Oscar held the blue-covered sword manual and studied it late into the night. After going through the manual, Oscar's impression of sword techniques and the way of the sword became much deeper, and he also understood the difficulty involved.
This only strengthened Oscar's determination to cultivate the way of the sword. After all, without saying too much, those who wield swords are cool!
Putting down the sword manual, Oscar cultivated for another two hours before his spirit recovered to its peak. At six in the morning, he walked out of the dormitory full of energy.
As usual, Oscar trained for half an hour by himself, then went to the cafeteria with Ma Hongjun for breakfast.
Now Ma Hongjun was just as diligent as Oscar, not slacking off at all. After breakfast, Ma Hongjun went to the classroom for Lu Qibin's theory class, while Oscar went to Gai Yue's residence in the eastern peach grove.
When Oscar arrived at the small courtyard in the peach grove, Gai Yue was already practicing his swordsmanship. Oscar quietly sat to one side and watched, trying to understand the intention in his teacher's sword techniques.
However, the concept of sword intent could only be understood through personal experience, not through words. So Oscar couldn't quite comprehend it at the moment; he only felt that every move and stance Gai Yue performed had a natural, integrated quality to it.
It was as if Gai Yue wasn't wielding a sword, but was himself a sword.
This perfectly verified what Gai Yue had told Oscar yesterday: "Be the sword, with the sword hidden in the heart."
He was both human and sword. This was the unity of man and sword.
However, Gai Yue said that he had only achieved minor success on this path and that becoming a true swordsman was still far from enough.
Gai Yue's current goal was to achieve a dust-free heart in swordsmanship.
Oscar's goal wasn't so ambitious yet; his aim was first to catch up to his teacher, and then to go further.
After a long while, the sword practice ended.
Oscar poured a cup of tea for Gai Yue from a stone table nearby. Gai Yue took the tea, took a sip, then handed the cup back to Oscar, saying, "What do you think?"
Oscar took the cup and said objectively, "Not bad. I wonder how long it will take for me to reach this level."
Gai Yue smiled upon hearing this: "That depends on your talent and perseverance."
Gai Yue straightened his robes, then said lightly: "Now, let's begin your first lesson."
Hearing this, Oscar quietly sat cross-legged in the center of the courtyard, listening to Gai Yue's teachings.
Just having turned nine years old, Oscar began his first true swordsmanship lesson.
From this day on, after getting up each morning, Oscar would still train his body for half an hour. After breakfast, he would practice sword techniques. The Frost Moon Sword Manual was now the primary subject of his lessons.
Starting at two in the afternoon, Gai Yue would personally guide Oscar in sword techniques, with the master and disciple engaging in practical combat drills.
After five o'clock, Oscar would study pharmacology, while also using the medicinal herbs he had purchased to prepare his own potions.
After dinner at six o'clock, Gai Yue would have Oscar summarize his day's gains in swordsmanship, then pose some questions for Oscar to research on his own.
At night, Oscar still focused on cultivation, while he would also continue to produce his first and second Soul Skill sausages every day until his Soul Power was completely exhausted.
This served not only to help Oscar become familiar with his own Soul Skills but also to allow him to get used to this intensity through continuous Soul Power consumption, which in turn would somewhat improve his cultivation speed.
After starting this rigorous training, Oscar's daily routine became extremely regular. He had to complete certain tasks each day to be satisfied, and even to refine his skills further, Oscar raised his own standards, which earned Gai Yue's admiration.
Gai Yue even praised Oscar to his face, saying that if he had had Oscar's perseverance when he was younger, his current achievements would definitely have been on another level.
In Gai Yue's eyes, taking Oscar as a disciple might be the most correct decision he had made in his life.
Because he discovered that watching Oscar cultivate actually influenced himself. He realized that the effort he had previously thought was sufficient was actually lacking by quite a bit. So不知不觉 (unconsciously), Gai Yue himself became more diligent and hardworking than before.
In fact, it wasn't just Gai Yue; Flender and Zhao Wuji had also long felt this way. After all, from Oscar's enrollment until now, in just three short years, Flender's Soul Power was about to break through to level seventy-seven, while Zhao Wuji was also about to break through to level seventy-five.
But according to the original story, Tang Three and the others would enroll at Shrek Academy when Oscar was fourteen years old, which meant there were still five years left. In the original story, five years later, Flender would only be at level seventy-eight, and Zhao Wuji at level seventy-six.
But now they were already about to reach these levels. Perhaps just because of the small ripple caused by one person's Oscar's hard work and diligence, the entire Shrek Academy would undergo tremendous changes.
Perhaps this was the case of "association with the influential turns one red, association with the ink turns one black."
Just as Oscar began to focus on the way of the sword, Flender, who had found no whale glue after searching, finally made a decision: to lead the teachers of Shrek Academy to the sea.
Flender and the others had already seen the special uses of whale glue from Oscar, and they were naturally incredibly excited about it. After all, Oscar had said that even with their current strength, as long as the grade of the whale glue was high enough, it would be greatly beneficial to them.
Moreover, these old gentlemen hadn't properly stretched their muscles in quite some time, so they could take this opportunity to go out for some experience.
Regarding Flender's decision, even Oscar hadn't expected it. He hadn't thought that just the fluttering of this little butterfly's wings would bring such huge changes to Shrek Academy.
After all, this wasn't in the original story.
However, Oscar supported this, because only in this way could he have sufficient resources to cultivate in the current time period, ensuring substantial progress in his strength.
Moreover, only by laying a solid foundation could there be unlimited possibilities in the future.
And most importantly, Oscar knew that no one would come to enroll at Shrek Academy right now. Although it wasn't enrollment season, the people Oscar was referring to weren't just anyone—they were the Shrek Seven Devils from the original story.
Among the Shrek Seven Devils from the original story, besides Oscar himself and Ma Hongjun, the earliest to arrive, Dai Mobai, wouldn't come for another two years. So even if they went away for a few months now, it wouldn't be a big deal.
Before leaving, however, Oscar still had a conversation with Flender: the trip didn't need to be kept secret, but the purpose must be kept confidential. Because the usage of whale glue wasn't known to anyone yet, and if it was exposed, not only would they attract attention, but later on, this item might be monopolized by powerful forces, preventing them from obtaining it.
And as a top-class shrewd businessman, Flender actually knew these things even without Oscar saying them. Because after learning about the special properties of whale glue, he had secretly investigated it both openly and covertly.
Later, he discovered that this item currently only had one use: as an aphrodisiac. Other uses had not been developed at all.
It was precisely because of this that Flender decided to take advantage of the fact that no one knew how to use this item yet and the resources were still abundant to scrape as much as possible to improve himself.
However, although he was a Soul Saint, Flender had too few connections. He was most familiar with Soto City, but he happened to have a bad relationship with the city lord, so he couldn't get more information about whale glue.
Moreover, Flender wasn't foolish; naturally, he wouldn't go around buying whale glue openly. After all, he didn't have any issues in that department. If a Soul Saint were to purchase it on a large scale, it would definitely attract the attention of those with ulterior motives.
So Flender had been secretly searching all along, even creating a fake identity of someone with problems in that department. That was why he had made no progress for so long.
Therefore, Flender now decided to lead everyone from Shrek to hunt for it themselves. And with Shrek's current strength, they even had a chance to try for whale glue of ten thousand years.
After all, they now had Gai Yue, an eighty-two-level Title Douluo powerhouse, plus Flender and Zhao Wuji, two Soul Saints, and three Soul Emperors: Shao Xin, Lu Qibin, and Li Yusong. This lineup was absolutely magnificent.
Moreover, Shao Xin was a food-type Soul Emperor whose cultivation was already approaching the level of a Soul Saint, which could greatly enhance their combat power and endurance.
So a month after Oscar's birthday, the people of Shrek set off. Without making a big fuss, they disguised themselves as ordinary people and left the village, heading toward a coastal city.