Chapter 17: The Final Battle (Part 2)

  It was Lu Qing, who rose rapidly in the young generation of Zixia Sect with astonishing achievements in the past six months. Legendary achievements accompanied by the equally powerful Wind and Thunder Sword Qi appeared in everyone's sight, but most importantly, his age, a thirteen-year-old boy, when most of the inner sect disciples were still struggling to accumulate sword yuan qi at the sword servant stage, had already reached a realm that many inner sect disciples could not reach in their lifetime.

  Just like Nie Qing Tian in the past, but the progress of his cultivation is even more astonishing. For these swordsmen who seem to be born with heavenly blessings, they often receive great attention. However, they do not know what kind of talent Lu Qing was originally, although it was not ordinary, it was only a bit better than others, far from being a top-notch genius. But now he is misunderstood by the crowd, and if Xuan Qing and Zong Zhuo Lian Feng don't speak out to clarify, this fact will be forever hidden.

  But obviously, there is no such need. Lu Qing's current strength is truly cultivated, and announcing it would only lead to unnecessary jealousy. Although many people have already become jealous of Lu Qing's achievements, at the same time, many others have begun to take Lu Qing as their goal, constantly surpassing themselves.

  Just a few months after Lu Qing's name appeared on the Dragon and Phoenix List, his background and hard work in cultivation had been dug up by some people. Of course, those who had the leisure to do these things were all outer sect disciples whose cultivation was difficult to make progress, and they often spent their energy and time on other things, whether it was historical records or various strange talks, which were aspects they liked to dabble in.

  As a result, under their excavation, many people came to understand Lu Qing, and within these short few months, the entire Zixia Sect's young generation set off a wave of cultivation frenzy. Although it can be said that there was a reason for the sword pool selection, Lu Qing's influence was indeed not small, because many outer sect disciples as well as inner sect disciples began to carry large swords on their backs. Of course, the size wasn't as exaggerated as Lu Qing's Lian Xin, but it also made these disciples deeply realize that Lu Qing almost never left his side while carrying Lian Xin, and what kind of great willpower and persistence was required for this.

  At this moment, everyone's eyes in the square were focused on Lu Qing and Nie Qingtian. No one spoke, and time slowly passed for half a time, and many people even hoped that time could be longer, so that Lu Qing could truly recover to his peak state and fight against Nie Qingtian.

  Lu Qing stood up, his eyes as calm as a deep pool in the mountains. With a wave of his hand, several gusts of wind and lightning-like sword energy shot out, shattering into fragments the few remaining black iron swords on the ground. He then turned to Nie Qingtian and said, "Let's set a limit of ten moves. Whoever retreats or gets injured first will be considered the loser."

  Nie Qingtian was taken aback for a moment, then immediately understood Lu Qing's intention. This way, they could avoid the possibility of both being seriously injured to the greatest extent, so as not to affect their sword pool cultivation. Moreover, with their strength, it was obvious that Lu Qing had already planned to go all out to decide the outcome within ten moves.

  "Good." Nie Qing Tian nodded slightly.

  As soon as Nie Qingtian nodded, Lu Qingyun started the Wind and Thunder Step. His right foot followed a strange trajectory, taking a step back, and his body instantly appeared ten zhang away in the distance. Seeing this, Nie Qingtian's eyes flashed with cyan light, and the Xunfeng Sword Qi around him flashed as well. With a speed no slower than Lu Qingyun's, he advanced ten zhang forward, leaving behind a trail of blurry afterimages.

  Two people stood facing each other, Nie Qingtian slowly drew out the Xunfeng sword from behind him, looking at Lu Qing in front of him, a strong fighting spirit burst forth, and around Nie Qingtian, a green dragon vortex quickly rose up, the surrounding air was instantly expelled, leaving only the rapid rotation of the dragon vortex's humming sound.

  Facing the strong battle intent bursting out from Nie Qing's face, Lu Qing felt that the blood in his body was about to boil up, and a similarly intense battle intent rose up. Around Lu Qing, a green dragon vortex also rotated, but between the rotations of the vortex, purple electricity as thick as thumbs flowed and shuttled on its surface, emitting a hissing sound.

  "These two have already gained such a great understanding of the power of the elements, it's really hard to believe." said Qing Tian, one of the three protectors, with a serious face.

  "Yes, even for us, our understanding of the power of the elements is not much higher than theirs, almost no advantage." Lu Tianyou said with a self-deprecating smile.

  At this time, the gaze of the six great protectors also became focused on the two people. If the previous battle between Lu Qing and Zhao Qianye had sparked their interest and attention, then the current exchange between Lu Qing and Nie Qingtian would have a much greater impact on them, especially in terms of controlling and grasping the power of the elements.

  In the arena, Lu Qing and Nie Qingtian stared at each other, their fighting spirit colliding in the empty space between them. Suddenly, countless tiny thunderbolts appeared in mid-air, accompanied by a whistling wind that produced a crackling sound.

  In the area of about twenty zhang in diameter around the two, countless gravel and small stones were shrouded by the aura of the two, slowly floating up, drifting in the air several feet away from the ground. Just as these gravels reached the height of the two people's thighs, the bodies of the two almost moved at the same time.

  Boom!

  A circle of cyan purple air ripples spread out, and in the astonished eyes of all the disciples, only a cyan light flashed, and one by one, clear residual human figures appeared instantly in every place within thirty zhang, and wherever they appeared, a circle of strong air ripples would spread out.

  Xuan Qing saw the situation and furrowed his brow, then waved his hand, and the six great guardians only felt a lightness on their backs before discovering that their swords had been taken away by Xuan Qing. He led the six swords of various colors, either crimson or earthy yellow, and with a slight rebuke from Xuan Qing, these six swords, which were at least seventh-grade, seemed to be supported by an invisible giant hand as they flew into the air.

  He stretched out his index finger and counted down, each of the six swords bursting with dazzling purple-red light. As Xuanshu Sword pointed to the empty space around Lu Qing and Nie Qingtian, the six swords fell from the sky in an instant, inserting themselves into the ground according to Xuanshu's command.

  In an instant, a purple-red sword aura instantly connected from one sword to another, and in just one breath, the sword aura connected six swords. A strange wave spread out, and under everyone's astonished gaze, a large purple-red light screen rose up, enveloping Lu Qing and Nie Qingtian inside.

  The two men's scattered aura waves, when they encountered this light screen, seemed to be like water droplets falling onto the surface of a lake, only creating a faint ripple before disappearing. However, everyone still clearly recognized the terror of those aura waves; inside the light screen, everything that came into contact with it, whether it was fragments of the black iron sword or pebbles in mid-air, were instantly pulverized into dust.

  "Sword Formation!"

  The insightful people among the four peak disciples present couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, for only Sword Array could possess such an ability to draw a line and separate heaven and earth.

  Upon hearing the man's exclamation, everyone couldn't help but gasp in amazement at the means by which he could set up such a mystical sword formation with just a wave of his hand, making their reverence for Xuan Qing even more profound.

  After all, for many inner sect disciples, the cultivation of swordsmanship cannot be distracted in the slightest. As for understanding sword arrays, most inner sect disciples only know about the Four-Sided Illusory Annihilation Array composed of four-sided sword bridges. Only those outer sect disciples who have no hope of advancing will hear or study these things, but due to their low level of swordsmanship, they are also unable to come up with anything impressive.

  The corner of his eye caught the movement of Xuan Qing, and both Lu Qing's hearts were delighted at the same time. Jian Yuan was even more surging towards the sword in his hand, no matter how strong the air wave ripples were, they could not penetrate the obstruction of this sword array light screen.

  The two figures crossed paths again in mid-air, their sword blades colliding and bursting into bright sparks. Nie Qingtian's sword blade rebounded, borrowing the powerful force of Lu Qingxuan's Heart Sword to rapidly retreat several meters backwards. At the same time, his hand swiftly drew a series of circles with the Xunfeng Sword, and as it danced, a horizontal three-meter-long green dragon vortex suddenly appeared in front of the sword tip. The wind sound rose from low to intense, and the dragon vortex expanded to several feet in diameter. On the surface of the green dragon vortex, there were also streams of sharp purple-blue sword energy swirling around.

  "The Eighth Style, Drunken Clear Wind!" Nie Qing Tian let out a loud shout, and the Xun Wind Sword surged forward even more urgently. The originally several feet thick dragon vortex suddenly expanded again, reaching the size of two millstones. As Nie Qing Tian thrust the Xun Wind Sword forward, it howled towards Lu Qing like a whirlwind.

  Hmph!

  As the tornado approached, the ground slabs in contact with the tornado were cut and shredded, leaving a half-circular ditch one foot deep. The powerful wind blew up all the iron fragments and stones on the ground and shot them towards Lucheng ahead.

  His face revealed a solemn expression, Lu Qing felt that at this moment, Nie Qingtian's aura had completely locked him in. The Soul Refining Technique quickly circulated, grasping the surrounding ten-zhang square within his spiritual sea. Although Lu Qing could now release his divine sense for fifty zhang, this ten-zhang square was still the range where his divine sense was most clear. Not even an ant could escape from his detection.

  At this moment, in his divine court's sea of consciousness, Nie Qingtian's dragon vortex clearly appeared before his eyes. Although Nie Qingtian's swordsmanship realm was higher than his by a level, he couldn't completely grasp the trajectory of this dragon vortex's rotation, but it also allowed him to quickly judge the approaching time of the wind needle.

  Hiss——

  Lu Qing's aura suddenly surged for a few moments, the tip of Lian Xin sword extended eight feet long wind and thunder sword energy in an instant, his left elbow slightly raised, right foot moved back a small step, Lu Qing's body formed a strange posture.