On the stage, Ming Chu’s fist rocketed towards Guiren preparing for a head-on collision with his incoming fist, but right before their fist could connect Guiren’s hand suddenly loosen. He then shifted his posture to his right leg and moved to the side of Ming Chu. His glowing golden palm that resembled flowing water moved passed Ming Chu's fist and impacted his left side.
Ming Chu’s momentum forward was disrupted by that blow, causing him to become unbalanced and stagger to the side. Guiren moved again, this time his fist resemble a jackhammer that slammed against Ming Chu’s temple, but even with his imbalance posture Ming Chu was able to lift his left hand to block Guiren’s heavy blow.
*Bang!*
Feeling the numbness in his forearm from that blow made Ming Chu feel surprised.
*Swoosh!*
Ming Chu had no time to rest as Guiren’s left foot swung out at his exposed abdomen. With an audible bang, Ming Chu felt the wind get knocked out of him as he flew back several meters.
*Thud* *Thud* *Thud* *Thud*
His burly body echoed out on the stage as he rolled to a stop at the edge.
The crowd was silent as Guiren slowly lowered his leg.
After a moment, the crowd suddenly erupted into cheers.
“What just happen? That was so unlike brother Guiren to avoid a head-on battle, but he beat that Ming Academy disciple who showed that he was extremely strong in previous matches so easily!”
The scene they had just witnessed was extremely strange, it seemed as if it took Guiren little effort to knock down Ming Chu in only three moves.
Xi Shen who was watching on confirmed his speculations.
‘Guiren combined his Sua Family’s fighting style and techniques with his straightforward head-on battle style. If I’m not mistaken that palm strike was the Sua Clan’s Six Directions Flowing Palm Strike. It’s a High-Class Silver grade Martial Arts technique. This Guiren brat's instincts for battle is monstrous, he must have discovered the weakness of his fighting style after losing to Shiming. If one is battling head-on with an opponent at every turn, then the one who's naturally stronger would come out on top. By using his Family’s fighting style of evading and attacking to disrupt the opponent's movements, he had essentially eliminated his weakness. Become soft when needs to be, and hard and powerful at the right moment. I could use someone like him in my Faction, but sadly he’s from the Sua Clan.’
Xi Shen was using every chance he had to find the last disciple to join his Faction. He might not find any loose diamonds covered in mud on the Sword Pavilion, but that wasn’t why he was here anyway. He was more interested to see the performance of the Ming Academy Disciples.
The crowd of disciples cheered on Guiren. For the past three days, Shiming and his group had been acting haughty about their victories. The real elites of the Sword Pavilion had already entered the Foundation Realm, there were only a few Sea Expansion Realm disciples who were talented like Guiren who meet the standards to battle them.
Now with Guiren showing such prowess they were finally able to let out some of the pent-up rage they felt.
However, their cheers died down a bit when they saw Ming Chu slowly rise and started brushing off his golden robes that had gotten dirty.
Seeing him acting so casual, all the disciples below became dumbfounded.
“Is he a monster? He took a direct hit to his abdomen but doesn’t even seem affected by it!”
However, Guiren looked at Ming Chu and said, “You can keep up that posturing all you want, I’m confident I broke at least three of your ribs with that kick.”
Ming Chu’s hand froze, but still continued to brush off his clothes before he looked up at Guiren and said, “I’ll admit that kick caught me off guard, but you won’t…”
Ming Chu didn’t get to finish his sentence though, as Shiming from his position below the stage suddenly said, “We forfeit this match, consider this the Sword Pavilion’s first win!”
Ming Chu was taken aback and he turned to look at Shiming with a confused expression but saw that he was serious.
Ming Chu complied with his wishes and turned around to leap off the stage.
The crowd of disciples was confused at this turn of events and suddenly felt a bitter taste in their mouths at this victory.
Guiren was frowning at this as well and his gaze landed on Shiming. A sense of displeasure well up in his heart but he just turn and left the stage.
It was an unspoken rule that disciples can’t battle twice.
After Guiren left the stage, the disciples he gathered to fill up the numbers so he could battle Shiming, lost horribly in only a dozen or so moves.
It was now obvious to everyone what Shiming had done. He had used Ming Chu to get rid of Guiren. His plan was to completely trample the Sword Pavilion, not giving them a chance to display their abilities, even if that meant people saying he did because he wasn’t confident in beating Guiren.
“Are you okay brother Chu?” The youth with the nonchalant demeanor asked.
Ming Chu nodded and said, “I’m fine, it’s only four broken ribs.”
Hearing that, the group expression’s turned to frowns.
“That disciple Guiren is strong to be able to match brother Chu’s strength. Young master Shiming, why didn’t you allow brother Chu to continue battling him? I don’t believe he was stronger despite his combat abilities.”
“You aren’t here to win every match, you guys came here in order to exchange experience with the Celestial Academy disciples and build a friendly relationship with them. If we just defeat them constantly then we’ll just have the opposite outcome.”
Was what Shiming said, but he was keeping what his granduncle tasked him to do to himself.
“Tengfei is now with the other members of our Academy on the Blade Pavilion, message them to see how they are doing so far.”
The female disciple nodded before she took out a communication jade.
After a while, the female disciple said to Shiming, “They’ve remained undefeated so far, but…” She suddenly frown as she thought of what she just read in the message.
Seeing her expression, Shiming frowned as well and asked, “What is it Jiaying?”
With a solemn expression, the female disciple named Jiaying said, “Brother Tengfei was severely injured by a disciple that goes by the name of Blade Demon.”
Shiming's eyes flickered.
“He was supposed to be in seclusion, why is that bastard out causing us problems?”
Hearing this, Ping Su asked, “Yong master who is that person? Brother Tengfei's strength is only second to yours but he was able to severely injure him in battle?.”
“No, it wasn’t a battle,” Jiaying said.
“The message said he only walked on stage and slash his saber two times. Brother Tengfei blocked the first blow but the second severely injured him.”
Upon hearing that, Ping Su, Ming Chu, and the youth with the nonchalant demeanor all had shocked looks on their faces.
“How is that possible, how could brother Tengfei be defeated in only two moves by that person?!”
Ping Su couldn’t contain his emotions and said rather loudly.
Shiming made a tsk sound before he said, “Keep your voice down. You’re all coming to the Celestial Academy from our Ming Academy so you don’t know how many geniuses are here. That person as well, Mu Fan, he’s the number one blade genius of the Blade Pavilion in the Inner Academy. Even before he entered the Sea Expansion Realm it was said he had already managed to develop Blade Intent.”
Ping Su and the others felt their heart shudder at that.
Blade Intent was similar to Sword Intent. It was an ability that a Blade Master could develop, but they have never heard of some below the Core Formation Realm developing Blade Intent or Sword Intent.
For this Mu Fan who was called Blade Demon to attain it when he was in the Four Physical Realms, just what kind of monstrous talent is that? He's practically invincible in his own cultivation Realm then. Even among disciples of a higher a Realm, his Blade Intent could even allow him to bridge that enormous gap in strength.
“The Celestial Academy is indeed deserving to be called the number one Academy. Their top talents are completely terrifying.”
“Our Ming Clan had tried to recruit him into our Faction before but he refused to join us, or any of the Seven Major Clans.”
“Young master Shiming, then does that mean he isn’t from the Seven Major Clans? Is he actually from a low-level Clan?” Ping Su asked wide-eyed.
“Yes, he is. His Clan is weak and no one had heard of it before his talent for the blade was discovered. However, I want to know what his deal is. He’s not a part of any Faction so he shouldn’t have been participating in the battle. And why did he injure Tengfei?”
Shiming frowned before he turned to Jiaying and said, “Find out what happened that caused this incident.”
Jiaying nodded before she began exchanging messages with their group members on the Blade Pavilion mountain.
At the same time, a commotion occurred in the crowd and Shiming turned to see Renxiang approaching the stage.
His eyes immediately flash with a brilliant light as Renxiang was part of the Divine Sword Faction.
With this battle, he’ll accomplish what his granduncle had tasked him to do.
Shiming then turned to the nonchalant youth and said, “Brother Jin, I’ll let you battle first.”
The nonchalant youth name Jin nodded his head, before leaping unto the stage.
*******
Word Count: 1636
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