Chapter 131: Victory

"... You are in the Second—didn't you just say First Life?"

"I broke through." Seeing Pei Ye lifted his sword, stood up, and cupped his hands, "Instructor, I want to fight a round with Brother Xiao Qiu first."

"... Alright." The instructor said, "Then please ask Xiao Qiu to come up again."

Anyway, it wouldn't take long.

Xiao Qiu also had no dissatisfaction, and returned to the stage.

Xiao Qiu had a higher estimate of this youth's strength, because although Zheng Dong's martial arts were a bit loose, his cultivation was also a solid Third Life, and he ranked eighteenth in the big competition on the first day of entering the martial arts hall.

However, according to what he said, he couldn't parry at all in front of this youth's fists and feet, neither able to react nor resist.

It seemed this youth should also be a person with extraordinary bone structure, enough to bridge the gap between First Life and Third Life.

Of course, the gap between Third Life and Fourth Life was even larger, and an ordinary Fourth Life was not the same thing as himself.

The two stood opposite each other.

Seeing Pei Ye held his sword against his elbow, cupped his hands, and bowed.

Xiao Qiu stood still and returned the salute with the same standard posture.

After the salute, Seeing Pei Ye lightly swirled a sword flower and made the first move.

The starting move was 【Breaking Ground】 that was completed today. He relaxed his wrist, and a light and agile sword light suddenly appeared on the field.

It was indeed an expert making a move. Many people who learned the sword in the sitting crowd had their eyes brightened.

Xiao Qiu raised a fierce wind. His sword was still extremely hard, heavy, and fast, not meeting it, but whipping toward Seeing Pei Ye's sword light.

The two swords crossed. In the instant before this whistling sword arrived, Seeing Pei Ye turned his wrist slightly, cutting into this collision at a precise and subtle angle—he tilted the sword blade and used the flat of the sword to "scrape" past the opponent's sword body in a nearly parallel attitude.

But even so, like a giant wave brushing past a small boat, this light sword of Seeing Pei Ye's was like a floating leaf meeting a gale in this contact, and its smooth trajectory was destroyed in an instant.

A huge force rushed toward his wrist along the sword, and in the instant before this, Seeing Pei Ye had already lightly loosened his hand.

The sword hilt drifted and folded violently in his palm. Seeing Pei Ye pressed his fingers on it, pressed and led it along the direction it turned, and the momentum of the whole sword was directed toward a direction he wanted.

The next moment, his wrist turned, and his powerful hand tightly gripped the sword hilt again.

This heavy, powerful pull did not break this light, fluttering sword, nor could it repel it. As Seeing Pei Ye's wrist turned, this pull even provided the sword with momentum to move forward.

He suddenly twisted his arm and stabbed forward, like a dragon exploring a cave.

Seeing Pei Ye's right arm at this time was an extension of the sword. The arm and the sword were connected as one, bending into a snake.

And Xiao Qiu's sword was the tree being entangled.

【Supporting Tree】

A sword move that avoids the real and attacks the void, entangling upward.

Xiao Qiu only felt a sense of collision for a moment, but it was neither real nor solid, and the next moment it became an empty loss of fall.

And in the scene captured by his eyes, the opponent's sword and his own sword contacted, deflected, and then the next moment, the opponent twisted his long arm, and the winding sword tip was suddenly already in front of him.

The process in between seemed to have been cut away.

As if it were a green bamboo branch, the moment he whipped it, it immediately became a green bamboo snake springing up.

And throughout the whole process, the youth's eyes had been staring at the sword he whipped, and he handled these exquisite movements on his hands with ease.

The sword edge approached lightly. The arm was an extension of the sword, and the body was an extension of the arm. The youth's posture of twisting his arm and stabbing had a smooth beauty, and his whole body was smoothed by the force of this stab.

This kind of control that reached the peak of subtlety, and the exertion of force reaching the tip...

Xiao Qiu's whole mind was lifted by this exquisite force-deflecting forward stab.

He had been striving for this threshold.

His elder brother praised him, saying he should be able to step in two or three years later. A twenty-five-year-old Clumsy Realm was enough to look at the shoulders and back of that Qijiao Shang Huaitong.

Now, however, he suspected that there was another Qijiao Shang Huaitong in front of him.

Xiao Qiu immediately pulled his arm to slash at this sword forcing his throat, but in the gap of the sword move, the opponent twisted, stabbed, and pulled the sword, avoiding it lightly again, and at the same time, the sword blade cut toward his chest.

Xiao Qiu felt extremely uncomfortable. He believed that his strength and speed were superior to the opponent's, but once he came to the game of sword moves, he felt restricted everywhere.

The opponent could always crack his sword moves in an extremely exquisite way, and at the same time return a small counterattack.

At this time, another sword cut toward his chest. Unable to return the sword in his hand, he chose to take a step back.

But his decision for the next move had already changed—no longer sparring with this youth, but exchanging attack for attack.

Since his strength and speed were both superior to the opponent's, why bother giving him a chance to make up for it from the attainments of sword art.

Although such a naked victory by realm pressure was slightly less beautiful... between the turns of his mind, the next sword in Xiao Qiu's hand had already become very hard.

Straight toward the opponent's torso!

Let the opponent surround Wei to save Zhao, he would never stop this sword!

Either block or retreat. Either way, the battle would enter his rhythm.

Seeing Pei Ye indeed glimpsed his determination from the momentum of this sword. He didn't try to counterattack to force him back, but changed his light and subtle sword path, stepped forward, held the sword with both hands, and hard-blocked this move.

Xiao Qiu knew this was a helpless response. The two swords collided. Maybe there would be a chance to fight back with the sword in the next move, and if he retreated, he could only avoid and avoid until he lost.

Finally, it was a solid collision!

Immediately, the opponent's block deflected under his sword, and the feeling of breaking the opponent's resistance surged back into his body from the sword. He even seemed to hear a kind of crisp cracking sound.

This was the rhythm he was familiar with!

Breaking skill with force was exactly the belief he had persisted in for more than ten years of practicing martial arts.

Xiao Qiu would never give the opponent any chance to breathe, and immediately slashed again at the youth whose sword was deflected, arm tilted, and unable to organize the next defense in time.

But when the sword slashed down, the opponent's body, which was originally tilted to the left, suddenly drifted. In one step, it seemed left but was actually right. Xiao Qiu felt that the sword he slashed down seemed to have hit a phantom. When he looked again, the person and the sword had already tilted to the extreme to the right, drawing a sharp arc and cutting toward him.

Looking at it on the left, suddenly it was on the right.

【Shedding Shell】

This sword naturally shocked Xiao Qiu's mind, but at the same time, his precise eyesight also captured the weakness of this strike—this kind of floating and dangerous posture, while unexpected, was also extremely fragile.

Full-force sword blocking couldn't resist his one slash, how could this posture be maintained in front of his sword.

Of course, in the face of such a sudden and dangerous fast stab, he had no time to gather his whole body's strength, but an ordinary exertion of force was enough.

His eyesight was precise enough to see that the path this sword crossed was a bit long. The opponent, in the previous change of virtual and real, pushed his body to the right extreme in order to enlarge the unexpectedness of this change—a bit too much to the right.

Therefore, he just happened to be able to catch up with this sword.

Xiao Qiu bent his elbow and pulled back his long sword. When the opponent's sword edge was about to force his body, his sword had indeed met it from the front.

This collision would completely destroy the posture of the opponent who was teetering on the edge of a cliff.

But when his sword had firmly rushed up, preparing to welcome the crisp cracking sound again, everything suddenly changed.

Sudden change.

More sudden, more steep, more thorough than the change from left to right just now!

Although the previous change was unexpected, after that change was completed, Xiao Qiu soon knew that it was the upper and lower parts of the same sword move—this sword move was to disguise the appearance as one posture, but the internal exertion of force was completely in another direction.

Such thinking is mentioned in martial arts books. To use such moves well, three parts depend on the design of the move itself, and seven parts depend on the quality of the person using it—from the control of the body to the grasp of the timing, and even to acting.

The youth undoubtedly used this move very beautifully.

But the sudden change he was facing now was not like this at all. This was by no means a design within the same move; it was a thorough change of moves that was extremely difficult to think of!

From dangerous to stable, from floating to hard, from tricky like a snake to oppressive like a tiger, the youth in front of him took a step to the front, and his whole momentum suddenly rose, changing from prey fighting with his back to the wall to a predator looking down from above.

How could you see the trend of flowing to the current move from that move just now?

【Flying Copper Shadow】

This was the first cooperation between the Sparrow section and the Cicada section, and it was also the change-move formula emphatically recorded in the "Cicada Sparrow Sword."

【Shedding Shell】 itself was a very steep and folded change-move sword, enough to make the enemy shocked, and then followed by a fast and fierce sword like 【Flying Copper Shadow】, one was to meet fast with fast, the enemy couldn't react; the second was unexpected after unexpected, the enemy was even less prepared.

This was a set of Cicada and Sparrow that could be called a killing move.

At this time in front of Xiao Qiu, this sword stabbed from the front.

It was not heavy enough, because the prey's strength would not exceed his own anyway; it was fast enough, only in this way could the prey not run away.

Xiao Qiu's sword had already pressed up against the sword just now. When this sword suddenly tore through the disguise and rushed out, he was unable to respond.

When the mantis hooked the cicada, the oriole made its move. This was the timing without any difference.

Xiao Qiu only had to forcefully change moves again to slash at this suddenly fierce sword, and finally felt that the exertion of force was a bit awkward.

But up to this point, Xiao Qiu still didn't think he was going to fail.

Because there was a fatal loophole in this predation—the prey's strength was actually far stronger than the predator's.

Although his sword was originally simple and powerful, it was pulled by these two successive fast and steep change-moves, and the environment for exerting force had been ruined. But a single-armed heavy slash could still be used.

Even if it was too late to borrow the strength of the whole body, relying only on the strength of the shoulder and arm, this was still an irresistible blow.

Slashing down with force, the sound of the two swords colliding was so loud!

Xiao Qiu's arm suddenly went numb, and he was lifted up with his sword and arm.

What strong strength!

He looked at the youth in astonishment. The youth was biting his lips and stabbing straight, and the sword in his hand was also trembling. The muscle bundles on his sword-holding arm were solid, the blue veins on his hand were bulging, and he was desperately controlling the slightly crooked sword body—he obviously didn't win easily in this collision of strength either.

But he won after all.

The youth came with a solemn expression. From that focused, confident, and proud look, Xiao Qiu read a question.

——Do you really have strength far superior to mine?

This question made him stunned, speechless, difficult to answer, and unbelievable.

Until the opponent's sword edge stopped an inch from his throat, he was still trapped in it.

I... how could I not have it?

I am a Fourth Life. Sixteen meridian channels are growing in my dantian. I have already crossed the small threshold between three and four. From then on, the gap between me and the landlubbers can no longer be filled by bone structure.

Even if you just broke through to the Second Life, from two meridian channels to four, but frankly speaking, zero, two, four, these three numbers facing "sixteen," will there really be any essential difference?

Not to mention that I am also famous for my bone structure, and I could wrestle with Second Life martial artists before breaking the seed.

He originally looked highly at the youth's bone structure because of Zheng Dong's defeat, and when he broke the youth for the first time, he secretly praised his excellent bone structure, which seemed to be vaguely above his own.

But now it seems that the youth deliberately held back at that time.

Only now did he fully explode.

Facing this sword, if he could also have a chance to fight with full force, he could naturally still win steadily, but frankly speaking, this kind of victory could not cause a qualitative change.

It was only to the extent of "winning him by two moves."

A simple calculation showed a shocking fact: his strength was the True Qi of sixteen meridian channels plus his body's bone structure, while the youth's strength was not much weaker than his own, estimated to be about fifteen or sixteen meridian channels.

But he only had four meridian channels.

That is to say, relying only on this bone structure, he filled the gap of eleven or twelve meridian channels!

Xiao Qiu was stunned and silent, but it was not abrupt, because the whole field was very quiet.

Seeing Pei Ye put away his sword against his arm, took two steps back, cupped his hands, and bowed.

Xiao Qiu was stunned for a while before raising his hand to return the salute.

After several breaths, the instructor's voice sounded sluggishly on the martial arts field: "Seeing Pei Ye... wins against Xiao Qiu!"

It was quiet for a while.

And then a few scattered applause suddenly sounded from the field, and soon spread to the whole field like a tide. Extremely enthusiastic applause rose from more than twenty silent faces.

What a high-level sword! What a pleasing sword!

"Seeing Pei Ye is temporarily ranked first in the small competition. Is there anyone else who wants to come up and challenge?" The instructor continued.

It was quiet for a while before a tall figure stood up among the onlookers.

Chang Yue carried his saber and said: "I want to fight with Brother Pei."

"Good."

Chang Yue carried his saber onto the stage. He held on for thirty-four rounds under Seeing Pei Ye's sword.

His strength was weaker than Xiao Qiu and Zhang Junxue, although it was also stronger than Seeing Pei Ye's, but it was not enough to form sufficient suppression; although he was also outstanding in martial arts and actual combat, it was not outstanding enough.

He was a very balanced player, and precisely because of this, when facing Seeing Pei Ye's "extreme strength"—sword technique, he had no means of check and balance and could only be crushed little by little in the accumulation of disadvantages.

The two finished the competition. Chang Yue walked off the field with conviction, his face disappointed—falling from second to fourth, and this was just the Dragon Gate class.

This was a heavy blow to his confidence. He was originally full of ambition, but there were so many talents, and the top four of the Golden Autumn Martial Competition were very slim for him.

The result of this battle seemed more convincing than defeating Xiao Qiu, and no one came up to challenge after it ended.

But just when the instructor was about to announce that he was the champion of this session, Seeing Pei Ye suddenly spoke.

"I want to fight with Zhang Junxue." He said.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 132 =====