Other than the swordplay manuals, this was the first time that Ai Hui had studied a record of swordsmanship. Actually, what was written in the swordplay manuals was not exactly swordplay, but rather sword moves.
There were big differences between swordplay and sword moves.
The nature of sword moves was the ‘move’, or the change of the spiritual force, and the sword was only a carrier. The nature of swordplay, however, was the skill to wield a sword. This was also the reason why the sword declined as a weapon. In the early stages of the development of the sword moves, swordplay was a basic training subject for all swordsmen. During the Cultivation Era, swordsmen had not had to start with swordplay because the sword was not necessarily controlled by the hands.
The use of spiritual force could send the sword flying for thousands of miles and was what swordsmen practiced.