The Great Way to Truth, Starting from Jiazi Laodao

Chapter 57: Li Gua Upper Nine, Winning by Luck
Hutian Palace, on the stage.

Chang Qingzi greeted the Taoist priest who was saying goodbye to the old man.

Although the latter was born as a casual cultivator, he studied under the Three Rings Immortal and performed well in the literary examination and was also unstoppable in the martial arts examination.

His current overall ranking is slightly better than Chang Qingzi, and he is considered one of the best among the independent cultivators.

Taoist Cijiu opened his mouth to say some polite words when he saw Changqingzi coming with a sword in his hand. His face was grim and he drew his sword mercilessly.

His eyelids twitched, and he pursed his lips. He reacted quickly, tapping the ground with his toes and rapidly backing away while flicking his wrists.

The iron ring on the wrist flew out, and a pair of flying rings rotated in the air. The iron sword collided with the flying rings, sparks flew, and magic power surged.

The sword energy was everywhere and the iron rings were rampant.

The two fought for dozens of rounds, but it was difficult to determine the winner.

On the stands, Xuan Yang lay on the railing, leaning forward and looking out, with a rich expression. He was all smiles when his disciple had the upper hand, frowned when his disciple was at a disadvantage, and gasped when his disciple was in danger. His mood went up and down with the fight.

Xuanxu and others were also standing in front of the railing, but their reactions were not as exaggerated as Xuanyang's, but they also kept their eyes straight ahead.

On the second-floor Lingze Palace stand, the chubby Kun Dao Bichuan was also lying on the railing, staring at Chang Qingzi intently, muttering to himself, "You must not lose, you must not lose!"

The more powerful this guy is, the more honorable her defeat will be. Whether she can save her face depends on this stinky Taoist priest.

On the ring, the two Taoists fought back and forth for fifty rounds. Taoist Cijiu frowned slightly. He seemed to have the upper hand, but his opponent was like the green bamboo in the mountains that never fell. The greater the pressure, the stronger the rebound; the more wounds he had, the more excited he was; the heavier the blow, the happier he was, and he drew his sword faster and faster, becoming more and more courageous as the battle went on.

He broke one of the rings, and he reluctantly returned the blow with his sword.

I put the ring on him, and he controlled the sword to chop himself.

He attacks while he attacks.

While I defend myself, he attacks.

If you advance, he advances; if you retreat, he advances.

He is simply a tireless monster. If he continues like this, he really won't be able to bear it anymore.

Is this the principle of sword cultivation that there is no retreat but progress?

After fighting for a hundred rounds, Cijiu and Changqingzi were both panting, their robes stained with blood, staring at each other.

"Fellow Daoist, how about we decide the outcome with one strike?"

Chang Qingzi nodded in agreement.

---

Looking at his still silent opponent, Cijiu Taoist was speechless. He lightly tapped his toes and spun in the air. Iron rings flew out from his ankles, earlobes, nose, and lips. His hair was disheveled and fluttered in the wind, and even his hair rings flew out.

The small ring turns into a big ring, the big ring generates water and fire, the rings generate light, each one is dazzling, the water and fire echo each other, and rush straight towards the opponent.

The Eight Trigrams appeared under Chang Qingzi's body. He took eight quick steps and finally landed on the Li Fire position. He closed his eyes and then suddenly opened them. The Li Trigram surged in the depths of his eyes. He raised the iron sword high and fire appeared on the sword, blessing the iron sword. The sword energy became stronger and evolved into sword light.

The fiery red sword light was surging, and as Chang Qingzi raised his sword, the sword intent, sword force and sword light all poured out. Nine sword lights raged, forming a ten-foot-long fire sword, which stabbed upwards brazenly.

The flaming sword shone brightly like the sun. The temperature of the arena rose rapidly and the air was burned and distorted.

In this battle, Chang Qingzi finally spoke:
"cut!"

The upper nine of Li Gua, the king goes out to fight, there will be rewards of losing heads, and the catch is not ugly, there will be no blame!

The fire sword collided with the water and fire ring, and after a moment's delay, there was a loud explosion. The two men were knocked out at the same time, falling to the edges of both sides of the arena, and almost fell out.

The Taoist Cijiu's hair was burnt off, his robes were torn, and his body was covered with numerous burns of varying sizes. He squinted his eyes, his consciousness was blurred, and he was in a daze. The iron rings were bounced back and scattered on the ground. One of them happened to hit the Taoist Cijiu on the forehead as he struggled to raise his head. He rolled his eyes and fainted.

On the second-floor stands, Sanhuan Zhenren closed his eyes, as if he could no longer see. It was okay to lose a fight, he could just get back at them next time, but no one could be so unlucky as this.

In stark contrast to Sanhuan Zhenren's bad mood, Xuan Yang couldn't help but burst into laughter. Although his own disciple was not in a much better state, Qingyi Zhenren gave him a close-up through the water mirror:
His eyebrows were burnt off, his clothes were tattered, his body was covered in black and red, and the iron sword flew backwards at a subtle angle, almost cutting off the root of Chang Qingzi's troubles. He was so scared that his face turned pale and he sat up in shock, but he was still conscious, and being conscious meant winning.

Break into the top twenty-five!
Whether he was really awake or was frightened awake, he was awake anyway, and that was the key point.

"Haha! That's my disciple! He's my disciple!" Seeing Xuan Yang floating up again, Xuan Xu and the others were envious but didn't say anything sarcastic. They all smiled and said, "Congratulations, Junior Brother."

Xuan Yang returned the greeting: "Congratulations! Congratulations!"

All the Taoists smiled at each other. Chang Qingzi was a disciple of Xuan Yang, but he was also a disciple of Qiu Zhen Temple. As for the embarrassing scene of Chang Qingzi, they automatically beautified it. It was almost the same as being close. It was called good fortune. What happened to Taoist Cijiu was bad luck.

Glancing at the iron sword in the water mirror, Xuan Yin said: "If you divide it, the power will be scattered; if you focus it, the power will be complete. The sword just now gathered the power of the Eight Trigrams on the Li Trigram, discarding seven and taking one. It was ingenious and powerful.

When Chang Qingzi's cultivation improves further, he will be able to control this sword style with ease, and even people like us will not be able to defeat him easily.

Junior Brother Xuankong, was this sword created by Chang Qingzi when he observed the Eight Diagrams Sword Diagram left by Senior Brother Xuanming on the mountain top? "

Xuanxu and others all looked at Xuanyang.

After the latter nodded in acknowledgement, they felt mixed emotions. This junior fellow was outspoken and had boasted in front of them about Chang Qingzi's chance encounter with good fortune on the Cangdao Peak.

During that period, I was so proud of myself.

Now it seems that I should show off.

Unfortunately, opportunities depend on luck.

They looked at Chang Qingzi lying on the ring and thought, "This kid is really lucky."

On the stage, Chang Qingzi lay on his back, looking up at the blue sky and white clouds, recalling the scene when he encountered the opportunity on Zangdao Peak. At this moment, he felt unprecedented gratitude to Master Xuanming.

Without him, I would have definitely lost.

"Qiuzhenguan Changqingzi wins!"

When he heard Qingyi Zhenren announce his victory, Chang Qingzi finally closed his eyes and fell into a coma. Although it was a pity that he did not make it into the top ten, he finally lived up to the expectations of his master and the sect. He tried his best and had no regrets.

---

When the stage below him rose rapidly, crossed the barrier and sent Chang Qingzi's figure into the barrier, Xuan Yang immediately got off the stands, holding the bottle of pills given by Xuan Su in his hand, and ran towards his disciples crying and laughing.

"Disciple, the master is here!"

"Master is here to treat your injuries."

"You made Master proud this time."

"When you get better, Master will ask Brother Headmaster to take you to Xiankelai for a good meal. We will spend the sect's money and drink as much as we want."

Xuanxu's fists stiffened in his sleeves, and he silently took note of these words. Then he looked up at the sky, Xuanyin looked down at the ground, Xuansu looked at his nails, and Xuankong pretended to talk to Taoist Feibai.

At this moment, they wished they knew this guy.

On the second-floor stand, Sanhuan Zhenren waved his sleeves and took away his unlucky disciple who was half burnt. He looked at Xuanyang Taoist running onto the field and stroked his goatee and said, "This Taoist is quite interesting."

In the Lingze Sect's stands, Bichuan stared at the iron sword with regret, wondering why he didn't stab it down. He said unconsciously, "What a pity!"

The middle-aged man with a dull face suddenly felt itchy: Bastard! Don't think I don't know what you are thinking!
It’s really... hard to say!
Pretending to cough, Bichuan's body stiffened instantly. Knowing that she was exposed, she immediately turned around, ran to Kundao, pulled her arm, and said coquettishly, "Master!"

The middle-aged Kun said helplessly, with a doting look on his face: "Alright! Stop shaking, I'm almost dizzy because of you. I'll let you go this time, but if you do it again, I'll double the punishment.

Also, I will confiscate all the books you have hidden under your bed, to prevent you from learning some nonsense that will cloud your faith in the Tao."

The middle-aged Kun Dao ignored his disciple's dejected look and pointed to the seat next to him and said, "Sit down."

Bichuan sat down obediently, forgetting for a moment that he was injured, and fell down with a thud. He grimaced in pain and jumped up. The middle-aged Taoist priest pretended to drink tea, covering the corners of his raised mouth with his sleeves.

Evil disciple, this time it is just a small punishment for a serious mistake.

The audience who paid attention to this battle didn’t know how to evaluate this competition. In the end, they could only attribute it to luck as well as part of strength. Maybe it was really fate.

After Changqingzi was settled, Taoist Qiuzhen looked towards the arena where Changanzi was, and saw that the boy was fighting fiercely.

(End of this chapter)