A trace of seriousness appeared in Beichuan Wan's eyes. She slightly raised her longsword and said to Jiang Yuan with utmost gravity, "Jiang Yuan! Stop holding back!"
Jiang Yuan was briefly stunned.
What?
Then he saw the edge of Beichuan Wan's sword begin to tremble. The next instant, the longsword turned into a bolt of lightning.
Like a single horizontal stroke, it transformed into lightning and slashed swiftly toward Jiang Yuan.
Alarm bells suddenly rang in Jiang Yuan's heart. He sharply raised the sword in his hand, and a phoenix cry rang out.
Clang!
The blade split the air before crashing fiercely against the other. Solemnity gradually filled Jiang Yuan's eyes.
This sword technique...
Beichuan Wan completely changed her previous swordsmanship style. Her swift sword was like the most violent lightning in the world, continuously crashing down upon Jiang Yuan.
Jiang Yuan used the Phoenix Cry Sword Technique at the major mastery level, faint phantoms of phoenixes appearing amid his swordplay.
Just a little more! Just a little more, and Jiang Yuan would have had to unleash his sword intent.
How was that possible? The sword technique in Beichuan Wan's hands had clearly not reached the Sublime Mastery level needed to develop sword intent, yet it had nearly forced Jiang Yuan to release his own sword intent.
Just what kind of sword technique was this...
[Dissect the sword technique before you?]
A voice formed from the information transmitted by the sword talisman sounded in his heart.
Jiang Yuan silently answered yes.
The surroundings seemed to slow down. Every movement of Beichuan Wan's was continuously broken apart, then transformed into countless exquisite details.
For a time, the figures of the two combatants could no longer be seen. Only the endless sounds of metal clashing rang out, as if they were performing a rapid piano piece.
This sword technique might be of an even higher grade than the Phoenix Cry Sword Technique!
Jiang Yuan thought silently, becoming engrossed in analyzing Beichuan Wan's movements.
The more he analyzed Beichuan Wan's sword technique, the more effortlessly his own movements flowed.
A faint sheen of sweat appeared on Beichuan Wan's forehead as she stared at Jiang Yuan in disbelief.
She had revealed her trump card because of this marriage arrangement, but Jiang Yuan—how could this be possible?!
With such swordsmanship attainments, Beichuan Wan's face flushed red as she continued using her sword technique. The muscles in her hand began to ache faintly, yet Jiang Yuan did not pause in the slightest. His swordplay only defended and never attacked, but it still left Beichuan Wan in unspeakable misery.
"I lost..." The muscles in Beichuan Wan's hand twitched slightly, and her longsword flew from her grasp. She lightly supported her right hand and looked at Jiang Yuan with a complicated expression.
Only to find that Jiang Yuan's eyes were filled with sword light.
This is! Enlightenment into sword intent? A sign of entering Sublime Mastery! Beichuan Wan thought. She was so shocked that she could not utter a single word.
Yet Beichuan Wan could never have imagined that Jiang Yuan had already cultivated sword intent. At this moment, this new sword technique had merely faintly touched upon his sword intent.
[Analyzing... Thousand Absolute Electric Sword analyzed: 83%. Analysis halted. Once analysis reaches 70%, energy may be used to deduce the remaining sword technique.]
Jiang Yuan let out a breath and lowered the longsword in his hand. The surrounding spectators had been so stunned by their battle that not a sound remained.
"Jiang Yuan... I lost..." Beichuan Wan took a deep breath, then left.
Zhang Maoxi snapped his jaw shut and hurriedly followed Beichuan Wan.
Jiang Yuan frowned slightly. What about the marriage arrangement? It seemed he would still need to speak with Beichuan Qingtian.
He had not expected Beichuan Wan to conceal herself so deeply. No wonder she had been confident in challenging him. By his original standards, if Beichuan Wan unleashed the Thousand Absolute Electric Sword, the strength he had previously displayed might not have been enough to defeat her.
Or perhaps Beichuan Wan's original target had been his "complete" strength.
Yin He narrowed her eyes slightly and put away the white stone in her hand.
Imprint Stones were incomparably precious. They could record images, and ordinary people had no chance of even coming into contact with them.
"Junior Sister, your Senior Brother still has some matters to attend to, so I won't stay here with you."
Jiang Yuan directly took his leave, returned to his courtyard, and began cultivating.
Yin He watched Jiang Yuan's departing back without trying to cling to him any longer. Instead, she left the escort agency and headed into Haiyuan City.
After winding through countless twists and turns, she arrived outside a courtyard. The courtyard gate seemed not to be locked at all as Yin He gently pushed it open.
A figure slowly emerged from the shadows...
"Well done. This is your Blood Pill."
"Thank you, my lord!"
"If you were willing to exchange Blood Pills for Human Race infants, your cultivation would be far beyond what it is now..."
"My apologies, my lord... I..."
"No matter. The next operation is temporarily suspended. Continue investigating Jiang Yuan's information, and gather traces of Wenzhao while you're at it. But stability comes first..."
"My lord, did something happen?"
"You need not know."
One month later
Haiyuan City, Treasure Gathering Pavilion
Jiang Yuan sat in a private room on the second floor, lightly taking a sip of tea.
"Young Master, the weapon case you ordered has been completed. Please inspect it." The attendant respectfully presented a case as tall as a person.
Jiang Yuan looked at the weapon case before him and gently stroked its surface.
The weapon case, made from century-old ironwood, was harder than many weapons. The wooden material also gave it a degree of resilience, making it less prone to damage.
Jiang Yuan nodded slightly and took a banknote from his robe.
The words "one thousand taels" were clearly written upon it.
The attendant respectfully accepted the banknote, then asked, "Young Master, is the Cold Light Sword satisfactory?"
"As expected of a Ban Family enterprise, the Cold Light Sword is quite good." Jiang Yuan carried the saber case on his back, with a sword sheath hanging at his waist.
He took out the Chen Saber and placed it in the weapon case. The case sank slightly as the Chen Saber fit perfectly inside.
Then Jiang Yuan drew a three-foot blade from his waist. The cold gleam on the longsword resembled a pool of autumn water.
This was the Cold Light Sword Jiang Yuan had requested from the Treasure Gathering Pavilion. This sword alone had cost Jiang Yuan three thousand taels of silver.
The martial path truly devoured gold. For an ordinary family, three thousand taels of silver was an enormous fortune they could never touch in their entire lives.
Yet for Jiang Yuan, it was merely the price of a treasured sword.
And the quality of this sword was quite impressive, no worse than the Chen Saber. According to its maker, it could even be used in the Internal Force Realm.
Over the past month, Jiang Yuan had continuously cultivated. Along the way, he had taken on several missions, searched for traces of Sin Heart, and robbed the rich to aid the poor while passing through.
He robbed the stockades and aided himself.
Afterward, Jiang Yuan came to the Ban Family's Treasure Gathering Pavilion to commission weapons.
The Ban Family had always been famous for weapon forging, and its Treasure Gathering Pavilion truly lived up to its name, containing no shortage of treasures.
The weapon case and the Cold Light Sword had both been purchased by Jiang Yuan from the Treasure Gathering Pavilion.
Beyond that, Jiang Yuan had also spent silver again and again to purchase Exotic Beast meat.
Exotic Beast meat was an essential resource for martial artists to strengthen their qi and blood, so naturally its price was not low. This was especially true for Jiang Yuan, who possessed the Acquired Savage Physique and could digest Exotic Beast meat far more efficiently than ordinary people.
The silver Jiang Yuan had earned recently, along with the several thousand taels previously provided by the Sun Family and Black Tiger Stockade, had all been spent in these two areas.
The results were good as well. Jiang Yuan could already touch that layer of barrier; he had reached a point where there was no further path forward.
The four great talents—[Acquired Savage Physique], [Starlight Penetration], [Unusual Constitution], and [Exotic Bone · Great Sun Blazing Fire Bone]—worked together. Jiang Yuan's cultivation advanced a thousand miles in a single day. Combined with the massive amount of resources and the qi and blood previously fed back by his exotic bone, he had touched in one short month a barrier that ordinary people might need more than ten years, or even decades, to reach.
In particular, the seemingly unremarkable yet expensive talent [Unusual Constitution] had brought Jiang Yuan benefits in cultivation beyond imagination.
The talent [Unusual Constitution] directly altered his body, making him more suited to the martial path. If the other talents merely amplified his speed, then [Unusual Constitution] had completely changed Jiang Yuan's foundation.
Jiang Yuan sensed the immense strength within his body and pressed a switch on the weapon case. A mechanical click sounded as the case tightened.
Jiang Yuan felt around the weapon case and revealed a satisfied smile. With its special mechanism, weapons could be drawn from the case quickly. Though stowing weapons was somewhat slower, it did not matter much.
However, his weapons still lacked one piece.
He still lacked a spear! Otherwise, would not all his spear techniques go to waste?
"Is the spear I ordered ready?" Jiang Yuan asked calmly.
However, an awkward expression appeared on the attendant's face. "My apologies, Young Master. After the Flood Dragon Spear was forged, its quality surpassed expectations. Unexpectedly, the Eldest Young Master Chu of the Chu Family took a liking to it and bought it. The Pavilion Master is negotiating now. Please wait a little longer, Young Master. My Treasure Gathering Pavilion will certainly give you an explanation!"
No wonder the Pavilion Master was nowhere to be seen... Jiang Yuan thought.
Though the Treasure Gathering Pavilion's Pavilion Master was called a Pavilion Master, he was really just a shop manager. For business like Jiang Yuan's, the manager should have appeared in person. Yet now there was only an attendant.
Jiang Yuan had also heard of that Eldest Young Master Chu of the Chu Family.
He could be called an outstanding talent among the young, with few rivals among his generation. His Soul Seizing Spear was exceptionally powerful.
But that was all. He had some substance, but not much.
Still, the Chu Family was the foremost great family in Haiyuan City. It would likely not be easy for the Treasure Gathering Pavilion's Pavilion Master to retrieve the item.
But its quality had surpassed expectations? Interesting.
Jiang Yuan had cultivated for a month, and his usual opponents had all been weaklings from mountain stockades. His hands were just beginning to itch for a fight.
"Take me to him!" Jiang Yuan slung the weapon case onto his back, standing tall and jade-like as he spoke calmly.
"This... Young Master Chu is currently holding a poetry gathering at the Myriad Phenomena Tower. Did you not receive an invitation?"
"Hm?" A poetry gathering? Perfect.
He could also take the opportunity to see whether those demons and strange creatures lurking in the dark had made moves against anyone else.
One day a month ago, Jiang Yuan had seen the same strange thing that had appeared on him attached to Zhang Maoxi's body as well.
Yet after Jiang Yuan removed that strange thing, he had not seen anything strange on Beichuan Wan's body.
After that, the hidden force targeting him seemed to have vanished without a trace. No matter how many missions he took, no accidents occurred.
That instead made Jiang Yuan more vigilant.
Who was the hidden force targeting? Him? The escort agency? Or all of Haiyuan City?
Besides teaching that Eldest Young Master Chu, who did not know his own limits, a lesson at this poetry gathering, he would also inspect the children of aristocratic families and disciples of major powers to see whether there was anything unusual about them.
Before you continue