Archean Eon Art

Chapter 3: Novice and Grandmaster

Meng Chuan carefully read the biographies. Many of these were written by large clans about a particular ancestor of theirs for publicity! Some of them were independently written by commoners because the Godfiend in question was truly famous. Some of the most famous Godfiends’ biographies had dozens of versions. Some sects had voluntarily written down biographies for Godfiends. The most exaggerated ones were the autobiographies. The Godfiends who wrote those hoped that their descendants would remember their deeds.

These biographies are mainly telling stories. Sometimes, only a few sentences in one book are useful to my cultivation. It’s even possible that I can’t find anything useful in a single biography. Also, some of these stories are highly credible and some are less trustworthy. They need to be classified accordingly.

Meng Chuan came from a Godfiend family clan after all. With the guidance of Mirror Lake Dao Academy’s system, his foundation was very solid. His top-notch saber art had reached the Greater Mastery stage, and he was only a step away from reaching Unity.

With such a foundation, he was better equipped to distinguish the utility of each biography.

In one of the biographies, Meng Chuan saw a maxim from the North Sword Emperor that was directed towards his descendants. Not putting your heart and mind into sword practice makes one merely a slave of the sword. Only by putting your heart and mind into training will you become the master of the sword.

As he stared at these words, he pondered. The descendant that North Sword Emperor gave pointers to was a Seamless realm expert. The latter’s sword technique should have reached Unity at the very least. He should have put his heart and mind into it during his usual training, but the North Sword Emperor still said that… Clearly, he didn’t consider the Seamless realm expert to have put his heart and mind into his cultivation.

…

Meng Chuan continued reading the Godfiends’ biographies.

Occasionally, the maxims left behind by a particular Godfiend or certain deeds led to Meng Chuan speculating.

To normal people, it was only a story.

But in the eyes of someone looking for inspiration, one could see the reasons behind the strength of Godfiends.

One skill to eat your fill; one skill to kill. All you need is one skill without the frills. This was a quote from one of the biographies. It came from a conversation between a powerful Godfiend—Fiend Saber Wei Feng—and his disciple three thousand years ago. There were a total of fifteen versions of Fiend Saber Wei Feng’s story sold in the Eastcalm Prefecture.

Amongst them, there were similar sayings to “one skill to eat your fill; one skill to kill. All you need is one skill without the frills.” Meng Chuan also recorded this down.

Apart from the biographies, he also valued the family teachings from the famous Godfiend family clans.

Family teachings were left behind by Godfiends. Generally speaking, they were matters Godfiends believed were extremely important.

The more he recorded, the more shocked he became.

Aim for the skies; not doing so will only result in mediocrity. It’s indeed right to learn from the most powerful Godfiends in history! However, the biographies are just the tip of an iceberg. Without a strong foundation, it’s very easy for one to go astray. Meng Chuan realized this because he noticed that many family’s teachings emphasized one’s cultivation foundation.

All members of the family were to enter the Dao Academies and receive a complete education in cultivation.

This was because the Dao Academies were established by the oldest sect in the world—Archean Mountain. They were in every large city in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and all Dao Academies’ education system was established by Archean Mountain. Only by cultivating in the Dao Academies could one have a solid foundation.

Of course, it only taught him the basics. His saber arts were only one step away from reaching the Unity realm. The Dao Academy had taught him all he needed in his seven years of cultivation. What he needed was to figure things out himself now.

My foundation is sufficient. What I need now is the final step to make a breakthrough. Much of what I’ve recorded today has inspired me. However, there’s no rush. I’ll read through these books briefly before consolidating them. I need at least three Godfiends to have shared similar cultivation principles before I consider them trustworthy.

…

Day after day, Meng Chuan gathered and consolidated knowledge in ever-increasing amounts. He also included the “Immutable Laws” of Mirror Lake Dao Academy—they were cultivation rules that Archean Mountain had set in stone.

The combination of the two allowed Meng Chuan to understand even more.

It’s done.

In the evening, Meng Chuan looked at his notebook and smiled. These five days have been more important than the past five years of my cultivation. Meng Chuan looked at the notebook in excitement. He now had a clearer understanding of cultivation.

The first commandment of cultivation emphasized the extreme importance of one’s foundation. It was akin to the foundation of a house. Entering the Dao Academy and undergoing a complete cultivation system was the best choice.

The second commandment emphasized frequency. No matter how much one imagined inwardly, it couldn’t be compared to cultivating ten thousand times! Sayings like drawing one’s saber ten thousand times and repeating Sanguine Shadow Thrust daily were mentioned by twelve Godfiends.

The third commandment was one skill to eat your fill! It was similar to the second commandment; he only needed one skill to kill enemies. If he cultivated one skill to the extreme, it would be more useful than cultivating ten other relatively powerful killer moves.

The fourth commandment involved the difficulty of cultivation. Even if one endured hardships and grit their teeth to cultivate, they would only be novices! Only those who truly enjoyed and immersed themselves in cultivation and carefully studied the profundity of each move, could become a grandmaster.

He also understood the true meaning behind the North Sword Emperor’s words “not putting your heart and mind into sword practice makes one merely a slave of the sword. Only by putting your heart and mind into training will you become the master of the sword.” The typical cultivator trained hard, but this wasn’t them putting their heart into it. To truly enjoy the swordplay, be obsessed with it, to abandon everything external, and completely indulge in training like a crazed demon would one become a grandmaster. Otherwise, one would only be a novice.

The fifth commandment: “Progress in the day, change over the months, success will ultimately come…”

The sixth commandment…

…

There were a total of nine commandments.

All of the commandments had at least three Godfiends mentioning them. Furthermore, with what Meng Chuan knew, he found them extremely reasonable.

I’ve been practicing my saber every day for several hours to exhaustion. But no matter how tired I was, I’d just grit my teeth and endure it. In the past, I thought I was putting in the effort, but clearly, that doesn’t mean putting my mind and heart into it. I need to be enjoying and immersing myself in the saber arts while I seriously ponder over every move. Meng Chuan felt that this was the biggest problem he had. To begin with, cultivation was very tiring.

Normally, he would draw for two hours in the afternoon. This was his only guilty pleasure. It was a hobby he had since childhood. Through painting, his accumulated fatigue from cultivation would be forgotten, and his heart would also be extremely calm. This allowed him to persevere one year after another.

Now, it seemed like his take on things was wrong.

In the past, I seemed to be diligent and hardworking, but in the end, I was just a novice. Unable to hold back any longer, Meng Chuan put down the notebook and walked out of the study to the courtyard.

In the courtyard, he began to train his top-tier saber art, Falling Leaf Saber.

Unlike before—he only used the first stance of the Falling Leaf Saber, the Saber Drawing Stance. He threw everything else to the back of his mind as he completely focused on his saber art, as though the only thing in the world was the saber in his hand! Then he struck out with his saber! He could sense the silence of the saber as it was unsheathed. He could sense that the saber art was still the same old saber art, but his mentality had changed. What he “saw” changed as well.

Since he was young, he had chosen the swift saber because he liked it sincerely from the bottom of his heart. It was solely because of the exhausting, repetitive training that ground his passion away. But when he changed his state of mind today, he once again focused on his saber arts using both body and mind.

That love was awakening.

The saber was silently unsheathed.

The saber’s trajectories were beautiful strokes in a painting. He tried his best to make the trajectory more graceful with each slash, causing the wind generated from each slash to become faster. Truly powerful saber techniques had a beauty to it, and Meng Chuan’s saber technique was approaching such a level.

He repeated the same move again and again, trying to strike faster and more silently when drawing his saber, working hard to slice through the wind at an ever-increasing speed.

He repeated it fifty times before he was satisfied.

This should be the way to cultivate! Meng Chuan was excited, and then he began to use the second stance—Whirling Moon Stance.

…

Two days after Meng Chuan compiled the cultivation notes, in an underground hall of the Yun family.

Whoosh~

In the center of the hall, purple flames rose.

A black-haired elder was seated in the lotus position within the flames, completely unharmed.

“Dad, you summoned me?” Yun Fu’an respectfully walked to the main hall but didn’t dare approach. Even from afar, he could feel heat—which caused the air to distort—rushing towards him.

“Fu’an.” The black-haired elder opened his eyes, his gaze calm. “I just received a piece of news. That old woman from the Meng family was heavily injured while defending against the demons at the Calm Sea Pass. She probably won’t live for long. She should be returning to Eastcalm in the next few days.”

Yun Fu’an was astonished. “Dad, are you referring to Fairy Meng?”

“Yes.”

The black-haired elder nodded slightly.

“Could it be a mistake?” Yun Fu’an was in disbelief. “Isn’t it said that Fairy Meng is the best at reconnaissance. Nothing within five kilometers can be hidden from her. She doesn’t even need to rush to the forefront, so how was she suddenly seriously injured?”

“There’s no mistake about it,” the black-haired elder said coldly. “King Calm Sea hired several highly skilled doctors for her, but that old woman’s injuries are too severe. Nothing can save her. This is no longer a secret at Calm Sea Pass! If she doesn’t continue fighting and lives an ignoble life, she will live for another eight years at most. If she fights with all her might, her lifespan will be even shorter.”

“At most eight years?” Yun Fu’an couldn’t help but say, “Without Fairy Meng, isn’t the Meng family finished?”

“The five Godfiend clans of the Eastcalm Prefecture will soon become four.” The black-haired elder nodded.

A family clan flourished because of a Godfiend.

Likewise, without Godfiends, a family clan would become ordinary.

“The Meng family will also lose the right to occupy so many important positions and interests in Eastcalm,” the black-haired elder said coldly. “Right, you should make a trip to the Meng family to get them to hand over the marriage agreement between Qingping and that fellow named Meng Chuan, and tear it apart on the spot! The current Meng family… doesn’t deserve to enter a marriage alliance with us.”

“Yes,” Yun Fu’an replied respectfully.

“However, before that old woman dies, there’s no need to lose decorum with them.” After speaking, the black-haired elder closed his eyes.

Yun Fu’an quietly departed.

…

“What? Annulling the marriage agreement?” Yun Qingping stared at her father in shock. Wasn’t he opposed to it? Why is he suddenly changing his mind?

“I’m just informing you.” Yun Fu’an smiled. “Today, I will pay the Meng family a trip to annul your engagement.”

Yun Qingping couldn’t help but ask, “Will the Meng family hand over the marriage contract obediently?”

“They will,” Yun Fu’an said confidently. His father had received the news from a good friend that the Meng family already knew about their ancestor’s impending demise. These large family clans knew themselves well. Stubbornly resisting would only invite insult upon themselves.

Yun Qingping immediately said, “Dad, I just want to annul the engagement. I don’t want to fall out with them and ruin the harmony between our families. Why don’t we invite Uncle Meng over for a discussion…”

“There’s no need to go through so much trouble.” Yun Fu’an smiled. “Alright, leave this matter to me. Just stay at home and wait for the good news.”