Breaking up with Ning Rongrong: Banished Immortal Brother, you can't keep up with me

Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

Back mountain.

The bleak autumn wind swept past.

Maple leaves drifted down from the sky.

Landing on the boy and girl's hair.

"Banished Immortal Brother..."

Ning Rongrong bit her red lip with her pearly teeth and said softly:

"Let's end things like this."

Li Zhixian looked at the beautiful girl before him.

Though they stood so close, it felt as if an impassable chasm lay between them.

"Alright."

Ning Rongrong raised her eyes to Li Zhixian.

The once free-spirited young man seemed unusually silent at this moment.

She turned around, her back facing Li Zhixian.

"Banished Immortal Brother, you've been in the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect for six years, haven't you?"

"I remember when you underwent Martial Spirit Awakening. You had Innate Full Spirit Power, and sword qi shot into the heavens."

"Father and the others all said you were a genius seen only once in a thousand years, but six years have passed, and your Soul Power is still only level ten."

"And I..."

Ning Rongrong extended her delicate hand.

A Glazed Seven-Tiered Pagoda spun in her palm.

The two Yellow Spirit Rings above it were especially conspicuous.

"Already have level twenty-six Soul Power."

"Banished Immortal Brother, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda is the Continent's Number One Support Martial Soul. Only by working with powerful Battle Soul Masters can it unleash its greatest strength."

"Although..."

"Although I truly don't want to say this."

"You really can no longer keep up with me."

Ning Rongrong lifted her pretty face, like a proud swan.

"I am the only daughter of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's master. In the future, my other half must be the strongest of the strong!"

Li Zhixian fell silent for a long while before suddenly smiling with easy grace.

The youth's clear voice carried far into the distance.

"Then let us each be well."

"This is yours."

He pulled something from within his white robes.

Ning Rongrong turned around and saw a small pagoda made of mud resting quietly in Li Zhixian's outstretched palm.

Her delicate body trembled slightly.

She could not help recalling the past.

"Banished Immortal Brother, I'll make you a Glazed Tile Pagoda. You have to protect it properly, okay!"

"Alright, Rongrong. I'll make you a sword!"

The mud had been dirty.

The little sword and Glazed Tile Pagoda had also been crudely shaped.

Yet they contained the sincere feelings of that boy and girl.

Ning Rongrong stared at the little mud pagoda for a long time before nodding gently.

"Alright."

"Banished Immortal Brother, this is yours too."

Ning Rongrong reached both hands to her neck and removed the little mud sword pendant.

Li Zhixian accepted the small sword.

Then turned and left.

Watching the youth's stubborn back, Ning Rongrong parted her red lips, but in the end, she merely pressed them together.

She walked down the road opposite to Li Zhixian's.

On a beautiful hilltop.

Watching the boy and girl head in opposite directions, Ning Fengzhi sighed regretfully.

"What a pity."

Though he said that.

A trace of relief clearly flashed deep within his eyes.

Ning Rongrong was his daughter, a heaven-blessed girl who had inherited the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Martial Soul.

How could a mediocrity who had failed to raise his Soul Power by even one level in six years possibly be worthy of her?

Although...

When Li Zhixian had awakened his Martial Soul.

Seeing his sword qi crisscross the air and his Innate Full Spirit Power, Ning Fengzhi had made the decision with a sweep of his hand to arrange Li Zhixian and Ning Rongrong's marriage.

Now that he was going back on his word, he did feel somewhat sorry for Li Zhixian.

But for his daughter's future, this was the only way.

Ning Fengzhi looked at Sword Douluo Chen Xin and said:

"Uncle Sword, Zhixian has suffered a grievance. I will compensate him."

It had been Chen Xin who had brought Li Zhixian back from outside.

Now that Li Zhixian had been wronged, Ning Fengzhi still had to consider Chen Xin's feelings.

"No need."

Chen Xin said blandly:

"It is Li Zhixian himself who failed to live up to expectations."

"Six years without advancing a single step, unable even to absorb a ten-year spirit ring."

"He is not worthy of Rongrong."

Bone Douluo Gu Rong shook his head and sighed.

When Li Zhixian had awakened the Azure Lotus Sword Martial Soul.

Chen Xin had intended to raise him as his successor.

What a pity...

Gu Rong gazed at the youth's gradually vanishing back.

"You truly failed to live up to expectations."

Back mountain.

On a crooked-necked tree.

Li Zhixian lay with his left hand behind his head and a wine gourd in his right.

Through the sparse leaves, he gazed up at the bright moon in the sky.

"Six years..."

"I've been on Douluo Continent for six years already."

Li Zhixian took a fierce swig of wine.

Letting the crisp liquor flow down from the corner of his mouth.

"Wine in a fantasy world really has more kick than beer!"

He drank mouthful after mouthful.

Ning Rongrong's words kept surfacing in his mind.

"Father and the others all said you were a genius seen only once in a thousand years, but six years have passed, and your Soul Power is still only level ten."

"Although I truly don't want to say this, you really can no longer keep up with me."

It was not that he could not let go of Ning Rongrong!

He simply did not know what was wrong with him!

He clearly had Innate Full Spirit Power, and his efficiency in absorbing the energy of heaven and earth was not poor either!

Why could his Soul Power not increase at all?!

Li Zhixian drank mouthful after mouthful.

Not only did he fail to get drunk.

His eyes instead grew brighter with every drink.

Li Zhixian simply leaped down from the tree.

"Laughing toward the heavens as I step out the door, how could people like us be mere weeds!"

"I, Li Zhixian, am no mediocrity!"

"The bright moon accompanies me!"

"Fine wine in hand!"

"Dance the sword, dance the sword!"

Under the moonlight like flowing water.

The youth's figure moved as gracefully as a soaring swan.

A three-foot-six-inch azure blade shone clear and bright as autumn water.

The lotus patterns along its ridge flowed beneath the moonlight, sometimes unfurling like blooming azure lotuses, sometimes drawing together like unopened buds.

This was Li Zhixian's Martial Soul—the Azure Lotus Sword!

Li Zhixian drank with abandon and danced without a care.

Gradually entering a peculiar state of mind.

One swig of wine.

One sword dance.

The blade carved streak after streak of afterimages, like a stalk of azure lotus swaying in the wind.

Frost-like sword light spread across a hundred meters, eclipsing the moon in the sky.

Strangely enough.

The wine gourd was only palm-sized.

Yet the wine inside could never be finished, no matter how much he drank.

He tipped back his head and took a swig.

Soul Power suddenly erupted around Li Zhixian!

Another swig.

His Soul Power boiled!

One more swig.

His Soul Power surged wildly!

Just like that.

Li Zhixian's Soul Power, which had not advanced an inch in six years.

Continued to rise as he drank mouthful after mouthful.

Level eleven, level twelve, level thirteen... level twenty.

He emerged from that peculiar state of mind.

Feeling the surging power within his body, he could not help but be greatly astonished.

"My Soul Power shot up by ten levels?!"

"Why is this happening?!"

As a wine lover across two lifetimes, getting drunk was impossible.

Only then did he notice that the wine gourd in his left hand had changed shape.

From its original crude porcelain flask.

It had become a jade-like celadon gourd.

"This..."

Li Zhixian shook the celadon gourd.

To his surprise, wine still sloshed around inside.

He pulled out the stopper.

And tried taking a sip.

At once, the rich liquor flowed down his throat, transforming into pure energy that spread through his body.

His level twenty Soul Power rose slightly once more.

Even the Azure Lotus Sword seemed to have become sharper.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Li Zhixian held his sword in his right hand and wine in his left, laughing loudly.

He understood now!

His Martial Soul was not only the Azure Lotus Sword!

He also had the Clear Spring Wine Gourd!

He possessed Twin Martial Souls—sword and wine!

Before his Martial Souls had fully awakened, it was only natural that he could not advance or absorb spirit rings!

Having figured out why he had spent six years spinning his wheels.

The corners of Li Zhixian's lips curled up, his handsome face radiant with vigor.

He looked toward the ornate cluster of buildings at the foot of the mountain, and his smile faded slightly.

That was the direction of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

"Those who abandon me—yesterday can never be kept!"

Li Zhixian's smile became free and unruly once more.

"Even if I hadn't awakened the Wine Spirit, I had already decided to leave the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect."

"These past six years were not wasted. I worked within the sect and took on missions, saving up a little wealth."

"I left that wealth in my room as repayment for the kindness of these six years. From this day on, we have nothing to do with each other."

"May we each be well from now on."

He understood.

What Ning Rongrong had said to him today.

Ning Fengzhi, Chen Xin, and Gu Rong could not possibly have been unaware.

They had tacitly approved of it.

Li Zhixian swept his sleeve.

A small clay sword flew out.

Before it could hit the ground.

A flash of clear, chilling sword light swept past.

The clay sword was split cleanly in two.

Without the slightest hesitation, he did not even spare it a glance.

Li Zhixian tilted his head back and took a swallow of wine. With the celadon gourd hanging from his waist, he leaped several times and vanished into the rear mountain.

About One Incense Stick later.

Several figures drifted over.