Wrongly practicing evil skills, imitating the laws of nature

Duan Yun opened his eyes, a surge of elation washing over him.

This was his first try, and he had succeeded!

Duan Yun felt like he was living a daydream.

According to the records in *Jade Sword True Explanation*, this energy would follow the *dantian* upwards, passing through the major meridians of *zhongshu*, *shenzhu*, and *dumai*, before entering the *yangxi*, *xiabai*, and *shousanli* acupoints on the arm, gradually becoming like a viscous fluid.

True energy that felt like a viscous fluid was the Jade Sword True Energy.

As soon as that "viscous fluid" sensation appeared, it meant the true energy had been successfully cultivated.

And he had just genuinely accomplished it!

Could that old man have been telling the truth? Am I truly gifted with extraordinary bones, a one-in-ten-thousand swordplay prodigy?

Duan Yun drank a bowl of water, slightly calming his elated mood.

Now that he had achieved initial success, he decided to press on with his efforts.

The true energy he had just generated was ultimately too minute; even if he didn't aim to cultivate it into something like a python, it needed to be at least a bit thicker.

After all, if his true energy was too thin, he feared being mocked by his peers as a 'thin dog' in the future.

With breathing exercises and the circulation of energy, the true energy flowing within Duan Yun's body became increasingly noticeable, at times like a gurgling stream.

Suddenly, he had an illusion that many people were performing shallow and deep breathing exercises with him.

These people's faces overlapped, as if they were constantly whispering.

Duan Yun opened his eyes; the lamp on the table was as small as a bean, and everything returned to normal.

He couldn't help but wonder, "Sigh, could it be that I've been practicing for too long, to the point of mental confusion?"

Almost at the same time, a pair of twin brothers tens of miles away opened their eyes, still maintaining the *Jade Sword Stance*.

Both brothers were middle-aged men, appearing burly and rough, with a heroic air, quite like wandering heroes of the martial world.

At this moment, the man on the left twitched his nose, hiccuping as he said, "Brother, it smells so good! We just finished eating, and there's already new medicine, and the talent is not bad."

The man on the right responded, "We can't rush with free-range medicine. It's just sprouted, and it's such a good seedling. After it grows for a while longer, the two of us will divide it equally and break through in one fell swoop."

"Excellent! Then the heroic path of us two brothers will surely be smoother."

"That's natural, hahaha..."

A hearty laughter echoed within the pavilion for a time.

Since practicing the *Jade Sword Stance* too much led to hallucinations, Duan Yun decided to start on the second form of the *Jade Sword True Explanation*: *Water Moon Slash*.

*Water Moon Slash* refers to releasing the Jade Sword True Energy cultivated within the body through the sword, taking on the shape of a water moon.

In simple terms, it's a water-moon-shaped sword energy.

Seeing this, Duan Yun became even more certain of the authenticity of this manual, because the annotations beside the pages told him so.

This meant that someone had practiced this manual before, and had practiced it to a certain extent, which was why they wrote down their insights and annotations.

This senior is truly a good person!

As long as one cultivated the Jade Sword True Energy, the *Water Moon Slash* was actually a natural consequence; it just involved extending the meridians to the *zhongchong* and *shaochong* acupoints and releasing the energy from the sword's edge.

Duan Yun said he would do it, and he did!

But he didn't have a sword at the moment, so he had to grab a kitchen knife as a substitute.

At this moment, Duan Yun took a deep breath, focusing his energy in his *dantian*, and swept out with the kitchen knife!

The air in front of him distorted, and a crescent-shaped energy indeed flew out from the blade, hitting the earthen wall a meter away.

Damn it!

Duan Yun quickly walked over, afraid of shattering his own wall.

As a result...

Only a little bit of dust fell.

Yes, dust, not dirt.

The crescent-shaped energy was obviously radiant and intimidating when it burst out of the knife, but who would have thought it was just for show?

"It shouldn't be like this," Duan Yun muttered.

This sword energy that couldn't even kill a mosquito, dared to call itself sword energy?

Duan Yun tried again!

This time, he exerted even more force, and the sword energy suddenly became wider; if the previous sword energy was a crescent, then this one was a true half-moon.

With a *thud*, the half-moon sword energy passed by, and the thatched curtain of the outhouse slightly caved inward before returning to normal.

Duan Yun panted heavily, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

Still couldn't kill a mosquito.

Duan Yun couldn't help but wonder if it was because the Jade Sword True Energy was too thin and not strong enough.

So he turned back to practice the first form, *Jade Sword Stance*, to strengthen his true energy.

For three consecutive days, Duan Yun practiced diligently.

The progress of the Jade Sword True Energy was actually not bad, from the initial thinness like silk to now resembling a flowing stream, but the power of the Water Moon Sword Energy still hadn't changed much.

Not to mention the sword energy killing people in novels, it was even difficult to dust off furniture.

Duan Yun didn't know that, under normal circumstances, it was already very difficult to cultivate a mouthful of true energy; even for those with good talent, it would take at least several years. Then, to transform that true energy into sword energy, the time required would be even longer.

In a sense, the *Jade Sword True Explanation* was already a "divine skill" that took a different approach, allowing you to cultivate true energy and sword energy first.

It was just that the sword energy and true energy cultivated in this way were relatively weak and needed to be strengthened from emptiness to reality.

And to strengthen from emptiness to reality, one had to take medicine.

What he saw of the *Jade Sword True Explanation* was actually only half of it, the half that allowed one to cultivate true energy and sword energy. The other half talked about how to regard sword cultivators who had cultivated true energy and sword energy as great medicine, and use unique techniques to completely devour and absorb them.

The most ⊥ new ⊥ small ⊥ say ⊥ at ⊥ six ⊥ 9 ⊥⊥ book ⊥⊥ bar ⊥⊥ first ⊥ hair!

As long as one absorbed the great medicine, one could quickly increase the power of true energy and sword energy, strengthening from emptiness to reality.

In order to encourage the "great medicine" to practice diligently, this *Jade Sword True Explanation* actually had special annotations to encourage the "great medicine" to continue practicing, saying that concentrating on sword practice for four or five months would bring about changes.

Four or five months was precisely when the great medicine was at its most plump, and the taste of harvesting it was just right.

Unfortunately, this manual had been passed through who knows how many hands, and these annotations were also covered in stains, so Duan Yun couldn't see them clearly at all.

He also had no idea that he was becoming someone else's great medicine.

Seeing that the increase in the power of his sword energy was almost non-existent, Duan Yun, although he couldn't find the trick for the time being, didn't want to give up.

He considered himself to have a remarkable talent for swordplay, and there was no reason why he could quickly cultivate true energy and sword energy but not quickly increase their power.

There must be something wrong somewhere.

At night, Duan Yun was cooking Mapo Tofu.

Even after transmigrating, he still liked Sichuan cuisine, mainly because it was bold and unrestrained.

Not fresh enough, add lard; not spicy enough, add chili peppers; not numbing enough, Sichuan peppercorns it is.

As long as enough ingredients were used, it was difficult to make a dish that tasted bad.

What about the sword energy?

The power of his Water Moon Sword Energy wasn't good, could it be that not enough ingredients were used?

What ingredients could sword energy have?

Duan Yun was always worried that something on the first page of the manual had been practiced incorrectly, leading to the sword energy having no power.

After all, the acupoint diagram on that page was unclear, and some of the words were also unreadable.

Outside the window, the night was as cool as water, and the moonlight sprinkled on the small courtyard like frost.

Duan Yun's mind suddenly flashed with inspiration.

Moonlight!

The second move of the Jade Sword True Explanation was called *Water Moon Slash*, so could this move be related to the moon?

The *Jade Sword Stance* was based on stance training, performing breathing exercises to cultivate energy.

When breathing, he could clearly feel the surrounding air entering his body's meridians.

If air could be breathed in, why couldn't moonlight?

In novels, wasn't it common to absorb moonlight to practice divine skills?

Previously, the page with the breathing exercises had part of it covered in oil stains, so perhaps some of these details were missed.

Why not give it a try?

If he's going to try, he's going to try!

Duan Yun finished eating Mapo Tofu, and said he would try, and he did. So, during the breathing exercises, he was no longer confined to breathing in air.

During this period of breathing exercises, he had been able to sense many details of the air.

Such as temperature, humidity, floating pollen, dust, and an exceptionally clear gas.

He could sense that the clear gas was the key to forming the Jade Sword True Energy.

No one taught him what that was, and the manual didn't say either. Duan Yun could only understand it in his own way, attributing it to something similar to the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in novels.

What about moonlight?

Previously, he had never paid attention to moonlight, and didn't know what it was like.

But when Duan Yun began to pay attention to it, he found that the moonlight was cool and moist, like spiritual energy of heaven and earth draped in light frost.

So he breathed it into his body, sinking it into his *dantian*.

Duan Yun, who was closing his eyes and performing the stance and breathing exercises, did not see that the moonlight, which was originally like light, suddenly turned into a milky white liquid and entered his body...