James and Jack’s swords stood still. No doubt they were delaying a few moments to build up tension and expectations from the audience. After all, this was the first tournament in the city, and they wanted it to become famous throughout their land. What better way to achieve that than to build up suspense?

After a few breaths of time, each of them released the reins on their swords. They propelled nearly twenty thousand swords, whizzing through the air. Swords clashed, creating a vivid and vibrating cacophony. Metal clashing against metal, again and again.

In the arena, a spectacle of swordplay was taking place as the swords clashed, parried, and even made attack formations. The barrier continuously quivered. Vibrations in the air distorted the arena’s space. Crying spectators had to protect their eardrums with Qi. Lest they go deaf. People in the audience had trouble seeing the cultivators on the platform by the sheer number of swords continuously clashing.

Jack took out his sword. This masterpiece was an azure and green blade. Jack and James lunged forward, their sword in hand. They evaded or parried the incoming swords as they closed the distance. Their footwork being a sight to behold. They could freely move with grace even under the assault of thousands of swords. At the same time, they commanded the movement and trajectory of thousands of swords.

Jack leaped into the sky as he evaded a sword aiming for his feet. He had to divert his attention between controlling the swords, predicting the patterns of James’s swords and where they would attack.

While also evading or pairing some himself, fortunately for him, he could manage this level of compartmentalization. After all, as an Alchemist, he needed to pay attention to minuscule details at the same time. From several spirit herbs, their preparation, how they reacted when interacting inside the cauldron. To the heat or other spirit herbs, being in constant need to adjust and change his course of action.

James, on the other hand, could keep up this level of compartmentalization, however, it put a great strain on his mind. He preferred to parry the incoming swords as it came more naturally to him.

All this takes time to describe but, from the time they had started to move to this moment, only three breaths of time had passed. At this time, they had already parried or evaded dozens of swords.

Jack dropped from the sky, taking advantage of the high ground. He put his sword in front of him in a piercing position. James was preparing to evade. However, at this time, ten swords came for him from several angles. They had passed the defense of his swords; he used his bound with the swords to call them to deflect the incoming swords. However, the slight surprise had made his response slower, allowing Jack to come close enough, leaving no room for Jack to evade the incoming attack.

James took a defensive stance, planting himself on the ground and slashing his sword above his head in order to parry the full brunt of the incoming attack.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Swords collided with the might of their wielder. A thunderous eruption of energy erupted forth. The shock wave expanded in all directions. Creating distortions in the surrounding space and propelling ten of thousands of swords outwards toward the barrier, creating a surreal and awe-inspiring display of strength.

The ground surrounding James for several meters caved in as he diverted part of the strength from Jack’s attack toward the ground.

With a harmonious melody, the swords collided against the barrier in a constant barrage of attacks. The elders had to put their all for the barrier not to break. They could easily protect themselves, but they were not formation masters, they were simply supplying Qi to the barrier. Several cracks began to appear on the barrier even with the effort of the elders. If this continued, the barrier could break.

It was then that a dozen more Golden Core Cultivators from the Violet Sky clan came to help sustain the barrier. With all the incoming Qi, the barrier reformed, allowing it to withstand the barrage of attacks.

Inside the barrier, the clash of strength continued, the continuity of the exerted strength creating newer, weaker shock waves.

The audience was in utter silence. They were having a hard time processing this level of strength, a speck of desire beginning to form in the hearts of many of them, young or regressed alike.

Many of them were practicing cultivation, as the prospect of an extended lifespan enticed them. Though aware of the potential risk of Demon Beast. Most of them had not encountered one, or if they did, it was far weaker than them. Therefore, they paid little concern to this threat. Having lived a life nearly devoid of conflict, they were not quite interested in martial techniques, but in these fights, a transformation had begun to stir a transformation in the hearts of the audience.

Jack and James retreated a few steps, their gazes locked on each other, creating a sort of understanding of each other; both wanted to win against each other. They will have to truly spar at a later time. Right now this was an exhibition, and they had to awe the people in the city. Both to make people more interested in cultivating and to attract young lads into the city guard, especially to the Azure guard, of which they were in command.

Jack and James showed their masterful swordplay, exchanging dozens of moves as they launched a Jade sword here, or a sky sundering palm there. They also practiced other techniques, but they would not showcase them to the public. After all, it was wise to have an as under the sleeve or, if possible, several.

After the show had gone for a few minutes of trying to outwit each other with simple attacks and techniques at a far lower level than they had displayed. The reason they did not display further strength was for one they had accomplished the goal of awing the audience with their strength. The second reason was, they didn’t want to inconvenience the family. After all, they were the ones in charge of maintaining the barrier. Also, if they truly fought all out, they could have broken the barrier. They had purposely not used all their strength in their attacks.

This also showed a substantial difference between cultivating with and without the holy lame. Although Max, Malik, and Leticia were all at the intermediate layers of the Golden Core realm, none of them had yet to cultivate using the flame. Hiroshi had made this arrangement as a way to gauge the actual difference between a cultivator who cultivated using the Holy Flame. As they had come to call it, or not.

Jack and James retracted giving each other some space. Facing each other, they gave a martial bow and began to walk back to the balcony of the Violet Sky Clan.