A person came wearing cyan¹ clothes. He had long, thick eyebrows and a pair of brilliant eyes. His body was like a jade tree and he was peerlessly handsome. Looking at him from a distance, he could be seen to have an outstanding heroic posture.
However-
“Weird, how come Senior Brother Xia Zheng is only in the Qi Refinement Realm?” Someone from the crowd asked.
Hearing that, the crowd rushed to check Xia Zheng’s cultivation, and just like the person had said, Xia Zheng’s cultivation was shown to only be at the Qi Refinement Realm.
“Disciple pays respects to the Sect Master. May I know your purpose for summoning me?” Xia Zheng had already gotten to the bottom of the viewing platform during the time the crowd had been talking.
“This is your junior sister, Xiao Xiang Xue. Spar with her.” The Sect Master’s face darkened upon seeing Xia Zheng. He didn’t bother with any formalities and went straight to the point.
“Senior Brother, your cultivation…?” However, Xiao Xiang Xue was confused and doubtful. After all, no matter how she tried to check, Xia Zheng’s cultivation appeared to be at the Qi Refinement Realm.
“Don’t worry about it, it’s just a small trick,” Xia Zheng said.
Upon hearing this, the crowd nodded in understanding.
“But do you really want to spar?” Xia Zheng asked.
“Yes.”
“Alright,” Xia Zheng sighed.
The crowd thought that he was sighing for Xiao Xiang Xue, but Xia Zheng was actually sighing for himself. Only he understood that he was indeed in the Qi Refinement Realm and not unfathomable and powerful as others had speculated him to be. With his cultivation, he would get crushed no matter who he sparred with- yes, that should have been the case, but Xia Zheng had a cheat ability.
Xia Zheng had been studying in the study room at his university when he suddenly transmigrated, and a list of cheat abilities appeared in front of him. One of the options was the ability “undefeatable”, and Xia Zheng immediately chose that ability upon seeing it. At the time, he had thought that the ability meant that he could easily win however he wanted to, but that wasn’t the case.
Afterward, Xia Zheng joined the Mysterious Cloud Sect and kept a low profile, waiting for the Sect Competition to reveal himself to be at the top, stronger than thousands of people. Although the results were what Xia Zheng had imagined it to be, the process was not. He found himself only able to break even with anyone- that’s right, whether it was a disciple at the Qi Refinement Realm or the Sect Master at the Nascent Soul Realm, he could fight with them until the person he was fighting got exhausted and admitted defeat.
At first, Xia Zheng tried his best to win every match, but he got extremely exhausted every time. As such, he decided that he couldn’t let things continue, so he thought of a plan and picked up a branch from the side of the road to use as a weapon to easily overpower a bunch of disciples, granting him victory.
Because of that, however, he had to recuperate from his injuries for half a year using the excuse that he was going to cultivate in seclusion. As soon as he recovered, he was forced to fight with the 3 guest elders, which made him spend another year recovering from his injuries. Then right as he came out of seclusion, Xia Zheng was forced to fight with all of the peak masters, forcing him to spend 2 more years recovering from his injuries. After that, Xia Zheng was forced to fight the sect master, making him spend another 3 years recovering from his injuries.
The Sect Master and the others were all annoyed by Xia Zheng. After all, no matter what they did, Xia Zheng would easily dissolve it like nothing. There was a rumor going around that whoever fought with Xia Zheng would have their views and beliefs, the base of their mental cultivation, shattered.
Xia Zheng finally came out of seclusion a few days ago. He thought that there wouldn’t be anyone else looking for him to duel since rumors about his strength had been circulating all around the sect. He had never expected that he only got to rest for a few days before being summoned by the Sect Master again. He had a bad premonition, and sure enough, it became true.
Xiao Xiang Xue jumped onto the dueling platform and saluted. “Senior Brother Xia Zheng, please enlighten me.”
Xia Zheng looked at her and tried to gauge her realm. She shouldn’t be in the Golden Core Realm yet, but she seems close. Here cultivation should be half-step Golden Core.
Xia Zheng wanted to pick up a branch and end the battle without a fight, but feeling Xiao Xiang Xue’s resentful gaze, he understood that if he really picked up a branch, Xiao Xiang Xue would fight him to the death. As such, after hesitating for a while, he decided to walk onto the dueling platform.
“I came here in a hurry. Is anyone willing to lend me a sword to use?”
“Me!”
“Use mine!”
The disciples below the dueling platform all tried to hand Xia Zheng their weapons.
“Then I’ll borrow yours,” Xia Zheng said after looking around.
“This sword is 25 inches long, with a blade as thin as a cicada’s wing. It can cut hair with a breath,² a perfect fit for Senior Brother Xia Zheng- huh?” The disciple was in the middle of bragging about his sword when he saw Xia Zheng sheathed the sword and weighed it.
Besides the some accessories that are in the way, this sword is just the right weight. Xia Zheng had been looking around, and this was the only sword with a scabbard made of material strong enough; it was very good to use for defending attacks.
“Then let us begin, Junior Sister Xiao.”
“Hmph.” It was very clear that Xiao Xiang Xue was angry at Xia Zheng for not actually using the sword and instead using the scabbard.
Xia Zheng could only helplessly shake his head. I have no choice. There’s a higher chance of hurting myself if I actually use a sword.
The duel began.
Xiao Xiang Xue raised her sword to attack, and a Clear Heart Sword Array immediately surrounded Xia Zheng. She followed up and attacked Xia Zheng when he leaned back to perfectly avoid the sword array and lightly tapped Xiao Xiang Xue’s wrist with the scabbard.
This surprised Xiao Xiang Xue, causing her to immediately fall back. She was expecting a follow-up attack from Xia Zheng, but that never came.
The disciples watching all sighed in amazement. “What an amazing move! Such accurate timing to avoid the sword array and force back Senior Sister Xiao at the same time. Not only that, he did it so naturally and full of control and didn’t hurt Senior Sister Xiao at all. As expected of our Senior Brother. He truly deserves his position as the head disciple.”
Phew, good thing I didn’t trip and make a fool of myself, Xia Zheng thought as he steadied himself so others wouldn’t realize.
Seeing that Xiao Xiang Xue wasn’t moving, Xia Zheng thought that she had lost her fighting spirit, so he said, “If Senior Sister Xiao has already gained something, then let’s end this for today-“
“No! I still have one more move! I hope that Senior Brother will continue to teach me!”
Xia Zheng’s face twitched. He hadn’t expected Xiao Xiang Xue to be so difficult to deal with. The longer the fight went on and the more intense it became, the more serious his injuries would become. Sure, he might seem fine on the outside, but the injuries he suffered were internal injuries, which usually took years to heal.
“Then feel free to use it, junior sister.”
However, at this point, there was no way for Xia Zheng to stop pretending, so he could only continuing acting like the mysterious Senior Brother he was said to be.
“Senior brother, be careful!” Xiao Xiang Xue focused her gaze and gathered spiritual energy. The blue spirutal energy in her hand was so cold that even Xia Zheng could feel the piercing coldness cutting through his skin.
Then the thing that Xia Zheng was most afraid of happened- Xiao Xiang Xue was preparing to use all of her strength on that one strike.
Normally, after receiving such a move, Xia Zheng would have to go into seclusion to recover from his injuries. This was also why Xia Zheng wanted to use a branch/scabbard, he wanted to let Xiao Xiang Xue realize just how big of a gap there was between him and her. Unfortunately for him, Xiao Xiang Xue was extremely competitive, so she didn’t care that Xia Zheng was the best genius of the Mysterious Cloud Sect.
Xiao Xiang Xue disappeared from the spot, and the dueling platform was currently full of cold air. When the crowd could see again, the blade of Xiao Xiang Xue’s sword was already getting close to Xia Zheng.
Xia Zheng was currently thinking about how strange it was for fog to suddenly appear, and at the same time, his body felt very cold.
Translator’s Notes:
¹ 青. It can mean either green or light blue, depending on the context.
² 吹毛断发. It’s a way of saying that a sword is so sharp that you can place hair on it and cut it just by blowing on the hair.