Chapter 49 Rumors
Five days later, Huang Lin’s private training grounds.
Two swords clashed, making a sound so loud that it was as if an explosion had just occurred. Fang Xingjian consistently retreated, yet continued to hold his stance against the immense force. A satisfied grin broke out on Huang Lin’s face, and a tinge of content appeared in his gaze.
“This is truly unbelievable. Xingjian, with your talent, in the future you’ll definitely be one of the top swordsmen in the world.”
Fang Xingjian exhaled briefly, expelling the foul air in his chest and replied, “Thank you for your guidance, teacher.”
“No need to thank me. Your talent…” Huang Lin shook his head and said, “Remember, definitely don’t reveal your talent to other people… Sigh, but if you really were to become a Windstorm Sword Hero, it would not matter anymore.”
“Alright, I’ve taught you all the basic sword techniques I could. The rest is up to you and your training. To reach level 6 for eight sets of sword techniques in only fifteen days… You really are a talent in sword arts. You must treasure your talent.”
Fang Xingjian nodded, thinking to himself that if the other party were to know that his actual achievements in the past fifteen days, he would probably be in so much shock that his eyeballs would pop out. He had reach level 10 for eight nurturing sword techniques. Out of these, five of them having no overlaps, which implicitly brought him quite a lot of additional increments to his attributes.
Other than this, from Huang Ling he had also learned a training technique specializing in increasing the reaction attribute, the Meteor Sword Technique. At night, he would take time to practice this technique, depleting all his potential for this set of sword technique, thus managing to bring his Meteor Sword Technique to level 20, which brought him an additional 4 point increase to his reaction attribute.
In addition, Fang Xingjian’s large consumption of potential points on the Meteor Sword Technique also increased his reaction by an additional 6 points.
These were only the sword techniques he had learned from Huang Lin. Other than these, he had also spent the afternoons studying the three Divine Level Warriors’ basic sword techniques, training all four sets of sword techniques to level 10, two of which had brought him additional increments to his attributes.
The more sword techniques Fang Xingjian picked up, the fewer he would find which were not repetitive in nature, but able to effectively increase his potential and provide additional increases for his attributes.
Therefore, Fang Xingjian’s attributes had changed to:
Name
Fang Xingjian
Age
16
Occupation
Warrior’s Squire
Level
9
Strength
40
Agility
45
Reaction
36
Endurance
33
Flexibility
34
Nurturing Sword Techniques
20 sets
Training Sword Techniques
3 sets
Specialities:
Genius Swordsmanship,
Elementary Survival Instinct,
Internal Healing，
Internal Training，
Sword Specialist
With that, he took a big step closer towards meeting the requirements for the Windstorm Sword Hero’s attributes, namely over 45 points in strength, over 60 points in agility, over 45 points in reaction, over 35 points in endurance, and over 35 points in flexibility.
He was 5 points away from the strength requirements, 15 points away for agility, 9 points for reaction, 2 points for endurance, and 1 point for flexibility.
And now, with so many sets of sword techniques, the maximum amount of potential points he could accumulate each day had increased to 5000 points. However, after breaking through the 30 point mark for the reaction attribute, now he was only able to increase his reaction by a tiny bit even if he depleted 30,000 potential points every six days.
After completing the sword techniques training in the morning, and having completed his daily assignments for training his attributes, Fang Xingjian went to Huang Lin’s residence to join him for lunch.
Both of them were powerful Warriors, well-trained both internally and externally, with extremely strong organs and with the ‘Internal Training’ specialty. Therefore, both of them had extremely big appetites. For them, the amount of food an ordinary strong man would usually have was mostly digested after stuffing down a few mouthfuls, chewing and then compressing the food with their organs.
After finishing the meal, Huang Lin drank a cup of tea and, seemingly unintentionally, he said, “There seems to be a lot of rumors flying about in the academy recently.”
Fang Xingjian went blank for a short moment. He knew what the other party was referring to. After he had started an all-out training for the Windstorm Sword Hero, various rumors about him had been started in the academy.
And with Kaunitz taking the lead in completing the first transition five days ago, thus becoming the fastest Knight in the academy’s history to have completed the first transition, the rumors flourished even faster and fiercer.
The fiercest one of them all said that Fang Xingjian did not deserve to receive the title of Prefectural Championship. It was said that he had known Huang Lin before the selection and had acknowledged Huang Lin as his master, and thus Huang Lin had went through the backdoor for him, robbing Kaunitz of the first place.
Of course, Kaunitz was meant to get the second place, but Fang Xingjian had held hatred for Kaunitz for thrashing him so many days in The School of Sword Arts. Therefore, he had encouraged Huang Lin to take revenge for him, pushing down Kaunitz’s ranking.
Another one said that Fang Xingjian was arrogant and conceited, and having chosen the Windstorm Sword Hero, he was bound to fail. He would definitely not be able to attain the requirements and would eventually return crestfallen, and end up choosing a normal job.
There was almost no one who thought that Fang Xingjian would be able to successfully transition into a Windstorm Sword Hero. And because many students thought that Fang Xingjian had gone through the backdoor and had pushed down Kaunitz’s rankings, their impressions of him were very bad.
Other similar rumors flying around mostly came from Kaunitz and the other aristocrats. It was obvious that they wanted to affect Fang Xingjian through the rumors, and bring him down.
It was a pity that due to the Headmaster’s and Huang Lin’s consecutive orders for the instructors in the Sword and Sabers Department, telling them not to divulge Fang Xingjian’s talent, the students were completely unaware of the news that Fang Xingjian had picked up the Hegemonic Qi Slash of Heavens and Earth in a mere six hours.
Of course, what actually happened was that Fang Xingjian had picked up both the Hegemonic Qi Slash of Heavens and Earth and the Nine-Headed Dragon Sword. However, Fang Xingjian was the only one who knew this.
Hearing Huang Lin’s question, Fang Xingjian replied, “I don’t care about it. No matter how much they talk about it, it won’t affect me.”
“It’s fine if that’s the case,” Huang Lin said. “Remember. Training is for yourself. It is not meant for bullying others, not meant for proving yourself to others, not meant to convince others, or to show off to others.”
“From beginning to the end, training is only for yourself. Don’t be affected by others’ words and mess up your own rhythm.”
“Kaunitz’s talent is definitely outstanding, and with the vast amount of resources his clan has invested in him, it is to be expected that he is able to complete the job transition so quickly. Don’t be thinking about comparing with him, and get affected by those thoughts.”
“I understand,” replied Fang Xingjian in a humble tone.
“Alright, I’m done with imparting the sword techniques to you. There is no need for you to come again from tomorrow onwards. With regards to the Waves, I’ve already found the person for the job. He will be coming to teach you in a few days’ time.”
Fang Xingjian’s gaze flickered, and a tinge of expectation flashed in his eyes. If it could be said that the training for his attributes was smooth sailing, and that he had managed to grasp some hints with regards to the profoundness of the Perfect Muscles the Tempest Overlord and others had, then for the past 15 days, he’d had no progress whatsoever in the training for the Mistral Windgod’s Waves and Ice Age Meditation. It was because Waves and mental cultivation methods were not sword arts, and his sword arts talent was useless for this.
Finally, someone proficient in this set of Waves could teach him now. How could he not be filled with expectation?
After lunch, Fang Xingjian left Huang Lin’s residence and gradually headed for his own villa.
The issue with his attributes were not significant. He reckoned that after another twenty to thirty days, he would be able to master all the sword techniques he was learning to the maximum level. With the attributes increment brought by these sword techniques, in addition to the potential he had been depleting for the past twenty to thirty days, it ought to be sufficient for him in order to meet the attribute requirements.
However, from now on there would be less and less sword techniques which could bring him additional attribute increases. In the future, he would need to depend on his potential in training his attributes, and the speed of their increase would be get slower and slower.
Now, the crux was finding out the secret to obtain the Perfect Muscles, as well as for the Waves and mental cultivation methods.
‘Perfect Muscles… Perfect Muscles…’
Fang Xingjian started to contemplate the three powerful Warriors’ secret. Based on the historical records the three powerhouses had not displayed extraordinary talent when they had been young, whether it was Tempest Overlord, Gale Sword Deity, or Aurora Sword Spirit.
The time when they had actually stood out was after having transitioned into Windstorm Sword Heroes.
It might have been that they had not had sufficient talent, since out of the three, the youngest one of them was already thirty-six years old when he had become a Windstorm Sword Hero. It was obvious that it had taken a lot of their time to fulfill the series of requirements for the Windstorm Sword Hero. After they had completed the first transition, many of their generation had already reached the pinnacle of the first transition, had undergone the second transition, or had even reached the pinnacle of the second transition.
It was impossible for the academy to provide Fang Xingjian with resources for a few years or even decades. Only those from the main factions, or only the great aristocrats would be able to ensure such treatments for their members, and to spend such great amount of time and resources for their job transitions.
Concerning the ordinary Knights from the academy, there was a limit to the free resources they were entitled to.
‘Therefore, although the first-generation Emperor started the Empire’s Selection to connect people from different hierarchical backgrounds, when it comes down to it, only the Royal family, the major aristocrats, and the great factions would have the resources to create top notch job holders. The most precious, rarest, and strongest jobs are mostly in the grasp of these groups.
‘Ordinary people could soar towards success only if they were geniuses of talent that maybe one in ten thousand had. For the others, no matter how much effort they put in, it was possible that they would stay in mediocre management positions for all their lives, working for those in the higher levels. The small group of geniuses who were able to overcome this stump would be eradicated or forced to conform. Whichever it was, there was no way that they would be able to affect the Empire’s domination… It was just like how a small aristocratic clan such as the Tresia Clan had risen in importance due to the appearance of a genius of an early generation. However, despite the fact that so many years had already passed, they had not been able to become part of the Empire’s higher management.
‘So long as the Empire continues to be the one to grasp the most resources, the most information regarding jobs, and the most Knights, there is no way to break out of this situation.’
Fang Xingjian had a basic degree of understanding regarding the Empire’s and the aristocratic clans’ policies.
What he could do now was to rely solely on his talent in order to become a Windstorm Sword Hero within three months’ time, thus performing a feat which would take others ten or twenty years to accomplish.
Others in the academy considered this fully impossible.
‘After the Knights had successfully gone through the first transition, it was said that they had all revealed great talent in the Waves area.
‘If it’s not an inborn speciality, could it be related to their sword arts?’ Fang Xingjian continued to recall the sword techniques he had been learning all this time. ‘What is the secret behind this? I’ve learned all their sword techniques, and they are not much different from those of The School of Sword Arts, except regarding the areas that the techniques are training. How on earth did they get the specialty Perfect Muscles?’
As he thought about this, he headed to his own villa and started a new round of practice, starting to learn the three powerhouses’ basic sword techniques.
