Chapter 136: Planning the final duels

After Cao Yun's departure, Xiao Xuefeng called Huang Cixi in. The young girl was now full of energy. It was clearly visible on her face. It wasn't from her sudden and numerous breakthroughs, nor was it from her quick recovery. In fact, it was due to her fresh mindset. Thanks to Xiao Xuefeng, she had been able to let go of her guilt. Deep down, her inner demon was still there, but she had no doubt that she would eradicate it in a matter of months, if not weeks. She would take all of her time so as to not damage her own mind in the process. However, now, her success was a certainty.

"Grand Master Xiao, thank you for everything. You did not only give me a new Dantian, you gave me a new perspective on life. For that, I'll forever be grateful to you. And I will never forget neither the kindness of the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute nor the hospitality of the Wubei Sect."

"Do you intend to leave, now?"

Haung Cixi paused for a while.

"Living as a simple and timid servant was a nice change to my usual life. But I will indeed go back to the main Huang family. I'll tell my grandfather that the one responsible for my brothers' death is gone."

"You should stay until the end of the year though. You still need to stabilize your cultivation. We don't know for sure how stable it is. After all, the informations on the Life Boiling Cradle pill are pure legend."

Huang Cixi looked down. "To tell you the truth, I'm not so sure how I should face Chen Guo..."

Xiao Xuefeng cut her off. "In this array formation, no one can detect anything. You can call him by his real name."

She had asked Huang Cixi if she knew, but she still had a small doubt as she couldn't confirm anything without risking exposing him.

"Cao Yun." Huang Cixi understood the meaning behind Xiao Xuefeng's remark. "Grand Master, I swear that I'll never divulge this truth. I now fully realize that he was innocent in all this. He simply acted to defend an innocent woman and then his own life. However, I cannot watch him without thinking about Lixin. But I'll hear your advice and I'll stay until the end of the year." As she stopped speaking, she thought about how she would explain her departure to Cao Yun. After everything he had done for her, she couldn't just up and leave.

"Grand Master, I'll write Cao Yun a letter. I'll make sure not to divulge anything in case someone intercepts it. Please, do not tell him who I am."

Haung Cixi bowed sincerely. "Fine, I won't. The next few days, you'll stay with me though. I'll tell you the truth, I want to monitor your condition, both to help you, but also to gather informations on the pill and its effects. We could have a real game of Go this time."

"Of course, Grand Master. After what you did for my sake, of course I'll agree."

In the next few days indeed, Huang Cixi stayed mostly in Xiao Xuefeng's room. They played Go and Xiao Xuefeng realized how fierce of a strategist the young girl was. Apart from that, Xiao Xuefeng used her guqin to help her calm her mind and speed up her mind cultivation. She also frequently sent her spiritual senses to monitor her Lower Dantian and her cultivation. It was very stable, not as much as Cao Yun's, but much more than alchemists who heavily relied on pills to ascend fast, too fast sometimes.

In fact, she would probably be safe to cultivate her Qi in a matter of days. Despite her sudden breakthroughs, her condition was already stabilized. And her Dao Heart was also very firm. Xiao Xuefeng was convinced that in a year or two, she would have become a Mortal Warrior already.

-

During this time, Cao Yun decided to train his alchemy that was lagging behind. The return of Xiao Xuefeng had freed Meng Jia who could now give him a bit of his time. He was trying to enjoy his new time to rest but still helped Cao Yun train. Before the end of the year, Cao Yun would have eventually become a 5-star Earth alchemist. He wasn't as good as Mei Hua or Feng Yingyue. But thanks to his mind cultivation, he was still rather competent for someone who had learned so late and so fast.

He also kept on training his martial arts with Chief Elder Baishen. Once a week, he went to the training grounds with Chief Instructor Peng and all the other first-years. And once a month, he had his special cultivation session with Chief Instructor Peng alone. Everything was going very smoothly. Chief Instructor Peng had been mostly right about his speed. Until the end of the year, he could only have two more sessions of 'The Snake Invades the Shell'. He probably would need two more to break through. So his breakthrough would probably be during the first months of his second year. However, his cultivation was way more stable and by the end of the year, his strength would reach five thousand dan, a fourth of the strength of a 1st-grade Mortal Warrior.

Right now, as long as an early Mortal Warrior wasn't using Qi Manifestation, he had a chance of beating him. It would be hard, but it was feasible. This strength was only possible if he gave everything he had on a single attack. But thanks to his mind cultivation, he could do so several times in a fight. He wasn't limited to a single overpowered strike, he could probably use it three or four times depending on his condition.

Apart from all this training, Cao Yun decided to also spend some time with his friends. He had found that it was important for his mind as he was trying to practice the second layer of 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks'. As such, he kept playing and practicing the spear with Mei Ying who was more and more cheerful, putting all the trauma of Luduo Bu's incident behind her. He saw a strange relation between Sun Liao and Long Huafang develop. They were both very arrogant and domineering in their own way. Thus, they kept on teasing each other but it became more and more playful.

Ren Chao was also teasing Sun Liao about it every occasion he had. He was grinning each time as he could finally get back at his friend. On his end, his relation with Wang Mei was very stable. At the end of the eleventh month, Ren Chao finally became a 5-star Earth blacksmith. This day, he came boasting in Sun Liao's training room with a hammer he had forged himself.

-

"Brother Sun. I called this the 'Lion's Roar (Shi Liao)'. Each time I hit anything with it I hear my victory over you! You thought I couldn't reach 5-star, huh? Here I am!"

Ren Chao lifted his hammer, proud of his little wordplay. He had spent several days just on this wordplay that wasn't really good either... As such, Sun Liao wasn't that impressed. His friend had never been very good with his words.

"Brother Ren. You know I've been a 5-star array formation master way before you. And I must say that my occupation is way more complex than just hitting metal scraps with brute strength. So come back when you're a 1-star Human blacksmith before I am!"

"You...!" Ren Chao tightened his grip on the hammer. "I'll show you!" He darted out of the room and went back to training while Sun Liao smiled proudly.

Long Huafang was in the room as well but their interaction was so fast that she couldn't say anything at all.

"You give the impression that you're insulting him, but you're really just pushing him forward. Why can't you just be honest?"

"Look who's talking!"

Long Huafang stood up in fury. "What did you just say?!"

"Nothing. Nothing... But I assure you that Brother Ren and I completely understand each other."

-

Cao Yun was also preparing his duel with Long Jian. A few weeks before the end of the year, Zhi Yin and Ling Hui were back and he went to inform them. As a member of the Heavenly Swallow Faction, fighting the Purple Northern Cloud Faction's Faction Leader could have consequences.

When he entered the faction residence, Zhi Yin was practicing her swordsmanship while Ling Hui was watching her, totally enthralled. Zhi Yin had a new aura around her. Without spiritual senses, it was almost impossible to discern someone's cultivation, but Cao Yun was convinced that she had recently broken through. That would mean that she was now an 8th-grade Mortal.

As he didn't want to disturb her, he waited for several minutes. Her swordsmanship was supple yet hard. She could use several rapid and agile stabs and then become deeply rooted with powerful and heavy strikes. He could see her almost dancing in the air and then crashing down on the ground, sending ripples around her. Since she wasn't yet a Mortal Warrior, she couldn't manifest her Qi. However, Cao Yun was slowly seeing the image of the legendary Kun Peng. This legendary beast was described as a fish named Kun, so large and vast that it wasn't swimming in any body of water but the expanse of the universe. By occasion, it could turn into a gigantic bird named Peng. Just by flapping its wings, it could push back entire planets and fly across galaxies. Compared to the legendary Azure Dragon, it was still a bit smaller, but this beast was still incredible for people who had never left their own planet.

Zhi Yin's martial art was 'Peng's Journey to Heaven'. It had been inspired by a cultivator who had seen such a beast in his dreams and tried to duplicate its abilities. Just like Cao Yun's martial art, its main weapon was wind, so it was strong in Wood element. It also contained a bit of Water element nourishing this Wood element as well. This art was typically considered a 3-star Human martial art. Zhi Yin had been able to study it thanks to her achievements in the Wubei Sect. Specifically, she had gained access to this art thanks to her good ranking in the fighting scroll early into her first-year.

When she was finally done, Ling Hui applauded.

"Brother Chen, come in." When she heard the name of Chen Guo being called out, Ling Hui turned around and saw him. Her face was sour as he was disturbing her time with her idol.

"Sister Zhi, Sister Ling. I'm sorry to disturb you, but I have something important to tell you."

"What did you do to humiliate Fairy Zhi this time?!"

"Calm down, Sister Ling. Brother Chen, let's talk inside around a cup of tea."

Chen Guo followed Zhi Yin and the pissed off Ling Hui inside. He quickly explained that Long Jian had challenged him. Since then, Long Jian had explained the rules he had chosen and Cao Yun had agreed. Long Jian would restrain his cultivation as much as he could. If he expanded his Wei Qi or used any form of Qi Manifestation, or even of Qi control outside of his body, he would automatically lose. They were both allowed to use any weapon under the Spirit rank and any armor. However, a strike on the armor would equate a real strike. Protections were just here to avoid injury. On the matter of martial arts, of course they could use any technique as it was exactly what Long Jian wanted to test with Cao Yun. There was no problem with these rules and Zhi Yin agreed as well.

However, she had another idea.

"Brother Chen, how confident are you in this friendly fight?"

He had to think some more but based on his progress and his experience with other Mortal Warriors suppressing their cultivation, he could make a guess.

"I shouldn't be able to win. But I'm confident in breaking his defenses and maybe even give him a bit of a fright."

"You boast too much! Not only is he a 1st-grade Mortal Warrior, I hear he's very close to a breakthrough and he's only second to Chan Weifeng in terms of fighting abilities. He bests you both in his cultivation, in his physique and even in his understanding of martial arts. And yet, you think you can give him 'a bit of a fright'?!"

Zhi Yin did not react at all and instead stared into Cao Yun's eyes to determine his conviction. Ling Hui feeling an awkward atmosphere as no one reacted to her fiery statement took up her cup of tea and slowly sipped from it. Finally Zhi Yin nodded.

"Fine, Brother Chen. You seem to be able to back up your words. What do you say about fighting in public?"

Ling Hui didn't believe what she just heard. It meant that her idol was recognizing Cao Yun's brazen claims that she herself had just mocked. Did it mean that she had just mocked 'Fairy Zhi'? Ling Hui was mortified.

Cao Yun hesitated a bit. He wasn't worried about fighting in public. In fact, that wasn't a problem at all, he was sure that he would eventually lose, that wasn't the point of the fight. And he was also certain that he wasn't going to humiliate himself or he would have flat out refused. Cao Yun wasn't one to overestimate himself. If he had accepted the duel in the first place, that was because it was a friendly fight and a great opportunity to push himself and improve his martial arts. He also had a good relationship with Long Huafang, so he wasn't worried about her older brother being unreasonable.

"I don't have a problem with it. You want to use this opportunity to showcase the strength of our Heavenly Swallow Faction?"

"Indeed. Next year, you'll be almost alone. Of course Mei Hua joined us, but she's the direct disciple of Guest Elder Xiao. Her membership is really just for show, for the most part. If you can show your competence to everyone, your name will even be known by the next first-years and I won't have to fear for my faction while I'm in the Ancient Ruins."

Cao Yun got curious. "What are these Ancient Ruins? This is where all the third-years go, correct?"

"To be honest, I don't really know either. It is one of the greatest secrets of the Wubei Sect. Only when you become a third-year will you officially be told about it and you can't divulge this information either. Of course there are rumors about it, but even fourth-years or fifth-years won't talk about it. Even when they left the Wubei Sect, no one dared break the silence. But what I do know is that this is a great training ground for the disciples. It's not rare for some people to break through two levels in the span of a single year in there. There's also a possibility to find some treasures. In other words, it's a great opportunity!"