24 - Sparring

"Please spar with me, brother Xin." Yue Ning's shy voice rang out just as Xu Xin was about to go back into the carriage.

He then looked back at her, only to see that she had an embarrassed expression covering her face.

After thinking for a few seconds, Xu Xin responded with: "My hands haven't fully recovered, so no using techniques or inner energy."

Surprisingly, even though she had a much higher cultivation than him and he was currently injured, he didn't reject a sparring session.

Hearing this, she nodded. She never expected him to actually agree, so she was surprised. She had merely asked him under the persuasion of Xia Yue.

They then went to the open road next to the carriage and stood opposite each other. Yue Ning was still embarrassed, but Xu Xin had a casual expression and no emotion could be seen on his face.

She was much higher than him in cultivation, being at the fifth stage of the martial arts path, but he was far more experienced than she was in combat.

Suddenly, without warning, Xu Xin charged at her, his body moving so fast that she could barely react to it.

Instantly, Xu Xin threw out a punch, and she blocked it with her arms. However, instead of being able to take the hit like she thought she would be able to, her entire body shifted backwards as she fell back three steps.

She didn't even understand how his punch was so strong without inner energy, because it should be said that each stage not only made your inner energy stronger, but your body also got stronger.

Because of this, though she was a girl, she should still be stronger than him since she was a higher stage and older, yet she was pushed back in a single punch.

After this first exchange, Xu Xin backed up and spoke: "Two things:

Firstly, the reason I was able to push you back is because I used my weight properly, whereas you didn't have a good balance or center of gravity.

Secondly, if you can't avoid being hit by somebody in close combat, it is better to exchange a blow for a blow instead of just defending if it's possible."

After saying this, Xu Xin then charged at her again, seemingly going to do the same thing as before.

However, just before he reached her, he suddenly jumped up and did a right side flying kick, which she wasn't expecting in the slightest, and she only managed to block it with her arm, which felt a large amount of pain from the impact.

At the same time, she tried to follow his advice and strike him with her other fist, but he easily caught it with his left hand and pulled it, pulling her off balance while pulling himself behind her.

"You have bad balance. Never let yourself be moved by the enemy unless you choose to, and have your entire body always under your control to be able to catch your opponent off guard."

As he said this, he landed on his right foot, and while she was off guard, he punched her back with a right hook, which instantly pushed her forward since she was already off balance.

He then swept his left leg, instantly knocking her off her feet and to the ground. It was obvious that he had completely won this fight. She didn't even seem to have control over her own body as he toyed with her.

She was powerless to resist him if she didn't use her inner energy or cultivation advantage, and it was only a moment later that she even processed what had happened and why she was on the ground.

She then looked at him, shocked.

Only now did she realize that there was a reason he had won those fights in the arena, even though it was against multiple people of the same strength as him all at the same time, with him even killing one of them.

He then went back to the carriage without waiting, content that she had learned something from this fight.

After all, he had mentioned balance multiple times, and if she didn't pick up on this, then she didn't deserve him sparring with her.

He also had to be careful how much he fought in front of Xiao Wei since the latter was his brother and had seen his fighting style many times, and if he saw Xu Xin fight enough, he might once again start to think that Xu Xin was Xiao Xin.

Currently, the main reason that he currently wasn't suspicious of Xu Xin was because the latter had a completely different facial and bone structure than Xiao Xin, and he also cultivated a different element and technique and also wasn't crippled currently.

But the main reason that he was no longer suspicious of him being Xiao Xin was the change in personality.

The previous Xiao Xin would never be able to sit in the carriage with Xiao Wei for that long without slipping up and showing killing intent, especially if the latter was sleeping in front of him, defenseless.

Even with Xu Xin's change in personality, he had still let a small amount of killing intent slip out in that scenario, though nobody knew that it was his and he didn't alert anyone because of it.

But if enough reasons stacked up once more, he would once again gain the suspicion of Xiao Wei, which wouldn't be good for him, whether he was here or in the Xiao kingdom.

Xu Xin's ultimate goal was the destruction of the Xiao kingdom and everyone in it. He had shown unlimited loyalty towards the kingdom and brought them countless benefits, but they still turned on him the second some unsound evidence was presented.

They didn't deserve his mercy, and there wasn't a chance of a snowball in hell that they would get it. Against the people who betrayed him without hesitation and murdered the one he loved in front of him, he wouldn't hold back in the slightest, even if they were his own family members.

Thinking about this, he felt an immense desire to get stronger, and as he headed back into the carriage, he waited for the others to join him.

A couple seconds later, Yue Ning entered the carriage, and a minute after her, Xiao Wei entered as well. Then, a few minutes later, the carriage started to move, continuing on its journey.

A little bit of time passed, and Yue Ning stole a glance at Xu Xin, but she found that the latter had once again shut his eyes and gone into the same weird state he had been in almost the whole trip so far.

In reality, he didn't have much of a choice but to continue to research how he could use his inner energy, because cultivating during this time simply wouldn't be efficient since he was constantly recovering his hands, so there weren't many other options.

Time passed slowly, and aside from occasionally stopping to eat and sleep, nothing else happened.

On the third day, Xu Xin's hands had recovered about four fifths of the way, and he could now use them perfectly fine and the only issue was a bit of pain left over. This shocked all the others, because he had just recovered so fast.

During this time, he had only slept for one night, and during the night, he had sat up like a statue as he slept, letting Yue Ning have the whole seat aside from where he was to sleep on.

During these three days, she had sparred with him a few more times, and he found that she was actually improving faster than he expected, but it was nowhere near enough to fight against him yet.

She had also tried fighting with weapons, but the result was exactly the same every time; she was unable to even touch him and he beat her within only a couple moves.

During this time, he had improved his movement skill, and he had majorly improved his body strengthening technique, with it now being capable of actually somewhat increasing his strength.

Yue Ning actually noticed the difference in the fights, finding that his physical strength was approaching her own as his defense increased.

But this was merely slightly balancing them out, so it didn't make much of a difference overall.

At the same time, he knew that his technique was increasing his strength too slowly, because it wasn't even as fast as working out with his body, and the only benefit was a slight element of ice in his body and harder skin.

As it was so slow, he continued to try and improve it, but he wasn't met with much luck, and considering that once his hands were healed, he would start to cultivate instead of research his inner energy, this meant that he was unlikely to make it into an effective technique before he had the chance to just get a pre-made one.

On this night, after everyone had already fallen asleep, Xu Xin was still focused on recovering and researching, but suddenly, he felt danger.

He instantly opened his eyes and looked around, but he obviously didn't see anything in the carriage, so he instantly stepped outside and looked around, with the guards and Xia Yue noticing him.

Seeing the look on his face, Xia Yue quietly whispered to him: "What's wrong?"

But without even looking at her, he continued to scan the forest as he spoke.

"Danger. Get ready." His voice was so quiet that Xia Yue could barely even hear him, but she didn't doubt his words in the slightest as she went on guard, alerting the other guards to do the same.

The reason she didn't doubt him was because his senses towards danger were even stronger than her own, and she knew this based on not only the fact that he sensed the danger from the bandit the first time they met, but he had also avoided death several times right in front of her in ways that others found impossible.

An example was that he dodged and caught a knife flying towards the back of his head without warning, and he also managed to notice the sapphire scaled viper before it could get away.

As they scanned through the forest, they didn't see or sense anything at all, but Xu Xin felt the danger get stronger, like a looming fog of death that had gathered around his head.

Time seemed to slow down as the feeling of danger increased further and further, and at a certain point, Xia Yue became aware of it, followed by the guards. It was at this moment that they realized just how truly odd Xu Xin was.

None of them had ever guarded Xiao Xin when he was the crown prince, and because of this, they hadn't experienced any of his abilities.

The only person that had guarded him was his tutor, who had taught him many of the things he knew, with the rest being taught by his master, the old scholar.

Xu Xin had always felt that the royal guards weren't good enough, hence why he had the tutor follow him around instead. Plus, the tutor was far stronger than the guards, and he was one of the top five strongest people in the kingdom.

If the tutor was here, Xu Xin was somewhat confident that this situation could be resolved, but he wasn't, so Xu Xin, Xia Yue, and the guards had to solve it on their own.

Suddenly, without any warning, the feeling of danger increased by several times, and a flash of red came out from the forest, heading towards Xia Yue.

Luckily, she was on guard, and she managed to barely form a barrier of inner breath in front of her as the red streak slammed into it, causing a loud "THUD" sound to ring out.

Then, slowly, sparks formed on the barrier as it began to crack, inch by inch, slowly spreading out from the point of impact, and finally, it broke as the red streak continued towards her.

She only barely managed to get out of the way of it before it slammed solidly into the carriage behind her, going into it and out the other side before finally landing on the ground nearby.

If one looked at it, they would see that it was a blood red arrow, and it seemed to be impossibly sharp as it seemed to drip with an invisible blood.

Instantly, Yue Ning and Xiao Wei within the carriage were awoken, but all they could do was sit there, because this was clearly a level of threat that they couldn't deal with.

Just as Xia Yue and the guards finally managed to react to what had just happened, suddenly, another arrow flew out of the forest, this time without any glow to it, clearly being just a normal arrow.

But even if it was just a normal arrow with no power behind it, it was still quite strong. However, seeing its target, everyone was confused, because it was heading straight towards Xu Xin!

He instantly reacted and put up his hand, but the arrow simply shot straight through it, and some barbs on the arrow pulled his hand back as the arrow stuck into the carriage, firmly pinning Xu Xin to it.