The world of martial arts, the immortal swordsman in the mortal realm.

Chapter 158, page 173: Shi Feixuan's Sense of Defeat
Just owing someone a favor?
The fact that Lu Chen, who was usually very difficult to communicate with, suddenly became so easy to talk to surprised Shi Feixuan, and she even felt a subtle sense of being "flattered".

Noticing this subtle emotion within herself, Shi Feixuan was slightly startled again.

Since she left the mountain, her mind has always been clear and serene, and no one or nothing has ever been able to stir her emotions or affect her state of mind.

But Lu Chen actually managed to do it.

The helplessness, frustration, embarrassment, and even the urge to clench her fists and punch Lu Chen in the face, as well as the current feeling of being "overwhelmed with gratitude," are all emotions she has never experienced before.

What's even more terrifying is that Lu Chen accomplished all this simply through words.

With a "telepathic connection" and a state of mind close to "sword-heart enlightenment," they still couldn't resist Lu Chen's words, which were merely "extremely difficult to communicate with."
Could his martial arts technique possibly counter the "Compassionate Sword Manual"?
this moment.

Even before the sword was drawn, Shi Feixuan had a vague premonition of something ominous about the competition.

Of course, she wouldn't let herself be controlled by her emotions. Just as she was about to cut off all her subtle feelings, she heard Lu Chen say:

"Let's go, let's have a match in the courtyard."

As he spoke, he casually placed the He Shi Bi jade on the windowsill.

Its casual manner made it seem as if this was not a priceless treasure or a national heirloom, but just an ordinary jade plaything.

"..."

This scene stirred Shi Feixuan's emotions once again, and she couldn't help but speak:
"Brother Lu, is the He Shi Bi just going to be left like this?"

Even if you don't carry it with you, shouldn't you at least find a secluded place to hide it first?
Lu Chen glanced at the He Shi Bi jade on the windowsill and realized that the afterglow of the setting sun could no longer reach the windowsill.

He nodded and said, "Thank you for the reminder, Fairy Master."

Shi Feixuan was delighted and was about to say something polite when she saw Lu Chen pick up the He Shi Bi jade and toss it to Dugu Feng:
"Feng'er, put it on the roof."

"it is good."

Dugu Feng smiled, caught the He Shi Bi jade, walked to the balcony, and leaped onto the roof.

"..."

Shi Feixuan pursed her lips, a deep sense of powerlessness welling up inside her.

Waiting for Dugu Feng to return.

Lu Chen raised his hand and gestured for Shi Feixuan to proceed.

"Master Fairy, please."

Shi Feixuan nodded somewhat blankly and followed Lu Chen down the stairs to the spacious courtyard.

Until they reached the courtyard.

Shi Feixuan finally calmed down, all the chaotic and complicated emotions were swept away, and she no longer paid attention to the He Shi Bi jade on the roof.

She stood ten steps away from Lu Chen, facing each other. Her strange aura spread out again, making everything around her vivid and layered, as if it had become a kind of ethereal paradise that was both real and dreamlike, and extremely moving.

Lu Chen stood with his hands behind his back, seemingly casual, without any unusual aura emanating from him.

Dugu Feng stood far away on the sidelines, watching the two intently, ready to witness the inevitable and exciting sword duel that was about to take place.

They stared at each other silently for a while.

Suddenly, Shi Feixuan stepped forward, and a mysterious sword intent surged from her body, enveloping Lu Chen from a distance.

This is the sword intent of "telepathic connection".

Under the shroud of this sword intent, Lu Chen's every move, even the flow of true qi on his body, will be completely observed by the sword intent. As long as he reveals the slightest flaw, it will trigger her thunderous sword momentum.

Faced with that mysterious sword intent that constantly observes himself and even tries to "sever" him from his surroundings, isolating him from the world.

Lu Chen remained unmoved. Suddenly, sword winds emanated from the acupoints around his body. As his robes and hair fluttered, he had already created a sword wind domain around himself, like a deep-sea current.

The sword wind domain did not interfere with Shi Feixuan's sword intent perception.

However, the sword wind, which was powerful enough to cover an area of ​​several feet, had already enveloped Shi Feixuan, who was ten steps away.

A series of invisible, swirling forces surrounded Shi Feixuan, constantly pulling, tugging, pushing, and pressing, causing her clothes and hair to flutter wildly, as if she were standing in the eye of a storm.

With Shi Feixuan's skill, although the sword wind domain was not enough to truly shake her figure, it still forced her to expend some of her true energy to resist the unpredictable pulling and pushing like a whirlpool undercurrent.

This made Shi Feixuan dare not continue the confrontation.

Even though she hadn't yet discovered Lu Chen's weakness, she could only take another step forward, and the "Colorless Sword" on her back was drawn with a clang.

Then, the sword flashed like lightning, and sword energy filled the sky!

The sword light, like dazzling lightning flashing in the rainy night, obscured Shi Feixuan's figure, making her appear like a flying goddess dancing on the clouds, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, sometimes hidden and sometimes revealed.

The sharp and chilling sword energy was like snowflakes whipped up by a gale; even Dugu Feng, several feet away, could feel the biting cold rushing towards him.

The sword light, as fierce as a storm of lightning and as powerful as a blizzard, completely engulfed Lu Chen, relentlessly attacking him.

Shi Feixuan's swordsmanship is also unconventional and without any trace of technique, yet each strike seems to have been honed through countless trials, a masterpiece of nature, giving people an irresistible feeling.

Such swordsmanship left Dugu Feng dazzled and mesmerized, and she had to admit in her heart that her family's "Azure Sky Sword Technique" was indeed inferior to the "Compassionate Voyage Sword Manual".

Faced with Shi Feixuan's superb swordsmanship...

Lu Chen also showed admiration in his eyes. He put his left hand behind his back and made a sword with his right hand. As the sword rang out, he used extremely concise swordsmanship to deal with Shi Feixuan's rapid and fierce attacks.

The Cihang Sword Manual uses the mind to control the sword. Under the shroud of sword intent, it inherently possesses the ability to discern the enemy's weaknesses and foresee opportunities.

However, Shi Feixuan's ability to foresee opportunities seemed to be somewhat ineffective against Lu Chen today.

It's not to say that Lu Chen is without any flaws.

There are fifty great ways, and forty-nine are derived from heaven.

Even the Heavenly Dao can escape, let alone humans.

No one, and no martial art, can be truly perfect; all inevitably have flaws.

When faced with their own weaknesses, what a martial artist can do is to minimize the number of weaknesses, or to make the weaknesses constantly change, like that "one that has escaped".

Or perhaps they deliberately expose more flaws, using fake flaws to cover up the real flaws, or even create a deadly trap.

The sword intent of the Cihang Sword Manual can see through all disguises, falsehoods, and changes, and penetrate the truth.

However, today, in front of Lu Chen, Shi Feixuan's ability could not be put to use.

Lu Chen's swordsmanship was already divine. Although his sword moves were extremely simple, they gave Shi Feixuan a mysterious feeling as if they had flown in from the sky, elusive and without a trace.

Even so, he still had weaknesses.

Shi Feixuan also saw his flaws and could see through the cover and trap he set up using fake flaws.

But the land subsidence changes too quickly.

Whenever she attacked Lu Chen's true weakness, Lu Chen would always be able to stop her attack with a divine sword strike that seemed to fly in from nowhere.

Moreover, he also possessed similar insight, able to see through Shi Feixuan's true weaknesses. Every time he countered with a sword strike, he could directly target the weakness, forcing Shi Feixuan to make changes.

Ding ding ding ding...

The sound of metal clashing was like a sudden downpour. Shi Feixuan's movements became increasingly ethereal and unpredictable, like a dream, and the power of her swordsmanship continued to increase, seemingly without end.

Lu Chen moved through the myriad sword shadows with a strange and fantastical movement technique. No matter how Shi Feixuan changed her movements or how imposing her sword aura was, his three-foot-long sword of qi always appeared in its proper place as if by magic.

Soon hundreds of moves were over.

Shi Feixuan's keen and perceptive sword intent suddenly sensed something amiss.

She realized that in this fierce battle of offense and defense, she seemed to have fallen into Lu Chen's rhythm.

Although she is still maintaining her offensive, with six or seven out of ten moves being her main attack, while Lu Chen is mostly dodging and defending, only retaliating three or four out of ten moves, Lu Chen seems to be more composed and even more at ease than her.

She even realized that Lu Chen seemed to be subtly guiding her, enabling her to fully utilize the essence of the Cihang Sword Manual.

Shi Feixuan's mind was flawless.

A sharp and keen mind is especially acute, unlike Qu Ao's dullness.

Realizing this, Shi Feixuan knew that she couldn't follow Lu Chen's lead, or she would have no chance at all.

Without hesitation, during a clash between the Void Sword and the Invisible Qi Sword, she allowed Lu Chen's sword energy to penetrate her meridians, hoping to gain a shockwave. Her figure suddenly floated into the air, and then the sword light suddenly intensified, like a dazzling bolt of lightning piercing through the night, stabbing down towards Lu Chen.

When the sword was thrust out, visible ripples of air spread out, as if the void itself had been pierced.

The heavy shockwaves created a strange perceptual difference, giving people the illusion that Shi Feixuan's sword strike was moving in slow motion, with an incredibly slow momentum.

In reality, her sword strike was as fast as a flash of light in a movie.

Not only did it create a perceptual illusion, but when the sword light struck, the blade was also slightly trembling, making people feel that her sword could split at any time and attack multiple targets at the same time, but they could not grasp where the real landing point was.

Unfortunately, neither the difference in perception nor the "divergence of sword light" could shake Lu Chen.

In an instant, he grasped the key to Shi Feixuan's sword strike. His right hand, with a sword-like finger, stabbed at the incoming sword light with lightning speed. At the last second, the sword struck the tip of Shi Feixuan's sword like a needle against a wheat awn, stopping all her subsequent movements.

clang--

The invisible sword of qi clashed with the famous sword of color and emptiness, the sound of their collision like the morning bell of a temple.

Amidst the melodious clanging sound, shattered sword energy erupted, sweeping wildly in all directions, cutting dense, crisscrossing cracks into the ground around the two.

Shi Feixuan's pretty face paled slightly, and she involuntarily stumbled backward.

Lu Chen then leaped into the air, soaring ten zhang into the sky. Suddenly, he turned around and swooped down, pointing his sword at the air at the same time.

Sa——

The sword wind roared, and the sword light at her fingertips bloomed, then shattered into thousands of needle-shaped sword lights like a torrential rain, which, aided by the sword wind, poured down towards Shi Feixuan.

As he swooped down.

The "Heart Sword" trembled slightly, and a surge of spiritual energy emanated from it, permeating the surrounding area.

Thus, Lu Chen, as perceived by Shi Feixuan's sword intent, transformed into a beam of light.

A dazzling sword light, as brilliant as the sun in the sky.

Sensing Lu Chen descending from the sky with sword intent is like an ordinary person staring directly at the blazing sun at midday in the summer; not only can they not see clearly, but they are also blinded by the intense sunlight, making it difficult to open their eyes.

But that's just the beginning.

When Lu Chen activated his sword wind and unleashed sword light, the sword light burst forth into a torrential downpour of needle-shaped sword energy, completely enveloping Shi Feixuan within a three-zhang radius. Shi Feixuan felt her vision suddenly become a vast expanse of white, as if she were truly in the midst of a storm that overwhelmed everything.

As far as the eye could see, there was only blazing white light; the sound of a storm raged in the ears; and the perception of sword intent only revealed a vast expanse of sword rain.

She even felt that her connection with heaven and earth had been completely severed by this "storm of sword rain," as if she were naked and exposed to the rain of swords, and could not perceive anything else except for this blazing white and empty rain of swords.

Where is Lu Chen?
do not know.

Where is his sword pointing?

do not know either!

Such an unfavorable situation filled Shi Feixuan with an indescribable sense of loneliness and frustration.

The sword intent perception at the "telepathic" level was actually completely suppressed!
What level has Lu Chen reached in his swordsmanship?
But she forced herself to adjust her mindset and wielded the Colorless Sword into a curtain of light, attempting to use an impenetrable defense to block Lu Chen's attack, which was of unknown origin.

However, such keen senses cannot detect the enemy's whereabouts, nor can they understand the passive defense that comes from the attack. No matter how impenetrable it may seem on the surface, it is impossible to perfectly cover up the flaws, nor can it change the flaws in time with the opponent's offensive.

Therefore, when Lu Chen's figure was reflected again in Shi Feixuan's sword intent, Lu Chen's sword finger had already touched her Sekong sword body, directly striking the weakest point in the sword energy circulation.

clang--

Another long, clear sound of metal clashing rang out.

Shi Feixuan's wrist trembled, and the Color Void Sword shook uncontrollably. The sword curtain that had been covering her entire body suddenly shattered, and Lu Chen's Qi Sword shot out, piercing straight into her brow before retracting.

call……

Wind hunting.

Lu Chen's figure floated away, landing ten steps away, and he nodded slightly to Shi Feixuan:

"Fairy Master, I won."

Shi Feixuan stared blankly at Lu Chen, a slight pain lingering between her brows.

She lost.

If it were a life-or-death struggle, then she would have already died.

With a soft sigh, she returned the Colorless Sword to its sheath on her back and bowed respectfully to Lu Chen:
"Thank you for your mercy, Brother Lu."

Lu Chen said calmly:
"No need to be so polite, it's just a friendly spar."

The Cihang Sword Manual is truly profound. In terms of swordsmanship alone, Shi Feixuan in this era is probably second only to the Yi Jian Master.

Therefore, Lu Chen truly benefited greatly from this competition.

Not only did he make great progress in swordsmanship, but he also gained considerable benefits in his cultivation of the Heart Sword.

Unfortunately, Shi Feixuan realized things too quickly and didn't fully succumb to his rhythm, leaving Lu Chen with only a small portion of his exploration of the Cihang Sword Manual.

Should I use that favor to ask Shi Feixuan to fight me a few more times?

Just as she was pondering this, she heard Shi Feixuan say:
"Since Feixuan has been defeated by Brother Lu in this battle, she should keep her promise and will not bother Brother Lu again because of the He Shi Bi. Brother Lu can also ask her to do me a favor at any time."

"Okay." Lu Chen nodded, deciding that he would not use Shi Feixuan's favor for the time being.

There's no need to waste personal relationships on martial arts competitions.

If I run into Shi Feixuan again someday, we can chat for a bit, and she might suddenly say that she's had some insights and reflections lately and is looking for an opponent to test them against, and then we can have another match.

Furthermore, Shi Feixuan has not yet reached the level of "Sword Heart Clarity".

Once she reaches the level of Sword Heart Clarity, her performance in the Cihang Sword Manual should be different again, and she will be able to gain even more from fighting at that time.

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(End of this chapter)