TIC Chapter 20: Swords Meet and Compete For Splendor

In order to prevent weak players like Shen Xiaojiang from running into ferocious players like his second shixiong, the Golden Osmanthus Palace will first screen people with similar cultivation levels and then randomly match them.

The weak vs. the weak, the strong vs. the strong.

Afterward, the victorious weaker ones would then face the defeated stronger ones, and this would continue for fifteen days to determine the final Golden Osmanthus Ranking. The specific basis for the combination and arrangement was very complicated, and Lin Fuqing barely understood it even after listening to Fang Zhiyuan explain it twice.

But anyway, the contestants didn’t need to understand. They just had to follow instructions, borrow some fiery youthful spirit from the swords in their hands, and compete to their heart’s content on the competition stage.

The Golden Osmanthus Palace had many pavilions, and the inner palace where the immortal sovereign lived and where meetings were held were closed to visitors. However, the five pavilions in the east, west, south, north and center, which were typically used by the disciples, were opened for the Golden Osmanthus Challenge.

The stage in the north pavilion was already crowded with cultivators who came to spectate. Lin Fuqing asked Third Xun and Fifth Song to take Shen Xiaojiang back to the inn to rest and recuperate, while he and Fang Zhiyuan selected a seat to watch the battle.

The disciples of Sword Valley always had an extraordinary obsession with swords.

Just like this Immortal Chen Zhen, who at this moment had especially drawn his beloved sword to show his opponent.

“This sword’s name is Tuan Yang! It was forged from smelting blazing iron with a meteorite. My master Swordmaster Chang Zhen gave this to me, and it has been with me for 17 years.”

He introduced his sword.

A girl dressed in green stood opposite him.

She also held a sword in her hand.

The sword was slender, delicate, and green like the willows by the lake.

Just like its owner.

“T-T-T-This-This s-sword’s! N-name…Name!”

Ye Huaguo bit her tongue several times before she managed to speak clearly with a trembling voice, “It’s…it’s called Dodder! It was given to me by my da shixiong…l

The crowd of onlookers burst into laughter.

They were laughing at the name of the sword, and also laughing at the owner of the sword.

Chen Zhen from Sword Valley was furious. “Can you even be considered a sword cultivator?!”

Ye Huaguo nodded shyly, like a chick pecking at rice. “Yes, yes. I’m not a sword cultivator! I’m a medicine cultivator!”

Chen Zhen’s expression changed again and again. He cursed in a low voice. “Why did they arrange an opponent like this for me?”

Then he said loudly, “My sword will not kill weak women. If you can’t fight, you might as well admit defeat as soon as possible!”

Ye Huaguo was very surprised. “Really… is it really possible?”

Chen Zhen: “……”

The audience burst into laughter again, and Lin Fuqing held his forehead with his hand in pain.

Fang Zhiyuan suddenly called out, “Fourth Ye.”

Ye Huaguo shuddered, “No–I, I, I was just kidding!!”

Chen Zhen on the opposite side became impatient. Spiritual energy surged from within his body. His long sword cut through the air with a sharp sound, creating a dazzling arc of light.

In the blink of an eye, he was already approaching Ye Huaguo!

The sword light flashed toward Ye Huaguo’s head, while the latter stood stunned and motionless.

Fang Shixiong curled his lips grimly, his sharp eyes dark and murderous. “You lose this battle and tonight we’ll fight.”

“——!?”

In an instant, Ye Huaguo’s face turned pale with fear.

…Who among Xuyun’s inner disciples had not been pinned to the ground and beaten two or three times by Fang Shixiong?

The psychological shadow created from those memories were too overwhelming.

The poor girl’s eyes trembled with tears. While internally collapsing, she raised her sword.

Suddenly, a strong wind swirled around Dodder.

The ground where Ye Huaguo stood formed tiny cracks, and an extremely powerful sword intent emanated from the weak girl and the thin sword in her hand.

In a flash, it aroused the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, creating an overwhelming power that soared into the sky!

“Oh my god, what kind of swordsmanship is this!?”

The disciples of Sword Valley that were watching screamed in surprise.

“Who has the paper goose to send a message? Hurry up and call Xuanyuan Shixiong over!”

A fatal sense of crisis immediately arose, and Chen Zhen was horrified!

He immediately changed tactics. With a few hasty steps backward, he twisted his body and stabbed forward with his sword.

Seeing the opponent’s sword coming again, Ye Huaguo turned pale with fright. She stepped backward, and in the blink of an eye, she flew more than ten feet away!

The slender figure was like a green willow swaying in the wind.

However, in the next moment, the weak willow turned into a sharp blade.

Ye Huaguo gave a delicate cry and spun in mid-air, causing the emerald green sword in her hand to leave behind a string of dazzling afterimages!

Chen Zhen gritted his teeth and parried. All the spiritual energy in his meridians surged into the sword, and the red light emitting from the sword doubled in size.

Offstage, Lin Fuqing smiled slightly. “Good sword.”

One green and one scarlet, the two swords collided!

Snap——

Chen Zhen’s face was grim, and the Tuan Yang sword in his hand broke into three pieces. As they scattered, the fragments flashed a dazzling light under the sun.

The disciples of Sword Valley could not bear to watch any longer. “Chen Shixiong—”0

Dodder descended, heading straight for Chen Zhen’s heart. But at the critical moment, it changed from a straight stab to a horizontal strike, and Ye Huaguo swept him out with the sword!

Bang!!

Chen Zhen fell to the ground, creating a huge pit and raising a cloud of dust..

The girl in green landed lightly on the ground.

The monk who had been standing nearby shouted, “Stop!”

“On the morning of the first day, Xuyun Sect’s Ye Huaguo wins!!”

Ye Huaguo hurriedly put Dodder back into its sheath.

She turned around and laughed dryly at Fang Zhiyuan. “Second, Second Shixiong, look, I won…so don’t, don’t fight me…”

All these changes happened so fast that no one could react. Chen Zhen struggled to get up and said with a choked breath. “Didn’t you say you were a medicine practitioner?!”

Ye Huaguo felt wronged. “I am indeed a medicine practitioner!!”

The Sword Valley disciple who rushed onto the stage to help his shixiong was furious. “Bullshit! Then you must be a shitty medical practitioner!”

Ye Huaguo was stunned, and she almost broke into tears when she realized what was happening. She stamped her feet, pointed at herself, and said defensively, “Why-Why are you being like this?! Although my talent in medicine is just slightly w-worse than my swordsmanship, I am a genuine medicine practitioner! How can you scold me like this?”

Chen Zhen was so angry that he vomited blood and fainted.

Ye Huaguo was still trying to prove herself. “If you don’t believe me, I can heal him right now—”

“Okay, Huaguo.”

Lin Fuqing finally spoke and called Fifth Ye down. “We all know that you’re a good medicine practitioner.”

This was enough to cheer Ye Huaguo up, and she came over happily.

Lin Fuqing said, “Didn’t I tell you that you are actually very good at using the sword?”
Ye Huaguo grinned, her eyes bright, “Da-Da Shixiong, can we return to the inn now? Can we have something delicious for dinner?”

Lin Fuqing smiled and said, “Then let your second shixiong go and steal some osmanthus flowers.”

………

By the time the three of them returned to the inn, it was already very noisy inside.

After the first match, all the young talents in the inn, whether they had fought yet or not, were already very excited. The lobby below was filled with people discussing the morning battles.

Shen Xiaojian had also woken up.

He listened as cultivators passed by, talking excitedly about the stunning swordplay of Fairy Ye from Xuyun Sect.

Then he recalled the stuttering girl who’d stepped on her skirt and fell to the ground right in front of him.

He looked at the disciples of Sword Valley with their rosy faces and fanatical eyes.

Then he looked at his da shixiong and second shixiong, both of whom were walking toward him in the distance…and Ye Shijie, who was so frightened by all the looks and conversations along the way, that she had her eyes squeezed tight, shivering non-stop as she tightly clutched da shixiong’s sleeve.

…It seemed that he had become lightheaded again?

The current world seemed too unreal.

It was almost time for dinner. Lin Fuqing chatted briefly with his fellow junior disciples and then borrowed the ingredients from the inn’s kitchen to prepare their dinner himself.

Rather than being an emperor served by slaves, he would rather be Xuyun’s da shixiong and serve these children he’d picked up.

Lin Fuqing knew very well that he was actually such a person.

He was a genius who had impressed the Immortal Realm as soon as he left the sect. He could handle most trouble with just his Tunan sword in hand.

But the moment he returned to Xuyun, all he could think about was what delicious food to cook, what beautiful flowers to plant, and what he could do to make his fellow disciples happy…

It was better to look at his Star and play with his Fish. This made him happier than ruling the world with the power of a demonic emperor and etching his name in history. He was such a vulgar person with no ambition, full of laziness and greedy for the good things in life.

As he stood in front of the counter, quickly chopping a few chopped vegetables and putting them aside, he thought to himself: It’s amazing that a person like him was praised as the savior of the world and later as the emperor of the demonic path. He was praised for nearly a hundred years.

Suddenly, the window clicked. He turned toward the sound and saw a slender calf wrapped in dark clothing.

He felt helpless. “A’Yuan? When did you run outside?”

“Shige.” Fang Zhiyuan tilted his head and smiled. Sitting nonchalantly on a branch outside the window, he gently kicked the glass window again.

Lin Fuqing shook off the water droplets on his fingers and opened the window for him.

An osmanthus branch was stuffed into his hand. “Take it.”

Lin Fuqing laughed in amazement. “Tsk, this guy! He really went to steal? How come Lu Kuifu didn’t try to chop you with his ax?”

He said this in blame but took the flower branch. “Come in quickly. Is it cold outside?”

Fang Zhiyuan didn’t come in, but sat outside the window swinging his legs and said, “Lu Kuifu is not in the Golden Osmanthus Palace.”

Unsurprised, Lin Fuqing thought for a moment and said, “…That’s right. If he really is reborn, and since he’s the current head of immortals responsible for the survival of the three realms, he must take action.”

“Who’s like you?” He turned his hand, dipped the osmanthus branch in water, and splashed the water droplets at Fang Zhiyuan. As he did this, he said with raised eyebrows, “You were the immortal leader in your previous life, and you only knew how to steal osmanthus flowers for others?”

Fang Zhiyuan didn’t hide, but laughed happily, as if this was not a mockery but a supreme compliment.

The two of them were too familiar with one another, and many things were tacitly understood and didn’t need to be said out loud.

For example, Lin Fuqing certainly knew how dangerous it would be for Fang Zhiyuan, a mere Golden Core cultivator, to sneak into the depths of the Golden Osmanthus Palace. He also knew that the reason why this man was willing to take such risks was definitely not to steal osmanthus flowers.

Fang Zhiyuan wanted to find the Immortal Sovereign Lu Kuifu. If he could confirm that Lu Kuifu was a reborn person, with such a person in Tribulation Crossing protecting him, Lin Fuqing’s safety in Liuhua Continent was pretty much guaranteed.

How could Lin Fuqing not know that Fang Zhiyuan was afraid that he couldn’t protect him by himself.

He knew this, but didn’t point it out. As for Fang Zhiyuan, he naturally knew that his shige could see through his little thoughts, but also didn’t point it out.

“Thief Fang,” Lin Fuqing continued to joke, “you just came back. There’s an interesting thing that you didn’t know yet. In the evening battle today, someone from Xuyun would go up and fight. Guess who?”

Fang Zhiyuan finally entered through the window and landed beside Lin Fuqing. He thought for a moment, then leaned back against the counter with his arms folded. “Shige said it was interesting, so I guess…it’s not just one.”

Lin Fuqing hummed softly. “Why are you so smart?”

Fang Zhiyuan asked, “Who is it?”

Lin Fuqing said, “Song Youdu is one of them.”

“And the other one?”

“It’s me.” Lin Fuqing pointed at himself and curled his lips. “So I told Little Fifth that I would finish the fight as soon as possible and go watch him compete.”

 

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