I Cheated While Cultivating

Chapter 43: The Unparalleled Blade and Sword

"In dozens of years, I’ve never seen anyone as quick as you.

"This is Eighth Rank swordsmanship!”

Lin Cang watched Zhou Heng with utter astonishment, inevitably casting immense doubt over his own decades of martial arts training.

Is martial arts really that hard to learn?

For this Running Clouds Falling Sun Sword, I myself practiced for a whole half a month before I barely got started.

But this kid Zhou Heng, in less than an hour, actually learned it!

And after he learned it, he improved rapidly.

In less than two more hours of practice, he made Lin Cang feel like he had reached the level of proficiency that took him two to three years to achieve.

Could this be… what a genius is like?

It’s simply incomprehensible!

"This might be because my swordsmanship talent isn’t too bad,” Zhou Heng scratched his head, not knowing how to console Lin Cang.

After all, a player with cheat codes like myself isn’t comparable to ordinary people.

However, when he was learning the Running Clouds Falling Sun Sword just now, he didn’t use any allocatable proficiency points for Eighth Rank, but truly listened and watched Lin Gang’s explanation and demonstration attentively before learning it.

That is, it was a bit fast.

This was thanks to his already highly proficient

“Breaking Sword Style.”

The essence of Breaking Sword Style isn’t in the moves themselves, but in the philosophy of swordsmanship, and Zhou Heng’s increased proficiency in Breaking Sword Style equaled a deeper understanding of the philosophy behind swordsmanship.

Naturally, it accelerated his pace in learning other sword techniques.

Moreover, as he learned the Running Clouds Falling Sun Sword, Zhou Heng’s comprehension of

“Breaking Sword Style” also deepened.

[Eighth Rank] Solo Nine Swords’ Breaking Sword Style: Advanced (2222/3000) [Eighth Rank] Running Clouds Falling Sun Sword: Intermediate (1255/2000) You have to say, Breaking Sword Style truly is a divine technique, worthy of being called an everlasting proficiency generator for swordsmanship; any new sword technique learned will increase the proficiency of Breaking Sword Style. And as the proficiency of Breaking Sword Style increases, it will, in turn, elevate the proficiency of other sword techniques.

It’s extremely useful.

Lin Cang now seemed to be lost in thought, and after a while, he nodded with a serious expression, saying,

“Perhaps I really held you back. If I had let you start with swordsmanship from the beginning, your achievements might be even higher.”

He regarded Zhou Heng as one of those geniuses who specialized in swordsmanship.

The talent for swordsmanship hadn’t been discovered earlier because Zhou Heng had previously practiced saber technique and hadn’t shown his aptitude for swordsmanship.

He felt a surge of guilt in his heart.

After all, when an apprentice first joins the martial arts hall, the choice of which martial art to learn is usually suggested by the trainer.

"Master Lin, don’t think like that. At that time, I knew nothing about the martial path. If it weren’t for Master Lin, I wouldn’t have known what to learn myself,” Zhou Heng said with a smile.

“Besides, my talent in saber technique isn’t bad either.”

“…” Lin Cang first fell into a slight silence, then smiled and said, “Indeed, it isn’t bad. To go from nothing to achieving perfection in a Ninth Grade saber technique in two years is also quite remarkable.

"However, I still want to remind you of one thing: between saber technique and swordsmanship, it’s best to choose one to specialize in the future.

"If you study both, even with exceptional talent, you may end up with a jumbled skill set and jeopardize your future on the martial path.”

"I understand,” Zhou Heng nodded in agreement.

He knew Lin Cang was looking out for him, but in his heart, he had no intention of really giving up saber technique.

Because he was aware that his rapid progress and quick learning did not come from some incredible talent, but because he had a cheat!

With such a system that could quantify his proficiency and help him breach through progress quantitatively, occasionally rewarding proficiency, practicing only one martial art was simply not enough.

Moreover, being excellent in both saber and sword, with three saber techniques, three sword techniques, and three divine skills sounded too good to pass up, right?

Plus, it could also serve to confuse adversaries and conceal his true strength.

The enemy thought they were adept at Saber Technique, and after painstakingly researching strategies specifically against it, I’d then pull out a longsword and slaughter them left and right. Isn’t that feeling delightful?

Given the existence of all those crafty old foxes and sly saints, the notion of a one-size-fits-all solution is certainly far from reality.

As someone practicing martial arts,

You must always have a few tricks up your sleeve that no one else knows about.

Um—

I’ll continue using the saber on the surface.

It comes in handy when cutting people down.

A seventeen-year-old Ninth Grade Martial Artist appeared at Longxing Martial

Arts Hall.

This news quickly spread throughout Huangtong Mansion.

After all, Huangtong Mansion City is not that large a place, and only a few can afford and have the connections to acquire powerful spiritual medicine.

Moreover, to reach the Ninth Grade, merely taking medicine is insufficient; one must also cultivate their foundational stance to Perfection, allowing the supplemented Qi and blood to be catalyzed into strength.

In addition, you need to have a Ninth Grade technique also cultivated to Perfection, which is even more challenging than accumulating strength. After all, strength can be augmented with spiritual medicine to catalyze Qi and blood, but for techniques, one can only rely on hard practice and cannot depend on external forces at all.

It was because Sun Zhengping had perfected the Autumn Rain Thirteen Swords technique that he was deemed the most promising Martial Artist under thirty to reach Ninth Grade in Huangtong Mansion City.

Plus, with his substantial family wealth, as long as his foundational stance was proficient, he could use medicine to supplement his Qi and blood and catalyze his strength, thereby stepping into the realm of Ninth Grade for real.

Taking all factors into account, those who could reach Ninth Grade before turning thirty were rare treasures throughout the whole Huangtong Mansion. A seventeen-year-old Ninth Grade Martial Artist!

It was truly a shocking and awe-inspiring event!

It could definitely set off a gossip frenzy in Huangtong Mansion City, making the name

“Zhou Heng” the talk of the town, in every street and alley, tavern, and tea house.

Within half a day, storytelling about Zhou Heng had

“gone live.”

In the afternoon, in a tea house in the south of the city, the Storyteller, fluent as a flowing river and eloquent as a blossoming lotus, narrated from the stage.

He told of the battle between Zhou Heng and Sun Zhengping, a fight for the favor of the unparalleled beauty, Wang Qingqing, which was so fierce that it darkened the skies and obscured the sun and moon.

The audience below, holding their tea bowls, listened intently.

Among these listeners was a young master dressed in a white brocade robe, with handsome features, soft lines to his visage, and a mustache. He listened with a bobbing head, thoroughly engrossed in the progression of the story.

Clap!

Suddenly, there was a loud smack of the wooden fish, and the young master was abruptly pulled out of his reverie, waking up with a startled look as he turned his gaze toward the Storyteller on the stage.

Only to hear—

” …and so Zhou Heng triumphed over Sun Zhengping, ultimately winning the favor of Miss Wang Qingqing and becoming her personal guard. If you would like to know what happens next, please come back for the next installment!

After which, the Storyteller retreated to the back hall at lightning speed, not giving the audience a chance to react.

After all, leaving an audience hanging could lead to trouble.

That was the Storyteller’s experience.

Every time he left them hanging, he would run away swiftly to avoid being caught by the audience.

The young master, who was listening to a storytelling for the first time, had never seen such a move and stood there stunned for a while before standing up, exasperated and complaining, “How could they do this!?

To sneak out and not even hear a complete story!?

But then, she remembered that the protagonist of the story, Zhou Heng, was from Huangtong Mansion City, so to find out what happened next, she could simply go and ask him directly.

"Heh, the uncles, aunts, and grandparents were right, I really am the smartest!” The young master’s eyes shone brightly as she dashed out of the tea house, planning to find Zhou Heng on her own.

But after just a couple of steps, she stopped again, scratching her head and looking around, bewildered.

She suddenly realized that she had no idea where in Huangtong Mansion City Zhou Heng actually was…