Chapter 775: Chapter 774: Xuanwu Sword King
"I lost."
Ding Xuefu murmured to herself, slightly in a daze.
Since childhood, she had been secretly nurtured by Heavenly Snow Mountain, with several elders pouring their hearts into her cultivation. She advanced rapidly, outpacing everyone of her age. Even when she learned about the commotion Young Dragon caused in Heavenly Snow Mountain, she never thought herself inferior, only lacking time.
This time, she had the heavy burden of restoring the reputation of her clan. Having come out of the mountain, she originally thought she would bulldoze through her opponents. But to her surprise, she was defeated by someone[AO1] of her own age just as she stepped into the competition.
There was absolutely no excuse for her defeat.
"Miss, you don’t need to be too disheartened."
A gentle voice rang out, causing Ding Xuefu to look up in surprise.
Shi Xiaole, meeting her baffled gaze, conveyed to her telepathically, "You’re great, with a promising future. I believe among your peers, you’d be rated in the top ten."
"But I still lost to you."
Ding Xuefu’s telepathic response was tinged with bitterness, resignation, and a hint of admiration.
She thought because he was so considerate, he would comfort her. However, Shi Xiaole said like it was the most normal thing in the world, "Losing to me, that’s to be expected, right?"
Ding Xuefu: "..."
"Don’t compare yourself with me. It’s not fair to you and will only add unnecessary pressure."
Blushing with anger, Ding Xuefu retorted, "You arrogant fool! Just you wait, I’ll beat you someday."
Watching her storm off the stage, Shi Xiaole couldn’t help but smile.
He harbored no grudge against Heavenly Snow Mountain and didn’t want to destroy their outstanding disciple. He also didn’t want to be resented by the mountain.
In all fairness, Ding Xuefu was impressive. Although she didn’t quite match the "Big Five Monsters," she still only lagged one level behind. If she has some lucky encounters in the future, it’s not impossible for her to catch up.
From Shi Xiaole’s perspective, he hoped that those who came after him would continue to grow stronger and strive to surpass him. Pressure leads to motivation. By now, he had begun to sense the cold loneliness at the top.
At least among those of the same stage, this was the case.
"Xuefu, what did that boy say to you that got you so upset?"
Back in her seat, Elder Wang asked Ding Xuefu telepathically.
Ding Xuefu replied in a low voice, "Nothing much, Elder. Please rest assured, when I return to the mountain, I’ll practice twice as hard to wash away today’s humiliation."
She wasn’t a fool. Once she calmed down, she realized that what Shi Xiaole said was for the sake of dispelling her inner demons. Instead of being angry, she felt a secret gratitude towards him.
Of course, when she said that she was going to beat Shi Xiaole, she meant it. In Miss Ding’s eyes, this was the greatest respect towards an opponent!
"Even Ding Xuefu lost. Could it be that there’s really no one among our peers that can beat Kirin?"
"At least not for now. If we’re talking about a thousand years ago, maybe only the Martial Emperor could have matched him!"
"Being peerless of his level is normally a compliment, but for Kirin, it seems to have become an unshakeable truth. This boy is truly one of a kind."
With a successive streak of victories, everyone watched the figure in green on the stage with nothing but astonishment.
"This guy really does know his stuff. I bet his quick reactions could leave many brothers and sisters unable to even get their hidden weapons out."
A young man from the Tang Sect murmured, his face bleak.
Tang Mei on his side heard him and casually asked with a seductive smile, "What about you?"
"Me? If he’s using eighty percent of his power, I’ll ensure he can’t unsheathe his sword. If he’s at seventy percent, he’ll at most manage two moves."
Tang Zhiyang replied confidently.
The Tang Sect’s hidden weapons technique and poison methods are beyond what ordinary people in the Martial World can imagine. So even if Kirin was exceptionally strong, he could only admire his power.
When it came to life and death, Tang Zhiyang was confident he could easily kill his opponent.
In fact, to him, saying that Shi Xiaole was only using seventy to eighty percent of his real strength was already a high estimation. His honest answer would be eighty to ninety percent.
No matter how strong a person, they must have a limit; otherwise, they would ascend to heaven.
"No, I must fight him as soon as possible!"
Duanmu Keren’s phoenix eyes were filled with the intense desire for battle.
Mu Ling glanced at her and felt a chill in his heart.
He wouldn’t be foolish enough to think that Duanmu Keren wanted to fight Shi Xiaole because she was confident of winning. On the contrary, he heard fear in her words.
Regardless of whether they admit it or not, as one of the "Big Five Monsters," they couldn’t afford to be indifferent to failure like others. The record of long-term invincibility also made them hope to keep it going.
So they didn’t dare to officially challenge Shi Xiaole out of fear of ruining their unbeatable golden body.
But fear of challenging itself is scarier than losing, signifying they lacked confidence. Besides, with Shi Xiaole’s inhuman rate of improvement, the longer they delayed, the higher their chances of failure became.
So, Duanmu Keren became anxious.
Mu Ling lowered his head, and when he looked up again, a smirk had formed on the edge of his lips, "I’ll join you."
After exhausting nearly forty percent of his strength, Shi Xiaole had to return to his tent to adjust his condition.
After him, many others eagerly took the stage, led by the high-ranking swordsman in the Divine Barrier Realm, all aimed for the Earth-level stage.
However, the tricky part is that none of them could beat Shi Xiaole’s Array System shadow.
Inside the three battles, Shi Xiaole revealed no more than forty percent of his true strength, and the light projection in the Array System replicated at most eighty percent of it.
In other words, the Array System’s light shadow created by Shi Xiaole was only thirty-two percent of his true strength. This did not even take into account factors such as adapting to the situation. Despite this, it remained like a roadblock, halting a large number of swordsmen who were challenging him from behind.
Some well-known swordsmen couldn’t even withstand ten moves, and only a handful of the Sword Kings on the Earth Immortal List managed to bear up against approximately one hundred moves, causing jaws to drop in surprise.
Upon reflecting on Gong Thirteen and Ding Xuefu, who had battled Shi Xiaole, everyone finally recognized the true strength of those two at their respective level.
Before anyone realized it, the sunset appeared on the horizon, painting the clouds a striking shade of orange-red.
A middle-aged man with a full beard stood up, immediately attracting a lot of attention.
The Six Evils Martial King from the Blood Emperor’s Den was staring intently at him.
With a leap, the bearded man landed smoothly onto the star-level stage. At this moment, several intense gazes shot at him from the void.
The people at the scene, even though they were prepared, felt their hearts pounding.
"Xuanwu Sword King has finally made a move."
"There are only seven star-level swordsmen in total, I wonder if Xuanwu Sword King can succeed."
"Most likely not, but this is a good chance to see his strength."
Being a top ten potential contender among the top hundred Earth Immortals, the moment ’Xuanwu Sword King’ Wu Buyu appeared, he immediately captured everyone’s attention, even eclipsing Shi Xiaole.
No matter how remarkable the latter was, he was still a rising star among the younger generation, and his future was uncertain. On the contrary, Wu Buyu was a formidable giant of the Martial World. During an era where Void Origin Realm experts were rare, no one could deny that he dominated the world.
Such a dignitary challenging the star-level stage naturally created a sensation in the Martial World.
The men sent by the Divine Strategy Academy were already spreading blank scrolls on the table, ready to write at any moment.
Even Elder, the host of Sword Evaluation Elegant Mountain, straightened up his body, observing attentively.
Shi Xiaole also didn’t miss this opportunity. He had been planning to challenge the star-level stage, so it was a fitting time to watch this duel in order to get an idea about his own potential.
Hum!
The white figure appeared once again on Wu Buyu’s side.
"Sorry for the offense, Dustless senior."
With a full bow, Wu Buyu drew his Xuanwu sword from his waist, kicked the ground, and directly slashed at the white figure.
The raging earth-yellow Sword Qi wave after wave, seemed endless, destructive to anything within its reach.
The white figure swung its sword, creating numerous intersecting circles in front of it.
As the earth-yellow Sword Qi struck, it immediately swept away part of the circle. However, it split and rushed along the arc of the circle, crashing hard against the light screen beyond the stage.
Crash!
As though the earth shook and the mountains swayed, the Array System’s light screen was thrust several meters outwards before rebounding. The impact formed an energy that split the thousands of miles of sea clouds outside the cliff in two, astonishing many spectators.
To be known, the cultivation restriction of the star-level stage was at the peak of the Divine Barrier Realm, and Wu Buyu was at this realm. In other words, this was just a casual strike from him, but its power was overwhelming.
"Rain Million Tough Cut!"
In dealing with the Dustless Sword Emperor, Wu Buyu did not have any intention of probing. He held the sword with his right hand and stroked the blade with his left. As his palm repeatedly wavered outward, countless sword filaments burst out.
Each of these sword filaments was only three inches long, but they were extraordinarily tough. Once they struck the circle, they stretched to three times their length, and eventually cut the circle in two under high-speed friction.
Countless sparks splashed out. The white figure was calm, with the turning of the long sword, the sword strands automatically bypassed him.
"Rain Rapid Sky Stab!"
Wu Buyu stabbed out with his sword. At the tip of the Xuanwu sword, there appeared a halo that constantly extended backward, making the momentum of his stab reach its peak rapidly, as if time had stopped.
Clang!
The reaction of the white figure was certainly swift, but upon the clashing of the two swords, it was still forced to retreat.
"Retreat!"
Earlier, when Xiao Lingyun challenged the phantom of the Dustless Sword Emperor, he used all his might without moving it. Compared to the current Xuanwu Sword King, the gap was evident.
Sizzle!
An awe-inspiring aura erupted from the body of Xuanwu Sword King. Even though separated by the Array System’s light screen, that penetrating Sword Qi made many people shiver, and their pores prickle.
"Xuanwu Sword Technique at mid-level of completion!"
A swordsman, on par with Wu Buyu, winced.
What Wu Buyu mastered was the top-of-the-line martial art- Xuanwu Sword Technique, which could significantly amplify its destructive power during an attack, enhance its resistance during defense, and switch between offense and defense within a thought.
Naturally, the difficulty of improving the Xuanwu Sword Technique was much higher than other top-level sword techniques.
In the past, Wu Buyu’s Xuanwu Sword Technique was just at the beginning of completion, which had already made the Martial World tremble. Now that it had reached the mid-level of completion, it was not surprising that he could force back the phantom of the Dustless Sword Emperor.
"Open Armor!"
Like a cannonball, Wu Buyu shot out and swept his long sword. The overbearing Sword Qi instantly struck the white figure and obliterated it.
The sword momentum continued to surge. Wu Buyu made two horizontal and vertical cuts, creating a cross-shaped Sword Qi in the void, followed by two, three, and countless more.
Clatter!
The white figure that appeared ten feet away was hit repeatedly, gradually becoming dim.
