“So, that’s how you do it!”

The Old Man murmured as he once again directs his energy from his body through his arm, and then onto his hand and fingers. Once he felt the Qi reaching the fingers, he let it build up for a moment before pushing it to the rapier in his hand.

The Old Man took a step forward, and did an attack thrust.

The Qi went through his rapier, the air ripped, and a wavy silver light shot out. The Old Man turned his wrist, and the silver light twisted, gaining speed before hitting a bamboo tree with a loud sound. The tree was over five meters away, but it snapped from the force of the light and the nearby trees in the bamboo forest swayed as if they were hit by a strong wind. The ground around the Old Man, which was covered with fallen leaves, was now cleared as a wave of energy had erupted from his body with the appearance of the silvery light. It blew away the leaves as if they had been swept by a giant broom.

The Old Man of Pui smiled.

He went back to the pavilion, sat down on the stone chair, and picked up the book Sweet Fist had gifted him. “Sword Force of the Paladin” was the unimaginative title, but the contents were so important he could forgive the writer.

According to Sweet Fist, he had been collecting old texts about mystics since he became one and came across a book written by a scholar named Odger the Traveller. The scholar was supposed to be a friend of Paladin of Sun and wrote the book after the death of the ancient mystic.

According to the author’s foreword, the book was filled with the techniques of Paladin of Sun as told to the scholar by the mystic herself, though Sweet Fist was skeptical about that. Sweet Fist had tried to follow the contents of the book but was unsuccessful. He informed the Old Man that he believes Odger had written the book to cash in on his relationship with Paladin of Sun, but Sweet Fist was no swordsman, and he thought the Old Man may have better success. The Old Man did not expect much from the book but to his surprise, the techniques in the book were genuine.

He also realizes where Sweet Fist went wrong.

The book was written in an old flowery writing style that was in vogue during that era but would have made no sense in modern times. For example, “All things begin with the Sun and the Sun is in everything; the Sun is in everything, the Sun is in you; tap into the Sun, tap into you.”

What did that mean? What did the book mean by ‘tap into you’? How do you tap into yourself? Sweet Fist must have read this and thought it to be gibberish.

Another example was, “The Sun creates light, light creates life, and life created Man. So, Man and the Sun are one. We are part of the great cycle of the universe, and it is natural for Man to gather the force of the Sun.”

What is natural about a man being able to gather solar energy like a plant? That makes no sense.

Luckily, the Old Man was a fan of history, and like Sweet Fist, he had been collecting the works of past mystics. He would not call himself an expert, but he had been studying ancient texts for decades and has experience with this sort of rambling books. He also knows the story of Paladin of Sun.

As one of the famous swordswomen in the history of Nexus, her story was well-known.

Once, she was just Laurie Calvet. One day, when she was just a young girl, Laurie found a deep cave with carvings and writings on the walls and she became a swordswoman by following the instructions on the walls.

That was the start of her legend.

The Old Man had never heard of the scholar, Odger, but it was clear the scholar knew the Paladin of Sun. The writer wrote the book as a homage to the ancient mystic, and it was part manual, part biography. The Old Man did not know if there was any new information in the book, but he was certain historians would love to get their hands on it. At the very least, the book would give them a concise history of Paladin of Sun.

However, it was manual portion of the book that truly interests him. Unlike Sweet Fist who gained his power by forming a new organ within himself or the Old Man who bends the ambient energy he sensed in the environment, the techniques of Paladin of Sun were based on the sun. She could gather energy from the sun to enhance her body and refine her sword strokes. The Paladin called this ‘The Force of the Sun’.

According to Ogder, the Force made the Paladin stronger and tougher than any man without Magic or Special Ability. Special Ability was they called Superpowers in that era. The Force also made the Paladin’s sword so strong that she could cut through boulders and this Force could be extend beyond the length of the sword, giving the Paladin a range attack of up to ten kilometers.

According to Ogder, the Paladin called this the ‘Sword Force’.

The book had a short section on how Paladin of Sun managed to draw Force from the sun, and even the Old Man had a hard time understanding it. Luckily, the book did have a detailed account on how the Paladin used the Force to power her techniques.

Sword Force was attained by absorbing the Force of the sun and moving the energy to the sword. A swordsman can manipulate Sword Force in various ways, like causing flames to rise out of the blade, making the sword glow, and throwing Force beyond the range of the sword.

Sword Force was an interesting name that was only the start of the differences of the times. The Old Man flipped to the section of the book where it showed her Moves. Nowadays, everyone called them techniques, but the Paladin of Sun called them ‘Moves’ but the idea was the same. A set sequence of movements that allowed Paladin to use her Sword Force.

The Old Man believed this was why Sweet Fist failed. Sweet Fist must have tried to follow the instruction of the book blindly without interpreting the content.

The Paladin of Sun gained her power from the sun and the book detailed the whole process from gathering the Force to releasing the technique as one Move. The Sweet Fist must have tried to store energy like Paladin of Sun and failed. The Old Man was not surprised if that was the case.

Paladin of Sun was like some sort of solar battery, but Sweet Fist had his own source of power, and if he tried to store energy from the Sun like Paladin of Sun, the chance of failure would be high. Fortunately, there was no need for that. The Old Man of Pui believed that he could use the energy around him like normal and direct the energy as stated under the Moves. Basically, he would ignore the force gathering part of the Move, and just follow the direction of how to release the effect.

It worked!

The Old Man flipped through the book once more as he briefly wondered if he should tell Sweet Fist about the insights he gained. The thought was brief as the Old Man quickly decided he need to do so. Sweet Fist may be a villain, but he has been a delight to speak to and has been very open about his mystical techniques with the Old Man. The Old Man would do the same.

When he heard rumors of Sweet Fist claiming that he could make new mystics, the Old Man did not believe him. He thought it was a lie to gather a powerbase. The Old Man had been trying to create a new mystic for decades and had failed. Seeing Sweet Fist managing to do just that in Glowing Falls was a blow, but the Old Man was not angry.

He was intrigued.

So, the Old Man was a little disappointed when Sweet Fist privately admitted that he did it by luck. No, that would be unfair of him. It wasn’t luck, but an educated guess on the part of Sweet Fist. Sweet Fist’s way was for his students to gather Qi within their bodies to form a core, an additional organ that would allow them to store Qi. Since the monster cores were like his core, Sweet Fist thought it might be possible to use the monster cores as replacements. Sweet Fist admitted he had only done so to save his man. To Sweet Fist, fusing a monster core was a short cut and one that he would not recommend.

After listening to Sweet Fist’s concerns, the Old Man had to agree with the villain.

They knew nothing about how monster cores would affect humans, what drawbacks the cores would have, and the long-term effects of the cores. Sweet Fist wished to check on the mental and physical conditions of his man first before releasing the information to the public. As a show of good faith, and to prove he wasn’t trying to hoard the information, Sweet Fist even walked the Old Man through the process of how he managed to fuse the monster core to his man.

With the information freely given, the Old Man felt he had no choice but to agree to keep the method secret. He probably would have done so anyway. The Old Man found that he liked the villain. After so long, it was nice to be able to speak to a peer.