The first match soon began.
Senior Brother Lu Chuan from Heavenly Sword Peak and Senior Sister Qin Shijie from Sunset Glow Peak took the stage.
As soon as they stepped onto the stage, the sky was filled with sword light and flying petals.
One moment it was “Heavenly Sword Breaks the Sky,” the next it was “Sunset Glow and a Solitary Duck Fly Together.”
The fight was extraordinarily lively.
The outer disciples below watched, enraptured, and thunderous applause erupted.
“So powerful! Senior Brother Lu’s move ‘Sword Shadow Doppelganger’ must have produced at least eighteen afterimages!”
“Senior Sister Qin’s technique is even more exquisite! That move ‘Flower Rain Shower’ actually has an illusionary effect!”
Lin Yue munched on a fruit, listening to the praise around him, while inwardly rolling his eyes.
As a former Demon Emperor, now a heavy sword micro-engraving master tempered by the Waste Sword Grave, his perspective was completely different.
‘Tsk, Senior Brother Lu’s waist strength isn’t up to par. Out of those eighteen afterimages, sixteen were just for show. He wasted at least thirty percent of his spiritual power.’
‘Senior Sister Qin is even more absurd. The petals were pretty, but if we swapped it for that magnetic gravitational field in the Sword Grave, she couldn’t even lift her flower basket.’
“Senior Brother, what are you mumbling about?”
An Xiaoxiao leaned in curiously.
“I was thinking, if these immortal masters went to train in the Waste Sword Grave for two days, they could probably save fifty years of detours.”
Lin Yue pointed at the two on stage.
“Xiaoxiao, look at Senior Brother Lu. His sword tip is trembling right now. To keep his hairstyle neat, he’s diverting twenty percent of his spiritual power to protect his scalp.”
An Xiaoxiao looked where Lin Yue was pointing, observed carefully for a moment, then shook her head disdainfully.
Lin Yue had originally thought he could quietly coast through this three-day ceremony.
Get the subsidy, eat some melon, and go back to sleep.
But the upper echelons of the Nine Heavens Sect obviously had no intention of letting these lower-level employees enjoy their “paid melon-eating.”
Just as the competition reached its climax, an elder from the Discipline Hall suddenly stood up, his gaze sweeping sharply downward.
“In the path of cultivation, working in isolation is a great taboo.”
The elder’s voice was loud and clear.
“Today, the inner sect elites are sparring. You outer disciples are to observe, but you must not just watch the excitement. Each peak must send one disciple to come up and share their insights. If you speak well, you’ll be rewarded with ten spirit stones. If you half-ass it… Hmph, you’ll be confined to the Sword Grave!”
The entire venue fell silent instantly.
The outer disciples all shrank their necks, terrified of being chosen.
After all, discussing the sword way in front of inner sect big shots—how was that different from playing with an axe at Lu Ban’s doorstep?
“Inner sect Heavenly Sword Peak, Lu Chuan, wins!”
The referee announced the result.
The Discipline Hall elder casually pointed at a corner of the servant area.
“That servant carrying the black pillar—yes, you! Come up and share what you observed just now.”
Lin Yue had just swallowed the last bite of fruit and nearly choked.
He looked around; everyone was staring at him as if he were a dead man.
Lin Yue pushed through the crowd, dragging his heavy sword, and step by step walked onto the floating arena.
His footsteps were heavy.
Since the heavy sword itself weighed several thousand jin, and Lin Yue didn’t deliberately hide his strength, each step on the stone steps produced a dull thud.
Thump… thump… thump…
The inner sect disciples all frowned.
“Where did this wild one come from? He doesn’t even know how to fly a sword with spiritual power?”
“This sword… is it scrap iron? Doesn’t even have a scabbard.”
Lin Yue stepped onto the arena and stood before that “Senior Brother Lu.”
Senior Brother Lu was currently smug and proud, basking in the crowd’s cheers.
Seeing Lin Yue come up, he sneered disdainfully.
“Junior Brother, when observing and sharing insights, you must be truthful. Don’t spout nonsense here and lose face for the outer sect.”
Lin Yue glanced at Senior Brother Lu, then at the elder on the stage, and suddenly gave a simple, honest smile.
“Elder, you really want the truth?”
“Go ahead and say it.”
The elder’s brow furrowed slightly.
Lin Yue cleared his throat.
“Then I’ll say it.”
He turned around, pointed at the spot where Senior Brother Lu had just stood, and made a shocking statement.
“Just now, Senior Brother Lu’s move ‘Heavenly Sword Breaks the Sky’ was indeed cool, but if I were his opponent, I have at least eighteen ways to make Senior Brother Lu kneel and kowtow to me before he even finishes half that move.”
The entire venue fell into dead silence.
A deathly stillness.
Then, the inner sect erupted into earth-shaking laughter.
“Hahaha! This servant is crazy!”
“What is he saying? Eighteen ways to make Senior Brother Lu kowtow?”
“Senior Brother Lu is at early Foundation Establishment; this servant hasn’t even stabilized his Qi Refining, has he?”
Senior Brother Lu’s face instantly turned the color of pig liver.
“How dare you! You, a mere servant, what do you know of swordsmanship? That scrap iron in your hand is probably barely good for chopping firewood!”
Lin Yue wasn’t angry; instead, he smiled amiably.
He had a kind of relaxed aura, a carefreeness that didn’t take authority seriously, which seemed out of place in this strictly hierarchical cultivation world.
“Senior Brother Lu, don’t get excited.”
Lin Yue waved his hand.
“Swords are for killing enemies, not for trimming eyebrows. That move you just did, the transitions were too complicated. Your spiritual power made three turns in your meridians before coming out. In the eyes of an expert, that’s not sword energy; that’s calisthenics.”
“You!” Senior Brother Lu drew his longsword, pointing the tip at Lin Yue.
“Since you’re so knowledgeable, then show us what a sword that doesn’t turn looks like!”
On the high platform, Chu Wanning’s beautiful eyes narrowed slightly.
She didn’t stop him; instead, she was somewhat expectant.
She wanted to see what this man…
“Demonstrate, huh…”
Lin Yue rubbed his chin, looking a bit troubled.
“My sword is quite heavy. If I move it, someone will bleed. Isn’t that inappropriate?”
“Hmph, I’ll let you have three moves!”
Senior Brother Lu declared arrogantly.
“If you can make my stance budge even a hair, I’ll give you this Tianhong Sword!”
“Alright, you said it.”
Lin Yue sighed and slowly grasped the hilt of his black iron heavy sword.
In that instant, the aura around Lin Yue changed.
He was no longer that lazy servant; he was like an active volcano about to erupt.
“First move, no name.”
Lin Yue said casually.
“I call it… ‘Hear the Sound.'”
He didn’t even use any spiritual power.
He relied purely on his physical strength, plus the striking technique honed in the Sword Grave, and slammed the heavy sword against the arena floor!
“Mountain Quake—Micro-Resonance!”
BOOM!!!
There wasn’t any earth-shattering or stone-crumbling as imagined.
Not even much dust was stirred up.
But in that instant when the heavy sword touched the ground, an extremely high-frequency, extremely intense shockwave radiated wildly in a fan shape along the bluestone slabs of the arena.
Senior Brother Lu was still holding an extremely cool pose.
But the moment that shockwave passed under his feet, his expression changed dramatically.
He felt as if the bones in his legs had turned into a pile of loose sand.
The blood and qi throughout his body were thrown into reverse flow by the vibration.
The spiritual power in his dantian, as if tumbled in a washing machine, went completely out of control.
Thud!
Under the stunned gazes of tens of thousands of disciples, the proud and spirited Senior Brother Lu’s knees gave way, and he knelt upright before Lin Yue.
Not only did he kneel, his entire body was trembling at a high frequency, looking as if he were crazily kowtowing to Lin Yue.
“Oh my, Senior Brother Lu, why are you so polite?”
Lin Yue quickly lifted his heavy sword and stepped back with a look of alarm.
“I told you not to get excited. Look at you, giving me New Year’s greetings before we even fought.”
Senior Brother Lu opened his mouth but couldn’t utter a single word.
He only felt numbness all over his body, with a “buzzing” sound in his head.
On the high platform, several head elders suddenly stood up.
“This… what kind of striking technique is this?”
“No spiritual power fluctuation, pure force transmission? What kind of physical cultivation technique does this servant train in?”
But a slight curve appeared at the corner of Chu Wanning’s mouth, one she didn’t even notice herself.
As expected, this guy isn’t steady at all.
And not far away, Steward Mo Feng was hiding behind a pillar, clutching his wildly beating heart from excitement.
“Lord Lin! Lord Lin is awe-inspiring!”
“I knew it—a man who could throw the Nine Heavens Sect into chaos is no ordinary person!”
“This round of insights was well spoken! Not only did he avoid confinement, he even shook Senior Brother Lu to his knees!”