When Ai Hui returned, he saw Duanmu Huanghun whipping a student.
Oh, that student seemed familiar.
Ai Hui did not have much interest in these people, so he took one look before retracting his gaze. His treatment of Shi Xueman and the others differed vastly from his attitude toward this new batch of students.
He was a realistic person, unmistakably realistic.
After leaving the students to Shi Xueman and Jiang Wei, he had no intentions of interfering with their matters at all. His time was far too precious to be wasted on them. He passed the [Spiderweb Iron Pellets] to Sang Zhijun and put the huge vat down before beginning his own practice.
Ai Hui swiftly slipped into a meditative state.
He was not completely familiar with his current state of seven palaces and disliked how it felt. The amount of elemental energy in his body was significantly less in the past, but at least he was able to unleash its full power. Although he had a lot more elemental energy now, he was unable to bring out 100% of its power.
He felt that this was a waste, and waste was something he absolutely loathed.
Everyone’s attention was drawn to Ai Hui when he walked into the training hall. Some of the students looked at him with disdain while others looked on pensively or with curiosity. Duanmu Huanghun spared no mercy in meting out Huo Yuanlong’s punishment, resulting in the poor fellow passing out before the 50 strokes were completed. Having learned from Huo Yuanlong’s mistake, the rest of the students ceased with their complaints.
Shi Xueman and Duanmu Huanghun’s determined attitudes came as a shock to the students.
Ai Hui ignored everything and continued with his seemingly unorthodox training. The number of disdainful and contemptuous stares increased as he proceeded with his swordplay related practice.
It was swordplay...
Many of the curious students could not help but reveal their disappointment when they saw him practicing something that had no future.
Ai Hui was not practicing the three skills he obtained from his master’s swordpill, but was instead honing the diverse moves that he had developed on his own. The three skills from the sword pill required complex patterns of elemental energy circulation. [Crescent Moon] was the simplest of the three, but was still highly complex. Attempting to practice the three sword pill skills was tantamount to fetching water with a bamboo basket.
In addition, Ai Hui realized that continuous ordinary attacks were much safer and more effective than powerful killing blows when it came to handling enemies that attacked in swarms.
The elemental energy within his body had become much stronger than before. His fragmented sword techniques were not quite the same anymore.
The sword embryo had experienced an even greater change.
In the past, the sword embryo would become active whenever he practiced swordplay. Ever since it became stronger, however, the sword embryo appeared to have become quite a bit more reticent. It was like a wild beast who had just eaten its fill and was dozing off in Ai Hui’s sky palace.
If not for Ai Hui’s sharpened sixth sense, he would definitely have thought that something was wrong with the sword embryo.
Although the sword strokes that Ai Hui practiced were fragmented and constantly changing as a whole, each individual stroke was very well-executed because he had spent a lot of time refining and practicing every single move.
He thrust the Dragonspine Inferno forward in a tiny arc. The movement of the sword was similar to a seabird skimming across the surface of the water.
He had adapted this move from one of the killing techniques he found in a swordplay manual. Ai Hui felt that this half of the killing technique was especially useful. This [Minute Arc Stab] made the sword thrust forward in an extremely tiny arc such that the opponent only saw the blade as moving straight forward.
The sword embryo suddenly jolted.
Hmm?
Ai Hui was taken aback, but he was a bit unsure of what he felt. The sword embryo’s throbbing was sometimes orderly, but also highly irregular other times.
He tried the [Minute Arc Stab] again, but the sword embryo remained inactive this time.
Ai Hui decided to ignore the sword embryo and continued to practice his self taught sword techniques. The habitual sword strokes allowed him to become more familiar with the elemental energy within his body.
The heavy Dragonspine Inferno felt weightless in his hand. One of the benefits of his enhanced elemental energy was the increment in his already hefty strength. Ai Hui became more and more immersed in his training and began to practice some more difficult moves. Moving the sword’s hilt rapidly while maintaining the exact same position of the blade tip, he successfully created six distinct afterimages of the sword hilt.
This move was called [Hilt Mist] and was one of the training methods of the ancient swordsmen. Being able to maintain the sword tip in the same position while rapidly shifting the hilt was an indicator of a nimble wrist and implied excellent control. Outstanding swordsmen were capable of moving the sword hilt in any direction and were not restricted to only left and right shifts. The rapidly shifting sword hilt looked like an illusory mist, which was how the technique gained its name.
[Hilt Mist] was used as an assessment tool by many ancient sword sects.
Prior to this, Ai Hui had been unable to successfully execute the [Hilt Mist]. He was not expecting to achieve something like this, but was glad he attempted the move on a whim.
The quiet sword embryo throbbed again.
Hmm?
Ai Hui’s surprise faded as his attention was grabbed by the sword embryo. The two times it had throbbed set off something in Ai Hui’s mind.
He attempted the [Minute Arc Stab] again, but the sword embryo refused to budge. He then performed the [Hilt Mist], but the sword embryo still remained stationary.
Why was this happening?
Ai Hui lifted the Dragonspine Inferno and stood still, deep in thought. He could not make sense of the sword embryo’s current activity, but his many past experiences with it had vaguely drilled its rhythm into his heart. The sword embryo was sensitive to all actions related to swords, ranging from the first time he picked up the Dragonspine Inferno to when he executed sword techniques.
All of a sudden, Ai Hui instinctively performed the [Hilt Mist]. Just as the Dragonspine Inferno’s hilt reached Ai Hui’s most comfortable position, the sword tip swiftly lunged forward in a tiny arc. It was the [Minute Arc Stab]!
Almost simultaneously, the sword embryo between his brows throbbed vigorously.
The Dragonspine Inferno in his hand immediately lit up, leaving a bright trail in the air.
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