Suppressing her excitement, Chi Jiuyu sat cross-legged, held her breath, and waited for a while.
Hmm.
She didn't feel the slightest change...
"Why hasn't it started yet, Martial Uncle?"
"Lie down on the bed, and it'll start."
"That's so much trouble. Can't it just start right away?"
"Starting right away... isn't impossible."
At that moment, Zhang Yunlu lost again in the light screen. Though she was gradually developing her own style, it would still take a long time to perfect it.
But that was all right. What they had more than anything was time.
In the next instant, the scene in the light screen suddenly sped up. Even Chi Jiuyu couldn't make out what was happening.
After speeding up the scene, Xu Xing turned to look at her.
"Then let's begin."
Buzz~
A faint hum sounded in her ears. Her vision blurred, and in a daze, Chi Jiuyu felt her consciousness sinking and falling. Every means at her disposal became useless in that instant.
She didn't know how long passed before she finally felt herself "touch down."
Her vision cleared. Before her stretched an endless expanse of hazy gray mist. Even the ground beneath her was shrouded in it, yet she could feel solid ground underfoot.
What's more, she could clearly sense her own body, her magical power, and her soul. Even her storage ring was there!
It was as if she herself had truly come to this place.
Just how big could this place be?
As she gazed at the hazy gray mist around her, the question suddenly arose in her mind.
A woman of action, Chi Jiuyu didn't stand around. She summoned an ancient-looking long sword woven from gold and azure.
It was her life-bound spirit sword. Though it hadn't yet developed a sword spirit, it was already brimming with spiritual essence.
It could even simulate the spiritual essence of her life-bound spirit sword!
Chi Jiuyu grew all the more curious. She immediately used the Man and Sword as One divine ability and darted at full speed in one direction.
In an instant, her speed broke the sound barrier. Sonic booms rang out one after another, and even a Qi Refining cultivator would only catch a vague blur flashing past.
Even so, this still wasn't the limit of her speed.
In the living room outside, Chi Jiuyu's real body had toppled over on the sofa, with half her head hanging off the edge. She looked just like she'd fallen fast asleep.
A light screen appeared beside Zhang Yunlu's.
"She really knows how to make a fuss," Xu Xing sighed.
Never mind. He'd better get started as soon as possible.
Just then, two lines of golden text appeared in the sight of Chi Jiuyu, who was exploring the space.
[Enemy: Xu Xing, Nascent Soul Perfection] [Objective: Withstand three strikes and survive]
She stopped at once. The gusting air she'd stirred up churned the gray mist around her. Her sword circled her once before finally returning to her hand.
Was it starting?
Chi Jiuyu took a deep breath, holding down her excitement.
She'd always been confident, certain she was no worse than anyone else. But the opponent she was about to face was her Martial Uncle, who stood alongside her master at the pinnacle of the Great Profound Realm.
Tap! Tap!
Footsteps came from far away. Deep within the gray mist, a hazy figure slowly emerged. Wisps of mist streamed into it, making it grow more and more solid.
As the figure took shape, the roiling gray mist gradually turned red.
But the red didn't seem eerie or bloody. Instead, it carried a majestic, upright air, like kindling driving away the night.
The red mist gathered in its palm and coalesced into a sword. The blade was red all over, and as divine light flowed across it, the phantom image of a red moon seemed to appear.
The moon? The moon?
Shouldn't it be the sun?
But the sect did seem to have few famous swords associated with the sun, while there were plenty associated with the "moon."
Which sword was Martial Uncle using?
As thoughts turned in her mind, the figure had fully taken shape. Its build was identical to Xu Xing's, but... its face was hidden behind roiling gray mist.
"Martial Uncle, where's your face?" Chi Jiuyu blurted out.
[Stop wasting time. If you don't draw your sword, he's going to make the first move.]
"I was just asking," she muttered.
Then she turned to look at Xu Xing's phantom not far away, her fighting spirit soaring as a faint golden light shone in her eyes.
Void-Piercing Golden Pupils.
As its name suggested, the divine ability saw through the illusory and pierced falsehood.
With Chi Jiuyu's mastery of this divine ability, she could spot flaws even in a Spirit Transformation cultivator.
Yet the divine ability that had always served her well seemed to have lost its power in this moment. She couldn't see even the slightest flaw.
Xu Xing's phantom didn't wait any longer.
"First strike."
In a voice calm and utterly without inflection, the red sword slowly rose.
Shit!
Chi Jiuyu's scalp prickled. A terrible unease gripped her, and the extreme danger made every shred of her flesh and soul tremble.
Without the slightest hesitation, she used the Man and Sword as One divine ability and fled into the distance.
Tactical retreat!
Red light blotted out the sky. There was nowhere to dodge, nowhere to block. Every divine ability and technique seemed laughable before this sword.
Like a sun falling from the sky, it swallowed Chi Jiuyu as she fled into the distance, drowning her in endless brilliance. In the instant before her body vaporized, only one thought remained in her mind.
How the hell could this be Nascent Soul?!
Outside, Xu Xing held a bowl of Duck Blood Vermicelli Soup. Watching Chi Jiuyu disappear beneath the blinding light, he couldn't help laughing.
She could've picked any cultivation level, but she just had to choose Nascent Soul.
When he'd been at the Nascent Soul Realm, he'd reorganized everything he'd learned and created the rudiments of the Great Void Sword Canon.
It was fair to say that no Nascent Soul cultivator, past or present, could surpass him.
Several dozen seconds later, the gray mist gathered again and formed Chi Jiuyu. She looked as if she were questioning her whole existence.
"Martial Uncle! You're cheating, right? How could that possibly be the Nascent Soul Realm?!"
That was outrageously powerful. Even a weaker Spirit Transformation cultivator probably couldn't block it, could they?
[Try again. This time, I'll let you feel it clearly.]
"Okay!"
Since she wouldn't really die, this time she'd see how Martial Uncle managed to unleash such an absurd strike with Nascent Soul-level magical power.
She strode up to Xu Xing's phantom.
Without warning, she thrust her sword straight forward—and the blade vanished.
Flowing Cloud Sword Technique!
She'd actually learned this sword technique while fighting Zhang Yunlu.
Faced with the sudden attack, Xu Xing's phantom merely shifted to the side and dodged it.
"First strike."
The same calm, indifferent voice as before.
Chi Jiuyu had prepared a follow-up attack, but suddenly discovered she couldn't use a second move. Black and white spread outward from the two of them, and everything seemed to freeze. Only the sword remained, blazing red.
She could also truly feel the magical aura of Xu Xing's phantom.
Nascent Soul Perfection.
It wasn't beyond her own level.
So this really was the Nascent Soul Realm!
Just as Chi Jiuyu thought she was about to die again, the red sword stopped in front of her brow. It didn't pierce through.
What's more, the spreading black and white slowly receded.
Phew~
Xu Xing's phantom dissolved into a wisp of mist.
[How does it feel?]
How did it feel? It felt freaking awesome!
Chi Jiuyu was a little discouraged. She'd always thought she was amazing!
"Are there a lot of Nascent Soul cultivators as powerful as you, Martial Uncle?"
[No. I'm the strongest.]
"...You really don't hold back, Martial Uncle."
[It's just the truth.] [But you don't need to feel discouraged. After all, the version of me who just fought you was already over two hundred years old.]
Huh?!
Over two hundred years old!
"No way. How could your talent be so poor, Martial Uncle?"
A Nascent Soul cultivator over two hundred years old probably couldn't even get into the Sword Sect's inner sect nowadays.
Uh...
Martial Uncle's absurd battle strength couldn't be judged by his cultivation level.
No!
"What cultivation level was Master at back then?"
[The same as me. Nascent Soul Perfection.]
Chi Jiuyu froze.
"Why?"
It couldn't be that both her master and Martial Uncle had poor talent. That would be ridiculous.
[The cultivation system wasn't complete back then. Nascent Soul was the highest realm.] [There was no road ahead, so we could only keep trying.]
Please add this to your collections and keep reading!
Before you continue