“Artistic conception?”
Ye Feng, drenched in sweat, turned his head and looked at Leng Yue with confusion.
“Yes!”
Leng Yue nodded. “Although I don’t know what you’re practicing, I can see that your movements seem a bit awkward, and you should have felt that too.”
“That’s why you hesitated when you swung your saber, causing a subtle pause in your movement!”
“I think, that saber strike you were practicing, might have been missing something.”
“Carefully recall the feeling you experienced when the other person taught you… I can’t quite articulate it myself…”
“How should I put it… enlightenment is enlightenment!”
“When you recall, don’t focus on memorizing the traces of the other person’s movements. Try to sense that artistic conception from back then…”
Leng Yue pondered for a moment and slowly explained to Ye Feng.
“Artistic conception, huh…”
Ye Feng listened, feeling a bit bewildered.
Ever since he unleashed that mystical saber strike at the Red Cliff ruins, directly eliminating Xu Kuang’s mutated Hell Cerberus, Ye Feng had been eager to truly master that move. He had been dedicating time to practice it recently.
However, he found himself becoming more awkward with each practice, even worse than the first few days. Although he practiced until he was drenched in sweat and exhausted, he gained nothing…
After contemplating Leng Yue’s words, Ye Feng closed his eyes and recalled the scene from the desert where he had suddenly seen the old man in plain clothes swing a branch under a tree.
The memory was a bit blurry at first. Ye Feng took a deep breath, cleared his mind, and tried not to be disturbed by external sounds.
Gradually, Ye Feng felt the sounds of the wind, insects, and birds diminishing, and eventually, they vanished…
Silence, a peculiar silence, so profound that Ye Feng could hear his own heartbeat and breathing!
And at that moment, Ye Feng saw the sunset again, the old man in plain clothes holding a branch, slashing across the sky…
This time, Ye Feng did not obsess over remembering the old man’s movements. Instead, as Leng Yue suggested, he tried to sense the artistic conception.
As the old man in plain clothes slashed with the branch, Ye Feng felt something very peculiar, though he couldn’t quite describe it…
Instinctively, Ye Feng gripped his Tang saber and, mimicking the old man, attempted a slash, all the while carefully sensing that subtle, peculiar feeling he had just experienced…
Suddenly, Ye Feng’s heart trembled!
As he completed that slash, he had truly felt that peculiar sensation.
At the same moment, Ye Feng could “see” the situation of everything around him.
Yes, it was that sense of “seeing.” Even though Ye Feng’s eyes were closed, he could genuinely “see” his surroundings, and with remarkable clarity…
Ye Feng couldn't help but open his eyes.
He was astonished to find that it was already a sky full of stars. He remembered it was still dusk when he closed his eyes…
A surge of arcane energy emanated from Ye Feng, and a faint layer of pure white arcane energy also floated around his Tang saber.
Suddenly, Ye Feng’s pupils contracted!
He noticed that the arcane energy coalescing on the tip of the Tang saber seemed special, giving him an extremely dangerous feeling!
He had experienced this same sensation before when he killed Su Jianying in the ancient battlefield of the dunes, and also when he killed Xu Kuang not long ago…
“Ugh~…”
Before Ye Feng could ponder further, he let out a muffled groan, his body went limp, and he collapsed to the ground.
“Big brother, are you alright?”
Seeing this, Xiao Xiao, who had been standing nearby, rushed to Ye Feng’s side, her face full of concern.
“N-no… I’m fine… Just a bit tired… So hungry…”
Ye Feng waved his hand weakly. Xiao Xiao quickly handed him bread and water.
“Xiao Xiao, what’s going on? Am I dreaming?”
“How did time pass so quickly?”
Ye Feng mumbled as he wolfed down the bread, “I remember the sun was still halfway up the mountain when I was practicing, and now it’s completely dark!”
“Big brother, it’s not a dream! It’s already eleven o’clock at night!”
Xiao Xiao glanced at the Cartier watch on her wrist. “In the evening, after you closed your eyes, you just stood there until just now when you moved…”
“I was a little worried about you and wanted to call out to you, but Sister Leng Yue said you were at an important stage and shouldn’t be disturbed!”
Xiao Xiao quickly explained to Ye Feng.
“Ye Feng, let me tell you a story!”
Seeing Ye Feng look at her questioningly, Leng Yue sat down beside him. “Once upon a time, there was a man who went into the mountains to chop firewood. He saw two people playing chess on a large rock by a stream.”
“So, he placed his axe on the ground by the stream and stopped to watch. He became so engrossed that he lost track of time.”
“When he finally came to his senses and went to pick up his axe to go home, he found that the axe handle had rotted beyond recognition, and the sharpened axe head was covered in rust and uneven…”
Leng Yue looked at Ye Feng and spoke slowly.
“This… before you… I’ve heard this idiom before. Are you saying that what just happened to me is similar to that man who went into the mountains to chop firewood!”
Ye Feng was slightly taken aback, then realized.
“Mm!”
Leng Yue nodded. “Little one, this is your clan’s unique cultivation method! But you seem to have learned it spontaneously!”
“And even within your clan, such an epiphany isn’t achievable by everyone!”
Ye Feng had previously mentioned he didn’t like Leng Yue calling him “little one,” so Leng Yue started using his name. Now, however, she had reverted to the familiar address.
“What you said…”
Ye Feng wanted to ask about the “clan” that Leng Yue had repeatedly mentioned, but he ultimately didn't. After all, he had asked before, and Leng Yue had never answered.
“Right, Leng Yue, even with closed eyes… one can still see things around them? Although my eyes were closed just now, I could still see things around me…”
“It’s… it’s that feeling of seeing with your eyes…”
Ye Feng scratched his head, feeling a bit frustrated because he couldn’t articulate the feeling.
“You don’t necessarily have to open your eyes to see things! Especially, some things simply cannot be seen with the eyes!”
Leng Yue smiled faintly and picked up the conversation.
“Is that so?”
Ye Feng scratched his head, finding it a bit hazy and not entirely clear.
“Speaking of which, Ye Feng, I now believe you were the one who killed Cerberus and saved Ling Xi!”
“The heavenly might emanating from your saber strike just now could indeed kill Cerberus!”
Leng Yue looked at the Tang saber by Ye Feng’s side, her expression filled with surprise.
“Uh…”
Ye Feng truly didn’t know how to respond. The situation back then was still somewhat confusing to him. It seemed the Tang saber acted on its own, draining him of both his power and his mental energy…