I Am Loaded with Passive Skills
Chapter 3650: 1778: Return

Chapter 3650: Chapter 1778: Return

“Is this… sword cognition?”

The scene with the Golden Apricot was suddenly overwhelmed with shocking discussions.

Two fingers, cleaving through a fierce ghost a hundred feet long, tearing apart the aura of the god of death, piercing straight through the skies, what else could this be but sword cognition?

“Could it be that the young master in the carriage is an ancient swordsman? It can’t be that the power he wields is left by an elder in his clan, right?”

“Which great clan has an ancient swordsman? There’s only the Feng family in the Southern Region, and the previous generation’s Seven Sword Deity, Feng Tingchen. Could he possess sword cognition?”

“No way! Young master, sword cognition, brothers, this reminds me of someone…”

“It’s not sword cognition. The visualization of sword cognition resembles a kind of silvery sword energy, which is essence. How could it be this viscous liquid-like thing?”

“Why is everyone just speculating wildly, when even Lord Shou hasn’t shown up for half a year. Just seeing a young master makes you think he’s Lord Shou?”

“Does no one else feel like I do that this young master’s 10 Sections of the Finger Sword seems stronger than Lord Shou’s?”

“Shut up!”

“Do you understand?! If you don’t, go and watch Feng Zhongzui. Feng Zhongzui has developed more than Lord Shou recently.”

“Well said! But now Feng Zhongzui dares to comment on anyone…”

The matchmaker paid no attention.

She could not recover from the shock of what she had just witnessed.

Because she was closer to the battlefield than anyone, she saw more clearly than anyone…

That was not some clan elder’s doing; that was the hand of the young master in the carriage, whose finger shattered the revengeful dream of the white-faced ghost that had released its true form.

“10 Sections of the Finger Sword…”

“No, the key is not 10 Sections of the Finger Sword…”

The matchmaker knew that many in this world studied a fake 10 Sections of the Finger Sword in imitation of the Eighth Sword Immortal.

But the “Name” before the young master in the carriage executed the 10 Sections of the Finger Sword, that’s the key!

“Name? What is it?”

“Is it that kind of ‘Name’ cultivated by an ancient swordsman?”

“But isn’t such ‘Name’ a vague and ethereal thing; how could it possibly be manifested by others?”

Though the matchmaker did not understand swords, like most people, she delved deeply into ancient swordsmanship because of Lord Shou.

Moreover, she had more resources to deepen her understanding.

She had no right to attend Feng Tingchen’s lessons of the Feng family in Southern Region, but she had visited Elder Yang Xizhi, Feng Tingchen’s friend, several times.

According to Elder Yang, the current focus of the ancient swordsmen of the Five Domains, apart from the Nine Major Sword Techniques, was also on a “Name.”

“There are three current practitioners of the art of Name, Eight, Xiao, and Xu.”

“Bazhun’an, Xiao Kongtong; perhaps you haven’t seen them much.”

“But surely you’ve seen Lord Shou more, considering he was once a key subject of Dao Imparting Mirror’s Mother Mirror.”

The matchmaker still remembered Elder Yang’s words about the latest conclusions he and his friends Feng Tingchen, Mei Siren, Gu Yu, and You Tu discussed, either recently or in the past:

“Name, initially, is fame.”

“Fame nurtures all things, but the process is slow, often taking ten thousand or a hundred thousand years to nurture a famed sword.”

“But Bazhun’an created the ‘Witness Sword Technique,’ turning the void into reality, manifesting the ethereal ‘Name’ into a tangible ‘Thought,’ which is sword cognition—he accelerated this process.”

Elder Yang’s example was too far-fetched; no one understood at the time, so he switched subjects:

“Taking Lord Shou as an example, even if he accomplishes becoming the Number One Sword Deity, his fame nurtures Hidden Bitter. Even if Hidden Bitter undergoes a second refinement, transforming first into a Sovereign Cut… it is still quite distant from being a famed sword.”

“The sharpness of sword cognition, can you all know, is comparable to the power of the ancestral source!”

“Thus, how could an ordinary Sovereign Cut withstand a strike of the power of the ancestral source? Even more so, how could it withstand the ‘nurturing’ of sword cognition manifested by the Witness Sword Technique?”

“Nurturing, which is originally damage, involves an additional layer akin to a thunder calamity, a ‘destruction before rebirth.’ And if not taken gradually, steadily being ‘nurtured,’ an ordinary Sovereign Cut might have broken down at the initial stage of sword observation.”

The matchmaker recalled Elder Yang’s genuine admiration for Lord Shou and his sword, Hidden Bitter:

“And Lord Shou learned the thought from insignificance, while Hidden Bitter was nurtured by the Witness Sword Technique from its nascent stage, and they grew together.”

“Today Lord Shou has achieved the Number One Sword Deity, and Hidden Bitter has long been able to endure the strongest nurturing of Name. Though it does not enter the ranks of the 21 Famed Swords, it already has the substance of a famed sword.”

A young female ancient swordsman inquired: “Then, above a famed sword, or above ‘sword cognition’?”

This sharp question evidently sparked Elder Yang’s deep interest, and upon his further inquiry, the young woman spoke in detail:

“Kui Leihan’s son once mentioned the first generation of Penetrating Divine Senses’ God Punishment Tribulation comprised six transformations.”

“I think thirty years have passed. If Bazhun’an, who is also of the Ten High Nobles, still remains on the foundation as the second generation Penetrating Divine Senses, known as ‘sword cognition,’ he is unworthy of being called the Eighth Sword Immortal.”

Indeed, sword cognition has already challenged countless ancient swordsmen for millennia.

It truly is just a foundation for Bazhun’an and others, but for other ancient swordsmen, it’s different.

Faced with this question, Elder Yang pondered for a long time and still could not provide an answer, so he borrowed others’ words and said:

“Your question might be answered by Mei Siren. I once heard him say this…

“A sword is an extension of the hand; technique is the externalization of skills; cognition is the visualization of Name. The path is thus, and these three are all ‘borrowing the path.'”

“What is borrowed should be returned. Thus, when skills are proficient, neither ‘tools’ are needed; fingers can be swords, merging skills with ancient martial arts.”

He stopped there, at which time all listeners asked in unison: “And, cognition and Name?”

Elder Yang shook his head, perhaps imitating Master Siren’s tone, gently said:

“Thoughts for Refining Spirit, not thoughts of an ancient swordsman, Bazhun’an merely utilitized it once to distill ‘Name.'”