On the suspended Giant Gourd.
A delicate, round face wore an expression of utter bewilderment.
Wine Fox Immortal watched while sitting cross-legged and taking a sip of wine, then while standing with her hands on her hips, then while lying on her side with her cheek—slightly chubby like a baby's—propped on her hand, then while straddling the gourd's groove with her rear sticking out.
No matter what position she watched from, she couldn't figure out what Lu Ya and Li Wuxie were doing.
Why had Li Wuxie's sword vanished into thin air?
Why had Li Wuxie's kidney deficiency flared up again?
Why had Lu Ya said Li Wuxie's sword had no soul, and told him to draw the Emperor Sword?
In other words, the black sword Li Wuxie had always worn wasn't his bonded sword?
At the thought, Wine Fox Immortal suddenly felt a faint sense of defeat.
It wasn't a bonded sword and had no sword pressure, yet it had broken through her fox form with a single strike!
Even with swordsmanship like that, he couldn't defeat Lu Ya quickly...
Could this Lu Ya actually be a Sword Saint?
The entire scene fell silent.
Everyone else was just as bewildered, their faces full of confusion.
Things had gone completely differently from what they had expected.
Li Wuxie hadn't killed Lu Ya with a single sword strike. Instead, the sword itself had suddenly vanished.
And Li Wuxie had become insubstantial.
What was the Emperor Sword, anyway?
In the air.
Li Wuxie's expression was solemn.
His tall frame had not the slightest trace of spiritual pressure, yet loomed like a mountain and cut like the wind.
He had finally confirmed that this boy did not have the Mirror Immortal Platform constitution of the person in the legends.
There were plenty of possibilities: a hidden treasure, mastery of forbidden arts, concealed cultivation...
But since he could break Li Wuxie's black sword, his swordsmanship definitely couldn't be bad!
Still, challenging his Emperor Sword with an ordinary sword was far too arrogant.
Given this boy's reckless, heedless-of-the-heavens-and-earth nature, the consequences would be unimaginable if he were allowed to cause trouble unchecked in the East Floating Immortal District.
With that in mind, he slowly summoned a celestial sword.
It was long and slender, silver-white and jade-smooth, exquisitely refined and clearly extraordinary.
In three thousand years, this was the first time he had drawn his bonded sword—Si Wuxie.
He felt tainted, unworthy of drawing it again.
But his enemy was simply too bizarre and unpredictable. He had no choice.
Holding the silver-white, delicate Si Wuxie, Li Wuxie looked somewhat incongruous beside his tall, burly frame.
Only Lu Ya could see the aloof, solitary majesty of an Immortal Emperor, tinged with sorrow.
A camel may be thin from starvation, but it's still bigger than a horse. Besides, he wasn't dead yet.
Li Wuxie spoke calmly.
"Si Wuxie is five chi long, one cun wide, as thin as a cicada's wing, and won't strike an unnamed sword... If you want to fight me, you'd better give your sword a name."
What imposing ceremony!
Looking at the slender silver sword in Li Wuxie's hand, Lu Ya thought, That delicate little thing would definitely snap if a python coiled around it, wouldn't it? Even if it didn't snap, it'd get bent out of shape.
Thinking about it, he seemed to have found the root cause of Li Wuxie's kidney deficiency—
That's right. His sword was no good.
Fortunately, Lu Ya's sword was top-notch.
Like the one in his hand.
Following Li Wuxie's sense of ceremony, Lu Ya did the same and declared solemnly:
"Salted Fish Sword, five chi long, one and a half cun wide, thick as a bamboo slip... a little thicker than yours."
Li Wuxie:
"..."
Wine Fox Immortal:
"???"
Ning Zhongzi:
"..."
Ning Zhongzi in particular blushed at once.
She remembered that distant evening when Black Lotus had attacked Bamboo Spring Sect, and how Lu Ya, to prove he was a man, had let everyone from Black Lotus probe his body with their divine senses...
A whole month had passed in a flash.
Ning Zhongzi still couldn't understand why Lu Ya had named his sword "Salted Fish Sword," but hearing the words "salted fish" inexplicably brought to mind Senior Brother Lu's health-conscious ways.
In the air.
Li Wuxie's figure flashed. In an instant, he abruptly appeared in the sky to Lu Ya's right and slashed at the back of Lu Ya's neck!
Since he had decided to fight, he would cast aside all arrogance and dignity. There was only one thing that mattered: winning.
That was a swordsman's basic code.
As long as Lu Ya's Immortal Platform remained untouched, even if his head was chopped off, it could be reattached without much trouble.
The strike was plain and unadorned, yet incredibly swift. It didn't look like a celestial's sword technique, but rather like a simple sword skill from a low-martial world.
Since they were competing in swordsmanship, Li Wuxie naturally wouldn't use spiritual pressure. He attacked using only footwork and sword skills.
You're really going for the back of my neck right off the bat?
Lu Ya smiled, raised his sword behind his back, and casually parried.
"Going all out from the start. I like it."
A fight wasn't child's play. If he messed around with flashy nonsense, he might send Li Wuxie scattering into ashes with a single sword strike.
Only a serious opponent could give him the satisfying itch of a good scratch. Whether it would be enough to get his blood flowing depended on Li Wuxie's performance.
Li Wuxie paused, slightly taken aback.
His figure vanished again, like a snake suddenly emerging from the grass, and a sword strike abruptly swept around.
The battle quickly reached fever pitch!
The streets.
The cliffside.
The Immortal Ship.
Everyone watched with faces even more bewildered than before.
Wasn't celestial swordsmanship supposed to be flashy, like Liu Xuanye's?
These two's swordsmanship... were they fighting with bayonets?
Their movements were fluid, swift, and concise, stopping and starting in an instant, their every motion carefree and graceful. But they were too plain, without the slightest extra ripple of spiritual power. It was baffling.
Was this the world of the strong?
In the air.
Lights and shadows flickered.
Ripples surged again and again.
After a hundred exchanges, Li Wuxie was exhilarated, his whole body at ease, as if he had already reached his limits.
Incredible! Simply incredible!
He hadn't met an opponent like this in ages, nor had he fought like this in ages.
It was exhilarating, but also exhausting. After a hundred exchanges, he felt tired too. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his waist in particular was becoming harder and harder to control.
Looking at the other man.
Lu Ya stood steadily, watching him with an easygoing expression. He hadn't even broken a sweat...
Clearly, Lu Ya's footwork was more economical than his, saving him a great deal of effort. His swordsmanship seemed to blend with heaven and earth, so casual that there were openings everywhere.
Yet the instant Li Wuxie attacked one of those openings, it became flawless.
Everywhere he didn't attack was full of openings; the instant he attacked one, the sword stance became flawless.
Only now did Li Wuxie realize that this boy's swordsmanship was no worse than his own—in fact, it was even stronger.
But there was no way he could simply lose like this, without making his opponent break a sweat.
The more exchanges they had, the worse it would be for him!
With that thought, Li Wuxie swung his sword in a direct, forceful slash at Lu Ya.
Out of courtesy and caution, Lu Ya gripped his sword with both hands and met the blow.
The swords clashed with a ringing clang.
Lu Ya didn't budge. He smiled and said:
"You wasted too much energy earlier. This is the strike that matters."
Lu Ya had hit the nail on the head. Li Wuxie's expression darkened, but he didn't reply. Knowing he was at a disadvantage in strength, he stopped worrying about saving face and summoned the power of the Seven Star Immortal Venerable, imbuing his sword with sword pressure.
His sword suddenly became incredibly heavy, as if it were no longer a slender silver blade, but Pangu's great axe, which had split heaven and earth apart.
At the same time, he chanted the sword seal—
"Wuxie Seal."
A pure and righteous white sword seal continually took shape on the blade.
In an instant, silver light blazed in every direction.
Space shuddered and rippled outward.
Relying on the Wuxie Sword Seal, Li Wuxie's cultivation surged at an incredible rate for a brief moment.
Eight-star Immortal Venerable, nine-star Immortal Venerable, one-star Immortal Saint, three-star Immortal Saint, five-star Immortal Saint, eight-star Immortal Saint...
Yet no matter how high his cultivation climbed, Lu Ya still didn't move an inch or break a sweat.
Li Wuxie, on the other hand, grew heavier and heavier, feeling as though his Immortal Platform could burst at any moment.
But he could only grit his teeth and endure.
This man was too strong!
As the patterns of the Wuxie Sword Seal continued to evolve, growing intricate and then vast, the sword pressure on the seal rapidly surged as well: one-star Immortal Emperor, two-star Immortal Emperor... all the way to nine-star Immortal Emperor!
Whoosh—
Li Wuxie spat out a mouthful of black blood. His figure scattered, and he fell to one knee in midair.
Before him, Lu Ya still hadn't moved an inch or broken a sweat.
This was a man Li Wuxie couldn't have defeated even at his peak!
A profound sense of defeat etched itself into Li Wuxie's mind, but for some reason, he also felt an exhilarating sense of release.
Li Wuxie sheathed his sword and rose to his feet. He said:
"You win."
Lu Ya shook his head and pointed at the Salted Fish Sword.
"No, you won."
Li Wuxie took a closer look. A hairline crack had appeared on Lu Ya's Salted Fish Sword.
It hadn't shattered because Lu Ya had infused the blade with a trace of spiritual power at the one-star Immortal Monarch realm.
As far as Lu Ya was concerned, Li Wuxie was a man he couldn't defeat without spiritual power—in all the time since his transmigration, this was the first time he had used his cultivation.
It wasn't just because Li Wuxie was highly cultivated and could surge to the Immortal Emperor realm in an instant. More importantly, his swordsmanship was genuinely powerful, coming close to ninety percent of Lu Ya's own flair.
When Li Wuxie saw this, he nearly cried.
His spiritual pressure had surged to the Immortal Emperor realm, and only then had his opponent used Immortal Monarch-level spiritual pressure...
And you call that a win for me?
He couldn't even imagine how strong this man was!
Lu Ya sheathed his sword, not caring about the crack.
He was quite satisfied with this chance to stretch his limbs. He and Li Wuxie had no life-or-death grudge, and it was rare to meet a kindred spirit in the way of the sword. He hadn't planned to send him scattering into ashes.
"I'm definitely taking the ship, but your swordsmanship's got some skill. As a reward, I'll help you with something."
By now, Li Wuxie was completely exhausted, barely able to stand. He took out the Porcelain Sand Pot and, as if no one else were there, took a sip of Divine Wolfberry Tea. His movements were graceful and composed, like those of a victor. Only then did he ask:
"What is it?"
Lu Ya chuckled.
"Ahem, I can help raise your daughter."
Before you continue