The rest of the new disciples quickly stood to the side, leaving only the two young ladies to face off in the centre.
"T-Then, can you make the first move?" Qi Yuanyuan asked politely. At the same time, she slowly drew a sword from the scabbard hanging by her waist.
"Well, if you say so, then I won't stand on ceremony!" Lu Zhiying grinned, entering her battle stance.
"Wait, is Junior Martial Sister Lu going to fight with her backpack on?" Zhao Yunxiao frowned. "I hope she isn't underestimating her opponent."
He knew that despite how nervous Qi Yuanyuan appeared, she was still the selected representative of the Azure Dragon Sect.
And their selected representatives always had the skills to match.
"That shouldn't be the case..." Gu Qiansi clenched her fists nervously. "Junior Martial Sister Lu doesn't look like she is feeling overconfident right now."
"Maybe it's not exactly overconfidence then. Perhaps Junior Martial Sister Lu has a good reason to be confident of victory?" Huang An suggested.
"No matter what, it's still best to be careful," Zhao Yunxiao sighed helplessly.
He could only hope that Lu Zhiying's talent would allow her to pull through this time. Even if she did not win, it would be good enough as long as she did not get too injured.
[Xuanwu Movement Art – Snapping Burst]
Lu Zhiying dashed forward without hesitation, world origin energy gathering within her palms.
A deep frown appeared on Qi Yuanyuan's face, making her look even more anxious than before. Despite that, she quickly readied her sword and pierced forward. During the almost instantaneous motion of thrusting out the sword, sunlight reflected off the perfectly angled shiny silver surface of the blade, landing directly onto Lu Zhiying's eyes.
At the Foundation Building realm, cultivators were not capable of using spiritual sense.
Momentarily robbed of her sight, Lu Zhiying could not help but grin in excitement as she was forced to adjust.
[Xuanwu Movement Art – Shifting Sands]
Lu Zhiying easily sidestepped to the left, not just dodging the oncoming sword thrust, but also entering Qi Yuanyuan's blindspot. Her palm struck out without hesitation, the world origin energy within coming together to form an energy orb.
At that very moment, Qi Yuanyuan dexterously flipped the sword around in her hand, holding it in reverse. By doing so, the blade of the sword came straight for Lu Zhiying as Qi Yuanyuan pulled her sword back.
"Please watch out!" Qi Yuanyuan nervously warned as she struck.
"Heh, don't worry about hurting me! I know a talented physician who could patch me up in a jiffy!" Lu Zhiying laughed.
There was no way she could continue with her intended attack with Qi Yuanyuan's sword coming straight at her, but that did not mean she had to retreat. Instead, Lu Zhiying made a simple horizontal spin, gracefully weaving her body out of the path of the sword.
Zhao Yunxiao recognised this style of hers at one glance.
Flight of the Butterflies.
This was a movement style adapted from Lu Zhiying's dance routine for the song of the same name –
A set of evasive techniques characterised by grace and elegance. One had to admit that it truly suited someone like Lu Zhiying.
However, evasion was not all that was on her mind. Even as she evaded her opponent's sword, Lu Zhiying decisively threw out the energy orb in her hand, turning what had been a close combat weapon into a projectile.
Qi Yuanyuan reacted immediately, adjusting her sword to block the energy orb.
Poof-!
It was almost as though the energy orb was a mere rain droplet falling onto the ground. Upon striking the sword, it simply dissipated like it never existed.
"Oh?" Lu Zhiying blinked repeatedly in surprise when she saw that Qi Yuanyuan did not even flinch.
She was not the only one with that reaction.
Qi Yuanyuan had looked extremely worried all along, yet was completely unfazed by the projectile attack that came that close to her. Drawing links to how she had acted previously, most of the spectators could not help but come to the same conclusion.
Qi Yuanyuan had never been worried about having to fight.
Instead, she was only worried about hurting her opponent!
It would not be too shocking if that was all.
Zhao Yunxiao narrowed his eyes as he noticed just how easily Qi Yuanyuan had neutralised Lu Zhiying's energy orb.
Both Lu Zhiying and Qi Yuanyuan had already entered the Intermediate Foundation Building realm, making them equals in terms of their cultivation level. However, even among those at the same cultivation level, there had always been clear differences among cultivators in terms of energy manipulation capabilities.
That said, such differences were a lot less significant at the Foundation Building realm since everyone had yet to fully embark on their own respective cultivation paths. At this level, any obvious difference usually arose from differences in the type of spiritual meridian root formed, which would in turn determine the type of spiritual meridians formed.
Regular, true, golden – the higher the quality of the spiritual meridians, the easier it was for energy to flow through them. This in turn resulted in better energy absorption and manipulation, which directly impacted both the cultivation rate and overall capabilities of cultivators.
In this regard, Lu Zhiying possessed true spiritual meridians, giving her a huge advantage over most cultivators in terms of energy absorption and manipulation.
But for Qi Yuanyuan to be able to overcome her attack with such ease... no way, golden spiritual meridians?!
Ouch!
Zhao Yunxiao winced a little as the shocking revelation caused his body to tense up, which ended up triggering his existing injuries. He managed to quickly suppress himself from exclaiming out loud, but Gu Qiansi still narrowed her eyes at him from the side, having noticed his momentary change in expression.
That said, he was not the only one who had such a huge reaction.
All around the Black Guardian Square, looks of astonishment similarly appeared on the faces of the more perceptive audiences. If Zhao Yunxiao had been able to come to that conclusion, it was only natural that these cultivators, most of whom possessing multiple times his experience, would be able to as well.
In fact, there were many who came to this conclusion even without the prior knowledge that Lu Zhiying possessed true spiritual meridians. Instead, they were able to deduce this simply by observing the flow of world origin energy when the duo executed their respective techniques.
The exceedingly smooth flow of energy whenever Qi Yuanyuan employed world origin energy could only mean one thing.
Golden spiritual meridians!
With that alone, as long as Qi Yuanyuan's comprehension capabilities were decent enough, it would not be difficult for her to rise through the ranks and obtain core disciple status in time to come!
Everyone made sure to remember her name, especially for the members of the subordinate sects. If they could just find a way to get into her good books early, they would surely stand to gain when she eventually came into power. And even if that were not possible, they had to at least ensure that they did not offend her in any manner, or trouble would surely befall them in the future.
"Please watch out. I will be attacking now!" Qi Yuanyuan warned again as she swept her sword at Lu Zhiying's feet, prompting the latter to leap into the air.
Right as Lu Zhiying was airborne and no longer capable of changing directions, Qi Yuanyuan bit her lips in resolve and slashed up at her.
"Hahaha! Okay, I will watch out!" Lu Zhiying laughed while forming another energy orb in her left palm.
But just as everyone thought she would use it to block the oncoming sword, she directly detonated the energy orb.
Boom-!
The small explosion allowed her to avoid Qi Yuanyuan's sword slash by sending her flying backwards, but it was not without consequences – evident from the burn marks that had appeared all over her left hand and arm.
Nevertheless, Zhao Yunxiao had to admit that it was a smarter option than trying to block Qi Yuanyuan's sword with that energy orb.
From their previous exchange, it was already as clear as day that Lu Zhiying's energy orbs could not stand up to her sword. Trying to use the energy orb as a defensive tool would only end badly for her.
Now, the question was... what next?
Without a way to deal with Qi Yuanyuan's sword, how could Lu Zhiying win?
In terms of movements, Lu Zhiying seemed to be faster and more agile, but the difference was not nearly huge enough to overcome this barrier.
As though she had realised this as well, Qi Yuanyuan immediately went on the offensive.
She covered the distance between her and Lu Zhiying with a few simple steps. While her gentle eyes still revealed a tinge of worry, the sword in her hands seemed to have suddenly transformed into a silver viper, aggressively homing in on its beautiful prey.
One after another, countless sword slashes and thrusts appeared without pause, chained together in a smooth manner that left no openings to be abused. Each strike was aimed at a non-vital spot on Lu Zhiying's body, and the angles were intelligently calculated, designed to force Lu Zhiying into making large evasive movements if she did not want to be struck.
The larger the movements required, the less time Lu Zhiying had to think about her next move, much less counterattack.
As if that were not enough, Qi Yuanyuan also managed to use her sword to repeatedly reflect the sunlight onto Lu Zhiying's eyes, threatening to rob her of her chances of victory along with her sight. This was her using her superior awareness of her surrounding to its maximum potential.
Her efforts were not in vain.
Faced with Qi Yuanyuan's relentless sword strikes, all Lu Zhiying could do was continue to back off, completely suppressed and unable to find a single opening to fight back.
Thankfully, her superior movement techniques managed to keep her afloat in this battle, allowing her to avoid any sort of injuries by dancing around the barrage of sword strikes. There were a few close calls, but none of the sword strikes managed to connect.
Even then, it was clear to all that Qi Yuanyuan held the overwhelming advantage in this battle.
Initially, everyone thought little of it, accepting it as only natural for the Azure Dragon Sect's representative to be winning, not to mention the fact that she possessed golden spiritual meridians. But as some time passed, doubts started appearing in the minds of some of the spectators.
"How is she supposed to win barehanded against someone using a sword?"
"Yeah, this isn't even a fair duel."
"Why doesn't she have a weapon of her own? And she's even carrying such a bulky backpack."
"She seems really talented, but it would appear that this lady hasn't really been favoured in terms of fortune."
It was unknown who started voicing out their thoughts, but similar comments like that started emerging from the spectators seated all around the Black Guardian Square, including those from the Azure Dragon Sect. It quickly got to a point where even Lu Zhiying and Qi Yuanyuan managed to overhear these remarks.
"Eh? Erm... do you have a weapon you can use?" Qi Yuanyuan momentarily halted her offence and asked in a flustered manner. "Otherwise, I can put away my sword, so that we can have a fair fight."
"What are you saying, Yuanyuan? Don't be so easily influenced by the words of others!" Qi Yeti shouted in frustration. "It's her problem if she doesn't want to use a weapon, but you are a sword user! Why do you have to change your style to suit her?"
"But, this..." Qi Yuanyuan clearly did not know how to respond.
"Heh, you are really interesting!" Lu Zhiying exclaimed. "But you are right. I was hoping that I could do this, but it sure seems like I am out of my depth here. Don't worry, you can keep using your sword. This is the right opportunity for me to test things out."
"Test things out?" Qi Yuanyuan frowned, sensing that something was amiss.
"That's right," Lu Zhiying grinned as she formed a mudra with both hands. "Let's see how your sword fares against my Myriad Fields Backpack!"
"Myriad Fields Backpack?" Qi Yuanyuan quickly focused on the bamboo backpack on Lu Zhiying's back, preparing herself for the dangers that were to come.
"...Myriad Fields Backpack?" Gu Qiansi glanced at Zhao Yunxiao.
Zhao Yunxiao: "..."
Was that a question? What was he supposed to say?
By 'Myriad Fields Backpack', was Lu Zhiying referring to the bamboo backpack that he had given her?
Since when did it have a name like that?
No, no! More importantly, it was a backpack, not a weapon!
Just what was Lu Zhiying thinking?
He might have been reinforcing it over the years with essence energy to increase its durability and longevity, but it was essentially still an ordinary bamboo backpack. It would not last long against an actual treasure sword!
Lu Zhiying smiled confidently, completely oblivious to the fluster that Zhao Yunxiao was feeling at the moment.
World origin energy gathered within the mudra formed by her slender fingers, flowing up her arms, through her body, and into the clumsy-looking bamboo backpack that she had been carrying since the start.
Facing her, Qi Yuanyuan readied her sword nervously as she watched, a bad premonition rising in her heart.
And then, Lu Zhiying made her move.