Sword intent pierced the heavens

Mu Qingyue looked Zhang Teng over with interest.

She could sense that, although Zhang Teng appeared very humble on the surface,

the pride in his bones all but shone through his flesh.

She understood that the man before her took pride in belonging to his new school.

"Zhang Teng, you're the chief disciple. Are all these people your junior brothers? Which one is your second junior brother?"

Mu Qingyue asked with a smile.

She was curious about how skilled this second junior brother might be.

"They're all my junior brothers, but they haven't comprehended the Immortal Cultivation Method or received Master's personal teachings, so they haven't been ranked."

Zhang Teng smiled and said, "So, for now, I don't have a second junior brother."

"Oh? I see."

Mu Qingyue casually picked up her tea and took a sip, her brows drawing together slightly.

The tea was not high quality. In fact, it was rather poor and had not been carefully prepared.

"A little bitter?" Zhang Teng said with a smile. "This is natural wild mountain tea. If you savor it, you can taste nature itself."

Mu Qingyue smiled faintly and set down her cup.

"You certainly have refined tastes. Do you know why I've come to your hall today?"

"Of course." Zhang Teng nodded and poured himself a cup of wild mountain tea.

Mu Qingyue wasted no words. "Your martial arts grounds were only recently established, and yours is a new school. You must be short on cultivation resources. If you're willing to join our martial hall's network, the Azure Cloud Headquarters will support you. Why not invite your master out to discuss it?"

Zhang Teng calmly shook his head.

"I can decide this matter. When we Immortal Cultivators settled here, the villagers helped us a great deal. If joining your martial hall's network would improve their lives, there's no reason we couldn't!"

"Oh?"

Mu Qingyue gave Zhang Teng a somewhat surprised look.

"Once you join our network of martial arts grounds, we'll assign you a rank. Different ranks receive different levels of support and different resources..."

Zhang Teng glanced at the three-stripe emblem on Mu Qingyue's sleeve.

"I know," Zhang Teng said calmly. "I also know that, given your rank and authority, the highest you can classify us as is a second-rate force. Still, that level of support would be enough to improve the villagers' lives."

"For that rank, sparring with me... should be enough to demonstrate the strength of our martial arts grounds!"

"Oh? You certainly know a fair amount about our Central Hall."

Mu Qingyue's interest was immediately piqued, and she stood up.

"Among Martial Artists, strength commands respect. Let me see what you're made of!"

Mu Qingyue stepped onto the training grounds and looked at Zhang Teng.

"I must remind you, you only get one chance! If you fail and receive a third-rate ranking, the resources and privileges you receive will be greatly reduced."

Zhang Teng walked over to stand before Mu Qingyue.

"Don't worry, Miss Qingyue!"

With that, Zhang Teng gestured for her to begin.

The two stood on the training grounds.

"Then... you'd better be careful. I'm about to begin!"

The moment her words fell,

Mu Qingyue's aura changed dramatically!

An invisible pressure instantly settled over Zhang Teng's heart.

A powerful aura seemed to radiate from within her.

"Intent!"

Standing before him now, Mu Qingyue was like a razor-sharp sword.

"Sword intent!"

Zhang Teng's pupils contracted.

As the former pride of the Zhang Clan, he naturally understood exactly what a Martial Artist's intent meant.

A Martial Artist's first realm was body refining, and the second was the elixir sea.

For these two realms, nearly anyone who worked hard and was willing to spend vast amounts of resources

could reach them, even with mediocre talent.

But to break beyond the elixir sea and transform both one's martial body and the Qi Gathering within the elixir sea,

one had to comprehend martial true intent!

Anyone who could comprehend martial intent was a genius, one in a hundred.

At that moment,

as Zhang Teng faced Mu Qingyue's sword intent,

he felt as though countless invisible swords in the surrounding air were pointing at him.

Sword intent pierced the heavens!

The spar had only just begun, yet Mu Qingyue had immediately started exerting pressure!

The pressure of martial intent!

To withstand the pressure of martial intent, one had to at least mobilize the qi in the elixir sea and stir one's blood.

Only by making one's qi and blood boil could one possibly withstand the pressure of sword intent.

Otherwise, an ordinary Martial Artist facing martial intent would suffer a drastic loss in strength, unable to unleash even half of their combat power!

This was intent!

The third realm of a Martial Artist.

The martial true intent realm!

"Hm?"

Mu Qingyue looked at the composed Zhang Teng, a flicker of surprise passing through her heart.

Zhang Teng had not made his qi and blood boil to resist her sword intent.

Yet, strangely enough, his body showed none of the trembling caused by the pressure of sword intent.

What did this mean?

Her sword intent had not affected Zhang Teng in the slightest.

"Well? Have I passed your sword intent test?"

Zhang Teng wore the hint of a smile.

He grew even more certain that, compared to martial cultivation, immortal cultivation was an attack from a higher dimension!

Why?

Because the moment Mu Qingyue's sword intent surged,

he had sensed it immediately!

In his eyes, this so-called sword intent was nothing more than Mu Qingyue concentrating her mind intensely and imbuing the surrounding Heaven-and-Earth Spiritual Power with the "sword" in her heart.

That was the essence of sword intent's intimidating power.

Yet Martial Artists knew absolutely nothing about this.

Even Martial Artists whose martial true intent had reached manifestation knew nothing about it.

They simply believed that their martial true intent had manifested!

This was apparent from the names Martial Artists gave their stages.

Intent gathering, manifestation, true intent!

Indeed, the third stage of martial intent was called true intent.

Martial Artists believed that, once they could wield their martial intent as naturally as their own limbs, they had comprehended the true essence of the martial path.

But now, in Zhang Teng's eyes, all of this was merely the result of their thoughts becoming so powerful that they changed the Heaven-and-Earth Spiritual Power around them.

Still,

Zhang Teng also understood that, perhaps from a Martial Artist's perspective, their understanding of these stages was not wrong.

After all...

Their perspective was limited. Like glimpsing a leopard through a tube, they could hardly see the whole picture.

If someone talked to them about changes in Heaven-and-Earth Spiritual Power, they would only think that person was sick in the head...

Mu Qingyue stared at the perfectly composed Zhang Teng, her face full of confusion.

She could not help asking, "You haven't made the martial blood in your body boil. How did you do it? How are you completely unaffected?"

Zhang Teng smiled.

"I can see the essence of your sword intent, so naturally, I can keep it away."

Zhang Teng's method was simple.

He merely circulated the Breath-Absorbing Art a little, gathering Heaven-and-Earth Spiritual Power that had not been imbued with sword intent.

Then he pushed away the Heaven-and-Earth Spiritual Power that had been imbued with Sword Intent.

That was all.

It was that effortless.

Endure it head-on?

To Zhang Teng, that was simply idiotic. It was like someone throwing a punch at you when you could clearly dodge beforehand, yet insisting on taking the blow.

Wasn't that just forcing suffering on yourself when there was none to endure? Truly sick in the head.

"See the essence of my sword intent?"

Mu Qingyue's face was full of doubt.

"Surely you're joking?"

A Martial Artist at the body refining stage could see through her martial intent?

To Mu Qingyue, that was the most absurd thing under heaven.

It was simply a joke!

She and Zhang Teng were two whole realms apart.

"Don't believe me?"

Zhang Teng smiled faintly. "I can sense that your sword intent is extremely powerful. It seems to have reached manifestation, hasn't it?"

Mu Qingyue was astonished by those words.

"Oh? You could see that too?"

Zhang Teng calmly nodded.

Then he made a startling declaration.

"Believe it or not, I can make it difficult for your martial intent to gather and manifest!"