Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
Ling Feiyu met Zhang Ruochen again only three days after the last time. But Zhang Ruochen now was changed and his cultivation had reached the peak of First Level Half-Saint.
Even though Ling Feiyu had experienced much, she was still surprised by him.
"What speed! Even the help of refining divine blood couldn't enable you to break through from the primary to the peak of First Level Half-Saint in three days. Did the Patriarchs of the Taotian Sword use some mysterious ways to force your cultivation to go up?" Ling Feiyu asked with doubts.
All Half-Saints must have extraordinary bodies and talents, no one was common.
But why did it take all others one year, and even up to ten years, and only three days for Zhang Ruochen to get there?
Zhang Ruochen carried the Abyss Ancient Sword in his hand, and laughed. "Be it primary or peak of First Level Half-Saint, it was the same to you, Sword Saint Feiyu. I came to you this time, wanting to see the real power of your sword arts displayed at your full strength."
Ling Feiyu knew his aim, and said, "Only after three days, you've grown so much pride. Give ten drops of divine blood to me, then I could teach you one time."
Zhang Ruochen had prepared ten drops of divine blood in advance, and gave them to her immediately.
Ling Feiyu took the ten drops of divine blood, and walked out of the cave with steady steps. She guided Zhang Ruochen to a bamboo forest.
Vast forest of Green Bamboos could be seen on Bamboo Mountain. Uncountable thousands of hectares of bamboo grew according to the ups and downs of the mountain features and looked like the waves of a bamboo sea.
The bamboo swayed as light wind blew. Leaves. .h.i.t one another and made a whistling sound.
Ling Feiyu flew above the bamboo forest, stepping on the green bamboom sea, then landed on a relatively flat area.
A whistling sound was heard.
She threw a rune token made of white jade about the size of a palm with a wave of her sleeve, and it hovered in midair.
Right after, dense inscriptions rushed out from the White Jade Rune Token, and spread around to cover all six directions above the bamboo sea.
A scarlet red giant fireball raced from afar and stopped above the bamboo sea to condense into a handsome human shadow, who was exactly like Zhang Ruochen.
Ling Feiyu stood about 100 meters away, opposite Zhang Ruochen. Before fighting, Sword Intents from both of them had crashed into each other.
Both of the Sword Intents were extremely powerful.
All leaves of the bamboos stood up from their stems, and pointed to the two people like swords, as they were affected by the Sword Intents.
Ling Feiyu said, "I'll keep my cultivation down at the peak of First Level Half-Saint. Are you ready?"
"Let's do it!"
Zhang Ruochen was very serious, and he released spiritual power and s.p.a.ce Domain completely to cover the area.
Even the slightest change of Ling Feiyu's Qi wouldn't run away from Zhang Ruochen's perceiption.
Zhang Ruochen was well aware that although Ling Feiyu would be at the same state as him, her understanding of Saintly Way and Way of Sword had reached the utmost.
If Ling Feiyu hit him with full strength, Zhang Ruochen could hardly take it.
But he had to fight.
Shush, shush.
999 bamboo leaves underneath flew rapidly and gathered in front of Ling Feiyu to condense into a sword about 2 meters long made of bamboo leaves.
Zhang Ruochen activated his Eye of the Deity Print and saw that every bamboo leaf of the sword was arranged by Rule of Sword Way in a wonderful way.
In this way, the long sword made of ordinary bamboo leaves could give a Qi that was comparable to that of the Abyss Ancient Sword, a Thousand-pattern Saint Weapon.
Ling Feiyu stared at Zhang Ruochen. "You've seen the Nine-Death Sword Technique in the Sword Tomb. Today I'll show you the Nine-Life Sword Technique. There are nine moves of the Nine-Life Sword Technique, and the first move is called Splitting Light in Great Void."
Both the Nine-Death Sword Technique and the Nine-Life Sword Technique were sword techniques at the lower King level, which was also called Lower-cla.s.s Saint Spell.
Each Saint Spell had about the same power as the Destruction of the Thousand-patterns to destroy the earth and the heaven, which couldn't be acquired by any ordinary Half-Saint.
Of course, if a Half-Saint succeeded in exercising one Saint Spell, he would definitely benefit from it his whole life by stepping beyond his state to kill the enemy.
Ling Feiyu had restrained her strength at the peak of First Level Half-Saint, and yet she played a sword technique at the level of Saint Spell to deal with Zhang Ruochen, which showed that she did use her full power.
As the finger of Ling Feiyu turned, the bamboo sword turned as well. And 81 shadows were shown and connected together to be a giant circle.
"Splitting Light in Great Void."
Bamboo-Leaf Sword rushed to its front with a long tail.
The closer it got to Zhang Ruochen, the more blinding the brilliance was that was given off by the Bamboo-Leaf Sword, growing even brighter than the sunlight.
Zhang Ruochen wielded the Abyss Ancient Sword and played Sword Three at once, attempting to crash into the Bamboo-Leaf Sword.
But the minute the Abyss Ancient Sword was wielded, the Bamboo-Leaf Sword dissolved into 999 little Bamboo-Leaf Swords, and rushed to Zhang Ruochen at a speed ten times faster than before.
As they accelerated ten times in such a short distance, neither Zhang Ruochen, nor a Nineth Level Half-Saint could dodge aside.
Bang bang.
Dozens of little Bamboo-Leaf Swords. .h.i.t Zhang Ruochen.
Even though Zhang Ruochen had put Shooting Star Invisible Cloak on to resist their attack, he was heavily crushed.
He flew back and fell hard on the ground in the bamboo forest. He blacked out and almost pa.s.sed out.
Zhang Ruochen slowly recovered after a while.
He bit his lips and crawled out from the thick fallen leaves. He raised his head and saw Ling Feiyu standing underneath a nearby Green Bamboo which was as thick as a barrel.
"You can't resist even one move of mine at the same level as you."
Zhang Ruochen could perceive her arrogance through her veil. She looked at Zhang Ruochen like a swan looking at the ugly duck.
Zhang Ruochen's eyes gave sharp lights, and said, "Give me three more days, I will surely comprehend the Rule of Sword Way in this move of the Nine-Life Sword Technique and crack it."
Ling Feiyu glanced at him. "You are really confident in yourself. You want to comprehend the Rule of Sword Way in the first move of the Nine-Life Sword Technique, in just three days?"
"Why not?" asked Zhang Ruochen.
"Do you know that, when I exercised the Nine-Life Sword Technique, I spent three months to comprehend the Rule of Sword Way of its first move, half a year to operate it, and three more years to have a full command of it."
"After I exercised the Nine-Life Sword Technique together with the Nine-Death Sword Technique to their utmost, no other Half-Saint could resist one single strike from me. And I was No.1 on the Half-Saint Rank then."
Ling Feiyu was extremely confident in her Way of Sword. She added, "Alright. Three days from now, if you can really defend yourself from my move, I will sell a Divine Origin Pill to you. It can help you reach the Second Level of Half-Saint soon."
Hearing the name "Divine Origin Pill," Zhang Ruochen put on a determined face.
He silently made up his mind to succeed at all costs in three days.
It wouldn't be easy for him to reach the next level once he had become a Half-Saint.
The only shortcut was to take the Divine Origin Pill.
The Divine Origin Pill was one of the medicines that were strictly controlled by all powerful families from the middle ages. It could never be sold to the public. Even in the Black Market, one had to rely on internal connections, and pay large amounts of saint rocks to possibly purchase one, undertaking a huge risk.
But for Ling Feiyu, it wasn't that hard to get one. Buying from her could save a lot of trouble for Zhang Ruochen.
After Ling Feiyu left him, Zhang Ruochen memorized every scene of her giving the play.
Then he went back to the Sword Tomb, planning to first comprehend the Rule of Sword Way in the first move of Nine-Life Sword Technique and then work out a way to crack it.
But just four steps away, he sensed a slight wave of spiritual power.
Hundreds of meters to Zhang Ruochen's right, beautifully written characters appeared in the crystal void beside a stream.
Saint Lady walked out of the characters and stopped at the top of a green stone. Her pretty eyes with black pupils looked at Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen stopped but didn't turn his body.
It was tranquil in the bamboo forest, only whistling wind could be heard. Bamboo leaves were seen falling on the soft head of the Saint Lady, sticking to her black hair.
After a long time, Zhang Ruochen broke the silence. "Has the Saint Lady come here to capture me?"
The Saint Lady was in light blue female clothing this day. She had her hair down, a feminine dancing b.u.t.terfly hairpin on her headtop, and a crab-apple flower belt around her fine waist, looking like a beautiful talented girl who had read thousands of books instead of a powerful saint.
Saint Lady gave a look which was of mixed feelings. She said softly, "I just pa.s.sed by, and saw you practicing sword technique with Imperial Empress of the Saintess Palace of the Demonic Sect, Ling Feiyu."
She paused and added, "I never expected that the so-called arrogant, haughty, snooty Ling Feiyu would personally practice sword with a Half-Saint. Even though I've seen it with my own eyes, I still find it hard to believe."
"Whatever you are trying to say, please say it straightly, my lady."
Zhang Ruochen understood that Saint Lady had discovered his ident.i.ty as Lin Yue.
So what?
Saint Lady would surely be loyal to Chi Yao as one of the representative figures of the imperial government. Even though she had admired Lin Yue's talent and characteristics, she couldn't change the opposing position between them.
He didn't have to guess, as he knew that Saint Lady was here to persuade him to turn himself in, not to confront the imperial government, and she would go to the Empress to plead for him.
How could Zhang Ruochen compromise with Chi Yao?
