Cohabitation with Sword Spirit-Chapter 169 - 139: Special Dueling Techniques
October 25, 2017
When meeting in the finals, handing over the championship... That's obviously nonsense.
Although Li Wanqing does indeed want to see Lu Xin blush while bowing to Shen Qingming as a master, forming a little-girl-teacher-student duo, conceding in an official match would be an insult to everyone. Li Wanqing certainly wouldn't do such a thing.
In private sparring, it doesn't matter how you go easy, but in formal situations, you must give it your all. This has been Li Wanqing's creed for many years.
And if Li Wanqing gets serious, she really can't see how Little Sister Qingming could find even a sliver of opportunity...
Of course, there's no intention to belittle the opponent. Shen Qingming, having now been trained by Wang Jiu, has unleashed the accumulation of the past few years, advancing rapidly in the True Essence Realm, surpassing most cultivators of her age. Her physical constitution is incredibly formidable—comparing among her peers in both realm and age, she even surpasses Li Wanqing, who has innate divine power.
Objectively speaking, if it were 14-year-old Li Wanqing facing Shen Qingming, the odds would at most be fifty-fifty, perhaps even slightly inferior.
But now she is 17 years old and has refined the Primordial Treasure Armor from Yuqing Mountain, standing at the peak of her 17-year life. Why should 14-year-old Shen Qingming be able to compete with her?
Shen Qingming was also quite puzzled by this, so she cast a confused glance at Wang Jiu.
Wang Jiu thought for a moment and said, "Well, though I planned to save this move for the main competition stages, circumstances have changed, and we need to get accustomed to it early."
According to Wang Jiu's initial expectations, just by playing this trump card, Shen Qingming could sweep through the Cyan Cloud Competition and win the championship, despite her comprehensive indicators lagging behind in the True Essence Realm. However, news from Heaven-Reaching City in the morning changed the situation greatly for QingCyan Cloud yun City. The three major families and many sects in the city simultaneously increased their emphasis and resource investment in the competition, causing competitive pressure to soar dramatically.
In previous competitions, various families and factions had to maintain a basic level of face. They wouldn't pull out some insane trump cards—like the Celestial Demon Dissolving Technique, Eight Gates Escape Armor, Third Gear, 20x Kaio-Ken, or I Love a Stick, which are low cost-effectiveness and high side-effect techniques. Young disciples from each faction would compete on stage according to their normally equipped strength to determine rank.
But this time, marked by a senior meeting between the Lu and Qian families, everyone was in a frenzy, making even Li Wanqing's near-overwhelming advantage noticeably weakened under objective analysis.
Thus, Wang Jiu wanted to enable a 14 and a half-year-old little girl, whose cultivation had just touched the late stage of the Wind-Rising Realm and had not yet initiated the Third Heaven of Immovable Tyrant Body, to stand out among the heroes, and extra work had to be done. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
Wang Jiu said to Li Wanqing, "It's perfect that you're here. Help spar with Qingming later."
Li Wanqing's eyes lit up, "Of course, I'd love to!"
Shen Qingming was shocked by this sudden brightness in her eyes, "Hey, what kind of lousy idea is this?! Even if you find a sparring partner, find one with similar strength! Like Big Leg and Big Ball or something, Sister Wanqing as a sparring partner is too exaggerated!"
Wang Jiu said, "Indeed, I'm a bit rusty right now, so Li Wanqing, don't use the Yuqing Taoist Armor yet."
"Haha, sure thing. It's just that the spells Master Yuqing taught me have gotten a bit rusty; I'll just use spell techniques to counter later on, Little Sister Qingming, be careful."
Before Shen Qingming could nod, Wang Jiu responded first, "I'll be careful."
"Wait a minute, why are you being careful..." Li Wanqing suddenly sensed something was off, but before she could say more, she saw Wang Jiu had already activated the mechanisms of the Shen Garden Training Ground, officially initiating the sparring session.
On the other side, the bewildered Shen Qingming had already been thrown into the arena. Then, conditioned by months of cohabitation, she instinctively took a battle stance.
Li Wanqing smiled at the corner of her mouth and also took a stance, placing her right index and middle fingers on her lips, ready at any moment to activate True Words with Yuqing Spell.
Yuqing True Master's life's essence lies in a set of spell True Words, with 999 types of spells; Li Wanqing now has mastered more than fifty. With her current power, she is capable in the mortal world of becoming a saint of the "words make law" level.
Even without depending on Yuqing Taoist Armor, she remains a strong contender for the Cyan Cloud Competition championship.
To deal with someone at the late Cloud Surge Realm with merely a remarkably strong body, there's no need to use brute force. With her divine sense perceiving the opponent's moves, she can use a few simple spells to effortlessly, without hurting the opponent's dignity...
Li Wanqing hadn't finished her plan when she saw a flash before her eyes as Shen Qingming, with an unstoppable aura, charged directly at her wielding a plain training longsword!
"Have you lost your mind?!" Li Wanqing looked incredulously at the rushing Little Sister Qingming, blatantly ignoring the massive disparity in strength between them, and instinctively uttered a "Fixed" word.
In fact, this was a subconscious mercy from Li Wanqing. On a life-and-death battlefield, she would surely directly use offensive True Words like "Crack" or "Thrust," or at worst, "Wall" or "Gap," which could make someone crash into flatness.
Of course, a Fixed Word Technique from a Cloud Surge Realm expert is enough to instantly immobilize ten Wind-Rising Realm cultivators.
However, the next moment, Shen Qingming broke through the Fixed Word Technique without hindrance, her movements not slowing at all, with the plain longsword reaching Li Wanqing's chest, the sword's wind even brushing the ties at the front of Shui Lingyun's long skirt.
Li Wanqing didn't even have time to furrow her brow before she activated another True Word Spell, "Haste," which she applied to herself to retreat rapidly. At the same time, her right hand assembled True Essence into a shield in front of her.
Although she couldn't comprehend the opponent's style, still less understand how Shen Qingming could ignore Yuqing True Words, Li Wanqing adopted a cautious strategy of avoiding aggression.
Bang!
Just as Li Wanqing shifted her center of gravity backwards, Shen Qingming's sword strike hit the True Essence Shield, causing Li Wanqing's arm to feel a numbing sensation, as if her True Essence was on the verge of collapsing. What's more unbelievable...
This had nothing to do with the opponent's True Essence intensity, purely a result of physical strength! She swung a sword like a thunderbolt with mere muscle and bone, incredible enough to breach a Cloud Surge Realm peak True Essence Shield with brute body power—where on earth did this Primordial Beast come from?!
Li Wanqing took a deep breath, re-concentrated True Essence, pulling the shield back from the brink of collapse, while continuing to retreat, trying to gain distance under the empowerment of Yuqing True Words.
However, Shen Qingming's advance was like a whistling gale, following closely and relentlessly, each step making the entire training ground tremble, the monitoring array emitting a low alarm hum. Her speed was in no way inferior to Li Wanqing's. The plain longsword in her hand continually emitted dazzling sword lights, launching simple yet rampant sword stances repeatedly.
Within the training ground, it was as if thunder rolled on a stormy night, the rumbling continuous.
Li Wanqing, surprised by Shen Qingming's display of incredible power, intensified her internal True Essence circulation with an even fiercer output to sustain the True Essence Shield, while seriously observing every move of the opponent.
Shen Qingming's rampant posture seemed abnormal no matter how you looked at it, likely a result of a method similar to the Celestial Demon Dissolving Technique with strict time limits or severe side effects, after all, her effective combat power had increased by a whole realm, it was outrageous even for cheating.
In this case, there's no need to take risks fighting during the opponent's strong phase, better to patiently look for flaws and strike at leisure.
Soon Li Wanqing found the problem.
Shen Qingming's face was somewhat indifferent, expressionless, though her blood-red eyes stared at her, making her shiver.
This is... Shen Qingming?
The next moment, with a sliver of understanding, Li Wanqing shifted her focus from the frenzied sister to look outside the arena.
Outside the training ground, Wang Jiu was waving his ten fingers like a puppeteer, lips slightly moving, uttering words Li Wanqing read through lip reading.
"Quarter-circle punch, quarter-circle forward punch..."
"Damn it!"
With an involuntary expletive, Li Wanqing's True Essence flow experienced a barely noticeable pause.
This flaw, though invisible to peers of the same realm, was caught by...
Wang Jiu's subtle finger movement had Shen Qingming let out a roar on the field, holding the sword with both hands, striking with Kaishan's momentum fiercely!
