Volume 3, Chapter 284 – Move and You Die!

“Shuang’er?”

Song Shixuan looked puzzled. She turned to glance at the tall maidservant standing beside Lu Zhuxin.

The maidservant was plain-featured, with stern, furrowed brows. Yet she radiated a killing edge that hadn’t come from nowhere. She was not someone to be trifled with.

This was the personal attendant of Chi family’s Second Miss?

With that kind of aura, her cultivation was at minimum the Fourth Realm.

Young as this maidservant appeared, a talent who had reached that level at her age would be more than qualified for inner disciple status even at Lingxiao Sword Sect.

But could they spar?

The opponent was no pushover. If it actually came to blows, it could get a little troublesome.

“Little Sister Muxue.” Song Shixuan smiled slightly. “You’ve only just started cultivating, so you may not understand yet. Sword cultivators are different from other practitioners.”

“Sword cultivators specialize in techniques of killing. Sword qi has no eyes. In a real spar, accidents are hard to avoid…”

“I am a guest of the Chi family. It wouldn’t be proper for me to raise a blade inside my host’s home.”

Song Shixuan was trying to gracefully decline Lu Zhuxin’s invitation to spar.

Lu Zhuxin narrowed her eyes slightly. She could see exactly what Song Shixuan was doing.

There’s a reason she doesn’t want to fight.

This person in front of her was not the real Song Shixuan. If weapons were drawn in earnest, she would risk being exposed.

Ha. Since that’s what she’s thinking, Lu Zhuxin was going to make sure she didn’t get her way.

“Hmm…” Lu Zhuxin said quietly to Bu Lianshuang. “What do we do, Shuang’er? It seems like he’s worried about hurting you…”

“Maybe we should just drop it.”

“After all, I’m not even sure you could beat him.”

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Lose to her?!

Bu Lianshuang’s brow shot up instantly.

Who exactly did this girl think she was looking down on?!

“Miss, don’t worry. I am a martial cultivator.”

“Martial cultivators have vigorous blood and qi. Getting hurt is the last thing we fear!”

Bu Lianshuang stepped forward, clasped her fist toward Song Shixuan, and said, “Young Master Song, pardon the offense!”

“Hm?!”

Before Song Shixuan could even react, Bu Lianshuang’s fist was already flying!

This maidservant! No warning, no honor!

Didn’t I just refuse? Why is she attacking out of nowhere!

Caught off guard, Song Shixuan stumbled back step after step.

Bu Lianshuang was a princess of the wolf clan, raised from childhood on the far northern ice plains, tempered through battle after battle.

Her combat experience was incomparably vast; nothing like hothouse flowers who had grown up in comfort.

She had exceptional control over her own strength. Both fists were wrapped in sharp, biting wind, yet every ounce of power was reined back to the level of a Third Realm cultivator.

But within that Third Realm output was the precision and mastery of someone in the Fifth Realm.

Fists that looked unremarkable on the surface—and yet they put tremendous pressure on Song Shixuan.

In that instant, a question surfaced in Song Shixuan’s mind.

Was this maidservant’s cultivation really only the Fourth Realm?!

Bu Lianshuang moved fast. It wasn’t until Song Shixuan had been pressed back several steps that the young students around them finally caught on.

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“Whoa! That girl’s fist technique is brutal!”

“The force behind those strikes! That’s at least late Third Realm, right?”

“Ha! You’re way off. The way I see it, she’s at least half a step into the Fourth Realm!”

“Come on, Young Master Song! Show us Lingxiao Sword Sect’s unmatched natal sword art!”

“Don’t lose, Young Master Song!”

Song Shixuan’s brow tightened. She had no idea what these kids were going on about.

Late Third Realm? Half a step from peak?

Were they talking about the maidservant standing right in front of her?

This maidservant’s cultivation was practically touching the Fifth Realm!

Then all at once, it clicked.

Of course.

This girl was deliberately suppressing her own cultivation level.

In everyone else’s eyes, she only appeared to be in the Third Realm.

She was playing the pig to eat the tiger.

Song Shixuan didn’t think of herself as the tiger, nor did she particularly want to be the pig. But the role she was playing right now was Song Shixuan of the Nanhe Song Clan—the Young Sect Master of Lingxiao Sword Sect.

She had come here to wed a young miss of the Chi family.

If she got beaten by a maidservant’s fists in front of all these young Chi disciples, what face would she have left to walk through that wedding door?

This fight, she could not afford to lose.

“Miss Shuang’er truly has a remarkable fist technique!” Song Shixuan called out admiringly. “Since Miss Shuang’er has chosen to fight with fists, it would be unsportsmanlike of me to do otherwise.”

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As she spoke, Song Shixuan raised her own fists and launched a counter-offensive at Bu Lianshuang.

The wolf clan’s attacks were fierce and savage, but Song Shixuan’s movements were far more intricate and nimble.

Even though they were exchanging blows fist against fist, Bu Lianshuang kept finding her strikes inexplicably landing on empty air. But Song Shixuan’s attacks, every single one, seemed to find the exact point that hurt most.

And it was clear Song Shixuan had also pulled back her power, holding herself to the same Third Realm level as Bu Lianshuang.

At equal cultivation, Bu Lianshuang’s raw strength and combat experience held the advantage.

But Song Shixuan’s technique was subtler and more refined. And as the fight wore on, she was continuously adapting to Bu Lianshuang’s rhythm.

Gradually, Song Shixuan climbed back from her earlier disadvantage, steadied the pace of the fight, and edged toward the upper hand.

Bu Lianshuang’s brow furrowed. She was starting to feel the strain.

Even Lu Zhuxin, watching from the sidelines, could pick up on the shift.

Lu Zhuxin had no real combat experience and no understanding of fighting techniques, yet she could still tell. If Bu Lianshuang didn’t bring out some of her real ability soon, she was going to lose.

‘At this rate, she’ll fall in thirteen exchanges.’

The thought surfaced in Lu Zhuxin’s mind unbidden.

This wasn’t good. She had sent Bu Lianshuang in to probe the fake Song Shixuan’s true ability. If she ended up losing without finding out anything, that would be deeply embarrassing.

At that thought, Lu Zhuxin sent a voice transmission to Bu Lianshuang. ‘Drop the fists. Wait for my signal, then go for her with a weapon. Force her to use sword techniques.’

When a person was cornered and in danger, they would instinctively fall back on the techniques they knew best.

Lu Zhuxin wanted Bu Lianshuang to force this fake Song Shixuan to show her true hand, and then use that to piece together who she really was.

Bu Lianshuang received the transmission. She didn’t fully understand it, but she sent back her reply all the same. ‘Understood. I will.’

Lu Zhuxin said, ‘For now, pretend you’re losing. I’ll count down.’

“Ten—”

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“Nine—”

Bu Lianshuang kept her expression cold and let some of the force drain from her strikes.

Song Shixuan seized the opportunity. Thinking the maidservant was running low on energy, she pressed the advantage and launched a counterattack.

“Five—”

“Four—”

Bu Lianshuang fell back step by step, holding off Song Shixuan’s offensive while keeping her mind locked on Lu Zhuxin’s countdown.

“Two—”

“One—”

“Now!”

The moment Lu Zhuxin’s transmission went through—

Song Shixuan’s eyes went wide with shock. In that single instant, she felt as though some terrifying predator had locked its gaze directly onto her.

An overwhelming pressure came crashing down like heaven and earth splitting apart.

The pressure was like a death sentence stamped onto her forehead.

In that moment, only one thought remained in her mind.

Move, and you die.

Without anyone noticing, Lu Zhuxin had pressed a thread of an Eighth Realm great demon’s killing aura directly down onto this fake Song Shixuan.

It lasted only an instant—but that was more than enough to throw her into a split-second of blank, frozen shock.

And in a battle between cultivators, a single instant of lost focus was enough to change everything.