“Lin Da… Chief Lin?!”
Upon seeing Lin Que, Ao Xinyu instinctively started to call him by his nickname, but quickly realized the situation was inappropriate and corrected herself.
Still, the slight tremble in her eyes was enough to reveal her shock.
She truly hadn’t expected Lin Que to appear, let alone at such a critical moment.
On the other side, the previously arrogant Liu Yongge immediately seemed struck dumb the moment he saw Lin Que. His overwhelming aura faltered, and even his hands began to tremble slightly.
“Lin Que…Chief Lin! What are you doing here?!”
Liu Yongge’s eyes widened in disbelief. Though several years had passed and Lin Que had grown from a youth into a young man, he still recognized him at a glance.
He had never fought Lin Que personally. Back during the Eastern Region Tournament, Liu Yongge had been eliminated by the Divine Sword Sect’s Holy Son, ending his run in the top sixteen.
But… Liu Yongge had witnessed firsthand how dazzling Lin Que had been on the dueling stage….how he defeated both the Divine Sword Sect’s Holy Son and Holy Maiden to ultimately seize the title of Champion.
That piercing sword intent, that single sword strike brighter than any other of his generation. Liu Yongge would probably never forget it for the rest of his life.
Lin Que had been someone he thought he would never even have the chance to face.
And now, that very champion stood before him.
Lin Que didn’t spare Liu Yongge a glance. He turned to Ao Xinyu and sighed softly, speaking with some exasperation:
“Why didn’t you tell me about something like this?”
“I…”
Ao Xinyu lowered her head like a child who had done something wrong. For a moment, she even forgot to wonder how Lin Que had ended up here.
“I didn’t want you to get hurt again.”
“The path of cultivation is never smooth sailing. Injuries, even death or soul annihilation, are all part of the journey. If I really were to die along the way, it would simply mean I wasn’t strong enough.”
Seeing Ao Xinyu’s timid, hesitant look, Lin Que couldn’t help but find it a little amusing. But he understood her intentions. Smiling, he gently patted her shoulder. “It’s fine.”
Feeling the warmth of that broad palm on her shoulder, Ao Xinyu looked up at Lin Que’s gentle smile and couldn’t help but smile in return. “You’re right. After all, Chief Lin is really strong.”
She had been filled with all kinds of worries before, but now that Lin Que stood in front of her and had spoken those few words, her heart felt as calm as if she’d taken a stabilizing elixir.
That sense of reassurance was something no one else could give her.
Just as the atmosphere had turned heartening and serene, an unwelcome voice cut through.
“Are you two done chatting?”
Having been left on the sidelines for a while, Liu Yongge finally snapped back to his senses. Glaring at Lin Que, he sneered mockingly.
“The once-great champion disappeared for years, and your cultivation hasn’t advanced at all? What a joke!”
He had indeed been stunned into silence by Lin Que’s sudden appearance, but after taking a closer look, he noticed Lin Que’s cultivation was still at the Core Formation stage. That immediately gave him confidence.
So it’s true….Lin Que of the Sword Seeking Sect hasn’t fully recovered from his serious injuries…
So what if you were the champion of the past? Years have passed. Everyone else has progressed, but you’ve stayed behind. In cultivation, it’s like rowing against the current….if you’re not moving forward, you’re falling behind. Being the strongest once doesn’t mean you still are today.
The more Liu Yongge thought about it, the more confident he became.
“Cut the crap. Let’s sign the life-and-death contract and settle this on the dueling stage.”
Lin Que rarely indulged in pre-battle trash talk. He simply got straight to the point.
That single sentence instantly silenced Liu Yongge, who had just begun to feel confident again.
The dueling stage? With a life-and-death pact? Was he serious…?
Wanbao City was under the jurisdiction of the Xia Shang Dynasty, which strictly enforced the rule of law. Cultivators were forbidden from killing each other within the city, and even killings on the nearby main roads would be thoroughly investigated.
However, cultivators and especially those who walked the Path of Battle were often hot-blooded and impulsive, prone to handling things the old-fashioned way. So the Xia Shang Dynasty had designated a special place in the center of Wanbao City: the Dueling Stage.
It was a brutally simple solution. If there’s a conflict, settle it with a fight on the stage. And if it was a blood feud, both parties could sign a life-and-death agreement. A binding contract where neither side would be held accountable for the outcome.
The moment Lin Que so casually brought up such a deadly agreement, Liu Yongge began to feel suspicious.
Could someone who once reigned as champion of the Eastern Region’s younger generation really have made no cultivation progress over the years? Even if the rumors were true, Lin Que’s current calm and indifferent demeanor didn’t feel like a bluff.
Was this a show of false bravado? Or did he actually have something to back it up?
Conflicted and unsure, Liu Yongge hesitated. He didn’t dare take the gamble. Because if he lost, it would cost him his life.
Seeing his hesitation, Lin Que frowned.
“If you won’t sign the life-and-death agreement, then get down on your knees, kowtow three times, and apologize. I’ll let you walk away alive.”
The moment those words dropped, the entire hall erupted. Guards and guest cultivators began murmuring to each other in shock. No one could believe the complete reversal of momentum that had just occurred.
The Liu Yongge who had just moments ago been overbearing and arrogant like a fierce tiger now looked more like a dog with its tail between its legs, barking loudly but lacking bite.
Noticing how the expressions around him had shifted from fear to amusement, veins bulged on Liu Yongge’s forehead. He clenched his fists tightly, his pride wounded, and the surge of shame and fury turned his face bright red.
“Fine then! Let’s go to the dueling stage! We’ll settle this with our fists!”
He pointed at Lin Que and roared with rage.
Though notably, he said nothing more about signing the life-and-death pact.
Lin Que was slightly disappointed but didn’t mind. He just considered it a warm-up before dinner.
As the sun dipped toward the western mountains—
The dueling stage awaited.
Lin Que and Liu Yongge stood at opposite ends of the dueling stage, staring each other down. Below the platform, the crowd buzzed with excitement. Cultivators and mortals alike had gathered to watch the spectacle.
Some had even started betting, setting up gambling tables to wager on the outcome.
“Lin Daqque,” Ao Xinyu whispered from the edge of the platform, clutching the hem of her sleeve nervously, “Liu Yongge is skilled in the Wildflame Saber Technique. His attacks are heavy and aggressive. You must take the initiative and disrupt his rhythm…don’t let him build momentum.”
She laid out the characteristics and weaknesses of Liu Yongge’s saber style in detail.
Back during the grand tournament of the Eastern Region’s hundred sects, she had been among the crowd, cheering for Lin Que from the sidelines. Naturally, she had also paid close attention to the battles of other prodigies. She vividly remembered the match where the Divine Sword Sect’s Holy Son defeated Liu Yongge by exploiting that very weakness, breaking his rhythm through relentless offense before his saber could reach full force.
“No need to worry.”
Lin Que simply smiled with calm confidence. Only then did Ao Xinyu step down from the platform, still watching him with visible concern.
“You better be careful… or else… I won’t know how to explain it to Sister Wanyuan.”
“Mm.”
Lin Que gave a small nod, then turned his gaze toward the horizon.
The last sliver of the setting sun was now slipping beneath the western mountains, with darkness slowly swallowing the lingering glow.
“Looks like I’ll be getting home a bit late today.”
He let out a light sigh and spoke in a slow, almost casual tone.
Then, he turned to look at Liu Yongge who was now grinning wickedly.
“When your Pavilion Master was whispering just now, she must’ve been telling you the weakness of my Wildflame Saber, right?” Liu Yongge sneered. “Too bad. For years since my defeat at the hands of Gu Minghao, I’ve long since overcome that flaw! Her information is outdated!”
Lin Que didn’t respond. He hadn’t intended to use that method to beat Liu Yongge anyway. If he had, it wouldn’t even qualify as a warm-up.
“No more nonsense. Let’s begin.”
The weapon Lin Que drew wasn’t the flying sword he had thrown earlier. It was a blade still wrapped in chains, its scabbard tightly sealed.
“You’re not even unsheathing it? You looking down on me?!”
But—
Lin Que still didn’t respond. He simply drove his sword into the tiled ground behind him, then gave his wrist a light rotation. Clenching his fists, it looked like he intended to fight barehanded.
“Good, good! No wonder you were once the top contender. Truly arrogant beyond compare!”
Liu Yongge casually swung his hand, driving his saber deep into the ground. He clenched his fists, joints crackling with explosive pops. Muscles knotted and swelled across his frame, veins bulging, as his already massive body expanded to more than twice its original size.
Standing opposite Lin Que, his enormous shadow slanted across the ground like a small mountain looming overhead.
Anyone could see the stark difference in their builds and just how formidable Liu Yongge’s body-tempering technique was.
In contrast, Lin Que not only trailed by an entire major realm in cultivation, but his physique also appeared utterly unremarkable, with nothing that stood out.
While the spectators murmured below the platform, the last rays of the setting sun were finally devoured by darkness.
Night had fallen.
The fight was about to erupt.
Liu Yongge struck first. Muscles in his legs tensed, and with a sudden burst of force from his feet, he shattered the tiles beneath him and shot toward Lin Que in a flash. He launched a punch, the force so strong that it sent several tiles behind Lin Que flying.
He had assumed that Lin Que would surely dodge the blow. But to his shock, Lin Que didn’t retreat at all. Instead, he stepped forward into a low stance and met the punch head-on with his left fist.
Bang!
A deafening impact rang out, kicking up a cloud of dust and sand. From within the swirling haze, a large figure stumbled backward. It was Liu Yongge.
He stared at his trembling right fist. His pupils contracted and his eyes were full of disbelief.
Liu Yongge was a full major realm above Lin Que! And on top of that, he prided himself on having a body second to none among cultivators of his level. Yet now, he had been forcefully knocked back with a single punch.
The body he was so proud of…had lost!
But it wasn’t over. Lin Que seized the moment of Liu Yongge’s stunned hesitation and flashed forward. Just when everyone thought Liu Yongge was about to take a heavy blow, Lin Que suddenly opened his fist into a palm—
Smack!
A loud, crisp slap echoed across the dueling platform.
The entire audience fell silent.
Liu Yongge reached out in a daze to touch the spot where Lin Que had just slapped him. It was already swollen high, the imprint of the hand clear as day, with traces of blood seeping from the skin. It was proof of just how much force had gone into that slap.
“You humiliated me!”
“Those who humiliate others should be prepared to be humiliated in return.”
Lin Que spoke calmly. It was the first thing he had said since stepping onto the dueling platform.
“If you’re not satisfied, then hit me back. But… do you even have what it takes?”
Lin Que rarely talked trash, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t.
At his taunt, Liu Yongge bared his teeth, grinding them so hard they clicked.
Below the platform, the younger innkeeper sister pointed excitedly at the stage and said to her older sister who was still icing her bruised cheek, “Sister, look! Senior Lin is standing up for you!”
Cui’er said nothing in response, only smiling faintly. But in her heart, an unexpected warmth stirred.
“Well done!” Ao Xinyu cheered from below, rooting for Lin Que just like she had during the Eastern Region Tournament all those years ago.
“I’ll kill you!”
Liu Yongge abandoned hand-to-hand combat. With a furious roar, he leapt into the air, yanking the saber from the ground and swinging it at Lin Que in a rage-fueled arc.
However—
The blade missed. Lin Que shifted his body to the side, dodging the strike by a hair’s breadth. The saber slammed into the ground once more.
Sensing danger, Liu Yongge tried to pull the weapon back for another strike only to find Lin Que’s foot already pressing firmly on the back of the blade, locking it in place.
Not good!
Almost the instant that thought formed, Lin Que struck with lightning speed. Another crisp slap landed on Liu Yongge’s face.
This time, it was the left cheek.
And with that slap, Lin Que didn’t follow up. He simply turned and planted a powerful kick into Liu Yongge’s chest, sending him flying several meters across the platform until he skidded to a stop right at its edge.
“You—!”
Liu Yongge felt a surge of blood rush to his head. He shifted his stance, raising the saber high above him, then twisted his waist to drive the blade into a spinning arc around his body. Blade aura swirled into an impenetrable vortex, forming what seemed like an invincible wall.
So this is the counterattack method he mentioned earlier.
Lin Que stood outside the range of the saber aura, arms folded. He made no move to interrupt or rush in. He was simply observing and analyzing.
Burning through spiritual energy and physical strength to build momentum… looks like he’s aiming to end this quickly.
The spinning saber aura raised the temperature across the dueling platform. Flames began to rise from the saber itself, whipping into the air.
“When Wildflame rises, who dares stand against me!”
The saber, wreathed in heat and flame, radiated intense waves that cracked and shattered the surrounding tiles just from proximity as if it could melt steel in an instant.
Liu Yongge stepped forward again, slashing horizontally at Lin Que, aiming to cut him clean in half.
But—
Lin Que slipped past it once more with that same strange, mysterious footwork. It looked impossibly close, yet the blade missed again. Not even the roaring heat touched the hem of his robes.
Another swing, another miss.
The crowd gasped in disbelief.
Just how precise did one’s control over distance have to be to pull that off? Such a feat demanded not only exceptional spiritual sense but also nerves of steel.
By now, many cultivators in the audience had recognized Lin Que’s identity: the once-unmatched champion of the Eastern Region.
Quietly, they took note of this moment.
Before their shock could fully settle, Lin Que had already closed the gap, taking advantage of the opening after Liu Yongge’s swing. He stepped inside the saber’s range…
And landed another slap across his face.
Humiliation. Pure, unrestrained humiliation.
“You’ve gone too far! You’ve gone too far!!!”
Liu Yongge’s eyes bulged with fury, and within that blazing glare was the reflection of Lin Que’s calm, water-like figure.
Driven by rage, he unleashed dozens of strikes in quick succession, each one fiercer than the last. If it were not for the protective formation surrounding the duelling platform, it would already have been cleaved apart.
And yet—
Amid this violent storm of attacks, Lin Que remained untouched, as though not even a leaf could cling to him. Not only did none of the strikes land, but he even managed to retaliate with a slap across Liu Yongge’s face.
At last, with both his momentum and fury reaching their peak, Liu Yongge let out a thunderous roar and soared into the sky. Standing atop the void, he looked down upon the dueling platform below.
He raised his saber high. The wild flames engulfing the blade surged, swelling into a monstrous flame edge dozens of meters tall. Towering into the clouds, it bathed the entire platform in blazing light, like a second sun.
“Lin Que! You like dodging, don’t you? Let’s see you dodge this!”
He had finally gone all out.
Lin Que drew a deep breath and raised his left hand. The longsword planted in the ground flew straight into his palm.
In that instant, his entire demeanor shifted. The moment he gripped the sword, his sword aura became so fierce that even spectators in the stands felt a shiver in their hearts.
He stood tall against the wind, unmoving…only his sword intent continued to surge, layer upon layer.
Finally, the colossal blade of flame in the sky ignited a blinding arc of fire, crashing down like a mountain with unstoppable force.
Lin Que did not dodge. He raised his sword to the sky. His sword qi tore through the heavens.
The two forces collided.
And in the next moment, that mountain-like flame blade shattered like fragile glass. The embers scattered in all directions, falling like brilliant fire rain… like the grand finale of a fireworks display.
The momentum of the sword qi did not falter. It shattered the saber in Liu Yongge’s hands outright. The force was so overwhelming that both of his arms, unable to withstand the pressure, broke on the spot.
Liu Yongge didn’t even have time to scream. He fell amid the hail of fire, crashing hard into the ground and becoming embedded in it until he lost consciousness.
Meanwhile, Lin Que stood high above, sword in hand, gazing down at everything below.
In that moment, he truly resembled a transcendent sword immortal….ethereal, unreachable, and yet awe-inspiring beyond words.
“So this is… chief disciple Lin Que?”
Ping’er, the younger of the two innkeepers, stared at Lin Que in a daze. After a long pause, she blinked. She turned to look at her older sister only to catch a faint glimmer of admiration in her eyes.
And as for their Pavilion Master Ao Xinyu?
She had already turned into a full-blown fangirl. She was cheering and celebrating Lin Que’s victory with all her heart.
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