Xu Xiaoshou was back in the hands of the masked man again. This time he behaved as amiably as a cat.
"Well stop torturing me! I'm not that formidable at all!" Xu Xiaoshou said weakly.
A hint of a smile appeared in the cloudy eyes of the masked man. The man started to say something, but then he began to cough violently.
"Cough, cough…puff!"
Xu Xiaoshou was nervous to hear this coughing sound, and he wondered if the man would accidentally drop him since he was coughing blood.
He'd figured out why the masked man was so weak at the moment—employing a powerful strike could also injure one's body.
"Was that move just now '[All Things are Swords]'?" Xu Xiaoshou asked.
The masked man nodded. "The [Innate Level 'All Things are Swords].'"
Xu Xiaoshou: "…"
"Like I'd believe that," he thought. "I am [Innate Sword Will] myself, so I very well know the magnitude of the [Innateness]. Who are you trying to fool?"
The masked man was aware that Xu Xiaoshou didn't believe him, but he muttered to himself, "The [True Sword Will] has no level and is not related to the form. It utilizes the assault of the opponent to attack the opponent.
"As long as you master the essence of the sword, nobody will dare to attack you with their swords. It's because…"
"Your sword becomes my sword?" Xu Xiaoshou chimed in.
The masked man froze for a moment and didn't give a definite answer. "It can be described this way, but…"
The man paused and turned his eyes to the ground below.
"This path has been already trodden too many times by the others. It's a dead-end. Your [Sword Will] is pretty good, so you should give it up as soon as possible."
Xu Xiaoshou seemed to see dark spots floating before his eyes.
Your [Sword Will] is pretty good, so you should give it up as soon as possible…
What nonsense this was!
"I've just started to walk on the path, and you probably haven't reached the end of your path yet," Xu Xiaoshou said eloquently.
He figured he wouldn't achieve anything if he couldn't take this path.
His talent for cultivation was obvious. It would be better for him to do nothing if he had to learn the [Spirit Technique]; at least he could come up to an understanding of "appreciating time" in the end by doing so.
The masked man ignored him. There was a commotion below.
Xiao Qixiu had lost the ability to fight after being injured by the shooting sword. The law enforcers were all stunned.
Even though Elder Sang had warned them that the enemy was a bit strong this time, nobody had expected him to be so powerful.
After one strike, Xiao Qixiu, a swordsman in the throne status, had lost the ability to fight back.
Their opponent was a bit too powerful.
It was then that another person walked out on the forest path. The law enforcers, who'd been anxious, pushed their chests forward and held their heads up high when they saw this person, and they angrily stared at the two people in the sky. It seemed like they'd gotten their spines back.
The person walking out was dressed like a young Daoist with white hair and a beard, giving off the aura of a fairy man.
The only thing that spoiled this impression was his height.
When he stood on the ground, he looked like he only came up to the waist of most men.
It could be said that he was as tall as Su Qianqian…
Fortunately, he was drifting in the air.
"Ye Xiaotian…" the masked man murmured, a grim look in his eyes.
Xu Xiaoshou was startled to find out that this short man was the legendary Chief of the Inner Yard.
Ye Xiaotian drifted to the front of Xiao Qixiu and checked his injury, then he disappeared after pulling the longsword out of Xiao Qixiu's body.
Xu Xiaoshou lifted his head in surprise and saw the white-haired young Daoist right in front of the two of them.
Ye Xiaotian inserted one of his hands into the empty space in front of him, and a cloud of mysterious darkness rolled up and down, giving off a horrific power. It seemed like he could pull down the sky with his hand.
"This is called the '[Hand of Ripping Heaven],' which is Ye Xiaotian's [Special Technique]. He can pull down a piece of space and use it to crush his opponent to death," the masked man explained.
Xu Xiaoshou was dumbfounded.
"What…
"What level has this master achieved?
"Why did I get involved in this fight in the first place?" he thought.
Those two damned assassins were to blame. He wasn't sorry that they were dead. He wished they would come back to life again so that he could cut them into pieces a second time to vent his anger.
The three of them hovered high in the night sky. The air was quite cold here.
Ye Xiaotian didn't say anything. He stared straight at the masked man with his hand inserted in the empty space. He didn't seem to pay any attention to Xu Xiaoshou.
The masked man muttered to himself, "To escape from Ye Xiaotian is futile. Usually, the only thing people can do is chitchat about what their last words will be.
"This guy has a rare spatial quality. I heard that he was able to fight against a swordsman a half-step into [Master Level] as soon as he achieved [Innateness]."
"I can't hold a candle to you. You're [Innate] enough to defeat the masters," Ye Xiaotian finally spoke. His voice sounded like a tender child's.
"I don't have such a talent. You must have mistaken me for someone else."
"I hope so." There was a hint of coldness in Ye Xiaotian's childish voice that was unfitting for a child.
Listening to the compliments the two men offered each other, Xu Xiaoshou felt dizzy and almost fell down from the sky.
What weirdos!
Xu Xiaoshou had thought himself rather formidable after cultivating ninth spirit level and killing [Origin Court] and [Occupied Void]; but now he'd found out that he was nothing in comparison to these true geniuses.
"Is this spatial quality a power of [Innateness]," he thought. "But it sounds very horrific!
"And who is this masked man? What kind of weirdo is he? The [Master Chief] of the Inner Yard is about to attack, but he still has enough leisure time to talk.
"Well?
"Why does this guy explain so much to me?"
Xu Xiaoshou felt sick as he thought all of this over.
"[Master Chief], I'm not with him. You go ahead and fight him, but don't involve me in your fight!"
A hint of a smile appeared in the corners of the masked man's eyes. "Didn't you say that you would like to join us?"
"I…"
Xu Xiaoshou froze, and his face turned white. "Sorry to bother you, but please put me down on the ground. I'd like to bid my goodbyes now."
Ye Xiaotian turned his attention to the young man at the masked man's waist. He was surprised that this young lad dared to joke around when he was between two powerful swordsmen.
He was definitely very brazen.
He was none other than a person who had intervened in the scheme tonight and distracted his own colleagues.
Click, click!
Cracks appeared in the night sky, and it seemed like the sky would strike down the next moment.
As time passed, the right hand Ye Xiaotian had used to insert into the empty space grew stronger, and the breath of death enveloped the two men on the other side.
The masked man lifted his head to look at the night sky. The falling raindrops were swallowed by the dark crack, unable to reach him.
The masked man laughed gently, "If you strike, the nine others lying in ambush won't survive.
"Well, adding the one here, there are ten."
Before Xu Xiaoshou could feel astonished at this, the sound of several explosions below sent nine columns of sword energy up into the sky from the ground.
Each sword energy was bound to a white-haired elder. Seeing the elders, who were hung by the sword energy, Xu Xiaoshou couldn't help but recall Mo Mo in the arena of the final competition the other day.
This scene looked exactly the same!
Xu Xiaoshou looked at the masked man in surprise and recalled the remark he'd made: "Your path has been trodden by too many people."
"Which means he's been on the path that I'm taking now. But why does he advise me against taking the same path?" he thought. "It's obviously very powerful."
"[All Things are Swords]?" he asked.
"Yeah," the masked man nodded. "It's the [Innate Level All Things are Swords]."
"…"
Xu Xiaoshou was speechless, and he wondered why the masked man had emphasized the "[Innate Level]." Did he think he hadn't belittled the others enough?
The law enforcers on the ground, on the contrary, were so surprised that their jaws almost dropped to the ground when they saw the nine elders hung high up in the air by the sword energy.
"Nine elders?"
"It's impossible!"
"How could these elders be sneak-attacked by that masked man all at once? They are none other than the elders!"
"The nine throne level [Masters] are being hung by the [Sword Will] alone. This is…. Am I dreaming?"
"These nine elders are the oldest and most qualified in the Inner Yard, and are above the [Masters]!"
"I'm dumbfounded. '[Saint Servant]'…"
"Is he really so powerful?"