Before Jian Hai's blade could bite deeply into my neck, I casually deflected it aside with my Abyssal Edge. Spinning away, I then knocked Jian Hai's sword aside before countering his next barrage with my own bombardment of shadow swords.
Black and white qi collided in multiple explosions that nearly blinded us. I barely caught sight of Jian Hai's silhouette approaching, and relied more on my qi sense to dodge his next attack rather than keeping an eye on it.
My knees buckled and I found myself kicked away by Jian Hai's whirling figure. Grunting, I brought myself to a stop, only to be forced to defend myself from another onslaught. Jian Hai continued to assail me, his blurring blade grazing my flesh and leaving many cuts. Blood dripped from my wounds and onto the ground, but I refused to give up and continued to defiantly stand my ground.
"Just die already!"
Jian Hai spun around and kicked me after I blocked his sword, sending me skidding a few paces back again. I plunged Abyssal Edge into the ground to halt my momentum, and then used it as a lever to swing myself away from his next attack.
Yanking my Abyssal Edge out of the floor, I then deflected another attack from Jian Hai before jumping away to avoid getting impaled by his storm of swords.
"Huff…"
Admittedly, Jian Hai's swordsmanship was superior to mine. I was reminded of Hui Ying's advice once more, about my not being suited to sword skills.
My hand strayed to my spatial pouch and I wondered if I should draw my Hou Yi bow. Nah, I shouldn't. That should remain a trump card for a later round. I didn't want to show my hand fully yet, not when I could still somehow pull off a victory despite my overwhelming inferiority in swordsmanship.
"How did senior Jian Shen lose to trash like you?" Jian Hai sneered. The spectators groaned, rolling their eyes at his taunt.
"Are they deluded? The disciples from Ten Thousand Sword Pavilion and Azure Water Sect? They're stil insisting on calling Hei Ye trash?"
"They can't accept the fact that several of their disciples are weaker than him. Probably some kind of stupid 'face-saving' mechanism."
"That makes no sense. They will save more face if they admit that the opponent was stronger. That way it makes more sense that their other disciples lost to him in previous matches. I mean, if he's trash, then doesn't that mean those who lose to him are worse than trash?"
"Sh, don't bother speaking about logic to them. They're just one-dimensional villains who provoke the protagonist so that he's justified in beating them up and humiliating them. Apparently readers prefer shallow plot developments like that, they just want to see the antagonists get crushed and humiliated by the protagonist, and they don't want to think too much or feel sorry for the antagonists, so it's easier if they're not relatable and are depicted as not real people, but the worst scum ever."
Seriously, why were we interrupting my duel just to devote panels or paragraphs to the peanut gallery? It was horrible pacing. Well, at least I was given a short break to recover my pace when time inexplicably paused just so Jian Hai and I could listen to the audience spewing their nonsense.
Jian Hai raised his sword and charged at me again, but I deflected his blade as best as I could. Despite my best efforts, I came away from the battle with more wounds. His superior skills meant that it was difficult for me to launch any sort of counterattack. Breathing heavily, I retreated as I parried and blocked a few more of Jian Hai's strikes, but he continued to bear down on me in an overbearing manner. Swinging his sword almost wildly, but in controlled and precise strokes, he knocked my Abyssal Edge aside before grazing my chest and arms.
Even though I was competent enough to avoid a fatal strike, I was aware that Jian Hai's strategy was to bleed me out. Death by a thousand cuts. At this rate, I would lose too much blood, probably become dizzy from it and make a mistake. Either that or I would succumb to the countless injuries he was giving me.
Twirling my sword about, I knocked his blade away before it could score another cut across my throat. Jian Hai roared and unleashed a tremendous amount of white qi to overwhelm me. Instead of cleaving it apart, I allowed it to wash me away, riding on the tide so that I could move to a safe distance away from my opponent.
"Huff…"
Blood dripped from my newly opened injuries. Even though Heaven and Earth Formula and my superior amount of qi protected me from the worst of the ravaging blast, that didn't mean I was indestructible. I was still flesh and blood, and I didn't possess a defensive technique like Tie Shen. That Indestructible Golden Body, as cheesy as it looked and sounded, was still useful in some ways.
However, I was going to focus on learning other techniques instead.
Using Shadow Step, I avoided another barrage of swords. Dancing from shadow to shadow, I evaded Jian Hai's attacks and kept a distance, frustrating him. He snarled and continued to charge for a few moments before he stopped.
This time, he closed his eyes and relied on his qi sense, detecting which shadow I was emerging from before pouncing on it. I had to parry his sword before retreating a few steps back.
At close range, I was at an overwhelming disadvantage. I wasn't sure how I was going to fight such a superior opponent.
Superior only in terms of swordsmanship, though. In terms of cultivation realm and quantity of qi, I had the advantage. It was just too bad I couldn't recklessly use Heaven and Earth Strike here…
"Well, there was that technique that Hui Ying just taught me…maybe I should use it."
It wasn't technically a purely sword technique and could be used as a ranged technique too. So maybe…
"What are you mumbling under your breath!?" Jian Hai roared as he jumped at me, his sword another silver blur. I stepped to the side and avoided his next attack before countering with my sword. He blocked the black blade with the hilt of his sword, but I then twisted my grip about and rammed my elbow into his solar plexus. Jian Hai grunted and stumbled back, and I smashed a knee into his midriff, causing him to double over.
Snarling furiously, Jian Hai then swung his sword to decapitate me, but I managed to bring Abyssal Edge up in time to parry the blade. Backing away, I then exchanged another couple of blows with Jian Hai before sinking into the shadows with Shadow Step and retreating several meters back.
Good. Now was the chance.
Holding my Abyssal Edge in both hands, I infused the black blade with qi. Not noticing that anything was amiss, Jian Hai lunged at me once more, his charge surrounded by many blades from Ten Thousand Sword Divine Strike. I smashed most of them aside with my own Shadow Sword Strike, but I steeled myself to clash with Jian Hai one final time.
He struck, and I met his blade with my own. Then I unleashed my technique at pointblank range. My black qi leaped out and took the form of a silently roaring dragon that devoured a stunned Jian Hai and lifted him high into the air.
Jian Hai tried to cleave it apart, but his body was slowly disintegrating from the devastating energies that now bathed him. With a final exertion, he split the Shadow Dragon apart with his glowing sword and launched himself back downward to finish me off.
But I had also approached him using Shadow Step. Emerging behind him, I struck his back with Shadow Sword Strike. He shrieked in pain and stumbled forward, trying to right himself. Spinning around, he tried to deflect my next blow, but when I saw his movement, I quickly retreated using Shadow Steps. Bleeding and ravaged from my attack, Jian Hai breathed deeply and cursed. Sensing my emergence from somewhere in front of him, he whirled around and delivered a barrage of swords that crashed against my shadow swords.
Then a second Shadow Dragon slammed into him, eagerly pouncing from my sword and onto him. Jian Hai pulled his sword back and tried to cleave it apart, but he wasn't able to neutralize such a powerful technique in an instant. He yelled as he was thrown into the air, flailing helplessly for a few moments before he crashed onto the ground.
"Argh!"
Swearing under his breath, Jian Hai tried to get up, only to find my foot on his chest. He froze and stared up at me helplessly, cold perspiration running down his face. Mostly, it was caused when he saw the tip of my blade resting against his throat.
"Do you yield?" I asked. Jian Hai glared up at me, but the defiance disappeared in his eyes when he acknowledged his situation. His shoulders slumped and he sagged visibly. He would have nodded, but with my sword resting on his throat, he couldn't make any movements no matter how minor it would be. Not unless he wanted to commit suicide.
"I surrender."
"Battle over!" the referee announced immediately. "The winner is Hei Ye of White Herb Sect!"
I withdrew my sword and placed it back in my spatial pouch. Turning around, I walked off the stage. Of course, if this was not reality and instead some cliché fictional cultivation story, Jian Hai would seize the opportunity the moment my back was turned to launch a sneak attack and try to kill me. Already, I could hear readers beyond the foruth wall complaining about how I wasn't ruthlessly killing the dude when I had tha chance.
What edgelords. Were their minds filled with nothing but murder? What was Jian Hai going to do? Get his whole sect or family to assassinate me or something? Don't be ridiculous. Even if he was going to do that, how was killing him going to solve that issue? If anything, killing him would more than guarantee that his sect or family would want revenge against me.
Sometimes these edgelords just never used their brains.
In any event, this was reality and Jian Hai did no such thing. He was an orthodox cultivator, after all. And there were rules in place. As much as authors loved the whole "might is right" or "strong eat the weak" nonsense in their cultivation stories, it just didn't work that way in reality. Cultivation worlds had their own set of rules, otherwise it would be impossible for civilization to exist. Also, by that logic, nobody should survive. Yet somehow the bullies who abused the protagonists were always alive even though they should have been killed by people stronger than them long ago (and there were always people stronger than the antagonists, otherwise the protagonist wouldn't have a chance to level up – the dreaded power creeps).
A few medics from the White Herb Sect rushed over to help him up and ferry him off the stage so that the next match could begin. As for me, I had my beautiful wife to tend to my injuries. Lan Bei Er hurried over while I approached, her hands already glowing with white qi. A warmth suffused me and the multiple cuts and grazes all over my arms, chest and face began to disappear, my flesh knitting together and the blood restored in my veins and arteries.
"How are you feeling, husband?"
"Good." I scratched my head and shrugged. "How about you?"
"What do you mean how about me?" Lan Bei Er almost smacked me. "I was so worried, watching you fight down there! Weren't you cutting it close?"
I gave her a look and lowered my voice. "You know my techniques are restricted. I can only use orthodox techniques. Otherwise…"
"Oh, it's fine if you don't win. But at least surrender before you get too injured!"
I snorted at that. "You really want me to give up?"
"Well, your safety is more important…"
"Don't worry." I rubbed her head and brought her close for a hug. "I know what I'm doing. I probably won't make it all the way to the finals, but I'll at least bring honor to both you and the White Herb Sect. I won't be careless. But injuries are inevitable. We're fighting, not having a soccer match."
"Soccer? What's that?"
"Never mind…" I gave her a reassuring squeeze. "You don't have to worry. I won't die that easily, and I have no intention of dying so soon. But at the same time, I'm not going to give up so easily as well. I'll do my best in the intersect tournament, so please watch me and be amazed by the guy you married!"
I didn't say this out loud, but I wanted to show everybody here that I was worthy of being Lan Bei Er's husband, and so I had to shut them up with my actions and achievements rather than just with words. I was going to perform so well that anyone who insisted that I was trash or Lan Bei Er made a mistake would just look like fools, and I would have the last laugh in the end.