Chapter 16: If I Can Win, Why Would I Need My Sword?
On the dueling stage.
After exchanging greetings, neither of them made a move.
Lin Xiao was waiting for the other party to strike first.
Gu Shi, meanwhile, stared at Lin Xiao with a furrowed brow.
"Junior Brother, you still won't draw your sword?" Gu Shi said, his expression turning cold.
Indeed, Lin Xiao's hands remained completely empty as he faced Gu Shi.
He had a sword strapped to his back the entire time.
That marked him as a Sword Cultivator.
Yet from beginning to end, no one had ever seen Lin Xiao use that sword.
"If I can win, why would I need my sword?" Lin Xiao shot back.
Those words landed.
The expression on Gu Shi's face grew even colder.
"You're even more insufferable than Shen Gao!"
Gu Shi let out a cold snort and drew his longsword.
The temperature on the dueling stage spiked sharply.
A wave of fire surged forward like a crashing tide, engulfing Gu Shi within it.
"Hunt!"
Gu Shi slashed with his sword.
From within the fire wave, a serpent of flame split off and shot forward at blinding speed, lunging viciously at Lin Xiao.
The superheated fire serpent seemed to warp the very air around it as it moved.
Seeing this, Lin Xiao activated the Shifting Phantom Step.
An afterimage was left in his original position.
But a technique that had worked every time before now failed him.
The fire serpent seemed to have eyes of its own — the instant Lin Xiao moved, it whipped its head around and gave chase.
Hmm?
It could track him?
Lin Xiao moved again.
Afterimage after afterimage was left across the dueling stage, as though several Lin Xiaos had appeared at once.
One, two, three.
When the third afterimage appeared, the fire serpent lost its target.
"Go after him!"
Gu Shi snorted coldly and slashed out several more times, conjuring several more fire serpents.
But Lin Xiao was completely unrattled.
Afterimages flickered across the stage in rapid succession.
Seven, eight, nine.
Real and fake, fake and real.
The disciples watching from below couldn't tell which Lin Xiao was the real one.
None of them had cultivated the Shifting Phantom Step. To exchange for a movement technique of that caliber at the Technique Depository required tremendous merit.
And if you had that much merit, wouldn't it be better spent on a top-tier sword art or cultivation technique?
A slightly inferior movement technique was perfectly acceptable.
But now, watching Lin Xiao execute the technique with breathtaking mastery, the disciples' opinions began to shift.
Damn!
That was incredible!
If they ever got the chance, they would absolutely exchange for the Shifting Phantom Step too.
As they say — laymen watch the spectacle, experts watch the craft.
Up in the viewing stands, Elder Chen's jaw had dropped.
Nine — nine afterimages.
That was approaching the Perfection level of the Shifting Phantom Step!
What made it worse was that he himself cultivated the Shifting Phantom Step.
He had been training it for ten years.
And he had only managed to produce eight afterimages — each one far less solid than what Lin Xiao was producing.
This… this… was Lin Xiao some kind of monster?
How could he have progressed so fast?
When they had tested his aptitude back then, he had clearly been a ninth-grade waste!
Elder Chen's expression darkened. He felt as though his ten years of cultivation had been wasted on a dog.
And it wasn't just him.
Even Old Mu beside him had a flash of shock and wonder in his eyes.
To cultivate an earth-grade movement technique to near-Perfection in less than half a year — this kid's comprehension ability was terrifyingly extraordinary.
On the dueling stage.
Gu Shi's brow was deeply furrowed.
He had pushed the "Hunt" technique to its absolute limit, yet he couldn't even graze the hem of Lin Xiao's robe.
The speed was simply too fast.
It felt like it completely surpassed the level of the Spirit Gathering Realm.
Even so, Gu Shi only found it somewhat troublesome.
He still had a way to deal with Lin Xiao.
One of the dueling rules: whoever leaves the stage loses.
With that in mind —
"Wildfire!" Gu Shi roared.
He swept his longsword in a wide arc.
In a fleeting moment, waves of fire swept across the entire dueling stage.
You can run? You're fast?
Then he would blanket the entire stage in fire and leave nowhere to escape.
Sure enough.
Seeing this, Lin Xiao came to a stop.
Boom! Boom!
The fire waves swallowed Lin Xiao whole.
Gu Shi dismissed the fire serpents, letting them dissipate.
He only wanted to win — not to take a life.
But the next moment…
Gu Shi's expression froze.
Something was wrong.
A muffled thud rang out.
All the fire waves that had consumed Lin Xiao were snuffed out by a single force.
When Lin Xiao came back into view, his entire body was encased within a glowing green mountain seal.
The fire waves had been suppressed by that seal.
"That's… the Mountain Embrace Seal!!" Gu Shi exclaimed in disbelief.
A Human Grade peak body-refinement technique.
Now he understood why Lin Xiao's physical power was so staggering — why a casual punch had registered a value of 2,000 on the sword-testing stone.
He had been cultivating this technique, and clearly at no low level.
But wasn't he a Sword Cultivator?
If you're a Sword Cultivator, shouldn't you focus on the sword? Why split your attention on body refinement?
"Ha ha ha! This kid — interesting! Truly interesting!!" Old Mu stared at Lin Xiao and burst out laughing.
He naturally knew which two techniques Lin Xiao had chosen from the Technique Depository back then.
At the time, he hadn't paid it any mind.
Body-refinement techniques were far more difficult to cultivate than movement techniques or other martial arts of the same grade.
But seeing it now, he was genuinely astonished.
Not only had this kid successfully cultivated the Mountain Embrace Seal —
He had already reached the fourth layer of it.
Each layer of the Mountain Embrace Seal could block attacks from one minor sub-realm above the cultivator's own level.
So this little fellow's true cultivation was the fourth stage of the Spirit Gathering Realm, and with the Mountain Embrace Seal's defensive effect added on top, that meant…
Below the Perfection level of the Spirit Gathering Realm, no one could break through his defense.
A prodigy!
A true prodigy.
In just half a year: cultivation at the fourth stage of the Spirit Gathering Realm, movement technique at Perfection, body-refinement technique at minor mastery, Sword Intent at twenty percent.
Any one of those four achievements alone would be enough to call someone a genius.
But all four together?
Old Mu's mouth wouldn't close.
If this kid could grow to his full potential, he would become — the hope of Sword Demon Sect.
Sword Demon Sect may rank among the top ten within the Great Wei Dynasty.
But its situation was far from comfortable.
In the eyes of the world, Sword Demon Sect was still a Demon Sect.
Hmph. Those self-proclaimed righteous factions would love nothing more than to wipe them out entirely.
On the dueling stage, Gu Shi saw the Mountain Embrace Seal surrounding Lin Xiao and launched several more fire serpents.
This time, Lin Xiao made no attempt to dodge.
He let the fire serpents crash into him.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
But every serpent that came close was immediately suppressed and extinguished by the Mountain Embrace Seal, unable to produce so much as a single spark.
"I… concede," Gu Shi said through gritted teeth, his voice heavy with reluctance.
What he resented most wasn't his inability to break through the other's defense.
It was that he had failed to make the other draw his sword.
"You fought well." Lin Xiao withdrew the Mountain Embrace Seal and said calmly.
When the disciples below saw Gu Shi concede, they all turned their gazes to Lin Xiao.
The dark horse of this Outer Sect Trial was far more powerful than any of them had imagined.
After the two had fought, the matches continued.
A few bouts later, Gu Shi faced off against Shen Gao.
Unsurprisingly, after more than a dozen exchanges, Gu Shi was defeated.
His mental state had been rattled, which was the main reason — otherwise, with his actual strength, he wouldn't have lost so quickly.
After a few more matches, the Outer Sect Trial reached its final, climactic bout.
Shen Gao, the top figure of the Outer Sect, versus Lin Xiao, the biggest dark horse of this trial.
A battle for the title of strongest in the Outer Sect — one that had everyone's full attention.