With the Blade

"See? Isn’t this a skill?"

Seeing the gleam of confidence finally appear in the old eunuch’s eyes, Du Chengfeng nodded repeatedly.

"Believe in yourself; you have skills too. Many times, when you can’t defeat others, it may not be because you lack skills, but because you lack confidence... If even you don’t believe in yourself, then at most you’ll only be able to use ten percent of your skills. If you use ten percent against others who start with eighty percent, how can you possibly win?"

"Skills..."

The old eunuch thought for a moment, ultimately lowering his head with a bitter smile.

"Maybe in other areas, I do have skills, but in combat... perhaps everyone indeed has their own talents, and mine just isn’t here."

"What you’re saying isn’t reasonable."

Du Chengfeng shook his head repeatedly.

Indeed, he also acknowledged that there might be inexplicable talent in this world, but when it comes to an individual person, to what extent they can develop... in his view, talent determines only a part of it, not the entirety.

The most formidable aspect of a person isn’t any extraordinary talent but the precious malleability.

This is a viewpoint Du Chengfeng has always held.

Being green is fine; training is what matters. No one knows everything from infancy. As the old saying goes, if combat talent truly decided everything, then tigers and elephants should be ruling the world, and the frail monkeys should permanently live in trees, and humans would never have come to be.

Train more if you’re green; learn more if you don’t know. As long as you’re constantly thinking about what you want to achieve, the rest is just skill accumulation and repetition.

When those scattered grains of sand form a tower, even the sky can be touched.

Just like Du Chengfeng himself, he can now ascend the heavens and traverse the earth. Rounded up, he might as well be touching the heavens of Jibei, realizing humanity’s longing for the sky.

And now, he saw the same kind of thing in the old eunuch.

"You’ve actually accomplished it."

Du Chengfeng sighed.

"You’ve actually accomplished it; you just don’t realize it... Think carefully. You’ve actually had these feelings before. When you wholeheartedly wanted to protect an emperor, when you wholeheartedly wanted to, um, show loyalty, didn’t many difficult things seem less difficult to you? Or perhaps even if they were difficult, you felt you had to overcome them?"

"Ah, this..."

Prompted by Du Chengfeng’s reminder, the old eunuch suddenly felt a bit dazed.

It seems... that’s how it was.

In the past, he didn’t feel much in this regard; he just thought that since he had received royal favor and served three generations of emperors, under any circumstances, he must be loyal and protect the safety of His Majesty.

Although this was rather difficult for a eunuch who had nothing but loyalty, looking back over the decades, he never really considered just how difficult these things were.

He might have indeed considered it, but he just didn’t mind. Even in the turmoil of the Chen dynasty, he never considered stepping down, retiring somewhere, and living out his days in wealth.

He only thought about fulfilling his final duties in his remaining time.

"So, if you could substitute loyalty with combat itself..."

Du Chengfeng made a gesture.

"With such determination, could you not defeat others?"

"This..."

Like a lightning bolt illuminating the night sky, the old eunuch’s mind suddenly brightened.

This wasn’t the kind of vague, empty talk as before; the expert before him was clear this time, and the old eunuch himself clearly grasped what the other party was saying—it seems to be so. All along, his attitude towards combat was that as long as it allowed him to protect the emperor and escape the chaos, it was fine. He only realized his need for strength recently when he wanted to become stronger.

Simply put, his determination to become strong hadn’t really been that high.

At least not as much as his commitment to loyalty, where he invested all his energy.

So, the question arises.

If he invested all his energy in becoming strong, as he did in being loyal, what then?

"So this is the way you’ve always used..."

After a long silence, the old eunuch lifted his head.

"So this is the kind of power you utilize."

"Ah, hearing you say that, it seems you understand."

Du Chengfeng smiled.

It was indeed something to be happy about, especially when two people can understand each other in a conversation—though, strictly speaking, this is the essence of communication, more often, miscommunication happens: one talks about one thing, and another about something else, appearing joyful on the surface but actually speaking past each other.

In contrast, this kind of understanding exchange is rare.

After all, describing this kind of thing with language is challenging.

Even Du Chengfeng himself didn’t know how to describe this power.

Heart strength; that’s Du Chengfeng’s summary of this power, his recent conclusion about the world’s strength—if imagination represents the dispersion of will, then this power, referred to as heart strength, represents the unification of will.

But Du Chengfeng himself is reluctant to summarize it with the term "heart strength," or any term, as this power is fluid, applicable everywhere, capable of anything, not needing a specific direction or goal, and without origin.

Trying to describe it may instead confine this power. For instance, calling it "Spiritual Power" might lead to overemphasizing spirituality when using it, and calling it heart strength might overemphasize mentality... Altogether, it’s troublesome enough to make Du Chengfeng scratch his head.

Fortunately, the old eunuch has a perceptive mind and quickly understood his message.

This was great; at least it saved him the trouble of speaking more unnecessarily.

"Indeed, using this power does make sense."

Considering this, the old eunuch nodded slowly once more.

"I have fully understood, so as a reward, is there any particular part you wish to learn?"

"Let’s start from the basics."

Du Chengfeng didn’t choose any advanced techniques, although the old eunuch would surely teach them, they would be of little use to him—he wasn’t into showing off techniques, but learning knowledge. Solidifying the basics is certainly more important than any flashy skills.

"Is there any simple beginner’s method? Something even a three-year-old can start learning."

"Simple beginner’s method..."

The old eunuch began to ponder.

Normally, one starts with embroidery, but even with embroidery, you need a certain foundation... After all, weaving has a bit of a threshold; a three-year-old truly can’t learn it.

But really, weaving is just connecting threads together; connect enough of them tightly, and you have fabric.

Thinking of this, the old eunuch suddenly clapped his forehead.

"Got it! There is indeed a simpler beginner’s method!"

"Hmm?"

Du Chengfeng immediately became intrigued.

"What is it?"

"Starting directly with fabric might be difficult to understand, so we begin by learning to join threads together."

With that said, the old eunuch pulled a long thread from his sleeve, connected the ends to form a circle.

"How about starting with cat’s cradle?"