Chapter 169: Chapter 165: Post-battle Review, Accidentally Becoming a True Successor Candidate
Even though Liu Chixin’s body had already fallen to the ground, Du Youqian didn’t dare to relax. He regulated his breathing for a moment, then directed his Flying Sword, imbued with an unstoppable Sword Intent, to strike Liu Chixin’s vital points several times.
As for whether mutilating the corpse like this would diminish its value...
That had just been a Heart Attack Art, anyway. Du Youqian really wasn’t hurting for the chump change he’d get from selling the body.
Most Demon Sect Cultivators possessed many bizarre techniques. Du Youqian wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised if Liu Chixin still had a breath left in him, or if he’d attached his soul to some object in preparation for a sneak attack to turn the tables. It was better to be safe than sorry.
Just then, Fang Simin and Gu Xiaofang rushed over, having heard the commotion.
Du Youqian signaled for them not to come closer. He then took out a Copper Mirror and scanned Liu Chixin’s body meticulously. Only then did he relax and walk over to speak with Luo Jinyu and Fang Hua.
"I’m sorry, Brother Yu," Luo Jinyu said, his face full of shame. "I wasn’t much help. I couldn’t even withstand ten of that man’s moves. I was injured before I even had a chance to use the Soul-Extinguishing Lamp."
Objectively speaking, Luo Jinyu’s Magical Combat skills weren’t bad.
His equipment could even be described as luxurious.
As a Foundation Establishment Early Stage Cultivator, he would never lose a Magical Combat duel against an ordinary Foundation Establishment Middle Stage Inner Disciple.
But that man from earlier... ’Crap, what was his name?’ Du Youqian realized he’d killed him without even asking...
’Oh, well.’ In any case, that man was a trusted subordinate of the True Successor Candidate Liu Chixin, someone far beyond the level of an ordinary Inner Disciple. Furthermore, his Cultivation had reached the Foundation Establishment Late Stage.
It was only normal that Luo Jinyu was no match for him.
Du Youqian offered a few words of comfort before asking what had happened.
Luo Jinyu explained that Liu Chixin had swaggered up to their door, speaking arrogantly and demanding that Du Youqian come out to personally greet him.
Luo Jinyu had immediately refused, stating that Du Youqian was in seclusion and could not personally greet him.
Liu Chixin had laughed and said he’d long heard that "Yu Guardian Envoy" was arrogant, but now he could see that even his servant was haughty, so the rumors must be true.
Then, without another word, he’d ordered his servant to test Luo Jinyu’s mettle.
Luo Jinyu was defeated and knocked unconscious after just a few moves. Just as his opponent was about to finish him off, Fang Hua arrived and engaged the man in battle.
After listening and briefly analyzing the story, Du Youqian came to a conclusion.
Luo Jinyu’s account was likely true; it was simple, objective, and unembellished.
Fang Hua was a little uneasy. "Fellow Daoist Yu, since the Liu Chixin you just killed was the sixth-ranked True Successor Candidate, won’t there be repercussions?"
Du Youqian was unconcerned. "There will be some repercussions, sure," he said with a smile. "But so what? He came to my door looking for a fight. I can’t just let him walk all over me. His killing intent was resolute, and his Magical Combat abilities were on par with mine. If I had hesitated for even an instant, I’d be the one who’s dead."
Gu Xiaofang added, "Exactly! Brother Fei, it’s better that you killed him than the other way around. Better to be alive and face the Sect’s punishment than to be dead and hope the Sect will avenge you. Besides... whether the word ’justice’ even exists in our Holy Blood Sect is another question entirely."
Du Youqian wasn’t worried. "My master is a Core Formation Master, and Liu Chixin attacked first. I have a Memory Stone to prove it. Even if the Sect punishes me, it won’t be too severe. There’s no need to worry."
Luo Jinyu was still uneasy, and even blamed himself. "It’s all my fault. If I had handled the situation better, they wouldn’t have found an excuse to attack. If I were stronger and hadn’t been knocked out, you wouldn’t have had to resort to killing him right away, would you, Brother Yu?"
Du Youqian knew his personality and didn’t try to console him further. He just patted him on the shoulder. "Cultivate diligently, Junior Luo. If something like this happens again, I hope you’ll be able to fight by my side."
"I will." Luo Jinyu’s voice was soft, but it carried an unshakeable resolve.
Du Youqian told him to go and treat his injuries. Once they were stabilized, he was to return to the Sect with the Memory Stone and report Liu Chixin’s death.
Gu Xiaofang went to loot the corpse and take care of repairing the damaged reception hall.
Du Youqian and Fang Hua went into seclusion to debrief the battle and learn from the experience.
Fang Hua asked about the intention behind Du Youqian’s every sword strike and every use of Magic, and he explained each one in detail.
’I’m forging an incredibly sharp Divine Sword for myself, so why would I be impatient?’
"You two exchanged hundreds of blows. Why didn’t either of you use a decisive, match-ending move?"
Du Youqian smiled. "’Peak performance can’t be sustained.’ A decisive move is incredibly powerful, but it also consumes a massive amount of energy and leaves a huge opening. A ’decisive move’—who decides the outcome? Who wins, and who loses? If you use it when you’re certain of victory, you can end the fight in a single blow. But if you use it when you’re not, you’re just hastening your own defeat. The gap in strength and trump cards between myself and Liu Chixin wasn’t large. Logically, even if I had managed to defeat him, I should have paid a heavy price. But look at me. Am I injured?"
Fang Hua nodded. "You’re completely unscathed. So, the reason you won so easily, Fellow Daoist Yu, is because he lost his patience and used his decisive move when he wasn’t confident he could win?"
"Correct," Du Youqian said, his expression serious. "Furthermore, I knew he wouldn’t be able to hold back. I was waiting for him to use his decisive move."
"How did you know he wouldn’t be able to hold back?" Fang Hua asked, confused.
Du Youqian explained patiently, "The competition for the True Inheritor position in the Holy Blood Sect has reached a fever pitch. At a time like this, the stronger candidates will first team up to eliminate the weaker ones, preventing them from taking advantage of the chaos."
"I’m relatively unknown in the Sect. After fighting me, Liu Chixin realized my true strength, but other people don’t know about it. If our fight dragged on too long, or worse, if he couldn’t defeat me, the other True Successor Candidates would perceive him as weak. He would then face an extremely perilous situation. That’s why he had to take a risk and go for broke. He just happened to lose his gamble."
Fang Hua exhaled softly. "I see. You consider so many factors for a single battle. Now that I think about it, maybe I don’t think about combat nearly enough."
"’War is a matter of life and death, a path to survival or ruin. It must be studied with the utmost care,’" Du Youqian said with a smile.
Fang Hua, thinking the word "war" he used referred to "weaponry," nodded in agreement.
"The hundreds of blows you two exchanged earlier looked dazzling, but they were all just probes. The outcome was only decided in the final few moments when the killing moves came out. I was a little worried when I saw him use that Quasi-Treasure. But on second thought, you’re the disciple of a Core Formation Master, so it’s perfectly normal for you to have a Talisman Treasure. Liu Chixin must have anticipated that you had one, right?"
Du Youqian smiled faintly. "Of course, he expected me to have trump cards, and he was prepared. What he didn’t expect, however, was that my actual strength was a cut above his estimation, which rendered all his preparations useless."
"I thought you were going to use the Reverse Blood Qi Transformation Technique," Fang Hua said, thoroughly confused. "A few years ago, when you fought the Taihe Sect’s Guardian Envoy, you used it right from the beginning. This Liu Chixin was obviously much stronger than that Guardian Envoy, yet you didn’t use any secret techniques for Burning Essence Blood at all."
Du Youqian shook his head. "Secret techniques that burn Essence Blood are incredibly taxing on the body, so it’s best to avoid them if possible. A few years ago, I was only at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage. When I fought that Guardian Envoy from the Taihe Sect, the gap in our Cultivation and Magical Power was too large. If I hadn’t used a Blood Burning Class secret technique, I would have been forced to play several trump cards. In that situation, using the Reverse Blood Qi Transformation Technique was actually the less costly choice."
"Today was different. Liu Chixin certainly knew Blood Burning Class techniques as well. If we had both used them, it would have been meaningless. You only use those kinds of techniques when you’re at a disadvantage and need to turn the tables. Obviously, I was never at a disadvantage. The moment he was, I killed him, giving him no time to use any Blood Burning Secret Skill."
"There’s one more thing I don’t understand," Fang Hua pressed. "At the end, you clearly had the upper hand and the initiative. You could have just worn him down and won. Why did you use up a powerful, single-use Sword Pill? You only have so many of those trump cards."
Du Youqian’s attitude toward Fang Hua was almost doting. He wanted to cultivate this talented woman’s abilities as quickly as possible, so his explanation was incredibly detailed. "Trump cards are meant to be used at critical moments. What’s the alternative? Die and leave them behind as war spoils for your enemy? I judged that to be a critical moment. For Liu Chixin to have achieved the sixth rank in the competition for True Inheritor, he was by no means weak. He certainly had other trump cards he hadn’t used yet."
"For example, he definitely had a Talisman Treasure and the Blood Burning Art. He might have even had other explosive Secret Techniques, or a powerful, last-resort Talisman. But he didn’t think he would lose to me, so he wanted to conserve his trump cards. After all, I wasn’t his primary opponent; he needed to save his best moves for the upcoming stages of the True Inheritor competition."
"I saw through his mindset, so I refused to give him a chance to play any more of his cards. The moment I saw an opportunity to kill him, I knew I had to seize it and give him absolutely no chance for a comeback."
「Sometime later.」
After Gu Xiaofang finished looting the bodies, he brought over everything he had found on Liu Chixin and his unnamed subordinate.
Smiling, Du Youqian showed the loot to Fang Hua. "See? I was right, wasn’t I? If I hadn’t seized the chance to use the Sword Pill to finish him, he might have had an opportunity to turn the tables and kill me."
Fang Hua gazed at the items: a Talisman Treasure from a Core Formation Master with two uses remaining, four Tier Three Talismans, and a single-use, Tier Three Lower Grade Yin Thunder Pearl...
She couldn’t help but stare in astonishment.
Several of those items were powerful enough to turn the tide of a battle.
If Du Youqian hadn’t acted decisively to kill him, the outcome would have truly been unpredictable.
And now, they were all Du Youqian’s spoils of war.
Compared to such a haul, what was one expended, single-use Sword Pill?
After reflecting for a moment, Fang Hua asked, "Fellow Daoist Yu, I recall your Holy Blood Sect has a certain rule. When you kill someone, you automatically acquire everything that belonged to them—their body, their soul, all their possessions, and... their status. So, does this mean you’re now the sixth-ranked True Successor Candidate in the Holy Blood Sect? Do you plan to compete for the position of True Inheritor?"
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