Chapter 55: Brewing Wine and Debating Swordsmanship (Part 1)

  Back to the Purple Bamboo Temple, there were relatively few people on the way, except for some outer door disciples who couldn't leave due to daily chores. Inner sect disciples were rarely seen, after all, those who could become inner sect disciples mostly came from some family forces, and only these families had enough power and foundation to cultivate so many qualified clan members. Among ordinary sect members, although there were also people who reached the qualification, it was difficult for them to catch up with these family children in terms of cultivation accumulation or cultivation resources.

  So at this time, most of the inner sect disciples were still staying at home. Every year during the annual festival, many families would conduct routine visits to each other, and various banquets as well as swordsmanship exchanges were quite busy. It wasn't until half a month after the annual festival that they would return to Tiandu Peak one after another. After verifying the number of disciples, they could choose to stay on Tiandu Peak for cultivation or go to the Outer Affairs Hall on Zixia Peak to select tasks that they were capable of completing to earn points.

  Today, Gong Yangyu and others discovered the Nianyun Sword. Lu Qing was also worried about leaving the sword in the Purple Bamboo Temple. Although he had just defeated Gong Yangyu with his absolute strength, it was hard to guarantee that they would not make any moves in the future. After all, the temptation of a divine sword was not something that everyone could withstand. Especially some divine swords, due to their materials and forging techniques, possessed special abilities that could almost double the strength of a swordsman. Such abilities were enough to make most people covet them.

  Returning to the Purple Bamboo Temple, everything was still as it was before, except that the purple bamboo that originally stood tall in the courtyard was now covered with white snow. Each and every bamboo leaf had a few white specks on it, and under the interplay of purple and white, there was an unusual beauty that made Lu Qing stop in his tracks for a long time.

  At this moment, Lu Qing found that Duan Qingyun and the others had not returned yet. Just now, on the way here, his cultivation and divine sense had made great breakthroughs. It was not suitable to continue bitter practice at night. After experiencing walking in the snow, Lu Qing gained insight into the world around him. After breaking through his cultivation, it turned out to be very stable. The sword yuan operated as smoothly as an arm, without any obstruction.

  Suddenly, Lu Qing's eyes snapped open as he stood in the center of the Purple Bamboo Courtyard. His body instantly shifted several feet to the side, and his left hand formed a sword-like shape with his fingers together. He rapidly pointed backwards several times, shooting out several purple electric sword auras from his fingertips that were several feet long.

  "Huh? It actually broke through." Behind Lu Qing, a young man in white clothes like snow grasped a pure white jade wine jug of the same color as the snow. A hint of surprise appeared on his handsome face as he looked at the three sword energies wrapped in purple electricity that had broken through the air, also pointing like swords, and with a few taps in the void, three chi-long purple sword energies surrounded by swirling green whirlwinds shot out from his fingertips, but with an extra hint of casualness and unruliness compared to Lu Qing.

  However, the sword energy was extremely accurate, and almost at the same time, three whirlwind sword energies collided with Lu Qing's purple electric sword energy. In an instant, a circle of purple ripples burst open in mid-air, causing the purple bamboo forest to shake violently, shaking off countless accumulated snow.

  Lu Qing also saw the newcomer clearly, and the wine jug that was always present in his hand had almost become Nie Qingtian's usual attire. In response to Nie Qingtian's question, Lu Qing did not speak, but instead drew out a swift purple sword energy from the Xuanxin Sword on his back, which closely followed the ground, breaking open a deep trench in the accumulated snow. The scattered falling snow fluttered in the air, almost blocking all lines of sight, only revealing a vast expanse of white snow and a dazzling purple glow.

  "Good!" Seeing Lu Qing's movement, a flash of green light flashed in Nie Qingtian's eyes, but he didn't draw out the long sword behind his back. With a stretch of his sword finger, a nearly three-foot-long cyan-purple wind sword energy extended from it, with a flowing quality like a real sword. The sound of the wind gradually rose from around Nie Qingtian's body.

  Lu Qing's expression was calm, and upon seeing Nie Qingtian's movements, Lu Qing knew that he had already brought out power close to the peak of a Sword Guest. The epiphanies and breakthroughs of these past few days were also fully unleashed when facing an expert like Nie Qingtian.

  At this moment, Lu Qing's body was surging with energy, and purple electric lights floated on the surface of his body. The accumulated snow on the ground seemed to be moved by the momentum, and it floated up several feet high between the two people. Facing Nie Qingtian, Lu Qing did not hold back at all, his footsteps were light and shocking, and he instantly crossed a distance of several meters, colliding with the floating snow and creating a patch of empty space.

  The Rising Sun Thirteen Swords were instantly unleashed. At this moment, the Rising Sun Thirteen Swords in Lu Qing's hands truly demonstrated their profound swordsmanship, and with Lu Qing's improved understanding of the sword technique, he had already touched the threshold of lightness and heaviness. His every move was accompanied by a hint of elegance and effortlessness, but the power of his sword strikes was even more overbearing and fierce than before.

  Nie Qing Tian's eyes widened in astonishment, and with his discerning eye, he could see that Lu Qing's swordsmanship had reached a certain height. If it were just a matter of cultivation, there might be some ways to improve it, such as using heavenly spiritual medicine or accumulating the blessings of heaven and earth. However, this level of swordsmanship was not something that could be achieved overnight; it required extensive actual combat experience and accumulation to attain such insight, as well as a certain degree of enlightenment, which couldn't be rushed.

  But now Lu Qing's swordsmanship has a hint of lightness and heaviness, which is fundamentally different from the initial stage of "heavy as light" at the Grand Festival two years ago. Even he himself only entered this realm after two years of training and fighting, but he has already been praised by some good people in the inner sect as one of the top ten young masters of this generation, ranking third.

  While his thoughts were racing, Nie Qing Tian's movements didn't slow down. Although he hadn't unleashed his Clear Wind Drunken Sword, a set of the same Rising Sun Thirteen Swords burst forth from his fingertips with an even more powerful force than Lu Qing's. As he swung his sword, Lu Qing felt that the three-foot-long Xuanfeng Sword energy in front of him had transformed into a massive hundred-jin sword that was in no way inferior to Lian Xin. The majestic and awe-inspiring power made Lu Qing feel as though the Lian Xin in his hand had turned into an ordinary light sword, with not even a hint of advantage.

  Despite this, Lu Qing's state of mind remained extremely calm, which was also due to the many years of forging and tempering. The journey to Chao Yang City had brought about a transformation in his state of mind, and now even if he were surrounded by enemies and faced with life and death, it would be impossible to shake his resolve.

  But Xing Qingtian did not exert his full strength, on the contrary, Lu Qing felt that his swordsmanship was still guiding himself with his understanding of lightness and heaviness, so although the sword style boundary was pressing like a mountain, it only remained at that level without improving, but also allowed Lu Qing to better feel the realm of his swordsmanship, and thus make a better response.

  Snowflakes danced in the sky, and at this moment, the Purple Bamboo Courtyard was filled with surging sword energy. The intense aura was compressed within the courtyard's perimeter of over ten zhang, forcing the accumulated snow on the ground to rise into the air. From a distance, it seemed as if a sudden gust of wind several zhang high had erupted, sweeping up the falling snow and sending it swirling upwards. Amidst this snowy whirlwind, threads of purple lightning darted back and forth.

  Outside the Purple Bamboo Courtyard, two passing outer sect disciples stood frozen in place, their eyes revealing a thick layer of disbelief and shock. The wooden basket they were originally holding, filled with scrap iron filings, had also fallen to the snowy ground without them realizing it.

  "That's...that's Big Brother Master——" one of them muttered in shock after a long while.

  "And that person who was competing with him in swordsmanship, wouldn't it be the twenty-fourth ranked Lu Shixiong?" Another middle-aged disciple around thirty years old had a deep look of reverence on his face, "When will I also have such strength?"

  For these low-ranking outer disciples, the scene in front of them at this moment is almost an unimaginable power in their minds. The swords' aura that fills the air is almost all they can see, and it's impossible to distinguish with the naked eye.

  In the courtyard, Lu Qing and Nie Qing Tian exchanged over twenty moves in the blink of an eye. The two also knew to hold back and did not use their powerful sword energy attacks again. Even so, the ground was pressed down by the air waves generated by their intense battle, forming a depression about ten feet deep, like a large plate embedded in the ground.

  At this moment, Lu Qing truly understood the power of Xiantian Sword Guest. With the opening of Baihui acupoint, the sword guest who connected with the heaven and earth's primordial energy could almost absorb a large amount of heaven and earth's primordial energy at any time to recover his internal sword yuan, unlike before when he needed to meditate to recover. So even though Lu Qing had exchanged over twenty moves by now, under the abundant supply of heaven and earth's primordial energy on Chaoyang Peak, he almost didn't have any consumption, instead making him more adept at using his sword yuan.

  "Someone has seen us, use your strongest move."

  A wave of spiritual fluctuations came, and Lu Qing saw Nie Qingtian's lips move slightly, and then Nie Qingtian's voice appeared in his mind.

  The divine sense transmission is about to end, and Lu Qing's heart is filled with clarity.

  With a mighty step, Lu Qing's body suddenly retreated several zhang, and where his foot had originally stepped, a hole of several inches deep appeared, with mud and dust flying everywhere.

  Lian Xin Jian assumed an upward posture, Lu Qing's entire body of purple electric sword energy rotated to the extreme, Lian Xin Jian was wrapped in purple electricity, as if the sword of the Thunder God from the Ninth Heaven had fallen into the mortal world, a strong destructive aura filled the entire courtyard.

  Across from him, Nie Qing Tian's eyes also showed a hint of solemnity. With a swift swing of his sword, the Xuanfeng Sword Qi quickly set up a cyan-purple energy screen in front of him, covered with countless swirling Xuanfeng air swirls. (New book on the top ten list, urgently seeking recommendation votes and collection, hoping everyone will generously assist, let Ten Steps truly take ten steps to kill one person, leaving no trail for a thousand miles, killing all the way to the top ten!)