After two hours of practice were over.

Since it was almost closing time at One Heart Sword Dao Martial Arts Hall, Su Xin spent an extra four hundred yuan to buy two wooden swords from the hall.

These wooden swords at the martial arts hall were not only exquisitely designed but also made with very solid materials. Their weight and hardness were almost no different from real alloy blades, making them perfect for practicing swordsmanship.

He called a taxi and returned home.

Having understood the task triggering mechanism, Su Xin was aware that the sooner the task is completed, the better. Otherwise, subsequent tasks will only be delayed more and more.

So, right now the most important thing for him is to complete the “Swordsmanship Maniac” task. Compared to that, everything else is insignificant.

He moved the coffee table in the living room to the corner and pushed the sofa aside, leaving a large open space.

Standing in the middle of the empty area with a sword in hand, Su Xin spent a few minutes to focus and calm himself, letting his inner peace settle completely.

Then, he imagined an enemy standing before him, and Su Xin’s gaze gradually became sharp.

“Die!”

Su Xin suddenly swung the sword and slashed.

There was no system notification sound.

Su Xin did not get discouraged, raised the wooden sword again, and continued to gaze sharply ahead, making slight adjustments to his movements and mindset before once again swinging the sword and slashing down.

As he swung the sword again and again, a sharp whistling of Qi occasionally sounded.

Time slowly passed by too.

Occasionally, he heard a pleasant system notification sound, but his mind remained calm, and his movements did not pause at all.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but Su Xin was drenched in sweat, panting like a cow, his hands so tired they didn’t feel like his own, unable to lift even a two-pound wooden sword.

Seeing that death time was twenty minutes away, Su Xin went to the kitchen without hesitation, picked up a fruit knife, performed Instant Teleportation to a permanent anchor point several kilometers away, confirmed there was no one within ten meters, and then decisively cut his throat.

After dying several times, he was no longer afraid of death, and did not care about the pain.

In order to complete the task quickly, he could only restore his physical strength this way swiftly.

Death, resurrection.

Su Xin’s physical strength was restored to fullness again.

Canceling Instant Teleportation back to the living room, he continued his sword swinging actions.

Until he died and resurrected several times, Su Xin noticed the time had passed midnight.

This meant the first day had already passed.

“What a pity.”

Su Xin took a heavy breath, then opened the task panel and had a look.

“Swordsmanship Maniac: Seriously swing the sword one hundred times and comprehend the true essence of swordsmanship.”

“Current progress: 9/100.”

“Practiced for several hours, yet only nine progress points in total, really slow.”

Su Xin frowned, roughly calculating in his mind that at this rate, even if he spent the whole day tomorrow, he might not be able to complete it.

From the pattern he summarized yesterday, if the task is completed on the same day, the next task will trigger three days later. If completed the next day, it will trigger six days later, and if on the third day, then the next task is triggered nine days later.

Although this time was not very long, compared to the previous three-day intervals, the gap appeared quite large.

Su Xin naturally didn’t want to drag it out to the third day.

He immediately decided that today he wouldn’t do anything else, just stay at home to practice swordsmanship.

In addition, he had to think of other methods to see if he could further speed things up.

“Looking for a coach is definitely not feasible; it would be inconvenient to self-resurrect to restore physical strength and would instead waste more time on resting. Plus, what the coach can teach has already been taught, further guidance would hold little significance.”

“Why not check online for guides?”

After thinking for a while, Su Xin decided to try searching online for guides, guessing that there might be some gains.

He returned to his room and turned on the computer.

First, he logged into his email and checked the emails sent by Xu Yongshou. Following his request, Xu Yongshou sent him an intelligence report every day, recording all the major events in Lening City that day.

This document was sent yesterday evening, and in this intelligence report, a large section undoubtedly detailed the tragic incident at Kangbo Biological Company, with more details than in the news. It even mentioned the attitudes of some high-level figures and specific actions.

Furthermore, it also mentioned those who died in cars, which the news hadn’t covered.

However, these were all done by Su Xin; this information held no significance for him.

He merely spent a few minutes casually going through it, deleted the document, and began searching for insights on swordsmanship practice.

Some claimed that swordsmanship was just a combat skill using a sword, and as long as combat experience was rich enough, swordsmanship could improve.

Others said that so-called swordsmanship was nothing more than a flamboyant performance sport, with no real skills whatsoever. By practicing a video, one could learn numerous performance routines.

Then there were those who depicted swordsmanship in novels and movies, describing it with an almost magical prowess.

Yet, some practical techniques existed.

For example, on a martial arts enthusiast forum’s swordsmanship section, a high-ranking user offered some advice—

Practice in dark settings, as much as possible abandoning external factors such as sounds and visuals, putting aside all thoughts. This way, it is easier to focus all attention on the sword in your hand.

After surveying around, Su Xin felt that this advice was the most practical and achievable.

He immediately returned to the living room, pulled the curtains shut, and turned off all lights in the house.

The already dim house now plunged into an even deeper darkness.

Su Xin held his sword, stood on the living room floor where one could hardly see their hand in front of their face, calmly closing his eyes for a while, forcing himself to forget about the system and abilities, to forget the environment he was in.

In his heart, he constantly warned himself that he was currently in a dark wilderness, with his life and death enemy standing right in front of him, relying only on the sword in his hand.

Under this self-hypnosis, Su Xin’s killer intent grew increasingly chilling, the sword in his hand seemingly transformed into an invincible killing weapon.

He set his posture and raised the wooden sword.

Suddenly, Su Xin’s eyes shot a chilly light; if someone were to see, they would definitely sense a strong killer intent from this gaze.

“Die!”

He swung the wooden sword down fiercely.

The piercing sound of breaking wind abruptly echoed.

“Ding! ‘Swordsmanship Maniac’ progress +1.”

Pausing for a moment.

Su Xin again lifted the sword in his hand, adjusting his mindset, adjusting his breathing, and once more swung it down.

While Su Xin was fully immersed in swordsmanship practice, Duan Yilin and his team did not relax their tracking footsteps.

After more than ten hours of continuous tracking and searching, the trio and a dog came exhausted to the outside of Sunshine Community.

“Seems like this is the place.”

“San Wang, continue to guide the direction.”

The group got off the vehicle, one person stayed near the car, while the other two carried the noticeably fatigued tracking dog into Sunshine Community.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep