Even Dongfang Nishang, watching from the stands as the dragon slowly opened its eyes, couldn't help sighing.
She comforted Wang Xian, "Losing once is nothing to be ashamed of!"
Dantai Xiaoxue shook her head. "Impossible!"
"Roar!"
A dragon's cry rang out across the elevated platform.
Nangong Fei'er's brush had danced like a dragon and snake, adding the final stroke to the dragon's eyes. The moment she did, the dragon emerging from the abyss let out a furious roar.
It looked ready to leap right off the paper.
And pounce on Wang Xian, who had just stepped forward...
Tang Shisan smiled faintly. "Wang Xian, you've lost!"
Meng Xiaolou shook her head. "A real man has nothing to be ashamed of for losing once!"
Ximen Tinghua reached out and patted Wang Xian on the shoulder. "Go on, don't disappoint me!"
Wang Xian took a step forward, ignoring everyone's shouts.
Instead, he picked up another wolf-hair brush from the inkstone, paying no heed to the dragon about to break free.
Without a moment's hesitation, he laid down a stroke beneath the abyss!
The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao!
Before he even lifted his brush, the dragon had already lost a measure of its spirit.
Ximen Tinghua first froze, then clapped his hands and laughed.
"Excellent! Heaven and earth have the Dao. If the dragon had no Dao, how could it ascend?"
Everyone in the stands shivered at his words, pondering their deeper meaning.
Even Yun Yiluo couldn't help murmuring, "What is the Dao?"
The elder beside her thought it over in silence. No one answered her.
Nangong Fei'er was stunned, too. She hadn't expected Wang Xian to act like a blockhead and start writing all over the paper.
She had painted a divine dragon, and he was scribbling nonsense over it?
Wang Xian paid no mind to what anyone thought. Once he began, he couldn't stop.
His brush swept like a sword, its force piercing through the paper!
Look, but do not see it: it is called the elusive;
Listen, but do not hear it: it is called the rarefied;
Grasp, but do not obtain it: it is called the subtle.
These three cannot be fathomed, so they blend into one.
As he set down the final character, "one," and laid his brush across the inkstone—
Rumble!
The abyss burst apart!
In an instant, countless streams of Sword Qi hacked the dragon's aura to pieces!
A fierce mountain wind swept across the elevated platform.
It billowed the young Daoist's robes like a war banner snapping in the wind.
As everyone watched,
Sword Qi shot from the strokes on the page, swift as a gale, and cleaved straight down at the dragon's head!
Sword Qi crisscrossed the air, tearing the dragon's body apart piece by piece.
Yet the dragon fought to break free of the abyss.
It battled relentlessly against the Dao of heaven and earth, against the sword intent between the lines!
The Sword Qi grew fiercer by the moment.
The dragon surged skyward, only half its body remaining, yet it still lunged at Wang Xian!
The character "one" on the paper suddenly trembled, as if it had just unleashed One Sword Startles Gods!
Boom!
The Xuan paper on the table suddenly blazed into flames, and the half-bodied dragon went up in flames with it!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Countless streams of Sword Qi slashed through the burning blaze. As everyone stared in stunned disbelief,
The dragon that had escaped the abyss and soared into the sky was hacked to ashes.
Countless pairs of eyes flew wide open. They even forgot to cheer—
Or gasp!
Or scream!
Yun Yiluo sighed softly. She still hadn't figured it out!
Had that blaze come from Nangong Fei'er of the East Sea?
Or from the sword intent Wang Xian had laid down?
Tang Shisan gaped and reached out to grab a wisp of the burning sword intent, but Meng Xiaolou pulled her back!
She leaned close and whispered, "That's Sword Qi!"
Ximen Tinghua praised him loudly. "I've traveled far and wide, and Wang Xian, you're the most remarkable person I've ever met."
Dongfang Nishang smiled faintly. "Wang Xian, toss the Dragon Abyss Sword over!"
At her master's words, Dantai Xiaoxue giggled. "Martial Uncle, Junior Brother won another five thousand Spirit Stones. No, this time I want half!"
The Old Daoist, seated in the main hall, froze at that.
He looked at Bear Two, who was staring blankly beside him, and smiled. "When Wang Xian comes back this time, he'll probably give you plenty of Spirit Stones..."
Bear Two grinned. "Perfect! I'll have Senior Sister take me down the mountain to buy something tasty."
Liu Qingyun, an elder of the East Sea, watched the dragon burning on the page and the crisscrossing Sword Qi fading into the wind.
He couldn't help sighing. "Is this the legendary union of literary and martial prowess?"
Whoosh!
Wang Xian tossed the Dragon Abyss Sword in his hand toward the stands and murmured,
Holding to the Dao of old, one masters what exists today.
To know the beginning of antiquity is to understand the thread of the Dao.
Boom! The cultivators in the square erupted.
No one had expected the little Daoist to write just a few lines and cut down the dragon summoned by the East Sea's heavenly maiden.
Ximen Tinghua patted Wang Xian on the shoulder, then drifted down from the raised platform.
As he went, he explained to the young prodigies in the square,
"The Sword Qi between those lines was too fierce. Forget 'the dragon that has flown too high must repent'—even this sheet of Xuan paper couldn't withstand it..."
"Huh? Wang Xian won?"
Holy crap, little Daoist, are you trying to defy heaven?
Wang Xian, I don't bow to anyone but you!
What a sage! You scared the hell out of me!
Dongfang Nishang looked at the Dragon Abyss Sword in her hand and drew it in an instant...
Clang...
A sword's cry rang out like a dragon's roar.
A streak of cold light shot into the sky. Before the divine sword in Wang Xian's hand had even left its sheath, it had already repelled the enemy!
Looking at the words "Dragon Abyss" on the hilt, Dongfang Nishang murmured, "In that case, Flying Immortal Island of the East Sea owes Wang Xian a favor, too."
Dantai Xiaoxue pocketed half of the five thousand Spirit Stones and casually tossed the Storage Ring to Wang Xian.
She giggled. "Junior Brother, I made a tidy little fortune just by sticking with you!"
Wang Xian took the Storage Ring without even looking at it. He simply murmured to the Divine Sea, "Senior, would it be a shame to waste it like this?"
The Divine Sea offered no reply. Only the thousand people in the square roared!
At Cloud-Rising Taoist Temple, south of the Kunlun Mountains, a little Daoist had swept through the cultivators under heaven, with not one able to match him!
Dongfang Nishang handed the sword to Liu Qingyun behind her.
Liu Qingyun waved to Nangong Fei'er on the raised platform.
The meaning was clear: you've done well; you'll be rewarded once you return to the East Sea.
Nangong Fei'er looked at Wang Xian, bitterness flickering across her face.
After a moment of silence, she asked, "Junior Brother, what did you write on the paper?"
Wang Xian spread his hands and smiled. "Master taught me the Dao Scripture. I copy it for an hour every day as part of my lessons."
Nangong Fei'er didn't believe him, so she looked up at Dongfang Nishang.
Dongfang Nishang smiled faintly. "That's right. The first thing Wang Xian does every morning is copy scripture."
Tang Shisan froze. "Senior, can copying scripture train your swordsmanship, too?"
Dongfang Nishang pulled Dantai Xiaoxue over by the hand and stroked her dark hair, laughing.
She answered earnestly, "You'll have to ask my senior brother, Wang Xian's master, about that."
Wang Xian thought it over. He had planned to leave, but by chance, he spotted several elders from Hundred Flowers Valley.
The Hundred Flowers Valley elders, Baili Yuhuang and Shangguan Wuchen, were staring straight at him.
He wondered, Could you still be unwilling to give up?
So he went ahead and asked, "Could it be that a disciple of Hundred Flowers Valley wants to challenge me, too?"
As soon as he said it, the crowd in the square erupted again.
Holy crap!
The little Daoist was challenging all four great sects under heaven, not letting a single one off the hook?
Tang Shisan took Meng Xiaolou by the hand and headed down from the elevated platform.
She giggled. "Wang Xian, you've really opened my eyes today."
The disciples of the Kunlun Sword Sect were even faster. In the blink of an eye, they had cleared the old table and assorted clutter from the platform.
Before Baili Yuhuang in the stands could speak,
a cold voice rang out across the square. "I'll challenge you!"
Before you continue