Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

He cut off all interaction with the world and became completely immersed in the sword manual.

……

"Wow—"

After turning the first page, Zhang Renfeng adjusted his posture, no longer leaning back in his chair, but sitting up straight with his eyebrows raised.

His legs were already planted firmly on the ground, his toes barely touching the ground as he lightly drew circles, trying to recreate some of the leg movements from the sword manual, kicking them under the table with a sharp whistling sound. But the more he practiced, the more inadequate it seemed. If it weren't for a sliver of reason remaining, reminding him that he was at someone else's banquet, he probably would have stood up, drawn his Fish Intestine Sword, and started replicating the manual.

A servant brought up a tray, but Henry waved it away and said in a low voice, "My guests are looking at things. Go and tell the kitchen that we don't need to serve the main course yet. Serve some pastries and rosé wine first, so the two ladies can have something to eat."

Zhang Renfeng turned the pages one by one. In Xiaomei's memory, he was a rather rough person, and she had never seen him so careful with anything. Even the movement of turning the pages became extremely gentle, as if he was afraid that he would tear the pages if he used any force.

……

Perhaps realizing that this ultimately belonged to someone else, Zhang Renfeng slightly increased his reading speed. When he finished reading the sword manual, he gently closed it, lovingly stroking the cover, and his tone became extremely serious, "What about the second half?"

Henry was startled. "How did you know there was a second half?"

“I can’t say for sure, but… judging from the derivation of the sword moves, I don’t think it ends here.” Zhang Renfeng shook his head, raised the sword manual, and sighed, “Just like ‘The Story of the Stone,’ there must be a last forty chapters, but I don’t know where they are scattered, which is a real pity.”

"The 'friend' who gave it to me? He told me it was a sword style called the Six Swords, and he only gave me the first half."

After thinking for a long time, Henry still didn't know what to use to refer to Lu Aniu, so he vaguely used the word "friend". "But I don't understand, he clearly said it was the first half, so there should only be three moves. Why are there so many pages? So many disassembly steps, where am I supposed to start?"

“None of these steps will work. If you start practicing like this, you won’t learn anything.” Zhang Renfeng put the sword manual back on the table and patiently explained, “Judging from the moves alone, this half of the Six Swords manual is extremely powerful. You need a certain level of physical fitness and physique to complete the movements.”

"Simply put, it takes a long time just to reach the standard of 'start practicing'."

Zhang Renfeng looked Henry up and down. Although his physique was decent, there were no signs of rigorous training, which obviously did not meet the requirements of the Six Swords Overlord style.

Henry swallowed hard. "Exactly... how long?"

"I don't know, I haven't trained in it, but I imagine it varies from person to person. It depends on many factors: whether you can adapt to high-intensity training, and whether you can find the knack during training. Essentially, it's a process of reshaping the body, and that process can be very painful."

"Because you are no longer a teenager, your body has finished growing and developing, and is almost fully formed. Now you must rely on powerful external forces to break down and rebuild everything that you have. The faster you rebuild, the sooner you can reach this standard."

"But you must remember, even if you go through all the hardships and reach the standard, you have only just gained the qualification to 'learn' this swordsmanship. After that, you need to practice even more diligently, without interruption in the cold or heat. The sword moves here are quite fierce, like an untamed wild horse. You need to use every bit of your strength to see any hope of taming it."

“If you truly want to learn this swordsmanship, then injuries and bleeding are inevitable, and may even become the norm. You should have seen what kind of teaching method your brother uses. Swordsmanship learned from him is like a flower in a greenhouse, which will fall apart with the slightest breeze.”

……

In the silence, the words Lu Aniu had said to him echoed in Henry's mind.

How can a knight not know how to use a sword?

……

After hesitating for a long time, he finally nodded. "I... want to give it a try."

Chapter 630: But?

"Want some water?" Jenny looked at her boyfriend, who was drenched in sweat, pale-faced, and collapsed on the grass, and couldn't help but sigh, her expression somewhat melancholy.

……

Logically, all her calculations had succeeded. She had successfully made it into the top five in the knightly tournament and successfully confessed her love to Henry Hysen in front of everyone, causing a huge sensation. Four days had passed since the knightly tournament ended, and during those four days, the story of her confession had been circulating in Brightlight City. She was now Henry's only love, and everything should have been on track!

But things didn't go as she initially expected.

She gradually realized that... the "boyfriend" she had chosen seemed to be quite different from the aristocratic image she had imagined. He wasn't the kind of person who would disregard everything else when he was in love.

Even after announcing his relationship with his partner, he didn't bring himself to the Heysen family mansion. Of course, the large, pointed-roof house on the ranch was actually quite nice, and there was nothing to complain about.

But what struck her as incredibly strange was that Henry had developed a closer relationship with the knight she had hired. Under his guidance, he claimed he was going to learn some kind of Six Swords technique.

He could learn swordsmanship, but the Spartan coach wouldn't even let him touch a sword. Instead, he said he had to start with "basic physical fitness" training. Endurance, stamina, grip strength, wrist strength, body strength... In short, the goal was to break this young man in his twenties down and rebuild him from the inside out.

Counting on his fingers, there are only 24 hours in a day. According to the schedule Zhang Renfeng customized for Henry, he needs to complete a lot of basic training beyond his physical limits. Apart from eating, sleeping, and reasonable rest, there is almost no spare second. You can imagine how exhausted he would be at the end of the day, let alone have time to be affectionate with his lover.

Jenny never imagined that instead of being robbed by another woman, her home would be raided by a grown man. And the opponent wasn't even human; it was a sword technique. Faced with such an opponent, she had no idea how to compete and could only sigh deeply.

He started running early in the morning, running from the Hysen family mansion all the way through the city. By the time he reached the horse farm in the north of the city, he was almost at his limit and could rest for a bit. It seemed that Jenny, his real "lover," would only have this brief moment to see him.

……

“No…no need…” Henry leaned against the ranch fence, sweat pouring down his face. His expression gradually shifted from a look of utter rage, as if his lungs were about to burst, and he waved his hand. “I…I can’t drink it now…”

Jenny hesitated, then took out a tissue and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Although the gesture itself wasn't particularly significant—Henry was drenched in sweat—it didn't seem quite befitting of a lover to simply stand there and do nothing.

"...What's wrong? Why that expression?"

"Huh?" Jenny paused, hesitated for a moment, and stammered, "I...I thought you were joking with me..."

“Yes…” Henry took a deep breath, a hint of self-deprecation in his smile. “What era are we living in? Everyone carries a revolver on their belt. You can buy bullets to kill in any general store. In such an era, it’s really a bit ridiculous to want to be a knight.”

"That's not what I meant," Jenny hurriedly tried to explain. "I meant, uh..."

"Actually, I'm just a little unwilling to accept it."

“Unwilling to accept it?” Jenny was indeed curious, because from her perspective, Henry had everything from birth: family background, money, and power. He could choose his own life, so what was there to be unwilling about?

"Hmm." Henry leaned against the railing, said nothing more, and slowly straightened his back. "Come to my house tonight."

“My parents already know about us, and they want to meet you. Tonight, if you’d like, you can dress a little more formally, and I’ll have a carriage come to pick you up.”

"Tonight!?" Jenny felt her heart skip a beat. When the moment she had been waiting for finally arrived, she couldn't tell whether she felt relieved or even more nervous.

Finally, her opponent was no longer Henry Hysen, but the family behind him.

Her final leap toward the dragon gate left her completely bewildered.

"Then... what should I say at that time?"

“If possible, I suggest you remain silent, but I’m afraid that’s not feasible. They will put pressure on you, that’s almost certain.” Henry’s expression was complicated, but he still held Jenny’s hand and said firmly, “No response is the best response.”

----

"call……"

Zhang Renfeng performed the first move of the six sword techniques from the sword manual: he lightly pressed the sword under his left armpit, as if an invisible scabbard were holding the Fish Intestine Sword inside. He stood with his feet apart, but his whole body unexpectedly relaxed, bending into a flexible arc, and he took a deep breath.

Then, in an instant, it transformed from extreme stillness to extreme movement, as if all the energy in the body was concentrated in that one moment and poured out!

"boom----!!"

With a light touch of his toes, he leaped into the air, leaving a straight trail in his wake. The sword, which had been tucked under his arm, flashed in a gleaming arc as he moved, "Whoosh—crack!" The blade pierced the air like a thunderclap from a clear sky.

Two cone-shaped footprints appeared on the ground, left by him as he charged forward.

The large tree in front of them had been split in two, cut into two pieces.

……

Looking at the cross-section of the tree trunk in front of him, and then at the gleaming Fish Intestine Sword in his hand, Zhang Renfeng couldn't tell whether it was the sword's quality, the swordsmanship's skill, or his own excessive strength. This was the trouble of being a "stat monster"—when you equip a new skill and want to try it out, it's hard for Old Zhang to distinguish whether the success is due to the new move or his inherent stats.

"What amazing swordsmanship!" Xiaomei, lying on a large rock nearby, was copying the incomplete sword manual of the Six Swords into her new notebook. Without looking up, she praised him while complaining, "I heard that you practiced your spear skills on the mountain before you left. Now all that practice has been for nothing."

“How could that be?” Zhang Renfeng slowly rose from his half-squatting position, twirled his sword, and muttered, “If we’re just talking about killing people, guns are definitely more efficient. I pull the trigger, the bullet goes out, and someone dies over there. No training, no physical strength, no skill… Even if a ninety-year-old man shoots at me, I’ll have to find a way to dodge.”

"The value of martial arts has long been diminished in the face of guns and bullets."

"but……"

Chapter 631: A Bolt from the Blue, the Death of Chaidl?

"but?"

“…I’m worried.” Zhang Renfeng sighed. “If there’s a first part, there will definitely be a second part.”

"It's just swordsmanship, isn't it?" Xiaomei had completely transformed into a human photocopying machine. It was precisely because of her meticulousness that Zhang Renfeng asked her to do this task.

She had to ensure that the movements and postures of each sword-wielding figure were almost identical to the original, which was quite a mentally taxing task. As for Zhang Renfeng's words, she could only adopt a "human-machine-managed mode," saying some repetitive things, which resulted in some nonsensical statements.

Fortunately, Zhang Renfeng didn't expect her to say anything at this moment. He raised his sword and looked at his reflection on the Fish Intestine Sword, and murmured, "The more I look at this sword technique, the more profound it seems... Although it only has six swords, the moves of each sword are numerous and inexhaustible."

"The first sword strike was a straightforward, direct slash, as you just saw. To be honest, it didn't quite resemble swordsmanship anymore; it was more like a knife strike."

"The second sword technique combines real and feint attacks, making it dazzling and unpredictable."

"The third sword... There are a total of nine hundred and ninety-nine sword moves. Once you master them, they can be infinitely varied, making the attacks like a torrential rain that simply cannot be stopped."

"I don't have the second half of the sword manual here, but... if I were to deduce it, the next three sword techniques would be even more exaggerated than they are now. They might even reach the realm of 'no sword in hand, yet a sword in hand,' attacking with sword energy. In that case, it would no longer be an ordinary external sword technique."

"Such a precious thing, no matter who the original owner was, was just given away as a gift to an amateur. He probably knew that to cultivate the Six Swords, one needs a very strong physical foundation, but he still did it."

"It's as if, in his eyes, the standard for an 'ordinary person' should be someone like me, who can immediately cultivate the Six Swords. That's a bit terrifying. If there really is such a person, he would never remain inconspicuous and hide in the forests and springs; reality simply doesn't allow it!"

"That person's strength... is perhaps above mine."

……

These words finally made Xiaomei stop her wrist. She looked up at him with an incredulous expression.

A cold mountain wind swept through her short hair from behind as she walked among the trees, making her shiver.

"No, no way." Xiaomei still couldn't believe it. In her mind, Zhang Renfeng should be an invincible and omnipotent being.

Even now, he has to temporarily conceal his ambitions because he has encountered the abstract concept of "the state apparatus." Humans cannot fight against concepts, so he can only retreat and, in the southern counties, create his own abstract concept: the Sanyuan Timber Company.

Like governments, companies are essentially concepts.

To amplify one's power across the entire land, individual strength is insufficient; the competition lies in one's underlying resources. Only by infusing this power into this abstract concept can more people become our allies.

Everyone was very confident in the plan, essentially because they had confidence in Zhang Renfeng. They believed that when the plan encountered obstacles, as a last resort, Zhang Renfeng could at least use his force to physically overcome them and achieve his goal.

If reasoning doesn't work, then talk about physics; as long as the ending is good, that's fine.

But now, a dark cloud has inexplicably appeared over this confident plan.

"Well, that's not necessarily true. Henry didn't say anything about the person who gave him the sword manual."

Xiaomei could only gently comfort her, "We've come this far, and we haven't met anyone who's better at fighting than you."

Zhang Renfeng sighed.

Indeed, as she said, there was no point in worrying about these things now. He was not one to waste his time, so he quickly put these thoughts aside and continued to study the second sword technique.

Several days have passed since the knightly tournament.

Henry's "physical upgrade plan" was indeed devised by Zhang Renfeng. But to be honest, while Henry's physique might be considered tall and imposing among ordinary people, from Zhang's perspective, he was just a fragile young master, not at all ready to receive guidance.

Therefore, his plan was to practice according to the steps above first. Once he had completed the entire set and still had energy left, then they could discuss the next step.

In return, Henry didn't pay them money but agreed to lend them the Six Swords manual temporarily so they could make a copy. For a martial arts fanatic like Zhang Renfeng, even half a copy of the Six Swords manual was worth far more than money.

Before the birthday party, they really had nothing to do, so they simply stayed in this sparsely populated place and studied the Six Swords Manual while waiting for Jenny to call them.

But instead of waiting, Jenny was greeted by her younger brother.

----

Finney, leaning on his cane, limped slowly up the mountain path.

Young people recover quickly, and within a few days, Finney was almost able to walk again. His sister and Henry's perfect love story naturally reached his ears during this time, and no matter how unwilling he was, he had to accept this fact.

At Xiaomei's urging, he decided to go to the large ranch in the north of the city to talk to Jenny in person.

……

"You're back." Zhang Renfeng waved to him. "How did the talks go?"

“I haven’t seen her. She said she went shopping for clothes.” A very complicated smile appeared on Finney’s face. “Heh… A month ago, the clothes we wore still had patches on them. Now… I guess she wouldn’t even want to look at these clothes.”

"Anyway, thank you... Uh... What's wrong with this tree?"

Finney's attention was drawn to the tree that had been cut in two by a sword. Subconsciously, he couldn't quite accept that Zhang Renfeng had used a sword to cut it down.

"What are your plans next?" Zhang Renfeng asked, sheathing his Fish Intestine Sword. "If things really don't work out, you could stay with us for a few more days..."

"No, no, I won't trouble you." Finney sighed, his thin shoulders showing signs of collapse. "To be honest, I don't know either."

"Try talking to your sister when she has time," Xiaomei advised. "Besides, I think Mr. Henry is actually quite good to your sister..."

“So what? I hate these nobles!” Finney frowned, unyielding on this point, and said bitterly, “These guys have done so many evil things… they’ll be taken away by God sooner or later, just like that Cheddar!”

At this point, Finney's expression changed, and he felt particularly relieved. "Hopefully, she won't be implicated by then."

----

"Wait a minute." Zhang Renfeng frowned. "What did you say? What happened to Chaideur?"

Xiaomei's expression was one of utter astonishment.