Chapter 2
I was living another dreary day of my life today.
When I opened my eyes in the morning, my throat was parched. I wanted to eat a bowl of porridge, but once I quenched my thirst, I felt an indescribable emptiness stabbing at me. Shortly after, I went outside and started practicing the Six Harmonies Sword Technique as if it was second nature.
Six Harmonies Sword Technique.
It’s the most common sword technique in the Gangho (Jianghu)1, and its basic move Six Harmonies Mountain Opening is considered rudimentary, which involves half-turning your body to the left and then swinging diagonally upwards with a counter movement. In simple terms, it’s nothing more than a diagonal slash. Even a novice can grasp how to perform it after a few tries.
So what about a set containing Six Harmonies Mountain Opening, a form of Six Harmonies Sword Technique?
It consisted of 32 movements in total, divided into eight forms. It’s said that an average person typically takes about a month to learn Six Harmonies Sword Technique. Even the lower-ranked bodyguards in the market need a month of training to master this Six Harmonies Sword form.
Moreover, they say it takes over five years of real combat experience to utilize all the movements of Liuhe Sword form seamlessly in actual combat. To reach the meticulous level of a master, one needs to have adequate internal energy to back it up, so it’s not far-fetched to say that it takes more than 40 years to reach the first-rate level.
And this year marked my 45th year since I began martial arts.
Yet, I was far from reaching the first-rate level, repetitively practicing the Six Harmonies Sword Technique in my shabby straw hut every day. In the Gangho, my level would, at best, be second-rate, a level that can be seen everywhere, nothing extraordinary.