CHAPTER 1028: CHAPTER 32: SWORD TAKEAWAY

Bruce’s words indeed made Lu Xuanyu start to think.

"Rich literature, poor martial arts" is not just reflected in this minor aspect of "diet."

The ultimate pursuit of literature, all experiences, can be documented in words. Without this, it doesn’t count as establishing a school of thought through writing and naturally can’t be called literature. However, the supreme realm of martial arts often defies description in words, and martial masters may not know how to describe their experiences—it’s outside their professional range.

Information from literature has a very low cost to reproduce—just books. With the advent of e-books, the cost is nearly zero. But the martial artist’s experience is still best taught face-to-face.

Lu Xuanyu has many coaches. Basically, whatever martial art Lu Xuanyu wants to learn, or if any martial artist from a certain school emerges from the selection, Xiang Shan will find the highest-level coach and a skilled sparring partner from the relevant dojo. Many dojos and martial arts schools are now fully open and have transparent pricing. The salary for sparring partners is also negotiable.

The sparring partners Lu Xuanyu usually has are already near the peak.

Only an extremely secretive school could give Lu Xuanyu a sense of "seeing more."

But reality is harsh. These secretive schools are mostly weak.

They might rely on some tricks to bully ordinary enthusiasts. Yet, once entering the professional field, any proficient practitioner of a popular style can easily defeat these reclusive masters.

Frankly, these reclusive masters lack both the resources for full-time training and the peer-level sparring to polish their skills. Moreover, truly talented fighters are attracted to the competitions that offer more money, leaving little chance for such minor schools to recruit them.

The closer one gets to human limits, the lower the cost-effectiveness of "effort." The sweat needed to go from 98 points to 99 might be ten times that needed to go from 1 to 90. And the human limit is 100 points.

But Lu Xuanyu started at 120 points.

Lu Xuanyu’s usual sparring partners are at least masters starting at 90 points.

Now, even if facing a strong opponent who is at their peak, showing 99 points, he would only feel they are "a bit stronger than usual."

Lu Xuanyu finally realized that the competition neither made him feel tense and excited nor allowed him to see more...

In his heart, stripped of its heavy halo, this Number One Martial Arts Tournament was really just a "job," a job for which he was already advanced payment.

Xiang Shan had him stand up again. He fought for Xiang Shan to capture glory, to prove that Xiang Shan’s ideals were correct.

And Xiang Shan had already advanced this payment.

Perhaps even more so.

When Lu Xuanyu traveled the world, he couldn’t see so many top-tier professional athletes. In that era, he was known far and wide in the amateurs’ circle; in every place with a strong martial spirit, a few people knew his reality, but that was it. This circle rarely intersects with the truly top experts.

Xiang Shan placed the essence of global martial arts in front of him. For Xiang Shan, this was part of the "reproductive activity," a step in the corporate promotional strategy preparation. But for Lu Xuanyu, this was the best reward besides "standing up."

Thus, as a martial artist, Lu Xuanyu’s biggest worry instead was that his performance would not live up to the "salary" advanced to him.

At first, Lu Xuanyu thought his mental wanderings might affect his mindset.

But at this critical juncture, from Coach Novich to other team members, no one cared about Lu Xuanyu’s subtle attitude.

Soon, Lu Xuanyu faced his first "armed" match.

The opponent was a swordsmanship expert from Japan, the current genius of the Satsuma Shimien Ryu.

Satsuma Shimien Ryu is the designated school of the Satsuma Domain, also known as "Jigen-ryu." Its feature is the emphasis on the downward diagonal Great Robe Slash, aiming to kill the enemy with the First Strike. It’s said that Japan’s Metropolitan Police Department still teaches a modern variant of this swordsmanship.

Satsuma Shimien Ryu does not conform to modern Japanese kendo rules. The swordsman’s declared rules are closer to Hema rules—the historical European armed combat rules. Both he and Lu Xuanyu could choose their own weapon design. The weapons were made of unsharpened carbon fiber with extra weight, feeling and balancing like real swords. Both parties’ weapons were completed a month ago and delivered to them. They had a month to familiarize themselves with the weapons.

The Japanese chose a large tachi, nearly as long as a human’s height. The martial artist even hoisted the super long sword on his shoulder.

"I’ve never seen this before; I’ve always taught unarmed combat," Coach Novich muttered. "The team’s analysis is that guy is surely betting on landing a hit with one strike. Common sense says, dodge the first strike and you’re halfway to victory. But, the boss’ idea, you know, is that you have a more elegant way to win, right?"

In Lu Xuanyu’s hand was a Miao Blade.

He couldn’t learn a whole new blade skill just for this match, so he chose what he already knew. Although he had other armed routines like Eight Slash Saber, Six-and-a-Half Pole, and Philippine Stick Technique to choose from, since this guy proposed a swordsmanship match, he picked a weapon closest to a Japanese sword.

He wanted to challenge the opponent in their strongest field. Anything less, and the match would be too uninteresting.

Only this way could it be considered "challenging."

With the referee’s command, the swordsman raised the large tachi above his head. Disregarding professional athletes, this martial artist’s arm strength could be called "astonishing."

He charged at Lu Xuanyu with the large tachi. A little over a meter away from Lu Xuanyu, he let out a sharp scream: "Ah—!"

Satsuma Shimien Ryu martial artists call this technique the "ape’s scream." They either believe it makes their exertion smoother or think it makes their presence more terrifying.

And under this unstoppable momentum, the large tachi descended with terrifying power in a diagonal slash.

At this moment, what flashed through Lu Xuanyu’s mind, however, was his ancestor Bruce Lee’s iconic "fierce shout." In that instant, he felt his throat tingling as if he should shout like that too.

But his actions were entirely independent of these distracting thoughts.

He grasped the hilt with both hands, slanting it to block directly in front of him. This Japanese swordsman had impeccable distance control; Lu Xuanyu’s Miao Blade collided precisely at its strongest strike point.

The collision of carbon fiber blades produced brittle metallic sounds. Yet despite this situation, that guy didn’t lose his grip to recoil, but added more force instead.

However, Lu Xuanyu switched to a single-handed grip, guiding the Miao Blade to rotate in a circle around his head. Through the Miao Blade’s nimble movement, the large tachi’s power was deflected, with Lu Xuanyu channeling his opponent’s force to dissipate behind him.

Lu Xuanyu then stepped in closer, leaving less than half a meter between them.

The large tachi hit the ground and bounced up. The martial artist tried to retreat, but Lu Xuanyu followed seamlessly with a sliding step.

He simply reached out and put his hand on the sword’s hilt between the opponent’s hands.

"Ah!"

With the opponent’s scream, Lu Xuanyu single-handedly gripped the large tachi, snatching it away from the opponent.