Remembering Martial Techniques

?The Twenty-First Chapter: Remembering Martial Techniques

That night, Bi Fan trained even harder. He even began practicing the first form of the Qingyang Willow Catkin Sword Art, Floating Rain Flying Flowers Sword.

He was about to venture into the Demon Realm, where danger could strike at any moment. Learning a few more ways to defend himself would do no harm.

The Floating Rain Flying Flowers Sword moved like drifting rain and scattering blossoms. Its strikes seemed light and powerless, yet they were strange and unpredictable, slipping through every opening.

However, the Floating Rain Flying Flowers Sword was profoundly complex. Bi Fan could barely practice it, and mastering it would take far more than a little time.

To stay alive, Bi Fan didn't mind practicing a few forbidden martial techniques. As long as they could prove useful at a crucial moment, that was enough.

All night, Bi Fan practiced martial techniques. Besides the Floating Rain Flying Flowers Sword, he also practiced the techniques in Blood Demon ****.

Early the next morning, all the female disciples of Jade Maiden Peak set out to watch the Inner Disciple competition, dragging Bi Fan along with them.

Of course, everyone knew they weren't really there to watch the fights. They'd come to see Jing Feng.

Yu Xiao Feng had clearly put on light makeup that day, making her look even more fresh and lovely.

Bi Fan couldn't help glancing at Yu Xiao Feng a couple of times. He felt a little uncomfortable. Yu Xiao Feng usually didn't bother dressing up, but today she'd clearly taken extra care with her appearance, obviously hoping Jing Feng would notice.

Could it be that I've fallen for Sister Xiao Feng? No way. I'm not worthy of her. A jumble of thoughts rose in Bi Fan's mind, startling even him.

Sister Xiao Feng treats me so well. I must be imagining things. I just feel fond of her. Bi Fan tried to convince himself.

Ming Feng Valley was even livelier than the day before. It was packed with people, and even before the competition began, cheers were already rising and falling across the valley.

"Jing Feng! Jing Feng! You're the most handsome, the strongest..." Most of the disciples cheering for Jing Feng were women, and their chants were a little over the top.

As for the male disciples, most of them were jealous of Jing Feng. There was no way they'd cheer him on.

"Mo Nan! Mo Nan! One punch to rule the world—beat Jing Feng!"

Mo Nan was a genius second only to Jing Feng, but his rough looks made him unpopular with the female disciples. That made him the male disciples' great hope for bringing Jing Feng down.

The cheers for Mo Nan grew even louder, drowning out the women. There were far more male disciples, after all, and their voices rang out more powerfully.

"They're really going wild!" Bi Fan exclaimed.

The disciples of Jade Maiden Peak held a relatively high standing in the Qingyang Sect. They arrived rather late, but still managed to sit near the front.

Jing Feng strode over to Bi Fan and the others and sat down beside them.

"Brother Bi, you're a man of your word."

Jing Feng seemed to have come over to chat with Bi Fan, but his gaze never left the female disciples of Jade Maiden Peak. He kept looking Yu Xiao Feng up and down in particular.

Jing Feng truly lived up to his reputation as a womanizer. The competition was about to begin, yet he still had time to admire the beauties.

Bi Fan smiled. "Brother Jing Feng, don't you need to prepare?"

He couldn't stand Jing Feng's gaze and wished the man would go as far away as possible.

"What is there to prepare for in a competition like this?" Jing Feng replied, completely at ease.

"Senior Brother Jing Feng is truly impressive. He already has everything under control," one of the female disciples said.

Jing Feng certainly carried himself with distinction. If Bi Fan were a girl, he probably would have liked a refined young gentleman like Jing Feng too.

Unfortunately, Bi Fan was a man, so he felt a little jealous of Jing Feng.

The Inner Disciple competition was also presided over by Deputy Sect Master Ling Xin Ya. When Ling Xin Ya announced the start of the competition,

all ten arenas in Ming Feng Valley opened at once, allowing ten pairs of competitors to fight simultaneously.

The rewards for the top sixteen were exceptionally generous, drawing many Inner Disciples to enter.

Nearly a thousand Inner Disciples took part. The competition used a knockout draw: after each match, the winners from groups one and two continued to face off in further elimination rounds.

Once only sixteen remained, the competition switched to a round-robin format. Whoever won the most matches would be the champion.

The Inner Disciple competition was on a completely different level from the Registered Disciple demonstrations. The fights were dazzling, with one brilliant move after another.

Anyone who became an Inner Disciple had to be at least a Valiance Realm cultivator. They possessed powerful inner breath and had learned some formidable martial techniques.

When they took the stage, they brought out every technique they had mastered, making for a truly exciting spectacle.

Bi Fan watched, utterly absorbed. He committed the martial techniques to memory and worked out ways to counter them.

For some reason, Bi Fan's ability to remember everything he saw wasn't only useful for memorizing manuals. It worked just as well when he watched martial techniques.

Any technique he saw performed once was etched into his mind.

Although he couldn't practice those techniques himself, whenever he had free time, he could study them closely and work out how to counter them. The next time he faced one, he'd be able to deal with it far more easily.

That wasn't all. The more techniques he memorized, the more they would benefit him in his future practice—and even in creating martial techniques of his own.

Bi Fan's memory used to be poor, but after dying once, it had become astonishingly good. Even now, he could hardly believe it.

Bi Fan didn't know that all his unusual abilities came from the two-colored lotus merging with his body. He thought they were caused by drinking the Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Vein Spirit Milk.

Yu Xiao Feng sat beside Bi Fan. Seeing his eyes sweep constantly from side to side, as if he were watching all ten arenas at once, she was astonished and asked, "Bi Fan, can you really make anything out by watching like that?"

"Just looking around," Bi Fan replied without turning his head.

He couldn't tell her he was memorizing the techniques used by the fighters in the arenas, so he gave her a casual answer.

"Bi Fan, you'd be better off choosing one arena to watch. You could learn more about fighting that way, and it would do you good," Yu Xiao Feng said.

"I know."

But Bi Fan's eyes kept darting around. He was only taking in a blur of activity, with no intention of watching anything closely.

"Hmph!" Yu Xiao Feng huffed angrily and stopped paying attention to Bi Fan.