94 – Tournament (II)
Phecda and the practice sword have clashed dozens of times.
With every collision, sparks ignite and the air ripples.
Li Tiezhu gave his all and fought desperately.
Faced with the storm-like attacks, Shui Yuner didn’t step back, and instead just focused on brandishing her sword and blocking. However, her movements are performed with great ease.
Like fierce waves constantly hitting the firm coast, no matter how violent the former is, the latter remains unmoved like a mountain.
This doesn’t mean that Li Tiezhu is lacking in strength. Based on his performance, he’s even stronger than Huang Shanshan.
However, Shui Yuner’s display today is unusual.
As if seeing through the opponent’s every move, the girl often understands the trajectory of the attack and accurately uses Phecda to disrupt the attack.
Tracing to the source…
‘Next strike – Slash from the right, target is below the ribs!’
Phecda issued a warning.
Although Li Tiezhu’s sword is going for her face, but Shui Yuner followed Phecda’s warning without thinking and blocked with her sword below the ribs.
Clang…!
The sound of metal striking metal sounded.
As if according to a plan, Li Tiezhu really changed his move, changed from a straight thrust into a horizontal slash, attacking below the girl’s elbow.
Li Tiezhu’s eyes widened in surprise, as if asking – still couldn’t succeed?
… A momentary gap appeared.
Here’s my chance! Shui Yuner twisted the hand holding the sword and pushed Li Tiezhu’s sword aside.
Then, a straight thrust.
“Hmph…”
Li Tiezhu snorted and placed his sword horizontally to block.
But…
“Heavenly Dragon Lifts Head!”
Along with Shui Yuner’s declaration, Phecda bent unnaturally and bypassed the opponent’s sword.
The sword tip adorned with a cold glint attacked Li Tiezhu’s right shoulder.
“The sword is sharpened!”
Li Tiezhu whispered and quickly evaded sideways.
‘Fist, belly!’
Shui Yuner’s empty hand pushed down and knocked away the thick arm connected to the fist.
“You broke the rules!”
Li Tiezhu took a step forward and turned his fist into palm striking towards Shui Yuner’s chest.
“There is nowhere written that you cannot use a real swords in the tournament.”
Shui Yuner replied with a smile. At the same time, she raised her left foot, and a fair, slim leg forced the youth to give up and retreat.
She has checked the regulations countless times, and indeed, nowhere is written that the use of sharpened practice swords is forbidden. It only requires disciples to use a practice sword to participate.
So strictly speaking, Shui Yuner hasn’t broken the rules. The fact that the judge raised an eyebrow, yet didn’t say a thing is telling.
“Petty trick!”
Li Tiezhu snorted, avoided the blow to the leg, and pulled away.
Even though this is a friendly match where no fatal blows are permitted, but if you are hit by a sharpened sword, it will inevitably leave a cut. The accumulation of such wounds will decrease your physical strength.
Although Phecda is sharpened, but Shui Yuner had no intention to use this to her advantage. After all, she is already borrowing Phecda’s power.
That being said, it’s only a minimum of power. She only borrowed Phecda’s insight.
According to Phecda, her body conceals spiritual qi accumulated for a long time. Although Shui Yuner doesn’t know where Phecda’s spiritual qi comes from, but as long as she uses that great amount of spiritual qi, the power she’ll get will presumably put her on par with Heaven Realm masters or even Grandmasters for a short period of time.
The accumulated spiritual qi, solely in terms of quantity, must exceed the amount of true qi of the Grandmaster Realm.
However, once this power is used, not to mention Xue Qilin, even Nangong Mingming will find it strange. How can a person born with blocked qi passageways have true qi or spiritual qi?
‘Slash, from below!’
With Phecda’s accurate prediction, Shui Yuner neutralized another attack.
Phecda doesn’t really predict the future, she just catches clues from the opponent’s movement and the movement of the sword cutting through the air and makes speculations.
This requires a lot of experience.
Where does this profound experience come from? Shui Yuner doesn’t know. She never asked.
With the help of Phecda’s forecast, the girl responds according to her own judgment, neutralize’s the other party’s attacks time and time again, and even fights back.
*
“I didn’t expect Older Sister Shui to be this strong!”
Nangong Mingming is surprised from the bottom of her heart.
Although Shui Yuner’s sword moves are still slightly immature, but she uses them in just the right way. Each of her moves is a response to the opponent’s attacks.
… Something is wrong.
Xue Qilin feels uneasy.
As far as she knows, Shui Yuner isn’t this strong.
Did she hide her strength… but why? Xue Qilin pursed her lips.
And is the sword in her hand really an ordinary practice sword?
… It has been more than once.
Shui Yuner’s sword occasionally releases spiritual qi.
Although it doesn’t have any nature, and is the same as the spiritual qi that fills the world, but how can a common practice sword have spiritual qi?
Xue Qilin suddenly felt a gaze, and so she turned to look at the dais.
Gazes met in the air.
Qi Qiqi looked at her solemnly, and the expressionless Ye Zhen sitting beside her raised his eyebrows.
Did they feel it too? No, maybe Little Zhen felt it and told Little Seven, that must be it!
That indistinct spiritual qi released by Shui Yuner’s sword, only Heaven Realm masters should be able to barely sense it.
Xue Qilin looked at Liu Chengzong sitting to the right of Qi Qiqi involuntarily.
He looked as usual, a sour expression on his face.
However, Xue Qilin noticed that the corners of the other party’s mouth have a small, almost undetectable arc.
… He’s smiling.
“… Why is he smiling?”
What did he do? Xue Qilin said nothing, but her frown is getting deeper and deeper.
At this time, an unforeseen event took place in the arena.
Perhaps feeling anxious after failing to land a hit for so long, Li Tiezhu showed the power he has been hiding for a long time.
He used true qi.
He’s in the Human Realm.
Only Human Realm experts can use true qi.
Unexpectedly, Li Tiezhu has stepped into the Human Realm. The spectator area broke out into an uproar.
“When did Senior Disciple Brother Li reach the Human Realm?!” “This kid hid really well!” “This disciple’s aptitude isn’t bad.”
Amid the hubbub…
“Hey, not bad! He looks strong enough! He must be a first-class seedling for forging ironware!”
Even though they are far apart, but Li Wanting’s [1] voice is still clearly audible.
Normally Xue Qilin would have made a dismissive remark.
But now she just stares straight at Shui Yuner.
What is Little Yun thinking? Why hasn’t she surrendered?
Faced against a Human Realm expert, Shui Yuner stands no chance of winning – Xue Qilin thinks so.
*
The moment when Li Tiezhu showed his true qi, Shui Yuner’s face became solemn at once.
An unforeseen change – she didn’t expect her opponent to be a Human Realm expert…
‘What bad luck! This stout fellow actually has true qi, what do we do? We’re going to lose!’
But…
“We can only continue to fight…”
Shui Yuner smiled bitterly and whispered in a low voice.
‘How do we fight! The other party has true qi!’
Phecda said, discouraged.
“I can’t lose…”
Why am I so weak? If I could get a bit stronger. With Phecda’s help, maybe I still have the power to fight.
The situation is overwhelmingly unfavorable.
Even if you know what’s coming next, but it’s all in vain if you can’t stop the attack.
With the boost granted by true qi, Li Tiezhu’s ability must have increased sharply. His next attack, whether it is in terms of speed or strength, it must be on a completely different level.
Li Tiezhu quickly proved this to be a fact.
[1] – Li Wanting is the Elder of the Sword-casting Chamber who forged Xue Qilin’s sword. Also, she was ‘framed’ by Luo Qing over the murder of Qin Chen
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