Wu Qin’s post silenced everyone who read it, including those who were eager to see Xiao Lin being ridiculed and those who were simply just curious about the whole thing. If not for the real-name system the forum implemented, all of them would have suspected Xiao Lin of deliberately making that eye-catching post using a fake account.
Then, someone who claimed to be in the same class as Xiao Lin posted a short post, saying that Xiao Lin never did increase his XP during the meditation class. That fact was confirmed by many other people in the class at that time and it was impossible for that to be fake.
“It must be fake! A jump from LV0 Basic Meditation to LV1 in just a few minutes? Even if you are a sophomore, you shouldn’t pull a fast one on us freshmen!”
“I’m in Xiao Lin’s class, and I’ll bet my credits that this guy’s meditation level is only at LV0!”
“It’s not that I don’t believe in geniuses, but I heard that even Gu Xiaoyue, who broke the academy’s record, needed an entire lesson to get to LV1!”
“Gu Xiaoyue relied on her extraordinary intelligence value to achieve that! What can Xiao Lin rely on when his initial attribute values don’t even exceed 10!”
“Senior Sister, you’re not being honest!”
“Senior Sister is probably trying to support Xiao Lin!”
“Hehe, Xiao Lin’s pretty awesome. He’s already managed to woo a sophomore senior in barely a few days of being here!”
“He’s probably dependent on her.”
Those who responded to Wu Qin’s post expressed suspicion and disbelief. The topic soon shifted gradually to speculation about Wu Qin and Xiao Lin’s relationship.
Sitting all alone in her dormitory, Wu Qin refreshed the thread repeatedly. Her expression became more and more distorted as she read everything. She could care less about the replies that teased her, but almost everyone who responded clearly told her that Xiao Lin’s Basic Meditation really was only LV0, with no XP whatsoever.
Raising Basic Meditation from LV0 to LV1 in a few minutes? How laughable!
Wu Qin scratched at her short hair vigorously and had a dazed look after having her worldview so drastically upended. She gritted her teeth and finally decided to post it to the sophomore forum. As one of the sophomore year’s underachievers, she believed that those top students—who were dozens of times stronger than her—surely had an explanation for that phenomenon.
...
A new week has begun.
Due to the carrot-and-stick approach for attendance, no one dared be late to class anymore. The lessons were the same as the first week, with compulsory courses in the morning and electives in the afternoon.
Their history lesson continued explaining the history of Planet Norma’s development. It was quite interesting to listen to if one treated the subject like a novel. Having gone through what happened the week earlier, everyone took the initiative to bring along a notebook. In fact, textbooks were readily available, but the price of 200 redemption points was enough of a disincentive for most.
For their swordsmanship lesson in the afternoon, their tutor Cheng Na was late because of an afternoon nap, but just when everyone thought that the T-rex would not show up, she appeared all of a sudden at around 3 p.m. After discovering that no one in the training hall followed her instruction to train with real swords instead of wooden swords, Cheng Na lashed out immediately.
“Bunch of idiots! Do you think this useless thing is any good for training? Those who reached level three Basic Swordsmanship, please step forward!”
Everyone looked around, but Cheng Ming—as the sole student who reached that level—was the only one who came forward.
Cheng Na asked, “Is progressing your level easy to you, boy?”
“It’s very difficult,” Cheng Ming shook his head in distress. “Recently, I’ve had to swing my sword seven or eight times, sometimes even more than a dozen times, just for me to up my XP. Even then it’s only by a small amount. Sometimes, my XP won’t increase at all. If it continues like this, I really wonder how long will it take to get to level four.”
Cheng Na snorted coldly, then waved her right hand in the air. An empty void tore open and a stainless-steel sword appeared in her hand. She pointed the tip of the sword toward Cheng Ming and said, “Come and try me!”
“Again!” Cheng Ming was frustrated. The woman had defeated him so badly the week earlier that he had lost all confidence, but being the earnest person that he was, he bit the bullet and confronted Cheng Na regardless of how reluctant he actually was.
En garde! Swing! Slice!
Cheng Ming’s movements flowed smoothly, exactly like how he had been practicing those few days. Cheng Na’s expression was very serious, unlike her lax attitude the previous time. She lifted the steel sword and held it close to her, then swung it in a smooth arc. Cheng Ming’s attack was blocked and he staggered back a couple of steps before finally falling to the floor. This time however, the sword did not fly from his grip.
“You’ve made progress and you’re roughly able to exert about ninety percent of your strength,” Cheng Na blankly remarked. Nevertheless, Cheng Ming was elated to hear those words coming from that T-rex’s mouth.
“Take a look at how much your XP has increased.”
“Whoa, it actually increased by one!”
Cheng Ming was stunned. Gaining one XP during training took him much longer, but it was achieved in that short duel with Cheng Na!
Cheng Na ignored the surprised Cheng Ming and turned to everyone else, yelling, “You idiots understand it now, don’t you! As I’ve said before, no other training method is better than actual combat! Also, I can’t stand the sight of your hideous moves. I’ll teach you a systematic way to practice swordsmanship today! Remember, the weapon you’re holding is a sword, not a saber, and most definitely not a wooden stick!”
Xiao Lin was quite surprised that Cheng Na was going to give a lecture, but he soon realized why. If she did not teach anything substantial, she would be quite the useless teacher.
“Are you going to teach us sword skills?” someone asked excitedly.
Cheng Na replied mockingly, “Dream on! The lowest level required to learn sword skills is a level three in Basic Swordsmanship. Aside from Cheng Ming...and Xiao Lin, the rest of you aren’t qualified at all! I’ll only teach a few sword moves. These moves will help you increase your XP quicker and allow you to level up your Basic Swordsmanship!”
Everyone knew that Cheng Ming had reached LV3 in Basic Swordsmanship, but were secretly very surprised when Cheng Na named Xiao Lin as well. As much as they felt like asking about it, they felt that it was inappropriate to do so at that moment.
Xiao Lin was the only one who knew what was going on. Cheng Na knew that he had the Slashing skill, which was still considered a sword skill despite having little practical significance.
“Today I’ll only teach you the eight most basic sword moves. These are: thrust, chop, sprinkle, hang, cloud, jab, burst, and intercept[1]. The beginner and advanced sword skills that you’ll learn in the future will be based on various combinations and permutations of these basic moves.”
Cheng Na paced while holding the steel sword when, all of a sudden, she pointed at a boy not far away and shouted, “You there! What are you doing with that pen and paper? Taking notes? Do you think this is a history lesson? A geography lesson maybe?! Use your mind and body to remember the fundamentals of this action!”
Jumping straight to business, Cheng Na turned around and straightened her posture, then took a deep breath. She held the sword parallel to the floor, then thrust it straight forward, with the sword and her arm forming a perfect straight line. Following that, she suddenly repositioned herself with the sword tip pointing up, then made a chopping movement by swinging the sword down.
Cheng Na deliberately slowed her actions down so everyone could discern the details of each move. She gradually accelerated her speed from the second repetition onward, up until the fifth repetition. Her movements were fast enough to dazzle them, but at the same time, its smooth execution also left everyone with a lasting impression.
Those were proper sword moves, unlike the usual child’s play associated with how they usually trained.
“Let me emphasize again. Practicing with real swords is a must. If I ever find out that you’re using those toys again, you won’t be as lucky as you are today! I’ll kick you out of this training hall!”
[1] 刺剑,劈剑,撩剑,挂剑,云剑,点剑,崩剑,截剑 – these 8 moves are translated to thrust, chop, sprinkle, hang, cloud, jab, burst, and intercept. We name 7 of these moves in reference to The Art of Chinese Swordsmanship by Zhang Yun (1st edition, 1998), while also referring to http://www.6okok.com/jianshu/chujijian/ to ensure that the moves mentioned by the book tally with each other.