"CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK." Every time Ye Feng blocks a sword strike from the puppet, he will be forced a couple feet backward because the puppet's sword strikes are too heavy and strong for him to block them completely.
The puppet was dominating Ye Feng in terms of strength. Also, the puppet's swordsmanship skills were way above Ye Feng's level. The speed of the puppet's sword swings and its precession were much better than Ye Feng's; he was completely outmatched. The only advantage that Ye Feng had over the puppet was his footwork.
Ye Feng decided to use his footwork, the only advantage he had over the puppet, and started to dance around the puppet using his footwork and attack it with his sword.
Ye Feng threw many sword strikes all over the puppet's body from every angle while coating his sword with his saint force: "CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK CLANK."
However, the sword barrage strikes that Ye Feng just executed only left scratch marks on the puppet's body. The puppet's body was more sturdier than the other puppets he faced on the first level of the pagoda.
Ye Feng then decided to parry the puppet's sword strikes and only focus on countering its sword strikes: "CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK SLASH, SLASH, SLASH, SLASH."
Ye Feng couldn't parry all the puppet's sword strikes because he was too slow to parry them all. He was forced to block the ones he couldn't parry, but he couldn't block all of them either.
Ye Feng received many deep cuts from the puppet. The puppet then swung his sword again horizontally to cut Ye Feng in half, but Ye Feng brought his sword to the side and blocked the sword strike in the last second "CLANK."
Ye Feng was sent flying backwards, and the puppet charged at him again: "This is not good." Ye Feng yelled in his mind, and the puppet swung his sword at Ye Feng, cutting him in the torso deeply with its sword, "SLASH.". Blood burst out like a fountain from Ye Feng's torso after the puppet cut his torso with its sword.
Ye Feng was bleeding profusely from his entire body thanks to all the deep cuts he received when he clashed his sword with the puppet just now. Ye Feng's palms were also bleeding from blocking the puppet's heavy sword strikes.
Ye Feng's vision started getting blurry, and his mind started getting hazy from all the blood he lost.
The puppet swung his sword at Ye Feng again, and Ye Feng couldn't react in time because of his blurry vision and hazy mind. "SLASH," the puppet, cut Ye Feng's chest deeply this time, and a lot of blood burst into the air from his chest.
Ye Feng fell on one knee and thought, "This is not good at all. I need to focus more, or I might really die here in the pagoda. I need to focus more on the sword."
He quickly rolled to the side on the ground, dodging another sword strike from the puppet. "I need to forget about everything around me and focus only on the sword." Ye Feng closed his eyes and started adjusting his mental condition by taking a deep breath. Then he started concentrating and focusing only on the sword that he was holding in his hand.
The puppet swung his sword at the defenceless Ye Feng again, "SLASH." The puppet cut Ye Feng deeply on his waist with its sword, and Ye Feng blood painted the ground crimson. .
Ye Feng gritted his teeth and ignored the pain, then he continued to concentrate and focus. "I need to focus only on the sword and think only about the sword."
Ye Feng then opened his eyes again slowly. His eyes now look sharp; they were sharp like a sword, and every second that goes by, his eyes are getting sharper and sharper. He started to parry the puppet's sword strikes with difficulties: "CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK."
Ye Feng jumped and flipped to the side, then swung his sword horizontally, "CLANK." His sword swing just left another scratch on the puppet.
The puppet started swinging its sword ferociously at Ye Feng, and Ye Feng was forced to block the sword strikes: "CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK."
Every time he blocks a sword strike, Ye Feng will take a couple of steps backward. The puppet kept overpowering Ye Feng with his sword strikes until Ye Feng lost his balance, and the puppet took this opportunity to finish him off.
It swung its sword downward while Ye Feng was falling to the ground. Ye Feng quickly raised his sword to block the puppet's sword "CLANK." Ye Feng got overpowered by the puppet's sword strike and was slammed down to the ground harshly.
Ye Feng spit a blood arrows from his mouth and cursed, "Damn it." He stood up slowly and took a deep breath to calm himself. "I need to focus more on the sword. Focus on the sword with all of my heart, all of my soul, all of my mind, and with my entire being. Think of nothing but the sword."
After a few seconds, the light in Ye Feng's eyes started to fade away slowly as he focused more on his sword and on the puppet's sword. All the sounds around him started to disappear slowly as he continued clashing swords with the puppet. "CLANK, CLANK, CLANK." After a few seconds, he couldn't smell his own blood, and then his vision turned completely black.
________
Ye Feng looked around him in surprise because he found himself in a desolate land. The land was crimson in colour, like it was painted in blood. The scent of blood was so strong that it gave him a shiver in his spine. Even the mountain and the hill that Ye Feng could see were crimson in colour.
Numerous swords of different shapes and sizes were stuck on the ground. Ye Feng also saw many swords stuck on the mountain up ahead.
He started walking to the hill and saw many swords stuck on it too. Ye Feng was confused and asked himself, "Where am I?" He looked around in confusion, then he was shocked when he looked at himself and asked, "What happened? How am I healed from all of my injuries? and where is that puppet I was fighting against?"
After a few moments, he saw someone walking towards him. He was wearing a black robe, his face was covered by shadows, and he was wielding a red sword. The tip of the sword was pointing to the ground as he calmly walked to Ye Feng.
The black-robed person charged at Ye Feng with incredible speed and swung his sword at him vertically. Ye Feng's eyes widened in shock at the sudden attack. He quickly flipped backward and dodged the sword strike from the black-robed person. Ye Feng yelled loudly at him, "What the hell?" The black robe person didn't reply to Ye Feng, and he charged at Ye Feng again with the same speed as before.
Ye Feng quickly grabbed the handle of a sword that was stuck on the ground next to him and pulled the sword from the ground. Then he used the sword to block the sword strike from the black-robed person "CLANK.".
Ye Feng then said to the black-robed person after he blocked his sword strike, "If you want a fight, I will give you one, and I will make you regret attacking me out of nowhere."
Both Ye Feng and the black-robed person started clashing with their swords, "CLANK, CLANK, CLANK CLANK CLANK.".
Ye Feng attacked the black-robed person with horizontal swings, vertical swings, thrusts, and counter strikes with his sword, but the black-robed person skilfully blocked and parried Ye Feng's strikes.
Every time the black-robed person parries Ye Feng's sword strikes, he swings his sword with incredible speed to cut Ye Feng. Ye Feng dodged a couple of sword strikes from the black-robed by ducking under them, but couldn't dodge all of his sword strikes because his sword was too fast.
Ye Feng received many cuts all over his body, but he didn't stop clashing with the black-robed person, and he continued attacking the black-robed person with his sword.
Ye Feng thrusted his sword towards the black-robed person's throat, but the black-robed person skilfully parried the sword away and closed in on Ye Feng in order to finish him off. Ye Feng's eyes widened, and he quickly leaped backward to create distance between himself and the black-robed.
The black-robed person kept charging at Ye Feng, and they started to clash with their swords again: "CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK."
Both Ye Feng and the black-robed person kept exchanging sword strikes. Ye Feng's swordsmanship was improving at an alarming rate the longer he fought with the black-robed person, and his footwork was getting sharper and sharper as well.
They both danced with their swords as they clashed against each other.
Ye Feng started struggling to keep up with the black-robed person because the black-robed person's sword strikes were getting faster and sharper, and he was slow to block the sword strikes. "SLASH, SLASH, SLASH." Ye Feng received three deep cuts on his chest, waist, and shoulder, and he was receiving many cuts all over his body.
_____
Back in the pagoda
There was no light in Ye Feng's eyes at all; he was like an empty shell without a soul. However, his aura was getting stronger and stronger by the second; it was like he was cultivating and absorbing a high rank monster core.
Ye Feng was still fighting the puppet, like he wasn't injured at all. Ye Feng's whole body is covered by his own blood, because he was bleeding more profusely than before from all over his body, from his head to his toe.
He was looking like a devil who bathed in human blood. Ye Feng's swordsmanship and footwork are getting sharper and sharper as time goes by, just like the one in the crimson, desolate land.
Ye Feng sword swings are becoming faster, stronger, and more precise. He was matching the puppet in swordsmanship. He was also able to parry and block the puppet's sword strikes completely now without a problem.
"CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK". Ye Feng and the puppet kept exchanging sword strikes at incredible speed, and Ye Feng's sword strikes started leaving deep sword marks on the puppet's body with every sword strike that he executed instead of leaving scratches like before.
_______
Outside the pagoda
Two new students were teleported from the pagoda: one was a burly boy with spikey red hair and a fair complexion, and the other had long blue hair and a fair complexion. The two boys were unconscious and were bleeding profusely from the injuries that they had received when they were inside the pagoda. Quickly, the academy staff members took the two boys to the academy medical bay.
All the students were whispering and wondering about the identity of the student who had reached the second level of the pagoda.
Ye Long was stunned after he saw the two students who had just teleported from the pagoda, because that confirmed the identity of the student who reached the second level of the pagoda; it was his fifth brother.
Su Hau looked at Ye Long and said to him, "Brother Long, I can't believe that your fifth brother is the one who reached the second level." Zi Ma chuckled at Su Hau's comment and nodded in agreement. Ye Long nodded his head slowly. He was still stunned at what he was witnessing.
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In the pagoda
The puppet was full of deep sword marks that were caused by Ye Feng's sword strikes. The puppet swung his sword at Ye Feng, aiming to cut off his head, but Ye Feng ducked under the puppet's sword strike and thrust his sword with incredible speed towards the puppet's forehead.
When Ye Feng's sword touched the puppet's forehead, The sword glowed in silver light for a second while it was coated with saint force. He stabbed his sword into the puppet's forehead.
Ye Feng's sword went through the puppet's forehead without any resistance at all; it was like a knife through butter. The puppet then fell to the ground motionless after Ye Feng removed his sword.
Two walls lifted in the air after Ye Feng defeated the puppet, and the two wooden doors appeared. The two wooden doors started to open slowly, and two puppets walked out of the doors. One of the puppets was wielding a heavy black spear, and the other was wielding a black halberd.
The two puppets charged at Ye Feng quickly after walking out of the wooden doors, and they swung their weapons at him. Ye Feng jumped over the puppet heads and landed behind the spear-wielding puppet. Ye Feng then started swinging his sword at the spear-wielding puppet back as fast as he could while coating his sword with saint force, "CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK," but Ye Feng couldn't take down the puppet and only left some deep sword marks on the puppet's back.
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Back in the crimson desolate land
Ye Feng and the black robe person kept exchanging sword strikes: "CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK."
The black-robed person thrust his sword at Ye Feng's heart, but Ye Feng skilfully parried the sword and swung his sword to cut off the black-robed person's head.
The black-robed person ducked under Ye Feng's sword swing. Then black-robed person stabbed Ye Feng in the heart. Ye Feng coughed out glob of blood. "So this is how I die. Hah, what a shame. I wanted to reach the pinnacle in the cultivation world and surpass everyone. Also, I wanted to explore the sword. Dao fully, it seems I will not have the chance to achieve either of them."
The light in Ye Feng's eyes started to disappear quickly after he died. He started disappearing from the crimson, desolate land.
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In the Pagoda
The light in Ye Feng's eyes came back quickly after dying in the crimson, desolate land. The spear-wielding puppet thrust his spear at Ye Feng's heart, but Ye Feng fainted quickly after light came back to his eyes and he was falling to the ground.
The spear missed Ye Feng as he was falling to the ground. The formation stone started glowing quickly when Ye Feng fainted and teleported him outside the pagoda when he was falling to the ground.