Ji Ning listened, bewildered by the vague words, and asked, "Father, you said that physically I need to prepare myself for practicing swordsmanship, I barely understand. (This chapter is uploaded by a friend) But what do you mean by heart also needing to be prepared for practicing swordsmanship?"

  "Dont be in a hurry."

  Ji Yichuan looked at his son, and a thick book appeared out of thin air in his hand. He threw it directly at Ji Ning, "You take a good look at this fist method first. This fist method is divided into sixteen forms, which include all the most basic body exertion methods. Once youve practiced this set of fists, youll feel light and easy throughout your body, and everything will be as you wish."

  "A sword is an extension of the body, if the body doesnt move freely as one wishes, how can the sword?" Ji Yichuan looked at his son, worried that he was being too ambitious. "You need to calm down."

  Ji Ning clearly understood the principle of sharpening a knife without mistakenly chopping firewood.

  "Yes, Father." Ji Ning responded and then lowered his head to examine the book carefully, taking note of the subtleties of the fist technique. The secret manual appeared to be very thick, but in reality it was because it was made from animal hides, making each page relatively thicker.

  After memorizing the subtleties, he began to practice again. His father was even more instructive, pointing out mistakes, demonstrating in person, and telling him the key points.

  Actually, "Wind Shadow Step" already involves some physical exertion, but it mainly relies on leg strength, because of experience... Ji Ning picked it up pretty quickly.

  ……

  One hour later.

  "Take a rest." Ji Yichuan looked at his son, who was covered in sweat. "From now on, practice your fist techniques for one hour every day until I deem your body ready to practice swordsmanship."

  "The body is ready for sword practice, on one hand."

  "You also need to prepare your heart for sword practice." Ji Yichuans hands produced two black iron swords, which he directly threw at his son, "Take them!"

  Ji Ning grasped these two swords.

  Ji Yichuan pointed at the empty space beside him, and suddenly a metal puppet appeared out of thin air on that spot. The metal puppet was still holding a knife in its hand.

  "This is a puppet." Ji Yichuan said, "In the Alchemy and Immortal Cultivation sects, there are those who excel at refining puppets. This puppet is considered to be one of the most ordinary puppets, possessing roughly Late-Stage Round Completion strength, but its body is extremely resilient."

  "Father, why are there some red spots on his body?" Ji Ning wondered.

  This black metal puppet has more than a dozen red dots on its body, located at the brow, throat, chest and abdomen, arms, wrists, back and other positions.

  "Try stabbing at the red dot on its brow." Ji Yichuan said directly, "Be quick."

  "Yes." Ji Ning suddenly thrust his right hand out.

  Wow!

  The sword tip pierced past, but it was stabbed into the head, deviating by about an inch.

  "This..." Ji Ning hesitated for a moment, he had clearly wanted to stab at the brow point, but couldnt help continuously stabbing three more times, yet it was always slightly off.

  "Got it?" Ji Yichuan said indifferently, "You want to stab a sword in the middle of your brow, but when you do it, you cant even hit accurately. How can you hit accurately? One is that you need to control your body more freely, and two is that you have to practice thousands of times."

  "Any swordsmanship, if completely decomposed, can be divided into thirteen basic forms: chopping, stabbing, sweeping, crashing, pointing, cutting, blocking, intercepting, strangling, lifting, brushing, and hanging."

  "Split, stab, sweep, brush, cut, and point, leaning towards offense."

  "Strangle, collapse, frame, challenge, pick, hang, cut, biased towards defense."

  He pointed at the metal puppet: "This puppet doesnt move, with nineteen red dots on its body. You will practice chop, stab, sweep, slash, point these six moves on it, and Ill teach you the key to each move, how to coordinate your body and hands, and you must practice each basic sword move thousands of times!"

  "After that, the puppet will come to life and slash at you with its sword. You must use the seven basic sword techniques - strangle, collapse, frame, lift, sweep, hang, and cut - to defend yourself, and you must do so tens of millions of times."

  "Charge!"

  "Defend!"

  "When youre proficient in the future, the puppet will fight with you, and your basic thirteen sword styles will be combined to display on it." Ji Yichuan looked at his son, "The day when your basic thirteen sword styles are truly ingrained in your bones, accurate and precise, is when the essence of sword is completely engraved in your heart. Only then can your heart be considered ready for practicing swordsmanship."

  Ji Ning held her breath as she listened.

  "Get ready physically."

  "Be prepared mentally."

  "After that, you can really start practicing swordsmanship." Ji Yichuan looked at his son, "Swordsmanship is complex and consists of a combination of the basic thirteen sword styles. If even the basic thirteen sword styles havent been internalized... how high can your swordsmanship possibly reach?"

  "When youve truly mastered the sword techniques Ive taught you, only then will you have reached the first realm of swordsmanship, Foundation."

  "Swordsmanship also has three levels of attainment."

  "Fundamental, subtle, unity of heaven and man!"

  "The subtlety of footwork is the exquisite control over ones body. The subtlety of swordplay, however, requires not only exquisite control over both body and sword, but also a perfect unity between them! The difficulty increases tenfold!"

  "Heaven and man in one? Thats even more far-fetched."

  Ji Yichuan looked at his son, "Ji Ning, you understand which path you need to take now, right?"

  "Uh-huh." Ji Ning nodded heavily.

  The Chi Ming Nine Heaven Chart cultivation is to make oneself possess a body like that of a god or demon, possessing unfathomable power.

  But the training of footwork and swordsmanship can determine... how much strength one can exert!

  "Father, how long will it take for me to achieve unity with my sword?" Ji Ning couldnt help but ask.

  "Its hard to say." Ji Yichuan shook his head, "I spent six years laying the foundation when I was young, and then used another six years to unify my swordsmanship. It took me twelve years, I suppose!"

  "Twelve years?" Ji Ning held her breath.

  His father was the strongest in the Western Capital of the Ji Clan at such a young age, and it took him twelve years to reach this level of magnificence. Like many mediocre people... they spend their entire lives practicing swordsmanship but never attain the state of unity between man and sword.

  "Dont be too ambitious, you must keep your feet on the ground." Ji Yichuan looked at his son, "Lets start, Ill first teach you the basic thirteen sword styles - Thrust!"

  ……

  Under his fathers guidance, Ji Nings posture was very standard, stabbing once and again, chopping once and again, sweeping once and again, and pointing once and again.

  Its very boring.

  Im very tired.

  Fortunately, Ji Nings body recovered amazingly, and his past life had been tortured by illness... which cultivated his personality of not giving up easily.

  After attacking for an hour, they started practicing defense for another hour.

  The metal puppet didnt know exhaustion, its repeated slashings forced Ji Ning to defend himself.

  "A river." Yu Chi Xue Zheng was standing in the distance, watching his son practice hard.

  Ji Yichuan also walked to his wifes side, gazing at their son fighting the metal puppet in the distance: "Xue, I didnt expect...I really didnt expect...our sons determination is actually this strong. I even prepared myself for the possibility that he might be lazy and refuse to cultivate, and was ready to force him to cultivate if necessary. Who would have thought it wasnt needed at all!"

  "In the morning, he practices his footwork." Wei Chi Xues heart ached as she looked at her son. "Although he says hes tired, he just says it and never stops. Three hours in the morning, three hours in the afternoon... He practices for six whole hours a day, and Ning Er is only this old this year."

  "I still remember when I was a kid," Ji Yichuan said softly. "At that time, my father forced me to practice, and I felt so tired that I almost collapsed. But once I gave up, my father would whip me mercilessly with his belt. I cried out in pain as I swung my sword and stabbed... until the year I turned ten, when my father was killed by a powerful demon from Dongshan Ze. My mother and I fell to the bottom of society, witnessing all sorts of human cruelty. My mother even passed away due to illness... It wasnt until then that I realized, if I didnt work hard every day, I would never be able to escape this miserable life."

  Never practiced, dont know how tiring continuous practice is.

  The body is tired, but the heart is even more exhausted.

  If you dont have enough persistence and longing in your heart, you cant persist.

  "I originally had my doubts about my sons future accomplishments." Ji Yichuan said in a soft voice, "He has a high innate talent for cultivating his body with the gods and demons, but if he doesnt work hard, his future accomplishments wont be that great... Now, I believe it, my son will definitely become a true powerhouse on this land. Definitely!"

  Wei Chi Xue listened to her husbands words and looked at their son in the distance, who was deeply immersed in his cultivation. She nodded lightly: "I also believe!"

  ******

  Watching oneself become stronger bit by bit is even more wonderful than watching superheroes in movies from past lives!

  One year later.

  Whoa! The Mongolian fish standing in the distance suddenly threw out four stones, and the taller Jining suddenly drew his bow, with five fingers pinching four arrows.

  Pffft! Pffft! Pffft! Pffft!

  Four arrows flashed by, leaving four trails of air in the sky, and directly shot at the four stones flying far away, causing the four stones to shatter into pieces with a loud crash.

  "Good." The Mongol general strode forward with large steps, laughing loudly, his laughter like thunder.

  "Master of the Mong Fish." Ji Ning put away his bow.

  "Your heart arrow has been practiced, and even my proudest four arrows fired in unison, youve also mastered it so quickly." Meng Yu praised with a nod, "As for your archery skills, I have nothing more to teach you. From now on, you need to practice more yourself, accumulate experience. As your strength grows stronger, youll naturally be able to shoot even stronger arrows. This training ground is too small for you, you need to go to an even more open place, separated by one or two li, or even three or four li, and shoot arrows! The farther the distance, the more consideration needs to be given to wind and other environmental factors."

  "I understand." Ji Ning nodded.

  Shooting an arrow requires utmost precision.

  Gravity needs to be taken into account, and the bow and arrow will fall under gravity during flight. Wind force should also be considered!

  It sounds complicated, but in fact, as long as you feel the wind, you dont even need to aim and can shoot directly with your bow and arrow. How to shoot, what angle, everything has been practiced countless times and integrated into your bones. At least for nows Jin Ning... within 500 meters, a fly wouldnt even think of escaping his bow and arrow!

  But this is far from enough!

  As the strength increases, some congenital spiritual arrows shot out can fly for several miles and still have great power! The farther the distance, the harder it is to maintain accuracy... more practice is needed to accumulate experience.

  "From tomorrow on, I wont be coming here anymore. Young master, you are the most talented person I have ever taught." Meng Yu looked at Ji Ning, "Dont waste your talent, in the future, you will definitely become the most feared divine archer in this vast land of Yan Mountain."

  **

  Announcement: The next chapter will be six years later~~~ Dont forget to collect and vote for recommendations! Tomato needs everyones support!