“Grip the knife like holding a bird: grip it tight and the bird dies; too loose and it flies. The tiger’s mouth touches the guard, the little finger locks the butt end of the hilt, leave a seam in the palm—let the blade find its balance through inertia…”In a bright, spotless room, a square-shouldered instructor was explaining knife technique. The trainees in black practice uniforms listened intently. Zhou Su was among them.After these days of contact, Zhou Su had confirmed one thing: the knife instructor in front of him truly had real skill. “Thirty-second-generation heir to the Tan Family Saber” wasn’t some fabricated title.“No surprise it was a knife hall Gu Zhiyuan recommended—reliable.” Zhou Su couldn’t help the thought.He sensed memory fragments rapidly digesting in his head and felt quietly pleased.His choice was undoubtedly right.Three days ago, on Gu Zhiyuan’s introduction, he’d come to this knife hall to learn saber work systematically.The Headless General’s saber technique was exquisite beyond question, but what had been shoved into Zhou Su’s mind were only fragments—this bit here, that bit there.As a mechanical engineering graduate, he understood “systematic” better than the average person. Only then could he go farther down the road of saber work.Most importantly, he’d found that learning systematic saber theory accelerated the digestion of memory fragments—limited, ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) of course, to the saber-related ones.It wasn’t hard to understand. Studying saber work is like doing math problems: there are countless problems, but if you know the core formulas, everything interconnects.“Alright, we’ve been on theory for days now; you’re probably sick of it. Today let’s do something different…”The instructor rose with a smile and looked at the class. “Pair off and have a live bout.”The trainees began whispering among themselves. Then a man suddenly stood, his loud voice drawing everyone’s attention.“I pick him!”He pointed at Zhou Su. Zhou Su only lifted his eyes for a glance and then looked away.He had no interest whatsoever in this kind of rivalry over a woman.A few days ago, Gu Zhiyuan had driven him here. Cold as her aura was—a face that kept people a thousand miles away—it couldn’t stop the fact that her face was simply “supermodel-tier.”One of the hall’s trainees had seen her and been struck dumb, then promptly went up to hit on her. Predictably, he was gloriously ignored; Gu Zhiyuan stepped on the gas and drove off.And Zhou Su, the “rival in love,” became the target of jealousy.Zhou Su had intended to refuse, but after a moment’s thought—some things were best resolved once and for all. A mosquito buzzing by your ear forever is annoying.He picked up a bamboo saber and stepped onto the platform.In the past, a match tinged with personal grudges like this would never have been allowed.After all, if someone got hurt, the hall would bear legal responsibility.But after the Blood Moon rules, the rule of law had wobbled; jungle law had reappeared—survival of the fittest.In today’s bouts, as long as it wasn’t serious injury or death, usually no one interfered.The instructor didn’t intend to stop it either. A knife is a killing tool; without killing intent, you can’t train it well.“I’ll keep it short. Try to stop short of real damage. Begin.”The word was barely out when the man lunged at Zhou Su, impatient and overeager.Expressionless, Zhou Su watched him. Judging by guard and draw, the man was at least a three-to-four-year practitioner—no wonder he had the gall to declare war.But to Zhou Su with lightning-thought engaged, the man’s movements were painfully slow, and the openings on him were far too many.Zhou Su moved. In the blink of an eye he cut three times.The first slash struck the man’s wrist—down went the bamboo saber.The second slash took the kneecap—the man dropped to both knees.The third slash swept for the throat. The blade-wind howled. Even with a bamboo practice blade, that stroke could likely shatter the larynx.“Don’t!” The instructor shot to his feet, reflexively wanting to intervene. Several timid trainees cried out.Zhou Su hadn’t intended to swing the third cut at first. A petty jealousy like this wasn’t a capital offense. But he’d gotten… used to it.He’d digested too many of the Headless General’s memory fragments recently, and beheadings were undoubtedly the most frequent scene among them.As the saying goes, “what one lacks, one inflicts on others”: the Headless General had no head, so it didn’t want others to have one either—thus its extreme fondness for decapitation.Zhou Su had inherited the habit, hence the reflexive third cut.The other man was about to be seriously injured, but Zhou Su didn’t panic.Even with the bamboo blade touching the man’s skin, to him it was nowhere near a last split-second—not even close.After these days of trial, he could already wield lightning-thought proficiently.At the instant the ability triggered, his thought-flow sped to an unprecedented pitch, making everything in reality feel like slow motion.Zhou Su issued a command to his body: withdraw the blade.Normally, bodies lag behind minds. The strongest part of lightning-thought is that it can forcibly command the body—orders given, orders obeyed.At the instant the bamboo blade pressed the man’s throat, it stopped dead.“Don’t kill me!” The man had been scared witless by that stroke. His body went limp, and he collapsed to his knees.Zhou Su looked at the sorry display and shook his head.Trash like this wasn’t worth his attention. He withdrew his gaze and began summing up for himself.“My killing intent still isn’t condensed enough. Otherwise I could’ve at least scared him into losing bladder and bowel control.”Condensing killing intent takes years of slaughter. Zhou Su had acquired it passively through the Headless General’s incursion.That kind of shortcut naturally had defects.After confirming the man had no will to resist, Zhou Su canceled lightning-thought to avoid overloading his body.He had already mapped out the safe window for lightning-thought. As long as he didn’t exceed five minutes, his body wouldn’t crash.And as his physique grew stronger, the duration would lengthen.The “thrilling” fight had the class buzzing, the instructor downright slack-jawed.As they say, laymen watch the commotion, insiders watch the technique. He knew better than the rest what those cuts meant. Even his own master couldn’t have done it.And what was that killing aura? A retired hitman in the city?Was that person really his trainee? Would someone with such saber work need to sit through his lectures?The instructor was having a small crisis of faith.Zhou Su ignored the stunned crowd. He packed his things, nodded to the instructor, and left on his own.His time was precious. He couldn’t waste it.“Coming to the hall is still too much trouble. Could I get the instructor to give me a day or two of one-on-one?”He planned to ask Gu Zhiyuan that evening to help put in a word.Leaving the knife hall, Zhou Su unlocked a shared bike.It was hard to hail a ride these days. With the Blood Moon rules, everyone lived day to day—who still wanted to drive for a living?His next stop was the gym—a place also recommended by Gu Zhiyuan, with the most professional equipment and coaches in Guangdong Province.His recent days were very regular: mornings at the knife hall, then to the gym, and evenings at home digesting memory fragments.As he pedaled through the shopping street, he found it even busier than before.The old clothing and restaurant shops were gone, replaced by all kinds of fitness and fighting gyms.He even saw classes for “Esoterics Improvement.”Unthinkable in the past—but as the Blood Moon rules arrived, many things were being overturned.The various martial halls before him weren’t mere business moves. There was national power quietly pushing from behind.Just like his knife hall—did a lineage heir care about that little bit of money?Riding the shared bike out of the shopping street, Zhou Su suddenly felt a “prickle on his back.” A saber user is acutely sensitive to people’s gazes.To make sure it wasn’t his imagination, he triggered lightning-thought and swept his gaze behind him.As the thought-flow accelerated, the surrounding scene turned into frame-by-frame slow motion. Even the micro-expressions of passersby were captured clearly.Moments later, Zhou Su canceled lightning-thought, a faint frown between his brows. He’d confirmed one thing: he was being tailed.

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