It can be said that no matter whom he chooses as his master, it will only help him rise higher and higher, eventually becoming a true powerhouse!

However, when it comes to apprenticeship, you can only choose one master. Otherwise, if you are indecisive, it’s easy to incur dislike, or even be expelled from the sect.

“It was reckless of me…”

Realizing she had mistaken the person, feeling full of embarrassment, Emily Green bowed deeply once again: “Just now, I saw senior easily split wood without using any power. Is this... the supreme sword technique?”

He didn’t expect her imagination to be so wild. Samuel Clark was both amused and exasperated—it was just chopping firewood, sword technique... what sword technique!

Shaking his head, he explained, “It’s just some technique, nothing worth mentioning!”

Her eyelids twitched, and Emily Green drew in a sharp breath.

The realm of a true expert really is different!

What seemed mysterious and impossible to her was, in his eyes, just an ordinary skill. In fact, he spoke of it with such indifference, it made her feel a bit ashamed...

This kind of enlightenment... is truly admirable.

“Then... senior, could you teach me?”

The more she thought about it, the more excited she became. Emily Green looked over, full of anticipation.

For someone at his level, that scene just now might really be nothing, but for her, if she could learn even a little, perhaps she could finally take her revenge!

“You want to learn how to chop wood?” Samuel Clark was stunned.

Cultivating immortality is so wonderful—flying through the skies, escaping the earth, achieving immortality... How messed up would your mind have to be to not learn that, and instead learn to chop wood?

Emily Green hurriedly nodded.

“This is actually very simple to learn. However, to do it like I do, you’d probably need at least a few months of hard practice. How about this, I’ll teach you some basics first!”

Seeing that she really wanted to learn, Samuel Clark shook his head, recalling his own learning experience, and asked with a smile, “What do you think is the first thing you need to practice when learning to chop wood?”

Knowing this was a test, Emily Green pondered for a moment and answered seriously, “The grip... no, the way you hold the hatchet?”

When practicing swordsmanship, you must start with the basics—how to hold the sword, how to draw it, how to strike. These are all crucial. The Thirty-Six Forms of Zhenxian all begin with such fundamentals.

“Wrong!” Shaking his head, Samuel Clark said, “You must first train your eyes! When chopping wood, if you don’t know where the wood is, how can you chop it? Even if you know the spot, if you can’t pinpoint the exact location, how can you chop it well?”

“Your eyesight is extremely important. Only by clearly seeing the position of the wood, finding the grain structure, and calculating the movement trajectory of the log, can you make a better chopping motion and split it more effectively.”

“It’s just like carving meat—if you don’t know where the bones and joints are, and just hack away blindly with brute force, not only will you fail to achieve the skill of Butcher Ding, you’ll actually make things worse!”

This was what he learned on his first day of chopping wood, taught by the remnant soul named John the Woodcutter.

He went through quite a bit of pain to train his eyes.

“The eyes?”

Her whole body trembled, and Emily Green felt as if a new world was slowly opening up in her mind.

That’s right, to practice swordsmanship, you must first train your eyes!

Only by seeing in advance what move your opponent is making, and what they intend to do, can you anticipate their actions and respond accordingly!

In just a few words, he revealed the deepest essence of swordsmanship...

No wonder he’s an expert—using wood chopping as a metaphor for swordsmanship, and explaining it so thoroughly and profoundly.

Boom!

With this realization, all the things she hadn’t understood about swordsmanship suddenly became clear. Her aura surged again, and she quickly broke through the bottleneck of the fifth level of Breath Gathering, reaching the sixth level.

With a twist of her wrist, she smoothly executed the sixth and seventh forms of the Zhenxian Sword Technique.

For a moment, sword energy swept through the forest, the air turned bleak, and all the grass and trees around were pressed so low they couldn’t lift their heads.

“So strong...”

Samuel Clark was full of envy.

This is what it means to be a cultivator!

At most, he could chop some wood, but with just a slight shake, she made all the grass and trees bow their heads... They were both eighteen or nineteen years old, so why was the difference so huge?

How embarrassing, how shameful!

Just as he was feeling awkward, Emily Green, having finished her sword technique, bent her knees and knelt to the ground, her gratitude overflowing from her eyes, unable to be concealed any longer.

“Thank you, senior, for clearing up my doubts! Evelyn Green is endlessly grateful...”

Truly impressed!

Being able to break through so quickly was not just about comprehending the true meaning of swordsmanship; she had also absorbed some of the sacred essence that had scattered when he chopped wood.

Therefore, the favor was simply too great!

“???”

Just as he was envying her, he saw her kneel down, and Samuel Clark was dumbfounded.

Is the etiquette really this grand?

I... what doubts did I clear up?

I just mentioned the most basic thing about training your eyes, and then you had an epiphany...

What exactly did you comprehend?

Could it be... this person also knows I’m the grand-uncle master, and like Ethan Brooks, William Grant and the others, is deliberately putting on an act?

If that’s really the case...

Zhenxian Sect... is really going all out!

Chapter 12: The Eccentric Expert

Helping her up, Samuel Clark hesitated for a moment, but still didn’t ask what was on his mind.

The entire Zhenxian Sect was putting on an act. If he exposed them directly, how would those elders get along?

Besides, if word got out and brought disaster, he, a guy with no cultivation but extremely high seniority, would be the first to suffer, not even knowing how he died.

He had to keep a low profile!

See through it, but don’t expose it—that’s the only way to get along peacefully.

It’s just that... he really did feel a bit guilty and uneasy!