The Lost Edition of the Five Tigers Gate-Cutting Saber

While all the players online in "Grand Wuxia" were fervently discussing the five legendary gamers—Defier of Heaven, A Stroke of Dust, Midsummer, Early Summer, and Li Weiwei—wondering how such prodigies could have conquered the Blackwind Fort instance on the very first day the servers opened, Tang Xuan was quietly distributing the loot from the death of the third-in-command of Blackwind Fort to the four women—Wang Yajun and her companions.

The four women had initially insisted that Tang Xuan should keep all the rewards for himself, since they had contributed little to the fight. It was Tang Xuan alone who had cleared the instance. Even so, they had been handsomely rewarded with experience, shooting from level 5 to level 7 in a short time, and had also obtained the “Entry Pass” required for joining a sect.

Once they reached level 10, they would be able to use the Entry Pass to seek out the Sect Envoy in the novice village and enter the great sects of the martial world. Without this, they would have had to struggle with the Blackwind Fort instance at level 10—a daunting prospect, especially since the final boss, the third-in-command, was not easily defeated. Even a team of level 10 players, lacking the right martial skills, could easily perish at the hands of this formidable level 20 boss.

Thus, the four women felt embarrassed to claim any further rewards. Tang Xuan, however, did not stand on ceremony with his four beautiful soon-to-be wives and loyal fans.

The basic reward for completing the instance—the spoils from the third-in-command’s demise—included five Entry Passes, one for each of them, as well as a trove of weapons: two Tiger Fang Sabers and three Condensed Frost Swords, all rare green-tier equipment.

[Tiger Fang Saber (Green): Attack +35]
[Condensed Frost Sword (Green): Attack +35]

It was as if the loot was tailored specifically for Tang Xuan and the four women. Tang Xuan and Luo Qingqing favored sabers, while Wang Yajun, Qin Yanran, and Li Weiwei wielded swords.

However, Tang Xuan already possessed a Tiger Fang Saber, and though the four women coveted the rare green-tier weapons, they hesitated to accept them. With gentle insistence, Tang Xuan pressed a Tiger Fang Saber into Luo Qingqing’s hands and distributed the three Condensed Frost Swords to Wang Yajun, Qin Yanran, and Li Weiwei, keeping a spare saber for himself.

Despite their initial reluctance, the allure of green-tier weapons was too great to resist. With such arms in hand, their efficiency in leveling up to ten would skyrocket.

Yet the most coveted reward for the first kill of the level-20 boss, the third-in-command, was a skill manual:

"Lost Edition of Tiger Severing Blade (Third-Tier Saber Technique)"

A third-tier saber skill! In the hierarchy of martial skills in "Grand Wuxia," which ranged from first to ninth tier, a third-tier skill was already quite respectable. Higher-tiered skills—seventh, eighth, and ninth—were unimaginably rare, and even fifth or sixth-tier skills were closely guarded secrets among the great sects. Third and fourth-tier skills formed the mainstream of the martial world: the Quanzhen Sect’s “Quanzhen Swordplay,” the Wudang Sect’s “Nine Palaces Sword” technique, the Qingcheng School’s “Pine Wind Sword,” Snow Mountain Sect’s “Snow Mountain Sword,” and the core sword arts of the Five Peaks Sword Alliance.

Tang Xuan opened the skill manual and read:

[Lost Edition of Tiger Severing Blade (Third-Tier Saber Technique)]
[The signature skill of the Qin Family Stronghold, created by a past leader, Qin Gongwang. Originally sixty-four moves in total, five moves—White Tiger Leaps the Gorge, A Roar Stirring the Wind, Swift as a Falcon, Overlord of the Mountains, Elephant Subdues Lion—were lost to history, leaving only fifty-nine moves. By the time it reached the current generation, two more moves—Bearing the Child Across the River and Upholding Honor—were forgotten, leaving fifty-seven moves.]

[Increases attack power by 18%. Each activation consumes 6 internal energy. Requires a saber-type weapon.]

“No wonder it’s called the Lost Edition,” Tang Xuan muttered.

The “Incomplete Tiger Severing Blade” he had learned before, a second-tier saber skill, consisted mainly of upward, downward, sweep, hack, chop, crush, hook, and hang techniques, supplemented by thrusts, slices, twining, parries, sweeps, and flower-like wrist or backhand moves. It was a nimble and fierce blade art, both swift and powerful, with a high degree of difficulty.

But the "Lost Edition of Tiger Severing Blade" was the authentic version—originally sixty-four moves, each one mighty, though now only fifty-seven remained. Even so, it was a high-level saber technique.

Tang Xuan mused that if the complete version existed, it would likely be a fourth-tier skill, not just third. The Qin Family Stronghold, founder of this technique, was a renowned power in the martial world, on par with the Qingcheng School.

Amid the envious gazes of Wang Yajun and the others, Tang Xuan learned the third-tier saber skill.

“Ding! Lost Edition of Tiger Severing Blade mastered.”

He checked the skill details:

[Lost Edition of Tiger Severing Blade (Mastered): Increases attack power by 216%. Each activation consumes 6 internal energy. Requires a saber-type weapon.]

At level one, the technique increased attack by 18%. At level two, 36%. Level three, 54%, and so on. At level ten, mastery granted a 216% increase in attack power!

Given that Tang Xuan’s “Incomplete Tiger Severing Blade,” a second-tier saber skill, had already been mastered at level ten, he could leverage this mastery as a foundation for learning the new third-tier skill, potentially starting at level six or seven. Yet, as a man equipped with his own “plugin,” he instantly brought the new skill to level ten, mastery, completely replacing the previous second-tier version.

Tang Xuan recalled that the third-in-command of Blackwind Fort had wielded this very skill—the fifty-seven moves of the Lost Edition. However, that boss clearly hadn’t fully mastered it; his proficiency was just level five or six, not even surpassing the attack bonus Tang Xuan’s mastered second-tier skill had provided.