“Junior brother, you’re still practicing Qi cultivation? You’re not just trying to fool your senior sister because you can’t cultivate internal energy without feeling Qi, are you? Do you want to learn swordsmanship from your senior sister? I’ll teach you how to practice swordsmanship.” Yue Lingshan saw her junior brother sitting on the edge of the mountain peak, having just finished meditating and cultivating Qi, and took the initiative to ask him.

Besides the fact that she had been promoted from junior sister to senior sister, which was quite rare, her sect leader father had specifically instructed her to take good care of this junior brother who had a very powerful background.

She would never admit that she wanted to get closer to her junior brother because he was good-looking.

Looking at the beautiful face that was almost identical to that of his fifth concubine Gao Wen when she was young, Zhang Weihao was still quite tolerant of Yue Lingshan, his junior sister.

Well, he’s a few months younger than Yue Lingshan, and he won’t turn 16 for several more months. Yue Lingshan is already 16, so isn’t he her junior brother?

“Practicing martial arts without cultivating internal energy is a waste of time in old age. People in the martial arts world nowadays are too impetuous and have forgotten the essence of cultivation. They only know how to fight and be fierce. True cultivation is actually cultivating internal energy. Internal energy is the key to everything. How can you martial arts practitioners understand me, a cultivator of immortality? I, Zhang Lingyu, do not need to explain my actions to others!”

Zhang Weihao’s real name is Zhang Dingding. Lingyu is the courtesy name he gave himself. However, in the martial arts world, he calls himself Zhang Weihao, which means majestic and heroic. So you can call him Zhang Weihao or Zhang Lingyu.

Generally, courtesy names are used more often; this is an ancient custom.

Yue Lingshan didn’t believe a word of it, but she quite enjoyed chatting with her junior brother Zhang Weihao, especially his witty remarks and those unheard-of martial arts tales, which were incredibly entertaining.

Moreover, my junior brother has everything he needs here. There’s so much good food and fun stuff to eat, and most importantly, he’s incredibly wealthy.

“Yes, yes, junior brother, you’re the best. If you ever ascend to immortality and become a celestial being, don’t forget your senior sister. Oh, by the way, you haven’t told me about the follow-up to the three-year agreement yet.”

“Not today. I need to go into seclusion to break through my current level. Let’s talk about it in a few days. Then I’ll finish telling you about the three-year agreement and then tell you… How about The Return of the Condor Heroes?”

“Ah, you’re going into seclusion? You’re not really breaking through, are you? Really? I have a feeling you’re lying to me, right?” Naturally, the innocent and carefree Yue Lingshan didn’t quite believe Zhang Weihao’s words. She thought that this guy was probably annoyed by her pestering and was deliberately lying to her.

Xue Qianxun stepped forward to explain on behalf of her young master, “Young master does indeed need to go into seclusion to break through. For the next few days, let me accompany you to practice swordsmanship. Once Lingshan has mastered the thirteen forms, young master will be ready to come out of seclusion and practice swordsmanship with you.”

The thirteen styles that Xue Qianxun mentioned are naturally the thirteen styles of Wudang swordplay, which are thirteen basic ways of using the sword.

Don’t underestimate this; it has been perfected by countless generations of martial arts masters and encompasses almost all ways of using and employing a sword.

Although the Transformation Realm in the Dragon and Snake World is at most equivalent to a fifth-rank master in this world, and even inferior due to factors such as lightness skills and some internal energy cultivation methods, its fighting style is far more powerful and advanced than that of the Great Ming Martial Arts World.

Take the Huashan swordplay as an example. It only uses three sword styles. From the perspective of the moves themselves, it is very rigid. Some sword moves would be much more powerful if different sword styles were used.

Because everyone’s body shape is different, just because a sword style suits the person who created it doesn’t mean it will suit you.

Therefore, blindly applying the technique would be a waste of its potential and would fail to unleash its true power.

Secondly, there’s the fundamentals. Because most sects in this world are reluctant to share their secrets, although there is basic training in drawing and holding a sword, it’s usually just the simplest thrusting, sweeping, slashing, chopping, and parrying. Other variations are simply applied through sword techniques and moves, without the most basic way of holding a sword.

The reason why the Xie family’s divine sword could dominate the martial arts world for over a century and be recognized as a holy land of swordsmanship lies in this.

Its foundation alone is much stronger and more complete than that of ordinary sword sects. With the accompanying techniques, as long as one is not too bad, one can generally grow into a third-rank master.

Sword geniuses like Xie Xiaofeng, who easily broke through to the Innate Realm, have the potential to become First-Rank Innate Grandmasters.

However, Xie Xiaofeng is still the useless Aji. He hasn’t met the man who will help him transform in the end, so he is only a second-grade swordsman and cannot truly comprehend his own swordsmanship. The biggest difference between a Grandmaster and an ordinary Grandmaster is “comprehension of the Dao”, while a Grandmaster is “integration with the Dao”.

Yue Lingshan, being just a little girl, naturally didn’t understand the preciousness and importance of the Thirteen Forms. However, because her junior brother Zhang Weihao only practiced the Thirteen Forms, he would either practice with her or not practice well, and then ignore her, not tell her stories, or give her anything good to eat or play with.

Yue Lingshan, being a child at the age where she is playful and loves to have fun, naturally cooperated and practiced with great enthusiasm. She didn’t particularly admire some body-strengthening methods or internal martial arts, but she still followed along and learned them.

Since she had only just begun to learn, and the traditional Chinese martial arts system was very different from modern martial arts, Yue Lingshan couldn’t feel any changes. It would take a year or two for her to reach the level of internal strength and solidify her foundation.

People like Linghu Chong could be defeated in just a few moves, and he could even fight Yue Buqun head-on.

After all, it was his own fishpond, and they were childhood sweethearts. Of course, Zhang Weihao would take good care of Yue Lingshan, his junior sister. Who told him that he also had feelings for his beautiful master? Otherwise, why would he spread the Evil-Repelling Sword Manual all over the martial arts world?

Zhang Weihao could understand and even sympathize with Lao Yue, but he had chosen his own path. Although they had never fought, Zhang Weihao felt that Lao Yue was at most a fourth-rank martial artist and had already reached his limit. Unless he found some powerful divine skill, he would stop there.

The Evil-Repelling Sword Manual is definitely the key to enabling him to break through to the third rank, or even become a peak third-rank master. However, he has no chance with the innate level, as the innate level cannot be broken through by a body with an incomplete constitution (his twelve meridians are incomplete, so he cannot complete the Great Heavenly Circuit and can only circulate the Small Heavenly Circuit). At least, it is impossible in the Great Ming World.

There is innate energy here, but it is somewhat thin and not concentrated enough.