5 Starting from Sword Practice

Cui Huai sat in a room that barely kept the wind out, reminiscing about her magnificent, treasure-filled Changqing Palace, when the System cheerfully announced a reward.

"Congratulations! Your first task is complete. Please collect your reward."

[Join a Sect: Join the Xiaoyao Sect quickly. Completion: 1/1]
[Task Reward: Sword Technique Guide *1, Low-grade Spirit Stones *20]

Upon receiving the "Sword Technique Guide," Cui Huai couldn't even be bothered to flip through it. In this world, no one understood swordsmanship better than she did. Reading such elementary-level material felt like demeaning herself. She took the twenty spirit stones, wondering if she could use them to buy a slightly more decent set of clothes.

The System then issued a new task:

[Introduction to Swordsmanship: Study the "Sword Technique Guide" and pass the stage assessment. Completion: 0/1]
[Task Reward: Reduce the number of spirit roots by one, Low-grade Spirit Stones *50]

Cui Huai sneered, "For me, wielding a sword is as simple as breathing. I don't need to study; just test me directly."

She was already considering which spirit root attribute to remove and how to spend the fifty extra spirit stones. She stood up, picked up the tattered sword newly issued by the Xiaoyao Sect, and gestured with it, "Start the test."

Unexpectedly, the System didn't ask her to demonstrate any powerful maneuvers. Instead, a sheet of paper floated gently down before her:

"Academic Evaluation Test: Introduction to Swordsmanship"
[I. Conceptual Interpretation: Please discuss the following theories (5 points each, 15 points total)
1. Conservation of Energy
2. Laws of Momentum
3. The Three Laws of Conservation of Mass]

Cui Huai read the text in bewilderment. What were these things? What did they have to do with swordsmanship?

Sensing her confusion, the System reminded her, "These are all contents from the 'Sword Technique Guide'."

Cui Huai didn't believe it. Which sect's swordsmanship guide would include such nonsense? It was scandalous and unheard of. However, she had spent the last few hundred years at the Wuya Sect, mostly in seclusion, and hadn't looked at any swordsmanship manuals in ages. Could the outside world have evolved to this extent?

At the first quarter of the Mao hour the next day, Cui Huai arrived at the small dirt hill behind the Xiaoyao Sect. Jiang Xuan had said yesterday that he would be there early to practice, and if she needed anything, she could find him there.

She waited for two hours.

The sun was almost directly overhead when Jiang Xuan finally wandered over to the hill, unhurried, and greeted her with a bright smile: "Junior Sister, morning! Are you here to practice, too?"

Cui Huai gritted her teeth, "Didn't you say you'd be here early? It's almost noon! How is this 'early'?"

"It's only a little past nine... I mean, it's only the Si hour, it's very early."

What a slacker! How could any sword cultivator in the world only start practicing at the Si hour!

Cui Huai didn't want to waste words with him and stated her purpose: "Does the Xiaoyao Sect have any popular introductory swordsmanship books from recent years? I would like to borrow one to read." The Xiaoyao Sect was so destitute that it didn't even have a library, or she wouldn't have had to ask Jiang Xuan for books.

"Yes, yes, I have some in my room. Wait, I'll get them for you."

Jiang Xuan returned with the books and handed them to Cui Huai: "Junior Sister, you are so studious! You've only just joined the sect and you're already wanting to practice. Master said he was giving you all a week off."

"I just want to take a look. Senior Brother, please continue your practice. I'll return to read; I won't disturb you."

Unexpectedly, Jiang Xuan looked up at the sky and sighed: "Fetching the books took some time, and it happens to be very sunny now, which isn't suitable for sword practice. I think I'll go back and rest to ensure I'm in a good state tomorrow."

Cui Huai was speechless. If the Wuya Sect had such a lazy disciple, she would have been the first to expel them from the sect!

***

Opening the books Jiang Xuan had provided, she found the contents were all things Cui Huai already knew by heart—nothing but old wine in new bottles, no different from her understanding of swordsmanship manuals.

She then opened the "Sword Technique Guide" provided by the System, only to be met with a table of contents she couldn't understand at all.

[Section One: Overview of Sports Biomechanics
1. Biomechanical Principles of Swinging Movements
2. Biomechanical Principles of Whipping Movements
3. Biomechanical Principles of Impact Movements
...]

Cui Huai couldn't help but question the System: "What on earth does this 'Sword Technique Guide' have to do with swordsmanship?"

"You people in the cultivation world are too obsessed with metaphysics; your scientific foundation is too weak. Do you know what action and reaction forces are? Do you know why ripe fruit falls to the ground instead of flying into the sky? Do you know..."

Amidst Cui Huai's blank expression, the System concluded: "Look, you don't know any of these, so you must learn."

Cui Huai wasn't swayed by the System's rhetoric: "No matter how much you ponder complex swordsmanship, it's not as good as swinging the sword tens of thousands of times a day. Besides, ripe fruit doesn't have to fall to the ground; with a little bit of my magic, I can make it fly into the sky."

"That is knowing the 'what' but not the 'why.' That won't do, that won't do."

The System wouldn't admit it, but because Cui Huai was far too easy to strengthen, it had to change her training tasks on the fly to slow her down, forcing her to focus on the male lead. Don't think it hadn't noticed—Cui Huai's talk of pursuing the male lead was just to brush it off; otherwise, she would have asked who the male lead was by now!

Told by the System that this was the only path for her cultivation advancement and that the exam contents wouldn't change, Cui Huai knew the System was just waiting for her to advance the plot. But she didn't want to give it the satisfaction.

She, Cui Huai, had never encountered a bottleneck in her cultivation. She was a prodigy, indomitable—it was just a measly "Sword Technique Guide," surely she could master it?

Thus, Cui Huai locked herself in her room for five days and five nights, studying diligently.

On the third day, Jiang Xuan and Zhao Zhixu knocked on her door. Zhao Zhixu asked with concern: "Junior Sister, why have you stayed in your room for these past few days without coming out?"

Cui Huai replied weakly: "Senior Sister, don't worry. I've taken a Bigu pill; I've just been too obsessed with reading these sword manuals."

Jiang Xuan put on his airs as a Senior Brother: "Junior Sister, practicing the sword isn't done by working behind closed doors. Reading is useless. I understand your determination to improve, but you must come out and practice to make progress."

Teaching her with his half-baked, lazy methods? Did he think she didn't know that?

She brushed off their concerns with words while continuing to bury herself in her studies.

On the fourth day, True Person Qingyan came to persuade her, becoming yet another person moved by Cui Huai's inspiring spirit. To possess seven-colored spirit roots and still strive so hard—what a good disciple.

On the fifth day, Cui Huai closed her sore eyes, stopped taxing her exhausted brain, and shut the "Sword Technique Guide," a book she had once despised.

Cui Huai, there was actually something in this world you couldn't do!

The System asked with schadenfreude: "Do you still want to learn about action and reaction forces? Do you need me to bring out the exam paper again?"

Cui Huai clenched her fists, feeling an unprecedented level of irritability: "Shut up."

After a silence, Cui Huai spoke with forced resignation: "Tell me who this male lead of yours is!"