Chapter One Hundred and Thirty Seven – Each Person’s Opponent
Su coldly stared at the thin male in front of her. She recognized him.
Gui Feng, he had unknown origins, skilled in the [Little Ghost Sword], and he had a mysterious ghost concealment movement method. He was a popular contender of this year’s Dong Fu Sword Test Conference.
Gui Feng was dressed in black. She didn’t know what material it was made of, but it was dark and no light reflected off the material. His figure was thin and tall, his hands shriveled like twigs, his eyes were dark, and his entire body was emanating a dense yin energy.
The two of them weren’t the type to waste words. As their eyes met, the two made their moves at the same time.
Su’s hand spread slightly, her snow white fingers lightly grasping at the air.
Gui Feng felt the scene in front of him twist slightly, sky and earth spinning, as a feeling of dizziness came over him.
[Magnet Polarity Sword]!
Even though she held no sword in her hand, but her Magnet Polarity sword essence was still powerful.
Gui Feng snorted coldly as his dark hawk-like eyes slightly narrowed. He didn’t seem to move but had disappeared from his spot.
Su’s hand straighten into sword fingers, swiping at the air beside her side.
A white bone ghost sword suddenly shot out of the air. Gui Feng’s sword and Su’s fingers seemed to have made an appointment, strangely crashing together.
Su gave a muffled grunt. Gui Feng had compressed all of the sword essence on the tip of his sword. Once the sword and her fingers met, she had been disproportionately impacted. The dark and cold sword essence followed her fingers to enter her body. She felt her body freeze.
The white bone ghost sword was snowy white, made from an unknown bone. The sword guard was a complete skull, the open mouth perfectly biting on the sword body, four sharp and curved fangs criss crossing. In the empty eye sockets, two bean-sized ghost fires burned lightly. The sword grip was made of seven continuous copper coins, wrapped in grass rope.
The name of this white bone ghost sword was not known, but at a glance it could seen that it was not ordinary.
Behind the black gauze, Su had a slightly angry expression. Having lost the first encounter, this experience was very rare to her.
She had lost because she did not use her flying sword. Even though she was not willing, she still took out a black flying sword. She had originally planned on not using a flying sword before her new flying sword had been forged.
Even though the sword named [Black Daze] in her hand was of high quality, it was not very suited for her sword scripture.
To a female that was a perfectionist, she was not willing to use a flying sword that was not suited to her.
What she was furious about was not having lost the encounter, but that the Gui Feng had forced her to use a flying sword that she didn’t want to use.
Once Gui Feng had the advantage, what would follow would be continuous attacks that wouldn’t give her a chance to breathe. Normally, she would slowly wear him down, but today, she still needed to find Zuo Mo! She didn’t have much interest in the Sword Test Conference, but Zuo Mo entering the top ten impacted the forging of her new flying sword.
She needed to quickly finish the fight!
Gently turning the handle of [Black Daze], the sword tip pointing up, it was held in front of her body. The surrounding area around her suddenly started to twist. Only Su who was standing at the very center, was unaffected.
Just at this time, the white and sharp bone sword suddenly stabbed towards Su as it appeared out of nowhere in front of her.
Su was not moved.
Seeing the other had no intentions to dodge, Gui Feng was slightly surprised, but there was no hesitation in his bone sword. The skull hilt gave a howl, like countless angry souls wailing, shocking a person’s soul. If this sword met its target, there was no chance of survival.
The speed of the flying sword was extremely quick, arriving in the blink of an eye to touch the black gauze in front of Su’s face. Gui Feng felt slightly joy but also puzzled. Was Su so weak to be defeated in one blow?
In this Sword Test Conference, there were many experts, and among those favored, the two that were most mysterious were Gui Feng and Su. Both of them were of unknown origins. No one had thought the two most mysterious competitors would become opponents.
He hit the target!
Gui Feng was not happy, but shocked. Even though his eyes saw the sword meet the target, but the bone sword in his hand did not feel as though it had hit anything tangible.
Not good!
With shock, Gui Feng retreated back.
For some reason, the bone sword brushed past a space three cun from Su’s gauze. The dark and cold energy made her feel uncomfortable but she did not even blink.
The Black Daze sword in her hand turned and crossed her chest. Her left hand raised on its own, she quickly spat out three notes.
She started to counterattack!
———
Zuo Mo wiped the sweat off his forehead, looking in satisfaction at the formation in front of his eyes.
He had completely fenced off the half mu of the pond to become the central formation of the formation. Compared to things like a lake, the water pond had weaker water elemental power, but it was enough for him. Since it was completely fenced in, he didn’t need to worry about other people damaging it.
Seven palm-sized green flags were on the border of the water pond, responding to each other.
The poles of the seven small flags were made from third-grade Greenwood, and the cloth of the flag was woven from third grade Sky Silk. With the formations carved in them, the seven greenwood flags were like seven roots, taking water elemental power from the water pond and turning it to wood elemental power.
Placed around each greenwood flag were seven second-grade Mini Copper Lionhead Dan Cauldrons, forming the shape of the Big Dipper, and supporting the greenwood flag, forming a second-grade [Li Fire Formation].
Beside each of the seven dan cauldrons, there were twelve jade cards scattered around. The twelve jade cards were connected by an extremely thin red gold thread. A delicate net made from slender red gold thread entangled the seven copper dan cauldrons. It formed a complete [Three-Turn Fire Formation].
And the seven by seven, forty nine little dan cauldrons flashed with light as they interacted with each other, forming another formation –– [Great Li Fire Formation].
Borrowing water elemental power to add wooden elemental power, and turning it to fire!
[Li Fire Formation] was not a high-level formation. It was commonly engraved in most low-grade dan cauldrons. Compare to [Streaming Fire Formation], [Great Li Fire Formation] was higher-grade, and usually constructed of two or more [Li Fire Formations].
The [Great Li Fire Formation] that Zuo Mo setup was composed of seven entire streaming fire formations! The seven Li Fire formations were being aided by plentiful wooden elemental energy, after being strengthened by the Three-Turn formation!
How strong would the fire they produce be?
Zuo Mo was full of expectation, and wanted to find a person to try it on.
The entire pond had been turned by Zuo Mo into an enormous dan cauldron! It could be imagined just how great the firepower of this great dan cauldron would be. But he didn’t know how high it would reach. The previous experiments he ran had used basic and cheapest materials. He had been somewhat satisfied with the power.
This [Great Li Fire Formation] was really piled up using all of his jingshi. The majority of the components had been bought from the Hundred Treasure Flying Pavilion.
He took out a bunch of three chi long nails from the pile of materials to heave onto his shoulders, his right hand holding an enormously large hammer!
Zuo Mo’s eyes flashed with light. Hei hei, this was just the beginning… …
———
Chang Heng casually walked along the mountain paths as though he was taking a stroll, his expression lazy. He would occasionally stop, and look at the happily fighting Wei Sheng and Gu Rong Ping.
He had encountered a few xiuzhe, but they acted as though they had seen a ghost, turning and running away. He was too lazy to chase, lazily strolling along. In the last two rounds, the outcome of his opponents had been the same, both seriously wounded! One was going to lie on the bed for half a year, and the other eight months.
For most contestants, they were more willing to battle Gu Rong Ping than Chang Heng. This was a choice between loss and seriously injured. The great majority were naturally more willing to lose rather than be seriously injured for half a year.
Competitors like Chang Heng that moved around freely had absolute confidence in their power. Normal competitors found places to hide. The longer they stayed in, the higher their ranking. Everyone understood this and the xiuzhe that had reached this level, none of them lacked patience.
Chang Heng finally met a xiuzhe that didn’t run away upon seeing him.
An extremely average looking xiuzhe that had not left an impression on Chang Heng in previous rounds. A yellow face, a bulbous nose, a short robe. The other appeared extremely calm, looking in interest at him.
Chang Heng suddenly sniffed, tilting his head and muttering to himself, “A familiar smell.”
The other paused, and then had revealed an expression of great joy.
Chang Heng didn’t know why the other person would be so happy, just like he didn’t know why the other would have a smell that he would find familiar. But he was too lazy to ask, his right hand directly reaching for the copper ring between his clavicles.
The tooth-aching sound of a blade grinding against bone sounded, a horrifying scene appeared again.
The bright red Blood Spider Sword slowly was pulled out.
Chang Heng found the xiuzhe opposite him was staring at the Blood Spider Sword. The joy had disappeared. Replacing it seemed to be disappointment.
Disappointment!
Strangely, a smile appeared at the corner of Chang Heng’s mouth. His wiry hair stood like swords, full of killing intent.
———
Luo Li carefully concealed himself in a mountain valley. Compared to the calm of Eldest Shixiong and the casualness of Chang Heng, he was much more cautious. He sat down cross-legged at the center of the valley, his flying sword floating perpendicular to the ground beside him. His eyes were tightly closed as he nurtured the sword essence inside.
He was like a hunter waiting for his prey. Any enemy that appeared at the mouth of the valley would face his long-prepared attack.
Thinking back to his former arrogance, he was like a bystander that judged himself. He had wanted to use the [Empty Sword Scripture] and [Shapeless Sword Scripture] to recover [Void Sword Scripture], but had accidentally walked onto another road, a road that belonged to himself.
His talent was not as awe-inspiring as Wei Sheng, but it was still better than others. Before Wei Sheng and Zuo Mo had appeared, he had been the most outstanding disciple of Wu Kong Sword Sect. It was the heap of favor that he had received that had gradually caused his pride and conceit. His entire person had become impetuous. Zuo Mo’s blow had been like an alarm, shaking him awake.
The Luo Li that had woken up was abnormally hard-working and started to display his talent.
The person who had earned the greatest benefits from the opening of the sect’s records had been Luo Li. No one was clear on what Wei Sheng had received in his trip of the sword cave, but Eldest Shixiong was not interested at all in the records. Zuo Mo was only interested in dan-making, forging, and formation. Other than flipping through [Ice Dragon Sword Scripture], he didn’t even look at any other sword scripture.
Luo Li was different.
Unable to achieve anything from studying [Empty Sword Scripture] and [Shapeless Sword Scripture], he could only search for another road. As though he was dying of thirst, he had read through almost all the sword scriptures in the sect, in hopes that they could inspire him.
Especially the fourth-grade sword scriptures like [Cloud Sword Scripture], [Red Flame Sword Scripture] and [Greenstone Sword Scripture], he had repeatedly read over and over. No one would have thought that, just by using these three sword scriptures, he had really merged [Empty Sword Scripture] and [Shapeless Sword Scripture]!
But the newly merged sword scripture was different from [Void Sword Scripture]
Luo Li named it [Self Separation]!
Note: the scripture is called 我离 or Wo Li. The “wo” means I or me. The “li” is the same “li” as Luo Li, meaning split or leave.
Translator Ramblings: Luo Li is improving as a person, which is nice. My other choices for the name were [I, Separate] or just use [Wo Li]. There will be more on him in the upcoming chapters. He’s a genius too, just not as good as Wei Sheng.
Zuo Mo is starting his own plans. Everyone is doing their own thing now.