Su Ming suppressed the avalanche of "this breaks the setting" thoughts and focused on the lesson.
Where were they? Right—Sword Form.
"The Sword Form originally consists of four forms and twenty-one stances. It is the foundation of the Taixu Sword Art. But practicing it requires a specific weapon shape, which is inconvenient for you. So I made small adjustments for your training."
This was what it meant to be the founder of a legendary sword art: casually modifying the foundation.
It was like lifting a finished skyscraper, digging out the concrete foundation, pouring a new one, then lowering the entire building back into place without a millimeter of error.
Not impossible—just absurd.
"As for Sword Intent, Sword Soul, and Sword Spirit, they are currently useless to you. I will not discuss them for now."
Hua drew a blade from the rack—a katana-like sword Su Ming was comfortable with—and stood before a practice target.
"I will demonstrate first."
"This is the Opening Sword: Hazy Cut!"
Her blade flashed like a moon behind fog—three overlapping afterimages striking high, mid, and low simultaneously. The radiant arc kissed the alloy target, and the target separated into four clean pieces that slid to the floor.
"This is the Transforming Sword: Thousand-Crane Soar!"
A violent wind erupted in the quiet room. A deafening crack followed—like an airburst—as her high-speed slashes wove a crane-shaped net of steel. Another target was evenly diced into eighteen pieces that scattered across the ground.
"I won't overload you. I'll only show two techniques for now and teach you these first—" Hua turned. "Um… Su Ming?"
Su Ming was staring so hard his soul had left his body.
No. Girl.
Where did you bring me? Is this still a 'daily life' worldline?
Afterimages, airbursts—this is something even an immortal could be proud of.
Seeing this, Su Ming doubted reality itself.
But first—
Let the system panic.
[Hua is teaching you the Taixu Sword Art. Convert skill: Beichen Isshin-ryu Lv.2 (Proficient) (Proficiency: 13/1000) into Taixu Sword Art Lv.1 (Apprentice) (Proficiency: 213/400)?]
Do it.
There was no hesitation. Mortal swordplay and a super-system sword art weren't comparable. Even Lv.1 would crush his old style.
[Conversion complete. Skill "Beichen Isshin-ryu" has been converted into "Taixu Sword Art."]
Yes!
Branch moves, at last. He could finally do inputs. He could finally bring skills back into Honkai 3.
"Teacher Hua—please teach me quickly!"
Su Ming's eyes shone. He grabbed Hua's hands like he was grabbing hope.
"Ah—Su Ming, please calm down, I—"
Hua, pulled in so close and having both hands held, actually looked flustered for once. For a moment, she couldn't even speak smoothly.
"Ahem. Sorry. I got too excited."
Su Ming scratched his cheek awkwardly.
Hua's hands were firm as polished bone, but her skin—
Stop.
I am not a rebellious disciple.
He forced down the intrusive thoughts and smiled—awkward but polite.
"It's fine. I understand the shock of witnessing powerful martial skill. Now, let us practice."
Hua really didn't seem to mind.
Su Ming noticed the tips of her ears were slightly red.
Probably from exertion during the demonstration. Yes. Definitely.
He maintained proper respect and began practicing under her instruction.
[You practice Taixu Sword Art under Hua's guidance. Proficiency +1]
Wait—practice increases proficiency?
Then he had no choice but to grind.
But not long after, he asked bitterly, "Teacher Hua, my movements are correct—so why can't I produce the kind of blade-light you did?"
Opening Sword: Hazy Cut was essentially a draw slash. Different from what he'd learned, sure, but still a draw slash. With his physical ability, he'd repeated it over two hundred times in an hour.
He had produced exactly zero "three-afterimage" miracles.
"Failing to form blade-light suggests your 'qi' is not flowing correctly," Hua said, identifying the problem at once.
"But no matter what I do, I can't even feel any 'qi' at all," Su Ming said innocently. He'd recited every mnemonic word-for-word, but "qi" remained invisible and intangible.
Hua fell silent, thinking. It was difficult even for her to explain. Finally, she spoke with mild weight:
"Not sensing qi at first is not important. Continue to practice diligently. In time, you will surely gain insight."
"In time… I will surely gain insight."
Su Ming chewed on those words.
And in doing so, he extracted something he'd been trying to confirm for a long time.
In the Honkai setting, what was "qi" if not Honkai energy?
If Su Ming couldn't feel qi, it was because this world currently had no Honkai energy—yet Hua's earlier display proved the Taixu Sword Art here was unmistakably a product of Honkai energy.
So how much did Hua truly know about Honkai energy right now?
He doubted she would answer directly. He'd tried probing other World Serpent members before—even dared to ask the "snake" herself—and always got brushed off with jokes.
Now he'd finally gotten hard evidence through the veiled word "qi."
"Not sensing qi is not important" meant: I know you can't feel it, because it isn't here yet.
"In time, you will surely gain insight" meant: It will appear eventually. Be ready.
Su Ming couldn't tell whether he'd successfully "tricked" information out of honest Hua—or whether someone had arranged for her to say it this way.
Smack.
"Center your breath and focus. Do not let your mind wander," Hua said sternly, tapping his arm sharply with a training rod.
"Yes, Teacher Hua…"
Su Ming was full of grievance, but he absolutely did not dare act up in front of Serious Hua. He obediently moved on to practicing Transforming Sword: Thousand-Crane Soar.
Sure enough, without qi—without Honkai energy—Thousand-Crane Soar was "just" nine rapid slashes. Only at Hua's level did it become instant, strong enough to crack the air. In that sense, it resembled certain legendary multi-strike techniques.
But since practice increased proficiency, Su Ming didn't slack off. Under Hua's guidance, he trained until nightfall before being released.
Somewhere in the exhaustion, it felt like he heard a final notification:
Proficiency +50
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
I, Herta's Fiancé, the Universe's Number One Male Fist (114 Chapter (Simulpub-Full) )
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Succubus in Sixth Street (400 Chapter)
Reborn in Type-Moon, My Sister is Aoko Aozaki (254 Chapter)
MyGO!! A Story Voiced by Me (140 Chapter)
BLEACH: Blade of Purification (158 Chapter)
Konoha: Starting the Game as Yoriichi (400 Chapter)
My Real Job is Spying on Konoha, but I'm Also its Hokage (140 Chapter)
The Pinnacle of the Navy! Starting from Being Captured by Garp (172 Chapter)
Watching Yu-Gi-Oh! short videos is making the veteran players lose...(80 Chapter)
Uma Musume : The Trainer Who Just Wants to Live (200 Chapter)
Zenless Zone Zero The Random Kamen Rider (200 Chapter)
Genshin Impact: It All Began With Me Being Stepped On by Arlecchino (120 Chapter)
Naruto: I Can Synthesize Summoning Beasts (96 Chapter)
Demon Slayer: The Great Swordsman's System, Disciple of Yoriichi (140 Chapter)
My Wife is a General, but I'm an Emanator of Abundance! (160 Chapter)
Type-Moon: My Nine-Fold Path (140 Chapter)
Uma Musume: They're Peeking at My Diary, and All of Tracen is Panickin (Ending)
The Wild History of Type-Moon world (70 Chapter)
Reborn in Conan, But I Refuse to Be the Bad Guy (80 Chapter)
Ruan Mei is begging me to go back? But there's no going back anymore (140 Chapter)
Just a Slacker at Tracen Academy (165 Chapter)
Survival in Blue Archive (70 Chapter)
Kimetsu no Yaiba: Doma Wasn't Hated Today, Either (100 Chapter)
The Vibe of This Chat Group is a Little Off (100 Chapter)
Heartbreak Simulator: I Broke Them and Made Them Cry (80 Chapter)
The Talentless Trainer Doesn't Want to Restart (80 Chapter)
A Journey Starting as a Quincy (80 Chapter)
Uma Musume: The Master of Romance Obstruction (80 Chapter)
Uma Musume: You Can't Be a Hero Without a Little Chemical Enhancement (40 Chapter)
Honkai Impact 3rd Your Boyfriend is Really Amazing (40 Chapter)
Warhammer 40K: My Fiancée, Fulgrim (180 Chapter)
Classroom of the Elite: Trying to Capture Me! (120 Chapter)
Genshin Impact My Named Senji Muramas (150 Chapter)
A Chef, the Vice-Captain of the Rocks Pirates? (160 Chapter)
Naruto : My Uchiha Girlfriend is Too Tsundere (130 Chapter)
Type-Moon: Reincarnated in a Lostbelt, I Became the Alien God (90 Chapter)
The Way These Horse Girls Look at Me Is Terrifying! (160 Chapter)
Naruto: Tsunade's Deskmate (130 Chapter)
I Just Want to Live a Normal (50 Chapter).
Genshin Impact: A Hundred Confessions? It's Just a System Task (70 Chapter)
OnePiece : Starting as a Veteran of the Roger Pirates (60 Chapter)
Uma Musume : I Have Special Horse Taming Techniques (190 Chapter)
Uma Musume : My other self is a Horse Girl (130 Chapter)
Jujutsu Kaisen : All Affection Stats Maxed Out (200 Chapter)
Satou Kazuma's Decision to Live by Swindling, Starting from Re:Zero (60 Chapter)
Bleach : Ichigo! Take Over the Soul Society (89 Chapter)
Crossover Anime: The Master of Plagiarism with a 'Love Obstacle (140 Chapter)
Arknights Succubus Nurturing System, But I'm a Quiet Office Worker (90 Chapter)
Genshin Impact: Using My Personas to Break the Hearts of Players (50 Chapter)
One Punch Man : i am King? (150 Chapter)
Genshin: My Stats Are Irresistible (70 Chapter)
Naruto: Master of Dream Fulfillment! (70 Chapter)
Why Are All My Chat Group Friends Spin-Off Characters? (123 Chapter)
Arknights : Batman System (30 Chapter)
Chat Group: Swapping Bodies with the Bad-Ending Herta from the Start (72 Chapter)
DanMachi: Why Did My Dungeon Turn Into a Soulslike Game? (92 Chapter)
Losing Money on Uma Musume...What Do You Mean You Actually Won? (93 Chapter)
I'm Gotou Hitori—Who Are You? (40 Chapter)
Were You Ever Even a Uma Musume? Stop Making Things Up! (75 Chapter)
Moon Project: A Full-Time Love Adventure for the Lobotomy Corporation (75 Chapter)
The Leisurely Days of the Hyuga Main House (65 Chapter)
Arknights : A Draco Surviving in a Matriarchal Terra (115 Chapter)
Arknights: What if My Luck Is Too Good? (105 Chapter)
Honkai: The Romance System Only Shows Up After I Marry Mei (55 Chapter)
Arknights: Who Are You Calling Repressed, X?! (105 Chapter)
The Chat Group Only Arrived After I'd Cleared the Game (42 Chapter)
Gojo Satoru Flat-Out Refuses to Admit He's a Supporting Character (40 Chapter)
Chat Group Isn't Supposed to Be Like This! (30 Chapter)
If You're Moriarty…then Who Am I? (56 Chapter)
Uma Musume: Since I "Can't See," They Take Turns Stealing My Underwear (50 Chapter)
Arknights: Why Are All My "Brothers" Girls? (54 Chapter)
Danmachi: Start Training Haki (59 Chapter)
Emiya Shirou's Rebirth (30 Chapter)
I Can Get Stronger Just by AFK'ing—So I Joined a Chat Group (50 Chapter)
Endfield: I Can Always Pull Out One Yuan (54Chapter)
Limbus Company : I Started a Company in Project Moon (50 Chapter)
Lobotomy: Do Cooks of Alley 23 Dream of Bloodfiend Knights? (50 Chapter)
DanMachi: Freya Familia's "One-Blade Shura" (60 Chapter)
DanMachi: Emiya, the Great Hero Becomes the Protagonist (76 Chapter)
TYPE-MOON: One Special Instance Every Week (40 Chapter)
From Danmachi: The Abundance Apothecary (63 Chapter)
Lord Shadow Descends on DanMachi (60 Chapter)
Fuse with Me, Exusiai! (41 Chapter)
Honkai: Star Rail — After I Die, I Forge Their Madness (50 Chapter)
DanMachi: The Last Zeus Familia (30 Chapter)
Endfield: Arknights Heroic Spirit Summoning (30 Chapter)
Toyokawa Family Finances (80 Chapter)
Starting From DanMachi to Become Stronger (50 Chapter)
If there's a particular novel you're enjoying on Patron, please give it a 'like' so I know to focus on it