After maxing out the Swiftwind Sword Manual last time, Lin Xue felt that she could keep investing experience into it, but her cultivation realm was too low then, limiting the manual’s potential.
Now that she had absorbed and digested the Serpent Core, reaching the late Body Tempering stage, her cultivation had increased, and so the Swiftwind Sword Manual could be further advanced.
She quickly poured more experience into the manual, upgrading it relentlessly.
After putting in another 50 points of experience, the “+” behind the Swiftwind Sword Manual disappeared.
Lin Xue instantly felt as though she had been practicing this sword art for nearly a hundred years.
Her mind suddenly brimmed with memories of those hundred years.
In that century, every day was spent alongside the sword.
Even when eating or sleeping, her hand never let go of her sword.
Aside from practicing swordsmanship, she did nothing else.
Swordplay of One Hundred Years—she had become so proficient in this technique that every move and stance was second nature.
With the sword as her daily companion, new insights blossomed in her heart, and she vaguely grasped a new technique.
She could feel that the power of the sword manual had climbed to an entirely new level.
Lin Xue gripped the Blood Fiend tightly, preparing to test the might of this new sword technique.
Yang Yuting was already ten paces in front of her.
He lunged forward, appearing before her in a flash, and slashed at her with a fierce strike.
The blade’s light shone like silk.
A fierce gust howled toward her, as if it could cleave the earth in two.
The forceful blade wind was so strong that Lin Xue’s brows felt as if they would split, her skin stinging.
Lin Xue shifted her feet, her figure vanishing like a gentle breeze, reappearing behind Yang Yuting in an instant.
After a hundred years of sword practice, even the movement technique included in the sword manual had improved vastly.
She raised the Blood Fiend in her hand.
Demonic energy flooded the blade, making it glow a brilliant red, as if a ring of light had formed around the edge, more than doubling its width.
She stabbed the blade toward Yang Yuting’s back.
“Ding!”
The tip struck Yang Yuting’s body, yet it was as if she were stabbing steel—she could not pierce through his clothes.
But the red glow formed by her demonic energy ignored his Protective Divine Weapon, passing straight through his defense and stabbing into Yang Yuting’s body.
This was her new insight—attaching demonic energy to her weapon, then transferring it into the opponent through her attack.
The opponent’s Protective Divine Weapon could block the blade, but not the direct penetration of demonic energy.
Yang Yuting felt a cold chill pierce his body, rampaging inside him.
It was as if a small knife was thrashing around inside, causing a piercing pain.
He frowned, quickly using his abundant Spiritual Power to suppress the chill, then swung his blade backward.
The force of the blade was terrifying, roaring toward her.
Lin Xue instantly raised the Blood Fiend to block in front of her.
The two weapons collided with a heavy crash.
Lin Xue felt a powerful, thick force slam into her arm, almost making her lose her grip on the Blood Fiend.
She was sent flying backward by the powerful blow.
Yang Yuting turned with his blade’s momentum, leaping at Lin Xue while she was off balance, slashing fiercely again.
The blade was incredibly fast.
Lin Xue had barely landed and not yet steadied herself when the slash was already upon her.
Her expression froze in an instant.
She was cleaved in two by the strike.
Her body transformed into two burning pieces of white paper.
Her true form silently appeared behind Yang Yuting, the Blood Fiend in her hand shimmering with spiritual light, as a heart-rending, inhuman shriek erupted from the blade.
“Ah—!”
Yang Yuting grunted, his movements slowing.
The surrounding Blood Mist suddenly thickened.
Lin Xue released all the fiendish energy stored within the Blood Fiend.
Amidst the dense Blood Mist, her figure became even more elusive and light.
Coupled with the swift movement technique of the Swiftwind Sword Manual, she was almost a phantom.
The Blood Fiend’s blade, wrapped in red light, extended to nearly double its length.
Lin Xue, wielding what seemed to be a blade of pure light, launched a torrential assault on Yang Yuting.
Yang Yuting was struck repeatedly.
After Lin Xue used the Paper Substitute Technique to escape his last attack, he was on full alert, searching for her figure, ready to strike again.
He knew the Paper Substitute Technique well—it consumed enormous Spiritual Power.
For most Qi Refining cultivators in the middle or later stages, using it three to five times in a fight was the limit.
This little demon was only at the late Body Tempering stage, yet had used the substitute three times already.
If he pressured her one or two more times, she would have no choice but to surrender.
He felt he was about to end the fight.
But now, within the thick Blood Mist, Lin Xue was almost impossible to lock onto, moving around him like a formless wraith, never stopping her attacks.
In a flash, he was struck more than a dozen times.
Though the Jade Protective Talisman blocked each blow, those frigid, bone-chilling waves of demonic energy pierced through his defense, drilling straight into his body, surging wildly within, making him extremely uncomfortable.
Yang Yuting flew into a rage.
As the second strongest cultivator in Xichuan, ever since he began cultivating, he had always been gifted, aided without restraint by his clan, sailing through life, crushing his peers—never before had he suffered such a setback.
Today, a mere little demon actually made him so wretched.
He considered this a monstrous humiliation.
He would use his ultimate move for revenge!
To think—a demon would force him to use the technique he prided himself on most.
Yang Yuting let out a furious shout, clenched his fist, and the fence of giant thorny vines around him abruptly contracted, shrinking the enclosed area to a quarter of its original size.
The space, which had been as large as two basketball courts, suddenly shrank to the size of a boxing ring.
He then gripped his long blade, his whole body spinning rapidly, sweeping across the ring with terrifying speed, crashing and slashing in all directions.
You may have an agile movement technique, little demon, but I’ll shrink your space and use my Whirlwind Blade—let’s see how you escape now!
Lin Xue unleashed all her skills, pouring her strength into a wave of attacks, preparing to use her final insight to deal Yang Yuting a fatal blow, but she was caught off guard by his Whirlwind Blade.
The rapidly spinning blade, whistling with fierce wind, left her no room to dodge.
She had no choice but to hastily use the Paper Substitute Technique again.
Her paper substitute was instantly cleaved in two by the sharp blade.
Lin Xue’s real body reappeared ten paces away.
She was now forced to the edge of the arena, behind her the thick, thorny vines.
Yang Yuting, like a spinning gear, rushed toward her, reaching her in an instant.
At the same time, countless flying needles shot out from his sleeve, sweeping across the entire area.
No matter how agile you are, little demon, against my Whirlwind Blade and a 360-degree barrage of needles, where can you hide?
Yang Yuting seemed to see Lin Xue’s enchanting body riddled with holes by his needles, then split in two by his spinning blade.
A cold smile crept across his face.
Lin Xue stared at the spinning blade and the flying needles hurtling toward her, her pupils contracting sharply.
She had already used the Paper Substitute Technique four times.
The demonic energy she had left was just enough for one more substitute.
But at the same time, it would barely suffice to activate the Chuanyin Fashu on her ring.
If she used the teleportation spell, she could immediately escape this perilous fight and withdraw in safety.
But if she did, Yang Yuting would instantly return to the Bai Cao Tang in Stone Plate Town to search for Zhang Zongnian.
She had escaped from Stone Plate Town not long ago, and Elder Senior Brother probably hadn’t had enough time to move Zhang Zongnian.
Lin Xue thought for a moment and made her decision.
She didn’t use the teleportation spell. Instead, she adjusted her stance, stepping forward to meet the Whirlwind Blade and the rain of flying needles.
The sharp blade and the needles struck her delicate body at the same time.
Her body was torn apart, pierced through by more than a dozen needles.
The broken figure turned into a paper substitute, fell to the ground, and burned.
She had used the Paper Substitute Technique one last time.
Yang Yuting, his face mocking, searched the arena enclosed by the vines for Lin Xue’s figure.
He knew that with his next attack, Lin Xue would have nothing left to resist him.
He looked forward to slicing her beautiful body in two with his blade.
He especially loved that kind of broken beauty.
Lin Xue’s graceful figure appeared at the other end of the field.
Yang Yuting, a cruel smile on his face, spun rapidly toward her.
At the same time, even more flying needles shot at her.
But then, to his surprise, the little demon didn’t panic at all.
The blood-red short blade in her hand vanished, replaced by a long two-handed blade.
He recognized that weapon.
That was his Fourth Uncle’s blade—Zhanfeng.
After his Fourth Uncle’s death, the treasured blade was given by his aunt, that wastrel, to Yang Yuhai, that useless fool.
After Yang Yuhai was killed by this demon, the treasured blade fell into her hands.
Yang Yuting was full of disdain.
Even if you have the treasured blade, demon, so what?
Do you even know how to use it?
No matter how good the blade, how long can you last against my Whirlwind Blade and hundreds of flying needles?
He could almost see the demon knocked away, her treasured blade flying from her hand, and then her beautiful body being split in two—a “lovely” sight.
But then, the Zhanfeng in Lin Xue’s hands flashed, and suddenly, a Wind Shield appeared.
The Wind Shield protected her firmly, and Yang Yuting’s Whirlwind Blade crashed into it, stalling his speed for a moment.
Dozens of flying needles struck the shield and clattered to the ground.
The Wind Shield, under such a ferocious assault, began to tremble and nearly shatter.
But it gave Lin Xue a fleeting chance to catch her breath.
Short though it was, it was enough.
Lin Xue extended her left hand, clenched in a fist, and summoned the demonic energy she had planted inside Yang Yuting—the energy he had barely suppressed with his Spiritual Power.
She opened her fist.
The dozens of strands of demonic energy inside Yang Yuting exploded all at once.
“Boom!”
Yang Yuting seemed to hear a muffled thump from within his own body.
Suddenly, he felt his body become lighter.
He saw himself spinning up into the sky, with bits of unknown matter and blood splattering below.
Below him, two legs—he couldn’t tell whose—flew in different directions, one landing a dozen steps away, one snagged on a thorny vine, the shoe on its foot looking oddly familiar.
He spun through the air, then hit the ground.
He tried to land steadily, but his foot met only empty air. His whole body dropped and crashed to the ground.
Only then did Yang Yuting realize his lower body was gone.
That demon had detonated the demonic energy inside his body, blasting him apart.
The Jade Protective Talisman could defend against external weapons, but not the self-destruction of demonic energy from within.
A look of disbelief appeared on Yang Yuting’s face.
How could this be?
Wasn’t I the number one cultivator in all of Xichuan beneath the Old Ancestor?
The Old Ancestor admired me, had already given me a Foundation-building Pill.
I was about to become the second Foundation Establishment cultivator in Xichuan, soon to be head of the Yang Family, ruler of Xichuan.
How could I die at the hands of a mere Body Tempering demon?
He stared at the half of his body that remained, feeling his life slip swiftly away, a look of horror twisting his face.