Chapter 214: Heart-to-Heart Talk

"... Young, but you see it clearly." Sui Zaihua smiled, "Not bad. Even if you are sharp, you need someone to give you space to stretch, otherwise, you will either break if you are too rigid, or lose your sharpness if you compromise—then you go to the Divine Capital, do you have backing?"

"Yes."

"Hmm," Sui Zaihua was slightly surprised and looked him up and down twice, "Which family is it?"

Seeing Pei Ye was silent for a moment: "... I don't know."

"?"

Seeing Pei Ye also felt his face heat up: "I haven't met them yet. I have to visit a place first before I can be considered to know them."

"Then this can't be considered backing, just a place to settle down."

Grandpa Yue said it was backing, and Seeing Pei Ye believed it, but he hadn't met them yet, and there was nothing to argue about.

"Come and perform two moves of the sword." Sui Zaihua didn't dwell on it and changed the subject, reaching out.

"... Oh."

"Just to see," Sui Zaihua said, "I didn't become a supervisor to recruit students, so I love watching people perform swords. It's because I love watching talented young people use swords that I became this supervisor."

"And since knowing that there is a saying that the sword is like the person, I love watching different people's swords even more." The old man's smile seemed to have some mischievous fun.

Seeing Pei Ye saluted with his sword, took two steps back, started with 【Breaking the Earth】, and performed the Cicada section from beginning to end. The indoor space was small, just enough to stretch, but the young man's sword shadows were expansive, letting them swing, as if the surrounding walls, bookshelves, tables, and chairs were non-existent. After the set of sword techniques was performed, there was indeed no sword light that bumped into these sundries.

Sui Zaihua had long taken out a small notebook, looking at the young man's sword shadows, and recorded something on his lap.

Seeing Pei Ye stopped the sword light, walked up, and took a peek, recognizing the beautiful characters "Seeing Pei Ye" at a glance.

"This is..."

"Leaving a foundation." Sui Zaihua glanced at him and flipped the notebook forward for him, "Look, these are all the heroes from all over Shaolong."

Seeing Pei Ye then saw that this small book had really been around for some years. The paper was quite good, still tough and clean, but the traces of time were still reflected in many different places, especially the pages that had been used, which, even if properly preserved, could not hide the dim antiquity.

It was indeed the record of the old man for many years, and many pages had new strokes added behind them.

"It's not just recording it." Sui Zaihua explained, "As long as there is any achievement later, as long as I know it, I will record it on it—not official rank or fame, but the realm of the sword path."

Seeing Pei Ye nodded slowly. The further forward this book was flipped, the older the paper, and the more ink characters, which were clearly the traces left by the young talents of the year growing into towering trees.

And the format was not as regular as the later ones. Seeing Pei Ye's eyes fixed, and he even saw the old man using a blank space as a draft for a memo. It was a line of ink-dry and paper-dark characters, as if he thought of it in his mind at the time and recorded it casually.

The old man was still flipping pages, but Seeing Pei Ye had already read it out: "... How to condense sword intent without releasing it?"

Sui Zaihua was startled, flipped back to that page, and saw this question.

"..." Sui Zaihua was silent for a while, stroked his beard, and then sighed lightly, "A small question recorded in the early years."

The old man was about to close the small book, but Seeing Pei Ye suddenly said: "Intent condensation requires heart holding."

"..." Sui Zaihua stopped, looked at the young man, and after a good while, said seriously: "How to hold the heart?"

"..." Seeing Pei Ye was silent again, frowned and scratched his head, not knowing how to say it, "Just... hold it in."

Sui Zaihua lowered his head and opened the small book, looking at this sentence, and murmured: "In the category of the sword, intent is interpreted as 'emotion'."

Seeing Pei Ye nodded affirmatively. He didn't have much knowledge in his belly, but fortunately, his memory was very good: "Yes. Intent, the realm of emotional attachment."

"And 'emotion' is triggered by what people encounter in their actions." Sui Zaihua said slowly, seemingly finding the train of thought from that year, "But the emotion of starting a sword is not like this... right?"

Seeing Pei Ye nodded affirmatively: "Right, the emotion of using the intent sword does not come from the outside world, but from the chest."

This is of course a principle. Crying when parents die is emotion triggered by the outside world, but every time Seeing Pei Ye uses the Snow Night Flying Goose, he doesn't have to be picked and broken, putting himself in the "fear of losing feathers". The emotion relied on by this sword is raised from the heart.

"Right, intent is raised from the heart and comes out of the sword, then how to condense it without releasing it?" Sui Zaihua frowned, looking at Seeing Pei Ye, "We can evoke the emotion triggered by external objects by recalling related scenery, and therefore can also temporarily condense and suppress it by controlling the scenery and curbing the recall. It relies on real external objects to rise, and we can also control its outbreak through external objects. But the emotion raised from the chest is formless and indefinite, and has nothing to rely on, so how to control it?"

It can be seen that the old man had indeed put a considerable amount of effort into this problem, and now a kind of serious distress appeared on his face again.

This expression made Seeing Pei Ye feel quite close. It was not irritability, but pure bewilderment of being unable to find a way out after walking in a profound maze after fully investing. And it couldn't be that he didn't understand at all; he must have understood a little first, and then he could be completely trapped in it—before Zhu Gaoyang lectured him on the "General Introduction", Seeing Pei Ye stared at that long string of things without annotations or punctuation, and often entered this state.

Seeing Pei Ye was silent for a while, thought about it: "Does my lord know the intent sword?"

"... Yes."

"How does my lord use the intent sword?"

"... A wonderful intuition of a moment, emotion and sword combined." Sui Zaihua shook his head slowly, "You think, how to control the inspiration of a moment... actually, I have a guess about this problem."

"What?"

"Just like the Clumsy Realm can handle two twists, if you want to treat 'intent' as a physical entity to operate, I'm afraid you have to be in the 'Intent' Realm." Sui Zaihua said.

"Can the 'Intent' Realm do it?"

"The 'Intent' Realm can of course do it." Sui Zaihua smiled, "Our discussion and thinking about this problem are limited to the Clumsy and Spirit Realms."

"Oh," Seeing Pei Ye was silent for a while, "but I don't think so."

"Oh?"

"Because actually... the reliance of starting a sword's emotion also has reliance."

The old man's face became serious, looking at him with a little confusion.

"The reliance of intent is the sword."

"How to explain?"

"This is a feeling of my own... but I think it's right. Although intent is raised from the chest, it actually doesn't come from a moment of inspiration, but from within the sword style—it's not that a person has to create emotion that fits the sword out of thin air to use the 'intent sword', the sword style itself is also approaching people, it is it that is pulling the swordsman's heart."

"..." Sui Zaihua listened seriously, stunned and speechless, "Are you saying that you can adjust the release of intent by controlling the sword?"

"Yes."

"Is it a simple sword move? Collect half, release half?" The old man raised his two hands.

"No, it's a feeling of being one. You must first feel the sword's pull on emotion in your hand, and then in their state of being one, you can control the sword intent by adjusting the sword momentum."

The old man was silent: "But I didn't feel it."

"When you use the intent sword, don't you feel the sword's pull on your heart in your hand? That feeling is very subtle and weak, and you have to discover it seriously."

"... No, I'm sure I've never felt it."

"... Oh."

The old man once again revealed that kind of slightly thoughtful expression, supporting his brow with his elbow.

After a long time, he smiled slowly: "However, this is a problem of 'action'. Young Friend Pei, thank you for providing me with a solution, I believe it can be effective."

"It can be effective."

"... Good." Sui Zaihua nodded and smiled. The temperament of an old student was buried again, and he returned to the calmness of being in a high position, "This problem is very narrow, because as long as you step into the 'Intent' Realm, this is a matter of course. Few people learn the intent sword in the Clumsy and Spirit Realms, and even if they learn it, they don't need to do anything to block the intent that is about to be released, so after this problem was recorded, it has been hanging in the air... Today, unintentionally, it was solved."

Seeing Pei Ye smiled: "If I hadn't seen your notes, I wouldn't have thought of this problem."

Sui Zaihua looked in a good mood: "I will find someone to verify it later, and then write this solution into a sword theory article, signed with your name."

"Ah?" Seeing Pei Ye was caught off guard, "My name?"

"Right, this is your idea." Sui Zaihua smiled, "However, the problem is that I discovered it, and I wrote the article, so my name will be written behind it—only the two of us."

"..." Seeing Pei Ye actually wanted to be humble, but a smile with a bit of stupidity due to surprise had already leaked out. He touched his head. "Ah I... this..."

It's hard to say what kind of mood this is, pure joy, happier than winning any martial arts competition. Because the young man had confidence in the honor he could get with the sword, but in this aspect, he was purely at the bottom, unable to write words, and even reading and recognizing words was difficult.

Now, suddenly, it was said that there was a sword theory article signed with his name, recording Seeing Pei Ye's ideas, collected in books, and passed on to others to learn. It was like rushing from a mud ditch to the white ethereal clouds, and a surge of high-spirited energy grew in the young man's chest.

"Seeing Pei Ye, have you finished reading the 'General Introduction'?"

"Not finished, Miss Ming, I used my time to write articles."

Seeing Pei Ye laughed, then looked at the old man in front of him: "Lord Sui, how many people can see this sword theory article?"

Sui Zaihua was startled and laughed: "That depends on how many people want to see it. After this article is written, it will be left in the Shaolong Sword Academy for teachers and students to read. If the value is high enough, it may also enter the Dao-Opening Society, and then many people in the Dao-Opening Society and the Thirty-Three Sword Sects may see it—if you enter the Sword Academy, you can use this sword theory to exchange for many things."

"... Oh." Seeing Pei Ye felt it was a pity this time, and bowed to thank the old man seriously: "Thank you for your care."

"I answer questions for you, you solve puzzles for me, and finally we get an article together. Where does the care come from." Sui Zaihua smiled warmly, "What's more, as soon as you went on stage, I liked you very much."

"Ah?"

"Yes, compared to Qijiao Shang Huaitong, you are the young man I like most today. The temperament on you has the same smell as the soil dried by the sun. So I couldn't help but call you to chat, and also wanted to see what your sword looks like."

"... Thank you for your love."

Sui Zaihua nodded with a smile, and suddenly sighed: "'Distinguished by profit, righteousness against righteousness, evil against evil', Qijiao Shang Huaitong's answer is quite good, but it seems a bit false—by the way, Young Friend Pei, what about you? Are you also unscrupulous toward enemies?"

"... About the same."

"Then... how do you define your enemies?"

"Me?" Seeing Pei Ye was so frank that it was almost natural, "I of course distinguish by righteousness and evil."

"..." Such a completely upright answer was really rare, because people with ghosts in their hearts didn't dare to tell such lies that they felt were false themselves. Sui Zaihua was slightly startled, "Then, profit?"

"I think... since we are talking about righteousness and evil, there is no need to talk about profit."

"... Confucius said: Why talk about profit." Sui Zaihua looked at him and sighed slowly, "But I think this is too naive and young."

Seeing Pei Ye looked at this old man.

"Although there are many simple righteousness and evil, there are more things that are actually not divided into righteousness and evil. They are just conflicts of interest between different people." Sui Zaihua said, "So, to talk about righteousness and evil, you must talk about profit."

"... That is other people's profit."

"Aren't you among them?"

"I am not."

"Is that so?" Sui Zaihua raised an eyebrow and became interested, "Can you ignore your own interests for the sake of 'righteousness'? Including money, fame, status, martial arts... everything you have obtained or will obtain, even your life?"

"... I can." This time Seeing Pei Ye was silent for a while. He thought of the sword shadows in "Heroic Bones Remnant".

"I don't believe it." Sui Zaihua looked at him and said firmly, "I can see that you are a person who loves life, has abundant enthusiasm, and is definitely not pure-hearted and few-desiring. Fame and profit are great sweetness to you—you can see it just from your performance just now. You are swearing now, just because you haven't really obtained them yet."

"... Maybe. Anyway, before things really happen, I have no way to prove it to you." Seeing Pei Ye smiled slightly, and then was silent for a while, saying in a low voice, "But you will believe it sooner or later. Because... I won't lose his face."

"Who?"

"An old man, I once asked him a similar question." Seeing Pei Ye looked out the window and said, "He said, where a man walks, don't talk about poverty or success."

"... Then I hope you can hold this heart." Sui Zaihua smiled faintly, "Alright, it's about time. I think you brought that girl over, let her come in."

Seeing Pei Ye didn't expect him to bring this up, and bowed: "Thank you, my lord."

"Go."

Seeing Pei Ye hesitated: "Lord Sui, Li girl has injuries on her body. Today's sword performance is actually not her level. And her talent is actually very good, just always dragged by worldly affairs... and her heart is bright and resilient, she is only seventeen this year—"

"Hmm, I know everything." Sui Zaihua interrupted with a smile, "She revitalized Cuiyu alone, didn't she? I like it very much."

Seeing Pei Ye smiled in relief: "Right."

But Seeing Pei Ye still didn't go out immediately. He hesitated again, cupped his fists again, and this time seriously restrained his expression: "My lord, I want to say something to you that I didn't intend to say, something that is not pleasing to the ear."

"Hmm."

"Qijiao Shang Huaitong is actually a poisonous snake covered in pus and fog. Just because the sky has no eyes and dropped a sword talent on him, he has some piety, is almost fanatical, and relies on it to be arrogant. If this person is recruited, it will be a misfortune for the Sword Academy."

Sui Zaihua laughed: "Good, I heard it. Then I will also tell you something I didn't intend to say, something that is not pleasing to the ear."

"... Please."

"I really want to recruit you into the Shaolong Sword Academy. The so-called backing in the Divine Capital is really unreliable. Even if it is enough to trust, in a place like the Divine Capital, even the hardest mountain can be wiped out overnight. It's really not as good as coming to Shaolong Prefecture, the Sword Academy is enough to be your wings."

"I'll go call Li Piaoqing."

Sui Zaihua rolled his eyes slightly.

Seeing Pei Ye walked outside and called the young girl who had been waiting for a long time. When he walked to the door, he heard inside: "Let her come in by herself."

He had to quickly explain a few words and send the young girl in. She was fast, and it took about a stick of incense before she came out.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 215 =====