Demon Realm Rhapsody

It is difficult for a person to become familiar with their own body movements; it's a process.

The so-called "Dance of the Serpentine Blade" demonstrated multiple possibilities of fighting with a dagger, allowing a martial artist to gain a deeper understanding of their own body and the dagger, and to kill the enemy in more sophisticated ways.

He could see all sorts of slow motion, breakdowns of movements, and detailed displays, all very clear and understandable, even to someone with no background like him.

However, the learning process had to start with the basics.

He had no foundation whatsoever.

Not only did he have to learn the dagger, but also movement techniques and various combat actions.

The practice process was magical, though. Almost every practice session was extremely satisfying, feeling like stepping into a brand new world he had never noticed before.

A basic thrust with the dagger he practiced for an entire evening, with each repetition bringing him a feeling of joy.

Dinner was late, and he practiced after it. When he went to sleep, his arms were a bit sore, a result of fighting too many times and practicing too much that day.

The next day he continued practicing, adding many other movements.

How much each movement had to be practiced was clearly indicated in the diagrams of the movements.

So that day he practiced three movements, two for the legs, two for the hands—all basic moves.

There were still thousands of movements to go, he thought to himself. Was he supposed to practice for over a year?

Was the "Dance of the Serpentine Blade" really that complicated?

Don't think too much about that for now, just practice with your eyes closed, he told himself. The more he practiced, the more coordinated his body movements felt, and his mindset improved too.

He put in a lot of practice in actions like jumping, squatting, kicking, and tripping.

The first week was all about practicing these very basic skills. Although the progress was slow, he was not in a hurry because he was indeed improving.

At the very least, he could see a huge improvement in his flexibility and balance.

He went out hunting again and dragged home a wild boar. Outside, heavy snow fell and the north wind howled.

He practiced martial arts at home, sweat pouring down his back, yet tireless.

Food was plenty, whether vegetables, nuts, or meat, they all had a bit of surplus.

The snow outside was really coming down hard, seemingly non-stop.

In the second week, he practiced over sixty basic movements. He felt many changes in his body but couldn't quite explain them.

In the third week, he practiced over two hundred basic movements, each to the point of proficiency. The learning sequence set by the skill book was scientifically sound; he just had to follow the sequence and practice each item until he was competent.

Every two days he had to go out to shovel snow, or it would accumulate too deeply.

The weather showed no sign of change. How long would this winter last?

In the fourth week, he practiced over six hundred movements and was finally able to perform the "Dance of the Serpentine Blade" to some extent; he was in high spirits. Certain movements he couldn't have imagined himself performing before.

For instance, stabbing with two daggers in one second, with each movement being substantial.

He had to do it from a particular angle in a specific way to complete this action, and that was the secret of combat techniques. Samurai were not omnipotent; movements had patterns that had to be followed for those miraculous performances.

In the fifth week, he mastered a dozen movements that normal people could not possibly perform and his confidence surged.

In the sixth week, while practicing on his own, he was able to perform all the movements of the "Dance of the Serpentine Blade." His combat instincts had grown remarkably stronger—flexibility, reaction speed, accuracy, and so on had all greatly improved from before.

He knew this set of combat skills was difficult for ordinary humans to learn; the reason he could learn it was that he possessed a trace of demonic power granted by an egg, which was being exercised and augmented during his practice.

He felt he must have become much stronger than before, but due to a severe lack of fighting experience, there could be situations where he might panic. Now, he had to make up for this.

He decided to head to the Stone Bamboo Forest to the north to continue eliminating demonic creatures.

Strike a gong and out comes a skeleton demon ape, extremely weak, almost one dagger kill per ape, he killed a few hundred in total.

He discovered a new task updated in the "Servant's Book".

If he killed another three hundred skeleton demon apes the next day, he could receive a reward bestowed by the great demon chicken egg, a piece of equipment—a recovery ring.

Upon wearing this ring and chanting incantations, one can restore a small amount of physical strength, up to ten times a day.

The specific effect was that after walking about ten miles and chanting an incantation, one's legs would not feel tired at all.

In fact, this was a tremendous piece of equipment, and Ma Lin understood its value.

Even if the recovery of physical strength each time was relatively small, ten times a day was already quite impressive.

First, he got a good night's rest.

The next day, he set out with stamina fruit and encountered some trouble because by the afternoon, striking the gong would release three skeleton demon apes at a time, and he had to handle them with care. The good thing was that he could truly practice the "Dance of the Spirit Snake" in real combat, making more than a dozen extra movements in every fight, even though those skeleton demon apes were still very weak.

By evening, he finally completed the task and directly received the ring from the "Servant's Book".

He slipped it onto his left index finger.

First, he used it once to recover some strength, then headed home. Halfway there, he ran into the same three black bears blocking the way.

Ma Lin thought for a moment and shouted, "Servant's Escape Technique!"

Suddenly, his feet were as swift as the wind, and he charged towards them. When he got close, he slightly veered to one side, jabbed his dagger into the leftmost bear, and then he ran another twenty meters before stopping.

Turning his head, he saw a large gash on the bear's shoulder—it wasn't fatal, but it was enough to intimidate them.

He also felt that his standing in the nearby wilderness had risen slightly.

The three black bears were all scared off.

He continued on, and upon reaching his home's doorstep, he used the password to open the courtyard gate and went inside.

He bolted the door, and the sky began to darken.

He went to the stove to cook. Having had enough roasted meat, he now switched to a clay pot. Even after some practice, his cooking skills were still somewhat lacking.

After eating his fill, he resumed reading the skill book "Dance of the Spirit Snake", carefully observing the illustrated movements and practicing them himself.

Each practice sequence was very straightforward and clear, with virtually no room for doubt; following the practice would meet the requirements, lead to progress, and eventually mastery of the combat technique.

The skill book explained that among all the combat techniques, this one was relatively simple and direct, but in Ma Lin's eyes, it was already quite complex.

The main reason was that he had absolutely no foundation in martial arts. Most people start training from a young age, spending five to ten years to learn such combat techniques, whereas he started training at the age of twenty and began to grasp them after just a month and a half.

Thanks to the recovery ring, when tired, he'd use it to regain some physical strength.

So, although the training intensity was particularly high, it never overwhelmed his body.

He had a good night's sleep.

During the day, he went back to the Stone Bamboo Forest to continue fighting.

Strike the gong, and skeleton demon apes would appear, which he killed. They burrowed up from underground, but this was getting strange; he had killed over a thousand, yet they kept coming endlessly.

The more he killed, the stronger the skeletons appeared, which were just suitable to serve as practice targets.

He kept his patience, was not impetuous, not reckless, and they could hardly pose any real threat to him.

He knew that although cautious fighting can be irritating, progress is achieved through overcoming this irritation.

"Dance of the Spirit Snake" taught him not only how to handle a dagger but also a movement technique that made his actions very coordinated, nimble, and free to twist and turn.