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"I am...Invincible."
The whole place went silent when Arthur said that. The eye-brow of the black-haired young man twitched even in his calm look.
"I meant your name," He spoke once more to Arthur.
"I know what you meant," Arthur turned to him.
"I see, so your name is..."
"Invincible," Arthur completed the words for him.
The black-haired young man nodded and said, "Invincible, my name is Zaith...Zaith Asura."
"Asura?" Arthur asked as he heard the young man's last name.
"Yes."
"As in The Asura Clan?"
"You've heard of my clan?" Zaith was a bit surprised as he didn't expect to meet someone who knew of his clan in this place.
"Yes, I've heard of a lot of things," Arthur said offhandedly, not giving any details of how much he knew.
Zaith nodded, "You seem interesting, let me see how far you'll go."
Zaith climbed two steps in succession and stopped as the Sword Intent upon him increased a lot. With each subsequent step, the sword intent's pressure would multiply greatly.
After waiting a few seconds to get used to the pressure, Zaith took a step forward and placed his right foot on the next step.
Immediately after he did that, the pressure on increased much more than before, but he reacted quickly and increased his Slaughter Intent to the next level and smoothly took the next step.
"Second level slaughter intent, impressive," Arthur muttered.
"Alright time to get serious," Arthur ignored any other thoughts in his head and focused on the sword intent he was sensing with his spirit power.
The Sect's Elder presiding over this test focused his gaze on Arthur as even though he had no idea how Arthur is resisting the Sword Intent, and just assumed it was pure willpower.
It can't be blamed as nobody would expect someone at Arthur's cultivation level to have awakened soul power.
The other participants began to walk closer to the Sword Stairs seeing as two people had taken the lead and they were doing fine. This gave them a little boost in their confidence and a few felt it wasn't hard.
"See, this doesn't look so hard," A participant said as he casually climbed the first step.
"It seems this isn't as hard as it-" his words were cut off as his eyes opened wide and he began to tremble intensely.
"No...no, no, no, ...." He said shakily and stepped back in fear.
He stepped down and still kept shivering with a lost look in his eyes. He had seen an illusion of his death. The sword's intent felt so real that it felt like a sword sliced his throat.
He raised his hand and placed it on his throat and came back to himself after a while.
"What, I am still alive?" He thought out loud and looked around. Feeling the gazes directed at him, he lowered his head in shame and clenched his fist.
But then he raised his head and asked the Elder, "Can I still take the test?"
"You can, anyone can take this test as many times they want until I say it's over," said the Elder without looking at him. His gaze was still on Arthur and Zaith.
The young man noticed that and clenched his fist tighter and decided to try again.
Others ignored him and focused on their performance. The stairs were wide enough to contain almost everyone here standing side by side.
As for Arthur, with his spirit power, he didn't just resist the sword's intent, but he also probed the intent and tried to comprehend it.
If only he could release his Book Martial Spirit he would be able to do this faster as it enhances his comprehension ability a lot.
'The sword...what is the sword...what is the intent of the sword...is it to kill...to cut...or to save...' Arthur meditated as he probed more deeper.
Upon doing so, he began to gain some understanding of the sword even though he had never used or practiced the sword in his entire life.
After an unknown number of times, he could not gain any further comprehension from the first step and walked unto the next.
The pressure increased threefold and Arthur used more of his spirit power to resist. Ever since his breakthrough, his spirit power had been growing, or it should be said that he has access to more of his spirit power which comes from his powerful soul.
By this time Arthur had already improved his understanding of sword intent, and it would not be too long now before he comprehends it.
Meanwhile, Zaith had reached the fifth step and was beginning to perspire a little from the pressure.
'Constantly keeping my slaughter intent active is taxing on my mind, mostly because it is resisting such an intent. And this is no normal sword intent, I am sure of it!' Zaith thought calmly and increased the level of his intent before taking another step.
"Sixth Stage Slaughter Intent," the sword sect Elder said with his hand on his short grey beard.
After that, he turned to look at Arthur who still had his eyes closed on the second step, and wondered, 'What is that kid doing?'
"Wait a minute...don't tell me he-"
"You guessed right," a voice spoke from beside the Elder.
The Elder wasn't that surprised and turned to the other man by his side and said, "Elder Londes, you really think so?"
Elder Londes, who appeared beside him nodded with a slightly intrigued expression, "Yes, if he is who I suspect that he is. Then it is very much possible that he is trying to comprehend the sword intent from the Sword Sheat."
"But that would be too hard, no? The intent from that Sword Sheat is ancient and not your usual sword intent," the other Elder said.
"I know what you mean. But if what we heard is of any truth, he might be able to do it. And even if what he comprehends is not the true sword intent of the Sword Sheat, it would not be a normal sword intent, but one of the more powerful ones."
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A/N: "So a guy from the asura clan...Hmm, I wonder if it's THAT Asura that I know."
A/N: A very big thank you to everyone who has been giving support in power stone votes, even though I haven't posted for days...I am grateful.