Zilian Sect, Youfeng Mountain.
On Enlightenment Terrace, sword light filled the air, transforming into lotus blossoms formed from sword qi. Three in the front and two behind. Five sword qi lotuses in total.
Shi Qingxuan circulated her spiritual power, and another sword lotus slowly manifested to her right front.
“As expected of Junior Sister Qingxuan, a true heaven-sent genius. In just three years you can already summon five sword lotuses….truly enviable.”
A long-skirted woman with her hair bound in a crown clapped her hands and praised.
The woman’s dress was white as fresh rice paper, decorated with three purple lotuses painted in a distinctive ink-wash style.
Shi Qingxuan sheathed her sword and smiled slightly. “Senior Sister Mo Yunyan flatters me. Senior Sister is the acknowledged prodigy of the sect. My skills are still far from adequate.”
Mo Yunyan wore a proud expression. She pulled a folding fan from her waist and snapped it open with a crisp sound. On the pale green fan surface was a painting of fish swimming in a lotus pond.
Looking closely, the golden carp in the painting moved as if they were alive, swimming within the scene.
On the other side of the fan were four bold, flowing characters: “Spring Pond Yanran.”
“Junior Sister Qingxuan, among the inner disciples you already stand out. If someone recommends you this year, you will surely become a personal disciple.”
Seeing Mo Yunyan’s eyes continually examining her, Shi Qingxuan thought to herself, “Could the rumors about Mo Yunyan in the sect actually be true?”
Before Shi Qingxuan could answer, she heard a Zilian Sect disciple speaking from a pavilion not far away.
“Have you heard? The Shura Sect and the Lingyue Sect are going to have some kind of sect duel.”
Hearing the words “Lingyue Sect”, Shi Qingxuan could not help but listen more carefully.
“A sect duel? What’s that?” The surrounding Zilian Sect disciples asked one after another.
By this time Shi Qingxuan and Mo Yunyan had already walked closer. Mo Yunyan closed her folding fan and tapped it lightly against her palm.
“I once read about ‘sect duels’ in some ancient texts.
It’s a method for two sects to compete against each other.
Each sect sends out its own experts, who face off against one another on the arena stage.”
“As expected of Senior Sister Yunyan…even matters from the ancient era are known to you so clearly,” one Zilian Sect disciple praised, and the surrounding disciples quickly echoed in agreement.
Mo Yunyan thought to herself that reading more books really was worthwhile.
She had learned about “sect duels” from several erotic ancient texts that had been passed down from antiquity.
Those books had dramatic, twisting plots, vivid and detailed descriptions, and even illustrations.
They were incredibly exciting.
“So this means the Lingyue Sect is going to compete against the Shura Sect?”
“Hahaha, that’s hilarious. Isn’t the Lingyue Sect just asking to be humiliated?”
“Even though the Shura Sect isn’t considered top-tier, the Shura Sect Master and his five hall masters are still quite powerful.”
The Zilian Sect disciples burst into laughter.
Mo Yunyan suddenly remembered something and quickly spoke up to stop them. “What nonsense are you talking about? Junior Sister Qingxuan and the Lingyue Sect—”
Shi Qingxuan smiled and interrupted her. “It has nothing to do with me.”
Mo Yunyan froze slightly. Could she have remembered incorrectly? She vaguely recalled that Shi Qingxuan had once transferred to their sect from the Lingyue Sect.
At that moment, the Zilian Sect disciples continued chatting.
“Hey, Zhao San, how many rounds do you think the Lingyue Sect can win?”
“I don’t know much about the Lingyue Sect…” The disciple called Zhao San frowned and thought for a moment. “They should be able to win seven or eight matches.”
“Just talking is boring. How about we make a bet. Whoever guesses correctly wins fifty spirit stones!”
Fifty spirit stones!
Everyone present were inner disciples of the Zilian Sect. Each month they only received about fifteen spirit stones, so a wager of fifty spirit stones was absolutely tempting.
What had started as casual chatter now included gambling, and the discussion immediately became far more heated.
“Alright… then I’ll guess seven matches,” Zhao San said, scratching the back of his head honestly.
At this moment, another disciple couldn’t help but say, “Zhao San, are you stupid? That Lingyue Sect may sound impressive, but in reality they probably can’t even gather seven people in their sect. Win seven matches against the Shura Sect? That would mean winning every single match. How is that possible?”
Zhao San froze. “Huh? I thought they were going to fight seventy or eighty matches.”
“It’s too late to regret it now. Bets are locked in.”
A short, chubby Zilian Sect disciple shouted loudly, “Zhao San bets that the Lingyue Sect will win seven matches!”
The disciples burst into laughter again, and Enlightment Terrace was instantly filled with cheerful noise.
“I bet three matches.”
“I bet two matches.”
“I… I bet one match!”
***
More and more Zilian Sect disciples gathered around. The vast majority bet that the Lingyue Sect would win either one or two matches.
Just then, someone tossed a bag of spirit stones onto the center of the betting pile.
“I bet… the Lingyue Sect won’t win a single match.”
The one who spoke was Shi Qingxuan.
Although she didn’t know much about the Shura Sect, she knew the Lingyue Sect extremely well.
When she left the Lingyue Sect, the strongest among them Feng Mingfei had only been at the Core Formation Realm.
Even if Feng Mingfei’s cultivation had improved somewhat over the past three years, she…
A cultivator with no backbone, always timid and indecisive.
How could she possibly defeat the Shura Sect?
A faint sneer unconsciously appeared at the corner of Shi Qingxuan’s lips.
***
“Achoo! Achoo!”
On Tianji Peak, Feng Mingfei who was practicing her sword suddenly sneezed twice in a row.
“Hehe, Senior Sister, I told you practicing sword like that would make you catch a cold…”
The little fox Bai Lingxue stopped and trotted over to Feng Mingfei’s side. With her hands on her hips, her white fox tail swayed gently from side to side, looking rather pleased with herself.
At this moment, Feng Mingfei was practicing sword while wearing an apron.
That’s right. Only an apron.
If there were a contest to judge how seductive cultivators looked, Feng Mingfei’s outfit would definitely score very high.
“You’re not any better,” Feng Mingfei snorted indignantly.
Bai Lingxue proudly shook the large lotus leaf draped over her body that barely covered her spring scenery. “I have a tail. It keeps me very warm.”
Her outfit would absolutely rank as the second highest-scoring look in that seductive contest.
“You! Two!”
Xu Chengfeng shouted, enunciating each word. “Put your clothes on, both of you!”
“But… in seven days the sect duel will begin. Grandmaster, you wouldn’t want the disciples of your sect to embarrass themselves on the arena stage, right?” Feng Mingfei glanced at a neatly folded set of clothes placed nearby.
That was Feng Mingfei’s only set of clothes. When she hunted the Purple-Scaled Demon Tiger before, the dress had already been torn in many places.
Although she had carefully stitched it back together, if one looked closely, the traces of patches could still be seen.
When cultivating, once sword qi is unleashed, clothing is bound to get damaged.
After seven days of intense training, the clothes would certainly suffer severe wear and tear.
Wearing clothes full of patches onto the arena would indeed look far too shabby.
Moreover, once clothing is damaged, even after being mended, its durability can never match what it once was. Its defensive ability would be greatly weakened.
The little fox Bai Lingxue was the same. She had also worn her white silk brocade dress for a long time. When she wasn’t going out, she would simply throw on a short shirt at random.
As cultivators, they naturally had enough gold and silver to buy ordinary mortal clothing.
However, the durability of mortal clothing was simply too weak.
Forget about withstanding attacks like an opponent’s sword qi. Even the circulation of their own spiritual energy could cause their clothes to burst apart.
If they wore mortal clothing during a match…
The image was too beautiful Xu Chengfeng didn’t dare to imagine it.
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