One Hammer Settles It All

The journey back was even more leisurely. When they had come, Ye Wan had still been in a sulk; now, her face was radiant with springtime. Qin Ziyan, on the other hand, had begun to look gloomy. There was no need to guess—she was surely thinking about the scolding she would receive upon returning.

"Ziyan, you needn't worry. Once we return, I'll explain things to the Sword-Imperial Pavilion and say that you came down the mountain with the two of us on the deputy sect master's orders to carry out a mission," Ye Wan said.

"Ah? Really?" Qin Ziyan was instantly overjoyed. But why was Ye Wan helping her? She had long noticed that there was something ambiguous between Ye Wan and Chen Fan. With a woman's intuition, Ye Wan should surely know something of her feelings as well. Puzzled, she asked, "Wouldn't the sect elders become suspicious if Senior Sister said that? What if they really go and verify it with the deputy sect master?"

"Just rest easy. I know what I'm doing," Ye Wan said, too lazy to explain it to the girl.

Qin Ziyan could only accept this, though she increasingly felt that something was off about their trip to Black Dragon Pool. Still, she understood that many matters were not for someone of her status to know.

The three continued sightseeing along the way and spent the night in a picturesque valley. Though they did not deliberately hurry, with the speed of their footing, they still arrived at the foot of Swordcry Mountain before noon the next day.

The guards at the lower mountain gate were completely different from the sect's previous airtight defenses. There were only a handful of them. Chen Fan and the others found this somewhat strange. Even if the disturbance caused by the men in black had passed, there was no reason to withdraw the defenses so quickly. It would be bad if someone with ill intentions slipped in through the gap.

The moment they approached, four disciples came forward to surround them. All four looked to be in their early twenties, and their cultivation did not seem high. They were likely junior disciples of the inner court.

"Senior Sister Ye!"

"Junior Sister Qin!"

Two of the disciples recognized the women at once.

Ye Wan hurriedly asked, "Why are you few guarding the gate? Where has everyone else gone?" Clearly, she felt that their cultivation was far from sufficient for gate duty.

The few of them looked awkward and said helplessly, "Does Senior Sister Ye not know? Today is the inner court selection competition for outer court disciples. It counts as one of the sect's major events. Most of the senior brothers and sisters have gone to watch the excitement. We had no choice but to leave a few of us here..."

Oh no! Chen Fan was jolted. The outer court had indeed announced the date of the inner court selection some time ago, but Liu Wushuang had assigned him to make a trip to Black Dragon Pool, so he had not paid attention to it. He had not expected it to be today.

Ye Wan and Qin Ziyan both looked at Chen Fan. Seeing his blank expression, they knew the fellow must have forgotten.

Ye Wan quickly asked again, "Do you know the current situation of the matches? Have they ended already?"

"The competition started early this morning. By now, it should be nearly over. What is it? Does Senior Sister want to take a look too?" one disciple answered.

"Quick, let's go!" Ye Wan cried, then entered the mountain gate directly. Qin Ziyan followed. Chen Fan tossed the outer court token issued when he had gone down the mountain to one of the disciples, then rushed into the gate as well. The three then exerted their full strength and ascended the Mountain Ascending.

Before long, they reached the mountain and, without caring whether their depleted Internal Qi had recovered, continued racing toward the outer court. The moment they neared it, Chen Fan saw the dense black mass of people surrounding the martial arts arena ahead.

It seemed it was not over yet, and Chen Fan was slightly relieved. He had previously learned the rules of this selection from an outer court elder. They were actually quite simple: any disciple who believed they had the strength to enter the inner court could enter the martial arts arena and accept challenges from others. If they won, they remained in the arena until they were defeated. The victorious challenger could replace the previous occupant and continue accepting challenges until no one else stepped forward. Put plainly, it was a simple arena competition, except every battle was supervised by outer court elders. No one was allowed to seriously injure or kill an opponent without cause. Nor did one necessarily have to remain until the end or win many matches to pass. As long as one displayed sufficient strength in battle and caught the inner court's eye, there was a chance of entering the inner court.

Even so, there were many outer court disciples, and most were merely watching at this moment. Everyone knew how high the threshold for entering the inner court was, so they possessed at least that much self-awareness.

As Chen Fan and the other two entered the crowd, they saw not only several hundred outer court disciples gathered beside the martial arts arena, but also over a hundred disciples in inner court attire on the other side. Before those disciples stood three chairs, occupied by three elderly men. Chen Fan gave them a quick look and found that the man seated in the middle was Steward Liu of Swordheart Hall. The other two were stewards from the other two palaces responsible for outer court selection: Steward Xu of the Sword-Imperial Pavilion and Steward Zhang of Soaring Heavens Palace. Chen Fan did not recognize the latter two. In terms of reputation and cultivation, all three were second only to the elders of the three palaces. There was no question that they were qualified to serve as judges.

After entering the crowd, the three split up. Ye Wan and Qin Ziyan went toward the inner court disciples, while Chen Fan made his way into the crowd of outer court disciples. Before long, he spotted a familiar figure.

"Senior Brother Murong!"

A young man turned at the call and said urgently, "Junior Brother Chen, you finally came! If you had come any later, something truly important would have been delayed."

Chen Fan walked over to Murong Zhu's side. He also saw those disciples he usually sparred with and got along well with. They all nodded to Chen Fan in greeting, their faces carrying hints of envy. Clearly, they had all witnessed Chen Fan's strength and believed he had a great chance of being selected. At first, when they had not seen him arrive, they worried he had forgotten the time. Now, seeing him appear only at the very last moment, they assumed he was brimming with confidence and prepared to settle it all with one hammer blow.

How could they know that Chen Fan had simply arrived early enough to be lucky? At that moment, a young man stood in the martial arts arena. He was of average build, yet he held an enormous heavy sword, its tip planted on the ground. At a glance, it was clearly extraordinarily heavy, not something an ordinary person could wield easily. It seemed that his Internal Qi cultivation was not weak. Yet no one dared enter the arena to challenge him.

"Junior Brother Chen, you came at just the right time. Why not go up and test yourself against this fellow?" Murong Zhu said to Chen Fan.

Chen Fan shook his head. After rushing all the way here, his breathing had yet to settle. Besides, he wanted to observe the situation first.

Seeing that Chen Fan had no intention of acting, Murong Zhu introduced him. "This man is named Wu De. He entered the outer court twelve years ago and possesses astonishing divine strength. The two disciples who fought him just now were both directly swatted out of the arena by the flat of his sword."

While Murong Zhu was speaking, a disciple leaped into the arena and cupped his hands in salute. He was clearly there to challenge the man. The challenger had barely finished announcing his name when an enormous sword shadow came crashing toward him. Before he could react, the sword shadow struck him. Fortunately, it was the body and flat of the huge sword rather than its edge. Otherwise, that blow might have cleaved him in two. After being smacked from the arena, the man shot the young man a resentful glare and left immediately.

This Wu De truly had no martial virtue! Chen Fan sighed inwardly. If he had gone up just now, would he have met the same fate? In that case, he would not even have had the chance to display his strength. How could he possibly enter the inner court?

Anyone who went up afterward would likely have to weigh things carefully. With this fellow around, the threshold for entering the arena had invisibly risen again.

"Could it be that Senior Brother Murong has no interest in the inner court selection?" Chen Fan asked curiously.

He believed Murong Zhu's strength ranked among the better outer court disciples. With a bit of luck, he might have had a chance.

"You needn't tell me that. Before you arrived, I had already gone up," Murong Zhu said with a faint smile. He was quite composed. He had already entered the arena, so even if he was not selected, he had no regrets.

"Oh? How did it go?" Chen Fan became even more curious.

"Not bad, I suppose. Before Wu De, eight people had held the arena. They defended it for different numbers of matches, but all displayed their strength. I was fortunate enough to challenge the sixth defender after he had fought three consecutive matches and lacked Internal Qi, knocking him from the arena. After that, I defended against another round of challenges, but in the round after that, I lost to a challenger," Murong Zhu said.

That was not bad at all. After all, winning two matches would leave a better impression on the judges. Chen Fan thought that he too needed to find the right opportunity and preferably hold out for several rounds.

At the same time, another person appeared in the arena. The moment she stepped into it, a wave of uproar rose among the outer court disciples.

Chen Fan was still puzzled when he heard Murong Zhu say, "It's actually Senior Sister Jiang Yaoying. She is known as the number one beauty of the outer court. Not only is she outstandingly beautiful, her strength is remarkable as well."

Hearing that she was the number one beauty, Chen Fan looked toward the woman. Though she appeared to be around Ye Wan's age, both her appearance and bearing still fell far short of Ye Wan's. Thinking of this, he could not help glancing toward the inner court side. After searching through the crowd, he finally spotted Ye Wan. Her face bore a trace of anxiety; she was likely worried about Chen Fan entering the inner court. However, they were too far apart, with the crowd between them, and could not communicate.

At that moment, fierce battle had already broken out in the arena. Unlike the previous scene of someone being swatted away, Wu De swung his sword repeatedly at Jiang Yaoying, but she easily dodged every strike and counterattacked while evading the heavy sword. She drew a slender treasure sword, its entire length shimmering with flowing light. At a glance, it was clearly of fine quality. Then her figure began to flicker, producing several afterimages that attacked Wu De from both sides. Her sword strikes were unbelievably fast. Wu De could not lock onto her position at all and could only continuously swing his enormous sword before him to block.

A series of metallic clangs rang out. Those afterimages actually all stabbed out real Sword Qi, striking the heavy sword. What an eerie movement technique. Chen Fan had already recognized that the sword art she was using was the Clear Wind Art, but her movement technique was plainly far more profound than what he had comprehended.

So the outer court disciples were crouching tigers and hidden dragons as well! It seemed he had greatly underestimated this inner court selection. But upon further thought, it made perfect sense. This selection was essentially arranged for disciples who had entered the sect twelve years ago and two years ago. Those older than that had either already left the sect or were no longer under consideration for the inner court. Judging by their ages, Wu De and Jiang Yaoying should both have entered twelve years ago. These disciples might not usually stay in the sect, so it was only natural that Chen Fan had never seen them and knew nothing about them.

But this made him begin to feel uneasy. Jiang Yaoying looked as though she was about to win. If no one dared challenge her afterward, the selection would end. Yet he had no confidence at all in defeating her strange techniques. Worse still, Chen Fan suddenly realized that he had not even brought his sword. If he went back to retrieve it now, the selection might be over by the time he returned.

Chen Fan rubbed his forehead. He truly had been too foolish. It was like a scholar in the mortal world attending the imperial examinations and forgetting to bring brush and ink—a most elementary mistake. But there was nothing to be done now. He could only take one step at a time. If he truly could not enter the inner court, then it was fate.