Chapter 643 - 330: Chen Jincheng: What a Sin

Chapter 643: Chapter 330: Chen Jincheng: What a Sin

While Lin Hao was watching Chen Jincheng’s live stream, he saw that the viewers were just as surprised as he was. Then, he saw Chen Jincheng raise his sword and assume an opening stance.

These days, sword dances have an opening stance, which is most likely just for show—to make it more entertaining to watch.

Chen Jincheng had once seen a video comparing National Martial Swordsmanship to Western Swordsmanship. The video’s point was that while a practitioner of National Martial Swordsmanship was busy with their opening stance, a Western fencer would have already run them through.

They just go for a direct lunge or thrust to end things quickly, without all the dawdling.

Basically, the video claimed that National Martial Swordsmanship was just for show.

Chen Jincheng used to think the same way. ’It looks nice, sure, but it’s too much of a hassle.’

However, after he received the special Martial Arts Skill Category (Sword) Heat Card, gained Affinity, and acquired the talent to learn Sword Martial Skills, his perspective had begun to change.

This was especially true for this Sword Dance from the Yu Sword Saint. It looked beautiful, but it was actually quite fast. In fact, the faster the speed, the more beautiful the Sword Dance became. At a certain speed, it turned into a killing technique, and its beauty transformed into an uncanny quickness that was impossible to track.

The most important part was the opening stance. After practicing it a few more times, he grasped its essence: a third of it was dedicated to defense.

Simply put, it meant holding thirty percent in reserve. You could advance to attack or retreat to defend.

According to that video, a Western fencer could thrust while the National Martial Swordsmanship practitioner was still in their opening stance. However, that very stance could transform into a defensive move to block the thrust. When the opponent’s rash thrust left them with no room to maneuver, you could use that thirty-percent reserve to launch an even faster counterattack that they would find difficult to parry.

Of course, there was a paradox here: this only applied if both combatants were of comparable strength. Otherwise, it was all pointless. It was like an adult fighting a child—any sword would be enough to crush the opponent.

Besides, in modern society, most people couldn’t care less about swords. With so much pressure from work, who has the free time to get into things like this?

But it was different for Chen Jincheng. The buff from his system gave him an Affinity for swords. Plus, his physical condition and other attributes had already reached the peak of human limits. Therefore, if it came down to a real sword fight, he could actually kill someone. He could kill just by casually performing the dance.

It was just something that could never be verified.

This was a harmonious society, after all.

After the opening stance, Chen Jincheng began the Sword Dance.

This Sword Dance, which had been published by the National Martial Arts Association and was known for being incredibly difficult to master, was executed effortlessly in his hands. The speed, combined with his strength, and the fluid Sword Techniques made him look like a true Swordsman.

This instantly made the eyes of the viewers in the stream chat light up:

"Awesome! Brother Cheng, you’re the real deal!"

"Holy shit, why do I feel like this Sword Dance is so badass?"

"Nope, you’re not the only one who feels that way."

"..."

It wasn’t just the viewers on the stream; the people watching in person also thought it was incredible. Lin Chulan, in particular, quickly found his eyes widening in shock. "Unbelievable! It’s that Sword Dance! Amazing!"

As the owner of the Longquan Divine Sword Pavilion, his craft was literally sword-making, so he was naturally knowledgeable about the National Martial Swordsmanship industry. Of course he knew about the Sword Dance left behind by the Yu Sword Saint.

This Sword Dance was very difficult to learn, and very few martial artists could perform it perfectly. Only professional sword-sport athletes would put in the effort to master it.

Many stuntmen used to say that if you could master this Sword Dance, you’d have a job for life. When filming a TV show or movie that needed a sword dance scene, you could just perform this set, no stunt double necessary.

But times have changed. Today’s directors and martial arts choreographers don’t really care about making fights or dances look good anymore.

After all, in the past when such body doubles were used, the main actor’s face was hardly ever shown during the sword dance. They’d only get a close-up after the dance was finished. But today’s pretty-boy actors aren’t willing to do that; they want to show off their handsome faces throughout the performance. If you perform this entire Sword Dance set, how are the editors supposed to cut their faces into it?

Times are different. We live in an awkward era where even a simple sword flourish can be created with special effects. Do you really expect anyone to learn an entire Sword Dance set?

Are you kidding me?

But Lin Chulan never in his wildest dreams expected to see that Sword Dance today, performed by this very person, and so perfectly at that.

While he was still in awe, Yijin noticed him and asked curiously, "President Lin, do you recognize the Sword Dance that Brother Cheng is performing?"

Ximeng subconsciously aimed the camera at Lin Chulan. This was mainly because the viewers were also curious and wanted to hear what he had to say.

Lin Chulan didn’t hold back and immediately began to explain, "While most of you probably don’t pay much attention to the National Martial Arts Association, they once published a Sword Dance that was left behind by the Yu Sword Saint. This particular Sword Dance is incredibly difficult to perform perfectly."

"How should I put this... In the wuxia dramas of the 90s, a lot of the swordplay that everyone assumed was either special effects or clever editing actually came from this very Sword Dance. You’ve all seen that video of Jiao Enjun spinning his sword, right? Everyone thought it was CGI, but he was actually doing it for real."

"Basically, if you can master the Yu Sword Saint’s dance, you can easily master Jiao Enjun’s famous sword spin as well. The fact that Mr. Chen knows this Sword Dance means his skill with a sword is on par with a professional athlete’s."

"However, aside from professional athletes, almost nobody else learns this. There’s no point. As you all know, these days even a simple sword flourish is done with special effects."

His words instantly caused the viewer count in Ximeng’s stream to spike. This explanation was so intriguing that even people just browsing past Ximeng’s channel couldn’t help but click in to see what was going on.

The reason was simple. What the hell was up with modern wuxia dramas? Weren’t they just a bunch of special effects for sword flourishes?

It was a complete insult to the audience’s intelligence. Those CGI sword flourishes, with their fifty-cent special effects, were just painfully awkward to watch.

How to put it... it was like they were force-feeding you a pile of crap.