“Folding Bamboo is waiting for Xiao Shao in the third arena.”

  Those in the Martial Arts Courtyard were sniffing around the stone wall at all times, seeking out interesting news. When they heard that there was about to be a beautiful fight happening, and it was between the Folding Bamboo sister that had appeared from the heavens today and the undefeated Xiao Shao, they immediately swarmed over.

  Lin Shu stood beside the arena with a frost flower sword in his hands. This was the sword that came with the current image of Folding Bamboo that the girl had envisioned, and it was good to use.

  Xiao Shao refused to battle at first, then later accepted the battle out of irritation. Presumably, his attitude would likely be very bad. However, he didn’t make Lin Shu wait for long.

  When he floated down to the arena with qigong and a masked expressionless face, Lin Shu said: “Please enlighten me.”

  Xiao Shao did not speak.

  Lin Shu also didn’t do anything overly fanciful and directly lifted his sword, flying at Xiao Shao.

  He didn’t suppress his strength only to slowly raise it to meet his opponent’s standards as he did in other battles. Instead, he immediately used every skill at his disposal the moment he shot out towards Xiao Shao.

  This type of “Moonrise Cold Stream” skill was an unprecedented move, and it was difficult. His footsteps had to be light, using the “Walking On Snow” form, changing in all directions.

  The crowd exclaimed: “What a beautiful style!”

  Others said: “Folding Bamboo Shimei’s sword is really fast!”

  Among the crowd’s voices, Lin Shu heard Xiao Shao’s voice.

  His voice was very low, and very light. Only Lin Shu could hear it.

  He said: “Good sword!”

  Lin Shu’s expression didn’t change. Among the voices, he only cared about the sound of the sword breaking through the air.

  In an instant, he seemed to return to his distant yesterday. All was still, silence reigned supreme, and he forgot his mortal affairs. All he had left was a transparent heart full of his promise to the sword, and the frost flower sword in his hand.

  Xiao Shao flew forward and twisted, passing by the tip of the sword, and slanted his jade flute towards the sword.

  If this trick succeeded, Lin Shu’s sword would definitely be hindered because of how close they were. In that moment of stagnation, Xiao Shao could quickly turn it into a defensive attack. Like that, Lin Shu’s sword would not be retrieved fast enough, and he would be unable to defend himself. He had to think of a way to counter this.

  In the end, martial arts was one style, but there were more than a thousand different ever-changing forms, and these moves could be calculated in the blink of an eye.

  Lin Shu heard the wind shift on his left and his wrist flipped. The blade that had originally been aiming straight down the middle suddenly tilted up and stabbed to the left, pulling out a trick called “Occasional Drift” that flashed like a glittering snowfall, aiming for Xiao Shao’s neck.

  Xiao Shao leaned back and then turned quickly. The jade flute in his hand turned and slashed at Lin Shu’s shoulder. The series of changes happened so fluidly, like the movement of clouds and water, but was also incredibly fast, like a thrilling dance of a dragon.

  In the arena, Xiao Shao’s spiritual power was overpowering, and even the onlookers outside felt its suppressive pressure.

  The day before, Cang Min was defeated by this control of spiritual power. Once he was attacked and shocked by Xiao Shao’s spiritual power, his spiritual flow was immediately thrown into disorder—but Lin Shu was different. He wasn’t dependent on spiritual power; at most, it was lightly weaved into his sword skill, ensuring that his weapon would not fall like the wind when it collided with another. Without any sort of complicated spiritual direction in his body, there was no possibility of disorder.

  It was for this reason that they were now almost purely f ighting with martial arts alone. In a few breaths, hundreds of moves were pulled out in close proximity, without clear distinction.

  This was a terrifying person. Lin Fengxiao said that he used pure spiritual power to crush people, which was uninteresting, but now the superb martial arts displayed by this person was clearly beyond the abilities of ordinary people.

  The audience had been silent for a long time, and everyone was watching with bated breath.

  Lin Shu turned to the right, trying to escape Xiao Shao’s straight slice from top to bottom. That snow jade flute was clearly meant to be an elegant object, but it somehow exuded a cold merciless aura from Xiao Shao’s hands, enough to crack stone.

  Just when Lin Shu was about to evade this move and return to attack, Xiao Shao changed his attack direction, and the situation on the field suddenly changed!

  Spiritual power poured into the jade flute and a clear sound came out from it. The air seemed to solidify, and numerous jade flute illusions filled in the air, aiming straight for his body.

  Lin Shu’s spiritual power on the frost flower sword was oppressed by Xiao Shao, and quickly dissipated.

  This was a rare sight. It meant that in this arena, all the spiritual power that could be controlled had been dominated by Xiao Shao, leaving Lin Shu without even half a star worth of spiritual power. The incoming straight slice was thus unavoidable. His sword would definitely be ruined, and there was even the fear that the person themselves would be chopped into two.

  Lin Shu closed his eyes and clenched the hilt of his sword.

  He wasn’t afraid of the battle. He was…… concentrating!

  \r \r \r

  In this life or death situation, the wind beside his ears roared, and his frost flower sword trembled ceaselessly in his hands. He opened both eyes and raised his hands violently, using his very first move, “Moonrise Cold Stream”!

  The silver-white flowers that had been carved onto the frost flower sword was suddenly shrouded in a layer of dazzling cold light.

  A soft tinkle rang through the air, and the world was silent.

  The sword tip was held against the flute’s body, and both weapons were still.

  After this instant, a huge momentum rebounded, and both parties took three steps back.

  Lin Shu vomited a bit of blood and raised his hand to wipe it off.

  Xiao Shao’s situation did not seem to be very good either.

  “You are a sword cultivator,” Xiao Shao said.

  Lin Shu: “Yes.”

  A person who wanted to cultivate immortality relied on spiritual power. When they reached the peak, they would turn into something like Xiao Shao. There was only one road that they could travel. As for those who cultivated the sword, it was something similar, called the understanding of the sword—it was something like what had just appeared on the frost flower sword, in a moment where the user had no spiritual power and faced despair.

  Xiao Shao said: “Continue.”

  The frost flower sword trembled from the tip of the sword to the hilt, and showed a slight crack.

  “You are a sword cultivator, and you are even called Folding Bamboo. Why don’t you use the Folding Bamboo sword?” Xiao Shao asked.

  The frost flower sword had turned dull, evidently unable to be used any further.

  After the weapon had been damaged, one could reselect it. The Martial Arts Courtyard had records of all the weapons in the world, from the average iron to the peerless immortal weapon. As long as one dared to use it, one could use it in the dream. The girl’s choice had broken in his hands, so Lin Shu could naturally choose the Folding Bamboo sword now.

  He set down the frost flower sword. A white mist slowly condensed in his hands and turned into an icy, crystal clear replica of the Folding Bamboo sword.

  However, he did not attack, and asked instead: “Why do you use a flute?”

  Unless it was a special attack, where music would defeat the enemy, a flute would not be a suitable weapon in most circumstances.

  It wasn’t long enough, there wasn’t a sharp edge; it couldn’t be used to attack from afar and couldn’t defend close attacks. At most, it would transform flexibly, but for people of Xiao Shao’s level, that skill was useless. In general, it was a purely good-looking but useless item.

  With Xiao Shao’s merciless attack style that focused on hacking, piercing, slicing and cutting, he obviously used single-edged weapons rather than a useless jade flute.

  Xiao Shao put his jade flute away and said lightly: “I’m simply afraid to scare my classmates.”

  Lin Shu: “.……”

  This was a braggart.

  However, it made sense. This man could easily defeat someone like Cang Min with such a weak weapon like a jade flute. If he changed the weapon to one that he was more used to, Cang Min might start to suspect his entire existence. Forget being a martial arts addict, he might start to have psychological shadows forming in his heart.

  “However,” Xiao Shao continued to say, “Today I’ve met someone who knows the sword well, so it should be alright to use my sword.”

  The people sitting outside the ring quickly inhaled a sharp breath, then stuck their necks out, looking at Xiao Shao.

  The jade flute disappeared, and a black mist congregated in his hand. In a short time, a dark, long sword condensed in a breath of energy.

  As soon as the sword appeared in the field, the originally tense atmosphere sunk even further.

  Someone asked: “Wu Kui?”

  Someone exclaimed in surprise: “The demon sword Wu Kui!”

  Lin Shu had an average knowledge of the immortal cultivation world, so he had never heard of this name before. However, looking at the reaction of the crowd, this sword was evidently quite famous.

  The Big Miss’ sword was also extraordinary. He wondered how it compared to this sword.

  Both of them used the sword. He didn’t know who would win in a fight between Ling Fengxiao and Xiao Shao—the True Martial Arts Rank didn’t appear to have anyone like Ling Fengxiao on the list. It could be possible that the Big Miss didn’t want to mix with these people. Still, it was a bit regrettable that he would never be able to see a match between the two of them.

  Xiao Shao slowly pulled his sword out of its sheath. The sword’s body was dark, and one could tell that power swirled within it.

  He said: “Come.”

  Lin Shu pulled his sword out, and relied on “Moonrise Cold Stream” again.

  Xiao Shao’s reaction did not seem to change, however, this scene was already entirely different from the previous one.

  Lin Shu’s first impression was—“fast”.

  Seeing moves, splitting moves, changing moves, continuous moves, everything was over twice as fast as the last round!

  He could no longer hear human voices or the wind; he couldn’t even see Xiao Shao. In his five senses, all that was left was one sword, one knife!

  One hundred strokes, one thousand strokes, Xiao Shao had already entered the immortal realm. The spiritual power in the arena rushed back and forth like the stormy waves in the river of heaven. The murderous glint of the knife made people’s souls throb. Lin Shu’s sword also had his sword spirit condensed on it, and his every move was quiet, as if it hadn’t even fallen.

  Lin Shu’s breaths were slightly strained, and he felt like he finally knew what fighting with everything on the line felt like.

  He didn’t have time to think about how to attack, how to defend, how to return a move or how to change his style; all he did was breathe, and thousands of moves were exchanged with the sound of swords slamming against each other.

  At first, he was able to rely on his sword judgment ingrained through days of practice, but towards the end, there wasn’t even time to think through anything. All he could do was rely on intuition and his sword skills that had been carved into his bones.

  There was a clamour in the audience. It might have been someone who had used up all his energy and fainted.

  It was as if Xiao Shao had bound the world with his spiritual power, blocking their gaze. It might even be for the better.

  He didn’t know how Xiao Shao was faring, but if he had learned 100% in his entire life, he had already used 110% of his ability.

  In this moment of distraction, a sword suddenly stabbed towards his left chest, an inevitable clash.

  His mind blanked out. Suddenly, the spiritual platform in his mind turned clear. He lifted his sword and flattened the blade. His movements were extremely smooth and the angle was perfect.

  It was only until Xiao Shao’s sword was blocked that he realised he had just used the “Forgotten Valley” that he had only comprehended a few years before his death!

  Xiao Shao’s movements froze, then the sword flared up, sweeping in the direction of Lin Shu with an indescribable trajectory.

  The move was like a torrential shower, an indescribable miracle.

  Lin Shu straightened his sword, then swung it to the right and his sword collided with Xiao Shao’s blade.

  At the moment of collision, he felt a sudden shock in his heart and his breathing sped up. He spat out another mouth of blood.

  There was no other reason, this style, this style—

  It turned out that in the sword skill book, after “Forgotten Valley”, he had always run into a dead end, because he had not comprehended the style of “Unseeing Tianhe”.

  Diligently searching for it for so long, only to suddenly use it; his soul was violently shaken, and his heartbeat sped up to an unimaginable speed. His vision turned black all of a sudden, and he didn’t even know what day it was.

  It was like he was being held up by Xiao Shao. After resting for a while, his mind gradually became clear.

  This fairy figure was so slender and delicate that it couldn’t even reach Xiao Shao’s shoulder.

  Xiao Shao’s breath also seemed to be unstable—this was right, because if this person could battle like this and still have stable breathing, then he had no need to stay in this mortal world and could directly fly to the heavens.

  Xiao Shao saw that his situation had improved, and let go of him, asking: “Are you alright?”

  Lin Shu: “I’m fine.”

  “Just now, what are the names of those two styles, and where did they come from?” Xiao Shao asked.

  A fellow sword martial artist would be excited to learn new tricks, so wanting to know where his skills originated wasn’t surprising. However, Lin Shu thought about it and still said: “My master does not allow me to tell outsiders.”

  That cheat book was written by his sect’s Great Ancestor. His sect had strict rules, and such things could not be spread outside. It couldn’t even be spread within the sect.

  Xiao Shao was quiet for a moment, then asked: “What’s your master’s name?”

  Lin Shu randomly said the old man’s Daoist name: “Daoist Hulu.”

  Xiao Shao was quiet for another moment, and then Lin Shu heard him laugh.

  The laugh was very light, but it wasn’t gentle, making his heart twitch.

  “Continue to pretend.” Xiao Shao whispered lowly in his ear, sounding as if he was gritting his teeth. “Taoyuan Jun’s martial arts, the world may not know, but how can I not know? In the dreamscape, outside of the dreamscape, if you are caught by me……”

  Lin Shu: ?

  Taoyuan Jun, this name, sounded a bit familiar.

  soya: if anyone doesn’t remember who Taoyuan Jun is, he’s the master of Ling Fengxiao’s fiance…… huhuhu…… in other words…… HUHUHUHU