Chapter 450: Sword-Describing Booklet

After Duan Yu finished speaking on the platform, Seeing Pei Ye lowered his head to look at this thin little booklet. On it were listed clear and detailed items, with enough blank space left after each one: "Age," "Years of Sword Practice," "Daily Hours of Sword Practice," "Mastery/Lineage," and "Brief Description of Sword Practice."

Below that were "Sword Art Practiced I," "Sword Art Practiced II," and "Sword Art Practiced III," continuing until the final page.

Seeing Pei Ye flipped through it curiously. He had never seen such a thing before. At this point, he roughly understood that the Sword Academy wanted to understand the detailed sword-practice situation of the new sword students, and naturally, there was nothing better than having them describe it themselves.

Seeing Pei Ye first wrote "Seventeen" in the "Age" column, then thought for a moment at the "Years of Sword Practice" section and wrote "Eight years and three months." Then, he paused at "Daily Hours of Sword Practice," pondered for a while, and tilted his head to look at Wang Shousi's booklet.

"What's wrong?"

"Brother Wang, may I ask for some advice? When I was young, I practiced sword at a martial arts hall for one or two hours, not fixed. Later, when I was older, I practiced for an hour every day at home. After that, when I left home, I practiced every day whenever I had free time, and I can't even count the hours anymore—how should I write this?"

"Just write it truthfully."

"Oh."

"And be as detailed as possible. From the moment you picked up a sword, which months you practiced diligently, and which months you slacked off—as long as you remember, write it all down one by one."

"It needs to be this detailed?" Seeing Pei Ye tilted his head to look and indeed saw that this column of his was already filled with dense lines of writing.

"Right. Otherwise, with just these few items, why would they give you half an hour?"

"I thought it was because some people write slowly..."

"?"

Seeing Pei Ye lowered his head and also began to write carefully. He only paused at the "Mastery/Lineage" section, but still left it blank.

When he finally reached "Sword Art Practiced I," Seeing Pei Ye lifted his brush to flex his fingers, letting out a sigh of relief as if he had reached a stopping point. However, he suddenly realized something and tilted his head left and right, only to see Wang Shousi and Ning Shuhong, one supporting their chin and the other crossing their arms, looking at his booklet from both sides.

"... What are you doing?"

"Nothing, we finished writing, just looking at yours," Wang Shousi laughed.

Ning Shuhong said earnestly, "Fellow Student Pei, your handwriting needs practice. Even Shishi writes better than you."

Seeing Pei Ye tilted his head to look, and those two little short eyebrows were also writing furiously—on the paper was handwriting that was ugly, but still better than his own.

"..."

Seeing Pei Ye had gradually become immune to losing face over this. He pouted, "You've finished writing, yet you aren't going to submit it."

"I'm waiting for Shishi."

"I'm waiting for you."

Seeing Pei Ye smiled, picked up his brush, and wrote "Opening Door Sword" in the first column.

If this booklet had any thickness, it was entirely due to the variety of sword arts. The Sword Academy listed this item up to "Sword Art Practiced Fifty." Seeing Pei Ye naturally couldn't finish it, and there was nothing much to write for "Opening Door Sword." He then wrote down "Supporting Willow Sword." When he wrote down "Jade Jade Sword," Ning Shuhong's eyebrows lifted slightly, and she asked curiously, "Fellow Student Pei is actually a descendant of the Jade Jade Mountain lineage?"

A genius of the Sword Academy was indeed knowledgeable. Seeing Pei Ye's eyes lit up, "You know of Jade Jade Mountain?"

"'True spirit wind transformation, jade feathers corpse birth,' I've read it in books... but I heard that was a matter from many years ago." Ning Shuhong supported her chin, quite interested, "Fellow Student Pei actually knows this sword art from four hundred years ago. Can we spar a round?"

"Sure, but I haven't finished learning it yet." Seeing Pei Ye's brush didn't stop, and he smiled, "And I'm not a descendant of the Jade Jade lineage, just... very close to them, so I learned their sword."

"Hmm."

Seeing Pei Ye continued writing downwards, carefully writing down the two forms of "Collapsing Snow." The two people beside him also watched casually, without any intention of avoiding it.

It was originally like this anyway. Not to mention that they would eventually get to know each other through sword-sparring in the future, just today, Duan Yu had made it very clear: the "Sword Treasury Assessment" was the most sensitive and important matter, and all materials involved would eventually be made public. This booklet was meant for everyone to see from the start.

And in another aspect, coming to this top-tier Sword Academy in the world, there was no need to hide anything.

What trump cards could you hide?

Mind Sword? Who here didn't possess a Mind Sword that was rare in the world?

Moreover, everyone was a disciple of the Thirty-Three Sword Sects, and most of the sword arts they possessed had long been opened by their sects. Furthermore, the sword arts learned in the next five years would all be from the same Sword Treasury Pavilion... This was not a strange martial arts world, but a very small circle where everyone had a name and surname.

Keeping secret what one had learned in the past only made one look like they were cherishing a broom as a treasure.

Until Wang Shousi suddenly laughed, "'Snow Night Flying Goose Sword Form'... This must be a Mind Sword."

Seeing Pei Ye, who had just finished writing these six characters, was surprised, "How did you tell?"

Wang Shousi looked up and laughed, "This is a small rule that's very simple to state—the naming of Clumsy Swords and Mind Swords is often different."

He explained, "'Snow Night Flying Goose' is a very clear artistic conception. If it were called 'Flying Goose Sword Form,' it would naturally be more about sword moves, but the two characters 'Snow Night' are hard to explain with sword moves, so it's likely a Mind Sword."

Seeing Pei Ye looked up and thought, that really was the logic. He secretly noted down this small trick of showing off intelligence and picked up his brush again, saying, "But you're wrong too. This is a Dao Sword of mine."

"Hahahaha, alright."

"However, Fellow Student Pei's Mind Sword actually has five sword forms; it's indeed not an ordinary item." Ning Shuhong watched the young man write down the first three forms and then write "Forms four and five not yet mastered," and supported her chin.

"Is there a saying about the number of sword forms?"

"Of course. A Mind Sword is always one artistic conception. Being able to excavate multiple sword forms from it means, firstly, the artistic conception itself must be extremely deep and vast, and secondly, the creator of the sword must have an extremely high level, able to derive five swords either through progression or parallel... Although a Mind Sword with one sword form isn't necessarily bad, one with multiple sword forms is definitely not simple."

Wang Shousi laughed, "Why do I feel like we've just been tutoring you? Hurry up, it's time to submit the papers."

While they were chatting, most of the sword students in the courtyard had indeed stopped writing and submitted their papers.

On the platform, the several teachers' review of the assessment letters had long since ended—in fact, it was indeed so. Although complex, most sword students didn't have much fluctuation. Over the past thirty years, many things had become conventional.

Seeing Pei Ye was the last one to submit. By this time, the remaining twenty-four sword students had been waiting for him for a full quarter of an hour. Thus, when the young man hurried to stand up, he was met with many curious and smiling gazes.

But in fact, most people didn't really know this young man. Those with good memories remembered his name was "Seeing Pei Ye" from his self-introduction yesterday, and at this moment, they only knew that his handwriting was also not good.

However, many people noticed the scene where he was shaken off and rejected by Duan Yu when submitting his recommendation letter earlier. They thought it must have been out of specification, or the recommender's status was insufficient.

It was indeed so. Every year, there were such sword students with quotas from remote Great Tang origins. They were often commoner disciples who had talent for the sword but lacked training, having already fallen behind by more than ten years, and it would be difficult to catch up later—after all, who here wasn't gifted?

However, there were always people who had to be ranked at the back. The sword students wouldn't cast ridicule, mostly just smiling before turning their eyes back to the platform. ===== CHAPTER 451 =====