Lu Qingyun vs. Nangong Yu

Nangong Yu had suddenly mustered sword energies onto his sword and this doubled his lethal power.

Lei Xingyuan gasped with shock, "He is a… sword energy practitioner…"

The reason why she was shocked is because cultivators cultivate to gain profound strength from their inner spiritual sea and then convert it to display their profound force.

How powerful their profound force is, depends on the profound power of their profound strength and this can be increased through profound arts, cultivation realms, magic tools, profound treasures, weapons, arrays, even profound pills etc.

But a sword energy practitioner can directly convert their profound energies in their inner spiritual sea to a sword energy attack.

However, not all cultivators can become a sword energy practitioner as this is based on their natural affinity and natural constitution.

Only roughly 3% of the cultivators in the Nine Celestial Fraternity are sword energy practitioners.

Sword energies attack is highly effective against the lower realm cultivators as their profound defenses are still too weak to offer them protection against the penetration power of a sword energies attack and even armors are useless to block against a sword energies attack.

It is not to say that sword energies cultivators are invincible; they are considerably weaker after the 5th realm when a cultivator's profound defense is strong enough to block off sword energies attack and also because at the 5th realm cultivation, the cultivator will gain a golden body that can rapidly regenerate wounds and they are also extremely difficult to kill.

But against any cultivators that are below the 5th realm, sword energies attacks are especially lethal and they could easily lose their limbs against it.

Nangong Yu was now shouting coldly to Lu Qingyun, "Take out your divine sword if you don't want to die!"

Lu Qingyun had only a wooden sword to defend himself.

He knows that Nangong Yu was attempting to trick him into using his divine sword and then he would claim it for himself if he loses this fight by claiming that they had a gambit.

If he did not take out his divine sword and Nangong Yu had claimed that they had a gambit, few people would believe that they were having a gambit. Only by forcing him to take out his divine sword, would Nangong Yu's claims be valid or logical.

Just as Lu Qingyun was analyzing the reason for being attacked by Nangong Yu, he had landed his wooden sword on Nangong Yu's chest and had knocked him backward.

Lu Qingyun was startled that Nangong Yu didn't try to block his attack.

Nangong Yu crashed against a bulky tree and he was stunned; how could he be struck in his chest without his knowing?

The chest was his most guarded defense and there was no way that Lu Qingyun would be able to hit him.

All of a sudden, he had coughed out blood after he had tried to stand up.

And he was shockingly staring at Lu Qingyun, "You are not a first realm cultivator?!"

The reason why he had said that was because there was no way that Lu Qingyun's profound strength would be strong enough to hurt a 4th realm cultivator like him; his profound aura would naturally react to protect him against any strikes.

But the fact that he had coughed out blood was enough to cause him great disbelief.

And he had used his divine sense on Lu Qingyun.

To his shock, he saw that Lu Qingyun was an initial 3rd realm cultivator!

"This is impossible?! How did you manage to become a 3rd realm cultivator in just a few days?!"

This time Nangong Yu was mad as he displayed his full profound strength with his sword energies attack; he was determined to kill this Lu Qingyun for making a fool of himself and also because it hurt his pride that he would be injured by Lu Qingyun.

Immediately he had flashed with a deadly speed toward Lu Qingyun and the ground below him rippled with his powerful profound shockwaves as he displayed the Six Diagonal Whirlwind Strike.

There was no way for Lu Qingyun to block or fend with his wooden sword as he would be randomly be attacked on many sides by this profound art that was being displayed with multiple after-images. 

This Six Diagonal Whirlwind Strike is extremely demanding on the cultivator's stamina and profound strength to maintain its momentum.

Although Nangong Yu was only able to execute this powerful profound art only once to combine it with his sword energies attack, it was enough to kill him!

Lie Xingyuan gasped with shock to Lu Qingyun, "Senior Brother, be careful!!!"

Lu Qingyun was also astonished by the powerful profound attacks that were being displayed by Nangong Yu.

Indeed, he would be lynched to several pieces once Nangong Yu was upon him.

Lu Qingyun did not know any profound arts and he did not have any profound arts that could match the profound power of Nangong Yu's incoming attack but he instinctively threw his wooden sword toward Nangong Yu and his attack pierced Nangong Yu's shoulder.

Once again, Nangong Yu was thrown back and flung with a thunderous impact as he crashed onto the same bulky tree again.

He was in great disbelief!!!

This can't be happening at all.

The shoulder that Lu Qingyun had aimed was his sword arm and Nangong Yu simply could not believe how easy it was for Lu Qingyun to break his attacking stance.

Although Lu Qingyun was weaponless now but he still have his divine sword in his spatial storage and he could draw it anytime.

This caused Nangong Yu to be panicky now that his sword arm was disabled as he thought: If he uses his divine sword then won't I be dead? This Shengzi is really freaking strong...

He analyzed for an instant before he quickly picked himself up to run away but not before shouting a loud curse, "Lu Qingyun, I'll remember this! And I'll be back soon with the others to get you!" 

And he had soon disappeared.

Just as Lu Qingyun and Lie Xingyuan were sighing with soft reliefs, they were startled to see the voice of Grand Elder Shi Guanyin calling out with her profound voice, "Lu Qingyun, are you there?" 

Lu Qingyun broke into a cold sweat, "He is back so fast and he has even brought his master to look for me." 

Even Lie Xingyuan had a frightful look on her. 

Celestial Shi Guanyin was on a totally different league than Nangong Yu. 

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Author Note:

1. Thanks for supporting the free chapters. Any comments, feedbacks and thank you are all greatly appreciated! 

2. All concept art are original and are painstaking created with an advance AI which I have a high level access to but it still isn't easy to create. 

3. If you got some free time, check out The Romantic Cultivator that is based in the same cultivation world. (with over 1200 Chapters)

4. The biggest challenge in writing this cultivation story is to have a devoted love interest but at the same time a harem story. The synopsis actually hints that this will be a harem story even though it may read like a devoted romance between Lu Qingyun and Qin Keqin.