"Master, isn't he your friend?"
Chen Qing had wanted to ask, but in the end, he did not voice the question.
Because he knew Luo Zhixian had never been one to joke around.
"Fight your way up."
Chen Qing's thoughts raced. Perhaps Luo Zhixian and Xiao Jiuli shared a friendship outsiders could hardly understand.
With that thought, he curled his fingers around the shaft of the Jingzhe Spear and looked toward the Sword Pavilion towering into the clouds.
Then he took a step forward.
The instant his foot touched the ground, a sudden change occurred!
It was as though he had stepped into an invisible swamp. The air around him became incomparably viscous.
What startled Chen Qing even more was that the true essence within him abruptly stagnated, as though tightly locked down by invisible shackles. No matter how he urged it, there was no response.
Even the circulation of his Qi and Blood Furnace became sluggish.
"Jiuli Sword Domain." Luo Zhixian stood below the steps with his hands behind his back, his calm voice carrying over. "The entire Sword Pavilion, and even this whole plaza, are shrouded beneath that old fellow Xiao Jiuli's Sword Domain. Within this domain, all true essence, astral qi, and brute force of qi and blood are suppressed, making it difficult to release them to harm an enemy."
"What is tested is only the purest skill—the subtleties of swordplay, blade techniques, and spear techniques; the mysteries of changing moves; the depth of one's comprehension of artistic conception."
Upon hearing this, Chen Qing immediately understood.
So that was it!
At that moment, the door of the wooden hut beside the first stone step opened on its own without wind.
A figure silently drifted down before the steps, blocking the path upward.
The newcomer was a man