Chapter 168

But Wen Xu was nowhere near as relaxed as he looked. The Wind-Searing Sword Art was difficult to begin with. Though it had few moves, they could be linked in countless ways—and that very flexibility made it extraordinarily hard to control.

When he practiced alone, he could run through the entire art smoothly. But against another person, especially an expert a whole major realm above him, Wen Xu felt his swordwork growing more sluggish by the moment.

Ultimately, his Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivation was false. He had never gone through Foundation Establishment, and his control over the spiritual energy in his body was far less precise than it had been outside. In a sense, the extra energy helped him command the wind. When wielding a sword, though, it held him back.

A sword demanded much of the person holding it. Let even one aspect fall out of balance, and its edge would immediately dull. Wen Xu could not yet call himself a true Sword Cultivator, but he had begun to realize that, inside the secret realm, he could not bring even a full measure of his former swordsmanship to bear.

He had sensed it faintly in the Water Prison Formation. Now, fighting another person, the feeling clung to his sword like paste and slowed it more and more.

Something that did not belong to him really was unreliable.

Wen Xu flicked his sword and, without another moment's hesitation, suppressed all the excess spiritual energy in his body within his Dantian. If he could not fully control it, he should not use it.

Almost instantly, Mist Mountain God Venerable noticed that the youngster's sword had grown faster.

Having lived a good long while, Wushan had seen far too many sword prodigies to count. There was no need to look far: