Chapter 71: A Formidable Opponent

“How long are those two going to keep acting all sticky and mushy with each other? Aren’t they going to fight?”

Wen Xu fell silent for a moment, then offered rare praise. “Sticky and mushy. That’s an impressively inspired choice of words.”

Ever since hearing that absurd piece of gossip, he really had, ahem, become prone to overthinking things.

Cultivation was supposed to make a person increasingly detached and ethereal, yet ever since he joined Yonglu Mountain, he had only become more worldly. According to Chunzhou, this was called being down-to-earth.

“Really?”

“No.”

Chen Zui deflated. He had gotten excited for nothing.

Fortunately, he did not have to wait much longer. The two people onstage finally began fighting. Both were talisman masters, and both had water among their spiritual roots. At first, they traded talismans back and forth in a measured exchange. Anyone who did not know better might have thought it was… some kind of instructional match.

It was just…

Chen Zui lacked the vocabulary to describe it.

But while Chen Zui could not describe it, the vast audience of disciples certainly could.

This gentle drizzle, these meaningful glances, this…

As expected, Senior Brother Shi really did treat him differently!

The evidence was conclusive, friends!

Everyone appeared silent, but they had already exchanged ten thousand lines of gossip in their heads, not a single one repeated. The growing brightness in their eyes made it obvious that they had thoroughly enjoyed today’s spectacle.

The outcome of the match came as no surprise. Bian Chunzhou lost, and Shi Yijian became the first to claim a place among the final five.

“Why do I feel like everyone’s looking at me strangely?”

It was the kind of strange that made his scalp prickle.

No way, no way. He had clearly held himself back already. Were these people really so undiscerning? Pairing up anyone they laid eyes on was not exactly a good habit, was it?

Bian Chunzhou grabbed his two friends and fled as though escaping for his life. For the next little while, he had no desire whatsoever to cross paths with Senior Brother Shi.

These people truly had nothing better to do. They had even dug up the tiny matter of him once speaking a few fair words on Senior Brother Shi’s behalf.

Was that really necessary?

Was it?

Then, beneath the arena where Wen Xu was facing the outer disciple Han Yu, Bian Chunzhou ran into Shi Yijian again.

Well, then.

This was…

Senior Brother Shi, your name really was not wasted on you. You truly were “easy to see,” weren’t you?

“Are you thinking that I’m haunting you like a persistent ghost?”

Bian Chunzhou shook his head furiously. “I’m not. I didn’t. I never said that. Did Senior Brother Shi come to scout the enemy?”

Shi Yijian copied him and shook his head. “No. I came to… How much do you know about Han Yu?”

“Senior Brother Han Yu? I’m not acquainted with him. I’ve only heard that his family is wealthy and that, like Senior Sister Ming Jing, he entered the sect with a recommendation slot. He’s bold and generous, and he’s good at socializing. I’ve heard that many outer disciples have received his help. Senior Brother Han Yu may not be as famous as Senior Sister Huo Shengyin, but he’s still one of the favorites to win this tournament.”

It was very official.

It sounded like he had said a great deal, but in truth, he had said nothing at all.

“Do you think Junior Granduncle-Master might lose?”

Bian Chunzhou defended his friends without a thought. He immediately raised his voice. “How could he?”

It was not as though Wen Xu had never defeated someone at the peak of the Qi Refining Realm before.

“You two…”

Shi Yijian liked the sincerity and brightness in Bian Chunzhou. But cultivation was not child’s play. Even a warm and harmonious place like Yonglu Mountain had people consumed by selfish motives.

Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the human heart was easily thrown off balance.

Who knew whether the brightness in Junior Brother Bian’s eyes would dim after a few more years?

“You’re very close?”

“Of course. We’re going to be best friends for the rest of our lives.”

The young man before him did not seem to realize just how long a cultivator’s life could be.

That was especially true for Yonglu Mountain’s Junior Granduncle-Master.

With outstanding talent and such an illustrious lineage, barring any accidents, Wen Xu would become the next Sword Venerable Mei Xi.

Yonglu Mountain also seemed to be deliberately downplaying the existence of this Junior Granduncle-Master. It was a form of protection for an exceptional genius.

Thus, whether he won or lost today’s match was not terribly important to the Junior Granduncle-Master onstage, whose sharpness was only just beginning to show.

Shi Yijian had once experienced what it was like to be a genius too.

Unfortunately, later…

A cultivator’s path was like climbing a mountain peak.

Along the way, one would see many sights and meet many people. Some would obstruct your cultivation. Others would accompany you for part of the journey.

But the higher you climbed, the lonelier you became.

It was unavoidable.

“Best friends for life? How enviable.”

Hearing this, Bian Chunzhou laughed. “Senior Brother Shi, do you also think I’m overestimating myself?”

Ever since entering the sect, plenty of people had said that he and Chen Zui were clinging to Wen Xu’s thigh.

After all, in terms of spiritual-root talent and lineage, Wen Xu was far ahead of them.

The difference did not seem large now, but once they reached the Nascent Soul Realm or Soul Transformation Realm, the gap would surely be as vast as heaven and earth.

But someone like Chen Zui simply could not understand that kind of talk.

He might not even have realized how special Wen Xu was.

In his eyes, Bian Chunzhou and Wen Xu were equals. Both were his friends.

As for Bian Chunzhou, he understood those words perfectly well.

But falling out with his best friend because of a few irrelevant people?

He would have to have his brain snapped in half before doing something that stupid.

…

There was truly no way to respond to that.

Junior Brother Bian’s words charged straight ahead without the slightest restraint.

Shi Yijian turned his head in surprise and met the junior brother’s bright, clear eyes.

“Actually, I’ve heard things like that many times already. But other people are other people, and I am me. Senior Brother, you must be a very ambitious person.”

In other words, a terminally competitive perfectionist.

“Why do you say that? Since you came to Yonglu Mountain, don’t you have ambition too?”

“I have some, more or less, but I’m definitely not as aggressive about it as you are.” Bian Chunzhou shrugged. “Senior Brother, you think too far ahead. You’ve already started judging your present self harshly over things that haven’t even happened yet. Don’t you think you’re being too hard on yourself?”

Shi Yijian began to marvel at this junior brother’s state of mind.

“The person I am right now deserves the very best. All of you only see Wen Xu’s dazzling identity and talent, but you don’t see the hard work behind his cultivation. I can see it. That’s why I’m his good friend.”

Society had rules.

The cultivation world had them too.

Every cultivator lived while both following convention and defying it.

Shi Yijian had always believed that.

And then—

A singular oddity appeared.

“So the person you are right now is the best version of yourself?”

This had already entered the realm of discussing the Dao and questioning the heart.

Clearly, this senior brother had not yet entered the Foundation Establishment Realm because confusion lingered in his heart.

Bian Chunzhou thought, Wow, I even figured out something like this. Do I know too much?

“Would nodding make me seem a little narcissistic?”

Shi Yijian stared blankly for a moment, then suddenly laughed.

“No. Junior Brother Bian, the sincerity of your Dao heart is comparable to a mutated single spiritual root.”

…

What kind of newfangled compliment was that?

“I’ll be going on ahead. I hope you attain what you wish for.”

With that, Shi Yijian quickly left against the flow of the crowd.

Bian Chunzhou scratched his head.

Attain what he wished for?

Did he mean Wen Xu winning?

That was strangely baffling.

“What are you spacing out for? The match has started.”

At some point, Chen Zui had squeezed his way over.

Hearing him, Bian Chunzhou looked up. The fighting onstage had already become thoroughly dazzling.

And no, “dazzling” was not an exaggeration.

Good heavens.

He had only heard that Senior Brother Han Yu was rich, but being rich to this degree was…

A little too astonishing, wasn’t it?

Was this the cultivation version of paying to win?

Did spirit stones not count as spirit stones to him?

Bian Chunzhou looked toward his friend in concern. But perhaps because Wen Xu could not see, he fought with exceptional steadiness.

Wen Xu’s state of mind was indeed perfectly calm.

This was not his first time fighting someone at the peak of the Qi Refining Realm.

Just as his master had said, spell combat was not determined by how much cultivation or spiritual power a person possessed. What mattered was a cultivator’s control over spiritual power and their ability to adapt themselves flexibly.

In plain terms, one had to know how to respond to changing circumstances.

Without even the most basic ability to counter an opponent’s moves as they came, even a high cultivation level was nothing but a label.

Setting aside Han Yu’s spirit-stone-heavy fighting style, Wen Xu quickly discovered that his opponent was a very typical talisman-focused spellcaster.

Chunzhou followed the same path, so Wen Xu naturally understood talisman masters well.

Unlike Chunzhou’s method of adapting talismans to his spiritual roots, Han Yu had five spiritual roots, each of equal thickness.

This was also called a primordial spiritual root.

A primordial spiritual root actually had excellent potential, but because all five elements had to be cultivated together, it consumed an enormous number of spirit stones.

Most cultivators with five spiritual roots would focus on cultivating the thickest one or two, devoting little attention to the rest.

But Han Yu was rich.

He poured spirit stones lavishly into every single spiritual root. As a result, his cultivation speed was not slow at all.

Most importantly, he was not stupid.

On the contrary, he was extremely intelligent.

It was only because he usually carried the image of a “wealth-scattering boy” that everyone automatically viewed him through the filter of “more money than sense.”

After fighting Han Yu for only a short while, Wen Xu realized that he was a very shrewd cultivator.

He appeared to spend extravagantly, but in reality, he calculated every expense with care. He could even place his talismans with remarkable precision onto the arrays Wen Xu had layered together.

This was a formidable opponent.

Wen Xu closed his fan and used it as a sword.

First Form of the Nine Revolutions Sword Art: A Breeze Suddenly Rises.

In truth, Wen Xu had never devoted much attention to swordsmanship.

For one thing, he did not believe his talent was particularly high, so it did not seem worth investing too much effort.

For another, a wind spiritual root was not well suited to close combat.

The combat method he had devised for himself revolved around layering arrays and using the Folding Wind Fan.

But the Folding Wind Fan had once been damaged because of his rash carelessness. Later, Senior Brother Zheng Jin reforged it for him.

When Wen Xu received it again, he immediately realized it had changed.

Originally, the Folding Wind Fan’s aura had been sharp and intensely aggressive.

After being reforged, however, it became much more restrained.

It remained just as wild when used, but while at rest, it looked little different from an ordinary folding fan.

Yet that was not its greatest change.

Its greatest change was that it could transform between a folding fan and a spirit sword.

Without question, this suited Wen Xu even better.

It was also how he had won five arena matches in a row.

But Wen Xu keenly sensed that this was not the best way to use it.

Switching flexibly between forms could certainly catch an opponent off guard. Yet a sword and a fan were two different weapons.

Changing between them too frequently meant losing the full limits of each weapon’s power.

And so, Wen Xu took up sword practice once more.

This time, he began forcing himself to understand the deeper meaning of sword arts.

Why, exactly, was the sword worth a sword cultivator spending their entire life trying to comprehend?

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