Chapter 2226: The Second Sword Attack
Nong Siniang was completely the opposite of Prof. Wei. The young woman was very noisy, though cheerful. As soon as she discovered that Yu Hao had returned to Virtue Archives, Nong Siniang glued herself to his side, even when he went to visit with Prof. Wei. Still, there were a few irritating things about the young woman.
"A sword spar?" Lu Yin was surprised.
Prof. Wei also gave Nong Siniang a curious look.
Nong Siniang pursed her lips. She felt a bit offended and frustrated. "That Liu Que is just too arrogant! All I said was that his sword looks like our hoes, and he answered by saying that our hoes aren’t worthy! How ridiculous! Prof. Hao Yu, don’t you agree? Doesn't his broken, chipped sword look like a hoe?"
Lu Yin found this argument a bit weird, but he did not comment on it. If a sword’s hilt was bent to the side, it might look a bit like a hoe, but he would not admit that out loud. "So you challenged him to a fight?"
"Hmph! Our hoes can plow the ground to grow food, or they can be used to remove the earth and dig graves. What can he do with his broken sword? All his toy is good for is fighting! Our hoes are not limited to just agriculture." Nong Siniang clenched her fist as she ranted.
Lu Yin was completely speechless, and he looked at Prof. Wei, who shrugged.
Prof. Wei found the entire argument to be hilarious. "I heard that the Seed Garden’s Nong family is able to use their hoes in a very powerful manner. I would love to see it for myself."
Nong Siniang held her head up high in a proud manner, but she soon crumpled. She looked over to ask Hao Yu for help. "Prof. Hao Yu, even if my family can use our hoes in a powerful manner, I’m not very good at it. I- I can’t beat Liu Que. What should I do?"
"What are you hoping for?" Lu Yin felt rather puzzled.
Nong Siniang's eyes lit up. "When you introduced yourself in your first class, you mentioned that you are good at giving pointers. Could you help me with that? Even if I can’t defeat Liu Que, at the least, I don't want to embarrass my Nong family’s hoe."
As the young woman spoke, she pulled out her hoe.
An odd expression appeared on Lu Yin’s face. He actually had a hoe as well, and it was one that he had picked up from the Sixth Mainland’s Nong family. Actually, that Nong family also focused on farming and using farm equipment; could the two families have come from a common ancestor?
Nong Zaitian had claimed that his hoe was a power vessel that Nong Laohan had discovered in the ruins of the Fifth Mainland’s Daosource Sect, but Lu Yin felt like that story might have been made up by Nong Laohan. It was much more likely that the hoe was an inherited weapon of the Nong family.
"Professor, please observe a few of my attacks and see if you can come up with any suggestions for me." Nong Siniang did not even give “Yu Hao” the opportunity to refuse, and she immediately clenched her hoe and prepared to release a few attacks. The Liu family was as famous as the Sword Monument that they protected, but a hoe was not typically acknowledged as a weapon.
While hoes were not as established a weapon as swords, Lu Yin had already seen both Nong Sanniang and Nong Lie use battle techniques specifically designed to be used with a hoe. The Nong family’s battle techniques revolved around farming, but they were still very powerful, and they were even good enough to compare to the four ruling powers’ battle techniques. Nong Sanniang had even been powerful enough to challenge the four Junior Progenitors.
While Nong Siniang was not as impressive as Nong Sanniang had been at the same age, Siniang was still quite skilled with the hoe, and most people were far from qualifying as her opponents.
Some time later, Nong Siniang was gasping for air while looking at Lu Yin with high expectations. "Well, Professor? What do you think?"
Lu Yin felt rather embarrassed. "I haven't seen Liu Que's sword skills, so I can’t really make any comparison."
Nong Siniang rolled her eyes. "Professor, are you able to see through my Seed Garden’s battle techniques at all?"
Lu Yin shook his head. Even if he was able to see through the battle techniques, he would not admit it.
Prof. Wei spoke up. "Are you going to use Plowing the Land?"
Nong Siniang looked at Prof. Wei in surprise. "Yes. You know about that, Prof. Wei?"
Lu Yin grew curious. "What are you talking about?"
Nong Siniang explained, "My Nong family’s battle techniques are dependent on belief, a sort of persistence. When we use our battle techniques, the images of everyone we’ve ever observed farming and using hoes overlaps, which produces an incredible momentum for our techniques. It can be thought of as both a battle technique and a secret technique, though it doesn’t work against anyone who’s too strong. Still, if Prof. Hao Yu can use a hoe to perform Plowing the Land, then I can impose that image onto the ones that I already have. Then, your technique will be merged into the power of my own Plowing the Land."
Lu Yin arched a brow. How was this anything different from a visualization method? While it could not be regarded as a complete visualization method, it was one that was unique to the Nong family. Using a visualization method directly on a battle technique was not how the four ruling powers used their versions of visualization methods, but they had also stolen theirs from the Lu family.
"Professor, can you please help me?" Nong Siniang begged.
Lu Yin had to ask, "If this works by combining the images of everyone that you’ve seen using Plowing the Land, that must already be a lot of people. Why ask for my help as well?"
Nong Siniang laughed. "One more is still one more."
Lu Yin rolled his eyes. "What do I need to do?"
"Just use Plowing the Land, Professor. All you need to do is limit your strength to the peak of what I can control when using Plowing the Land, which is about thirty cycles. As long as you maintain a power level of about that much, the image of you using Plowing the Land will merge with what I already have. The more combat power that you can exert within the limitations of the power level, the more helpful it will be for me," Nong Siniang explained.
Lu Yin reluctantly took the hoe. "So, basically, you just need me to do a bit of farming?"
Nong Siniang nodded. In truth, she had asked “Yu Hao” to help her prepare for the spar with Liu Que because she wanted to watch her professor do a bit of farming. This was a unique pastime of the Nong family. All of the members of the family enjoyed seeing people working the fields and sweating like rainfall. It made them feel closer to the earth.
As for the excuse of combining the image of “Yu Hao’s” movements with what Nong Siniang already possessed, it would not really improve her move by much. If it was that easy to strengthen the technique, then the Nong family would have already completely suppressed the four ruling powers.
Lu Yin held the hoe, raised it high, and then suddenly slammed it down. Since he had agreed to help, he would do so properly. He maintained a level of strength comparable to a thirty cycle Enlighter while unleashing the maximum level of combat power that he was capable of with this restriction. This was nothing difficult, as he just needed to increase his pure physical strength.
When Lu Yin had been a thirty cycle Enlighter, he had already been capable of fighting Envoys on his own, and he had even surpassed the combat power of regular Envoys. For example, he had even surpassed a peak one-tribulation Envoy like Shi Xin.
The hoe fell, and while Nong Siniang was unable to see anything special about “Yu Hao’s” movements, Prof. Wei's eyes lit up. "Siniang, you’ve been blessed!"
Nong Siniang was simply obsessed with watching the beautiful sight of “Yu Hao” tilling the soil, so she did not even register Prof. Qing Wei's words.
Prof. Wei smiled and commented, "Go find Liu Que. You’ll give him quite the surprise."
Only then was Nong Siniang roused from her daze, and she reluctantly took her leave.
After Nong Siniang was gone, Prof. Wei turned back to “Hao Yu.” "Prof. Hao Yu, you certainly have some well-hidden secrets. The combat power that you just released is truly astonishing. Liu Que is going to be shocked."
Lu Yin shrugged. "I just did my best. It’s my responsibility to help when a student requests it."
"So, if I want to ask Prof. Hao Yu for help in the future, will you help me as well?" Prof. Wei stared at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin replied, "As I should."
Prof. Wei smiled and then resumed sharing historical anecdotes with Lu Yin.
Elsewhere in the academy, Nong Siniang found Liu Que, and the swordsman frowned. "I don't have time to play with you."
Nong Siniang taunted the young man, "Liu Que! You’ve mocked the hoe, and today, I want to prove its worth!"
Many students nearby started shouting. Nong Siniang was quite popular among the students while Liu Que, despite being amazingly powerful, was rather cold. Thus, he had made no friends at all.
Liu Que calmly replied, "Alright. I'll exchange one attack with you, but no more than that."