Lin Han left the martial arts hall of Lin Clan Sect Residence and headed directly towards the woods outside of Broken Sky City.
"Moving Dragon Palm!"
Crack!
Lin Han knocked down an ancient tree with one swift movement, then carved a three-foot-long wooden sword and a scabbard out of its trunk.
Lin Han was penniless at this point in his life. There was no way he could afford a good sword produced from the proper steelmaking process.
Hence, he equipped himself with a wooden sword.
"Quick Draw Sword!"
Utilizing the Art of the Ancient Dragon Emperor, Lin Han circulated and prolonged the True Qi inside him in order to prepare himself for high-intensity training.
The prefecture-level contest would be held in two days' time. Right now, Lin Han had to intensify his cultivation process.
Clang!
Clang!
…
The sound of the sword whistling through the air came loud and clear from deep in the woods.
Perhaps, besides Lin Han the madman, no one else could produce such a metallic sound by utilizing a wooden sword.
The Golden Spirit Fire had enhanced Lin Han's various abilities with a touch of demonic strength. On the other hand, the Art of the Ancient Dragon Emperor entrusted Lin Han with essential True Qi and a powerful body. So, it provided him the ability to plunder a limitless supply of spiritual energy from the surrounding environment to refine his strength.
These two powers were like two enormous engines that massively sped up Lin Han's cultivation compared to ordinary people.
A few hours passed silently.
At this moment, Lin Han was still standing in the woods. However, one of his hands flew to the handle of his wooden sword that was rested in its scabbard.
As he had the sharp eyes of a brave eagle, within seconds, his gaze was fixed on a ferocious tiger that suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Roar!"
This aggressive tiger with extraordinary strength looked as if it had cultivated some demonic energy. It appeared to be a strong demonic tiger that was almost entering the martial arts fourth tier boundary.
Boom!
The demonic tiger roared as if it could sense the exuberant blood flow running through Lin Han's body. Without warning, it scratched its unbelievably huge and shiny claws that looked as heavy as a lower millstone at Lin Han's direction.
Undoubtedly, any ordinary third tier warrior would be scared witless if threatened by this fearful demonic tiger.
However, at this moment, Lin Han, the successor of the First Ancient Dragon Emperor, had a Golden Azure Dragon roaring deafeningly in his consciousness. He was not terrified at this savagely fierce demonic tiger at all.
"Quick Draw Sword!"
Lin Han cried out all of a sudden.
Clang!
In the next moment, his sword glowed as bright as lighting as he cut through the sky. An ear-shattering noise accompanied his strike and it landed straight on the demonic tiger.
"Oof!"
Blood spattered onto the ground.
Bang!
A tiger's head rose high in the air and was cut off by Lin Han's sword. Its enormous body fell to the ground with a howl and it died instantly.
"Phew!"
That was a close call!
However, it had perfectly demonstrated to Lin Han the destructive power brought by the Quick Draw Sword.
Once out of its scabbard, the sword could kill in one swift movement with the dominance of thunder in the skies.
Mighty and powerful!
"My current learning ability is indeed like that of a demon's. In just a few hours, I've strengthened the Quick Draw Sword to nearly the Intermediate stage!" exclaimed Lin Han eagerly.
Next, Lin Han continued to cultivate the Thirteen Swimming Dragon Steps. His extraordinary learning ability had immensely sped up his progress.
Not long after, he had mastered seven out of the Thirteen Swimming Dragon Steps. He was already approaching the Intermediate stage.
Finally, Lin Han sat on the ground in the Lotus Position. He circulated the Art of the Ancient Dragon Emperor to devour all the energy in the air of his immediate surroundings.
The faint silhouette of an imaginary furnace appeared in Lin Han's dantian.
Buzz!
That furnace was drawing in an infinite amount of spiritual energy. The energy would later be transformed into a gushing stream of mysterious strength to be infused into Lin Han's body. It could boost his vital energy and the state of his blood, strengthen his physical body, and build up his True Qi.
Lin Han noticed indistinctly that the True Qi in his body was concentrating into a condensed ball of True Element.
"Phew!"
Lin Han rose to his feet. From this cultivation process, he learned that he was already at the boundary of the third tier of martial arts, progressing towards the fourth tier.
"To qualify as top twenty-five in the prefecture-level contest is no longer a dream!"
Lin Han's eyes shone with brilliance as the fighting spirit in him surfaced.
…
Lin Han did not waste away his afternoon as well.
He went to the residence's combat arena to practice his sword skills. The reason for this was because there was a real, genuine steel-made longsword on the weapon rack of this combat arena.
Practicing only with the wooden sword did not allow him to properly exert the full strength of the Quick Draw Sword.
However, just as Lin Han was approaching the combat arena…
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sound of a sword striking something hard suddenly entered his ears.
It appeared to Lin Han that a young disciple had shattered a piece of ironstone
"Terrifying sword skills! Brother Lin Jian, you definitely deserve to be called our prefecture's greatest swordsman!"
"Amazing! Brother Lin Jian broke this uniquely-made stele into half using only three sword moves."
Those prefecture disciples were bubbling over with excitement.
"Not bad, indeed."
Lin Han noticed that Lin Jian had performed the moves with speed and each of them landed perfectly on the same spot. This level of precision was indeed commendable.
However, Lin Han did not join in with the praise. He walked over to the other side of the combat arena silently and retrieved a refined steel sword from the weapon rack. He was about to continue cultivating Quick Draw Sword.
"Eh? Isn't that Lin Han? Does that good-for-nothing subdivision disciple dare to practice his sword skills in front of Brother Lin Jian? He's going to embarrass himself in front of the expert."
One of the main division disciples mentioned when he noticed Lin Han.
"Lin Han? That's the subdivision disciple that defeated Lin Shi with a single move?"
"Lin Shi's the weakest main division disciple from our prefecture, defeating him doesn't mean anything. What a useless prick! I think he wants to practice his sword skills in public to let his presence be known. Ridiculous man."
Suddenly, he became an object of ridicule.
Those main division disciples seemed to have made ridiculing Lin Han the subdivision disciple a common goal of theirs.
'Practice sword skills? To let my presence be known?'
Lin Han dismissed those voices that entered his ears with a mirthless grin.
He could not be bothered to entertain their nonsense so he started to cultivate Quick Draw Sword in concentration.
"Mastering swordsmanship is a process of gradual accumulation. Flourishing your sword in showy movements is an insult to swordsmanship." A scornful remark rang in the air out of the blue.
It was Lin Jian!
At this moment, the prefecture's greatest swordsman looked at Lin Han who was standing within a stone's throw away and sneered, "A useless guy that can't even afford a real sword is not qualified to practice his skills in this combat arena. It's a disgrace to the swordsmen of my Lin Clan Sect Residence!"
"I don't remember to have offended you." Lin Han lowered the sword in his hand and said softly to Lin Jian who had a contemptuous look on his face.
"You've offended me by cultivating your inferior sword skills within my sight," jeered Lin Jian. He was glaring at Lin Han with a smirk flashed on his face.
"Alright, if you think my swordsmanship is inferior, why don't we have a sword fight? If I lose, I'll cut off my right arm and never practice sword again, but if you lose…"
"I never lose!" Lin Jian shouted.
Lin Han continued on without paying the other man any attention, "If you lose, I don't want your arm, but just that sword you're holding right now."
That unusually keen-edged longsword in Lin Jian's hand was definitely a unique treasure.
It was exactly the kind of longsword that Lin Han wanted.
"You're not qualified to fight me unless you can break a piece of stele into two halves with only three sword moves," said Lin Jian sarcastically all of a sudden.
"Hahaha, Brother Lin Jian's messing around with this lad!"
"Up until now, no one else apart from Brother Lin Jian has managed to break a stele into two halves with only three blows of the sword. I don't think this good-for-nothing subdivision Lin Han can do it."
All the other main division disciples turned their attention towards Lin Han with mocking looks on their faces.
"Deal."
Out of everyone's surprise, Lin Han, who was unfazed by the onlookers, agreed to the challenge.
He approached another piece of stele and took a good look at the ironstone-cast, dark-colored stele.
The sword left its scabbard.
Clang!
A blinding light flashed in the air.
Crack!
The stele cracked and shattered into half.
The sword returned to its scabbard.
"Alright then, what about now?" Lin Han said softly.
Two simple movements — sword out, sword in.
Then, the stele shattered into pieces.
"Impossible."
At this moment, the disciples were taken over by complete shock. They wanted to watch Lin Han make a fool of himself but now they were staring at him with unbelievable astonishment.
Especially Lin Jian, whose eyes were glazed over.
One blow?
Just one blow?
How was that even possible!?