Lin Shu was thinking.

  What was Ling Fengxiao trying to do?

  Did Ling Fengxiao want to keep him?

  He couldn’t figure it out.

  Even if he had lived for nearly two decades, his experience of dealing with others was almost zero, let alone attempting to speculate Ling Fengxiao’s thoughts.

  So, he thought in a different direction.

  If Ling Fengxiao wants to keep me, what should I do?

  If Ling Fengxiao doesn’t want to keep me, what should I do?

  –Nothing much.

  If Ling Fengxiao really wanted to “keep” him, then he seemed to have no effective refusal method.

  If Ling Fengxiao didn’t want to keep him, he would not take the initiative to approach the rich woman.

  To sum it up, he actually didn’t have to do anything, and he couldn’t do anything either.

  Life was still very peaceful, and there was nothing to worry about.

  Lin Shu felt very relieved.

  He held the jade seal that connected to the Shangling dreamscape, thought about the fascinating descriptions of Huandang Mountain in his classics, and his heart felt a bit complicated.

  After thinking about this complicated for fifteen minutes, he thought of the sword he wanted, the cultivation he wanted, and finally settled his heart. He entered the dreamscape.

  Thinking about the benefits, regardless if he was a man or woman, it was simply just an outward appearance and wasn’t very important. Not to mention, in this way, no one would link him in the Martial Arts Courtyard with Lin Shu in reality.

  He entered that trail, the scene changed before him, and he came to that pier again.

  Still in that white gauze clothing, and his entire body looked like he was floating.

  Last time, he didn’t study this place carefully because of that accident. This time, he stood in front of the True Martial Rank and read it seriously.

  The ranking list had the names of countless individuals. When one’s attention was focused on a certain person, the entire boulder would sense the viewer’s will and change, producing the detailed information of the person.

  Lin Shu swept through the list with his gaze, randomly selected someone’s name, and focused his attention on it.

  The remaining writing on the stonewall gradually disappeared, and several other lines appeared.

  Autumn Dust.

  A sword that was two feet long, uses fast attacks.

  One hundred and seventy-four wins, one hundred and one losses, sixteen draws, and he was ranked two thousand, four hundred and fifty-seventh.

  The writing was shining gold, which means that the person is currently in the Martial Art Courtyard. If the handwriting wasn’t lit up, it meant the person was not in the Martial Art Courtyard, and if you wanted to find him for a battle, the relevant person’s jade seal would receive that message.

  At this time, Autumn Dust’s name was bright golden.

  In the academy, disciples can stay for a maximum of ten years. The number of disciples who entered per year was about one thousand, and about half were Immortal Daoist students. In other words, there were about four or five thousand people in the whole Immortal Daoist Institution. This Autumn Dust’s level was somewhere in the middle.

  Lin Shu exited this Daoist friend’s information interface and pressed his finger on his name.

  The place where the finger touched the stone wall was slightly warm, and the scene on the stone wall changed again, turning blank.

  Lin Shu’s fingers paused, and then he wrote two words.

  Folding Bamboo.

  –A ready-made name, one that didn’t require him to think about.

  The stone rippled, and returned to normal.

  A line of red letters appeared on the stone wall opposite: “Folding Bamboo invites Autumn Dust to a battle.”

  \r \r \r

  –The rest of the writing was golden, but information that related to oneself would be marked with vermillion, and the other party’s mind would also be affected.

  Lin Shu was trying to figure out if he would be able to get the qualification to enter Huandang Mountain.

  That qualification was undoubtedly very precious. Of 5000 people, only the first 30 would be able to obtain it. He might have been considered a successful cultivator in his last life, but he didn’t know what level he was in this world, after all.

  Thus, he decided to choose someone in the middle to challenge.

  If he won, he ranked about 2, 400, then he would challenge someone ranked at 1, 200 to challenge, and if he won, he would find the 600th rank.

  According to modern science, this method was effective in determining where one’s strength was in a short period of time.

  Although he hated modern physics, he still relied on scientific knowledge

  Lin Shu looked at the stone wall.

  After a while, a few words appeared on it: “Autumn Dust accepts the battle against Folding Bamboo.”

  A moment later, another message was written: “Autumn Dust is waiting in the eleventh arena, awaiting fellow Daoist.”

  According to the rules of the Martial Arts Courtyard, the challenger initiated the challenge, and the challenged would choose the venue. If they were below rank 1000, if the challenger won, he would be shifted to one rank before the challenged. If the challenger loss, his ranking would not change.

  The rules of ranking within the top thousand were a bit more complicated–for example, if a person wanted to be ranked 100th, he would first have to defeat the original 100th, 101st and 102nd places. This way, accidental factors could be eliminated, proving that this person’s strength was actually ranked 100th.

  Lin Shu looked at the high and low arenas floating above the water, and confirmed the approximate position of the eleventh arena according to the distribution rules, and moved across the water.

  In the eleventh arena, a young swordsman wearing a blue robe stood there, holding a two-foot sword.

  From the choice of weapons, the martial art style of this man could be roughly identified. The two-foot sword was slightly shorter than the three-foot weapon used by Lin Shu, and was not a common weapon. It was generally used for melee combat.

  Seeing him coming, Autumn Dust bowed slightly: “Fellow daoist.”

  Lin Shu mirrored him: “Fellow daoist.”

  Autumn Dust said: “Is this fellow daoist’s first time?”

  Lin Shu: “En.”

  He could see Autumn Dust’s record, and Autumn Dust could naturally see him too.

  “It turned out to be a Shimei,” Autumn Dust said.

  Lin Shu: “.…… Shixiong.”

  A broken pot was a broken pot, he would just be called Shimei. When Mr. Meng came back, this appearance would be changed, and other than Mr. Meng, no one would know that he was Folding Bamboo.

  “Shimei, please enlighten me!” Autumn Dust drew his sword and took a defensive stance.”

  Lin Shu said: “Shixiong should come first.”

  “Shimei wants to let me go first?” Autumn Dust smiled, but then returned to a serious look. “Shimei, be careful.”

  He suddenly drew his sword. His swordsmanship was fast and complicated.

  A good attack!

  It was as fast as lightning, just as a wind that blew across the plains. It was like a cold wind blowing past a drizzle of rain, shaking up the spring flowers. It was obviously just a two-foot sword, but the air seemed to be filled with the phantom image of this sword.

  Among the dense sword shadows, there was the deadliest and most ruthless one.

  Lin Shu pulled his sword out of his sheath.

  “Dang” rang loudly. His sword collided with Autumn Dust’s real sword covered by the phantom images, and the swords buzzed for a long time.

  Autumn Dust said: “Good attack!” He barely escaped Lin Shu’s sword, and again drew his sword. In just a few breaths, the two had exchanged dozens of moves.

  His sword, was fast.

  Lin Shu’s sword, wasn’t exactly slow, but wasn’t exactly fast either.

  Autumn Dust’s sword was quite complicated. Lin Shu’s sword didn’t have such magnificent styles, but was a simple stab and slice.

  He wanted to find the most effective of his sword moves, and then blocked it. Being slow was part of the process, and he would move faster when he drew his sword.

  –It was really comfortable without his body dragging him done.

  Autumn Dust’s sword was good, but there was a fatal flaw.

  Moving so quickly, and such transformative moves, the energy consumption was also very heavy. It wasn’t obvious within a hundred moves, but after a thousand moves, there was a visible slowing down.

  After finding this flaw, Lin Shu finally turned into the offensive. He had merely pointed his sword, but he had cut off all possible retreats that Autumn Dust could have had, and pointed directly at his heart.

  Autumn Dust took back his sword and retreated: “Shimei’s martial arts must have far surpassed mine, Autumn Dust pays his respects.”

  Lin Shu took his sword back and sheathed it: “Thank you.”

  His breathing came a little quicker, and his physical and mental energy was slightly used up.

  However, in general, it was still an easy fight.

  He could also sense that his boundary was far beyond Autumn Dust. What he lacked was the experience of confronting the enemy. Without even using the slightest cultivation, except to briefly counter the enemy’s sword – else, he could have finished this a lot sooner.

  In his previous life, other than his master’s sword, he had never fought against anyone else. It could be said that his cultivation was a car being built behind closed doors, and it was unknown if the car would work outside.

  He decided to spend an hour in the Martial Arts Courtyard every day.

  This match was over, and he was trying to find another opponent, but suddenly heard a noise at the pier.

  A person who entered immortal cultivation had far-reaching eyesight, so even though it was far away, the characters on the stone wall could still be clearly seen.

  The latest news was: “Cang Min invites Xiao Shao for a battle.”

  Autumn Dust said: “Cang Min is challenging Xiao Shao again.”

  Lin Shu had seen these two names on the ranking list before. Cang Min was second, and Xiao Shao was first.

  He originally had no interest in others at first, but now he was very interested in their martial arts, so he asked: “What do you mean?”

  Autumn Dust said: “This is your first time here, so naturally you wouldn’t know, but Cang Min is a famous martial arts addict in Immortal Daoist Institution.”

  He paused, then continued: “But Xiao Shao……”

  Another pause, as if he was trying to figure out what to say, before finally saying: “It’s a long story. Xiao Shao has never challenged others. Only other people challenge him, but no one has won. This person has appeared for only one month, and became first because of other people inviting him to battle, but they have never fallen from that rank since.”

  Saying this, Autumn Dust took a deep breath and said: “To date, Xiao Shao’s battle record has always been zero defeats, and everyone dare not ask for a battle. Only Cang Min will ask them for a battle. Folding Bamboo Shimei, I’m going to see their battle. Are you going?”

  Lin Shu: “Yes.”

  The stone continued to announce: “Xiao Shao accepts the battle against Cang Min.”

  The meeting place between the two was easy to find, because everyone was moving in that direction.

  The First Tianzi arena was very large, and was able to easily accommodate hundreds of spectators.

  “That’s Cang Min,” Autumn Dust said.

  There was only a tall man dressed in grey on the stage, holding an epee. He had a handsome face, and his eyes were burning.

  Half a minute later, a man floated down from the air, standing across from Cang Min.

  It could be concluded that this person was Xiao Shao.

  The man was wearing a gorgeous black robe, with a highly cold temperament and a slender figure. He had a long snow jade flute in his right hand. The flute was very beautiful, and his hand was quite pretty as well.

  Cang Min said: “Fellow daoist.”

  Xiao Shao nodded slightly.

  Most people in the Martial Arts Courtyard changed their appearance on purpose, so that others couldn’t recognise them. This person, however, actually wore a silver mask to cover his entire face to a superfluous degree. It was almost comparable to Ling Fengxiao, who dressed so strictly even in the summer.

  Hm, Ling Fengxiao.

  It was probably that Ling Fengxiao had left him with too deep of an impression. He had heard many praises about Ling Fengxiao’s martial arts from the Yue siblings and even Mr. Meng, so in a place like the Martial Arts Courtyard, he thought the Big Miss would naturally be first. When he first saw the name Xiao Shao, he even wondered if it was Ling Fengxiao’s pseudonym. After all, there was an overlapping word.

  However, Xiao Shao was a man, and his weapon was not a sword. Obviously, he had nothing to do with Ling Fengxiao.

  Lin Shu was actually a little lost.

  The more he looked, the more he disliked Xiao Shao.

  His weapon was flashy, and he refused to show his true colors, hiding his head and tail–he had to be hiding something bad.

  The author has something to say:

  Xiao Shao: Ok.

  soya: Ling Fengxiao and Xiao Shao share the “xiao” word!!