True Solution of the Sword Dao
Chapter 169 - 163 Invitation One

Chapter 169: Chapter 163 Invitation One

About his university application, Lin Fei chose Yan Capital University, which, following Capital City’s Yuanhua University, possesses the highest domestic achievements in the field of physics — the very field he most wanted to delve into.

Since being reborn, rather than saying Lin Fei had been reliving his past life’s mistakes, it would be more accurate to say he had been continuously advancing. After mastering Yan Shi’s techniques, he thrived on the pleasure of gaining strength, incessantly evolving himself. Life seemed devoid of any sense of crisis. However, the stagnation in his cultivation level had now jolted him awake.

Five days after submitting his university application.

The night sky was pitch black, and a few stars were faintly visible, the moon hidden behind dense clouds, with only slivers of light seeping through.

On the rooftop of a residential building in Ping City’s staff district.

The rooftop was a broad cement platform, the size of a small basketball court. The pale cement surface, under the scarce moonlight, reflected a faint whiteness, making it slightly brighter than other places.

Lin Fei stood in the center of the rooftop, holding a sword in both hands, motionless. If anyone could approach close enough to see the blade he held, they would clearly feel the longsword’s intense frequency of high-speed vibrations. This was Yan Shi’s Sword Technique, employing adjusted vibrations to emit momentum and form a special structure for attack or defense. Having mastered "Sword Eye," Lin Fei could now effortlessly use this skill, even though he was currently practicing the Tracing Shadow Sword Art.

A massive surge of True Force stormed through his body, continually hammering inside his blood vessels, but the final pattern of the Sword Art remained utterly motionless. Like a dam, it absorbed all the forces of impact and remained steadfastly still.

Hiss...

As all the True Force receded back into his lower abdomen’s Dantian, a faint hissing sound emitted — a mere friction between the pure True Force and the meridians.

Slowly, he sheathed his longsword. Lin Fei let out a gentle sigh.

"There’s no progress at all. Now things are troublesome,"

The cool evening breeze brushed against him, bringing a slight chill. The surroundings were peaceful, with only occasional voices drifting in from the distant residential buildings. However, Lin Fei felt a slight sense of restlessness inside.

"Previously, because I absorbed the Psychic’s Heart Core and the Dream Eater’s energy, I rapidly advanced several levels. Now, the repercussions are indeed showing. Since it wasn’t the original True Force Energy breaking through the bottleneck, many flaws were left behind. Now, only by gradually repairing them can I possibly break through to the last level." Although Lin Fei had anticipated this outcome, he still felt somewhat helplessly frustrated now that he had reached a complete standstill.

"It seems that neither the Dream Eater energy nor the Psychic’s Heart Core can be absorbed carelessly anymore. Only pure True Force, and those green seeds, can be absorbed and enhanced without concerns. The green seeds are nowhere to be found now, and the only clue to obtaining pure True Force now lies with An Caiyuan."

Having affirmed his current goal, Lin Fei continued to practice his swordsmanship. Yan Shi’s experience was vast and complex; in the memory of swordsmanship, aside from his own Sword Techniques, there were also various lesser second and third-rate swordsmanships. Although they couldn’t enhance Lin Fei’s combat power, they could broaden his horizons and increase his combat experience against enemies. To date, apart from Shunyan, almost all of Lin Fei’s opponents had been powerless to resist, and against speed-based Sword Techniques, as long as they were even slightly inferior to Lin Fei, the outcome of the battle was determined in an instant. That’s why most of his enemies were almost instantaneously defeated.

Nevertheless, Lin Fei wouldn’t assume that his speed-based Sword Techniques would never encounter an equal opponent. There were still many people in the world stronger than him. That’s why he decided today to completely organize his own maximal potential and all the Sword Techniques he had mastered.

For offensive swordsmanship, Lin Fei routinely used Yan Shi’s Sword Heart Chain, along with simply relying on speed for direct sword thrusting — essentially, just the Basic Sword Technique relying on movement technique speed without any special moves involved.

Sword Heart Chain, as one of Yan Shi’s Sword Techniques, was really just an ordinary technique. If it were not for Lin Fei’s later mastery of Yan Shi’s "Sword Eye" technique, the Sword Heart Chain’s power would probably have just been around D-tier peak at most. In fact, compared to simply wielding a sword in battle, its damage amplification was about fifty percent. It also had a small-area attack effect, deemed to be a very practical Sword Technique.

But Lin Fei had already discovered that nowadays, he rarely used the Sword Heart Chain anymore. Such Sword Techniques were no longer suited for high-speed combat styles. Yan Shi didn’t possess the Tracing Shadow Sword Art, so Sword Heart Chain was quite suitable for him. However, Lin Fei followed the path of speed. Basically, during high-speed moments, there was absolutely no time to execute such complex Sword Techniques, and the effects were not good, far inferior to the straightforward and effective direct point-to-point piercing attacks.

Additionally, there was the Dragon-Intent Swordsmanship ultimate move learned from Master Yuan Yonglong, which would be used alongside a tremendous dragon’s roar, captivating the spirit of anyone who heard it. However, it required some time to gather energy and was unsuitable.

"Now, I actually don’t have a single truly suitable attacking Sword Technique," Lin Fei suddenly became alert. "Not just attacking Sword Techniques, even defensive Sword Techniques only include Yan Shi’s fringed ribbon which I can use, and it too isn’t suitable for my speed-based combat style. The final moves that decide victory are also missing."

The fringed ribbon belonged to a full-body surrounding range of floating blue light bands used for defense. Although the defensive power was very strong, enough to withstand close-range small explosions, it didn’t seem appropriate for high-speed combat, and these light bands would instead become a hindrance during high-speed fighting.

"My Sword Techniques are mostly derived from Yan Shi, the Sword Dao True Solution’s Basic Sword Technique is just the foundation for training habitual sword-fighting style, that whole set of practice movements; I don’t need them anymore. As for the Tracing Shadow Sword Art, rather than calling it a Sword Art, it’s better described as a set of practices to increase speed. There isn’t a single real move in the entire text.

True Force, techniques, and future progress are all lacking. And the strength I can currently exert is just about C-tier near the peak, but this is just the combat power that can be exerted by momentum. Momentum and True Force, only the latter is his true developmental goal. Now the development of momentum is greatly bottlenecked, and Lin Fei has no clue how to break through. But True Force is different; as long as he obtains True Force gems, further stabilizes his current cultivation level, he can continue to advance, and the True Force seeds given out can also be retrieved at any time, serving as a source of energy for True Force cultivation.

"Big brother, answer the phone, big brother, answer the phone," suddenly, the ringing sound came from his belt.

Lin Fei took out his phone, which displayed an unknown number.

"Hello, who is this?"

"This is An Caiyuan. You haven’t forgotten our agreement, have you?" A calm female voice spoke from the phone, using very fluent Korean.

"What time?"

"Tomorrow."

"And the location?"

"A private car will be waiting at the Ping City railway station entrance."

"Can it be resolved within four days?"

"That won’t be necessary."

***************

Lin Fei excused himself to visit a friend’s house in another city. Considering Lin Fei’s hard work for the college entrance exams, Lin Jianguo and his wife didn’t put up any objections, also wanting Lin Fei to get some respite. After all, the pressure from the exams was enormous.

Lin Fei took the bus straight to the train station, where a car sent by An Caiyuan was already waiting at the entrance. A Korean, obviously having undergone plastic surgery and looking striking in a tailored suit, stood next to a black Hyundai. He seemed unconcerned by his noticeable appearance, occasionally glancing at his watch. Standing in a corner, Lin Fei took out his phone and dialed a number An Caiyuan had provided for contact.

Suddenly, a ringtone sounded from the suit-wearing man.

With a single swipe of his hand across his face, Lin Fei’s features transformed completely, adopting a dull and listless appearance of a sickly middle-aged man. He approached the Hyundai.

"Are you one of An Caiyuan’s men?"

The man noticed Lin Fei approaching and seemed to have anticipated this; upon hearing the question, he immediately adopted a respectful demeanor and nodded.

"Yes, please get in the car."

The Shi family of Jiangnan City is one of the bases of support for An Caiyuan’s brother, An Yuanxun, and one of the older hidden minor families in Hua Nation. The specific purpose of An Yuanxun’s visit to Hua Nation was unknown, but regardless, this was the last chance; after this visit, An Yuanxun would officially become the heir to the family, cutting off any hopes for other relatives.

Compared to An Yuanxun, An Caiyuan and the other family members were much weaker, so a defensive-offensive alliance was naturally formed. If An Yuanxun managed to return from Hua Nation alive, it would mean the other junior members of the family had no hope of inheriting power. In a situation of such disparity in strength, it was highly probable that they would be purged. Hence, it was only natural for them to do their utmost to dispatch the highest skilled individuals from their circles for an ambush.

The journey from Ping City followed by a highway to the provincial capital Fengyang, then taking a flight directly to Jiangnan City, totaled four hours. It was exceptionally efficient.

Lin Fei also knew that, according to An Caiyuan, her brother An Yuanxun had likely provided this opportunity on purpose, wanting to settle things with all other rival family members once and for all. An Caiyuan and the others were also aware that this was their sole opportunity. They did not believe that combined, their strength was any less than An Yuanxun’s. According to the rules of the An family, as long as a successor had not been officially designated, any internal conflicts that did not affect family interests would not be interfered with.

Thus, even though they were aware it might be a trap, An Caiyuan and the others had no choice but to respond. Lin Fei, coveting the True Force gemstone which would decide his future cultivation potential, also had to accept the invitation. Of course, the level of strength he had displayed in front of An Caiyuan was supposed to be Grade D, which was also why he had decisively accepted the invitation. Concealing his true strength could potentially play a critical role at a key moment.

Back when he had arranged a fight with Sis, the outcome had remained unknown to anyone. Yan Shi’s dignity would not allow anyone to monitor his activities, so the specific details were unknown. The results left everyone guessing, and the final consensus was that Sis had returned to his country unscathed, and Lin Fei hadn’t died. Thus, the senior management of Shueisha concluded that Lin Fei and Sis had not engaged in combat, crediting Gao Ge with arriving in time to drive Sis away. Gao Ge, oddly, did not respond to this inference.

As a result, this became the final report submitted, hence the outside world’s understanding of Lin Fei’s strength still remained at the level it had been during his fight with Shunyan. The final assessment ranked him as medium in the D grade. After all, at that time, Shunyan had already been in a full-force fight with Old Master Zhao before facing Lin Fei.

Therefore, both Shueisha and An Caiyuan had an unclear understanding of Lin Fei’s true capabilities. Perhaps Xu Chang had some speculations, but he could not be sure whether it was Lin Fei or a highly skilled individual he had called upon that had saved Lin You in Coastal City. After all, Lin Fei’s connections were somewhat complex. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to vote for it on Qidian.com with recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)