Tianyi flipped through the manuals in his hand without care. The five Nascent Souls in his body formed a cyclical system, and even without him consciously circulating his qi, his cultivation would advance.
This was just breathing and eating, yet advancing leaps and bounds.
If anyone else were to know how easy it was for Tianyi to cultivate, no doubt, they would become green with envy. But Tianyi himself felt it was too slow. When he tried to cultivate and speed up, the progress wasn’t that much faster than when he just let time passed.
Since he can’t increase his cultivation speed, he will have to improve his battle prowess instead. Tianyi began to visit the Immortal Scripture Repository and picked out numerous manuals. His mother said that for a swordsman to become a master, he must have a myriad of experience in sword arts. The easiest way was to practice many sword arts.
Tianyi didn’t just retrieve sword arts, but also claw arts, formation manuals, and even some soul techniques.
First, Tianyi focused on his claw arts. Till this day, no one aside from his mother knew that he was most talented in claw arts. It wasn’t just claw arts either, but Tianyi even incorporated palm arts. If the claws were the hard techniques, then the soft palm techniques balanced the rigidness.
When Tianyi struck, each of five fingers emitted a different aura corresponding to the five elements. And his palm was like a dense world. Each attack, though swift, was also incomparably heavy.
At other times, his hand became like the void. Tianyi’s hand didn’t move towards his targets, but the target voluntarily moved their body to be struck by his hand.
As the days passed, Tianyi absorbed more and more techniques until he was sick of it. The only rest he had was when Daoyi or Xi Ri visited. Other times, he would visit them.
Tianyi felt that he was getting stronger. But without someone to objectively appraise him or anyone to compete against, he didn’t know his own progress.
This was also the reason why so many cultivators sparred and tested their mettle against each other so much.
As for those who deliberately sought life and death battles?
Tianyi would like to say that he didn’t have a death wish. The cultivation world was already cutthroat. Why would he purposely put himself in danger?
Sure, life and death battles may increase the chance of one’s breakthrough. But in Tianyi’s opinion, that could only be used as a last resort. Just look at him. He never had a life and death battle before, hadn’t he also reach the Nascent Soul Realm at age twenty?
Okay, Tianyi was a terrible example, but he didn’t notice. Plus, he also experienced life and death situations before, from almost being stranded in the Vast Void and nearly killed by the now Emperor Soulfish.
With such a thought in mind, Tianyi left Jade Peak for the sparring arenas. There were no shortages of disciples who sparred against each other within the sect, so a special arena was made for such occasions.
The arenas were separated into different sections, from Foundation Establishment to Nascent Soul. Tianyi naturally appeared at the Nascent Soul level arenas.
When Tianyi arrived, he immediately attracted the attention of all the disciples. He didn’t notice, but ever since he ascended the Nascent Soul Realm, he exuded a unique aura. It caused others not to be able to overlook his existence.
As someone used to the spotlight, Tianyi magnificently ignored all this.
Tianyi walked around, looking at the neatly arranged stages. Although he was looking for a sparring partner to test his improvements, this didn’t mean he didn’t know his own strength. Being able to survive a Unity Realm Venerable’s self-destruction as an early stage Nascent Soul Grandmaster, this should mean that he should still be top tier, right? So those ordinary Inner Disciples, he ignored. Instead, he was looking for those who were obviously a cut above the rest and able to reach the peak of Nascent Soul Realm in prowess.
Just that, some people felt that their hands were itchy seeing this legendary senior brother.
“Senior brother Xi, please give this one some guidance.” Tianyi had long noticed his approach. The asker was a handsome man of average height who looked to be in his twenties. His skin was quite smooth and white; even though his features were soft like a woman.
But he exuded the air of a late Nascent Soul Realm. Strictly speaking, the man didn’t have to address Tianyi as senior brother as they were both in the Nascent Soul Realm. He could address Tianyi as brother Xi or even junior brother Xi, but Tianyi had an additional status as the son and disciple of a Grand Elder.
“How can it be called giving guidance. I should be asking for pointers, brother…?” Tianyi asked, his smile carefree.
The man cupped his fist. “This one is surnamed Qi, given name Baifan.”
“Greetings, brother Qi.” Tianyi smiled.
The two stepped onto the stage. Tianyi made a please gesture and the air between them tensed.
Qi Baifan took out a whip and struck the ground with a satisfying crack. Tianyi didn’t unsheath his sword and instead looked at his opponent. If he squinted his eyes a bit, Qi Baifan looked a little bit like a woman. At least the face.
Suddenly he gave a bewitching smile and allowed his eyelashes to flutter. It was a small movement. The spectators couldn’t see it, but Qi Baifan, who was the direct recipient of the movements, felt as if he struck by a daze.
It wasn’t as if he was stunned by Tianyi’s beauty. Tianyi’s beauty would allow others to sigh in praise, but it wasn’t to the point that people of the same gender would be struck speechless. He had used a simple soul trick to make Qi Baifan dazed for a bit.
It was a crude soul technique, but the greatest advantage was that it only required eye contact and was easy to use.
Qi Baifan stood there dazed for a mere moment. But when he broke out of it, he felt a trickle of sweat flow down his forehead. He didn’t think it was just nervousness, but he couldn’t explain it any other way.
It didn’t matter. All he was here for was to test the son of the Sword Empress.
Qi Baifan struck first, his whip lashing out like a venomous serpent. Unfortunately, his open strike would be blocked easily. Without Tianyi making any movement, light surrounded his body and repelled the whip.
Not deterred, Qi Baifan showed more and more of his techniques. Sometimes the whip felt alive. Other times it split into nine separate lashes and struck.
Whatever Qi Baifan did, Tianyi repelled. He conjured weapons formed of lightning and struck back. All those attacks were light and fast, putting Qi Baifan on the defensive.
After a good showing, Tianyi delivered the critcal blow and knocked Qi Baifan out of the stage. But the show didn’t end. Who knew where these people got the idea, but more and more people began to challenge Tianyi after seeing him “duke” it out with Qi Baifan.
Tianyi at first humored them, but after the seventh match, he wanted to scream, “All of you just come at me at once, let’s get all over with!”
Did they think he was weak because he humored Qi Baifan and didn’t knock him down in one blow?
Of course, Tianyi didn’t really shout that. That was just openly drawing hatred to himself. So he settled for the next best thing and just directly knocked his opponent out of the stage with mercy or even letting them show their strength.
After the third time Tianyi did that, the number of challenges drastically reduced. Another few rounds, no dared to challenge Tianyi. He sent a glance around the spectators who all eagerly wanted to challenge moments before waving his sleeve and leaving. Unknown to him, discussion immediately broke out after he left.
“Senior brother is surprisingly gentle.”
“Very so! When I was struck out, I only lost a bit of air, but I was unharmed otherwise. Not just me, but everyone else too!”
“Seeing senior brother Xi going easy on us, it is truly unlike the others. Those other children of the elders, hmpf, if we’re lucky, we would only stay in bed for a week.”
“Sigh, thinking back to those silkpants…sigh…”
“Born of an even higher status, but I never heard of him bullying anyone. If only every Elder descendant could be like him.”
“No, no. The important thing is did you see the way senior brother Xi looked at senior brother Qi? I think he winked at him!”
“No way, that’s impossible.”
“I swear I saw it!”
“You don’t think senior brother Xi swings that way, right?”
“If he did, I’d definitely ask to be Dao Companions!”
“What? With your looks and talent? Senior brother Xi is talented and beautiful. If he really wanted, even those that aren’t like that would probably be won over!
“You guys, it’s alright if senior brother Xi doesn’t mind, but what do you think would happen if he heard this?”
“Ugh…he is still the Grand Elder’s son after all. If he really wanted to, he could easily squish insects with no backgrounds like us.”
“But when senior brother left, his face didn’t look good. Do you think we made senior brother mad?” One of the disciples ask.
“…maybe…” Another one said, unsure.
“But what did we do to make senior brother mad?”
Earlier seeing Tianyi allow Qi Baifan to show his power, all of them had the idea of challenging Tianyi. Many of them had never seen Tianyi fight, so they were all curious.
A few even wanted to use Tianyi as a whetstone to compare themselves. Those techniques that they would never usually against a fellow disciple were all easily repelled by Tianyi, causing Tianyi to become almost like an invincible figure in their eye.
If against Tianyi, they could unleash anything without worry. In a way, it was a sort of trust in Tianyi.
“Maybe you guys all went overboard?” One said. “Senior brother probably came here on a whim. He accepted our challenges out of goodwill. But we overstepped our bounds and kept challenging him. Senior brother is busy, unlike us.”
“What you said makes sense, brother. For senior brother to have such accomplishments at such a young age, he cultivates day and night without rest. His diligence is something we must all strive for.”
“But even mad, he didn’t make it difficult for us!”
And thus, a beautiful misunderstanding was born. Part of the reason was because Tianyi was too dazzling. A Nascent Soul Grandmaster at age twenty!
If Tianyi was only a little bit superior to them, they might feel resentful. But when the difference was so massive, they could only watch on in awe, not being able to birth any negative emotions. Only thinking it is rightly so.
Before, many would still compare Tianyi to Xia Yushan or the other geniuses of the sect. But with his ascendance to Nascent Soul Realm, he entered a league of his own. Afraid, only those as monstrous as him would comparable to him now in the eyes of many.
When Tianyi returned to Jade Peak, he felt stifled.
Why? Every time I go out, they all seem to target me? Geez, when my mood is terrible, I strike out. Was I too harsh on them? They must have a grudge against knocking them out in one blow and not giving any leeway for them to shine.
But I didn’t get to test my abilities. Perhaps I should have just gone to senior brother Xia. All those there seemed to be ordinary Inner Disciples.
The next day, Tianyi found Daoyi visiting him.
“Junior sister, you’re a little early this week,” Tianyi said.
“I just heard something, so I thought to ask senior brother if it was true,” Daoyi said as she rested her arms and head on the table.
Tianyi paused for a moment before he made a bitter smile. “Really? What rumors are going around. I just went to the sparring arena, didn’t think that so many people would challenge me. What do they say? I’m arrogant, bullying those weaker than me?”
Daoyi raised her head and looked at Tianyi before laughing. “Senior brother, you don’t know?” Seeing that he really thought this way, Daoyi couldn’t help but chuckle. But before Daoyi could say anymore, there was someone outside.
That, someone, was a Core Formation disciple, and he was Xia Yushan’s junior. He came to deliver a message to Tianyi.
“What does it say?” Daoyi asked, curious.
“An invitation,” Tianyi said as he read it. “It seemed that even senior brother Xia heard of my little episode. It’s a gathering for the most talented disciples hosted by senior brother.”
Daoyi’s eyes shone. “Is it like what I heard. Having food and wine, sparring, and offering pointers?”
“Should be,” Tianyi said. “Why, interested?”
“Of course!” Daoyi said, looking a bit envious. “Unfortunately, I’m only at the Spiritual Altar Foundation Establishment Stage.”
“I can take you,” Tianyi said. “The invitation said I could bring my junior brothers or sisters if I want. I only have one junior sister, though. Want to go?”
Daoyi nodded. She wondered what it would be like, while Tianyi felt that he should be able to ascertain his growth there.