The true essence of the Formation-Breaking Saber lay in a single character: *break*. For the first three days of practicing the saber, Li Diudiu felt he already understood the meaning of that single character — but a few days later he realized he had merely grasped it on the surface.

Yan Qingzhi made no active effort to teach Li Diudiu anything. He was waiting for Li Diudiu to realize it on his own. Because telling someone to grasp something is easy, but telling someone to let something go is hard.

As a seasoned instructor, he understood human nature clearly. When things are made too explicit, even children develop resistance. Tell someone directly that they’re doing it wrong, and the vast majority will push back.

If he told Li Diudiu that in order to properly develop the *break* character of the Formation-Breaking Saber, he needed to temporarily forget all the combat techniques he’d learned before — Li Diudiu might not believe it, might not be able to do it.

Yan Qingzhi watched Li Diudiu sitting in the courtyard in a daze, and knew he had hit a plateau.

Blade forms are rigid. On an actual battlefield, or in a duel, an enemy or opponent won’t follow your routine — they won’t stand there waiting for you to work through your moves one by one.

Rote-form martial technique is just flashy posturing.

“Sir.”

Li Diudiu turned to look at Yan Qingzhi: “I think there may be something wrong with the *break* character in the Formation-Breaking Saber.”

Yan Qingzhi was startled.

He walked up to Li Diudiu and asked: “What do you mean?”

Li Diudiu said: “At first I thought that in order to properly practice this unstoppable, charge-forward formation-breaking technique, I’d need to temporarily forget everything I’d learned before. As long as the heart holds distractions, it’s impossible to charge forward without hesitation.”

Yan Qingzhi nodded: “Your thinking is correct. So why do you say the *break* character is wrong?”

Li Diudiu said: “If that’s what I first thought — that the *break* character isn’t a *break* applied to enemies, but a *break* applied to oneself, seeking to break down in order to build up — then this blade technique is incompatible with other combat techniques. With only the Formation-Breaking Saber, has a person truly grown stronger, or weaker?”

Yan Qingzhi frowned slightly: “The great general of old won every battle with this very Formation-Breaking Saber. What would you say — stronger, or weaker?”

Li Diudiu said: “Had the great general practiced other martial arts as well?”

Yan Qingzhi was again taken aback.

“According to what is passed down — the great general’s martial learning was broad and wide-ranging.”

“Then that’s the answer.”

Li Diudiu stood up: “The intent of the Formation-Breaking Saber doesn’t actually lie in the character *break* — it lies in a different character altogether. The character *advance* — as in to advance toward death.”

Li Diudiu said: “To advance into formation. To advance toward death. *Break* cannot make a person charge forward without hesitation — only *advance* can.”

Yan Qingzhi didn’t yet understand why Li Diudiu was fixating on these two characters. Did the meaning of the characters and the meaning of the blade technique actually correspond?

Li Diudiu said: “So the true intent of this blade technique is actually *I dare* — not *I break*.”

Yan Qingzhi felt it was now his turn to not understand. He had been practicing the Formation-Breaking Saber for so many years and had never thought about any of this — he had simply felt that to master it, one must specialize exclusively in this path. And so over the years, all the other techniques he’d practiced had gradually faded from him, until only the Formation-Breaking Fist and the Formation-Breaking Saber remained, ever more refined.

Li Diudiu said: “So there’s no need to forget those things you originally learned. With this blade technique, the two words *I dare* are sufficient.”

He picked up his carrying pole and ran through the Formation-Breaking Saber sequence again in order. It seemed no different on the surface — yet Yan Qingzhi found that it looked as though a real opponent stood before Li Diudiu. His carrying pole became more and more like a real blade.

“Wait here.”

Yan Qingzhi said those words and walked out quickly. It was unclear where he’d gone. Li Diudiu practiced his saber in the courtyard again and again, his eyes narrowed slightly — narrowing the eyes blurred the vision, and in the blur one could imagine real enemies appearing before him.

After about half an hour, Yan Qingzhi returned carrying an armful of bamboo stalks. Li Diudiu could see right away — weren’t those the slender bamboos from the grove in the academy?

The mao bamboo common in the south couldn’t survive in the north. The bamboo most often seen in northern gardens was this variety — bamboo, also called thunder bamboo — and there was another type with a beautifully elegant name, golden-inlaid jade bamboo, which could also grow in the north.

“Sir — did you just clear out that whole bamboo grove…?”

Li Diudiu remarked in amazement.

Yan Qingzhi said: “I left a note. Wrote that it was Li Chi who cut them.”

Li Diudiu said: “Brilliant.”

Yan Qingzhi gave him a withering look, took the bamboo stalks one by one, and planted them in the courtyard in no particular order — scattered randomly, as if without any deeper meaning, just casually placed.

“They are the enemy soldiers charging toward you.”

Yan Qingzhi said: “Practice the sequence one more time.”

Li Diudiu nodded: “Yes, sir!”

Li Diudiu picked up the carrying pole and was about to move when Yan Qingzhi said: “As fast as you can — knock down every single bamboo stalk. Miss one and you don’t eat dinner.”

Li Diudiu’s eyes went wide: “That’s ruthless!”

Yan Qingzhi: “This is only ruthless as far as you’re concerned. For some people it wouldn’t even count as anything…”

The entire day passed in this manner of constant repetition. Yan Qingzhi didn’t seem like an academy instructor at all — more like a martial arts trainer. Under his supervision, the speed of Li Diudiu’s strikes grew faster and more precise.

Toward evening, Yan Qingzhi went to the dining hall to collect their food. Li Diudiu dragged over a small stool and sat at the entrance of the courtyard. He had just washed up, and a gentle breeze drifted past, leaving a thorough and refreshing coolness on his body.

It was then that Li Diudiu saw Gao Xining walking toward him with a sour expression. He was startled and immediately turned to retreat back into the courtyard — but before he could get away, he heard Gao Xining cough several times behind him.

Li Diudiu sighed, turned around, and smiled at Gao Xining: “What a coincidence.”

Gao Xining stared at him and demanded: “These past few days, every time you see me you run away — every time you see me, you run away! Is it because when you got hurt, I didn’t bandage you up? I didn’t… didn’t suck your finger?!”

Li Diudiu thought to himself: what does any of this have to do with anything? If Gao Xining hadn’t brought it up, he’d have long forgotten about it.

“No, no — I’ve just been really busy lately. You could have sucked it and I’d still have been busy.”

“Busy?”

Gao Xining stood in the doorway staring straight at Li Diudiu: “Look me in the eyes and say that again — you’ve been so busy that every time you see me, you hide?”

Li Diudiu mustered his courage, looked Gao Xining in the eyes, and answered earnestly: “I am busy.”

Gao Xining: “Say the second half!”

Li Diudiu opened his mouth, but truly couldn’t get the words out.

Gao Xining took a breath. She wasn’t actually angry at Li Diudiu at all. The reason why Li Diudiu had suddenly created distance between them was something she could work out easily — she was a girl born naturally clever, and few people could match her sharpness. These past few days Li Diudiu had been staying with Yan Qingzhi — naturally Yan Qingzhi had said something to him, and without needing to think too hard, she could guess roughly what it was. Yan Qingzhi had definitely told Li Diudiu to keep his distance from her.

“Let me ask you something.”

Gao Xining continued looking at Li Diudiu and asked in a very serious tone: “When someone tells you to stay away from a person, you just stay away from that person — why?”

Li Diudiu was startled. How did she know?

But very quickly he understood. A girl as bright as Gao Xining could easily work out what had happened.

Her talent in martial arts was genuinely mediocre, but her mind far surpassed those her age — far surpassed even certain adults. Precisely because of this, the petty little schemes of peers were transparent to her at a glance, and the so-called dynamics between adults she could see through just as readily.

Li Diudiu stared at her blankly, not knowing how to respond. If he said yes, that would confirm that Yan Qingzhi had indeed told him something — Gao Xining might then resent Yan Qingzhi. If he said no… Li Diudiu knew he wasn’t good at lying.

“So other people’s words matter more to you after all.”

Gao Xining turned and walked away: “A gutless coward without a mind of his own.”

Li Diudiu watched her retreating figure with his mouth hanging wide open — wanting to say: it’s not that I don’t want to be around you, it really is because Instructor Yan said it was for your own good.

But those words reached the tip of his tongue and he still couldn’t say them, because it suddenly dawned on him — regardless of whether it was for Gao Xining’s good or not, hadn’t he promised Instructor Yan? So Gao Xining was right.

He smiled bitterly to himself. For no clear reason at all, there was a little ache in his heart.

In that instant the ache came because it felt as though he had lost something very, very important — important enough that losing it meant cutting something away. Since it required cutting before it could be let go, of course it hurt.

But Gao Xining, a few steps away, turned back. She looked at Li Diudiu and said earnestly: “If I let other people’s words affect who I am, then I’m also a coward — but I’m not. So I’ll still be waiting by the treeline every day. You already owe me several days of lessons you haven’t taught.”

Li Diudiu took a deep breath, then called out loudly: “I’ll teach you!”

Gao Xining said: “Whether I go is my business — I stand by my word. Whether you go is your business, and has nothing to do with me.”

Li Diudiu: “Hey!”

Gao Xining turned, clasped her hands behind her back, and walked away. As she walked, her ponytail swung back and forth. Li Diudiu suddenly smiled — because he knew that when Gao Xining’s ponytail swung like that as she walked, she definitely wasn’t truly angry.

He had observed this more than once. When Gao Xining was angry, no matter how fast she walked or how large her strides, her ponytail barely moved. But when she was happy, even if she walked slowly, her ponytail would sway back and forth.

So Li Diudiu’s conclusion was: when Gao Xining walked and her ponytail hung still without moving, she was definitely angry; when it swayed left and right, she was definitely happy.

“Ah…”

Li Diudiu sat back down and let out a long breath, murmuring to himself: “Not going means breaking my word — that is indeed a bit cowardly. Going means disrespecting sir’s guidance — that is indeed a bit disrespectful. Being a child is really hard.”

At the same time, at the Jizhou Military Governor’s garrison camp.

Xiahou Zuo stood up and moved around a bit. Though walking still tugged at his wound and caused a faint ache, it was so much better than before. At the very least he could move under his own power, and as long as he didn’t walk too fast, the wound wouldn’t hurt too badly.

“I need to go back to the academy.”

He looked at Liu Ge and said: “Can you arrange a carriage to take me back?”

General Liu Ge asked, somewhat puzzled: “Why not stay here and recover properly? This garrison camp is the safest place there is — who would dare come cause trouble here? If you go back, you’d be staying at the academy anyway, and that’s not reassuring.”

Xiahou Zuo said: “After this incident, Yang Zhuo won’t rashly try anything again. Don’t worry about that. And I really must get back to the academy.”

“Why?”

Liu Ge said: “You’re feeling cooped up here?”

Xiahou Zuo shook his head: “That’s not it… Today I suddenly remembered that the academy should have started its farming holiday by now. Almost all the students will have left the academy to go home — but Li Diudiu has nowhere to go and can only stay at the academy. He was also wounded. And the academy dining hall will have no one in it. I don’t know how he’s been getting on these past few days.”

Liu Ge was taken aback, then smiled: “If that’s all it is, you’re worrying for nothing. He’s at the academy — you think he’ll starve to death?”

Xiahou Zuo looked at Liu Ge and said: “This is not the attitude I should have as a brother.”

Liu Ge fell silent. After a moment he nodded: “I’ll go speak to the Military Governor. If his lordship agrees, I’ll arrange horses and a carriage to take you back.”

“No need to ask the Military Governor.”

Xiahou Zuo was feeling anxious now that the thought of the academy’s farming holiday had come to him — he couldn’t stay another moment.

So he looked at Liu Ge and said earnestly: “I need to go back right now. If you won’t arrange a carriage, I’ll walk back myself.”

Liu Ge said: “Are you threatening me? Is this the attitude you have toward a brother?”

Xiahou Zuo: “You’re right — I am threatening you.”

Liu Ge stared at Xiahou Zuo for a good long while, then laughed and shook his head: “You win.”

—