Paradise of demons and gods[En]

Chapter 12 Explanation

After training for a while, Fang Xingjian now had a deeper understanding of the reason why The School of Sword Arts was so dilapidated.

Kyle could be said to be the only person supporting The School of Sword Arts. He was a one-man show, from cleaning to lecturing. As for those who attended The School of Sword Arts, they were mainly little children and youngsters from the neighborhood.

Today, Kyle was lecturing on the of different categories of martial arts techniques.

“Martial techniques can be split into four categories, namely Nurturing, Training, Amassing, and Killing.” He was standing in front of all the students, explaining with confidence as the crowd listened with rapt attention.

In this ‘strength-dictates-all’ world, an individual’s level of power determined his or her future. The only way for ordinary people, or rather, commoners, to gain recognition was to raise their combat prowess. Being able to learn martial arts was their greatest blessing and also the best path they could take.

Therefore, it was many commoners’ choice. Most families would sacrifice a substantial portion of their resources just to invest into the nurture of their children’s martial arts cultivation.

Kyle continued, “Fifty years ago, the Divine Level Expert Rose Knight’s <<Swordplay of the Flowing Flower Sword>> used the four seasons as a comparison to the four categories, Nurturing, Training, Amassing, Killing. It was eventually passed down to the future generations, who began using it more widely. I personally like this comparison a lot.

“The Nurturing Path is like Spring, nourishing all living things, cultivating the body, increasing one’s potential, and thus allowing the physical body to grow stronger naturally. It is like a seed planted in spring, gradually developing and growing strong.

“The Training Path is like the blazing summer; intense heat shining on one’s head, akin to the extreme tempering of the body, squeezing out every drop of potential and igniting the energy obtained from the Nurturing Path. But this is also the reason why I’ve never taught you this. Your training in the Nurturing Path is still insufficient, and your bodies’ potentials are still lacking for now. If you were to start on the Training Path now, it would be equivalent to exploiting your lifespan and depleting your potential.

” The normal procedure is to wait for your basic sword techniques to reach perfection, which means getting you to level 10 or above before we start on the Training Path.

“As for the Amassing Path, it is akin to late autumn. It is both the start to the harvesting of the fruit and the end to the miserable death of a myriad living things. It speaks of a spark of life in a world of silence. This describes the bettering of the physique through one’s breathing and blood circulation, and it is essentially a qualitative evolution in one’s way of living.

“However, the Amassing Path is too profound and has extremely high requirements. It isn’t time for you guys to learn this just yet.”

Looking at the disheartened expressions appearing on his students’ faces, Kyle smiled as he continued, “Now for the last one, the Killing Path. It’s simple to speak of, since it’s purely combat and killing techniques, which can be compared to the bitter cold of winter, smothering all life.

“This type of technique is an entirely different concept compared to the usual ones, which mainly train your body.”

“Teacher, when can you teach us the Killing Path?” inquired a chestnut-haired youngster who seemed to be less than twenty years of age. He was about 1.9 meters tall and extremely muscular, giving the impression of a small mountain to people who looked at him.