Chapter 425: Sword Cultivators Are Poor, But I Am Not Like That

Jiang Ding took some time to internalize the insights from the recent battle, then fixed his gaze on the sword cultivators of the Wuxingtian Sect.

"Zhou Tian, paying respects to the Great Sun Sword Disciple!"

Zhou Tian and the others stiffened, clasping their hands respectfully and saying, "The Great Sun Dayang Tianchi shines brilliantly upon the world, causing countless sword cultivators to yearn for it. We came uninvited; please forgive us, Sword Disciple."

This placed themselves in a very low position.

After the Great Sun Sword Pavilion was destroyed, the Great Sun Dayang Tianchi had no master; the capable would hold it, and there was no such thing as an owner.

Jiang Ding ignored them, thinking silently.

This sword cultivator named Zhou Tian from the Wuxingtian Sect was far stronger than Xia Hou Gang.

The Taqing Flying Sword trembled twice.

Killing him would bring benefits.

"Damn it..."

"All Great Sun Sword Disciples are greedy and bloody; the sect's library did not deceive me!"

Zhou Tian and the rest of the Wuxingtian Sect felt their scalps go numb, cursing inwardly.

While their faces remained respectful, each tightened their divine soul and the magic power and sword intent within their bodies, ready to unleash a shocking strike at any moment.

"Greetings, Daoist Friend Zhou Tian."

After struggling for a long while, Jiang Ding finally sighed, his voice revealing a faint, barely perceptible regret.

"Hearing others call you the Wheel-Transmutation Sword Disciple, why not call yourself the Five Elements Sword Disciple? That sounds better."

Having already displayed such poor swordsmanship, they still did not strike.

Sword cultivators are all cowards.

"The Sword Disciple jokes."

Zhou Tian breathed a sigh of relief but did not dare to relax completely.

If it were another sword cultivator, or even a former Great Sun Sword Disciple saying this, he would have believed it immediately; the Great Sun Sword Disciples were greedy and cruel, but they kept their word and would not stoop to breaking it.

But this one in front of him was different; he had never seen a Great Sun sword cultivator who liked hiding and ambushing so much.

"I am the one with the highest sword dao achievement among the younger generation of the Wuxingtian Sect."

"But unfortunately..."

Zhou Tian's voice carried a hint of well-hidden unwillingness: "The Wuxing Wuxing Tianzong is not a sword dao sect; how would I dare to use the sect's name? Moreover, in terms of strength, I am far from a match for Daoist Disciple An; this is simply unavoidable."

"I see."

Jiang Ding understood.

He thought for a moment.

"I very much agree with one thing the Wheel-Transmutation Daoist Friend just said."

"Came uninvited."

Jiang Ding said calmly, "That phrase is used well; it expresses the meaning of entering someone else's home without the owner's consent, a clear criminal act."

"This..."

Zhou Tian opened his mouth.

I was just being polite; one lifts the sedan chair for another; can you understand that?

His mouth opened and closed several times,

but he still said nothing.

Never mind; the Wuxingtian Sect Dao Disciple is not here, so what he says is right.

The rest of the Wuxingtian sword cultivators fell silent.

"Therefore,"

Jiang Ding said calmly, "as the victim, I should receive compensation; is this reasonable?"

"Are you robbing us? But we are allies..."

Zhou Tian looked up in shock.

He had never seen such a shameless Sword Disciple, one lacking even basic pride.

Clang!

A sword cry rang out,

and a wave of annihilating sword intent spread in all directions; the meaning of breaking souls and extinguishing spirits washed over, causing the surrounding heaven and earth's spiritual energy and all mountains and rivers to pause.

Zing, zing-zing!

A sword intent vaguely containing the rotation of the five elements also surfaced on Zhou Tian; five flying sword phantoms of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth flashed in succession, resisting layer by layer; as the fire sword dimmed, the earth sword took over; as the earth sword dimmed, the metal sword flew forth again, embodying the order of the five elements rotating endlessly.

The sword intent was of the top tier,

and it had clearly reached the Minor Success stage!

After a moment,

"Pfft!"

Zhou Tian's face flushed red, and he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

Outside his body, the five sequentially rotating flying sword phantoms of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth could no longer withstand the unceasing annihilating intent; they collapsed, having suffered heavy damage.

"Reasonable, very reasonable!"

"Compensation, compensation should be made!"

Zhou Tian sternly stopped the junior brothers around him who wanted to act, his tone becoming even more humble: "We came uninvited and offended the host; naturally, this should be so."

He felt extreme fear in his heart and found it hard to understand.

Why was his swordsmanship so mediocre, or even non-existent, yet how could such terrifying sword intent be born?

This does not conform to the common principles of the sword dao!

"But, Sword."

Zhou Tian pulled a long face, took out his storage bag, opened it, and let people see what was inside: "All sword cultivators are broke, and so are we. Any money we have goes into feeding and tempering our flying swords. There are only a few tens of thousands of spirit stones in the storage bag."

At his urging, the surrounding junior brothers hurriedly opened their storage bags as well.

Jiang Ding swept his divine sense over them.

Truly heartbreaking to hear, tear-jerking to see.

A few tens of thousands of low-grade spirit stones was already considered good. Many people, apart from a few materials for tempering flying swords, had only a few thousand or a few hundred low-grade spirit stones — a mouse could run back and forth inside several times without any obstruction.

"You're so poor!"

Jiang Ding sighed.

A sense of superiority welled up spontaneously.

He himself was practically a super-rich tycoon whose wealth rivaled that of a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Of course, they weren't exactly poor either — those natal flying swords of theirs were enough to buy the entire fortune of a Jin Dan cultivator.

"Yes, we're very poor."

Zhou Tian nodded repeatedly, feeling no shame at all. After so many years, he had long grown used to it.

"But,"

"compensation still has to be paid."

Jiang Ding shifted his tone, revealing a slight smile: "So, teach me basic swordsmanship."

"Basic swordsmanship?"

Zhou Tian was taken aback.

That thing felt so distant — it seemed to be something he had only learned and touched on over a hundred years ago, during his Qi Refining stage.

"Hmm? Does Fellow Daoist not wish to compensate?"

Jiang Ding's words paused, and a hint of killing intent showed.

This wasn't him deliberately picking a quarrel with the Wuxingtian Sect's covenant — he had been offended, he had been deceived!

"No, not at all!"

Zhou Tian gave a start.

He could feel the killing intent was utterly real — it wasn't any threat or joke, it just needed a definite pretext.

"Basic Sword Control Art, comprising ten sword moves — thrust, slash, point, flick, raise, collapse, intercept, cleave, wipe, pare, cloud. Each strike aims to fully unleash one's magic power and the weapon-smithing array patterns on the flying sword, concentrating force at a single point without leakage…"

He rattled off a whole pile, then took out a pure-gold, razor-sharp flying sword, channeled magic power into it, sent it tearing through the air, and thrust it violently forward.

Jiang Ding's expression stiffened.

With the same magic power and flying sword, the speed and force he could produce was only seventy or eighty percent of that single thrust.

"This is the flying sword's thrust."

Zhou Tian explained: "All the various techniques are nothing more than fully unleashing one's own magic power, making the flying sword thrust faster and more advantageously under existing conditions — that's all there is to it.

There are seventeen points of technique to note. First, sword qi concentrates at the sword tip, but it can't be fully concentrated — a small amount of sword qi must still be distributed along the sword body in a spindle shape; this form lets the flying sword fly fastest. Second, …"

He actually wasn't good at teaching, dumping a whole bunch of techniques at once without caring whether others understood.

"So that's how it is."

Jiang Ding listened, his eyes lighting up again and again.

Don't look down on these as merely basic Sword Control techniques, commonplace within Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong — they actually contain some of the supreme exploratory achievements in the Way of the Sword for this realm.

The most basic sword arts, polished and refined by countless generations of sword cultivators, were only finally passed down after being perfected.

For an ordinary person to research and reach the current height of basic swordsmanship would be nearly impossible, no matter how many years they spent.

Previously, he had always relied on the Taiqing flying sword to beat down enemies, finding it hard to meet a match, and having never encountered a true sword cultivator, he had no point of reference — he had indeed been negligent in this area.

He had assumed all sword cultivators were like him — a frog at the bottom of a well.

(End of chapter)