After spending some tender time chatting with the women, the only thing left was to fully restore my magic power. After all, I hadn't killed any of Xiao Jianlan's spirit beasts and absorbed their power when I went to the rear mountain, so I still needed the Gathering Immortals Basin after returning. Once Geng Xiu summoned the basin from the rear courtyard, I extracted its power and completely restored my magic power.
To conceal my identity from the outside world, naturally, I still couldn't take the Gathering Immortals Basin back. It remained in Geng Xiu's hands.
While waiting for the competition to begin, aside from personally teaching the two children sword techniques, I also summoned Shao Zi, Xiang Ling, and Shen Jinzhao, who were taking part in this Swordplay Tournament. I tested their growth in swordsmanship over the years one by one.
Shao Zi had grasped more of the true essence of Limitless Heavenly Sword. I heard that, to bring her swordsmanship closer to the realm Li Guxian demanded, she had traveled several times to other factions to cross swords with renowned masters, and her growth had been rapid.
Xiang Ling's swordsmanship was far inferior to Shao Zi's, but she possessed greater skill in learning Sword Songs. After all, her path was the one most like mine, so she had always poured tremendous effort into understanding the sword realm.
Shen Jinzhao had also performed commendably in recent years. Her swordsmanship and Sword Songs advanced side by side, marking her as a rare talent, though there was still a considerable gap between her and Shao Zi and Xiang Ling. Below those two, however, she already had few opponents. Over the past few years, the three disciples had gone out to gain experience, made friends across the world, and spread their swordsmanship's