Water Sword

The sky had only just begun to brighten when people started gathering near Lingfeng Tower.

More and more people arrived, all sorts of folks from every walk of life converging there.

Acrobats, candied-hawthorn sellers, and performers who smashed rocks on their chests.

Before long, the streets outside had grown exceptionally lively. This contest had become a grand event for the Martial Forest.

Lu Bai was sleeping in an upper room when the clamor outside woke him.

He had finally hoped to sleep in, but he hadn't expected this crowd to be so enthusiastic.

Lu Bai had no sense at all that he was one of the main figures in this challenge. He flung open the window and shouted at the people outside, "Will you quit making all that noise? It's the crack of dawn! Don't you people sleep?"

At his furious shout, the crowd fell silent in an instant.

By rights, before two experts faced off, they should bathe, burn incense, and sit quietly somewhere peaceful to make their final adjustments. That was what a proper expert would do, wasn't it?

And yet here you were, sleeping soundly in your room, then opening the window to curse at the crowd when they woke you.

Where was your bearing as an expert?

Unfortunately, Lu Bai didn't care about any of that.

He closed the window, but before long, he opened it again.

"Hey, you downstairs. How much for the steamed buns?" Lu Bai asked as he brushed his teeth with a willow twig dipped in charcoal and salt. After rinsing his mouth, he spat out the charcoal grit.

The scene was so full of everyday life that some of the people below felt a little out of place.

After catching the steamed bun tossed up from below, Lu Bai weighed it in his hand twice, then suddenly clenched his fist. The muscles in his hand bulged as he twisted and hurled it!

The still-steaming bun shot through the air like a meteor, slamming straight into the bun seller.

The man didn't even have time to react before it struck him. His head jerked to one side, and he fell to the ground, the blood that spattered out staining the flour in front of his stall red.

"Murder!"

No one had expected Lu Bai to be so brutal.

For a moment, the bustling crowd grew panicked. They feared Lu Bai might start slaughtering people indiscriminately from upstairs.

"Don't panic!" Just then, a voice rang out.

Lou Jingren, dressed like a scholar with a sword at his waist, stepped forward. At the bun stall, he picked up the bun Lu Bai had thrown and tore it open.

Lou Jingren held the bun beneath his nose and sniffed it briefly before tossing it aside.

"It has a fishy smell. If I'm not mistaken, it's laced with a potent poison."

At those words, the faces of some people nearby changed.

The buns smelled delicious. Plenty of people had bought and eaten them just now. And now they were being told they were poisoned?

"Please rest assured. This poison was probably meant specifically for Lu Bai," Lou Jingren said.

"I think that's why Lu Bai bought one from him after seeing all of you eating the buns. And the seller's little trick afterward must have been spotted by Brother Lu."

"The other party was very skilled at poisoning. I didn't notice it, but I understand people's hearts," Lu Bai explained briefly.

The man's acting hadn't been convincing. When Lu Bai picked up the bun, the seller's expression had practically spelled out, Eat it. Hurry up and eat it.

Tricking people was a discipline. Practiced in one direction, it meant all sorts of underhanded tricks; practiced in reverse, it became a way to protect yourself.

First, you had to learn to observe where the other party was vulnerable. At the same time, you had to consider your own vulnerabilities and how an enemy might strike at you.

With your guard up and close attention paid to anyone who might make a move, the chance of falling for a trick dropped sharply.

After the farce, the noise around them soon started up again.

As for the bun seller, someone had already dragged him away. No one knew where they had taken him.

The remaining crowd was remarkably unbothered. They continued to gather nearby, waiting for noon.

The breeze swept the clouds from the sky, and the long-missed winter sun finally showed its face. Golden rays shone down, making everything seem sacred.

Lu Bai found something to eat, then climbed onto the roof of Lingfeng Tower just before noon.

Lingfeng Tower wasn't particularly tall. There were plenty of nearby buildings taller than this tavern.

By now, every window and balcony in those surrounding buildings was packed with people.

One of the main figures in the contest, Lu Bai, had arrived early. Now only the other one remained—the one everyone was most eager to see.

Lin Haixian arrived right on time. People only realized he was there when he stepped out from among the crowd.

He didn't show off by using lightness skills to fly up to the roof. Instead, he climbed the stairs one step at a time, his figure even looking somewhat stooped.

Only then did people seem to notice that Lin Haixian was truly old.

His skin was dark and wrinkled. His graying hair had been neatly combed, but it still betrayed a hint of age.

Lin Haixian rarely appeared before a crowd so formally these days. Perhaps he simply didn't want people to realize how old he had become.

Once Lin Haixian grew old, his ability to intimidate others would diminish. Many people and many things would resurface.

"So even an immortal grows old?"

Someone murmured the words, a strange apprehension in his expression, as if it wasn't Lin Haixian growing old but himself.

Those who admired Lin Haixian felt a faint unease in their hearts.

Why had Lin Haixian agreed to Lu Bai's challenge and revealed the fact that he had grown old?

Lin Haixian climbed onto the roof and swept a little snow off to one side. Only then did he step onto it and steady himself.

"I used to love climbing onto rooftops. Too bad I'm old now and might fall." Lin Haixian made no effort to hide it. He even chatted with Lu Bai about it.

"Experts always like to be up high," Lu Bai joked back with a smile.

"I hadn't planned to come, but you brat are so underhanded. You said that if I didn't show up, you'd go around telling everyone I was dead."

"Back when I used to follow novels as they came out, whenever an author stopped updating, I'd tell people he was dead."

"Then that author really had bad luck." Lin Haixian laughed. He didn't quite understand what following a novel as it came out meant, but being targeted by a scoundrel like Lu Bai definitely couldn't be a good thing.

"It's about noon, isn't it?" Lin Haixian smiled and looked up at the sky. In winter, even the sunlight seemed to grow gentler around the old man.

"About that." Lu Bai didn't look at the sun. He watched Lin Haixian instead.

"Then let's begin. I hope you survive." Lin Haixian wasn't carrying a sword.

He slowly spread his hands apart. His slightly cloudy eyes fixed on Lu Bai, then grew brighter and brighter.

Visible currents of energy swirled around him. The snow Lin Haixian had swept aside melted steadily, then began to tremble like water on a vibrating drum.

When the trembling reached its peak, the water suddenly shot into the air, gathering together along the currents of energy around Lin Haixian.

The water flowed slowly, taking the shape of a three-foot-long water sword.