Chapter Eleven: The Blade Technique Hidden in the Wind

Just like that, Zhou Yi had no intention of leaving. Standing in the wind, his gaze followed the ebb and flow of the blade energy within the space—disappearing, then returning, again and again. As he watched this cycle repeat endlessly, at some point, a subtle change crept into his eyes.

After countless appearances and vanishings, Zhou Yi, who had been observing all along, suddenly noticed something remarkable. Each time the blade energy reappeared, it was not exactly the same as before. With every new emergence, there was a slight shift in its posture or orientation, even the feeling it gave off seemed subtly altered.

At first, the difference was negligible, but as the cycles mounted, coupled with Zhou Yi’s eidetic memory and his present curiosity, he soon sensed the discrepancy. He immediately began to compare the manifestations of the blade energy in his memory, and thus discovered this anomaly.

With this realization, Zhou Yi’s earlier restlessness was replaced with renewed excitement. He watched with growing interest as the blade energy appeared and disappeared in endless succession.

Remember, compare, remember, compare!

Repeating this process over and over, his expression gradually grew serious. Over time, the blade energy revealed itself in all manner of forms, each distinct, each etched into his memory like paintings hung one after another in the air.

Soon, Zhou Yi’s face showed a hint of excitement—he seemed to be on the verge of a discovery! After long, persistent observation, he finally noticed the repetition: at last, a blade energy appeared that was exactly the same as one he had seen before.

By then, the gallery of blade energies imprinted in his mind had reached a staggering number, densely packed as far as he could imagine.

“Could it be…I’ve collected all the forms of this blade energy?” He paused, scrutinizing them further. Every new emergence of blade energy had appeared before and was already recorded in his mind. This made Zhou Yi fall into deep thought.

“Blade energy…blade energy…” His thoughts shifted away from the phenomenon itself. “The secret of the wind lies in the blade energy within it. And the essence of the blade energy…could it be these myriad forms…forms…that’s it!”

With this realization, Zhou Yi’s mind suddenly burst with inspiration. He focused eagerly on the countless shapes of blade energy displayed in his memory.

Some forms thrust upward, others downward, to the left, to the right—slashing forward, hacking backward, slicing left, blocking right…

“These forms of blade energy…they look so much like the movements of a person wielding a blade,” Zhou Yi mused, eyes narrowed. “If I’m not mistaken, if all these blade energies are linked together, wouldn’t that make a complete set of blade techniques?”

“Blade techniques…that’s right, that’s what they are! These blade energies actually form a set of blade techniques!” The more Zhou Yi observed, the more convinced he became. This was indeed a set of blade techniques.

“The Wind Gap—a gorge split open by a single slash, named so because the wind flows through it.”

“The Blade Wind—so called because the wind carries blade energy, and when it strikes the body, it’s almost indistinguishable from a real blade.”

“The blade energy itself contains the essence of blade techniques, hence its name.”

“Since the Wind Gap was formed by a predecessor of the Kaoshan Blade Sect, the residual blade energy left behind, mingling with the wind to form the Blade Wind, must also contain the blade techniques practiced by that predecessor.”

“If my guess is correct, then this must be the truth!” Zhou Yi could not help but feel elated. Ever since discovering this was a world of martial arts, he had yearned for those legendary skills. That was why he had been so eager to join a sect—to learn martial arts.

Yet, to his amazement, before even joining a sect, he was already on the verge of mastering the martial art he had long dreamed of, and it was highly likely to be an advanced technique!

After all, how weak could a technique be if it could split a mountain with a single strike?

“Haha…I’m getting ahead of myself,” Zhou Yi chuckled, reigning in his delight. “Now, there’s only one question left. To turn all these imaginings into reality, there remains but one obstacle: are these forms truly a blade technique?”

“To verify this is simple—I need only practice them. As long as I gain something, whatever these blade energies truly are will become clear!” Zhou Yi had never been more grateful for his second golden finger—his ability panel.

“If I gain anything at all, no matter what it is, it will automatically show up on my attribute panel, provided it represents something.”

With his thoughts emptied, Zhou Yi withdrew his mind from the Blade Wind and plunged inward, forming an ethereal figure that stood before a wall of thousands of blade energy forms within his consciousness. His thoughts raced as he tried to reconstruct the sequence with these movements—yet one problem remained: finding the beginning and the end.

After all, from the start, there was no guarantee that the first blade energy he recorded was truly the initial movement.

So now, he could only piece together a beginning and an end from this mosaic of blade energies—only then could he take the first step toward his dream.

Fortunately, his spirit was strong enough to construct such a mental space. Otherwise, even if he had discovered all this, there would have been nothing he could do.

With the Blade Wind raging outside and the confined space he occupied, it would have been impossible to practice.

But with this mental space, not only was assembling the puzzle easy, but practicing the technique once it was complete would be just as simple. Furthermore, since this was a realm of thought, where mental processes far outpaced physical motion, time here flowed differently than in the outside world.

Although, due to the limits of his own spirit, he could not achieve the feat of “a thousand years in a blink,” he could still slow the passage of time to some extent.

“Ah…puzzles, puzzles…” Zhou Yi gazed excitedly at the sea of pieces before him. His form suddenly expanded, and in an instant, he was transformed into a towering giant—his head brushing the heavens, his feet planted on the earth, unimaginably vast in this dark space.

“This is my mental domain, and here, I make the rules!” Now, the puzzle pieces that had seemed large before appeared tiny in his grasp. He reached out and seized one, as easily as picking up a small biscuit. Zhou Yi grinned, his eyes gleaming with pride.