Why don’t they just cultivate the art of sharpness already? ?

[Overpowered]

Swordsman, spearman, archer, bladesman—what do they all do?

Cut. Slash. Pierce.


At the core, they all deal with separation—dividing flesh, armor, or even air—with the power of sharpness.


Yet, we name them by their weapons, not by what truly defines their craft.


Why don’t they just cultivate the art of sharpness already?

 

[Empress_Omnii]

I... think I've seen that a few times? Sadly I couldn't tell you what from.

 

[RepresentingPride]

Swordsman, spearman, archer, bladesman—what do they all do?

Cut. Slash. Pierce.


At the core, they all deal with separation—dividing flesh, armor, or even air—with the power of sharpness.


Yet, we name them by their weapons, not by what truly defines their craft.


Why don’t they just cultivate the art of sharpness already?

That appears in a lot of stories.
They cultivate their sharpness, but often the intent is superior to this, so cultivator merge their intent with their weapon, that why it's called Sword Intent, Spear Intent, etc.....

The sharpness is just the beginning in most stories until reaching this merging point with their weapon.

 

[Overpowered]

That appears in a lot of stories.
They cultivate their sharpness, but often the intent is superior to this, so cultivator merge their intent with their weapon, that why it's called Sword Intent, Spear Intent, etc.....

The sharpness is just the beginning in most stories until reaching this merging point with their weapon.

The weapon was sharp in the first place why add another layer and the intent is controlling sharpness without weapon they still end up needing their weapon

 

[RepresentingPride]

The weapon was sharp in the first place why add another layer and the intent is controlling sharpness without weapon they still end up needing their weapon

Intent doesn't only control sharpness, and with an intent high enough, they don't need weapon anymore, they can create the weapon through their energy or through the air surrounding them

 

[Overpowered]

Intent doesn't only control sharpness, and with an intent high enough, they don't need weapon anymore, they can create the weapon through their energy or through the air surrounding them

Understood

 

[NotaNuffian]

The weapon was sharp in the first place why add another layer and the intent is controlling sharpness without weapon they still end up needing their weapon

Why they attach sharpness to their tools is because humans aren't sharp, they aren't that much of a tool.

And once you have a dominant habit, you get used to said habit, making it hard but not impossible to outgrow like @Sleds said.

So unless humans can grow sharp talons or pointy bits to take over the tools, humans need their training wheel to learn the intent, which might cause reliance.

But once they grow into the stage of "anything is a tool", that is when they become complete.

 

[Corty]

tl;dr

Stories are not edgy enough.

Noted.

 

[LesserCodex]

Because the hand that holds the blade is more valuable than the blade itself. Unless it's magic sword with an unbreaking enchantment anc sharpness 3

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Swordsman, spearman, archer, bladesman—what do they all do?

Cut. Slash. Pierce.


At the core, they all deal with separation—dividing flesh, armor, or even air—with the power of sharpness.


Yet, we name them by their weapons, not by what truly defines their craft.


Why don’t they just cultivate the art of sharpness already?

That is part of the blacksmithing path, not the melee artist path. Ever see Kill Bill? The Bride studies sword construction from a master because it is a different skillset.

 

[AYM]

You wouldn't see a CN novel focus on the spear or bow anyway, and there's several KR novels that discuss transcending the slash, but their main theme isn't cultivation. You'd read something about "every cell in your body practiced cutting three billion times a day." In JP works I'd consider the most famous example the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.

Strictly speaking, separation is different from sharpness. The story of the Dextrous Butcher is about a man who follows the Dao, who cut ten thousand oxen over twenty years without ever changing his blade or dulling it in the process. Sharpness has never been a factor, because it is not the knife that is incredibly sharp, but the butcher who can use any knife to cut seamlessly.

 

[Ruti]

Why don’t they just cultivate the art of sharpness already?

To abstract for the average cultivator. To cultivate sharpness, one would not only need to be at the beginning of their cultivation journey, but also understand what it is, which would be difficult because no one else has cultivated the art of sharpness yet. And by the time they learn what sharpness truely is, they probably already pretty much reached a transcendent level on some other art, and couldn't risk changing to an art that doesn't exist yet without getting ambushed and their cultivation consumed

TLDR: to learn art of sharpness, you need to learn art of sword/spear/etc. But if you learn those art, then you don't need art of sharpness

 

[DeepWater]

All the sharpness in the world won't cut through diamond.

 

[RepresentingPride]

You wouldn't see a CN novel focus on the spear or bow anyway, and there's several KR novels that discuss transcending the slash, but their main theme isn't cultivation. You'd read something about "every cell in your body practiced cutting three billion times a day." In JP works I'd consider the most famous example the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.

But one of the greatest CN novel about cultivation is focused on spear.
There some with bow too, they're just rarer compared to the amount of sword ones.

 

[John_Owl]

art of sharpness

You mean, like, one character that specializes in all sharp weapons that separate one thing from another thing?

I... think I've seen that a few times? Sadly I couldn't tell you what from.

Because if OP means the above, then I'd like to present Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail, who specializes in swords, yes, but she's been shown to be WAY above proficient with any weapon she can requip to. All different types and sizes of swords, spears, axes, she even used a weapon that, while considered a club, is still a sharp weapon, just... blunted. So kind of a mid ground between a sharp club and a dull sword.

Or am I misunderstanding the whole concept of what OP means?

 

[Empress_Omnii]

You mean, like, one character that specializes in all sharp weapons that separate one thing from another thing?

Because if OP means the above, then I'd like to present Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail, who specializes in swords, yes, but she's been shown to be WAY above proficient with any weapon she can requip to. All different types and sizes of swords, spears, axes, she even used a weapon that, while considered a club, is still a sharp weapon, just... blunted. So kind of a mid ground between a sharp club and a dull sword.

Or am I misunderstanding the whole concept of what OP means?

I interrupted it more as a character walking a dao of sharpness. In which they cultivate with the primary goal of being able to cut through anything.
(But reading it again makes it seem not necessarily that way? I don't even know if OP had a concept in mind beyond good at cutting, but maybe we'll get clarification.)

 

[John_Owl]

I interrupted it more as a character walking a dao of sharpness. In which they cultivate with the primary goal of being able to cut through anything.

Like the katana Erza faced in the Tower of Heaven arc that was sharp enough to be able to cut even through dimensional divides, but rather than a weapon capable of it, it'd be the wielder that can use any sharp weapon to do so?

 

[Empress_Omnii]

Like the katana Erza faced in the Tower of Heaven arc that was sharp enough to be able to cut even through dimensional divides, but rather than a weapon capable of it, it'd be the wielder that can use any sharp weapon to do so?

I thought it was the wielder that was being referenced due to the term 'cultivate' but that sword probably does the same as what is being asked for. So I would think a person who can implement the ability to cut through anything to swords that regularly would be blunt.

 

[John_Owl]

I thought it was the wielder that was being referenced due to the term 'cultivate' but that sword probably does the same as what is being asked for. So I would think a person who can implement the ability to cut through anything to swords that regularly would be blunt.

ahhh. Well, I gave it my best shot lol

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Overpowered has been cultivating his sharpness since he joined here. He's sharp as a lightbulb.