"I'll tell you a story.
In my homeland there was a man known as the Sword God.
The art he cultivated was simply called Sword."
Satan spoke evenly.
"Sword?" Red-Hair frowned.
"Yes, Sword.
But before his swordsmanship reached perfection, his practice did not bear that name.
It was called Flawless."
Satan had first meant to tell the tale of Dugu Qiubai, then thought better of it. In this sea, the four realms of that recluse's way were far too ordinary. The Heavenly Sword was different, beyond Dugu's path, a road worthy of a lifetime's pursuit.
"Flawless Sword. A good name.
Was the style powerful?" Rockstar asked, curious.
"No. At the start it was only an unranked form."
Seeing their surprise, Satan went on. "Do you know how long it took the Sword God to complete that unranked form?"
"With a title like Sword God, three days would suffice," Red-Hair said. For an unranked style, a day should be enough. If Satan esteemed it, the man's talent could not be poor.
"No. Three years," Satan said.
"Three years? How?" Red-Hair couldn't help his shock. With such a title, was his aptitude so poor?
"It was his obsession.
He gained a manual, yet felt it did not live up to its name.
He decided the flaw lay only in his own practice. So a form common folk finished in three months and prodigies in one day, he trained for three years.
After three years, in his hands Flawless became worthy of its name," Satan said.
"The Sword God earned his title," Red-Hair nodded. With such will and persistence, the Way of the Sword would surely open.
"Did you think that was the end?
With Flawless perfected, he obtained another form called Flying Shadow Swift Sword.
It was famed for speed, but again unranked.
They boasted that when it was complete the sky would be filled with shadows and no blade would be seen. Boasts are easy to hear and hard to prove.
He spent three more years and truly made the form into Flying Shadow.
From that day his art was renamed the Flying-Shadow Flawless Sword," Satan continued.
"What a mad genius.
I'd like to see such a swordsman," Red-Hair praised despite himself. Three years, then three more. To refine unranked forms into peerless technique took not only will, but talent.
"It still wasn't over.
Afterward he trained a style called Severing Meridians Sword Scripture.
It claimed that a single cut would send domineering sword qi through the body and break every channel.
This one was barely second-rate, and the bragging was still excessive. From the manual alone you could not draw sword qi.
But the Sword God kept his obsession. Five years later, his sword qi howled and those struck had every meridian broken.
At that moment he stepped into the realm of the great swordsman, and his art became the Flying-Shadow Severing-Meridians Flawless Sword Scripture."
Rockstar couldn't help saying, "Couldn't the guy pick a different name? That tongue twister doesn't bother him?"
"Do you think a man like that spends thought on names?" Satan asked back.
The pirates pictured a wooden, single-minded hermit and shook their heads at once.
"So the final name became the Flying-Shadow Severing-Meridians Flawless Firmament Raging-Tide Coiling-Finger Sword.
His blade was worthy of each word," Satan said with feeling.
"Come on. Who could remember a name like that?" Rockstar grumbled.
"Don't rush me. I'm not done," Satan laughed.
"Not done? The name's already that long?" Rockstar yelped.
"Because he began to shorten it," Satan said.
"The first to go were Flying Shadow. When his sword moved fast enough, even a shadow would not remain. Those words no longer fit.
So it became Severing-Meridians Flawless Firmament Raging-Tide Coiling-Finger Sword.
Two years later, Severing Meridians lost meaning. Where the sword pointed, nothing remained uncut. Why limit it to sinews and channels. Those words were dropped.
Another year, steel tempered a hundred times turned to silk around the finger, and that silk in his hand could become tempered steel. From hard to soft, from soft back to hard, then to the union of both. Coiling-Finger grew narrow and was cast off.
Three years later, the Sword God drifted on the open sea. Thunder crashed, storms towered to the heavens, and with one stroke he split a ten-li wall of waves.
After that, Raging Tide could no longer express his sword's might.
Two years more and his art slipped free of the tracks of heaven, leaving no trace.
Firmament, which stood for the changes of the sky, could not contain it. As the cycle turned, the name returned to the first, Flawless.
But after a cycle of taking and casting off, the art that bore the same name was no longer comparable.
The last gate took a full five years. At last, one day he let go of the word Flawless.
He reached the realm where heaven and earth are leaky and great completion seems lacking. From that moment the first twelve characters of Flying-Shadow Severing-Meridians Flawless Firmament Raging-Tide Coiling-Finger Sword were all erased.
Only one character remained for the art, and that was Sword.
After that, with Sword, he stood at the summit of the human world," Satan finished softly.
"From nothing to something, and from something back to nothing.
No form defeating form. That does sound like the extreme of the Way," Red-Hair mused.
"No. Not the limit," Satan smiled faintly.
The real showboating had only begun.
"Not the limit."
The pirates were struck dumb.