After Ren left his meeting place with Darkhaven to run back, he immediately grabbed the cultivation manual to look into using the arts, body of the sword, sword-step and maybe even the other two, eye of the sword and domain of the sword.

Even though Darkhaven had not specified these other two arts, it only made sense to Ren, that he would try to learn the full set instead of only the movement and body arts.

As the day dragged on and the sun was slowly vanishing, Ren was still deeply engrossed in the manual. He had figured that he should start with the body- and eye of the sword as the patterns of spirit should ideally also be circulated constantly similar to a cultivation art. This passive aspect would likely make it the hardest to master, but Ren also saw it as an opportunity to simply get more used to having more arts running all the time.

What he did not know at the time was that circulating multiple arts at the same time, be they body, movement or any other, was generally not done before at least reaching Adept. And to reach a basic level in them, you did not in fact have to have them running all the time, as these two arts would change his body accordingly. Their effects would thus become apparent even without constant circulation.

Though had Ren known, he likely would still have tried to carry his plan out nonetheless. His control over spirit was immaculate, at least he thought so.

Having the plan to use the arts and actually using them were two different things, though, and so Ren first wanted to integrate the art, body of the sword. His reason was, simply, that it sounded cooler and would make his body stronger. It made Ren's eyes shine, imagining himself cutting trees in half with nothing but his flat hands and shattering rock with a mere swing of his leg.

These fantasies would still be out of reach for some time, Ren knew, but a boy still liked to dream of his amazing future exploits.

On his first attempt to circulate the body of the sword, his spirit felt like it was drawn in twine, weakening him and diluting his cultivation. But soldering on made this feeling swiftly disappear, almost as fast as it came. It almost seemed like it was simply an extension of the pattern of the cultivation art he was circulating anyway.

A note beneath all the diagrams, that he missed while skimming through it, read: The body of the sword is an essential art of the compendium that is the Heart of the lonely sword.

Let your spirit seep deep into your flesh and blood, penetrate your very marrow.

Your skin shall become as mesh, flexible yet enduring.

Your flesh shall become the indomitable blade that rends your foes.

Your very being shall be moulded to support the ideal of your sword.

Let none stand in your path, for the world is merciless and so is the way of the sword!

Not letting himself be distracted by the foreboding words, Ren read the notes on the eye of the sword as well.

Let your senses transcend and become as the unblemished edge of a sword.

Cleave through the red dust of the mortal world with abandon.

Break through all illusions of your heart and become impervious to any who would dare ensnare you.

None shall escape you.

None shall escape your sight.

Ren didn't really get the purpose of this art beyond the simple, it makes your senses stronger and lets you see through illusions, but he guessed that learning it would not hurt at all. One more thing that spoke for learning the art instead of just skipping it, was that the circulation pattern was far less expansive. It was exclusively focused around the head, with one strand going down to the heart.

Before he tried to incorporate the eye of the sword into his circulation of spirit, Ren wanted to read the notes on the other two arts. He had looked through the manual when he got it, but only really paid attention to the colourful illustrations and the circulation paths, only wanting to be able to use the arts and then look farther back in the manual to see if the author had anything more to say. As Ai told him, the manual might hold other secrets.

He was feeling quite sheepish at having completely missed them before, and he would likely have missed them again had he not sat down to even more seriously study the manual again as Darkhaven pushed him.

Ren read the notes on the movement art, sword-step, with rapt attention.

In battle, the faster blade cuts first.

Fly through the skies and be unfettered, like the thrust of your sword.

Dance over the dark flowing waters, and jump across the steepest mountains.

Be invisible to your foes, ever-changing, and unpredictable, like the cut of your sword.

Show no hesitation, like your sword.

Interestingly, the circulation of the art did not only stretch across the legs of the cultivator, but instead over all extremities and the torso.

It was a little confusing to Ren, but this was an art that would not have the massive passive benefits of the other two. He had to circulate it to receive most of the benefits, though as this was what he planned on doing, it wouldn't really impact him.

While circulating it, not only would the art increase his speed, but at higher levels of mastery and larger amount of spirit he could even fly across the clouds, reminding him of the shining heroes from his bedtime stories.

Surprising Ren, another smaller note said, that one should only use the higher levels of the sword-step if their body was up for it, as faster movement would pump more spirit even faster into the required regions. Nodding at this, Ren moved on to the next and final art, the domain of the sword.

It read:

Let the world around you become your sword.

Streams of your spirit, impenetrable and keen in their control.

Become unparalleled, as all other arts lose their meaning before your sword.

Finishing the note, Ren decided to prepare a schedule that he would follow, going forward. He wanted to directly dive into learning all the arts, but as it was getting late, decided against it. The domain of the sword looked especially strong, but it also had the highest base requirements, he didn't even know how to let his spirit flow out of his body and still maintain control.

His self-imposed schedule consisted of mostly meditation and bodily training. He would try to go as deep into his meditation as he could during every night, followed by four hours of his class and then again trying for more deep meditation to deepen his pool of spirit.

He would also try to adjust according to anything that came up, looking up some information at the book reserve or possible sparring matches he could schedule, as well as the instruction of Darkhaven and possible Adepts he might be able to convince to teach him somehow.

With these thoughts he sank into cultivation, putting the matter of incorporating the rest of the arts off for now, not wanting to bite off more than he could chew.