Library of Heaven’s Path

”Watch your gates?” Ying Qin, Bai Mian, and Yuan Gang clenched their fists tightly after hearing those words, nearly exploding on the spot.

They were Grade-4 students, Ethereal Treading realm pinnacle experts. Yet, a freshman actually wanted them to watch their gates?

Was this even a bet anymore?

This was clearly an attempt to humiliate them!

”Weren’t you confident that you wouldn’t lose just a moment ago? If you won’t lose, surely the content of the bet won’t matter to you, right? What, has your confidence wavered?” Zhang Xuan gazed at the trio with a slight smile on his lips.

”Change the conditions!” With a livid expression, Ying Qin flung his sleeves and harrumphed.

Even though they wouldn’t lose, they couldn’t bring themselves to accept such a bet. The other party was clearly belittling them!

”It seems you aren’t as confident as you seem. Well, there’s no need to be embarrassed about losing. Everyone loses sometimes; there’s no shame in it,” Zhang Xuan consoled.

”You!”

Hearing those words, Ying Qin, Bai Mian, and Yuan Gang nearly spewed blood.

What do you mean by embarrassed? What do you mean by saying everyone loses sometime and there’s no shame in it?

We aren’t afraid of losing; we just find your conditions humiliating!

Just as they were about to refute the other party’s words, the other party suddenly lowered his head, seemingly falling into contemplation. ”If you are really that afraid of losing, why don’t I offer some guidance to some of the freshmen and send them up to fight against you? If that’s still too much for you to accept… how about those you have just defeated? Surely you should be a little more confident with that? I don’t think I can go any lower than this…”

”You…”

Seeing how the other party was going further and further, Ying Qin’s fury peaked. ”Fine! We will accept your conditions! You’d better pray that you are as capable as your mouth, or else just wait and see!”

Upon receiving the other party’s agreement, Zhang Xuan nodded in satisfaction before issuing a set of instructions. ”Good! Ruohuan and Song Chao, send a few men to construct a gate at the entrance. Otherwise, there will be nothing for them to watch later on.”

The living quarters of the freshmen were enclosed, and there was an entrance for students to enter and leave the premises. However, there was no gate at the entrance. It would be awkward if those fellows had nothing to watch over when they lost.

”Alright!” Ruohuan gongzi and Song Chao nodded before leaving to settle the matter.

”You are courting death!”

Seeing how the other party was acting as if victory was assured for him, Bai Mian finally reached the limit of his tolerance. His dark face warped in savagery, and the enormous saber in his hands also buzzed in resonance to his emotions. Turning to Ying Qin, he said, ”Allow me to teach this fellow a lesson!”

After saying those words, he immediately walked to the center of the dueling platform, and with eyes as sharp as lightning, he bellowed, ”Zhang Xuan, I shall be your opponent for the first match. Come!”

Zhang Xuan shook his head. ”Calm down, there’s no hurry. Youngsters nowadays sure don’t know the virtue of patience.”

”You…” Suffering yet another blow, Bai Mian’s face turned even darker than before.

We might look young, but we are all in our fifties, you know? You are only a brat in your early twenties, and yet you dare to call us youngsters? How shameless can you get?

”Is your mouth the only thing you have? If you are a man, you’d better come up here this instant!” Knowing that it was impossible for him to win a verbal war with the other party, Bai Mian gritted his teeth in anger.

”I won’t take advantage of you; you will surely lose if I head up there. Like I said before, I will find a few freshmen to fight against you. Since I have already given my word, I’ll honor it!” Zhang Xuan waved his hands casually.

Ignoring the frenzied Bai Mian above, he turned to the freshmen and asked, ”Is there anyone here who was defeated by this fellow and wields a saber?”

Upon hearing the question, the crowd stared at one another bewilderedly.

They’d thought that Zhang shi had only said those words to provoke the seniors into agreeing to his conditions, was he really serious about it?

But they had already lost, and it had been a crushing defeat at that! Even if the wounds they had suffered weren’t substantial, there was no way they could defeat them!

”I… lost just now!”

After a short moment of silence, a freshman suddenly waved his hand and walked out from the crowd.

It was a young man in his mid-twenties with a cultivation of Consonant Spirit realm primary stage. There was a glaring and hideous saber cut on his body, which even though it wasn’t a serious wound, it seemed as though he would have been sliced into two if his opponent had put slightly more strength into the attack. It was only due to his opponent’s mercy that he was still living at this very moment.

”Not bad!” Zhang Xuan assessed him carefully from head to toe before nodding in approval. ”You shall go up to the dueling platform and defeat that fellow later on!”

”I…” The young man leaped in shock. With a conflicted expression, he said, ”I am not a match for him. I wasn’t even able to withstand a single blow of his previously!”

When he faced Bai Mian just a few moments ago, as soon as the duel started, before he could even raise his saber, he was sliced through by the other party’s weapon. Given the huge disparity in strength, he would lose no matter how many times he challenged Bai Mian!

”It’s fine. I’ll impart a saber art maneuver to you right now, and if you execute it well on the stage later on, you should be able to defeat him within a single blow,” Zhang Xuan said.

”A saber art maneuver?” the young man repeated in disbelief.

What use was a single maneuver?

Given the other party’s deep comprehension of saber arts, even if he were to learn a hundred saber art maneuvers, there was still no way he could match up to the other party!

”That’s right. Pass me your saber!” Paying no heed to the other party’s shock, Zhang Xuan nodded nonchalantly.

”Alright…” Even though the freshman had no idea what his faction leader was up to, he still passed his saber over obediently.

”Damn it!” Seeing that Zhang Xuan was really going to impart a saber art to an opponent he had defeated and make him go up against him once more, Bai Mian nearly exploded from fury.

It was already challenging the limits of his tolerance for the other party to act as if victory was already in his grasp… But the other party then went on to choose an opponent he had utterly defeated just a moment ago to teach him a saber art, hoping that he could defeat him…

What kind of game are you playing over here?

I wouldn’t be a genius of the Martial Arts School if I could be defeated that easily!

You are too smug!

Arrogant and conceited!

Even the head of the Martial Arts School wouldn’t dare to make such claims!

”Bai Mian, since Zhang shi is going impart a freshman a saber art to challenge you, we shouldn’t take advantage of them either. Inhibit your senses to avoid learning anything about the saber art ahead of the battle!”

Ying Qin’s complexion looked awful as well. However, as a master teacher, he still had a reputation to uphold.

Given their deep comprehension in battle techniques as geniuses of the Martial Arts School, if Zhang Xuan were to teach the freshman before them, it was likely that they might have already mastered the technique before the freshman could even make sense of it. If that happened, would there even be a need to carry on with the duel? The outcome would have already been decided!

Even if they were to win, it would reflect poorly on them.

At the very least, if they were to inhibit their senses to avoid learning anything about the saber art ahead of the battle, there would be nothing the other party could say upon the conclusion.

”Alright!” Bai Mian nodded.

However, just as he was about to inhibit his senses, Zhang Xuan turned his gaze to them and said, ”There’s no need to go through so much trouble. Since you are students of the Martial Arts School, I believe you should have a deep understanding of battle techniques. Since that’s the case, I ask of you to take a look at it during my impartation and correct any mistakes in it!”

Bai Mian and Ying Qin stared at one another blankly with blinking eyes.

That fellow… Was his head stuck in between a gate or did a donkey kick him foolish? You want your faction member to challenge me in the field of saber arts, and yet you still want me to take a look at it in advance?

What kind of logic is that?

Just as Bai Mian was at a loss about what he should do, he suddenly received a telepathic message from Ying Qin. ”Since he wants us to take a look, let’s just do as he says. He is the one telling us to take a look anyway, so surely he can’t complain about it when he loses!”

Ying Qin was the leader of the group, so Bai Mian could only agree to it. Thus, he focused his gaze on the young man imparting a saber art below.

”It will only be a single move, so watch closely!”

Ignoring the dumbfounded crowd, Zhang Xuan chuckled, and with a slight flick of his wrist, he performed a diagonal slash.

The saber moved at an extremely slow speed, as if the slow stroke of a brush on paper.

You call this a saber art? Bai Mian was completely flabbergasted.

Even when he had only just started learning saber arts when he was five, he had never executed such an ugly move before. In no way was this a saber art! Even the technique used to split lumber in two was much more elegant than this!

He was still wondering what kind of formidable saber art the other party was going to teach the freshman that was capable of defeating him in a single move, but who would have thought that the other party would execute such crap instead?

Are you fooling around with me?

At this moment, Bai Mian wasn’t the only one whose mind was in turmoil. The young man whom Zhang Xuan was imparting the saber art to was also nearly on the verge of tears.

He’d thought that, given how confident the faction leader was, he must have had some powerful move to teach him. Never had he thought that it would be something like that…

Given his eye of discernment, he could tell that there was absolutely no skill or anything deeper lying beneath that slash. Such a haphazard, slow, and powerless attack wouldn’t even kill an ant, could he really defeat a Grade-4 senior whom he wasn’t even able to withstand a single blow from previously with something like this?

In an instant, all of the confidence he had before escaped from his mind.

Just as the young man was overwhelmed by helplessness, not knowing what Zhang shi was up to, he suddenly heard a faint voice sounding by his ear. Following which, a thought suddenly emerged within his mind, and his body jolted in response. ”The crux of my saber art lies not in the form but the intent. This is the essence of my saber art, comprehend it well!”

”This is… Soul Impartation?” Sensing the new battle technique in his mind, the young man’s eyes widened in shock.

Soul Impartation was said to be an ability that only 7-star master teachers were capable of utilizing. Why was their faction leader able to use it as well?

Seeing the young man fall into a daze, Zhang Xuan sent a telepathic message over to chide him. ”Don’t let your thoughts wander, make good use of the time you have to comprehend the cultivation technique. Take note of the Saber Intent which I have imparted you as well. Use it along with the saber art later in the duel as well!”

”Yes!” Recovering from his astonishment, the young man quickly turned his focus to the saber art in his mind. In there, he felt a concentration of Saber Intent which carried an aura so sharp that it left one feeling powerless before it.

”This…” The young man narrowed his eyes.

He might not be as experienced and knowledgeable as Bai Mian in the field of saber arts, but as a practitioner of the saber as well, he was still able to tell at a single glance how powerful the concentration of Saber Intent was.

As long as he imitated it, his comprehension of the saber would definitely advance by leaps and bounds, reaching a level beyond imagination.

He drove his zhenqi through his body according to the imparted saber art while tapping into the concentration of Saber Intent, and for an instant, it was as if sharp blades had flickered across his eyes. After grasping the rough flow of the technique, the young man took a deep breath and bowed all the way down to his waist level. ”Thank you, faction leader!”

Zhang Xuan waved his hands casually. ”It’s alright. Now, go and defeat that fellow!”

Not only did Bai Mian possess an exceptional aptitude for saber arts, he had also immersed himself in its training for several decades now. Even if Zhang Xuan were to impart the simplified Heaven’s Path Saber Art to the young man, it would still be difficult for him to defeat Bai Mian right now. Thus, Zhang Xuan could only impart a portion of his Saber Intent as well.

Weapon Intent was something fleeting and intangible. Just like a sensation or a certain state of mind, it was impossible to describe it entirely through words. Even if one had comprehended it, it was nigh impossible to transfer Saber Intent to another party.

However, Zhang Xuan cultivated the Heaven’s Path Saber Art, which was the most direct interpretation of the quintessence of the world, making his Saber Intent wholesome and flawless. By tapping into his capabilities as a soul oracle as well, it was still possible for him to transfer a portion of his Saber Intent over without it dissipating for the other party to use.

”Yes!” Taking a deep breath, the young man nodded.

With a leap, he stepped onto the dueling platform.

If he had still been a bit apprehensive at the thought of facing Senior Bai Mian earlier, thinking that there was no chance he could defeat the other party, at this very moment, having learned a move from the simplified version of the Heaven’s Path Saber Art and harnessing Zhang Xuan’s Saber Intent within him, all fear had vanished from his mind.

”You really think you can win against me like that?” Seeing the fellow really leaping up to the dueling platform to challenge him after learning a completely useless saber art which couldn’t even be used to chop lumber, Bai Mian felt as if he was about to explode with anger.

”Pardon me!” The young man nodded before raising his saber. In an instant, an aura that felt as if it could split the heavens burst into the air, and in the next moment, the saber was already falling on Bai Mian.

Huala!

Despite the young man’s Consonant Spirit realm primary stage cultivation, the cold glint of his saber extended across several zhang instantaneously as if a streak of lightning, tearing through space to crush Bai Mian.

”Lightning Flash of Saber… T-this is an ability that only those who have comprehended Saber Heart can use! How is it possible that you…”

Bai Mian’s body trembled in shock. His eyes were bulging as if they would drop off at any moment. He could hear a deafening rumble swiftly crescendoing next to him, as if it was going to cast him into oblivion.