Revealing His Strength During a Spar and Killing the Assassin
[Suggestion: Accept the challenge and counterattack as quickly as possible the instant your opponent strikes. When counterattacking, try to control the power of your attack and avoid revealing your full cultivation level.]
After reading it, Chen Du's lips curled up slightly.
These methods are becoming increasingly drastic.
First came spies, then assassins, followed by ambushes, decoys, and informants.
Now, they've come to our door openly and brazenly, using the guise of a friendly sparring match to carry out an assassination attempt. The other party is impatient and no longer cares about concealment.
He slowly exhaled, memorizing every word of the Calamity Warning: Middle Stage -Eleventh Realm, an assassin disguised as a disciple, hiding in the visiting group of Xuandi Temple.
Seven days later, in the martial arts arena, he was challenged by name.
If he avoids battle, the enemy will have more reasons to test him.
If he were to fight, the assassin would use the guise of a friendly sparring match to deliver a fatal blow in full view of everyone.
Seven days later, on the training ground, he will make everyone see one thing clearly.
Li Xuan of Qingfeng Temple is not someone anyone can mess with.
Seven days later, the people from Xuandi Temple arrived.
The Xuandi Temple and Qingfeng Temple have a long-standing feud, a fact known to everyone in both temples.
The two sects are only a hundred miles apart, one with a lineage of 100,000 years and the other with a lineage of 90,000 years. They should have helped each other, but they have been at odds since the generation of their founding patriarchs.
Xuandi Temple always felt that Qingfeng Temple was superior to them, while Qingfeng Temple felt that Xuandi Temple was targeting them at every turn.
For the past ten thousand years, the two temples have maintained a polite facade while secretly competing with each other, and the disciples have sparred every year, often resulting in bloodshed.
This time, the abbot of Xuandi Temple personally led the team, followed by more than a dozen disciples, and they went up the mountain in a grand procession.
Master Xuanwei greeted them at the temple entrance, his face bearing his usual serene smile.
The disciples of the two temples stood on either side, sizing each other up, their eyes filled with hostility.
Chen Du stood at the back of the crowd, head down, shoulders hunched, looking like a harmless little Daoist priest.
But he sensed a gaze. Among the disciples of Xuandi Temple, one was looking at him. The gaze was faint, but Chen Du's Calamity Warning told him that it was this person.
At the Middle Stage of the Eleventh Realm, he disguised himself as a low-level disciple and hid among a group of fellow disciples at the fourth or fifth realm.
He slowly shifted his gaze, his expression remaining unchanged.
The competition was held in the martial arts arena, with ten disciples from each of the two sects participating and drawing lots to determine who would face off.
The previous matches were back and forth, with each side winning and losing.
Although the disciples of Qingfeng Temple were generally weaker in cultivation, they had a solid foundation and were proficient in Daoist techniques, so they did not suffer any major losses after several rounds.
But in the sixth round, someone from Xuandi Temple suddenly spoke up.
A young man with an ordinary appearance stepped out from the group and pointed towards Qingfeng Temple: "I've heard that Qingfeng Temple has a junior brother named Li Xuan, who has been a disciple for many years and has always lived a secluded life. I wonder if he could offer me a lesson?"
The training ground fell silent as everyone's eyes turned toward Chen Du.
Zhao Yuanshan frowned, about to say something, but Chen Du pressed down on his shoulder.
Master Xuanwei glanced at Chen Du, and Chen Du nodded slightly in return.
Xuanwei was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded.
Chen Du stepped out from the crowd and onto the martial arts stage.
He stood on the stage, thin and frail, with delicate features and a weak breath, appearing to be at most at the Fourth Realm.
The young man from Xuandi Temple opposite him only appeared to be at the Third Realm.
The two people stood on the stage, like two novice Daoist priests practicing their martial arts.
However, Chen Du could sense that the other party possessed an extremely deep and profound aura, shrouded in layers of disguise.
Both abbots were watching the arena closely. Master Xuanwei stood with his hands behind his back, his face expressionless, but Chen Du noticed that his fingertips tightened slightly.
The abbot of Xuandi Temple sat opposite him, while his fellow disciples below clenched their fists, some whispering, "Go Li Xuan!"
No one knew that this seemingly ordinary arena had become the center of a deadly trap.
The competition began, and the young man made the first move. His moves were unremarkable, like the most basic introductory boxing techniques of the Xuandi Temple.
Chen Du met him with the martial arts style of Qingfeng Temple, and the two exchanged blows, fighting quite skillfully.
The disciples below the stage watched with great interest, thinking it was a closely contested match.
But just as they were exchanging their first few moves, the young man's aura suddenly changed.
His expression remained nonchalant, but the killing intent that had been suppressed within him for so long erupted like a volcanic eruption, and his cultivation at the Middle Stage the Eleventh Realm burst forth in that instant.
He extended his right palm, a dark purple light condensing within it, aiming straight for Chen Du's heart.
The light contained some kind of law-based power, which corroded, eroded, and devoured, causing the air to hiss wherever it passed.
The speed was extremely fast, so fast that neither of the two abbots had time to react.
Master Xuanwei's pupils shrank suddenly, and he leaped up, but the distance was too far, and it was too late.
The smile on the Xuandi Temple's face froze for a moment, seemingly not expecting his disciple to resort to such a deadly act.
The disciples below the stage gasped in surprise, and Zhao Yuanshan's face turned deathly pale.
But this was the moment Chen Du had been waiting for. Just as the young man's dark purple palm light was about to touch his chest, Eleventh Tier divine sword appeared out of thin air in his palm. The sword was pitch black, and the blade was dark gold.
He swung his sword with a backhand strike, unleashing the ninth level of Soul Devouring's Wrath, Myriad Tribulations Return to the Void.
When the sword light appeared, the light in the entire training ground dimmed for a moment, the clouds of calamity surged, and Eternal Night descended. The power of imprisonment and the intent of incineration intertwined to form a bottomless vortex.
The sword strike didn't produce a deafening roar; it simply swallowed the dark purple light in the opponent's palm silently, then continued to devour it along the opponent's arm.
The young man's sneer finally turned into terror. He opened his mouth as if to shout something, but only a hoarse, breathy sound escaped his throat.
He wanted to retreat, but his legs felt like they were nailed to a stone platform. The power of Myriad Tribulations Return to the Void enveloped him, and his laws, soul, and body crumbled inch by inch in that Eternal Night, turning into nothingness.
Everyone below the stage saw that a Xuandi Temple disciple who was clearly only at the Third Realm suddenly unleashed a cultivation level far exceeding the Tenth Realm.
As for Li Xuan, the thin and frail Daoist priest from Qingfeng Temple, he wielded only one sword.
The assassin, at the Middle Stage of the Eleventh Realm, vanished without a trace, as if he had never existed.
The training ground was deathly silent. Zhao Yuanshan's mouth hung open for a long time.
The fellow disciples looked at each other, their eyes filled with disbelief.
Master Xuanwei stood frozen halfway, staring at Chen Du on the stage.
The smile on the face of the abbot of Xuandi Temple froze completely.
He stared at Chen Du, his pupils contracting slightly, his lips moving, but he said nothing.
He recognized that sword strike. Although he had never seen the true Myriad Tribulations Return to the Void, he could sense the level of law contained within it— Medium Core Level Nine Law. A young Daoist priest from Qingfeng Temple, a boy who looked to be only at the third or Fourth Realm, had actually used Medium Core Level Nine Law.
He slowly stood up, shifting his gaze from Chen Du to Xuanwei.
Xuanwei was also looking at him.