Invincibility Begins with Mastery of Fist Techniques-Chapter 47: Sitting and Forgetting
The sword in his right hand flew through the air, landing in his left!
Never mind the spectators—even his opponent, Zhou Yuanjue, never expected Huang Shuwen to pull a move like that.
Every Martial Artist who trained with a weapon was taught one thing above all else by their master: how to grip their weapon tightly. The most common warning was to never, under any circumstances, let go of it. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
Gripping your weapon was the first rule of armed combat.
In a fight with weapons, to lose your weapon was to lose your life.
But now, Huang Shuwen had just shattered that ironclad rule.
The mid-air switch wasn’t just unexpected. More importantly, it freed him from the awkwardness of an overextended attack, buying him the distance of half a body length!
In armed combat, a single inch was a massive advantage, let alone half a body length!
He thrust his sword forward!
The blade trembled, vibrating the air and letting out a crisp hum.
The moment Huang Shuwen executed the switch, Zhou Yuanjue knew he was in trouble. He kicked off the ground and retreated sharply.
The sword’s tip pierced through his clothes in an instant, breaking the skin on his chest and drawing crimson blood.
Had he not retreated fast enough, the sword would have pierced his heart.
In a single exchange, he had already stared death in the face. The fight had nearly been decided.
This was armed combat. The human body could not withstand the sharpness of a weapon. A single miscalculation meant instant death.
Although he had dodged the attack by a hair’s breadth, his retreat cost him the initiative.
Huang Shuwen pressed his advantage, giving Zhou Yuanjue no chance to catch his breath, determined to strike while his opponent was still unsteady.
CLANG CLANG CLANG!!
The longsword danced in a flurry. The movements seemed chaotic, yet each one was perfectly placed. It was impossible to track the trajectory of his strikes.
Formlessness triumphs over form!
Zhou Yuanjue struggled to block with his twin short swords. The clash of blades rang out in a violent metallic shriek.
The sharp longsword grazed his arms, thighs, and shoulders. His clothes were shredded, his skin split open, and blood flew. He was in mortal danger, looking as if he might fall at any second.
"Huang Shuwen of the Tianji Sword Sect... he really lives up to his reputation."
Yan Hao’s eyes narrowed as he made a silent comparison. ’If this were a weapon-based fight,’ he thought, ’and I were up there... I’d probably be dead by now. My muscles are strong, but they can’t stop a sharp blade.’
’But if it were a bare-fisted fight, I wouldn’t be in such a miserable state. It wouldn’t be so easy for Huang Shuwen to overcome a body like mine.’
’You could say that with a weapon in hand, Huang Shuwen’s martial skill and killing power are at their absolute peak. This is him at his strongest.’
’Choosing to face him in a duel with weapons... doesn’t seem like a wise decision on Zhou Yuanjue’s part.’
"Did you bite off more than you can chew?"
Yan Hao watched Zhou Yuanjue, who was being pushed into a life-or-death corner by Huang Shuwen, and couldn’t help but mutter to himself.
"The Tianji Inner View..."
Meanwhile, Gong Shouzhuo also muttered to himself as he watched Huang Shuwen’s bizarre Swordsmanship, which seemed to have broken free from the constraints of conventional forms.
The Profound Heart Fist was derived from a Daoist Swordsmanship, and the Tianji Swordsmanship itself also originated from a Daoist Martial Arts tradition. In terms of their martial roots and style, the two were related. Both embodied the characteristics of the Daoist Family: otherworldly, ethereal, formless, and imaginative.
And without a doubt, Tianji Swordsmanship was far more refined and profound than the Profound Heart Fist he practiced.
The version of the Profound Heart Fist that Gong Shouzhuo practiced was from an incomplete lineage. He had never received its crucial Secret Training Technique, so it could only be considered a second-rate Fist Technique.
The Tianji Swordsmanship, however, had a complete lineage. The key to it was their Secret Training Technique: the "Tianji Inner View."
This "Tianji Inner View" also embodied the traditions of the Daoist Family. It was a method for cultivating the mind.
In layman’s terms, it was a psychological training method.
’Ethereal and substanceless, not bound by form... Is this a derivative of the self-hypnosis methods found in the Qi Gong Skills of the Ancient Daoist Family?’
Although Huang Shuwen had him on the ropes, in this moment balanced on the knife’s edge of life and death, Zhou Yuanjue’s mind grew increasingly serene.
He was beginning to understand the state Huang Shuwen was in.
He had "let go" of his ego.
The ego helps humans view the world with reason and logic. But by the same token, our ingrained ways of thinking also bind our Spirit to a narrow space, forcing our imagination and creativity to follow established "logic" and "systems."
In early childhood, when self-awareness is not yet strong, our imagination and creativity are at their richest. Back then, we had unique feelings and reactions to colors, to our environment, to the world.
Back then, we were all "geniuses."
But as we grow older and our worldview solidifies, the thing we call "the ego" places shackles on our imagination. In the process of rational thought and perception of reality, we gradually lose that "genius" imagination.
The Ancient Daoist Family’s principle of returning to one’s original, unadorned nature—reverting to the state of an infant—wasn’t just about the physical form, but the state of one’s Spirit.
To let go of the "ego," allow the Spirit to return to a state of innocence, and with an infant’s mind, fully unleash human imagination and creativity. To perceive nature, to understand nature, unchained by reality.
’Forget the action, and forget the reason for the action. Become one with transformation itself, and you will understand all things.’
This is the art of "sitting and forgetting."
In this state, the way of man becomes the Celestial Dao, and the human heart becomes the Celestial Secret.
This was the ultimate truth of the Tianji Swordsmanship.
In this state of "Tianji Inner View," Huang Shuwen possessed both the powerful experience and skill honed from over a decade of arduous training, as well as the pure, untainted imagination and creativity of a child. Every strike of his sword was a bold, new creation.
For the first time, in the face of pure technique, Zhou Yuanjue felt a sense of helplessness.
There was always someone better, a mountain higher than the last!
But this didn’t bring him any sense of defeat. On the contrary, a deep joy and excitement welled up from the bottom of his heart.
He wasn’t afraid of facing someone stronger than him. What he truly feared was a road with no path forward.
He had never forgotten why he threw himself into these life-and-death battles. It wasn’t for victory, but to learn.
At that moment, his blood began to boil, and a light flashed in his eyes.
The endless attacks around him were a violent storm of wind and rain, thunder and lightning. And he was a bird trapped within the storm clouds.
The astral winds tore at his body, fierce gales blocked his path, and lightning ravaged his wings. He huddled, waiting for his moment.
SKREEE!!
The great bird cried to the heavens, its wings beating as it fought to break free from the layers of dark clouds.
In reality, with a crackle from his skeleton, his body suddenly shrank under Huang Shuwen’s storm of attacks, and he shot forward, closing the distance to his opponent.
RRRIP!!
Even though the Bone Shrinking technique threw off Huang Shuwen’s predictions, he still couldn’t evade every attack.
Three slashes of sword light cut deep into the flesh and muscle of his arm. Blood spattered on the ground. The wounds were far more severe than any he had sustained before, but he seemed completely unaware.
He was spreading his wings to soar, to battle the vast open sky.
’Holy and Bright, Heart Sealing Heart!’
In that instant, he went all out. He would pay the price of injury to break through the encirclement and seize back the initiative!
