The Spirit Sword Red Sickle

The match between the top-ranked and bottom-ranked contestants began!

'Whoosh~' The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy above Jiaolong Plain began to twist. This time, the area affected was enormous, covering the entire plain. The spiritual energy in the sky rushed toward the two fighters on the platform beneath the Ascension Stele.

As soon as they began, both started drawing in Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy. They were going straight for their ultimate moves, with no intention of testing each other first.

'Hmm~'

A humming sound suddenly rang out from the platform. A spirit sword appeared out of thin air in front of Xiaoyaozi.

The spirit sword was about three feet and seven inches long, with a long, narrow blade. Its color was strange: the entire sword was red.

The spirit sword hovered in front of Xiaoyaozi, seemingly alive. It kept humming, as though trying to express something.

"It's actually a seventh-tier spirit weapon!" the spectators cried out.

Everything on the Azure Dragon Continent possessed a spirit. Though spirit weapons were inanimate objects, they could still develop intelligence. Of course, only high-tier spirit weapons could do so. The sword in front of Xiaoyaozi, for example, had to be at least a sixth-tier spirit weapon.

Spirit weapons were divided into nine tiers: the top three, middle three, and bottom three. Anything above the seventh tier belonged to the top three tiers.

A seventh-tier spirit weapon! Of the more than two hundred thousand spectators on Jiaolong Plain, at least ninety percent didn't own one. Spirit weapons of the top three tiers were practically impossible to find unless fate brought them your way. The Azure Dragon Continent had many smiths, and countless could forge sixth-tier spirit weapons. But few smiths could forge a seventh-tier weapon. The biggest obstacle was that spirit weapons of the top three tiers possessed intelligence. And intelligence wasn't something you could produce by simply hammering away or leaving a weapon in a fire for a few days. It involved far too many complicated factors.

"That's the Spirit Sword Red Sickle, last year's reward for the top-ranked contestant!" said a spectator who knew the weapon's history.

"Xiaoyaozi has even brought out a seventh-tier spirit weapon. Looks like he means to kill Yang Chengzhi."

From the first day of the Dragon Ranking tournament until now, Xiaoyaozi hadn't brought out his seventh-tier spirit weapon, not even when facing fierce challenges from new students. Now he'd drawn it against the bottom-ranked Yang Chengzhi. His intentions were obvious.

By comparison, Yang Chengzhi's weapon was rather shabby. He still carried an ordinary third-tier spirit sword. Now that Yang Chengzhi had reached the Spirit Sect realm, a bottom-tier spirit weapon couldn't withstand his powerful spiritual energy. If he used too much force, it could easily shatter.

With his seventh-tier spirit weapon, Xiaoyaozi had already overwhelmed Yang Chengzhi.

'Whoosh~'

A fierce sword aura shot straight at Yang Chengzhi.

'Pfft~' Yang Chengzhi swung out a sword aura to block it.

'Hmm~'

The sword auras collided, sending shock waves scattering in every direction.

Yang Chengzhi's cloak fluttered noisily in the wind.

The two exchanged a glance, then charged at each other with swords raised.

'Clang~ clang~ clang~' The sound of their astonishing impacts rang out almost every second across Jiaolong Plain.

'Clang~'

At last, Yang Chengzhi's spirit sword could no longer withstand the might of the seventh-tier sword and snapped. The powerful sword force pierced through the gap and struck Yang Chengzhi in the chest.

'Pfft~'

Though he immediately summoned his spiritual energy to shield his chest, he still couldn't withstand a blow from the seventh-tier spirit sword. The sword aura sent Yang Chengzhi staggering back five paces, spitting blood.

"He's still too weak." Seeing this, the spectators sighed.

There was no doubt that Xiaoyaozi was powerful. With a seventh-tier spirit sword in hand, Yang Chengzhi had no chance of winning this match.

Xiaoyaozi had the upper hand, but he didn't stop attacking. His movements grew even more ruthless. He channeled the spiritual energy within him into his sword, making its red blade grow brighter, as if it had been coated in blood.

'Whoosh~'

Xiaoyaozi charged at Yang Chengzhi, empowered by the might of his seventh-tier spirit sword.

Facing the attack with only half a spirit sword in hand, Yang Chengzhi discarded the broken blade. He extended the ring finger of his right hand and summoned his spiritual energy. It rose from the Tanzhong point, entered the Quepen point, passed through the Foot Shaoyang Gallbladder Meridian, then traveled along his shoulder and elbow, between the ulna and radius, and finally reached the outer side of the tip of his ring finger.

"Biu~" A beam of light, carrying an ancient, ponderous quality, shot straight at Xiaoyaozi. Xiaoyaozi raised his sword to block it, but was forced back three meters. The overwhelming momentum of his attack was instantly broken.

Xiaoyaozi's attack had actually been blocked by that beam of light!

"What kind of martial technique is that?" everyone cried.

"His right ring finger—the Hand Shaoyang Triple Burner Meridian! Holy crap, that's the Six Meridian Divine Sword!" Ma Feifei gaped in astonishment from the stands.

"Wait, isn't the Six Meridian Divine Sword from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils? The Legend of the Condor Heroes only has the simplified version, One Yang Finger!" Ma Feifei rubbed his chin, unable to figure it out.

"Could it be because of spiritual energy?"

Anyone who had read The Legend of the Condor Heroes knew that One Yang Finger was an acupoint-striking art, essentially a close-combat technique. It required the user's finger to touch the opponent's acupoints. After striking them, the force of One Yang Finger disrupted the opponent's meridians from within, rendering them unable to move. Under normal circumstances, it couldn't be used at a distance—unless the user had reached the first-rank realm.

The Six Meridian Divine Sword, on the other hand, was a top-tier long-range finger technique from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils. It began with a strike from a distance and was essentially a non-contact technique. Its effects were physically similar to those of a real metal sword: it could pierce directly, rather than being limited to acupoints. And with the user's immense inner force, the Six Meridian Divine Sword could even cut through objects.

But One Yang Finger was the introductory art for the Duan family of Dali's highest martial art, the Six Meridian Divine Sword.

For instance, in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, Duan Yu had absorbed the inner force of many people through the Northern Darkness Divine Skill, but it had become unbalanced and made him ill. His uncle, Duan Zhengming, took him to seek help at the Heavenly Dragon Temple. There, Duan Yu learned One Yang Finger from his uncle, and eventually cultivated it into the Six Meridian Divine Sword.

The reason the Six Meridian Divine Sword had been lost by the time of The Legend of the Condor Heroes was, in the end, that its cultivation threshold was too high. Throughout the Condor Trilogy, only Reverend Yideng had cultivated One Yang Finger to the first-rank realm—its pinnacle. And fourth-rank One Yang Finger was the foundation for cultivating the Six Meridian Divine Sword.

Who would've thought that Yang Chengzhi's own cultivation would let him take the Six Meridian Divine Sword, lost by the time of The Legend of the Condor Heroes, and cultivate it from One Yang Finger into a top-tier martial art from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils?

"Could he have learned all the martial arts in the book?" Ma Feifei suddenly wondered. If that was true, Yang Chengzhi was incredible.

"Did he learn this martial technique from The Legend of the Condor Heroes too?" Zhou Guanyu asked excitedly. Word had already spread through the Bookstore that Yang Chengzhi had learned the Art of Mutual Combat and the Nine Yin Manual from The Legend of the Condor Heroes. Zhou Guanyu knew about it too, but the book had still been in Yang Chengzhi's hands at the time, so Zhou Guanyu hadn't had the chance to study it.

Until now, they'd had no real sense of how powerful the martial techniques and cultivation methods Yang Chengzhi had comprehended from The Legend of the Condor Heroes were. They only knew that the Nine Yin Manual was a cultivation method, and the Art of Mutual Combat was a martial technique. Yang Chengzhi had used them to defeat two Dragon Ranking students at the eighth stage of the Spirit Master realm.

They'd assumed that even if the techniques and methods Yang Chengzhi had comprehended from The Legend of the Condor Heroes were ingenious, their power would be limited and their ranks wouldn't be very high. But the new technique Yang Chengzhi had just comprehended had directly blocked one of Xiaoyaozi's attacks. And Xiaoyaozi was wielding a seventh-tier spirit sword, a high-tier spirit weapon of the top three ranks!

Didn't that mean the martial technique Yang Chengzhi had just used had reached the level of the top three ranks?

"Yes, the technique he just used is called the Six Meridian Divine Sword. It's in the book." Ma Feifei nodded, though he was puzzled too. Was the Six Meridian Divine Sword really this powerful? It didn't seem this powerful when Duan Yu used it in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils.

"Maybe that's the difference between inner force and spiritual energy," Ma Feifei thought.

The power of the Six Meridian Divine Sword depended on how deep the user's inner force was. Inner force and spiritual energy were fundamentally the same. If spiritual energy really was what made the Six Meridian Divine Sword so powerful, then wouldn't this move be heaven-defying in the hands of a Spirit Saint?

Thinking of that, Ma Feifei suddenly felt that charging one Spirit Crystal per hour to read The Legend of the Condor Heroes was a terrible deal. Hell, people would probably pay ten thousand Spirit Crystals an hour to read it!