Hidden-Blade Intent

Lu Li's thoughts stirred, and he entered the Sea of Consciousness.

"Rest-Step Hidden Blade. Secret Art" Beginner (6/5000)

"Disguise Technique": Minor Accomplishment (168/1200)

"Hidden Weapons": Flying Darts, Major Accomplishment (789/1200)

"Eight Trigrams Instant-Shadow Step. Secret Technique" Major Accomplishment (26/2800)

"Xingyi Saber. Secret Technique" Beginner (399/1500)

"Form-Intent Secret Stance" Perfected (2500/2500)

"Eight Trigrams Saber Technique" Perfected (1600/1600)

"Eight Trigrams Fist Technique" Perfected (500/800)

"Eight Trigrams Moving Stake" Perfected (800/800)

"Eight Trigrams Embracing-Circle Stake Art" Perfected (500/500)

[Realm]: Fifth-Level Skin Tempering (Fifth Layer of Primordial Unity Force)

The Rest-Step Hidden Blade had reached Beginner level.

The general outline of the Hidden Blade secret art:

Gather the spirit at the spiritual platform, seal the breath at the chest center; hide the blade within the void, and when stillness reaches its utmost, let killing arise!

This was an obscure and profound saber art involving the concealment of Divine Intent and breath.

Divine Intent was the hardest to cultivate.

His master had said that descendants of the Su Family began nurturing their Divine Intent with secret arts at the age of six, and only reached Minor Accomplishment after ten years.

Lu Li understood. The foundations of great lineages were anything but ordinary. The accumulated wealth of countless generations—their resources, foundations, horizons, and temperament... compared to grassroots martial artists, the difference was as vast as heaven and earth.

Before they even began at sixteen, they had already started nourishing their bones, apertures, and spirit. Once they began martial training, years of accumulation would burst forth, and soaring into the sky in a single leap was the norm.

As for grassroots martial artists, they spent their entire lives rushing about for silver. The food supplements, medicinal pills, and other resources they risked their lives to stand on tiptoe for were no more than the lowest-grade variety.

While poor households at the bottom still worried over money, those wealthy young masters had long since enjoyed the finest medicinal meals and raced ahead. All the others could do was gaze at their backs.

Divine Intent was martial intent formed from a martial artist's spirit, mind, perception, and will. Profound and difficult to unravel, intelligent yet difficult to comprehend.

It placed extremely high demands on both a martial artist's body and consciousness.

The reason Lu Li had entered the art so quickly, aside from the illumination of the Celebratory Cloud Lamp, was perhaps because he had fused the souls of two lives, making his soul stronger than others'.

"Have you forgotten it all?"

Shen Gangfu wore an expression that said, "Try fooling me again."

"Master, I have entered the art!"

The corners of Lu Li's lips lifted slightly. Sure enough, he was the one-in-ten-thousand martial arts prodigy.

The exhaustion on Shen Gangfu's face vanished abruptly, replaced by astonishment and disbelief, mixed with a trace of admiration.

Though this direct disciple before him had shocked him again and again, Shen Gangfu still could not help sighing inwardly.

The difficulty of this saber art lay in condensing Divine Intent. Let alone a Skin Tempering martial artist, even a second-stage martial artist who had completed Flesh Refining would need at least a year to enter the art.

The hair at Shen Gangfu's temples stirred in the breeze, and his usually stern lips parted unconsciously.

"Your comprehension and talent are the best I have seen since I began teaching at this academy.

"Your temperament is even more exceptional. You can endure hardship, bear humiliation, hold your nerve, remain steady without being dull, and stay still while possessing spirit.

"You are simply an uncut jade naturally suited to the martial path."

A wave of relief and emotion surged through Shen Gangfu. Having accepted Lu Li as his direct disciple, he suddenly felt immensely proud.

Lu Li froze for a moment.

Stop praising me, stop praising me. Other than being handsome, smart, highly perceptive, and having a great personality... I have no redeeming qualities at all.

Joy appeared on Lu Li's face, and his smile was brilliant.

Knock, knock, knock!

Just then, a low knock sounded at the door.

"Master, are you here?"

Immediately afterward, a clear and gentle voice came from outside.

It was Su Meiyi.

Shen Gangfu glanced at Lu Li and asked softly,

"Are you ready?"

Lu Li's gaze shifted slightly, and he nodded gently.

Shen Gangfu gave a slight nod. Then his brows rose faintly as he said in a deep voice,

"Enter."

The wooden door was gently pushed open, and Su Meiyi stepped inside, dressed in a moon-white brocade robe with narrow sleeves.

Su Meiyi's face was fair and handsome, his long, refined brows and eyes exquisitely shaped, his nose straight, and his lips sharply defined. His eyes carried too much noble detachment and too little warmth.

"Master, the Martial Examination is close at hand, with only three days remaining. May the sparring match between Senior Brother Lu and me begin?"

Su Meiyi's tone was gentle as he cupped his hands toward Shen Gangfu. Not the slightest trace of disdain could be heard in his voice.

After speaking, Su Meiyi looked at Lu Li and cupped his hands. His tone remained gentle, yet it carried an unmistakable challenge.

"Senior Brother Lu, please do not hesitate to instruct me."

Su Meiyi sounded courteous, but his stance yielded not an inch. He stood with the air of one calmly awaiting battle.

Lu Li raised his eyes, and a trace of fighting spirit shone through his calm gaze.

The two locked eyes.

Lu Li stood quietly as fighting spirit, like blazing flames, gradually ignited in his clear eyes.

Since beginning martial training, he had yet to encounter a suitable opponent. He felt not the slightest fear; what filled his eyes was an even greater longing for this battle.

Su Meiyi's eyes were bright yet distant. When looking at others, he lowered his gaze slightly and looked down upon them, carrying an innate superiority carved deep into his bones.

"Go to the inner courtyard."

Shen Gangfu's voice suddenly became hoarse, carrying a trace of gravity.

"You are fellow disciples, after all. Stop when the point is reached. Do not strike to kill. Simply decide who is stronger; there is no need to determine life and death."

The two nodded gently at the same time.

Golden Gate Martial Academy, inner courtyard.

Zhao Kuo led a group of outer-courtyard disciples, packed into corners by the walls, beneath trees, and under the corridors. Everyone held their breath, their eyes fixed on the two in the field.

At that moment, the remaining eight inner-courtyard disciples sat atop wooden stakes. Wu Shuigen frowned with a cold face, his hands clenched tightly.

That spot had originally been his. Not only had Lu Li appeared midway and been accepted as Master's direct disciple, but Su Meiyi had also emerged, defeating him within ten moves with his cultivation at Third-Level Skin Tempering. Even now, he had yet to fully recover from that saber strike of Su Meiyi's.

Shen Gangfu stood beneath a tree not far from them, his eyes slightly widened, ready at any moment to intervene and save either one.

The courtyard was so silent that a falling needle could be heard.

Su Meiyi looked composed, holding a fine-looking single-edged saber. His brocade robes fluttered despite the absence of wind, and all gentleness had faded from his fair face, leaving only biting chill.

Lu Li stood tall and straight, his eyes calm as water. The aura around him was heavy, condensed, even, and clear.

Lu Li looked at the three-foot training saber in his hand.

What a pity his Cold Moon saber had not arrived yet...

"Please."

Su Meiyi sank his shoulders, twisted his waist, set his foot down, and opened with Rolling-Step Blade Interception.

The Divine Intent of Blade Interception could intercept an opponent's sensed killing intent, force pathways, and flaws in their aura. It was equivalent to a martial artist's sixth sense.

Lu Li's eyes flickered. The instant he gripped the saber hilt, his entire bearing changed.

The Divine Intent of Hidden Blade lay in condensing the mind into a single beam, like candlelight illuminating objects, allowing one to "read the momentum" and discern the reality and deception within an opponent's moves at a glance.

Sink the hips! Curl the spine! Stick to the ground!

With saber in hand, Su Meiyi spun and rolled close to the ground. His movements were not violent, yet he resembled a cold shadow gliding over the earth.

His feet slid across the ground with almost no sound.

His moon-white brocade robe fluttered around his knees, and the jade pendant at his waist chimed softly, but his saber momentum surged fiercely, his Killing Intent pressing down upon them.

To the naked eye, he was elusive and difficult to grasp. The saber swept horizontally, cold light flashing across the air. It neither chopped at the head nor slashed at the chest; its edge locked tightly onto the two vital points of Lu Li's knee bends and shinbones.

The Minor Accomplishment Rolling-Step Blade Interception secret art was fast! Cold! Ruthless!

His spinning body drove the force behind him, and the saber momentum layered down in wave upon wave. It severed tendons and shattered bones, specifically breaking conventional saber stances.

Wu Shuigen's eyes widened, his throat tightening. At noon, this wave-stacking saber momentum had seized his mind. Though he defended desperately, he had not lasted through the ninth strike.

The atmosphere around them instantly turned tense.

The outer-courtyard disciples held their breath. They had never seen such fierce and vicious saber momentum.

"Too fast! The low saber sweeps across the ground—there's nowhere to dodge!"

"How can anyone fight this? He's already seized the initiative."

The inner-courtyard disciples had sharper eyes. They had long experienced this killing move for themselves.

"This is the foundation of a great lineage! What do people like us have to defend against this chain of intercepting kills?"