be promoted to an outer sect disciple."

  "Is it possible for an ordinary disciple like me to advance in the sect through swordsmanship?" Fang Tian Nan asked.

  "Of course, as long as it's a good sword technique, once contributed to the sect, there will definitely be points added to the contribution score." Gu Xiao Fan said with a matter-of-fact expression, "However, any warrior who possesses a special sword technique will not contribute it. It's just like the three brothers of the Wu family, they have a set of special sword techniques that only those in the Hua Jin realm can cultivate, and if they can bring out their strength, they are comparable to a true person in the Ren Yuan realm..."

  "Hmm, that's true." Fang Tian Nan heard this and couldn't help but nod his head in agreement.

  Wu Yunbiao's "Sword Movement Like a Mountain", Fang Tiannan had personally experienced it. If Wu Yunbiao hadn't thoroughly displayed the full power of this sword technique, the outcome between the two on the arena back then would have been hard to predict. Xiao Ruo told him that Wu Yuntian had relied on this move to defeat Yuan Jingzhen, a true master, and it was indeed a real event.

  It is clear to Fang Tian Nan that a set of excellent sword skills are of great importance to a martial artist.

  It turned out that from Gu Xiao Fan's words, Fang Tian Nan understood that the sword techniques exchanged from the sect were not as extraordinary as he had initially thought, but rather ordinary goods.

  This also made Fang Tiannan more attentive to this mysterious running method that had thoroughly merged into the middle dan Tian.

  In the following days, Fang Tiannan did find Gu Xiaofan again to request a continuation of their battle, but Gu Xiaofan kept putting it off. Having no choice, Fang Tiannan found Zhai Jianming instead to be his sparring partner. Zhai Jianming was a mid-stage Qi Refining Realm martial artist, whose strength was roughly the same as Wu Yunbao's.

  Fang Tiannan fought against him, and was even more unscrupulous.

  Apart from "Jian Qi Wu Hen", which still needs to be practiced, Fang Tian Nan has already mastered the other five moves quite well.

  But the days passed, and they flew by in Fāng Tiān Nán's diligent cultivation. Until, among the disciples of Qīng Yún Zōng, a list of the six people who had originally entered the Transmission Cave Heaven suddenly began to circulate.