There was good news: by evening, Du Yuxi had taken the field, at a time when only half of the drawing lots had been collected from the martial arena.
The bad news was that Du Yuxi fought consecutively until the early hours of the next morning.
Among the remaining “small fry,” even in a battle of attrition, not a single person could withstand the youth.
“This boy is just as brave and battle-hardened as his older brother,” remarked a disciple watching the spectacle. “Back then, Du Yifeng was the same—fighting a hundred men alone, spirited and daring. He was the disciple the elders favored most at the time.”
“But he lost, and only to that one unremarkable female cultivator,” another person sneered. “Senior Sister Song usually doesn’t use a sword, so we all thought she might go into medical cultivation. But once she draws her blade, she is bound to be breathtaking.”
“They say Du Yifeng’s Dao heart shattered under that single strike. Since then, his ambition has remained high as the heavens, yet his progress on the Path has stagnated.”
That casual remark caught Lu Xiangyu’s attention. She looked back and saw a woman in the thinning crowd, dressed in plain cloth with a gray headscarf.
Since Du Yuxi stepped onto the stage, Lu Xiangyu had been asking everyone she met about the origins of the Du brothers. This woman was also from the outer sect village; having spoken to so many people, Lu Xiangyu couldn’t quite remember everyone’s face.
At that moment, Lu Xiangyu felt an impulse—she wanted to rush forward and grab the woman to see who she was.
But before she could catch up to the woman heading down the mountain, the gong sounded again as another disciple collapsed on the stage.
“Next, Lu Xiaoyu!”
Lu Xiangyu froze. The woman’s hem slipped through her fingers. Lu Xiangyu looked toward the central arena and heard a low chuckle beside her ear.
“Good luck.”
…
Clutching her sword, Lu Xiangyu stood opposite the stage.
The youth across from her had fought all night. His eyes were bloodshot, his breathing erratic. He leaned his sword against the ground for support, his body covered in wounds. He looked as if he couldn’t hold on much longer.
Lu Xiangyu offered a respectful salute: “I am Lu Xiaoyu. You have fought bloodily through the night without a single defeat. I admire you greatly.”
“Du Yuxi,” the youth replied, enduring the agonizing pain and swallowing the copper taste of blood in his throat.
Lu Xiangyu pulled a pill from her pocket and tossed it toward Du Yuxi from a distance. He caught it in his palm, his brow furrowing.
“A Top-grade Restoration Pill,” Du Yuxi said in shock. “Why give me this?”
He was injured, and pills were allowed on stage to treat wounds and recover spiritual energy. A Top-grade Restoration Pill served both purposes and was an incredibly rare find. Du Yuxi had exhausted his own supply long ago.
Lu Xiangyu struck a formal pose, lifting her sword in another salute.
“You are a hero; I cannot win by taking unfair advantage.”
“Hahaha! Good!”
Du Yuxi swallowed it in one gulp. His spiritual energy surged violently, and with a sudden pivot, he vanished from his spot. Lu Xiangyu spun around to block with the back of her blade but was sent flying by the massive impact. She had to expend spiritual energy to stabilize herself mid-air, only to face a barrage of desperate, all-directional attacks from Du Yuxi the moment she landed.
Before long, she was gasping for air. Du Yuxi’s offensive was no weaker than his peak state yesterday. A smear of crimson stained the corner of her mouth.
…This is going to be the death of me.
Song Shenshi was also a master of the sword, but the gap in their cultivation was immense. Song never used spiritual power when sparring with Lu Xiangyu. While her swordsmanship and technique were standard, this was, after all, a world of cultivation…
After several exchanges, seeing that Lu Xiangyu only defended and never attacked, Du Yuxi gauged her level. In terms of the Way of the Sword, she was a mere novice. Perhaps her family was wealthy in resources—her spiritual energy was pure and dense—but she lacked experience and would soon fall to him.
“Cough, cough.” Lu Xiangyu coughed up some blood. She straightened up, glancing at the bright, empty martial arena. Scanning the perimeter, she couldn’t find that person anywhere.
She said she wanted to see me win the championship, but she’s not even here anyway… If I lose, I lose.
Lu Xiangyu felt tired; she didn’t want to struggle anymore.
However…
Seeing Du Yuxi gathering his momentum and spiritual energy for another strike, Lu Xiangyu suddenly dropped all her defenses. She tilted her head and smiled at him, wiping the blood from her lip.
Now, he didn’t even need a finishing move. A simple strike would knock her down.
But Du Yuxi remembered that she had given him a pill the moment she stepped up. She surely had more than one. The flow of his spiritual energy began to slow and grow sluggish.
This kindhearted child is waiting for his opponent to take medicine.
The smile on Lu Xiangyu’s face grew more radiant.
“Cough…” She coughed up more blood, and Du Yuxi completely retracted his offensive.
“I don’t want to cultivate; my sister forced me to come,” Lu Xiangyu said, looking at the flecks of internal tissue in her palm. Her organs throbbed with pain as she spoke.
That’s right—she was suffering all of this because of Song Shenshi.
“…Me too,” Du Yuxi said, frowning.
“I didn’t expect us to have similar experiences. What a coincidence.” Lu Xiangyu laughed heartily. “My sister is a medical cultivator at the Haiqian Sect. She wants me to practice the sword, but I don’t have a lick of talent.”
Du Yuxi frowned and said seriously, “Miss Lu, though your sword technique is clumsy, your control over spiritual energy is exquisite. You cannot say you have no talent at all.”
“Really? My sister keeps calling me stupid. It turns out I’m not stupid after all.” Lu Xiangyu cheered up.
She watched the youth stand there in silence.
“Du Yuxi, what about you?” Lu Xiangyu laughed lowly. “Where is your brother?”
She asked so naturally that Du Yuxi suddenly felt a pang of panic. He clutched his chest, his brow knit in confusion.
His brother… his brother disliked him on sight. He could read at three and write poetry at five. When he brought his work to his parents, he received endless praise, but his brother would only look on with a cold face, drive him away, and trample his calligraphy underfoot.
Du Yuxi, if you win, he will never be happy.
Yes, that’s it. Think about him a little more, you poor kid.
Lu Xiangyu was attacking his psychological defenses.
But in the next instant, Du Yuxi raised his sword again. The youth’s expression was indifferent, and the spiritual energy surrounding him grew sharp and cold—he was even more dangerous than before.
At this moment, Lu Xiangyu was completely unguarded. If she failed to dodge this strike, her defeat was certain.
“…How? How can this be happening?”
Miao Jiu watched the scene before her, her expression filled with utter despair.
“Big Brother, Big Brother, don’t sleep!” Miao Jiu cried, her tears falling like beans as she desperately shook Lin Feiyuan’s cold body.
“Cough…” Lin Feiyuan coughed up blood as he regained consciousness.
Before them, Song Shenshi was still battling the black serpent within the dark clouds, but she wouldn’t be able to hold it back for much longer.
“Senior Sister Song is about to reach her limit! Is there no one else who can save us? Is our Haiqian Sect finished?” Miao Jiu wailed.
“Don’t… don’t cry. As long as we wait for the array cultivators on the ground to set the formation, we can seal the black serpent away.” Lin Feiyuan’s breath was as thin as silk.
He didn’t understand why this single black serpent was so powerful, nor why the Haiqian Sect was so unprepared. The children brought back from the Demon Realm seemed no different from others; the sect had treated them well during this time, and Lin Feiyuan had seen it with his own eyes—they shouldn’t harbor such resentment. All he could discern was that the black serpent was the manifestation of the demonic qi within the children. Yet, its strength was formidable, and because it had no physical form and originated from the consciousness of mortals, it was hard to strike.
It wasn’t that the serpent couldn’t be solved with a single sword strike, but they had to wait for the array cultivators to finish the formation to sever the connection between the serpent and the children. If they struck too harshly before then, the children’s minds would be shattered, leaving them as mindless shells. Meanwhile, the Elders of the Haiqian Sect had to stay at the main peak to shield the sect from the serpent’s influence and oversee the competition.
Song Shenshi held out through the night until Li Wenran finally arrived with the array disciples.
“Junior Sister, are you alright!”
Song Shenshi was knocked out of the sky. Li Wenran circulated his energy to catch her, but in the next instant, she vomited a mouthful of thick, black blood.
Li Wenran’s pupils dilated in shock.
“It’s nothing.” Song Shenshi coldly wiped away the black blood and pushed Li Wenran aside.
She didn’t ask where the others were, or why Li Wenran had arrived so late.
Song Shenshi flicked the blood off her blade and raised it once more. In her eyes, the twisted black serpent seemed to grow infinitely small, while the night sky appeared vast and boundless.
A heavy, dull power suddenly caused time itself to freeze. The operation of the array paused for a heartbeat, and even the black serpent was rendered immobile.
An ethereal gate seemed to swing open before their eyes. A supreme, murderous sword intent materialized from behind it, flying into the clouds in a flash. As the wind rose, the black serpent let out a shrill scream and dissolved into nothingness.
“Ugh!” Song Shenshi leaned on her sword, barely supporting herself, before spitting out another large pool of black blood.
“Junior Sister!” Li Wenran was filled with regret. “You didn’t have to push yourself so hard… By forcibly using the Wanxiang (Myriad Manifestations) Method to unleash that strike, what will happen to your body…”
Song Shenshi closed her eyes, struggling to pull her consciousness back from a daze.
She asked, “Has Lu Xiaoyu’s match… begun?”
“…” Li Wenran wanted to take her back to her courtyard, but he could only say, “She is the last one. It just started.”
Lu Xiangyu did not dodge the sword—or rather, she tried, but failed to clear it. Du Yuxi’s blade pierced straight through her shoulder blade. In that moment, the youth snapped out of his trance and froze.
Lu Xiangyu seized that split second of hesitation. She lunged forward, driving her body further onto his blade, while her other hand, steady as a rock, drew a bloody line across Du Yuxi’s throat. He had dropped his spiritual protection, and blood immediately gushed from the wound.
“This strike of mine could have taken your life.” Having won, Lu Xiangyu narrowed her eyes and laughed.
“…” Du Yuxi withdrew his sword. As she stumbled, it was the youth who reached out to steady her.
Then, Du Yuxi stepped back, drove his sword into the stage floor, and conceded.
The array around the arena vanished. The surrounding clamor rushed into her ears like a victory cheer. As if she couldn’t feel the pain, Lu Xiangyu raised her sword and ran a celebratory lap around the stage, shouting, “I won!”
Li Wenran supported Song Shenshi as they approached. He shook his head, feeling quite helpless.
In the eyes of outsiders, Song Shenshi truly doted on this junior sister of hers.
Song Shenshi stood below the stage, squinting her eyes with a smile as she watched her little junior sister frolicking and splashing blood in the morning light. She called out in a raspy voice.
“Junior Sister, come down. Let’s bandage those wounds first.”
Lu Xiangyu jumped down and threw herself at her. Song Shenshi was knocked over by the impact, unable to catch her.
Lu Xiangyu was consumed by joy. She said, “Senior Sister, am I amazing or what!”
“Very amazing,” Song Shenshi replied.
Ruo Zhiwei and Nan Ji came forward to treat the injured disciples. Seeing the two of them playing around like this, Nan Ji couldn’t help but snark: “Senior Sister Song was the champion back in her day, too, but she won much more honorably than you did.”
“So what?” Lu Xiangyu put her hands on her hips, defiant. “Did I win or not?”
“You won, you won,” Senior Sister Ruo said, stifling a laugh.
Lu Xiangyu turned back to ask, “Senior Sister, what is the prize for the champion?”
“There has never been a prize.”
All that work for nothing. Lu Xiangyu felt utterly dejected.