Swallowed Star

Volume 2 Chapter 3: Ghost blade

5 AM of the second day. While it was still dawn, Luo Feng was already rushing towards the dojo of limits.

Since he still hasn’t received his prospective fighter certificate, he used his old ‘dojo elite member’ identification to enter the dojo.

“Brother”

“Good morning, brother”

Inside the dojo of limits, there were quite a few members already training. Luo Feng slightly smiled and nodded, and then sprinted towards the elite member’s building. Since he doesn’t have his prospective fighter certificate yet, he can only go up to the third floor: the elite member training hall. He had no right to go to the fourth floor, which is the instructor’s region.

“HA!” A sound came from the training hall.

Luo Feng looked in and saw a white robed teenager swinging around an iron spear.

“Brother Tie*” Luo Feng called loudly, “Coming this early in the morning to practice? How rare”

*TL note: Tie means Iron

“Crazy” The white robed teenager stopped and looked at Luo Feng with a face of happiness, “How come you came here? Haha, oh right, I should congratulate crazy for passing the prospective fighter exam”

“How did you know that?” Luo Feng was surprised.

Few people should know of the fact that he passed the prospective fighter exam.

“Last night, our teacher told us when he was teaching. He told us that you and brother Yang passed the prospective fighter exam” The white robed teenager helplessly rubbed his forehead, “Seeing how you two passed, I certainly have no time to relax. So that’s why I came here early in the morning to practice”

Luo Feng nodded.

So it was the teacher who told them. Even though there were around thirty thousand members in the dojo of limits, there were only six teachers! And there was only one instructor! When the teachers teach, they usually do it in the huge training halls where thousands of members can attend at the same time.

Of course, there was no need to teach the elite members, since there were only a handful of them in the entire dojo.

“Crazy, you passed the exam already. What’re you here for this early in the morning?” The white robed teenager laughed.

“August 1st, the fighter combat exam. I need to prepare myself” Luo Feng laughed and headed towards the weapons room at the side of the training hall, which was opened.

After entering the weapons room, there were a large assortment of weapons on the shelves: blades, spears, rods, bars, axes, swords, pikes, etc. Each category of weapons had even smaller divisions within. For example, the knives had one handed knives and two handed knives. And the one handed knives even had more divisions.

“The ghost series” Luo Feng opened up a cabinet where a large amount of identical blades lay. Of course, these blades were ‘copies’, so they had the exact same model, weight, and center of gravity as the real blade. There was only a difference in the quality of the material. A real blade that can kill monsters is probably priced around the hundred thousands, while these copies only cost a couple hundred, so they’re quite cheap.

Luo Feng picked out a certain blade: a 2nd series ghost blade. The blade was 78 cm long and the entire thing was 101 cm long. It was 5.2 cm wide and the back of the blade was thick. The tip of the blade was sharp and suited for stabbing.

“Hm?” Luo Feng swinged twice and frowned, “I’ve been using this blade for so long. However….. it feels so light”

A blade that he was used to swinging was now weightless.

“I need a heavier blade to correspond with my increase in power” Luo Feng picked another 2nd series ghost blade and swung it around “Nope, still too light”

“This one isn’t heavy enough”

“Light, too light”

Luo Feng picked out the heaviest 2nd series ghost blade and shook his head, “Looks like my strength really increased too much. I can’t find a blade in this elite member’s weapons room that suits me” Luo Feng could only leave the 3rd floor and go to the 4th.

“The 4th floor is where the teachers and instructors frequently go to” Luo Feng knew that there was also a training hall and weapons room in there, “Prospective fighters also have the right to enter, but I still don’t have my prospective fighter certificate. Not sure if I’m allowed to be here”

At the side of the staircase, there was a veteran on duty in a small room.

“Hm? What are you doing. This place is not for students” The old on duty veteran stood up and suddenly let out a face of surprise and laughed, “Oh, it’s Luo Feng. I heard from instructor Jiang that you passed the prospective fighter exam. Haha, come on in”

“Thank you, uncle Li” Luo Feng let out a sigh of relief.

If this uncle Li was strict and forced Luo Feng to show his prospective fighter certificate, then Luo Feng wouldn’t have been able to go in. From the law’s point of view, Luo Feng is still not a prospective fighter.

There were tons of decorations in the 4th floor’s training hall, along with much higher quality machines and devices.

At this time, there was only Luo Feng in the training hall.

“What a waste, truly a waste” Luo Feng couldn’t help but to shake his head as he sighed, “In this dojo, there are only six teachers. Other than when they teach, they usually train at the limit hall. There’s such a good place here, but it’s almost always empty”

Luo Feng shook his head as he entered the weapons room to the side.

The weapons here were also copies, but they were clearly much better than the ones on the 3rd floor.

“2nd series ghost blade. Yup, these blades are much heavier” Luo Feng picked one and swung it around and then picked another one. After five tries, he finally found a suitable one. He looked at the label and saw that it had a weight of——101kg。

“What, 101 kg?” Even Luo Feng was startled, “Such a heavy blade feels so easy to control to me?”

The ghost blades were a type of blades that rely on speed, so they were usually lighter.

To need a weight of 101 kg, how much has his strength actually increased?

“Looks like my body fitness really did raise by a startling amount. I’ll go check my fist strength and speed later” Luo Feng was a bit excited, “Now, I’ll practice the basics”. After selecting a suitable blade, he picked a hexagonal shield.

……

In the training hall, Luo Feng’s left arm wielded the shield while his right hand wielded the ghost blade.

[HE!]

[HA!]

Luo Feng was practicing the most basics of blade wielding——horizontal cuts, upwards cuts, swinging, rapid cuts….. Each of them were extremely precise. Everytime Luo Feng swung his blade, his center of gravity wasn’t affected at all. He kept practicing like this and improved himself.

“My power is too great now so I can’t control my swinging power too well” Luo Feng knew his own problems.

“My strength is great, but I have to be able to use it” Luo Feng was clear.

Even if your fitness level is greater than your opponent’s, that doesn’t mean your skill is.

Some people can only express 30% of their strength.

Some people can express 50%, 60%, 70%, and even 100%. Some of the grandmaster class bladesman can use a small amount of power to kill a being that’s ten times stronger than him. This is the importance of skill and experience.

Of course——

If there’s too much of a difference in body fitness level, then even skill cannot make up for that. Simply put, no matter what, you have to train in order to bring out your body’s full power.

××××××

“Instructor” The on duty uncle Li greeted loudly on the 4th floor.

“Who’s inside?” asked instructor Jiang Nian. He heard a bunch of faint sounds from the training hall, which were the sounds of a blade causing shockwaves in the air due to its incredible speed. Just the sound alone is enough to know that the person wielding it is a fighter.

“It’s Luo Feng” uncle Li laughed.

“Luo Feng?” instructor Jiang Nian laughed and walked towards the training hall.

As he stood at the entrance to the training hall, he watched Luo Feng’s movements, which were by the book, basic movements. Sometimes he would cut ahead, suddenly dash forwards, dodge, backstep, etc. The movements were all very smooth and connected.

“Hm, what a solid foundation” instructor Jiang Nian couldn’t help but to nod and praise in his heart, “Only by mastering the basics can you get better. There are no clear weak points, great”

The more he watched the more pleased he became.

“Ah, instructor” Luo Feng turned and realized instructor Jiang Nian was there and stopped.

Instructor Jiang Nian laughed and walked in: “Luo Feng, nice skill. You’ve been training since you were young?”

“Yes, before I enrolled in the dojo, I practiced alone at home” Luo Feng laughed. Instructor Jiang Nian nodded his head in satisfaction, but his expression suddenly froze as he saw the ghost blade Luo Feng was holding; his eyes widened and became huge.

“Instructor, instructor?” Luo Feng was startled by the instructor’s expression.

“You, you…..” instructor Jiang Nian looked at Luo Feng with surprise, “You were just swinging a 101 kg ghost blade?”

“Ye, yes” Luo Feng was frozen.

Instructor Jiang Nian shaked his head: “Impossible, impossible….. there’s no way” but soon after, instructor Jiang Nian’s eyes flashed and he stared at Luo Feng as if he was a jewel, “Luo Feng, hurry and go to that fist strength tester machine over there and show me the results! I want to see exactly how strong you are now”.