"Dong dong!" Two snaps broke the silence.
Qing Feng sat askew on the Xuan Dog’s back, propping his chin with a light smile: "Since you're sincerely thanking me, why not kneel and kowtow three times?" Before he finished speaking, the smiles on the faces of the Hu Ji Peak disciples froze.
"Presumptuous!" Qi Yuancheng's sleeves stirred with sword qi.
"If Senior Brother Qi is willing to perform the three kowtows and nine bows ceremony, this Chief will immediately concede the spot." Qin Heng's sword intent surged, and two pressures collided in the air, cracking the green bricks of the Sword Trial Platform inch by inch.
"Senior Brothers, stop!" A round-faced Daoist stepped on clouds, his wine gourd at his waist swaying with his steps.
Qing Feng looked at this seemingly casual Third Elder of Ziyan Peak, secretly pondering Yuan Shan Daoist's diplomatic methods.
As everyone followed Yuan Shan to pay respects to the Chief, Zi Yun pulled Qing Feng's sleeve: "Don't try to be strong."
The slight tremor in her fingertips revealed her worry.
Qing Feng lowered his eyes and agreed, but a faint golden glow appeared in his palm. Although this body was stuck at the threshold of Foundation Establishment, who said a Qi Refining stage cultivator couldn't slay a Golden Core?
On the other side, the Third Elder of Hu Ji Peak, Xing Yong, was caressing the sword sheath at his waist with pale fingers.
The joy of breaking through to Spirit Transformation seven days ago had long dissipated; the sword qi that pierced his chest still throbbed with pain.
He looked at Disciple Zhao Yu, who was bowing and listening to instructions, and his hoarse voice was laced with a bloody scent: "Remember, as long as no one dies, you can do as you please."
"This Disciple understands." A cold glint flashed in Zhao Yu's eyes as he lowered his head.
That waste, who relied on Sect resources to reach the ninth level of Qi Refining, dared to make him kowtow in public? Today, he would surely teach him to understand the chasm between a good-for-nothing and a prodigy.
On the Sword Trial Platform, a fierce wind suddenly rose, stirring the wide sleeves of Yuan Feng True Lord, a powerful figure of the Ziyan Lineage. The Chief of Ziyan Peak looked at the young cultivators standing on either side, his gentle gaze sweeping over the Purple Rock soft sword at Qing Feng's waist: "Fellow Disciples' sparring, stop at the point of contact."
"We respectfully obey Shibo's teachings." Qing Feng's knuckles gripped the sword hilt; the heat wave coming from the opposite side was already scorching his cheeks. The Chixiao Sword in Zhao Yu's hand hummed and trembled, its prairie fire sword intent like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, instantly licking the bluestone ground with tongues of fire.
"Watch my sword!" A crimson sword light split a three-zhang wave of qi, and Qing Feng lightly tapped the platform pillar with his toes, his robes fluttering as he landed in the southeast corner. The hand holding the sword was as steady as a rock, but the sword edge remained lowered; this soft sword, which had drunk the blood of a Cold Pond flood dragon, now seemed like a lazy spring willow.
"You dodge quickly!" Zhao Yu grinned savagely, spun, and slashed again, the bluestone turning scorched black where the sword wind passed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Qin Yue, a Chen Ming Peak Disciple in the spectator stands, clenching her sword hilt, and his heart swelled with even greater satisfaction.
Qin Yue was Zi Yun's daughter, and her only female Disciple.
The old grudge of being publicly humiliated by this woman five years ago would be repaid by her Martial Brother today!
Below the stage, Qi Yuancheng clapped his hands and laughed: "Senior Brother Qin, is your Disciple perhaps a rabbit?" Before he finished speaking, the third sword qi had already carved a ten-foot-long gully into the Sword Trial Platform, and sparks splattered onto Qing Feng's dark-colored training suit, leaving small scorch marks.
Qin Heng silently stared at the moving figure in the arena.
Qing Feng's Flowing Cloud Steps had reached perfection, but as Qi Yuancheng said, the prairie fire sword intent had already become a raging inferno.
When the ninth sword mark intersected into a net, he clearly saw Yuan Feng True Lord forming a sword incantation in his sleeve. This seemingly gentle Chief had already prepared a fallback to save him.
The Chixiao Sword's roar suddenly sharpened, and Zhao Yu's spiritual power surged, faintly showing signs of Foundation Establishment.
Qing Feng finally looked up, and the Purple Rock sword edge met the sky full of fire rain for the first time.
If there was no avoiding it, there was no need to avoid it. A Beast Taming Sect Disciple should have the sharp spirit of breaking the cauldrons and sinking the boats.
Zi Yun of Chen Ming Peak clenched the sword sheath in her hand, and Xing Yong of Hu Ji Peak narrowed his eyes. He was Qi Lin, the only son of Qi Yuancheng, the Peak Lord of Hu Ji Peak, and Qin Yue also watched with bated breath, each with their own thoughts.
Zhao Yu's sword intent was like a violent storm, and within a hundred moves, he had plowed the bluestone ground into scorched black gullies.
As Qing Feng moved and dodged, his robes had three torn openings, and sparks flickered on his dark Daoist robe.
"A coward who only knows how to flee!" Blood-red light ignited in Zhao Yu's eyes, and the Chixiao Sword in his hand stirred up a ten-foot wave of fire, causing the fire-prevention barrier around the arena to hum under the strain.
He slashed seven cross-shaped flame marks in mid-air, and the air twisted and steamed where the sword edge passed.
Several exclamations came from the spectator stands.
The silk handkerchief in Qin Yue's hand silently tore, and Zi Yun's long sword was already unsheathed by three inches.
However, Qing Feng lightly tapped his toes, moving against the flow of the fiery net in the sky, and the Purple Rock sword drew a half-moon of clear light in front of him.
The moment the two swords collided, an ice-blue sword light, like a spiritual snake flicking its tongue, precisely pierced the weakest point of the fiery vortex.
Zhao Yu staggered backward, and the blooming blood on his right chest stained his crimson Daoist robe a dark color.
In the dead silence of the entire arena, the tip of the Purple Rock sword hovered three inches from his throat, the sword body still trembling with a clear, dragon-like hum.
"Good Water Sword Intent?" Yuan Feng True Lord brushed away the hair stirred by the sword qi and turned to look beside him, "Senior Brother Qin actually incorporated the essence of 'the highest good is like water' into his sword moves. It truly is original."
Qin Heng lightly tapped the gilded armrest with his fingertips, outwardly calm but with surging waves in his heart. When did that rascal secretly learn the Wave-Treading Steps of Cloud Dream Lake?
The way Qing Feng sheathed his sword on the stage clearly carried the shadow of his own enlightenment in the East Sea thirty years ago.
The sound of a jade cup shattering came from the Hu Ji Peak seating. Qi Yuancheng stared at the dazzling red puddle on the ground, suddenly remembering that Twenty Years Ago on the Sword Discussion Platform, Qin Heng had also so casually broken his proud Nine Heavens Thunder Style.
What Chen Ming Peak inherited was never some exquisite sword move, but a terrifying insight that anticipated the enemy.
"You... you cheated!" Zhao Yu roared, clutching his wound, but saw Qing Feng bend down to pick up his fallen hair tie. "Just now, in the thirty-seventh form, 'Fire Rain Meteor,' your wrist used three more points of force; in the sixty-second form, 'Burning Heaven and Boiling Sea,' your left foot should have stepped on the Kan position but insisted on stepping on the Li Palace."
The young man tossed the red hair tie back to him, "The Prairie Fire Sword Art emphasizes the momentum of a prairie fire, but Junior Brother always thinks of accomplishing everything in one go."
His prairie fire sword intent had clearly reached its peak, so how could it collapse in an instant?
"Because you're the Martial Brother." Qing Feng sheathed his sword, looking down at Zhao Yu, who was kneeling.
"Should a Martial Brother just lose?" Zhao Yu's knuckles, gripping the sword, turned white.
"A Martial Brother is just a Martial Brother, too green." Qing Feng flicked his sword tassel as he turned, "Practice for another thousand years and perhaps you can take three of my moves, provided you live that long."
On the viewing platform, Qin Heng's laughter shook the clouds apart: "Senior Brother Qi, when you go back, you must have Elder Xing properly discipline Martial Nephew Zhao. How dare such a new Disciple contend for the Thousand Lake Token?" He gritted his teeth as he said the words 'Martial Brother'.
The Thousand Lake Token was the key to entering the Thousand Lake World Mystic Realm, which contained various spiritual herbs and exotic treasures, and everyone wanted to go in for experience.
"The struggle for the Grand Dao is not about a single day!" Qi Yuancheng's sleeves billowed like raging waves, and the faces of the Hu Ji Peak disciples were ashen.
The team that had arrived with such momentum now looked like autumn lotuses struck by frost.
Yuan Feng True Lord lightly stroked his jade thumb ring: "This battle was an unexpected surprise. Hu Ji Peak should quiet down for a while." He looked at the disciples of the two peaks and sighed, Chen Ming Peak had Qin Heng in charge, and although Hu Ji Peak had three Spirit Transformation cultivators, they couldn't gain the upper hand. This balance was quite good.
"Junior Brother, tell us quickly!" Fifth Senior Brother Yi Xianmin grabbed Qing Feng's sleeve, "How did a seventh-grade sword art break the prairie fire sword intent?"
"His foundation is unstable." Qing Feng smiled and dodged, "If I were against my Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters, I'd have been riddled with holes long ago."
"Those idiots from Hu Ji Peak!"
Amidst the Senior Brothers' laughter, they saw Qin Heng's gaze and immediately fell silent.
Qin Heng tapped his sword box with a finger: "It's one thing to see the flaw, but how dare you bet on his impatience?"
"Prairie fire sword requires a clear mind to suppress the fire qi." Qing Feng's fingertips formed frost flowers and then let them dissipate, "Zhao Yu just returned from the battlefield, and his killing intent hasn't dissipated. I merely added fuel to the fire, and when the flames soared to the sky..."
"Pulling the rug out from under him." Qin Heng nodded, "Although you won this time, you should diligently cultivate Foundation Establishment after entering the Thousand Lake World. Remember, true life-and-death combat doesn't allow for such calculations."