You Yuyao felt as if her opponent's sword had locked onto hers, clinging to it so tightly she couldn't shake it off. The unpleasant tugging force instantly warped the counterattack she had prepared.
She had no choice but to change her move. With a flick of her wrist, she tried to knock Gu Chengming's sword away.
However, Gu Chengming's sword was like a maggot clinging to bone. It followed the force of her movement in a circle, not only dispelling her strength but turning it against her, its tip probing toward her ribs once more.
Entangling Word Art!
You Yuyao felt stifled, and her alarm grew with every passing moment.
She practiced the Flowing Cloud Sword Art of Jingshui Pavilion, which emphasized nimble footwork and a sword as elusive and ever-shifting as flowing clouds.
Though Jingshui Pavilion wasn't renowned for its sword arts, that depended on who you were comparing it to.
Against a mere good-for-nothing at First Realm Level Three, she should have won with ease.
Yet now, though her cultivation and footwork gave her the advantage, and she seemed to have completely seized the upper hand, pressing Gu Chengming hard,
in truth, every attack she launched was neutralized by his strange, "clinging force."
It felt like punching cotton—she had strength to spare, but nowhere to use it.
Being unable to defeat him after all this time made You Yuyao feel humiliated.
Quite a few disciples nearby had already been drawn over by the commotion and stopped to watch.
"Is running away all you know how to do?!"
You Yuyao shouted, trying to provoke him.
But Gu Chengming acted as though he hadn't heard a thing.
Seeing that her sword had failed to achieve anything for so long, You Yuyao grew more and more anxious. Her sword moves began to turn frantic, but even so, her opponent revealed not a single opening. He was like an impregnable boulder, not a drop of water getting through.
Should I use my cultivation to suppress him?
The thought had barely surfaced before she fiercely rejected it.
Setting aside the fact that the Wenjian Sect strictly regulated fights between its disciples, if he reported her afterward, she would be in serious trouble.
And even putting that aside, she couldn't get past her own conscience!
We Sword Cultivators stood fair and square.
If she resorted to bullying the weak and using her higher cultivation to crush him, what difference would she have from the despicable scoundrels she hated most?
No! Absolutely not!
But the pent-up frustration in her heart refused to settle. As she attacked furiously, she kept right on talking.
"Clingy and entangling—your sword art really does suit you! It's disgusting!"
Her tongue was as merciless as her movements.
Her sword grew faster and faster, and her movements followed suit.
The Flowing Cloud Sword Art contained a move called "Scattered Clouds Flying Over," which was all about speed.
Sword Light fell like rain, leaving not a gap.
Its force was like crashing thunder, its speed like the wind. Layer upon layer of sword shadows filled the air, like drifting willow fluff—or rain beating against a window.
Every thrust came with a sharp whistle through the air, dazzling the eye and difficult to defend against.
The whole point of Fast Sword was to make each strike faster than the last, using an impenetrable curtain of sword shadows to find an opponent's openings, force them into disarray, and eventually make them show signs of defeat.
Unfortunately for her, she had run into Gu Chengming.
And the Huiyuan Sword Art was best at dealing with opponents who sought speed alone and paid no mind to stability.
In fact, Gu Chengming had long been prepared for the possibility that she might use her superior cultivation to suppress him.
That was why he had fought so cautiously. His opening move, "Strike First," had been meant to disrupt her rhythm and force the fight into this kind of entanglement.
After all, if she turned out to be shameless enough to use Spiritual Power,
then with his pitiful cultivation at First Realm Level Three, even a hit from a wooden sword might leave him seriously injured.
Besides, if he lost, this Favorability event might take a turn for the worse.
Losing wasn't fun.
That was why I never lost!
But when he saw that she still hadn't used the power of her cultivation, Gu Chengming was a little puzzled.
Was she hiding a move? Or did she really have no intention of using her superior cultivation?
Whatever the case, the moment had come.
Though You Yuyao's Sword Momentum was growing faster and faster, her agitation was creating more and more openings.
Now!
Gu Chengming's sword path abruptly shifted.
The clinging, purely defensive Sword Momentum vanished in an instant. In its place came a relentless force, like waves crashing against the shore.
The sudden change caught You Yuyao completely off guard.
Her "Scattered Clouds Flying Over" was right at the point where her old strength had run out and her new strength had yet to arise. Gu Chengming's sword cut in, throwing her rhythm into chaos in an instant.
You Yuyao's movements faltered. She gritted her teeth. Unwilling to surrender the initiative, she made her sword even faster, trying to make up for her disrupted rhythm with sheer speed.
But unlike before, Gu Chengming's sword sped up too.
And his speed wasn't chaotic. It followed a unique rhythm.
Every strike landed precisely at the pivotal moment in You Yuyao's sword moves.
"Clack!"
"Clack!"
"Clack!"
The wooden swords clashed faster and faster, like rain beating on banana leaves.
With every collision, force traveled along the blade to the hilt, then into You Yuyao's thumb and forefinger.
At first, she didn't think much of it. But as the clashes mounted, You Yuyao suddenly sensed that something was wrong.
At some point, it was as if an invisible "net" had wrapped around her.
Her sword was still swinging, but every stroke had become exceptionally laborious. The air around her seemed to have grown viscous, and each strike took several times more effort than usual.
By the time she realized what was happening, she was already mired in a swamp.
It was as if she had been "trapped" in an endless clash of swords, unable to extricate herself.
She watched as her opponent wove the sword net, strand by strand, shrinking her room to maneuver more and more—but she couldn't do a thing about it.
On the surface, she still held the upper hand and kept attacking. Yet a Sword Cultivator's instinct told her that danger was drawing near.
Why? Why? How could this be?
Wasn't he just a good-for-nothing at First Realm Level Three?
Why couldn't she win quickly? Why had she been locked in a stalemate with him for so long? Why did her sword feel slower and slower?
Why was she...
Frustration surged in her chest, and she clenched her teeth.
She even had the strange feeling that even if she disregarded everything and used the Spiritual Power granted by her cultivation right now, it might not make a difference.
"Sword Momentum" was something abstruse and mysterious.
You Yuyao hadn't realized that she had already fallen completely behind in Sword Momentum.
Her Sword Momentum had fallen into disarray and scattered. Gu Chengming's, meanwhile, was gradually gathering strength.
At that very moment, the unseen "sword net" finally descended.
Gu Chengming stopped blocking. His wooden sword became a blur as he thrust forward.
For an instant, You Yuyao couldn't react at all.
One strike, then another, then another—a barrage of Fast Sword strikes.
Fast—too fast.
Her Fast Sword simply couldn't stop the sword shadows.
At last, one strike slipped through and hit her shoulder.
It hurt, but she could bear it.
You Yuyao grunted and tried to counterattack.
But then—
"Clack!"
Another strike. This time it hit her wrist.
Once the first strike got through, her defenses collapsed like a breached dam, and there was no stopping the flood.
More and more strikes slipped past her guard.
"Clack! Clack!"
A flurry of blows rang out across the Training Ground.
You Yuyao was left utterly unable to defend herself, her swordplay thrown into complete disarray.
She could only swing her wooden sword on instinct, trying to block the attacks raining down like drops of water.
But it was no use.
She was driven back step by step, stumbling as she retreated.
Finally, her foot slipped. She staggered, then crashed heavily to the ground.
The wooden sword flew from her hand and landed some distance away.
A wooden sword came to a steady stop in front of her throat.
Its tip was less than an inch from her skin.
Gu Chengming looked down at her from above.
"Now."
"Can you take back what you said earlier?"
She'd Been Beaten to Tears
At that moment, You Yuyao could only describe how she felt as utterly awful.
Everywhere on her body burned with pain, especially her shoulder and arm, where the repeated blows from the wooden sword had left a dull ache.
And although Gu Chengming hadn't hit her face, she felt as if it hurt even more than her body.
She had just declared in front of a crowd that the Huiyuan Sword Art was a Cultivation Method for beginners to practice, a useless sword art.
And now she had been ground into the dirt by that very "garbage sword art"—she could even say that she'd been "humiliated" without being able to fight back at all.
Though the sword moves he'd performed were nothing like the basic sword art she remembered,
as a Sword Cultivator, she had a good eye. There was no doubt about it: those were the moves of the Huiyuan Sword Art. Even the opening stance and method of channeling force were exactly the same.
She had lost, utterly and completely.
You Yuyao might have had a bit of a temper, but she wasn't the sort to stubbornly insist she was right or refuse to accept defeat.
The facts were right there before her. Making excuses would only make her look worse. She'd already lost—could anything be more humiliating than being a sore loser afterward?
She bit her lower lip. After a long while, she finally spoke.
"I... I underestimated the Huiyuan Sword Art."
Those words seemed to drain all the strength from her body.
Hearing her, Gu Chengming withdrew the wooden sword from her throat and nodded calmly.
"You were a worthy opponent."
Before you continue