“To have the courage to face me directly, you’ve already chosen your path to death!”
Tang San didn’t rush to attack, instead standing with his hands behind his back, exuding an even stronger air of confidence.
“Enough with the nonsense!”
Xianyu sprang forward on her toes, sword thrusting toward him, wanting to test this man’s depth.
Huh, this isn’t how it goes in the storybooks.
Tang San looked confused. In his expectations, experts who reached this stage would feel mutual admiration and trade a few fierce words.
This person is interesting!
Tang San smiled lightly and raised his hand to trigger a Mixed Ring:
“Leopard!”
Before the word had faded, his body moved nimbly, dodging the oncoming sword thrust in an instant.
“Ape!”
All the while explaining his moves to himself, he stepped forward, his right fist smashing toward Xianyu’s neck.
Each move was a killing blow. Now that it was the finals, lethal attacks were allowed.
Tang San wouldn’t hold back just because his opponent was pretty.
Yet Xianyu remained unflustered, turning the thrust into a slash aimed at Tang San’s right arm.
“Excellent swordplay!”
Forced to give up his attack, Tang San couldn’t help but praise her.
“This guy is so noisy…” Jiang Tong couldn’t stand it any longer. “Since we’re here, Xianyu, teach him a good lesson!”
Xianyu’s gaze sharpened. Seizing the opening as Tang San retreated, she launched a fierce assault.
Slender Willow Sword Technique, First Form!
“Leopard!”
“Leopard!”
“Leopard!”
Tang San darted back and forth, agile as a slippery eel, smiling calmly.
“Heh heh heh heh, it’s just a bit of sword energy.”
But Xianyu’s lips curled up slightly, and several flashes of sword light sliced through the air.
With the third move of the sword technique, the sword light wove into a cage like willow branches, intent on trapping Tang San on the spot.
“Turtle!”
Tang San shouted, shrinking his limbs like a turtle, taking the full force of the third sword technique.
He staggered back half a step, spat out a mouthful of blood, and laughed up at the sky. “Interesting, truly interesting! You’re the first to injure me!”
“You’ve chosen your path to death!”
Jiang Tong: “Xianyu, maybe we should admit defeat now. This guy is so noisy he’s giving me a soul ache.”
But Xianyu was completely unaffected, holding her sword coldly, her aura sharp as a blade.
She only knew one thing: this man before her had made her master uncomfortable, and she had to end this quickly.
She was determined to secure a spot in the top three.
Tang San’s Mixed Rings began to merge. At the same time, he sprang forward, raising his fist high, aiming straight at Xianyu’s face.
Once the merge was complete, the aura around him soared to the Refining Qi Seventh Level.
Meanwhile, his fist, fully charged, came crashing down!
With a two-realm difference, Xianyu saw only a blur before her eyes. Instinctively, she raised her arm to block, but felt an overwhelming force crash into her.
“Bang!”
Her left arm fractured instantly, and Xianyu stumbled back several steps, wiping blood from the corner of her mouth.
For a brief moment, the audience was silent, then erupted in cheers.
“Well done!”
“Tang San, you’re amazing! I’ve bet my entire fortune on you!”
“He actually reached Refining Qi Seventh Level.” Yao Xining shook her head, a bit disappointed. “Looks like this is the end.”
A gap of two realms—unless one possessed extraordinary talent or outside help, there was no way to win.
Xianyu’s talent was outstanding, but was Tang San’s any less so?
“Hammer!”
A hammer-shaped phantom appeared. Tang San no longer hesitated, chasing after the retreating Xianyu.
The young girl fearlessly raised her sword, slashing at the phantom.
Jiang Tong watched, heart pounding.
You’re always charging forward, but can’t you be a bit less reckless?
Before he could speak, sword light and hammer shadow collided.
“Clang——”
After a piercing sound, Xianyu was sent flying, her toes barely touching the ground as she just managed to avoid being knocked out of the arena.
“Admit defeat!”
Jiang Tong shouted anxiously in her mind, “Don’t push yourself, quickly admit defeat!”
Xianyu’s eyes were full of stubbornness. She stood up again, charging toward the hammer shadow.
“Clang——”
After several such exchanges, Tang San’s patience finally wore thin. He snorted coldly.
“An ant shaking a tree, laughable!”
Once more, Xianyu was forced back.
Her left arm was broken, her organs battered.
Yet she stood with her sword, hair flying, her gaze razor-sharp as she stared at the approaching Tang San.
Her master had saved and nurtured her. The bond between them was now deep and unbreakable.
For more than ten years, she had wanted to prove herself, but her master’s words last night had finally awakened her.
She shouldn’t be proving meaningless things to others—she should prove what she wanted to prove.
She could earn the reward, give it as a gift to her master, and make him happy.
That was what Xianyu, a humble servant disciple, wanted to prove!
It was that simple. As long as Master was happy, it was enough.
“Sorry.” Xianyu raised her sword before her. “This top three… I’m taking it.”
Under her relentless assault, she finally touched a critical threshold.
From inside out, the sharpness within her surged, as if she were a sword unsheathed.
In her dantian, the Sword Embryo began to grow for the first time.
“Good disciple…”
Jiang Tong sensed her transformation before anyone else and couldn’t help but sigh, finally relaxing.
He knew the power of the Sword Embryo well.
Compared to Xianyu, he was just a salted fish lying flat.
Slender Willow Sword Technique, Fourth Form!
Xianyu struck out again.
A violent rumbling filled the air. The hammer shadow was enveloped by countless threads of sword light.
The arena fell into dead silence. Yao Xining stood up in disbelief, feeling the sword wind brushing the hair at her forehead.
“It’s… the Sword Embryo.”
For the first time in more than ten years, the black-dressed girl felt a sense of crisis, her heart clutched tightly in fear.
She stared at the center of the arena. As the dust cleared, the white-robed girl stood quietly.
Beside her, Tang San had been run through by several sword strikes, unconscious and bleeding from the mouth.
He wasn’t dead, but he would be crippled from now on.
“My… my money…”
After a moment, instead of cheers, wails echoed throughout the stands. But the result could only be accepted with resignation.
Xianyu hung her left arm and lifted her chin, smiling proudly as if to claim credit.
“Hehe, Master, Master, what did I tell you?”
“…That was too risky.” Jiang Tong scolded her, but his tone was filled with relief.
“It’s fine. I’m not fighting anymore. Let’s go home.”
With that, Xianyu declared crisply, “I forfeit the remaining finals!”
The whole arena was in an uproar, even the judge elder was stunned.
Tang San’s strength was the greatest among them all. For Xianyu to defeat him but refuse to fight for the championship made no sense.
But she simply gave up.
“Xianyu, what are you…”
On the way back, Jiang Tong was both exasperated and amused. Now he finally understood what Xianyu wanted to do.
It was just a casual lie of his, but she had taken it as the truth…
“It was all for you, Master.”
Xianyu twirled lazily under the setting sun, the bell on her left wrist jingling.
After taking a healing pill, most of her injuries had healed. She held a bottle in her hand like a treasure—it was the long-coveted Soul Nourishing Elixir.
“Master, am I amazing?”
“Amazing.”
“Hehe, this is my gift for you.”
“Xianyu…” Jiang Tong was at a loss for words.
“Master must use it all tonight, not a single drop left!”
“I will.”
Jiang Tong gazed at her gently. If not for his spiritual form, he would have patted her head.
“But, you could have chosen to keep competing just now…”
“Mm? Didn’t Master just say I was amazing?”
“You are amazing.”
“See, even Master approves…”
The girl drew out her words, her smile blooming like a flower in the twilight.
“How could the championship ever be more important than Master.”