The next day, in the afternoon, amidst the chaotic training ground.

Huai Shi squatted on the ground, examining a heap of randomly scattered weapons, feeling overwhelmed.

"What's this?"

Huai Shi picked up a half-statue resembling a human figure, its back faintly revealing a contorted human face.

"Oh, that was a Sublimator who got too obsessed with martial arts novels. He thought he was invincible, so he made a one-legged bronze man to challenge everyone. I ended up pinning him to the bronze man and beating him to death... It's been so long since I've cleaned up; this place is covered in dust."

Luo Lao picked up a handkerchief and wiped the dust from the face. The fearful expression underneath was revealed, making the old man even more gleeful. "That guy named Third Question couldn't fight for squat, but he spoke pretty words. If he hadn't been killed back then, he'd still be around to say a few nice things."

"And this one?"

Huai Shi turned and picked up a Lock Chain, from which hung a thick Holy book, its corners reinforced with steel. It was incredibly heavy, almost a meteor hammer.

"That's something I picked up after killing a Priest I encountered on the Border."

"What about this?"

Confused, Huai Shi picked up a half-broken model, clearly recognizable as a steamroller, stained with blood.

Luo Lao glanced up. "Oh, that's from when I was younger. Passing by the Great Library, I ran into some guys who weren't reading properly and just spent all day arguing and nitpicking. They even asked me if there were any weapons I wasn't proficient with. I just grabbed something nearby and killed them all with it."

As he spoke, he took a mouthful of protein powder mixed with more protein powder and sighed contentedly. "After that, no one dared to ask me what I couldn't do anymore. Good times."

Huai Shi was stunned. "Am I supposed to learn all these?"

"Can you even learn them all?" Luo Lao chuckled in response. "Besides, do these toys really need any special effort to master?"

He was well aware of Huai Shi's Ability.

If one were to speak of natural talent, Huai Shi's was quite good—with effort, he could be considered one in a hundred, but he wasn't particularly exceptional.

However, Huai Shi had one good quality: an endless stream of strange ideas and innovative thoughts. He even managed to create the skills of 'Sword Art: Ornament Play' through Creation out of Nothing, somewhat compensating for his lack of innate talent.

Great things could be expected of him in the future.

But the most crucial element, comprehension, was fatally lacking.

It wasn't that he wasn't cut out for this line of work. Ninety-nine percent of people in the world do things that don't require something as esoteric as comprehension, much less talent.

These days, the division of labor is so detailed; there's no need for one person to carry the entire burden and handle everything.

Ultimately, all that's needed is patient and meticulous effort.

At Huai Shi's current speed, perhaps in forty years, he could catch up to the level he was at ten years prior? But to progress beyond that was impossible. Yet, for him, pushing further held no meaning. Being "good enough" was all he needed.

For the muscular old man, this was the least of his concerns. Never mind anything else; if it was just skills that could be understood with a bit of pondering, he had more than enough to offer.

As he said this, the old man put down his teapot. He casually picked up an Iron Whip from the ground and swung it a couple of times. This caused a thunderous roar that split the air, making every weapon there buzz and tremble.

"Whoa! Resonance, cool!"

Huai Shi clapped calmly, successfully shattering the impressive display of all the weapons paying homage. This made Luo Lao barely resist the urge to lash this bastard to death with the whip.

Seeing the old man's expression turn sour, Huai Shi quickly shut up, not daring to speak any further.

"You've already mastered the basic stances and rhythm changes," the old man said. "One could say that you can self-study everything that follows. All I can do is speed up your adaptation process." He said this after demonstrating several common attacking and defensive postures with the Iron Whip. Then, he casually picked up a Short Knife, made a few sweeps with it, and showed Huai Shi its intricacies and essence.

The two weapons seemed poles apart. Yet in his hands, they somehow melded together seamlessly.

Following that, the old man switched to an Octagonal Sword, Spear, Sickle, Dual Swords, Shackles, and other weapons. He demonstrated each one briefly, explaining it simply and directly. This allowed Huai Shi to clearly see the commonalities in their transformations.

"See what I mean?"

Luo Lao casually tossed aside a Round Shield, picked up a Short Spear, swung it around, and turned back. "There are so many weapons in this world, but ultimately, there are only so many ways to use them. No matter how many odd tricks and special moves exist, these things themselves have no practical value."

"If you categorize them by distance, they can be long, medium, or short. By weight, they can be light, heavy, or balanced. By style, it's even simpler: 'Offensive,' defensive, sneaky attacks, overpowering assaults, and so on." Luo Lao continued, "I could elaborate for thousands of words, but conversely, aren't the truly useful parts just those few thousand words? The rest is just a combination of a few techniques, merely addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division."

Listening to Luo Lao's concise and comprehensive instruction, Huai Shi vaguely understood something and exclaimed joyfully, "I want to learn this?"

This was awesome. If he learned this, there wouldn't be any weapon in the world he couldn't use.

"No, I won't teach any of these. I've given you the methods; it's up to you to figure them out." Luo Lao poured cold water on his enthusiasm. "Time is short. If you're seeking utilitarian results, then naturally you can disregard... well, I won't teach anything you can learn on your own."

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