Seeing Yun Man come out, Qin Xiao felt a headache coming on.
Oh, for heaven’s sake, don’t come out and make things worse now! This is no minor figure. She’s the sect’s top disciple, its Holy Maiden, and the Sect Leader’s daughter. We can’t afford to offend her.
“Disciple, go back and cultivate. Your master is here to handle this. Hurry along.”
Although Qin Xiao was helpless, he still kept pushing Yun Man to go back.
“Wait, Junior Brother Qin. Since your disciple is already here, why not give it a try?”
Seeing Yun Man emerge, Lin Shimeng stood up and locked gazes with her.
She too had a Heavenly Spirit Root and had long since left her fellow disciples far behind. Now that she had finally found a worthy opponent, she didn’t want to let the chance slip away.
“Master, don’t be afraid. I might not lose to her.”
Even as Qin Xiao pushed her back, she had her own pride and refused to retreat.
“Oh? In that case, let me see what you can do.”
With that, Lin Shimeng’s entire body erupted with powerful Spiritual Qi.
“Then let’s fight.”
Yun Man refused to back down either, the Spiritual Qi throughout her body surging wildly until the resulting pressure forced Qin Xiao back.
The disciples outside couldn’t see what was happening within, but they all felt the two powerful surges of spiritual power.
“What is going on?”
“Could Martial Uncle Lin have come to pick a fight?”
“Such powerful spiritual fluctuations could only come from Martial Uncle Lin and Senior Sister Yun. What should we do?”
“Don’t worry. Senior Sister Yun might not lose. After all, even Holy Son Yao was no match for her.”
Feeling those fluctuations, the disciples outside began discussing what was happening.
Meanwhile, Qin Xiao found himself powerless to intervene in the courtyard. The two powerful forces of Spiritual Qi collided and churned, raising clouds of dust that blew away even his usual reclining chair.
“What am I supposed to do? A clash of this level is completely beyond me.”
Qin Xiao could only hope that some sect elder would happen to pass by and mediate, or that the Sect Leader would hurry over. Your daughter is out here fighting—shouldn’t you, as her parent, step in to stop it?
Seeing the situation escalate to the point where his entire courtyard was about to be demolished, Qin Xiao could no longer stand by.
“Both of you, stop!”
At Qin Xiao’s shout, Lin Shimeng and Yun Man simultaneously reined in their power.
“Junior Brother Qin, what do you want now?”
Lin Shimeng demanded, a little angry. Get faster updates on g.com.
“Master, don’t be afraid.”
Yun Man quickly spoke up.
“You two, can’t you find a more civilized way to spar? Must you tear down my courtyard?”
Qin Xiao knew he couldn’t talk them out of it, but surely they could try a different way. His little courtyard was about to be torn apart.
“It seems this really isn’t a good way to go about it.”
Hearing Qin Xiao’s words, Lin Shimeng cast a look around the courtyard and realized it truly could not withstand their spiritual impacts.
“If you want to spar, I have no objections. But can you make it a contest of power instead of fighting? My shabby little courtyard really can’t take much more.”
Seeing that both had calmed down a little, Qin Xiao hurried to speak.
“A contest of power? How would that work?”
Lin Shimeng had no wish to wreck the courtyard either. Out of respect for the Seventh Elder, who had treated her well in the past, she preferred to leave the grounds intact.
“Well… how about this? You two pit your Spiritual Qi against each other without letting it burst outward. Compete purely on the purity and volume of your Qi. That way, the courtyard remains undamaged. What do you say?”
The question stumped Qin Xiao for a moment. Then he thought of martial arts masters on television testing their internal energy against each other. That avoided collateral damage; he just didn’t know whether cultivators could compete the same way.
“That could work, though I must ask if your disciple is willing.”
After a moment of thought, Lin Shimeng agreed. It was indeed a way to avoid destroying the courtyard.
“I am willing.”
Seeing how the yard had been left in disarray, Yun Man felt a twinge of embarrassment and readily agreed to spare the property.
“Since neither of you objects, let us do it this way. It preserves the courtyard and avoids hard feelings.”
With both in agreement, Qin Xiao finally breathed a sigh of relief. Anything was fine, as long as they didn’t tear down his courtyard.
Moments later, the two women moved as one, each releasing a stream of Spiritual Qi that coalesced into a visible sphere between them.
They then began pouring Spiritual Qi into the sphere. Whenever one of them supplied less, the sphere would move toward her.
At first, both were still testing each other. The sphere grew slowly, swaying back and forth—toward Yun Man one moment, Lin Shimeng the next.
“Now this is more like it.”
Watching the two quietly compete, Qin Xiao felt very satisfied. This was a much better way to settle it.
Inside, they had switched to a contest of Qi, but the disciples outside the courtyard were bewildered. Why had the fighting suddenly stopped?
“What happened? Is the match already over?”
“We just don’t know who won.”
“Do you even need to ask? It has to be Martial Uncle Lin. She’s the strongest person below the elders.”
“Not necessarily. Holy Son Yao was supposed to be the top disciple outside the Main Peak, and Senior Sister Yun Man defeated him too.”
“You don’t understand. Martial Uncle Lin is no ordinary Personal Disciple. Holy Son Yao can’t compare to her. I hope Senior Sister Yun can win too, but… it’ll be hard.” New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
Though these disciples were Yun Man’s admirers, they weren’t all blindly devoted. Some assessed the situation calmly.
Back in the courtyard, Qin Xiao began to feel that something wasn’t quite right.
The sphere of Spiritual Qi between the two had expanded from the size of an egg to that of a washbasin, radiating a terrifying amount of energy.
“Is this going to end in disaster?”
Qin Xiao was starting to panic too. Although he couldn’t sense Spiritual Qi, he could feel the terrifying energy within the sphere before him. That sense of danger was instinctive.
“You’re only in the late stage of Golden Core. You can be proud of lasting this long against me.”
Lin Shimeng hadn’t expected Yun Man to hold out so long. There was now a little admiration in her eyes.
“Proud? I know you’re in the early stage of Nascent Soul, but you don’t seem all that remarkable.”
Though straining, Yun Man remained confident. If worst came to worst, she could simply swallow a drop of Spirit Liquid.
“One word of praise, and you really think you can take me on?”
Lin Shimeng hadn’t expected the girl to be so defiant, and increased her Spiritual Qi output. Too much pride became conceit.
“We’ll see whether I can take you on.”
Yun Man refused to yield an inch, pouring more of her own Qi into the sphere.
“Could you two please just call it off?”
Seeing the sphere before him grow to over a meter across, Qin Xiao looked grim. If it burst, forget the courtyard—he might lose his life.
The two women completely ignored his plea, continuing to pump energy into the sphere until its diameter surpassed one zhang.
The disciples outside could now see the enormous sphere of Qi, and were too astonished to speak. Its terrifying pressure sent chills down their backs.
The courtyard on Seven Stars Peak was no ordinary place. The Seventh Elder had laid formations there that could conceal ordinary fluctuations of spiritual power. Clearly, the sphere now exceeded those formations’ limits, and its pressure leaked out.
Beads of sweat formed on Yun Man’s forehead as she neared her absolute limit.
Lin Shimeng was faring little better. She had already used ninety percent of her strength, and had little spiritual power left. She had never expected her Nascent Soul-stage power to be almost evenly matched by Yun Man’s late-stage Golden Core power. For a moment, she found that hard to accept.
Unable to afford hesitation, Yun Man retrieved a drop of Spirit Liquid and swallowed it.
“What? Using Spirit Liquid to replenish your power? What a waste!”
Lin Shimeng had naturally seen Yun Man’s action. Who wasted Spirit Liquid like that?
“In that case, I won’t stand on ceremony either.”
With those words, Lin Shimeng produced her own drop of Spirit Liquid and downed it.
Having just condemned her rival for wasting resources, she followed suit without hesitation, for she neither could nor would afford to lose.