Chapter 537: Guaranteed Student, Clear Wind Body, Chen Jiuling

As the sun leaned west, the boat finally welcomed the most intriguing battle of the day.

A man in a green robe with a short beard walked slowly out from the three-tiered crowd; his complexion was fair and his temperament refined, and if not for the narrow saber hanging at his waist, he would have looked like an accountant.

He stepped onto the second-tier deck with a composed gait, stood still beside the Array Eye in front of the fifth Spirit Room, and gently pressed his Jade Tablet into it.

"The victor of consecutive matches, Chen Jiuling." His voice was not loud, yet it carried a sense of penetration, "I invite the fifth—Lu Zhen, to grant me your instruction."

Cheng Feng sat up slightly.

It was time.

This Chen Jiuling was precisely one of the six guaranteed students from yesterday, and Cheng Feng had not seen this person make a move when he was seizing his room last night.

Now that he was making his debut, he had chosen Lu Zhen.

Among the top five, Cheng Feng was third, Bai Wugou was fourth, and Lu Zhen was fifth; the three were adjacent, and if Chen Jiuling wanted to obtain a Cultivation Room, Lu Zhen was an obstacle he could not bypass.

The door to the fifth Cultivation Room opened.

A slender figure walked out from within, shoulders and back straight, dressed in black, clean and efficient.

Lu Zhen's stature was considered tall among women, but standing among these burly male cultivators on the second tier, she still appeared thin and slight.

"Please." Her voice was cold, with no discernible emotion.

Chen Jiuling clearly already knew Lu Zhen was a woman and showed no strange expression; he only unhooked the narrow saber from his waist, held it in his hand along with the scabbard, and nodded slightly: "Lady Lu, offense taken."

As the words fell, Chen Jiuling tapped his left foot forward, his figure extremely fast, skimming across the ground like a wisp of green smoke.

He did not draw his saber, instead joining his fingers like a sword with his left hand, thrusting straight at Lu Zhen's throat.

Lu Zhen did not dodge or evade; she raised her right hand, accurately slapping that finger away with the back of her hand, while simultaneously, her left fist boomed toward Chen Jiuling's face.

Before the fist wind arrived, a bone-chilling coldness had already rushed toward his face a step ahead.

Chen Jiuling dodged to the side, the sheathed narrow saber in his hand following the momentum to lash toward Lu Zhen's waist and ribs.

Lu Zhen still did not dodge, letting the scabbard lash against her ribs, emitting a dull "Pa" sound.

She did not budge an inch, instead grabbing back with one hand, her five fingers locking onto the scabbard, a layer of pale blue frost appearing on her knuckles.

Chen Jiuling's expression changed slightly; he shook his wrist violently, the scabbard slipping off the narrow saber, a cold light suddenly appearing as the narrow saber drew itself with a ring.

"Good." A soft sigh emerged from the crowd. Cheng Feng also narrowed his eyes; Chen Jiuling's weapon technique was indeed not weak, the action of drawing the saber was clean and efficient, and the blade light was extremely narrow and thin, clearly following the path of a fast saber.

Once the narrow saber was out, Chen Jiuling no longer held back. The blade light fluttered like willow leaves, every strike aimed at Lu Zhen's joints and acupoints. Lu Zhen retreated rapidly, her fists protecting her vitals, dealing with it calmly.

Her fist force was heavy and deep, carrying the yin-cold True Qi of the Cold Abyss Body; an ordinary person would suffer from stagnant Qi and Blood after taking just one hit.

But Chen Jiuling's saber was truly too fast, fast to the point of being abnormal.

The blade light coiled like a silver thread, and within a few breaths, it had sliced several fine marks onto Lu Zhen's sleeves; where the clothing tore, her fair-white wrists were revealed, covered in a thin layer of white frost, as if her skin itself were a piece of cold jade.

"Lu Zhen is anxious." Zhou Tieyi had appeared beside Cheng Feng at some point, clutching one side of his ribs—that was the saber wound left from his own exchange with Chen Jiuling earlier.

"Not anxious." Cheng Feng shook his head, "She is testing the saber."

Zhou Tieyi was stunned: "Testing the saber?"

"Chen Jiuling's saber is fast, but the blade is light; logically, it shouldn't be able to break through her protective cold energy.

Yet, even while there was still some distance, Lu Zhen's sleeve was cut.

Lu Zhen appears to be retreating, but she is actually observing his rhythm, waiting for a gap where the saber momentum weakens. It just depends on what the situation is with Chen Jiuling's Different Body."

Before the words were finished, Lu Zhen suddenly stopped, no longer retreating. Chen Jiuling's narrow saber had already shaved toward her shoulder, but she only tilted her body slightly, the blade edge grazing past her shoulder, bringing up a few shreds of cloth, yet no blood was seen.

At the same time, Lu Zhen's right fist had already boomed out, carrying a white, misty cold air.

Chen Jiuling hurriedly retracted his saber to block, the back of the blade barely propping up the fist, but he was shaken back four steps.

He looked down and saw a thin layer of ice frost had formed on the narrow saber, and the web between his thumb and index finger was frozen white, his five fingers so stiff he could barely hold the hilt.

Lu Zhen did not pursue, only watching him quietly, her expression beneath the white veil still unreadable.

"If you keep fighting, your hand won't be able to hold the saber steady," she said.

Chen Jiuling looked at his trembling right hand, was silent for a moment, sheathed his saber, and smiled bitterly: "The Cold Abyss Body, it lives up to its reputation. My Different Body is called the Clear Wind Body; it can control wind and lighten the body. You must be careful."

Before Chen Jiuling's words had finished, his entire aura changed abruptly.

He had been refined and elegant, like a decent accountant, but at this moment, he suddenly became ethereal.

He held the narrow saber loosely, the tip drooping slightly, and his entire center of gravity seemed to be floating upward.

Cheng Feng narrowed his eyes, seeing a layer of extremely faint airflow ripples on the deck beneath Chen Jiuling's feet, as if wind were seeping out from his body, spreading toward the surroundings along the ground.

"Clear Wind Body." Cheng Feng recited it in a low voice. A wind-attribute Different Body, capable of controlling airflow to lighten the body and accelerate; no wonder his saber was abnormally fast.

Lu Zhen's gaze tightened, her feet planted in a stable stance, her fists guarding her centerline; the white frost of the Cold Abyss Body began to spread from her knuckles, crawling up her arms to cover half her body, a thin layer of cold mist shrouding her entire person.

Chen Jiuling moved.

This time his speed was nearly thirty percent faster than before; the blade light flashed, and he had already bypassed Lu Zhen's front, appearing on her left side.

The narrow saber slashed diagonally; before the blade edge arrived, the saber wind had already lifted Lu Zhen's sleeve.

Lu Zhen blocked horizontally with her left arm, the frost on her fist touching the blade edge, emitting a "Chi" sound as a large amount of white ice shards scattered.

Chen Jiuling did not clash hard with her; the blade light touched and left, his figure drifting to the other side.

He circled Lu Zhen rapidly, the blade light stabbing from all directions like a wind carrying sharp blades.

Lu Zhen stood in place, her feet as if nailed to the deck, her fists blocking left and right; every punch brought up a patch of cold mist, but Chen Jiuling's saber always left a step ahead, the cold energy unable to catch up to his figure.

"It's getting hard to fight." Zhou Tieyi gasped, "This Chen Jiuling's wind attribute happens to counter Lu Zhen; fast saber plus light body, Lu Zhen's cold energy has no chance to land solidly."

Cheng Feng did not respond, his eyes fixed on the arena without blinking.

On the surface, Chen Jiuling occupied the absolute initiative, his saber never leaving Lu Zhen's vitals, while Lu Zhen could only defend passively.

But Cheng Feng noticed that Lu Zhen's breathing remained steady, and although her feet had not moved, her body was rotating in extremely small increments, always maintaining her front facing Chen Jiuling's position.

Her cold mist was constantly expanding, gradually staining the space within a radius of a few feet with a layer of chill.

She was using the clumsiest method to turn the surrounding space into her own domain.

Chen Jiuling also sensed something was wrong. His saber swung faster and faster, but every time he approached Lu Zhen, a layer of thin frost would condense on the blade edge, and the weight of the narrow saber was increasing without him noticing.

Although the wind-attribute lightness effect was good, the low temperature of the Cold Abyss Body was slowing the airflow, and as the frost on the blade accumulated thicker and thicker, his blade speed dropped imperceptibly.

"Not good." Chen Jiuling felt a jolt in his heart, tapped his toes fiercely against the deck, and swept backward.

Just as he left his original spot, a fist covered in white frost smashed into the position where he had just been standing; the fist force surged, and a cluster of ice crystals exploded in the air.

Lu Zhen had begun to counterattack.

Her fist momentum was wide and open, every punch wrapped in thick, cold mist; it was not like the probing close-quarters strikes from before, but rather forced Chen Jiuling to retreat continuously.

The True Qi of the Cold Abyss Body poured out from her body as if it cost nothing, the temperature of the entire second-level deck was dropping, and the low-level Martial Artists watching even began to shiver uncontrollably.