Chapter 16: Li Hao’s Talent
Fang Mu had just finished performing a series of moves that made him appear to be dancing while carrying a sword.
“Hao’er, although I can’t pass the Yang Divine Sword yet, I won’t pass any random sword technique on you. The moves I just showed you are called the Snow Eagle Dance, one of the sword techniques that only an Inner Disciple of Heaven Mountain Sect can learn.”
Li Hao had heard from Xiao Fan that within a sect, there was a structure that explained the position of each sect member. In general, sect members were divided into two types, namely sect administrators and disciples.
The sect administrator consisted of Elders with various occupations, protectors, and teachers, including Patriarchs and Grand Elders.
Disciples were those who were still learning, generally those under thirty years of age for those in Forging Qi.
Students themselves were divided into several classes, namely from the lowest Outer Disciple, Inner Disciple, to Core Disciple. This level determined the talent, potential, and status of the student, as well as how many resources and skills they could learn until the manual they could use.
Sometimes, the administrators will take a special disciple and make that student their successor; this is called a Legacy Disciple.
Li Hao was practically the Legacy Disciple of Fang Mu and Xiao Fan.
“This Snow Eagle Dance is a swordsmanship that doesn’t rely on qi but is purely steeped in sword arts. Every attack is sharp and unpredictable and makes it difficult for the opponent to find an opening. I think this is the right move for you to start.”
The Snow Eagle Dance was divided into eight moves, which were called the first dance to the eighth dance. Although it includes high-level knowledge, the first three dances are quite simple.
Fang Mu demonstrated the dance first and then asked Li Hao to try it.
Li Hao took a stance before starting to imitate Fang Mu’s previous moves. He remembered each move clearly and repeated them without any difficulty.
Fang Mu, who was originally smiling with satisfaction at Li Hao’s initial movement, slowly lost his smile after Li Hao finished the first half of the dance and finally rubbed his eyes when Li Hao finished the first move of Snow Eagle Dance.
“Hmm? Did I see wrong?” Fang Mu was still rubbing his eyes.
“Oh, so you haven’t realized this one ability of Li Hao’s?” Xiao Fan patted Fang Mu on the shoulder. He had walked over as Li Hao seemed to have managed to do the first dance in one go.
“What do you mean? You…”
Fang Mu then realized something. Two days ago, Li Hao was seriously injured from facing a demonic beast with a Red Stone Fist. Fang Mu just remembered that Li Hao had only started learning the move the day before.
“Li Hao mastered the Red Stone Fist in one day?!” Fang Mu glared at Xiao Fan.
“I wouldn’t put it like that—he only imitates our moves perfectly. After repeating a few times, he can make noise with every hit, but he can only use qi in his attacks only when facing a demonic beast.”
“Still, it was too fast!”
Xiao Fan was not surprised by Fang Mu’s reaction, as he had reacted more or less the same way the first time he was in the same situation.
“From what I see, Li Hao is more talented in swordsmanship than barehanded skill. He imitated the Snow Eagle Dance’s first dance perfectly in one try. He needed ten times to perform the Red Stone Fist well.”
Xiao Fan added that he already knew that Li Hao was a smart kid, because when he taught Li Hao to write andread, Xiao Fan only had to teach him once before Li Hao immediately understood it.
Fang Mu and Xiao Fan then tried to ask Li Hao the reason why he was able to learn everything so quickly.
“I don’t understand it myself, Master, but I remember Uncle Liu saying something about this—that no matter what I see, I won’t be able to forget it. I can learn something in one glance.” Li Hao pointed at his eyes.
“Could it be Heavenly Eyes?” Xiao Fan furrowed his brows before glancing at Fang Mu.
“No. There are only 72 Heavenly Eyes and I know them all by heart. No Heavenly Eyes has this ability.” Fang Mu shook his head.
“Heavenly Eyes? What’s that?” Li Hao was sure he’d never heard of this term before.
Fang Mu explained that Heavenly Eyes were special eyes that usually appeared on babies whose parents are a pair of cultivators. Heavenly Eyes was another trait that indicated one would become a genius cultivator, like Pure Spirit Root.
“Heavenly Eyes are extremely rare; only one in a hundred thousand geniuses possess them.” Fang Mu had extensive knowledge due to his hobby of reading, so he had memorized all types of Heavenly Eyes. After all, he had fought several cultivators who possessed them.
“Fang Mu, isn’t there a young genius in your sect who has Heavenly Eyes? I heard the type is Violet Cloud Eyes that can see through all illusions.”
Fang Mu nodded slowly but didn’t discuss it any further because the genius Xiao Fan was referring to was the disciple of someone Fang Mu didn’t want to remember in their current situation.
Xiao Fan remembered just that when he saw Fang Mu’s reaction. He then smiled awkwardly and acted as if he didn’t say anything before.
“Hao’er, try to repeat the first dance a few times.” Fang Mu broke the silence between them.
Li Hao nodded and then started repeating the Snow Eagle Dance’s first dance while Fang Mu and Xiao Fan watched him.
“You noticed something?” Fang Mu glanced at Xiao Fan.
“Ehm, yeah… I thought it was just my feeling.”
Fang Mu and Xiao Fan found something interesting while they watched Li Hao perform the first dance. Fang Mu then asked Li Hao to do it a few more times to confirm their findings.
“How unbelievable…”
“Is it possible…”
Li Hao could not only perfectly repeat the Snow Eagle Dance, but each time he did, his movements became sharper.
Fang Mu, who had the Sword Spirit Body, couldn’t do it as fast as Li Hao.
“Fang Mu, are you sure you didn’t check Li Hao’s Spirit Root quality wrong?”
“Didn’t you check it yourself too?”
“What about his body? He really doesn’t have a special body?”
“I am not sure…”
Li Hao was simply too talented for Fang Mu and Xiao Fan, both of whom had lived for hundreds of years and had seen thousands of geniuses, but never before had anyone been as talented as Li Hao.
“If he had a Pure Spirit Root, he would definitely be the greatest master in the entire Eastern Star Continent…”
“Are you kidding? I think he can even breakthrough to a higher realm than Nascent Soul.”
