The current acting Peak Lord of Tianjin Peak was Meng Linhai. Tu Kui, the former Peak Lord, was still serving his punishment for failing to instruct his disciples properly.
Meng Linhai was the one holding today's lecture. By the time Li Guanqi arrived, the martial arts arena was already packed with disciples.
Meng Linhai said in a deep voice, "Today, aside from the fundamental stances of drawing a blade, I will teach you a basic sword technique oriented toward offense. Beyond the seventeen basic stances of wielding a sword, pairing these fundamentals with movement techniques will yield far greater results. Li Guanqi, tell us: what are the seventeen basic stances?"
With that, he had Li Guanqi come up onto the stage and handed him a refined iron sword.
Below, hundreds of newly admitted disciples looked at Li Guanqi with eyes full of admiration.
Li Guanqi gave a slight shrug and stood with his sword drawn.
As his body shifted, his blade moved in tandem. In an instant, the sword rang out a soft chime, and Li Guanqi's figure flickered continuously across the arena.
Wielding the sword, Li Guanqi explained as he moved.
"The seventeen sword stances are: intercept, thrust, chop, tap, scoop, cloud, hang! Collapse—"
*Bang!!*
Tremendous power surged upward from the tip of the blade. The refined iron sword in his hand could not bear his strength and shattered into three pieces.
A look of astonishment flashed through Meng Linhai's eyes. He had not anticipated that Li Guanqi's physical power would be so terrifying!
An ordinary mortal blade could not even endure his demonstration of basic sword stances.
Li Guanqi and Meng Linhai exchanged glances before Li Guanqi spoke up. "Uh... Elder Meng, should we try another one?"
"Very well. The resilience of this refined iron sword is indeed far too poor; it couldn't withstand your power. Use my personal sword."
Li Guanqi took the artifact sword. A subtle change came over his demeanor, yet only Meng Linhai on the stage was able to perceive this shift.
*Clang!!*
"Collapse! Sweep, hold, cleave, flick, twist, lift, wipe, parry, flourish!"
A dazzling display of sword maneuvers unfolded, yet it was merely the variations of basic sword stances.
A look of gratification appeared in Meng Linhai's eyes as he praised, "I didn't expect your swordplay to be so proficient already."
Li Guanqi smiled faintly and stepped down from the arena stage.
Meng Linhai said in a solemn voice, "The seventeen stances Li Guanqi just demonstrated are the most fundamental sword techniques of all. Any sword art more profound is merely combinations and variations built upon them."
At this point, Meng Linhai cast a deep look at Li Guanqi, convinced from the bottom of his heart that the youth was a born sword cultivator.
"I wonder if any of you noticed: every stance Li Guanqi demonstrated just now ultimately landed on a single point in the air!"
A stir went through the crowd.
With Meng Linhai pointing it out, the many disciples finally realized it.
A flash of sudden understanding crossed Ye Feng's eyes as he murmured softly, "No wonder it felt so seamless when he executed those stances earlier, without the slightest hesitation!"
The disciples from other peaks also finally understood why watching him had felt so natural.
Then, gripping his sword, Meng Linhai announced in a deep voice, "Today's sword art is called the Vajra Sword. Watch closely!"
*Swish!*
Meng Linhai's figure shifted. As origin power surged, the blade whistled through the air, shifting in rapid succession like lightning.
Through his mind's eye, Li Guanqi took in every single one of Meng Linhai's movements.
To his current perception, every motion Meng Linhai made was concise and precise, and this sword art was centered on four stances: flick, collapse, tap, and thrust. It carried a heavy aura of slaughter; its only form of defense relied on adapting the four offensive stances. By using the offensive tap, collapse, and flick to strike against the opponent's sword strikes, attack became defense.
When Meng Linhai finished and stood with his sword lowered, Li Guanqi bowed his head, lost in thought.
Witnessing Meng Linhai's demonstration today had suddenly opened a new door for him.
It was truly just as the sword spirit had said: all sword techniques in this world reside in the mind. The same stance could serve entirely different purposes depending on how one wielded it.
Countless thoughts now flooded Li Guanqi's mind; a mere seventeen stances branched into endless possibilities.
The clamor around him gradually faded. Li Guanqi sat down cross-legged on the ground all by himself and entered an epiphany!
Realizing Li Guanqi had entered an epiphany, Meng Linhai immediately released a thread of pressure to quiet the crowd.
Li Guanqi felt his mind become incomparably clear. In a world of vast white emptiness, there were countless copies of himself. Each figure was executing a different sword stance. What was clearly a tap was used to strike an enemy's weapon and flick it away, and so on and so forth...
Li Guanqi's comprehension of the sword felt like a sudden burst of illumination—he was no longer shackled to rigid forms.
Before he knew it, some time had passed, and Li Guanqi slowly opened his eyes.
Seeing Meng Linhai standing guard nervously by his side, he could not help saying, "My apologies, Elder Meng. I held up your lesson."
Meng Linhai burst into hearty laughter. "Held up my foot! If everyone could have an epiphany during my lecture like you did, I'd teach you lot every single day! Did you gain some insight?"
Li Guanqi smiled faintly. "A modest gain."
Afterward, Meng Linhai urged Li Guanqi to leave and hurry to find a quiet chamber to digest his insights properly.
Li Guanqi did not refuse; he truly needed to sit quietly and sort through the realizations he had just gained.
Returning to his meditation room, Li Guanqi entered cultivation once more.
When he woke the next day, the sword spirit's voice echoed slowly.
"Not bad. To realize so soon after taking up the sword that one shouldn't be bound by rigid forms is very good."
Li Guanqi hadn't expected the sword spirit to praise him, so he asked out of curiosity, "Since you knew, why didn't you tell me?"
"Some truths," the sword spirit said with a playful lilt, "even if someone tells them to you a hundred or a thousand times, are never as direct as understanding the reasons for yourself. Even if I told you not to be bound by set forms, without experiencing that sudden realization, you would never grasp what it truly means."
Li Guanqi nodded in agreement.
If not for that epiphany, he wouldn't truly have understood what it meant to transcend rigid sword forms.
Getting up to stretch, Li Guanqi recalled that his master had mentioned a few days ago that he could go check out the Mission Pavilion. He tidied up and prepared to head to the Mission Pavilion on Tianzhu Peak. After all, the spirit stones awarded to him were nearly depleted. Now he had to find ways to earn spirit stones; otherwise, his cultivation progress would slow down.
However, as soon as he reached the Mission Pavilion, he found a crowd of disciples gathered tightly around the entrance, their clamor filling the air.
Peering through a gap in the crowd, Li Guanqi's face instantly darkened!
He recognized the person kneeling on the ground. Yet he did not rush forward to intervene immediately, choosing instead to stand aside and see what was going on.
Chapter 32