This time, Wuxian sat between Wan Qiushou and Shui Qianyue. Till the very end, Qiushou had refused to admit the existence of his and Shui Qianyue’s pork bet, the reason why he was supposed to pay her a thousand taels of silver.

Very understandably, Shui Qianyue was annoyed at him as well as at his lack of restraint, using a dangerous move such as throwing his deer horn knives in such a manner. As such, the next half an hour of recovery was spent in awkward silence.

“Shui Qianyue, shall we head up?” Wuxian asked cautiously, afraid to set off the fierce tigress.

“Let’s go.” She replied curtly, shedding her newly-replaced outer robe, revealing the twin scabbards beneath.

Wuxian held the Northern Dark Edge in his right hand, resting it over his shoulder. As he stood up, he felt a tug at the hem of his robes. From the angle, it could only have been Wan Qiushou.

“Sihai Wuxian.” Qiushou called blandly.

With an eyebrow raised and a nod of his head, Wuxian indicated for Qiushou to speak. The latter gave a supportive thumbs up, though his face was as emotionless as ever.

“Good luck.”

“…Thanks.”

Wuxian turned away to stretch, but he couldn’t help but feel a nagging sensation tugging at him. He was mostly certain that Qiushou was just joking when he said that he didn’t remember owing Shui Qianyue money, but with the man’s often stone-like mannerisms, it was impossible to be fully certain. He turned back, glancing at Qiushou from the side.

“You know you owe Shui Qianyue a thousand taels, right?”

“Nope.”

“Okay.”

Left speechless by the man’s shameless behaviour, Wuxian quickly stretched and warmed up his muscles. Seeing that Shui Qianyue was ready too, he took his spot at the north side of the arena where there were still quite a few pillars remaining.

Standing several metres away from Shui Qianyue, Wuxian had wanted to make some small talk. In the end, seeing her no-nonsense expression, he decided to just get things over and done with.

He cupped his fists, the Northern Dark Edge crossing over in front of his body as he did so. Shui Qianyue responded by unsheathing her swords, dropping the scabbards and raising them in a martial salute.

“Please.”

“Please.”

Eyeing up his opponent, Wuxian began to think.

‘From what I saw previously, Shui Qianyue is capable of weapon imbuement. The element is likely to be metal, given how sharp her weapons were- able to slice through these thick logs with ease. On top of that, she is an expert swordswoman. In a purely martial duel, she would no doubt best me.’

He began to take measured steps forward, the Northern Dark Edge extended out from behind him, held in one hand, while his other hand was raised forward a little, forming an upwards palm at chest height.

‘I will have to rely on cunning and my mystic arts to try and eek out an advantage. Though I could use the Northern Dark Edge’s innate spells, not only would they be difficult to control- to the extent that I may wound Shui Qianyue or worse, but they would reveal the fact that I own an artifact weapon. For now, they think that the Northern Dark Edge is merely a fancy heirloom- it is in my interest to maintain that assumption.’

While Wuxian was thinking, Shui Qianyue gave her swords a circular flourish before dashing forwards, switching from a static posture to a break-neck run in the blink of an eye.

‘She’s fast.’

There were three wooden pillars between them, two to the left and one to the right. To get into range, Shui Qianyue would need to weave past them, eventually approaching on Wuxian’s right.

Knowing this, he stopped moving forwards, taking a stable defensive stance. Shui Qianyue’s eyes narrowed in response. She slowed down ever so slightly, imbuing her swords with metal qi.

Then, she chopped a log on her right in half, spinning with her momentum as she did so and delivering a slanted butterfly kick to the top section. Though she did not have Wan Qiushou’s tempered martial physique, as a formidable cultivator herself, she possessed brute force greater than almost every other mortal in existence.

The severed log span through the air, knocking another log down on its way towards Wuxian.

But just because Shui Qianyue was strong didn’t mean that she could project the log as fast or far as Wan Qiushou, especially since she kicked it instead of throwing it. An aerial kick used one’s momentum to complete the movement, but would often be weaker than using a strong centre of mass.

As it sailed through the air, Wuxian made a quick and decisive judgement.

‘It’s slow. Perhaps it’s a test of my reactions or a bait to trick me into using a mystic art to defend myself and waste my qi.’

With a calm complexion, Wuxian stepped a few paces to the right, cleanly avoiding the incoming log. However, when he looked forwards again, he realised that Shui Qianyue had already closed the distance, swords raised.

‘Not good!’

Wuxian dug into the ground. With a slight backwards shove, he wound up the raised treasure weapon as he lifted his right hand. With a twist of his waist, he took hold of the end of its shaft with his left hand, pulling it down and cleaving forwards at the same time.

Without any change in expression, Shui Qianyue gave her child-sword a gentle flick of the wrist. Right on the heels of that, its short blade flickered with grey light, sending forth a dagger-shaped projectile.

Due to the surprise of this attack, Wuxian couldn’t respond effectively. Ideally, he should have made a move to not only negate the incoming qi projectile, but also to solidify his own position and apply pressure.

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Instead, he jerked his body to the side reflexively, almost tripping over his own feet as he did so. As the grey projection sank into the sand on his left, he steadied himself, using the Northern Dark Edge’s butt as a support against the ground to quickly stabilise again.

The corner of her mouth raised slightly, Shui Qianyue stopped advancing. She twisted her body elegantly like a dancer. As she did so, both of her weapons gleamed menacingly, shooting out flying qi swords as she twisted and turned. Each pirouette sent forth wave after wave of glimmering energy.

Wuxian stirred up his earth qi in response, imbuing the entire length of his treasure weapon with protective energy. He raised it with an up-swing, blocking a qi sword as he did so. Then, on the down-swing, he cut through another.

His movements were a little flashy, using each swing’s wind up and recovery to batter projectiles out of the air, twisting ones and spinning in response to Shui Qianyue’s dance-like movements.

But this soon became too difficult to sustain. While he was capable of multitasking mystic arts and physical exertion, this level of coordination was still taxing. He had also begun to get dizzy- increasingly so with each turn.

‘Better not show off. Winning the spar alone would be impressive enough.’

He reduced his excessive movements, acknowledging that he was not yet accomplished enough to move in such a way. He began to make only minimal moves, raising, pointing and turning the Northern Dark Edge to protect himself. Accordingly, his qi flowed smoother and his breathing slowed.

‘Each projectile requires a small amount of qi to deflect, perhaps something like 1/60 of my total refined earth qi. It also costs her effort and qi to keep sending them my way- there’s no way she’ll not get dizzy after all of that spinning and turning…’

Though passive, Wuxian was satisfied with his current position.

‘The greatest advantage a Qi Condenser has over a Foundation Builder is condensed qi. This type of qi is several times more potent than once-refined qi, able to remain stable outside the body for much longer. Shui Qianyue is likely to be a Qi Condenser or higher, since even a genius Foundation Builder wouldn’t be able to send out this many fast-moving qi swords.’

‘More importantly right now is that her qi storage is greater than mine. We are currently in a stalemate situation- she cannot harm me with these qi swords so long as I maintain my earth qi imbuement, thus, if we stay like this, whoever runs out of qi first loses.’

As he dodged and deflected incoming qi projectiles, Wuxian made sure to not only maintain the flow of qi to the treasure weapon, but also to absorb new qi into his body. While it was too difficult to refine the qi at the same time as all his other actions, any level of replenishment was better than none.

After a few more exchanges, Shui Qianyue changed her tactics. She continued to send forth a few qi swords here and there, but now advanced while doing so. As a result, she span around less, weaving side to side; a few steps left followed by a few steps right and so on.

‘I cannot stab or slice forward without exposing myself to her qi swords. I can only wait for her to make the first move and react accordingly.’

Sure enough, Shui Qianyue was uncontent with the current situation, beginning to take wider and wider steps forwards, quickly advancing into striking range.

With a brandish of the mother sword, she lunged forwards, stabbing towards Wuxian’s gut. As she did so, the child sword stretched out behind her to help counter-balance the attack.

Though he was not the most familiar with a reclining moon blade, Wuxian still knew how to react to this sort of attack while wielding a polearm.

Rather than step back or to the side, he took half a step forwards, squatting slightly as he did so. The tassel hanging from the Northern Dark Edge drew a spiral in the air as Wuxian attempted to trap the mother sword with his longer blade.

The fanged edge of the reclining moon blade hooked upwards viciously, catching the mother sword’s blade as it cut forwards.

‘Got it.’

Wuxian took another step forward, stomping down, his left hand raised while his right hand pushed downwards- a sort of lever-like action. The head of the Northern Dark Edge drove downwards, attempting to pry the mother sword out of Shui Qianyue’s grip and onto the sandy floor.

But Shui Qianyue’s hold over the hilt was tight and she seemed to flow like water, answering Wuxian’s hard movement with her own soft power instead. With a twist of her body, the child sword was flipped into reverse grip and brought forwards. She punched the Northern Dark Edge’s wide blade, ribboned hilt first, knocking it slightly off-course.

But the treasure weapon had managed to get a good hook on the mother sword’s long and elegant blade. On top of this, it was still imbued with earth qi, becoming much heavier than usual, so it did not get knocked back as far as Shui Qianyue had hoped.

As the Northern Dark Edge was pushed off to the side, it caused the mother sword to rotate within Shui Qianyue’s hand, preventing her from making another attack with it- at least until she freed it from Wuxian’s snare and then adjusted her grip on it.

However, the dual weapons became advantageous here. Shui Qianyue’s child sword, still in reverse grip, flew forwards along the underside of the Northern Dark Edge, aiming to disarm Wuxian in return by cutting his hands.

Unexpectedly, Wuxian did not entirely let go of the weapon, pulling his hands back to the end of the shaft. He span his body to the left, shifting himself to the other side of his reclining moon blade and pulled it around with a twist. This move rendered Shui Qianyue’s counter attack useless and as a side-effect, the child sword was knocked out of her hand.

It was important to note that he was only comfortable revealing his back to her because she would not be able to take advantage of his momentary vulnerability- her mother sword was incapacitated!

Now, as her body was turned, Wuxian readjusted his grip over the Northern Dark Edge, holding it stably in two hands, before striking forward at Shui Qianyue’s back with its butt.

Sensing that she was in a bad spot, Shui Qianyue preemptively rolled forwards and reoriented herself on her rise, mother sword held in her right hand, her left hand empty. Using her free hand, she pushed the weapon butt to the left, stabbing forwards with her remaining sword as she did so.

Unperturbed, Wuxian shifted his treasure weapon again. He crossed it over his front with two hands using the momentum provided by Shui Qianyue’s push. Using the flat of the blade, he cleanly blocked the incoming stab.

But things took a drastic turn. Shui Qianyue stepped forwards twice in rapid succession, invading Wuxian’s area of control and striking forwards with her left palm. Her hand pushed against the earth qi barrier, driving the weapon against Wuxian’s upper body.

Now off-balance, Wuxian staggered backwards, fumbling to defend himself. Shui Qianyue refused to give him the chance, biting into the newly-made opening like a tiger would an oxen’s exposed rear.

A wisp of grey qi left Shui Qianyue’s left sleeve, encapsulating the child sword which had been discarded moments before and lifted it up. At the same time, she raised the mother sword from below her waist, cutting upwards with a flick of her wrist. With no space to manoeuvre and no way out, Wuxian was forced to drop the treasure weapon to protect his arms.

As the Northern Dark Edge fell to the ground, its yellowy shine faded, returning it to its usual dark colouration.

Wuxian trod backwards, arms raised protectively. Shui Qianyue followed, her body practically sticking to his like glue, preventing him from retaliating in any form.

Thunk!

The back of Wuxian’s head knocked against the rough surface of a wooden pillar, preventing him from retreating any further. With a triumphant look, Shui Qianyue stabbed the tip of her sword into the pillar, besides Wuxian’s waist.

Then, the child sword whistled through the air, sinking into the spot right next to Wuxian’s right ear. It turned out that the reason Shui Qianyue used swords of uneven sizes was to control the smaller one remotely with qi!

Shui Qianyue pushed Wuxian up against the wooden pillar. As she did so, he could feel her warm breath on his lips, her eyes bearing deep into his. Time seemed to freeze- much like before a few thousand years back, back when he had been ambushed by the Han soldier atop the gorge.

Instantly, Wuxian’s survival instincts kicked in- quite literally. He delivered a rapid outwards sweep with his left leg, causing Shui Qianyue’s right leg to slip out to his left. He then kneed upwards, heading for the crotch.

In response, Shui Qianyue twisted to the right, delivering a forceful palm strike to Wuxian’s chest. Simultaneously, due to the newly-changed angle, Wuxian’s knee hit her in the rear.

Unable to stand it any further, the wooden log behind him fell backwards, carrying him with it. At the same time, Shui Qianyue was tipped forwards due to Wuxian’s knee, falling down on top of him!