The Song Dynasty was the king for thirteen years before he knew that he was Tianlong.

Chapter 198 Sword Qi Dancing in the Sky (asking for monthly ticket)
Zhao Ti slowly finished his meal and wine, looked at the table, picked up a lamb leg bone and threw it to the girl beside him.

The girl caught it subconsciously, and stared at Zhao Ti blankly while holding the big bone, somewhat confused.

Zhao Ti said: "As the head of the sect, I can't let you starve to death. Eat something."

Anger flashed across the girl's eyes, her face was cold as ice, and she said nothing.

Zhao Ti smiled and reached out to rub her head again, this time for a little longer. The girl started shaking all over again, and her little teeth couldn't help but rub against each other, making a sound, and she was filled with anger.

"Are you unhappy?" Zhao Ti narrowed his eyes.

The girl's eyes flickered to the ring on his hand. She hugged the big bone tighter in her arms and slowly lowered her head.

Zhao Ti looked at her for a long while, then turned to Huo Linglong and said, "Dragon King, take this girl away and find Xin Shuangqing and others to take turns to watch over her. Don't let her escape quietly."

Huo Linglong nodded, walked forward and took the girl out.

Zhao Ti looked at the girl's back. It seemed that Tong Lao only had three or two years of skill at this point.

After practicing Changchun Gong to regain the youth of a child, one day of practice is equivalent to one year. Although there is no visible change in the body, the appearance will change. At this moment, the appearance of Tong Lao fits the body shape of a girl, which means that the skills are at the level of when she was eight or nine years old.

Zhao Ti thought for a while and asked everyone to come in to discuss the matter. It would be unlikely to directly ask Tong Lao about the Eternal Youth Kung Fu. It would be better to take over Lingjiu Palace first, make Tong Lao helpless, and then slowly interrogate her about this magical martial arts.

When everyone entered the room, he began to assign people. He first asked a team to go up the mountain. When they saw the envoy from Lingjiu Palace, they said they had not contacted them for a long time and asked them to deliver the antidote, so they had to come and get it by themselves. Then they would find out the actual situation on the peak and come back to report.

As for the four sides of the small town at the foot of the mountain, servants were also secretly ambushed. After all, Tong Lao was missing, and no one knew whether the people in the palace would panic. If Tong Lao had not been instructed in advance not to be disturbed, she might come down the mountain to look for her after discovering her. In this case, they would directly ambush her and bring her back.

Wu Xiong asked, "Master, if someone from the palace wants to come down to check on the remaining people, how should we respond?"

Zhao Ti said: "If there are few people, just lead them into the town first. If there are many people, just ask the people lying in ambush outside to capture them."

Wu Xiong nodded, then led everyone out to assign tasks.

Zhao Ti thought for a moment and took out the nameless sword manual from his arms.

The sword must be made of leather, otherwise it would not have been preserved for so many years. If it was made of paper, it would have been reduced to ashes long ago. Judging from the text on it, it must be something from the Warring States Period or the Qin Dynasty, because later generations did not use seal characters to write.

He opened the first page of the outline and looked at it carefully. He recognized Qin seal script. The courses taught to the princes in the palace included recognizing and writing ancient characters, and there were also Qin books in the palace. He could learn it all after reading it once.

Half of this outline of several hundred to nearly a thousand words talks about swords, and the other half talks about qi.

The content of the text is naturally extremely obscure in today's context, but from the perspective of the language of the Qin Dynasty, it is actually concise, easy to understand, and the meaning is very clear.

Among them, the sword is the king of all weapons. The true way of swordsmanship is not limited to moves, but lies in the state of mind. If the mind is still, one can gain insight into opportunities, control the sword with the mind, and wield the sword with the heart.

To practice to the extreme, one not only needs to polish one's state of mind and practice diligently, but also needs to understand the nature of heaven and earth, find the true meaning of swordsmanship among mountains, rivers and plants, use the sword as a guide, integrate the power of heaven and earth, and reach the state of unity between swordsman and human.

Zhao Ti stared at the words. The unity of sword and man? This was something that had never been mentioned in other secret books.

There are also sword manuals in the secret books of Langhuan Jade Cave and Huanshi Water Pavilion, but none of them mention this word.

It's not that there is no concept of man and sword becoming one in today's martial arts world. In fact, the unity of man and sword is the dream pursued by every swordsman. Every swordsman knows this term, but they just don't know how to reach this highest level of swordsmanship.

There are not many sword masters in the world right now. Although all the mountains and sects have inherited sword skills, there are really few famous people, and there is no earth-shattering swordsmanship to stir up trouble.

Zhao Ti once thought carefully about the martial arts world of the Song Dynasty. In fact, whether it is a sect or a gang, internal strength and fists are the mainstream, and various weapons are just auxiliary.

He had discussed this matter with his subordinates, including Wei Hanchen and Zhou Tong. It was probably because after the chaos of the Five Dynasties, soldiers were banned in the world and there were several types of weapons that could not be carried around casually, let alone brought into the city.

The most severe policy was taken at the beginning of the Song Dynasty. After the destruction of Southern Tang and Northern Han, although there was no large-scale invasion of the martial arts world, all the state governments at that time issued orders to the martial arts sects under their jurisdiction, saying that the world had been plagued by soldiers for a long time and they were not allowed to use sharp weapons without authorization.

Later, when Emperor Taizong ascended the throne, during the Taiping Xingguo period, he even confiscated swords and guns from the martial arts world. Although each sect handed over a portion of them symbolically and most of them were hidden, the way of practicing martial arts in the sects gradually changed from focusing on weapons to internal martial arts boxing and palm exercises.

After all, people from the martial arts world always have to travel around the world, and they cannot carry swords with them casually. If they are caught by the government, they will be arrested. What’s the point of practicing then?
As for the weapons that the law allows one to carry, such as whistle sticks and broadswords, there is really no profound martial arts passed down, and there is no benefit in practicing them.

This situation did not change until the reign of Emperor Shenzong, because he was committed to exterminating Western Xia and showing off his military power. The control over weapons was gradually relaxed among the people, especially in the west. However, more than a hundred years had passed by then.

In the martial arts world, there are grudges, love and hatred, fighting and killing, whether it is between sects or gangs, there will always be descendants who fail to carry on, or be destroyed, and many martial arts secrets will be lost.

Even if there are people alive, what they practiced and memorized are mostly fists, kicks, palms and fingers, with few weapons and martial arts manuals.

Therefore, at this moment, although the swordsmen in the world know the term "the unity of man and sword", they have no idea how to practice it.

The secret books were lost or found, and even if a few were found, there was no description of the unity of man and sword.

Zhao Ti frowned at the thought, then shook his head, thinking that even though the Song Dynasty's forbidden soldiers had caused the sword manual to be lost and swordsmen were scarce, this sword technique of combining man and sword was not necessarily something that only existed in this dynasty.

I'm afraid it was even earlier, because not only was there no famous swordsman in the first hundred years after the founding of the Song Dynasty, but there were actually no famous swordsmen during the Five Dynasties.

If we trace it back further, we have to go to the end of the Tang Dynasty, when there was a world-famous swordsman, Wang Xianzhi, who was known as the General Tianbu Pingjun. As for the General Chongtian Huang Chao of the same period, it is said that he used a strange weapon, the Iron Umbrella.

Wang Xianzhi's art can be traced back to the time of Li Bai in the middle Tang Dynasty. Judging from this, I'm afraid that the martial arts of combining man and sword may have been lost in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties.

Zhao Ti pondered for a moment. As for the end of the Warring States Period and the pre-Qin period, it was a time of great contention. There were many knights and assassins in the world, and there were countless people who used swords. Judging from the text, this sword manual should have been left by a swordsman at that time.

He continued reading, and after finishing the section about sword in the general outline, he read the section about Qi, which was mostly an explanation of how to refine internal strength into sword Qi, which was also not mentioned in any sword manual today.

The half-foot green light emitted from the tail of Zhuo Bufan's long sword is the so-called sword energy.

This is different from the sword energy that Zhao Ti has always believed in. The so-called sword energy at this moment is the internal force infused into the sword body, which is shot out from the sword body using a special method, or the true energy forced out from the tip of the sword, which is sword energy.

This kind of sword energy, like finger force and palm wind, will not stay outside for a long time. It will either be circulated and retracted into the body, or be directly consumed.

However, the general outline of the sword manual said that the energy that was forced out of the sword body and could be condensed and not dispersed was called sword energy, which made him quite confused.

Moreover, the original internal force needs to be converted into this kind of sword energy before it can be used.

Zhao Ti pondered, if he could transform all his internal energy into this kind of sword energy, then when fighting with others, it would obviously be difficult to use other skills, because it would be impossible to transform the sword energy back into internal energy in an instant. So he could only win by relying on the sword, which was obviously a method of mastering the sword.

But what if the sword falls? What if the opponent knocks it away? Without the internal strength of fists and feet, wouldn't it be impossible to defend against it?

He continued reading with a puzzled mind, and saw at the end of the general outline that if one could practice to the point of unity between man and sword, he could safely transform all his internal strength into sword energy. Even if he did not have a sword in his hand, the flying flowers and plucking leaves would all be sword tips. When man and sword became one, he could even become a sword. His fingers, arms, body, and legs could all become swords, and he could force out sword energy to hurt people. He no longer needed to use fists and feet.

If you cannot reach this level, you should not transform the sword energy in your body. Just transform as much as you need, and make sure the sword is covered with sword energy. It is not necessary to spit out a tail.

This sword technique... Zhao Ti looked strange, this was completely different from the sword technique currently circulating.

Is this how swordsmen in the pre-Qin period practiced swordplay?
Also, the method mentioned above of transforming internal force into sword energy is also different from the normal conversion between internal forces. Is this considered the internal power method of the Qigong practitioners in the pre-Qin period?
He quickly flipped to the back of the Sword Manual and soon finished reading the entire book, memorizing everything described in it.

This sword technique does not overly pursue moves, but focuses on sword energy and sword momentum, the sword energy's force exerted within the body and on the sword body, with subtle key points.

The sword's sharp power is overwhelming, and the coherent sword intent, once fully understood and used, will completely cover the opponent under the sword's power.

Zhao Ti pondered for a while, then called Bai Zhan and Zhou Tong, asked them to guard outside the door, and began to try to transform a small amount of internal force into sword energy.

He practiced his skills but found that this method was very difficult and not everyone could master it. It was hard to say how long it took Zhuo Bufan to master this kind of sword energy.

It took him nearly half an hour to finally cultivate a cluster of sword energy. It was like a green fire in his dantian, jumping and wandering, incompatible with the other internal forces, causing friction and repulsion. He even felt a slight tingling pain in his body.

Zhao Ti closed his eyes and looked inward. This cluster of sword energy bumped around left and right. Because it was too small, even though it was sharp, it could not gain the upper hand in his dantian. In the end, it even seemed to want to break out of his body.

He narrowed his eyes, stretched out his hand to take the long sword beside him, and then according to the sword manual, he used the sword energy. In an instant, a layer of green light covered the long sword.

He then tried to vomit out the sword energy, but the sword energy was too little and could not be vomited out at all.

Zhao Ti understood what was going on when he saw this, and he retracted the sword energy into his body and began to transform some of his internal energy. This time it took longer, and the transformation was completed when it was already dawn outside.

Then he picked up the long sword, and used the sword energy to flow through his meridians. The sword body made a soft "humming" sound, and the green light covered it again. He urged the sword light to appear, and immediately a sword light of nearly a foot long appeared above the tip of the sword, flickering unsteadily, which was very terrifying.

Zhao Ti's eyebrows could not help but raise. How come this sword's edge is longer than Zhuo Bufan's? Zhuo Bufan's sword's edge is only more than half a foot long, while his sword's edge is already close to one foot long.

Does it have something to do with the sword energy, or is it related to the purity of the original transformed internal energy?

Zhao Ti thought back to himself and there was a simple description of this in the sword manual: the stronger and more pure the internal strength is, the farther the sword energy from the tail sword will be forced to travel.

So, it seems that Zhuo Bufan's internal energy is not strong enough, so he can only use the half-foot long tail?
Zhao Ti recalled the time when Zhuo Bufan was fighting with Jiumozhi. After being hit by Jiumozhi's Flower-Pickling Finger, he had almost no resistance and was acupunctured by Jiumozhi in mid-air.

Then Zhuo Bufan should have transformed all his internal strength into sword energy, but he had not yet reached the state of unity between man and sword, so he was risking everything. After losing his sword, he would be almost the same as an ordinary person. But it was unknown how long it would take for the sword energy to be transformed back into internal strength, but it should not be easy.

Thinking of this, Zhao Ti drew the sword energy into his body, let it flow along his meridians, return to his dantian, and then tried to transform it into his original internal force.

But after this try, his expression changed slightly. It was actually more than ten times more difficult to turn back than to come here.

It took him an hour or two to convert all this internal energy, but if he wanted to convert it back, it would probably take more than a day.

Fortunately, he didn't use much, probably only about 10% of his total internal strength, so it didn't matter much whether it was transferred back immediately or not.

Just as he was thinking that this was the case for the time being, his Dantian began to riot. The sword energy was much stronger than the first time, and this time it no longer intended to break out of the body, but instead began to provoke everywhere.

Zhao Ti felt a sharp pain in his dantian and was unable to calm the sword energy. He immediately understood why Zhuo Bufan transformed all his internal strength into sword energy, because he could not withstand the sword energy's gang-fighting, arrogant and domineering behavior.

If there is no way to resolve it, the sword energy will either attack other internal forces and cause him to go astray, or it will break out of the body on its own, creating countless cracks on his body, which would be extremely tragic.

He thought for a moment and activated the Phantom Yin Meridian. The Phantom Yin Qi immediately enveloped his Dantian and permeated all the acupuncture points and meridians. The sword energy was immediately confused, as if it felt that only itself was left in his Dantian, and it gradually became obedient.

Zhao Ti took a deep breath, stood up, and couldn't help but wonder in his heart, what would happen if he transformed all his internal energy into sword energy?
Would there be a scene of a sword beam ten feet long, shining brightly across the sky, and colorful streamers dancing in the air? That would be too spectacular.

By this time the sky was completely light, but he didn't feel tired at all. After tidying up, he started to eat breakfast.

After finishing breakfast, he asked Jiumozhi to call Huo Linglong and ask Huo Linglong to bring the girl over.

A moment later, Huo Linglong and Xin Shuangqing walked into the room with the girl.

(End of this chapter)