A Genius's Sword, Trash Soul Power

"Confirm."

White text had appeared in his sea of consciousness.

"Damage record established."

"Target: Shi Potian."

"Accumulated damage: 463 points."

"Target evaluation: inefficient shield scraper. Recommend switching to a higher-level target."

After Li Zhexian finished reading the text, his foot slipped, and he nearly missed a step.

Chen Xin reached out and steadied him by the shoulder.

"What are you inspecting again?"

"Calculating the accounts."

"He hit you, and you're calculating the accounts for him?"

"He didn't attack enough times."

Chen Xin withdrew his hand, his tone growing a little more serious.

"If that sword strike on the arena had strayed half an inch, the people behind him would have been hurt."

"I saw them."

"Since you saw them, you should have been more careful when you swung your sword."

"That's why I didn't stray."

Chen Xin looked at him and paused for a moment.

"You already won today."

"Winning means victory."

"The people in the sect will remember this match too."

"I care more about those 463 points."

Chen Xin asked no more questions.

The crowd beside the arena had dispersed. The disciple who had said Li Zhexian didn't have the nerve to draw his sword had run away the fastest.

Someone walked over to the broken stone pillar and kicked a piece of rubble, then pulled his foot back.

News spread faster than the dining hall opened its doors.

"Li Zhexian suppressed Shi Potian with one sword strike."

"Shi Potian is level twenty-one, you know."

"So what? He didn't even use his Second Soul Ring."

"Can Soul Power Level represent everything?"

"At least it can represent Soul Power."

Li Zhexian was passing by the crowd when he heard that last remark and stopped.

"That's quite right."

The disciple shrank his neck.

"Senior Brother Li, that's not what I meant."

"There's no need to explain."

Li Zhexian held out the apple in his hand.

"Take it."

The disciple didn't dare accept it.

"What's this for?"

"What you said makes sense. My swordsmanship is decent, but my Soul Power is only level ten. Take it and eat. With something in your mouth, you can say a few words less."

Several people nearby turned their faces away, pretending they hadn't heard.

Ning Rongrong walked over, still clutching the jade pendant in her hand.

"Li Zhexian, I have something to say to you."

"Eat the apple first."

"I'm not eating it."

"Then watch me eat it."

Li Zhexian took the apple back, sat down on the stone steps, and pulled out a short knife to peel it.

The peel fell around the blade, curling into several loops.

Ning Rongrong stood beside him and waited a long time before speaking.

"I shouldn't have stood there watching yesterday."

"Wherever you stood, it wouldn't have affected me."

"I shouldn't have said you couldn't keep up, either."

"Was what you said wrong?"

Ning Rongrong clutched the jade pendant.

"Do you have to talk like this?"

"How am I talking?"

"When other people insult you, you say they're not wrong. When they look down on you, you don't argue back. Do you think saying a few tough words means it's all over?"

Li Zhexian finished peeling the apple and held it out to her.

"You're not wrong. I can't keep up with you."

Ning Rongrong didn't reach out to take it.

Those words hurt her more than hearing the others mock him.

"You already beat Shi Potian, and then you turn around and bring up your own level ten."

"He lost to the sword."

"You can't rely on your sword to support you forever."

"Then what should I rely on?"

"Soul Power."

"I'm cultivating too."

"You've cultivated for six years, and you're still only level ten."

"So you came here to remind me of that?"

Ning Rongrong raised her head.

"I came to apologize."

"You've already apologized."

"Can you stop talking like that?"

"I've made myself clear enough."

She reached out to take the apple, but her fingers touched the handle of the short knife, and she pulled them back.

"Did you guess a long time ago that a day like this would come?"

"What kind of day?"

"My father would start to waver, the elders would waver too, and the people in the sect would make an issue of your Soul Power Level... and I would too."

Li Zhexian cut off a small piece of apple.

"Have you started to waver too?"

Ning Rongrong didn't answer.

She looked at the crack along the edge of the stone platform. It stretched all the way to the corner of the wall, as though it had been waiting there for a long time.

"I just don't want to see you become like this."

"Then don't look."

"Do you think I want to see it?"

"Then you can leave."

Ning Rongrong gripped the apple in her hand, pressing a small dent into its flesh.

Li Zhexian put away the short knife, then drew the Azure Lotus Sword and thrust its tip into the stone platform.

Sword Qi traveled forward across the stone, leaving a straight line that stopped at Ning Rongrong's feet, only half an inch from her.

Ning Rongrong looked at the sword mark on the ground.

"What are you trying to show me?"

"The sword can reach this point."

"I'm asking about you."

"I have nothing to say."

"There you go again."

Chen Xin remained outside the training ground and didn't approach them.

That sword strike just now had used no Soul Ring, nor had it released any Soul Power. It had relied solely on his wrist, footwork, and judgment when he struck.

Such swordsmanship was already enough to surpass many Soul Elders.

But Li Zhexian's Soul Power remained at level ten.

Chen Xin raised one hand and, from more than ten paces away, sent a strand of Sword Qi into Li Zhexian's body.

Golden light shone from his chest.

The Soul Power struck the invisible shield, then retreated.

Chen Xin withdrew his hand.

"What exactly is that thing?"

Someone sent by Ning Fengzhi came and called Li Zhexian away.

Three letters and an unopened medicine box lay in the study.

"Zhexian, sit down."

Li Zhexian sat down.

Ning Fengzhi pushed the medicine box in front of him.

"There's a physician in Heaven Dou City who specializes in treating blocked Soul Power and problems with the meridians."

"I'm not sick."

"I didn't say you were."

"Sect Master, you didn't call me here to give me an apple, did you?"

Ning Fengzhi glanced at the apple in his hand.

"Did Rongrong give you that?"

"I peeled it myself."

"She was crying just now."

The knife in Li Zhexian's hand stopped.

"Why was she crying?"

"You should ask her that."

"She wasn't crying."

"She just didn't want you to see."

Li Zhexian placed the apple peel at the corner of the desk.

"There's no need to invite the physician here."

"You haven't met him yet."

"It'll be the same after I meet him."

"What makes you say that?"

"The thing inside my body won't let me get past it. It won't matter who comes."

Ning Fengzhi tapped his fingers on the desk.

"Uncle Jian has examined you many times and hasn't found the cause. The sect has raised you for six years, not so you could keep everything hidden and say nothing."

"Sect Master, you gave me food, medicinal herbs, and a place to practice my swordsmanship. I've remembered all of it."

"Since you remember, don't use your own body to test someone's fists."

"That punch wasn't heavy."

"Shi Potian is level twenty-one."

"His attacks aren't good enough."

Ning Fengzhi looked at him for a while without speaking.

"Are you planning to find someone stronger?"

"Mm."

"To break the shield inside your body?"

Li Zhexian raised his eyes.

Ning Fengzhi asked no more questions and simply said, "I'll keep the physician available for you."

"You can keep him available, but don't let him into my courtyard."

"You were quick to refuse."

"I'm worried he'll put the medical bill on my account."

Ning Fengzhi laughed.

"Go on."

Li Zhexian returned to his residence, shut the door, and placed the Azure Lotus Sword on the table.

He sat down cross-legged, circulated his Soul Power once through his meridians, then sent it surging toward his chest.

Golden light had already flared.

Soul Power slammed into the shield, numbing his entire arm.

Li Zhexian opened his eyes. His chest felt constricted, and the taste of rust filled his throat.

The panel in his sea of consciousness had lit up.

Shield suppression rate: 97%.

Natural Soul Power growth efficiency: below 3%.

Li Zhexian looked at the two lines of text.

"So all these years, there was nothing wrong with my cultivation method."

The system did not respond.

"You're the one holding me back."

There was still no sound in his sea of consciousness.

He took out paper and a pen and recorded Shi Potian's punching speed, the time he stopped, and the damage caused by each punch.

One hundred and twenty points each time.

Three hundred times a day.

Three hundred and sixty-five days a year.

The shield's total was one trillion.

When he reached the end of his calculations, the tip of his pen rested on the paper.

"More than seventy thousand years."

Li Zhexian picked up the paper and read it over.

"Shi Potian, you still have a long life ahead of you."

He crumpled the paper into a ball and tossed it into a wooden bucket.

"To walk this path, I need to find a Titled Douluo."

Footsteps sounded outside the window.

Li Zhexian gripped the hilt of his sword.

"Who is it?"

Shi Potian stood outside the courtyard gate, his voice carrying in through a crack in the window.

"Li Zhexian, Ning Rongrong will break off your engagement tomorrow. How can you still laugh?"