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After Cao Xuan left, Chu Xisheng sat alone on a wooden chair, lost in thought for a while before getting up to tidy up the tea set on the table. The water in the courtyard was running low, so Chu Xisheng had to pick up a shoulder pole and go to the well outside to fetch two buckets of water.

At this moment, he couldn't help but miss Chu Yunyun, who was cultivating the "spiritual seeds" at the Taoist temple. It was not the labor that he missed, but rather the secluded location of the courtyard, surrounded by silence and devoid of any human presence. Living there alone felt too desolate for him.

Chu Xisheng also took the opportunity to clean the two rooms and quickly freshen up before returning to lie on his bed. With eager anticipation, he used a martial arts point to exchange for a session of "virtual practice" from the Martial Arts Treasure Vault. Among the remaining eleven items in the vault, this was the only one that truly piqued his interest.

Previously, Chu Xisheng had been holding onto those martial arts points, hesitant to use them. But now, without much reservation, and with a total of 26 martial arts points at his disposal, he decided to indulge himself.As soon as the exchange was completed, Chu Xisheng suddenly felt a dizziness, and the surroundings changed in an instant. He found himself in an extremely vast square made of white jade.

The square was at least a thousand feet long and wide, with a huge white light group at its center, extremely conspicuous. As Chu Xisheng focused his gaze on the light group, a piece of information appeared in his mind: "Would you like to pause the virtual practice and end the dream?"Surveying the surroundings, Chu Xisheng noticed numerous palaces shrouded in clouds and mist at the periphery of the white jade square, their outlines barely visible. Contemplating for a moment, he decided to walk towards the eastern direction, wanting to see what these hidden palaces looked like.

However, to his surprise, no matter how he walked, he couldn't move more than fifty yards away from the white light group. The palaces remained out of reach despite being within sight.

Disappointed, Chu Xisheng shook his head and abandoned his desire to explore further. Instead, he reached for his waist, intending to practice with his sword, only to realize that his hand grasped nothing. It dawned on him that he couldn't bring his Hundredfold Refined Steel Sword into the dream.Just then, countless wisps of smoke and clouds converged around him, forming weapon racks displaying an array of blades, spears, swords, polearms, concealed weapons, bows, and crossbows. All eighteen types of weapons were fully represented.

Each type of weapon has hundreds of choices, such as knives, ranging from the obscure Ten Refining Steel Knife to the top-quality Sunshade Knife, covering all possibilities.

When Chu Xisheng took out a "Hundred Refining Light Steel Knife" from the weapon rack, all the weapon racks disappeared in a mist, as if they had never existed.The touch of the Hundred Refining Light Steel Knife was cold, and its feel, weight, and texture were exactly the same as his own sword.Chu Xisheng marveled at this, finding it hard to believe it wasn't a dream.He then collected his thoughts and began practicing swordsmanship.

On the day the system awakened, Chu Yunyun adjusted his sword stance for him in the afternoon, enabling him to further unleash his talent for swift swordsmanship, although he hadn't had a chance to practice it yet.Chu Xisheng's first practice was the "Empty Wind Comes" move.This was the unsheathing move of the Chasing Wind Sword, a simple move similar to the unsheathing techniques of the Qi Family Sword and the Japanese Iaido.

The difference was the use of true energy, which doubled the speed of the sword.Chu Xisheng followed Chu Yunyun's instructions meticulously, practicing the unsheathing and striking of the sword repeatedly, following each point.For low-level martial practitioners like them, there was no need to consider changes when using a sword.

In the heat of battle, where things change in an instant, who has time to think?Most of the time, they relied on instinct to respond.Only when their own instincts were sufficient to deal with most battles could martial practitioners have the leisure to think and use their martial arts more rationally in combat.

So now all he needed to do was to turn the sword moves into instinct as much as possible, forming muscle memory.The practice process was very tedious, but Chu Xisheng enjoyed it.In the past, limited by his physical fitness, he could not practice swordsmanship for more than half an hour a day.

By this time, Chu Xisheng hadn't felt any physical discomfort even after practicing for an hour.Only his physical strength and true energy were slowly being consumed.Chu Xisheng gradually felt tired, his muscles a little sore.He had to exert all his strength to maintain the standard of the sword moves without changing due to fatigue.To Chu Xisheng's surprise, when his physical strength was nearly eighty percent depleted, it stopped decreasing.

His eyes lit up. He knew that practicing when physically exhausted and muscles tired was often the most effective and realistic, which was most in line with the situation in battle.Chu Xisheng was even more looking forward to the awakening from his dream.According to the description of the "Virtual Training" product, the training effect in dreams is the same as in real scenes, without consuming physical strength or mental energy.

I wonder how this effect will be presented?

In the early hours of the morning, a beam of sunlight shone in from the window, waking Chu Xisheng from his sleep. He felt a sharp pain across his skin, and his consciousness jolted awake. A wave of intense agony surged through him, as if he were being bitten by countless ants. Every muscle ached and throbbed, mixed with a nearly tearing sensation.

Chu Xisheng writhed in bed, unable to bear the pain, before finally managing to recover after a long while. Once the pain had completely subsided, he gasped for breath, pondering the strange experience.

His "Six Yin Resurrection Curse" usually manifested as heartache, numbness in the limbs, and photophobia, but today's symptoms were unprecedented.

Sensing a revelation, Chu Xisheng took his paired blade and went to the courtyard to try using the "Hollow Wind" technique. As a brilliant flash of light shone, three falling leaves ahead were silently split in two.

Chu Xisheng gazed at his right hand in amazement. He could clearly feel that his sword was faster— as if he had undergone thousands of rounds of practice and had become extremely proficient.

Realization dawned on Chu Xisheng. The pain he had experienced earlier must have been the system infusing the results of his dream practice into his body. Astonishingly, after enduring the intense pain, he felt invigorated, without a trace of fatigue.

Indeed, just as the annotations described, it didn't consume physical or mental energy. A slight smile crept onto Chu Xisheng's lips as he felt a broad and boundless path lying ahead of him.

He didn't need to rely on the system for attribute points or even talent. As long as the system allowed him to practice martial arts like a normal person, he was confident that he could reach the pinnacle of martial cultivation.