Chapter 18: The Honorable Duel (2)
Jia Yuan took a deep breath and readied himself. He
unsheathed the sword he had brought from the 3rd floor, and settled the
first stance on the scroll housing the Song of Swords. In fact, this stance was
the starting point for the Fire Dance.
The Song of Swords was truly a magnificent Song. Not only
did the Song of Swords allow the cultivator to train in all four elements, but
even provided four starting points for the Dance of each element.
Not only could you switch readily from one starting point to
another, but the stances were made so that you could even switch to one easily
from the middle of the dance of another element.
Even though Jia Yuan couldn’t use this specialty of the Song
of Swords now, it would be an important part of his future battles.
The man opened a door on the side of the table, and pulled
out an axe. After swinging the axe around a few times, he settled into his own
stance, then charged towards Jia Yuan, while thrusting his axe back in
preparation for a strong forward slice.
This was the way the stronger members of the Fire Kingdom
usually fought. They were very forthright and fought with power.
An inexperienced fighter would make the mistake of trying to
meet them head-on, and would simply be overpowered. However, Jia Yuan’s Dance
of Fire not only embodied this explosive power, but was also encouraged the
fighter to be mobile. As such, it was very easy for Jia Yuan to dodge the
forward slice of the old man. At the same time, his Song began to start in
earnest.
Jia Yuan had dashed past the old man to dodge the forward
strike of the axe, and was unharmed. He shut his eyes, and let the Song subconsciously
guide his dance.
Jia Yuan gripped the sword with two hands, and dashed back
toward. To add to his speed and power, he sent raging flames behind him to push
himself forward. At this time, he raised his sword, and was clearly preparing
for an overhead strike. This move is an overly forward move that gave the defender
no questions about the motive of the attacker.
It would be a contest of power.
Of course the Song of Swords would choose to put Jia Yuan in
a battle of power. After all, the cultivation of the old man was currently suppressed
to also be at the 3rd level of Absorption. Given that the two
cultivation bases were the same, there were only three factors that could
decide the outcome of this duel.
The First: Strength and speed of the body.
The Second: Proficiency with weapon.
The Third: The quality of each cultivator’s Song.
The man was very old. As such, even though his body may be
strong from the result of his cultivation, it was only so much stronger than
that of Jia Yuan’s when his cultivation was being so heavily suppressed.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
A forward and direct clash between the two weapons, meant
that proficiency with one’s weapon was minimized. Which only left the third
factor. The quality of each cultivator’s Song.
In fact, the old man knew that it would be possible for a
challenger to try to negate the first two factors.
The reason why he still issued the challenge, was because he
was confident in the quality of his Song. After all, he was an important figure
in one of the biggest Merchant Guilds on the continent, and had cultivated in a
high level Song.
But what kind of Song was the Song of Swords? It was simply
unmatched.
As Jia Yuan’s sword came crashing down, a long streak of flame
followed it. The full strength of this blow came crashing down towards the old
man’s head.
The old man sighed and said rather wistfully “Some of these
new kids are truly frightening. It looks like the old guard will have to
prepare for the new era, haha…”
The old man, upon seeing the power behind this attack from
Jia Yuan, knew that it would be impossible for him to defend against it using
the power he had at the 3rd level of Absorption. “I really wonder
what level Song this kid is cultivating…”
He stopped suppressing his own power and raised his axe
toward Jia Yuan’s sword, and easily blocked the blow.
Jia Yuan was knocked back, but was unharmed.
“Ha! You had to raise your cultivation in order to block
that blow! I win!”
“Indeed, young one, you win. Now, can you let this old man
see your black and gold Currency Card?”
Jia Yuan dropped his sleeves to his side to be able to
secretly withdraw the card from his ring. After doing so, he raised his arm
back up and handed the card over to the old man.
The old man took the card and walked back to the lone table
in the room. He opened the side of it again, and took out another Currency
Card. However, this card was entirely made of gold, and the engravings on it were even more detailed than the black and gold counterpart.
With the black and gold card in his left hand and the gold
card in his right, the old man closed his eyes for a few seconds. He then
opened them, and handed the gold Currency Card to Jia Yuan.
“Here, young one. Your 9 thousand large fire shards are
still in it. I’ve decided to not charge you for the sword. Furthermore, I will
give this gold Currency Card to you. With it, you can buy any item from any
Black Wing Merchant Guild Hall for 30% off.”
“Now scram, kid. I need to continue to examine the make of this axe…” said the old man as he walked back towards the table with the axe
on it, when he suddenly stopped and turned around.
“Oh right, young one, what is your name?”
“Jia Yuan.”
“Good name, good name. Remember my name, Jia Yuan. My name
is Guo Huo.”