Void Blade

"Senior Martial Brother Zhao?" Lu Zhiying exclaimed in surprise.

"Trust me, I've got this," Zhao Yunxiao assured.

In any case, this was a problem that had come up because of him. There was no way that he would allow Lu Zhiying to get involved, especially since there was a chance of her getting hurt while doing so!

"This... okay, I trust you!" Lu Zhiying nodded after glancing over at Huang An to make sure that the latter was still there with them.

On the other hand, Geng Guoye had to consciously suppress himself from bursting out in laughter.

Trust you, you've got this?

What a joke. Let's see if you can still say something like that in a few minutes' time!

"It is good to hear that you are willing to accept this rare opportunity. In that case, why don't we begin immediately?" Geng Guoye did not want to give Zhao Yunxiao any opportunity to slip away.

"How does Senior Martial Brother Geng want to go about doing this?" Zhao Yunxiao asked.

"Let's keep things simple. We can do this right outside the pavilion, where the road is wide and unobstructed," Geng Guoye said nonchalantly. "As for the rules... why don't you just try to last ten minutes against me?"

"How about three minutes?"

"Ten."

"Five?"

"Ten. Don't make me repeat myself."

"All right, I understand..." Zhao Yunxiao sighed.

"Well then, come on out," Geng Guoye led the way out of the pavilion.

Feeling everyone's gazes fixated upon him, Zhao Yunxiao took another deep breath before helplessly following Geng Guoye out of the pavilion.

"Actually, how about we move this to the Snow Moon Arena?" Zhao Yunxiao suggested as he stood opposite the inner disciple. "After all, this is not exactly in line with the sect rules."

"Don't worry about the sect rules," Geng Guoye shrugged it off. "If the sect administrators wish to pursue the matter, I will bear all responsibilities."

To prevent unsolicited fighting, disciples of the Black Tortoise Sect were actually not allowed to have spars in random places like this. If disciples really wanted to have an official spar, it had to be held at the Snow Moon Arena instead.

Of course, this did not mean that no fights had ever happened outside of the arenas.

In fact, this was quite a common occurrence, and there were also many disciples who had been punished for this exact reason in the past. As for what the punishments entailed, that varied greatly depending on the severity of the situation, as well as the connections of the disciples involved.

But since Geng Guoye had already said this much in front of everyone, Zhao Yunxiao no longer had to worry about getting punished by the sect administrators.

Now, all that was left was to focus on dealing with Geng Guoye himself.

"Well then, let's not keep everyone waiting," Geng Guoye said.

With that, he closed his eyes and started placing internal seals on himself. It was not obvious to those observing from the outside, but he was effectively sealing his spiritual meridians to a certain extent, forcibly reducing the flow of essence energy within his spiritual meridians to that of the Essence Gathering realm.

Bang-!

Geng Guoye released a burst of pure essence energy, striking a rock by the road and causing it to explode.

Those watching nodded in approval. Geng Guoye had been true to his word – the essence energy he released was indeed capped at the Essence Gathering realm.

What many did not know was that while the suppression of his cultivation level might have indeed made the spar slightly fairer, there was actually a deeper, more sinister, intention behind his decision to do so.

If he possessed an overwhelming advantage in terms of cultivation level, he would have to greatly restrain himself during the spar. Otherwise, he would definitely be heavily criticised by others.

But with his cultivation suppressed to the same level, Geng Guoye now had an excuse to go all out against Zhao Yunxiao instead of having to hold back with each strike!

Zhao Yunxiao narrowed his eyes in focus.

Ten minutes.

Against someone at the same cultivation level, Zhao Yunxiao was more than confident of lasting this long. However, an Origin Core realm cultivator like Geng Guoye would still possess huge advantages even with his cultivation level suppressed.

Firstly, his understanding of each individual technique would be much better. After all, advancements in cultivation level naturally came with a greater understanding of the laws of the world, which would in turn allow him to break each technique down to a greater level of granularity and refine every little aspect.

Secondly, both his senses and physical capabilities would be far superior, having his physique refined by overcoming the heavenly tribulation to enter the Origin Core realm.

Thirdly, his equipment would likely be much better as well.

And this was not even considering Geng Guoye's higher innate talent that had allowed him to become an inner disciple in the first place.

Could Zhao Yunxiao really last ten minutes against someone like that?

He was not completely certain.

However, he definitely did not think that it was impossible.

It would be a different story if he had to take down Geng Guoye, but just trying to last through the fight was certainly doable!

"Are you ready?" Geng Guoye asked.

"I'm ready to receive your guidance, Senior Martial Brother Geng," Zhao Yunxiao clasped his fists towards him. "Please go easy on me."

"Of course, it is not in my nature to bully juniors," Geng Guoye scoffed, then shot forward without hesitation.

[Earth Burrowing Technique]

Zhao Yunxiao wasted no time in diving straight into the ground, disappearing from everyone's sight.

"This again!" one of the outer disciples blurted out.

Zhao Yunxiao had used this same technique during his duel with Gan Luozhi about three weeks ago, so it was still fresh in the minds of the outer disciples.

Back then, Gan Luozhi had no means of attacking the underground Zhao Yunxiao and had to wait for the latter to surface. If that was the same for Geng Guoye, then lasting ten minutes against him would be effortless!

Unfortunately, there was no way that someone as far-sighted as Geng Guoye would not have a countermeasure to something like this.

"Trying to waste time by hiding underground? Do you really think that I can't fish you out?" Geng Guoye immediately brought out a paper talisman. "Appear!"

He threw it into the air and pierced through it with two fingers, causing the talisman to start burning up. But instead of smoke and ashes, it actually turned into golden particles that fell to the ground, which quickly gathered together and transformed into a mole-like creature.

This creature possessed the shape of a mole, but had glowing green eyes and stood at the height of an adult male.

"Summoning an Emerald-Eyed Mole to take care of a rat in the ground, how apt!" Qie Xing praised with a relaxed smile.

He had no doubt that Geng Guoye would emerge victorious against a mere outer disciple. All that remained was to find out how he felt like doing so.

And the more humiliating the method was, the better!

"Go find him!"

Heee-!

Heeding Geng Guoye's order, the Emerald-Eyed Mole instantly burrowed into the ground. And just a few moments later, flames erupted from within the burrow hole that it had just created.

Boom-! Heeaughhh-!

A loud explosion, followed by a pitiful cry.

Then, there was silence.

"Tch! Useless creature!" Geng Guoye cursed upon realising the fate of the Emerald-Eyed Mole. "Looks like I have no choice but to do it myself!"

With a flick of his wrist, a sword appeared in his hands. Closing his eyes in focus, he started to gather essence energy within the blade.

"Here it comes, Brother Geng's Void Blade," Qie Xing was still rather composed.

The earlier move might not have worked, but it was not a big deal. Now that Geng Guoye was about to use his signature move, that outer disciple no longer stood a chance!

As Geng Guoye gathered his essence energy, a layer of black matter started to spread across the surface of the sword. This black matter was clearly just a layer around the sword, yet it possessed a mysterious draw that made it appear deep and bottomless. It felt almost as though the surface of the sword had become the entrance to space itself.

But before the black matter could spread out fully to cover the sword, Zhao Yunxiao leapt out of the ground and threw a dagger towards Geng Guoye, aiming at the latter's exposed back.

Geng Guoye did not allow himself to be distracted, easily sidestepping the dagger and avoiding it by a whisker.

Yet as the dagger flew past him, at the very moment when the dagger was closest to his body, Geng Guoye frowned as his spiritual sense picked up on something attached to the dagger.

An explosive talisman!

The talisman activated right then and there.

Boom-!

Yet instead of retreating, Geng Guoye chose to slash out with his sword. In fact, he had made his move even before the explosion happened, having seen through the effect of the talisman.

And he was fast.

Even at such close proximity, his sword managed to slice apart the explosive flames before the flames could reach him.

His sword seemed to have a strange attraction force to it, drawing in every last bit of flames that originated from the explosive talisman, even those that had been propagating in the opposite direction.

Many in the pavilion felt a chill run down their spines as they witnessed this scene.

The process was eerily silent, as though Geng Guoye had created a dark void in space where anything could fall in and disappear entirely.

This time it was the explosive flames, but who knew if people could be sucked in as well if he willed for it to happen?

Void Blade – this was Geng Guoye's signature technique, one that he had created by incorporating every last bit of his understandings into the Law of Space.

Chen Pingxi smiled upon seeing this.

Indeed, in the Black Tortoise Sect, every inner disciple was an expert in their own right. She had to admit that Geng Guoye's Void Blade was an extremely powerful technique. Despite being suppressed to the Essence Gathering realm, it was still capable of displaying such terrifying power.

The Law of Space had always been regarded as one of the higher tier laws, and Geng Guoye's Void Blade showed exactly why that was the case.

If Geng Guoye was able to gain deeper understandings into the Law of Space and further refine the technique in the future, perhaps even Chen Pingxi might start finding herself hard pressed to do anything against him!

Now then, how would Zhao Yunxiao deal with this?

After neutralising the explosion, Geng Guoye immediately turned his attention towards Zhao Yunxiao. The latter did not allow Geng Guoye to get close, quickly diving back into the ground.

But Geng Guoye was unfazed upon witnessing this. Instead, he simply changed his target to the ground itself.

Slash-!

Under the effect of the Void Blade, the ground split apart like tofu.

This was clearly not a regular slash by a sharp sword. Instead, Geng Guoye's sword slash created a fissure in the ground that went almost ten metres deep. The edges were not clean and smooth either, looking rough as though the earth had been forcibly sucked out of the ground.

And Geng Guoye was not done just yet.

Slash-! Slash-! Slash-!

One by one, deep fissures started appearing on the ground, disfiguring the previously smooth and even surface of the road.

With each slash, the outer disciples' hearts skipped a beat.

They understood that with the immense destructive power of the slash, just a single hit could potentially bring about the end of Zhao Yunxiao's life!

And if he was killed underground, would his body end up buried under this road forever?

Well, at least he would not have to worry about not receiving a proper burial, so perhaps that was not all that bad for him. But that might be rather ominous for the Clear Thoughts Pavilion...

As though sharing their grim concerns, Zhao Yunxiao quickly leapt out from the ground.

"Finally realised how you can't keep hiding forever?" Geng Guoye stopped slashing the ground and smirked.

"Senior Martial Brother Geng is truly amazing. I have learnt much from you," Zhao Yunxiao clasped his fists towards him. "Faced with your impregnable defence and unstoppable offence, I truly have no other moves to make. This is my loss."

Silence fell upon the Clear Thoughts Pavilion once again.

He gave up just like that? Wasn't the spar supposed to last ten minutes?

Not even a minute had passed since the beginning of the fight! Isn't this a little too pathetic?

Then again, it was not like they could not relate to Zhao Yunxiao.

Geng Guoye's Void Blade was truly a little too terrifying, so it was not surprising that an outer disciple like Zhao Yunxiao would be too intimidated to continue this spar.

If things went awry, he could really end up losing his life to the Void Blade!

"Indeed, this first round is your loss," Geng Guoye agreed, and the black matter quickly rescinded from the surface of his sword. "Next, face me like a man."

"Each of Senior Martial Brother Geng's moves is exquisite and refined. The moment I noticed that, I realised that I would not stand a chance even if we openly exchanged moves," Zhao Yunxiao sighed in regret. "Senior Martial Brother Geng's level is simply too much higher than mine. Continuing this will only be a waste of everyone's time, so I admit my loss in all aspects."

Zhao Yunxiao had been thinking about this from the very start.

Should he try to struggle for a win here, or should he just end things quickly by admitting his loss?

Well, there was honestly not much to think about here.

After all, were there even any benefits to winning?

From the very start, he had intended to just play along a little before quickly admitting his loss!

"Don't even think of brushing me off like that. If I said that I am going to give you some guidance, I naturally won't do so lightly," Geng Guoye scoffed. "Brace yourself!"

He did not allow Zhao Yunxiao to speak further, immediately charging towards the latter.

Seeing this, Zhao Yunxiao could not help but let out another helpless sigh before focusing on the approaching Geng Guoye.

As expected, that did not work. Still, it was at least worth a shot.

But since that had failed, it was time for a change of plans.

Zhao Yunxiao firmly believed that Lu Zhiying was someone who would become an inner disciple in time to come. Since she had chosen to vouch for him numerous times by now, he definitely could not appear too weak, or it might just cause her to be mocked in the future for having chosen to associate with weaklings.

No matter how slim the chances, he had to do his best to claim victory here. Even if he ended up losing anyway, he had to at least put up a good fight for the optics.

Now then, it was time to give it all he had got!