Book 9: Chapter 117

Martial artists’ skills don’t significantly develop with age once they reach Manifestation Realm. Although their skill and internal strength are no longer barriers for them, they aren’t at the apex. Climbing to the apex isn’t something that can be achieved in a short time. To expedite the journey as much as possible, it’s common for sects to send their disciples out into the world. Using Wutong Jin Yuxuan as a reference, Patriarch Zi had her disciples go out and purge evil as a means of exposing them to more opportunities for development.

Feng Jian was both lucky and unlucky. He lugged his own body covered in wounds while carrying a borderline mad Luo Ming out from the frontlines of Nieyao City one wobbly step at a time. He was the one who begged Nanjiang’s Poison King on his knees to save Luo Ming, which was the spark that led to their eventual collaboration. Had he not saved Luo Ming’s life, Luo Ming wouldn’t have taught him everything he knew, including Repository Sword Theory.

Baring witness to one swordsman fall after another to the primitive might galvanised Feng Jian’s growth as a swordsman. The event showed him a different path to the conventional. Thanks to Poison King’s supplements and Luo Ming’s teachings, Feng Jian reached Quasi-Divine Realm at his young age.

Seemingly able to pass through any defence, Feng Jian sliced in the gap between Yu Feiyuan’s arms before she could pull back. If one had zoom lenses, they wouldn’t even see the hairs on Yu Feiyuan’s neck, yet not even Feng Jian could understand why his blade couldn’t cut her when his crimson energy expanded. Tense until his veins surfaced, yet he still couldn’t get his blade to cut a fraction of a centimetre deeper.

Yu Feiyuan, needless to say, didn’t have skin impregnable to Enlightenment attacks. She wasn’t pushing his sword off her skin but pulling it sideways. If Lei Jian, Yu Jian and Huo Jian were almost fighting to not be drawn in the direction of the suction force, it was no wonder Feng Jian couldn’t forge forward. Elder Shou would’ve been able to finish everyone with a palm strike each if he was able to stay balanced – stability is integral to force production.

Besides the toll it took on disciples when employing Vajra Divine Might, the other reason for Patriarch Zi warning them to refrain from utilising it was the damage caused. They weren’t afraid of people. The problem was that vengeful people would come to Hangzhou, forcing them to kill those seeking vengeance, a bloody endeavour the benevolent heroines of Wutong Jin Yuxuan would prefer not to indulge in. Yu Feiyuan didn’t have the same restriction on her, but she deliberately didn’t use it because of the golden light in her eyes that Feng Jian didn’t miss.

Like Ling Fengxing’s Enlightenment, she’s also reached Quasi-Divine Realm. I can’t hold back any longer.

When you pit two people of the same realm against each other, the only way to decide who wins is skill. Due to said gap, the four almost died at Ling Fengxing’s hands even when they outnumbered him.

Feng Jian retreated ten steps, while Yu Feiyuan pulled her right arm back to chamber a punch.

“Hargh!” Feng Jian’s sword rattled across his path as though he was running against iron railings when he flitted back to Yu Feiyuan.

Yu Feiyuan uncorked her punch once Feng Jian was in range, sending air smashing into the walls from their point of impact. The four standing around did all that they could not to let the shockwave injure them internally. Neither the golden energy nor crimson energy could gain ground on the other no matter how much space they took up.

“Both are exceptional… No victor?” Elder Shou commented post-analysis.

Feng Jian and Yu Feiyuan’s energies gradually faded until they were completely gone, reverting them both back to average human beings.