Only three days had passed before Ling Fei Yu saw Zhang Ruochen again. Only, the Zhang Ruochen of today was not what he used to be, and his cultivation had already reached the peak of a First Order Half Saint.
Even the knowledgeable Ling Fei Yu felt quite surprised.
“What a fast cultivation speed, even refining Divine Blood couldn’t have allowed you to break through from the early stage of a First Order Half-Saint to the peak of a First Order Half-Saint in three days. Could it be that those seniors of the Monstrous Sword lineage have used some forbidden secret method to forcefully raise your cultivation, to such a degree?”Ling Fei Yu asked suspiciously.
To be able to reach the Half-Saint realm, they must all have strong physiques and be stunningly extraordinary, and which one of them is a mediocrity?
Why did it take Zhang Ruochen only three days to reach a realm that others needed a year, or even ten years, to reach?
Zhang Ruochen lifted the Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword in his hand and laughed, ”Whether it’s the early stage of a First Order Half-Saint or the peak of a First Order Half-Saint, aren’t they all the same in front of the Fei Yu Sword Saint? The latecomer has only come this time to see just how strong the sword art that senior has unleashed with his full strength is?”
Ling Fei Yu obviously anticipated Zhang Ruochen’s intentions and said, “Only after just three days of cultivation, your heart, on the contrary, has expanded quite a bit. First hand over ten drops of divine blood to this Saint, and this Saint can instruct you once.”
Zhang Ruochen had prepared ten drops of divine blood long ago and immediately fought against it.
Ling Fei Yu received the ten drops of Divine Blood, and with unsteady and unhurried steps, he walked out of the cave and led Zhang Ruochen towards a bamboo forest.
In this Bamboo Sectional Mountain, there was an endless expanse of Qingtong Spiritual Bamboo, I don’t know how many tens of thousands of acres there had to be, and with the undulation of the mountain, it also formed a wave-like pattern, as if it was a vast sea of bamboos.
The wind blew, the spirit bamboo swaying, leaves and leaves hit each other, issued “rustle” sound.
Ling Fei Yu flew above the bamboo forest, his feet stepping on the turquoise-coloured bamboo sea, and appeared in a slightly flat location.
“Wow!”
With a wave of her sleeve, she sent a palm-sized white jade talisman order, striking it out and suspending it in mid-air.
Immediately after, dense inscriptions rushed out from the white jade talisman order, scattering in all directions, completely shrouding the space above the bamboo sea, in all six directions.
A huge crimson fireball rushed over from afar, stopping in the sky above the bamboo sea, and condensing into a handsome silhouette, which was none other than the heroic Zhang Ruochen.
Ling Fei Yu and Zhang Ruochen stood opposite each other, thirty feet apart, and before they even made a move, the sword intent on both sides was the first to compete.
The two strands of sword intent were both quite powerful.
Affected by the sword intent, the bamboo sea below, all the bamboo leaves all stood up, like swords, pointing towards the two above.
Ling Fei Yu said, “This Saint will suppress his realm, to the peak of a First Order Half Saint. Are you ready?”
“Make your move!”
Zhang Ruochen’s expression was serious as he completely released his spiritual power and spatial domain, covering the area.
Even if Ling Fei Yu’s aura, changed a tiny bit, it would never be able to hide from Zhang Ruochen’s perception.
Zhang Ruochen knew very well that although, Ling Fei Yu was at the same realm as him, the other party’s understanding of the Sacred Dao and the Dao of the Sword had already reached the peak.
If Ling Fei Yu were to go all out, it would be as difficult as heaven for Zhang Ruochen to block a single move.
Even so, it had to be a battle.
“Swish swish.”
The bamboo leaves below, immediately flew up, just nine hundred and ninety-nine of them, converging in front of Ling Fei Yu’s body, converging into a seven-foot bamboo leaf long sword.
Zhang Ruochen stimulated the Eye of Divine Seal and observed carefully, discovering that between each of the bamboo leaves of the Bamboo Leaf Long Sword, it was in a rather marvellous arrangement, all connected together by the rules of the Dao of the Sword.
In this way, the aura emitted by the ordinary bamboo leaves that converged into the longsword could actually be compared to the Thousand Stripe Sacred Artifact grade Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword.
Ling Fei Yu stared at Zhang Ruochen and said, ”At the Sword Graveyard, you have already seen the Nine Death Sword Technique, today, I will let you see the Nine Lives Sword Technique. The Nine Lives Sword Technique, there are nine moves in total, and the first move is called Taixu Splitting Light.”
Whether it was the Nine Deaths Sword Technique or the Nine Lives Sword Technique, they were both lower-grade sword techniques at the King level, and they were also known as lower-grade Saint Arts.
Each of these Saint Arts had the power to destroy the heavens and the earth, and had the same deterrent power as the Thousand Stripes Destruction Strength, and it was not something that ordinary Half-Saints were able to successfully cultivate.
Of course, once a Half-Saint was able to cultivate a Saint Art, they would be able to be used for the rest of their lives, enough to cross realms and exterminate their opponents.
Ling Fei Yu had already suppressed her realm at the peak of the First Order Half-Saint, yet she still used a Sacred Art level sword technique to deal with Zhang Ruochen, so it was clear that she was truly using her full strength.
Ling Fei Yu’s fingers turned, and the bamboo leaf longsword followed suit, showing eighty-one phantom shadows that connected into a circle.
“Taixu Splitting Light.”
The Bamboo Leaf Longsword dragged out a long tail and flew out rapidly.
The closer Zhang Ruochen got, the more dazzling the light emanating from the Bamboo Leaf Long Sword became, suppressing the light of the blazing sun in the sky.
Zhang Ruochen immediately swung out his Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword and executed Sword Three, wanting to smash the Bamboo Leaf Longsword.
However, the Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword had only just been swung out when the Bamboo Leaf Long Sword immediately disintegrated and transformed into nine hundred and ninety-nine Bamboo Leaf Small Swords, striking at Zhang Ruochen at a speed ten times faster than before.
At such a close distance, with the speed surging tenfold, not to mention Zhang Ruochen, even a Ninth Order Half Saint would not be able to dodge it.
“Boom boom.”
Among them, dozens of small bamboo leaf swords struck Zhang Ruochen’s body.
Even though Zhang Ruochen was wearing the Meteor Invisibility Clothes and deflected the Bamboo Leaf Small Swords, he still suffered a severe impact.
He flew backwards and crashed into the bamboo forest, landing heavily on the ground with darkness before his eyes, almost fainting.
It was only after a long time that Zhang Ruochen gradually recovered.
Zhang Ruochen clenched his teeth and climbed up from underneath the thick fallen leaves, looking up to see that Ling Fei Yu was already standing underneath a bucket-thick Green Tong Spirit Bamboo not far away.
“At the same realm, you won’t be able to block a sword from this Saint.”Ling Fei Yu said.
Even though she was wearing a veil, Zhang Ruochen could still feel the cold arrogance in her body, simply like a white swan looking down on Zhang Ruochen, an ugly duckling.
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes were quite sharp as he said, “Give me three days and I will definitely be able to realise the rules of the Sword Dao contained in this Nine Lives Sword Technique and break it.”
Ling Fei Yu glanced at him and said, “You are very confident in yourself. In three days’ time, you want to realise the Sword Dao rules contained in the first move of the Nine Lives Sword Technique?”
“Why not?”Zhang Ruochen said.
“Do you know that back then, when this Saint cultivated the Nine Lives Sword Technique, it took three months to realise the Sword Dao rules of the first move, half a year to reach minor completion, and three years to reach major completion.”
“When I cultivate both the Nine Lives Sword Technique and the Nine Deaths Sword Technique to their grand completion, there will no longer be anyone in the Demi-Saint realm who can block a single move of this Saint, and become the number one person in the Demi-Saint List at that time.”
Ling Fei Yu, who was quite confident in his own Sword Dao, added, “Just as well. Three days later, if you are truly able to block this move, this Saint can buy you a Sacred Elemental Pill to help you impact to the Second Grade Half-Saint realm as soon as possible.”
Hearing the words “Sacred Elemental Pill”, a look of determination appeared on Zhang Ruochen’s face.
In his heart, he secretly resolved that no matter what, after three days, he must succeed.
Reaching the Half-Saint realm and wanting to ascend a stage was never an easy task.
The only shortcut was to take the Sacred Yuan Pill.
The Sacred Elemental Pill was one of the pills that were strictly controlled by the major medieval families, and would not be sold to the public at all. Even in the black market, the only way to get it was to pay a huge amount of Saint Stones through an internal relationship and, moreover, take a certain amount of risk.
With Ling Fei Yu’s identity, it was not difficult to get a Sacred Elemental Pill. Buying it from her would save Zhang Ruochen a lot of trouble.
After Ling Feiyu left, Zhang Ruochen memorised all the images of her earlier moves, all of them firmly in his mind.
Afterwards, he stepped onto the road back to the Sword Mound, preparing to first realise the Sword Dao rules contained in the first move of the Nine Lives Sword Technique before thinking about a way to crack it.
Only, Zhang Ruochen had only just taken four steps, but then he immediately sensed an extremely subtle fluctuation of spiritual energy coming from a short distance away.
Just dozens of feet away from Zhang Ruochen’s right side, beside a stream, a transparent void, a beautiful text emerged.
The Sacred Book Talented Lady appeared from within the text, standing on top of a side of green-coloured stone, a pair of black and white eyes staring at Zhang Ruochen in the distance.
Zhang Ruochen stopped but did not turn around.
The bamboo forest, fell into a silence, and only the sound of the gentle wind could be heard. One could see that there were bamboo leaves slowly drifting down, landing on top of the Sacred Book Talented Lady’s soft head and sticking to the top of her ebony hair.
After a long time, Zhang Ruochen was the first to break the silence and said, “Is Lord Talented Lady coming to arrest me?”
Today, the Sacred Book Talented Maiden was wearing a light blue women’s dress, her long hair hanging straight down, with a very feminine dancing butterfly hairpin inserted on top of her head, and her slender waist was tied with a belt with begonia flowers, making her appear chaste and attractive, truly like a well-read poetical boudoir talented girl, without a trace of the Saint’s temperament.
The Holy Book Talented Lady’s eyes, with a complex look, softly said, “I only just passed by, and happened to see you and the Palace Master of the Demon Sacred Maiden Palace, Ling Fei Yu, sparring with each other in swordplay.”
After a pause, she added, “It really didn’t occur to me that Ling Fei Yu, who, according to legend, is overbearing, eyeing the sky above everything else, would personally accompany a Half-Saint to practise with his sword. Even after seeing it with my own eyes, it is still unbelievable.”
“If Lord Talented Lady has something to say, you might as well say it directly.”
Zhang Ruochen knew very well that the Sacred Book Talent Lady must have already known that he was Lin Yue.
So what could be done about it?
The Sacred Book Talented Lady would surely be loyal to Chi Yao and one of the representatives of the imperial court, and even though she had greatly admired Lin Yue’s talent and character in the past, there was simply no way to change, the two of them’s mutually antagonistic stances.
There was no need to guess that the Sacred Book Talent Maiden must have come to persuade him to turn himself in and not to confront the imperial court, or perhaps, she would go and plead with the Empress for leniency or something like that.
How could Zhang Ruochen possibly compromise with Chi Yao?
