Chapter 28 - Swordless Sword Technique?
.
.
.
As they took their first step into the city, Lin Hua turned her head and apologized, “Sorry about that, Brother Gu.”
“Hm?” Gu Xuan tilted his head in confusion and as he understood, he replied, “It’s nothing. If anything else, I admire Sister Lin’s ability to socialize. It proves your ability to survive here with your brother from such a young age.”
Being praised, Lin Hua couldn’t help but feel good in her heart.
“Is that so? Follow me, Brother Gu, our store isn’t very far from here.”
Gu Xuan nodded and no longer said more as he followed behind them.
As they walked through the first streets, Gu Xuan could see many buildings with signboards.
Most of them were restaurants but every once in a while, there would be an inn with a semi-luxurious design.
However, Gu Xuan didn’t find it very weird, it made sense for the wealthiest businessmen to take the locations with the most activity.
They didn’t become wealthy for being ignorant, they became wealthy for knowing what to do as well as taking initiative.
After they passed through a few more streets, they entered a bustling street.
Rather than the big buildings from before, the buildings in this street were more modest. Just high enough to be taller than most people, and there were insides. If compared to the buildings from the first streets they passed by, the buildings here were comparable to stalls.
“I’ll take it for 1 silver coin!”
“One silver coin? I’m losing money, you have to give me at least 3!”
“3? Who are you fooling? This set of earrings cost no more than 80 copper coins, I’ll give you 1 silver coin and 20 coppers at most!”
“Tsk! I met an expert today. Go take it and piss off!”
“Heh, you’re too young, I’m not an expert. I just know things, if you were a better salesman, you might be able to make me bite.”
“Alright, alright. Go away now.”
After the buyer went away, the seller’s angry face turned into a sly smile as he sneered, “Hehe, stupid. It only cost me 20 copper coins!”
At another stall selling food, they were selling meat buns and the people were surrounding them.
“I always buy food here, although the meat in the buns isn't very much, it’s just justified with its price at 1 copper coin a piece. After 3 buns, you’ll be full!”
“What have you bought here before? Why didn’t you tell me? I only bought it from here yesterday!”
“This… I forgot.”
“What do you mean you forgot? You’re gatekeeping!”
Gu Xuan looked around as he followed Lin Hua. Seeing all the haggling and chattering in the background, he couldn’t help but feel the novelty of the place.
He had never liked such environments even in his previous life but now, it was something new so he strangely didn’t mind it.
After a while of following Lin Hua, they stopped in front of a small building.
After laying his eyes on it, he estimated that it was no more than 20 sqm.
The building was made from wood, it was just slightly taller than a person, and it had a large wooden plank on the side rather than having a door.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
One could see that the wooden plank just needed to be raised for the store to be opened.
“This is your store?” Gu Xuan inquired.
Lin Hua nodded and replied, “Yes, this is it, wait a minute, Brother Gu. I’ll open it up.”
She let go of Lin Heng's hand and stood on one side of the wooden plank to raise it up.
Gu Xuan didn’t just stand there and stood on the opposite side to help her raise it up.
Lin Hua smiled seeing Gu Xuan’s silent help and halfway through opening the store, he let Gu Xuan hold it since he knew that he was very strong.
She looked for something making Gu Xuan look over in curiosity as he held the wooden plank, and after a while, she took two sturdy wooden sticks.
Gu Xuan then understood that this was going to be used as the support for the wooden planks that he was raising up.
He could also see that there was something to hold the wooden sticks on the edges so that the sticks wouldn’t slip.
After Lin Hua put the thing on one side, Gu Xuan finally let go on his side because even just one could mostly support the wooden plank.
As Lin Hua walked over, she smiled and said, “Thank you for helping, Brother Gu.”
“Um.”
After thanking, she proceeded to put the other wooden stick on the other side of the wooden plank, raising it up properly stably.
She grabbed onto the boar’s hide that was wrapped with a rope with meat inside and said, “Brother Gu, let me do this, you don’t need to help me anymore, this is my business after all. You’ve already helped me plenty.”
Seeing Lin Hua suggest it on her own, Gu Xuan nodded and gave her the boar’s hide filled with meat.
After bringing it inside the store, Lin Hua handed a chair over to Gu Xuan.
“Sit down first, Brother Gu. I’ll give you the meat skewers in a while.”
“Um.”
He sat on the side and watched Lin Hua and Lin Heng busy themselves with cutting the pieces of meat that they were gonna use for business and marinating it.
After watching for a while, the novelty disappeared so he looked at the street bustling with people. That also quickly got boring so he took the martial arts manual, “Swordless Sword Technique” from his inner robes that his master, Han Qiao had given him and read it as he sat lazily on the chair.
The first pages of the manual were mostly just introduction and description of the technique on how it doesn’t need a sword so he read it without much thought.
But after that part, the content of the manual caught his attention.
‘In order to learn the “Swordless Sword Technique”, one must have the qi control of a master that notices moment differences in inner qi usage.
For example, in order for inner qi to be sharp enough to cut, it has to be very thin on a certain part of the body.
However, even if it’s already very thin, it can only be comparable to that of a dull knife because inner qi dissipates quickly when it’s outside the body.’
Gu Xuan nodded in agreement as he read, and asked in his mind as he turned to the next page, ‘Since that’s the case, what to do to achieve the sharpness of a sword?’
After asking that question, the next passage in the next page answered his question.
‘One needs to catch the moment wherein the inner qi travels from the dantian and into the tip of the finger. A master would need less than a second to let inner qi travel so as it travels, the master would deliver a chop with either his left or right hand. And as it makes contact with the opponent, it will deliver the sharpness and sturdiness of a real sword.’
At first, he didn’t get it but after processing it, he understood. Since the qi that was moving was already intended to be thin, as it moved further, it would be even thinner. Of course, that was only for the time it travels.
‘No wonder master thought I’d be able to master it quickly, the logic is the same as my “Silent Step Footwork” that causes my steps to be silent when I cushion my steps with spiritual qi in a moment.’ Gu Xuan nodded to himself before thinking, ‘However, it still needs some practice to be usable. I’ll practice when I get the chance.’
It was just a difference in terms of application so the practice wouldn’t be long.
His lips also curled up as he thought of an idea, ‘The book hasn’t mentioned it and just kept making examples of using hands but what if I used my feet as well? Wouldn’t it make my combat ability more flexible?’
If he attacked, blocked, parried with all his limbs, wouldn’t his fighting style be unpredictable to the opponents that mostly used their hands or feet to fight?
The fighting style was unorthodox and wasn’t something that could be refined like a basic martial arts technique with fixed forms but it could be improved through battle and help him develop battle instinct that wasn’t less than mastering a martial arts technique.
Rather than “Swordless Sword Technique”, in Gu Xuan’s hand, the martial arts technique might have to change its name to “Formless Sword Technique”.
As he continued to turn to the next page, he suddenly heard a voice coming to his side.
“Big brother!”
“Hm?”
Gu Xuan turned and saw that it was Lin Heng, he was carrying a plate filled with meat skewers, it looked like it was cooked properly and looked tender, probably the culmination of Lin Hua’s cooking over the years.
Gu Xuan placed the book on his lap and took the plate from Lin Heng as he ruffled his hair, “Thanks, I’m quite hungry. Do you want to eat with big brother?”
“Hehe, eat it, big brother. It tastes good but I’ll go back and help big sister first before I eat. I’ll eat later on.”
“Is that so? Then go on.” Gu Xuan didn’t insist.
Lin Hua, who was grilling meat skewers, turned to Gu Xuan’s direction as Lin Heng went back, and she nodded at him with a smile.
Gu Xuan reciprocated with a smile before he put the martial arts manual in his inner robes and started eating the meat skewers on the plate. There were 10 skewers on the plate. Lin Hua was quite generous so Gu Xuan didn’t hold back and started eating.
.
.
.
