Second Encounter

Jiang Ying looked at her opponent, whose expression remained unchanged, and felt a knot catch in her chest. Still, she responded with grace, "Thank you, Senior Brother. Shall we continue?"

Wen Xu nodded. The spiritual sword in his hand flashed with the glow of a formation. "Alright."

The interrupted match resumed in an instant. This time, Jiang Ying went all out, her attacks centered on metal and fire arts. This was hardly surprising—metal and fire were inherently the two Spiritual Roots with the greatest offensive power, and they also possessed the widest variety of attack techniques.

But Wen Xu was not afraid of ordinary metal and fire arts.

After all, his sword-training opponents were Chen Zui and Bian Chunchou. The former excelled at broad, sweeping saber techniques; even without layering techniques atop them, Chen Zui's saber arts were destructive enough. The latter possessed a Fire-Water Spiritual Root, so when it came to fire-based attacks, Wen Xu had plenty of experience dealing with them.

"Why does it look like they're evenly matched?"

"No." Huo Shengyin shook her head. "Junior Sister Jiang is setting a formation."

Ah? Setting a formation? Bian Chunchou thought. Wasn't this a coincidence? Wen Xu-Xu's greatest skill wasn't swordsmanship at all. What he loved most was secretly stacking formations. Anywhere he could stack them, he would—

"Ah, look! Junior Sister Jiang's Burning Inferno Formation is complete! Now Little Martial Granduncle is surely—"

On the arena stage, scorching flames erupted instantly around Wen Xu's foothold. The blaze was ferocious beyond measure; in the blink of an eye, it shot into the sky and surrounded him completely.

It even showed signs of continuously closing in. Waves of searing heat pressed ever closer, but Wen Xu—

He smiled faintly, as though he had been waiting for these blazing flames all along.