The world of martial arts, the immortal swordsman in the mortal realm.

Chapter 12, Master Rong taught well!

Faced with Huang Rong's thrusting sword, Lu Chen did not hesitate and immediately thrust out his wooden sword, using a defensive move from the Yue Nu Sword Technique to block and intercept the attack.

Huang Rong lowered her elbow slightly, her fair wrist trembled, and with a whoosh, the tip of her sword suddenly turned and stabbed towards his chest. Lu Chen responded with ease, first parrying Huang Rong's wooden sword with his own sword, and then stabbing at Huang Rong's chest and abdomen with his other hand.

Huang Rong moved sideways with quick steps, dodging Lu Chen's sword strike, and suddenly circled around to his side, thrusting her sword at his waist and ribs.

Lu Chen shifted his feet slightly, turned his body to the side, spun his wooden sword, and got tangled in Huang Rong's sword, knocking her wooden sword away. Then, he casually slashed at her wrist with his sword.

woohoo hoo...

Amidst the whistling sound of wooden swords cutting through the air, the two exchanged blows, their sword techniques constantly shifting. Huang Rong's swordsmanship was light and agile, her moves changing swiftly, and her footwork as graceful as a startled swan.

Lu Chen's footwork was also quite good. Although his agility and speed were far inferior to Huang Rong's, he could still keep up with her nimble movements and was not fooled by her seemingly elusive footwork.

He wielded a wooden sword with steady and solid defense, leaving no room for error. He would occasionally retaliate with a sword strike, always forcing Huang Rong to dodge or parry.

During their previous sparring sessions, even though Huang Rong had only recently learned the Yue Maiden Sword Technique, she could still easily overwhelm Lu Chen, defeating him in just a few moves. Even when she deliberately held back, Lu Chen never lasted more than ten moves.

But today, Huang Rong only used three or five points of her skill at first, but after ten moves, she was still unable to do anything to Lu Chen.

Huang Rong gradually became serious. Although she was still only using the Yue Nu Sword Technique, she put in a great deal of effort into it. Even so, she still couldn't defeat Lu Chen after twenty moves.

Lu Chen not only did not show any signs of defeat, but his swordsmanship was also improving rapidly. He even occasionally unleashed a brilliant move as if by flash of inspiration, leaving Huang Rong unsure which move of the Yue Nu Sword Technique to use to counter it. She could only rely on her lightness skill to dodge.

After thirty moves, the originally unremarkable Yue Maiden Sword Technique gradually evolved into something strange and spiritual in Lu Chen's hands, radiating an astonishing vitality.

His swordsmanship became increasingly disciplined yet full of inspiration, subtly revealing a free and unrestrained spirit.

By this point in the battle, Huang Rong could no longer win using only the Yue Maiden Sword Technique.

After fighting for a while, seeing Lu Chen becoming more and more courageous and stronger, Huang Rong pouted her pink lips, hummed softly, and suddenly changed her sword technique. Her sword momentum suddenly increased several times, and her sword moves were sometimes three feints and one real, or five feints and one real. She could switch between feints and real at will, and her sword technique became more and more light and graceful, as if a strong wind had suddenly risen, swirling up colorful fallen petals and dancing in the wind.

Lu Chen had never seen her use this sword technique before. He was caught off guard by her unpredictable and elusive swordplay. After only a few moves, she found an opening and used a strange "sticky" force to stick the wooden sword in his hand to the spine of the blade. Then, a shockwave was transmitted to the hilt, causing Lu Chen's fingers to go numb and the wooden sword to fly out of his hand.

Huang Rong successfully knocked away Lu Chen's wooden sword. As she took a step, the wooden sword suddenly thrust forward, stopping the tip of the sword in front of Lu Chen's throat, just a hair's breadth away from his throat skin.

Holding a sword in one hand and with the other behind her back, she exuded the air of a master, calmly saying:
"how?"

Lu Chen bowed respectfully and said in a deep voice:
"Master Rong's swordsmanship is unparalleled; I admire it greatly."

Huang Rong smiled, tilted her chin slightly, and said in a serious tone:

"Although your swordsmanship has improved greatly, you are still too inexperienced. You must guard against arrogance and impatience and keep striving forward."

Lu Chen appeared completely convinced:

"I will follow Master Rong's teachings."

Huang Rong nodded slightly:

"Yes, he is a promising student, and a fine piece of wood can be carved."

While she felt pleased with herself, she also felt a little ashamed.

With her talent and martial arts skills, she couldn't even defeat Lu Chen using only the Yue Maiden Sword.

In the end, she not only used the "Falling Flower Sword Technique," the predecessor of the "Falling Flower Divine Sword Palm" passed down to her by her father, but also the "sticky" technique of the "Jade Flute Sword Technique" to disarm him and save face for her, "Master Rong".

This was because he had never seen the Falling Petals Sword Technique or the Jade Flute Sword Technique before, which caught him off guard.

Given his swordsmanship talent, once he grows stronger, I'm afraid I'll eventually be no match for him.

While I can still keep him under control, I need to practice with him as much as possible. Once he's reached a certain level, I should stop and never practice with him again.

In this way, my Master Rong can maintain her "undefeated record against Lu Chen"!
While Huang Rong had this idea in mind, she still encouraged Lu Chen a few times and told him to continue practicing his swordsmanship, while she went to the kitchen to prepare a big meal to celebrate for him.

We must celebrate! With the speed at which Lu Chen has improved his swordsmanship, as his mentor and guide, Master Rong is destined to become famous and respected by the martial arts world.

It's actually quite exciting to think about. As for the "Journey to the Immortal Realm"...

There's no rush. Lu Chen has already shown his talent and is now in the prime of his life to practice diligently and make rapid progress. He can't afford to be distracted by playing around.

Unbeknownst to Huang Rong, Lu Chen's martial arts skills had risen to the top of her list.

Her own "journey to the immortal realm," which she had cherished ever since her first encounter with Lu Chen, had taken a backseat.

Huang Rong was happily humming a song while cooking in the kitchen.

Lu Chen continued practicing his swordplay in the courtyard.

This time, he was no longer practicing the Yue Maiden Sword, but "Sword One".

Sword One can only be unleashed, not retracted. Once the sword is drawn, the whole body will be exhausted. Even with his super recovery ability and the nourishment of medicinal soup, it will take at least half an hour to fully recover his strength. Naturally, he cannot use Sword One for cultivation.

Therefore, Lu Chen's training method is to only activate half of the first sword move, mobilizing the energy, but not releasing the energy.

He stood under the tree, savoring the feeling of using Sword One just now. After silently preparing for a while, he suddenly stomped his feet on the ground, and an explosive force rose from the soles of his feet, surging backward like a tide along his knees, legs, waist, hips, and back, over his shoulders, through his arms, and converging in his fingers and palms.

At a normal pace, the next instant should be spent fully unleashing the power to thrust out the longsword.

However, this time Lu Chen used the method he comprehended when comprehending the "Sword Intent Imprint" to forcibly suppress the burst of energy. With a special breathing rhythm, he rapidly exhaled and inhaled, forcing back all the energy that should have been released in one breath.

Then the violent and surging force swept back from his fingers and palms, spreading throughout his chest, abdomen, limbs, and bones.

As the force surged back and forth, Lu Chen's skin instantly turned bright red, and steam rose from his head, as if he had practiced the Yue Maiden Sword Technique several times in a row without stopping. As the force spread throughout his body, a stream of heat also emerged from within him, circulating through his chest, abdomen, and limbs.

It was the internal strength cultivated using "Sword One".

Although the power within is not great, only a wisp, in terms of purity and refinement, it far surpasses the internal energy that Lu Chen cultivated with the Yue Nu Sword. The "qi sensation and texture" are much stronger, and it can already be called "true qi".

After cultivating this wisp of true energy, Lu Chen's physical strength was also nearly half depleted—although he did not unleash all his power, forcibly suppressing the power and forcing it to reverse was still extremely taxing.

Lu Chen rested for a while and continued to cultivate. He practiced twice more and condensed two more strands of true qi. His strength was finally exhausted. Although he was not so weak that he collapsed, he had to stop cultivating and rest to recover.

"If I'm not completely exhausted, I can recover in just half an hour even without the medicinal soup. Following this pattern, once I've replenished my energy, I can cultivate three times, after which I need to rest for at least half an hour. In a day, I can cultivate up to sixty or seventy times, so the efficiency of accumulating true energy shouldn't be too low..."

Of course, the efficiency wasn't much higher either. After all, each practice session only allowed for the condensation of a wisp of true energy, and it was unknown when those wisps of true energy would gather into a babbling brook, then transform into a mighty river, and finally coalesce into a vast ocean.

But there is nothing we can do about it.

In the world of The Legend of the Condor Heroes, cultivating internal energy is inherently difficult.

Without extraordinary encounters or powerful remedies like the medicinal snake or the Bodhi snake, one can only rely on grinding away time to accumulate experience. For an ordinary martial artist to make a name for themselves in internal energy cultivation, it would take at least until they are forty or fifty years old.

Even with divine skills like the Nine Yin Manual and the Nine Yang Manual, it's impossible to achieve mastery overnight.

Just like Zhang Wuji, whose temperament was in sync with the Nine Yang Divine Skill and who ate rare and exotic fruits every day, he still failed to master the Nine Yang Divine Skill even after several years in the mountains. It was only through a fortuitous encounter in the Cloth Bag Monk's specially made cloth bag that he finally mastered the Nine Yang Divine Skill and became a top-tier internal skill master at a young age.

Other martial artists, without exceptional talent or extraordinary encounters, usually have to wait until they are several decades old before they can develop a reasonably profound internal strength.

"Speaking of fortuitous encounters, perhaps we could look for the Bodhi Serpent in Xiangyang, and maybe even ask the Divine Eagle for help with sword practice..."

Just as she was pondering this, Huang Rong spoke up from the kitchen:

"Lu Chen, starting tomorrow, we will not only practice our skills on our own, but also find different opponents to hone our skills in real combat."

Lu Chen: "Huh?"

Huang Rong peeked out from the kitchen doorway and gave him a sweet smile:
"Starting tomorrow, you will first challenge the martial arts schools in Shaoxing City. After you have finished challenging the martial arts schools in the city, you can go to other places to challenge them one by one. If there are famous masters in the area, you can also go and challenge them. In this way, you can hone your combat skills, accumulate experience, and broaden your horizons. Otherwise, in the future, if you are too inexperienced and have too narrow a perspective, you will be caught off guard and confused when you encounter new moves that you have never seen before."

I need votes!!!

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(End of this chapter)