Volume 1, Chapter 292 – Swordsmanship

Luo Jin let out a muffled grunt. The blood and qi around his body surged violently and was nearly torn apart on the spot.

A series of explosive cracks came from every bone in his body. The black martial robe he wore billowed outward, yet his feet did not shift an inch as he dispersed a punch that could have killed a grandmaster.

A trace of surprise flashed through Shi Lan’s eyes, but her hands did not pause in the slightest. Her figure shot forward like lightning, leaving behind a string of afterimages. In the blink of an eye, she crossed to Luo Jin’s front, clenched her fist, raised her arm, and smashed downward.

That slender arm of the young girl carried a terrifying, overwhelming force, like Vajra subduing demons. There was no way to avoid it.

Under the edge of that fist, even the air around Luo Jin was compressed aside, roaring with noise.

Luo Jin did not retreat. His back sank low like a coiled flood-dragon, then every joint thundered in succession as he rose skyward and lifted his palm to meet Shi Lan’s ferocious descending punch.

Boom!

The instant fist and palm met, a thunderous explosion rang out, overpowering even the storm outside. Violent air currents swept in all directions, blasting up a skyful of mist.

Luo Jin took a step back, his face flushing red. He felt his five viscera tremble and his six bowels shift out of place. He had already suffered internal injuries.

Shi Lan keenly noticed that Luo Jin’s blood and qi had weakened. Her body dropped low, power surged through her waist and legs, and she lunged forward violently like a vicious tiger leaving its cage, driving a punch straight at Luo Jin’s waist and abdomen.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bloodshot veins appeared faintly in Luo Jin’s eyes. He sank a breath of internal qi into his organs, neither dodging nor avoiding, and met Shi Lan’s fists head-on. He received more than ten of her punches in succession, retreating again and again. Both his wrists throbbed with swelling pain, a ring of swelling rising around them as the wrist bones were damaged.

Even though his martial cultivation was profound and his blood and qi enduring, he was ultimately advanced in years. Meeting force with force in a direct clash was not his strength.

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“Hah…”

Even Shi Lan could not help but gasp for breath a few times and stop. Continuously using the Vajra Divine Fist had also put a heavy burden on her. It was true that the Vajra Divine Fist amplified her strength tenfold, but the burden it brought was just as great.

With her current strength, after two full sets of the Vajra Divine Fist, she would be exhausted. She had to end this quickly.

The people of the Wuji Sect around them were all martial experts, and they quickly saw the situation clearly. If this continued, Luo Jin would lose without question.

A disciple of the Wuji Sect stepped forward and undid the long case strapped to his back. The lid opened, revealing a silver unsheathed longsword. It was three chi and seven cun long, its blade like autumn frost. The whole sword looked as though it had been forged from silver, engraved with countless intricate patterns.

The moment the case opened, Shi Lan’s expression changed. It was actually a magical artifact.

“Sect Master, catch the sword!”

The longsword rose into the air and, as if it possessed spirit of its own, was drawn into Luo Jin’s hand.

Luo Jin was not only a Martial Grandmaster, but also a top swordsman who chiefly cultivated the sword. With a sharp sword in hand, his strength increased by at least severalfold.

Luo Jin flicked the sword into a flourish, then lowered the tip toward Shi Lan and sighed.

“Ning An, I am not as skilled as you, so I can only resort to blades. Do not blame me.”

In his view, Shi Lan no longer had any chance of winning.

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A sword duel?

Shi Lan shook her head slightly. She casually snapped off a length of steel rebar from nearby and held it in her palm. In an instant, her aura turned keen and exposed. Clear sword marks appeared across the surrounding water.

Luo Jin’s breathing halted involuntarily. The young girl before him seemed to transform in an instant into a heavenly sword drawn from its sheath, exuding a chillingly sharp aura.

Shi Lan had never devoted herself wholeheartedly to practicing the sword, but she had, after all, inherited the legacy of a Sword Emperor. Although she had not inherited it in full in the end, the sword path of the Guiyun Sword Emperor had still left its traces upon her.

Compared to the inheritance of the Guiyun Sword Emperor, those traces did not even count as the barest surface, but they still gave Shi Lan an understanding of the sword path that did not lose out to ordinary sword masters.

As a swordsman, Luo Jin clearly sensed the realm of Shi Lan’s swordsmanship. It was a height he could not comprehend. Such a realm was not something any so-called treasure could bring. It required accumulation day after day, and the ceaseless contemplation of the sword path day and night, before one might hope to climb to such a peak.

The girl before him was undoubtedly a peerless genius on the sword path.

“Ning An, you are the most astonishing genius I have seen in my life. At your age, to have reached such a realm, I have never even heard of it. Compared to you, the so-called grandmasters of the jianghu are nothing but chickens and dogs made of clay. To fight you is one of the great fortunes of my life!”

Though shocked by the aura coming from Shi Lan, Luo Jin still tightened his grip on the longsword in his hand. Battle intent surged in his eyes like a tide. His snowy beard and hair stood on end, and his blood and qi climbed to a peak they had never reached before. No matter how strong Shi Lan was, she would not make him lose the courage to draw his sword.

At this moment, Luo Jin had already placed Shi Lan on the same level as himself.

Boom!

The water suddenly exploded several meters high. A streak of silver sword light, like a flood-dragon rising from the sea, split apart the water curtain and shot straight for Shi Lan’s throat.

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Luo Jin’s battle intent surged like a tide, but regrettably, Shi Lan had never once regarded him as a true opponent. The sword light, winding like a swimming dragon, was full of flaws in her eyes. With the enormous gap in cultivation and vision between them, Shi Lan found it difficult to see Luo Jin as an equal opponent.

In Shi Lan’s eyes, Luo Jin could at most be considered a qualified cultivator of the martial path.

Shi Lan stepped across the water, the steel rebar in her hand becoming a three-chi divine sword. It struck the flat of Luo Jin’s blade, and the silver sword light shattered instantly.

Luo Jin’s wrist jolted. The blade trembled violently, nearly flying from his grasp, and his front opened wide. Before he could withdraw his sword to defend, his chest turned slightly cold.

The strength he had just gathered dissipated in an instant. Luo Jin lowered his head and glanced down. A rust-covered steel rebar had already pierced through his chest.

Luo Jin stood with the sword planted before him. His clouded eyes were filled with disappointment and regret.

One sword had already decided life and death.

The gap was simply too great…

In the end, he still had not been able to witness the true end of the martial path…

“I hope… you can see a new landscape…”

Forcing up his final breath, Luo Jin pulled up his longsword and hurled it at Shi Lan.

“Then wait until your next life and go see it yourself.”

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Watching Luo Jin’s corpse gradually sink beneath the standing water, Shi Lan shook her head slightly and pulled the silver longsword from in front of her.

Although the refining method was somewhat crude and it barely counted as a low-grade magical artifact, it was still a magical artifact. In this world, that made it equivalent to a divine weapon that could cut gold and jade and cleave iron like mud, able to sever all ordinary metal.

The appearance of this item was enough to prove that this world, at least in the past, had seen cultivators of the Innate Realm.

“Stop right there!”

A sharp shout came from behind. Shi Lan turned her head and saw Zhao Ye’s pale face. His hand was already clamped around Ning Kangping’s throat.

The moment Shi Lan’s gaze swept over him, Zhao Ye’s whole body stiffened involuntarily. Her eyes were filled with icy killing intent, with not the slightest trace of the panic he had expected.

“Put the sword down!”

Zhao Ye shouted with empty bluster, tightening his grip. Ning Kangping soon began struggling for breath, his whole face turning red.

“Run… quickly…”

With death close at hand, Ning Kangping was still only worried about Ning An’s safety. With difficulty, he signaled for Shi Lan to hurry and leave.

Sword in hand, Shi Lan stepped forward and walked toward Zhao Ye, her pace steady and without the slightest pause.

“Don’t come any closer!”