Death's Hidden Mobile

As Rukia finished speaking, she suddenly swung her bamboo sword, unleashing a gust of sword wind that left a shallow mark on the ground.

Seeing this, Xia Yan thought of Kurosaki Ichigo, whose Getsuga Tenshou was released by the tip of the sword after the spiritual pressure was absorbed by the sword.

However, his slashes are the power of his Zanpakuto, released after being compressed by the Zanpakuto.

Rukia, however, only managed to release the spiritual particles attached to the longsword, which had relatively low power.

However, Xia Yan was already drooling with envy, and looking at Renji Abarai and Rukia, he said, "Please teach me, Renji-nii."

Renji Abarai said with a smile, "Alright, I'll teach you swordsmanship."

Renji Abarai gripped the wooden sword in his hand and said, "The first thing to learn in kendo is how to hold the sword, that is, how to hold the sword. You need both hands to hold the sword. Since you are right-handed, first use the little finger, ring finger, and middle finger of your left hand to hold the hilt of the sword, making sure the hilt is not exposed. Like this."

Abarai demonstrated by gripping the lower part of the sword hilt with his left hand.

Xia Yan used a wooden stick as a longsword. After he gripped it, Abarai said from the side, "Put the heel of your palm down a little, below the hilt, so you can press the longsword down."

After Xia Yan did that, Abarai said again, "Now use your right hand to hold the part below the tsuba and pinch it gently. The tsuba is actually the part that protrudes from the hilt of the sword. You don't have a wooden stick, but it's roughly in this position. Make sure you don't go beyond it, and don't grip it too tightly."

Simply put, you support the front of the hilt with your dominant hand, and pinch the back half of the hilt with the little finger, ring finger, and middle finger of your non-dominant hand. At the same time, use the palm of your non-dominant hand to press against the hilt, allowing the long sword to naturally and slightly rise and point forward.

Xia Yan tried a few times and got the movements right. Abarai then said, "Next, I'll teach you the starting stance. Relax your shoulders, straighten your chest and lift your head. Separate your feet shoulder-width apart, place your hands on your lower abdomen, about a foot away from your lower abdomen, and bend your arms slightly, but not too much."

Xia Yan tried to do it, and Abarai helped him adjust his posture. After he was in the right position, he said, "You will train in this posture today, and try to hold it for as long as possible. Tomorrow I will teach you the fighting techniques and footwork in Kendo."

Xia Yan nodded, grabbed the wooden stick, and stood there motionless in a kendo stance.

But after only three minutes, Xia Yan felt tired, his arms were sore and numb, and he couldn't help but put the wooden stick down.

Seeing this, Rukia immediately said, "Hang in there. Don't give up when you feel tired, and don't worry about getting hurt. You are made of spirit particles, and you can heal yourself if your spirit particles are damaged and then replenished."

Upon hearing this, Xia Yan realized that his body was no longer made of flesh and blood but of spiritual particles, and that he didn't need to worry about causing permanent damage.

Xia Yan raised the wooden stick again, and this time, when he felt tired, he did not put it down, but struggled to keep going.

Two minutes later, Xia Yan's arms began to tremble, and a tingling, numb sensation spread through them.

But Xia Yan did not relax and kept going. Five minutes, seven minutes, eight minutes, until ten minutes later, Xia Yan's arm trembled and the wooden stick in his hand fell to the ground.

Xia Yan felt his arms were stiff and painful, and his body was slightly tired. He wanted to rest for a while. At this moment, Rukia said again, "Absorb spiritual particles now to make up for the damage."

Xia Yan quickly followed Rukia's instructions, absorbing the spiritual particles floating in the air to replenish his own losses.

As the spiritual particles gradually enter the body, they begin to repair the damaged ones, gather and compress them, and increase their density slightly.

Although the effect is relatively weak, if it continues, the density of spirit particles will greatly increase, thus resulting in greater spiritual pressure.

Xia Yan saw the possibility of increasing his spiritual pressure and was unwilling to give up. He not only wanted to become a Shinigami, but also a powerful one.

Chapter Four: Cultivation

Xia Yan spent a day training him on the grip and starting stance of Kendo. After he mastered them, Renji Abarai began teaching him the footwork of Kendo the next day.

There are many footwork techniques in Kendo, with six basic footwork techniques: folding foot, stepping foot, following foot, following foot, opening foot, and stepping foot.

Among them, the 'folding foot' is the most frequently used foot movement in Kendo. It is similar to a sliding step, where the foot does not lift off the ground and moves close to the ground. This reduces body swaying and maintains the integrity of the posture. At the same time, the sliding step has a small range of motion, which allows for quick adjustment of body shape when attacked.

It took Xia Yan two days to learn how to maintain body stability while gliding.

During this process, Xia Yan needs to hold the longsword and maintain the basic sword-holding posture.

Then Renji Abarai taught him the walking technique, which is similar to the folded-foot technique. It involves walking forward step by step by folding your feet.

Next comes the footwork, with one foot in front of the other, the right foot in front and the left foot behind, with the left heel slightly raised.

If you want to move forward, first use a folded-foot glide to move your right foot forward, and then quickly follow with your left foot.

If you want to move backward, use a folded-foot glide to move your left foot backward, and then your right foot follows.

In addition to moving forward and backward, there is also moving diagonally. Both require maintaining a stable upper body posture while using a gliding motion, moving with one foot in front of the other.

You can't move forward and backward at the same time, so that you have a supporting foot to stabilize your body during movement.

It took Xia Yan five days to master the delivery.

Next comes the "spreading the feet" technique, which involves changing the feet diagonally or laterally in place. This change is used to rotate the body to attack or defend against enemy attacks.

This was relatively simple, and Xia Yan mastered it in just two days.

Next comes the follow-up step, which is similar to the follow-up step, but the difference is that in the follow-up step, the front foot moves first when moving forward and the back foot moves first when moving backward.

However, when following up with the second foot, the back foot first moves forward to close the distance with the front foot, and then the front foot moves forward to launch a sudden attack or retreat instantly.

The first step of the follow-up foot is also called the 'stealing step', a footwork used to catch the opponent off guard.

After mastering it, Xia Yan learned to step on the ground, which is also called treading the ground and is closely related to sending the feet.

When moving forward, the front foot moves forward, but the entire sole of the foot is on the ground with great force, while the back foot quickly moves to follow.

The power accumulates the moment the front foot steps down, and then explodes with the power of the body as the back foot follows.

These are six basic footwork techniques, which Xia Yan took more than ten days to master. With the training, his spiritual particle density also slowly increased.

Footwork is key in Kendo. Mastering footwork ensures a stable stance and provides a foundation for practicing fighting techniques.

The first technique practiced was swinging.

The footwork used in the swinging motion is closely related to stepping or stomping. Using abdominal breathing, when stomping forward, adjust your center of gravity, lean your upper body forward, exhale the air in your body, and swing your arms forward with your shoulder joints as the axis.

Furthermore, there are requirements for hand movements when swinging the sword. When the sword is first swung, the little finger of the left hand should grip the hilt tightly, and the left hand should rotate slightly inward.

However, when the sword is swung to its furthest point, the right hand must twist inward, using the force of both hands rotating and squeezing inward to strike a single point and transmit the force to the enemy through the sword.

Swinging is the result of the combined action of the feet, body, and arms, requiring the mobilization of the whole body's strength, and is extremely beneficial for training spiritual pressure.

There are two types of training methods for oscillation. One is to pursue the number of oscillations, thereby increasing endurance by oscillating as many times as possible.

The second approach is to pursue the speed of the swing, increasing the burst of power by increasing the number of swings per unit time.

Rukia instructed Natsuhiko to train in both methods, especially the first one, which required him to be able to perform fifty oscillations at a time without stimulating his spiritual particles.

This was quite a challenge for Xia Yan, who was small in stature.

After learning the basics of pendulum swing from Rukia, Xia Yan began training alone. Holding a bamboo stick, he practiced pendulum swings on the open ground.

Once, twice, ... five times, ten times.

Xia Yan started swinging very easily and quickly completed ten swings. However, after ten swings, he could feel the weight of the wooden stick and a slight feeling of fatigue.

Eleven times, twelve times, ... nineteen times, twentieth times.

Xia Yan continued training, exceeding twenty repetitions. When he reached the twenty-first repetition, he felt physically exhausted and his arms ached, forcing him to stop and recover his spiritual energy to replenish the spiritual energy consumed in his body.

Xia Yan rested for a while and then continued training, repeatedly swinging and oscillating, depleting his spiritual energy while constantly replenishing it.

Under these conditions, Xia Yan's spiritual particle density increases at an extremely rapid rate, allowing him to sustain a very high number of oscillations.

Thirty-five times, thirty-six times, forty times.

Forty-seven times, forty-eight times, forty-nine times, fifty times.

It wasn't until half a month later that Xia Yan was able to complete a set of fifty swings, satisfying Rukia's requirement for herself.

However, simply mastering the movements is only the beginning. The force used by each part of the body during the swing and how to respond to the attack require training from others.

At this point, Rukia took the initiative to become Natsuhiko's sparring partner.

Rukia stood in front of Natsuhiko, holding the wooden sword, her beautiful eyes radiating a serious expression.

Xia Yan stood three steps away from Rukia, gripped his sword with both hands, took a deep breath, and suddenly stepped forward with his right foot, slamming his foot heavily on the ground, followed quickly by his left foot.

At this moment, Xia Yan used his shoulder joints to change from holding his arms out horizontally with the sword tips pointing upwards to bending his arms and swinging them out sharply forward.

The wooden stick, accompanying Xia Yan's movements, slammed towards Rukia's face.

Rukia raised the bamboo sword in her hand, slightly adjusted her posture, and struck the side of the wooden stick in Natsuhiko's hand with the side of the sword.

With only a very slight force, he knocked the wooden stick out of Xia Yan's hand and flicked it to the side.

The force caused Xia Yan's movements to halt. At that moment, Rukia stomped her right foot heavily and slashed out with her bamboo sword.

Xia Yan felt a strong gust of wind coming towards him, and the shadow of the bamboo sword instantly appeared in front of him. He couldn't help but close his eyes.

However, the expected blow did not come. Xia Yan opened his eyes and found that the bamboo knife was stopped one centimeter in front of him.

Rukia sheathed her wooden sword, shook her head, and said, "When you attacked just now, your hand movements weren't coordinated, and your strength wasn't concentrated. Secondly, your retreat wasn't done well. A swing involves not only forward movement but also backward movement. Don't stop retreating just because the opponent blocked your sword move. Timely retreat can prevent the opponent's next attack, giving you the ability to dodge and counterattack."

"I've got it."

Xia Yan memorized these words, and Rukia nodded, saying, "Again."

With Rukia by his side, Xia Yan trained and mastered the essence of the swing, becoming thoroughly familiar with it.

Next, Xia Yan learned many basic sword techniques, such as striking the face, striking the hand and abdomen, stabbing the throat, striking the face and cutting back, and touching the body.

These are the basic techniques of Kendo, and also the most direct and simplest moves.

If one can master these techniques, one will have enough combat power to protect oneself. However, compared to the profoundness of swordsmanship, these are merely the simplest moves.

Kendo techniques also include facial attacks, abdominal attacks, hand attacks, and throat attacks.

In addition, there are Nen-ryu, Itto-ryu, Kage-ryu, Shinto-ryu, and other schools and hundreds of branches.

However, neither Renji Abarai nor Rukia Kuchiki knew these skills. The Shinigami who had wandered here only taught them these basic techniques before they had to leave.

However, these basic tactics are enough for Xia Yan to protect himself.

At the same time, Xia Yan also mastered the technique of using spiritual pressure, increasing his speed, reaction ability, and strength by consuming spiritual particles.

Covering a longsword with spiritual energy can make it faster and more powerful.

Xia Yan is only eleven years old now, and his body is small, not as big as Abarai and Rukia, but by consuming spiritual energy, he can already briefly contend with the two.

With the training, Xia Yan's spiritual particle density has also increased significantly. He believes that if he continues to train like this, he will eventually be able to reach the fifth level of spiritual pressure.

At this time, three months had passed since Xia Yan came to this world, and winter had arrived.

Chapter Five: The Cold Winter

Winter is a disaster for the residents of Rukongai.

The cold temperatures cause the rate at which spiritual energy is lost from the souls to accelerate. Normally, they replenish their spiritual energy by fishing and picking fruit, but in winter, the fruit trees have withered and the river has frozen over, making it difficult for them to obtain food.

Food was already scarce in the Xudiao region, and with prices rising in winter, they simply didn't have the extra money to buy food.