Zu An was amused. “Why do you like raising flags so much? Have you noticed just how many times you’ve said those words? Are you a parrot? Or are those words the only ones you know?”

“What’s ‘raising flags’?” Yuan Wendong was momentarily bewildered, but quickly snapped himself out of it. Clearly, he was getting too absorbed by Zu An’s words for no good reason. He roared angrily, “All you have is that sharp mouth of yours!”

Despite his vehement rebuttal, he dared not let his guard down. He immediately went on the offensive, executing the strongest sword art he knew.

“Frenzied Dance of the Roaming Dragon!”

Yuan Wendong’s body suddenly flashed forward, darting toward Zu An like a bolt of lightning. However, he wasn’t just charging in a straight line. His direction was constantly changing, moving to the left in one moment only to swerve to the right in the next. This made it hard for Zu An to predict his movements, and had the effect of cornering Zu An, leaving him with nowhere to escape.

The trajectory of his sword left behind afterimages, making it look like a dragon roaming the battlefield. With incredible ferocity, his sword rushed toward Zu An, threatening to tear him into pieces.

Chu Huanzhao gripped her older sister’s sleeves nervously as Chu Chuyan watched the scene intently, prepared to dive in to save Zu An if his situation became desperate enough. However, with the injuries she’d sustained in her fight with Wu Di earlier, she wasn’t sure if she could make it in time.

Zu An also drew his sword and executed the only sword art he knew: Brightmoon Academy’s Thirteen Forms of Elementary Swordplay.

Given the powerful momentum with which Yuan Wendong was coming at him, he knew that clashing head-on with him would be a foolish idea. However, Yuan Wendong had sealed off the surrounding area with silhouettes formed out of his sword ki, which restricted the space with which he had to maneuver. 

While Zu An was able to dodge most of the sword ki, he couldn’t dodge all of them. He gathered his ki and tried his best to fend them off.

Jarring metallic crashes reverberated through the air as Zu An was forced back several steps. The impact left his ki fluctuating wildly all over his body. His hands went painfully numb, and he nearly lost his grip on his sword.

His brow furrowed. It looks like the gap between a third rank cultivator and a fifth rank cultivator is much larger than I thought.

On the other hand, Yuan Wendong’s stance was firm and unyielding. His clash with Zu An was all he needed to reaffirm his superiority. That’s all the strength Zu An has. To think that I was almost afraid of him earlier on!

His cheeks began to burn at the thought. You actually managed to embarrass me so thoroughly despite being so weak. I’ll make you regret having been born in this world!

You have successfully trolled Yuan Wendong for 768 Rage points!

Zu An was speechless. This fellow gets angry whether he wins or loses. His temper really is a match for Qin Wanru’s.

Many spectators nodded as they observed the aftermath of this first real engagement.

“I knew it. How could Zu An possibly be able to defeat the fifth rank young master Yuan? The disparity between them is so stark, now that they’ve started fighting each other properly!”

“It seems Zu An is pretty formidable too, though. Is he really a good-for-nothing like what you all said?”

“So what if we had underestimated him previously? There’s a limit to how strong he could get. Based on his ki pulsation, he’s at the very most a third rank cultivator. There’s no way he could match young master Yuan!”

“It looks like he has been hiding his strength all this while, gritting his teeth and silently bearing the insults of the crowd, all in hopes of showing his worth in this tournament. Had he been facing anyone else, it might have just worked. Unfortunately for him, his opponent is Yuan Wendong, who is at the fifth rank.”

“My gosh, what a scheming man he is! No wonder he managed to marry Chu First Miss. He must have plotted it all out!”

… 

Quite a few others shared similar thoughts to these as well. City Lord Xie Yi gave Chu Zhongtian a considering look. This guy always puts on an honest and righteous front, but it looks like he’s a wily old fox too.

Sang Hong also made use of this opportunity to teach his son a lesson. “Do you see that, Qian’er? I told you that this person wasn’t as simple as we thought him out to be. He had hidden his true strength all this while.”

Sang Qian nodded in response, but in his heart, he dismissed Zu An as no more than a third rank cultivator. He’s no threat to us, anyway.

He rapidly lost interest in what was going on in the dueling ring, and decided to take this time to admire his beautiful fiancée instead. He turned to look at Zheng Dan, only to see her staring at Zu An intently. His face immediately darkened.

Zheng Dan was oblivious to her fiancé’s jealous gaze. Her full attention was focused on the man in the dueling ring. Amazement shone in her eyes. That guy is actually a third rank cultivator! There’s no way any ordinary man could resist my seductions. However, why did he bet on himself losing? Did he think that he was bound to lose today, or does he have a deeper reason behind that?

Hardly anyone thought that Zu An would win the battle, but Chu Huanzhao was one exception. “My brother-in-law is incredible! He was actually able to stand his ground against Yuan Wendong in a direct clash.”

Beside her, Chu Chuyan kindly offered an explanation. “Yuan Wendong was afraid of his movement skill, so he chose to perform an attack that covered a large area. This dispersed his strength, and allowed Zu An to barely cope with it.”

Chu Huanzhao was taken aback. “Doesn’t that mean that my brother-in-law stands no chance at victory?”

Chu Zhongtian sighed deeply. “I thought that he might have a powerful combat skill that’s similar to his movement skill. If so, he might still have stood a chance. However, he’s only using the Elementary Swordplay of Brightmoon Academy. While the Elementary Swordplay has been refined time and time again over the years, its flaws are very obvious too. While it works well against ordinary folk, it’s sorely lacking when used against cultivators.”

“Ah…” her father’s words set Chu Huanzhao’s nerves further on edge.

Hong Xingying, who had pricked up his ears to listen in on the conversation, heaved a sigh of relief. When he’d seen how Zu An had dealt with Yuan Wendong’s army of swords earlier with his bizarre weapon, his heart had nearly escaped his chest. 

If this fellow really defeats Yuan Wendong, how could I possibly still keep my head held high while in the Chu clan? Fortunately, even the patriarch doesn’t think that he can win now. That’s good… 

His eyes turned back to the dueling ring, where Yuan Wendong had begun yet another wave of attacks. There was no way he would give Zu An time to catch a breather. He was determined to use his cultivation to crush Zu An into the ground.

Zu An desperately used the Thirteen Forms of Elementary Swordplay to protect himself. While his defense was a little awkward, he still barely managed to hold on for the time being.

“Hm? Can the Elementary Swordplay be used in such a manner too?”

“I must say that Zu An isn’t as weak as I’d thought after all.”

“But no matter how adept he is at it, it’s still only the Elementary Swordplay. The threat it could pose toward young master Yuan is limited.”

… 

The powerhouses overseeing the duel shared these same thoughts as well.

Sang Hong was surprised to see how Zu An, despite his young age, was able to grasp sword ki, an ability that most cultivators only understood later on in their cultivation. His aptitude is honestly amazing. It’s a pity that he’s already in the Chu clan. I wonder if it’s possible to tempt him over to our side.

Jiang Luofu, on the other hand, frowned. If his earlier attack had been just a little faster and aimed a little more to the left, it would have been far more effective. Is he still lacking in practice?

Zu An himself was feeling incredibly frustrated. So many times he had been tempted to use his self-created ‘Bixie Swordplay’, but he had hesitated as Old Mi’s warning came to mind. If even Old Mi was wary of revealing the existence of this skill, the threat posed by its use was probably far beyond what he could deal with.[1]

While he couldn’t be certain that no one here knew of Sunflower Phantasm, he knew for sure that there was no way he could defeat Yuan Wendong if he didn’t use it.

He had managed to push back other fifth rank cultivators like Snow and Pei Mianman in the past, which caused him to underestimate just how powerful Yuan Wendong—who himself had just barely reached the fifth rank—was. 

Thinking back, his fights with Pei Mianman and Snow had been pretty desperate affairs. He had been on the verge of dying both times, which had led to the activation of the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra, enhancing his ki, speed, and strength far beyond his baseline. This time around, however, he was fighting with a fifth rank cultivator while in his normal condition.

Yuan Wendong felt his impatience increasing with each wave of attacks that failed to pierce through Zu An’s defense. He had been thoroughly humiliated earlier on, and if he couldn’t regain his reputation here, there would be no way for him to walk around Brightmoon City with his head held high anymore.

Unable to take it any longer, he decided to resort to his strongest skill to defeat Zu An once and for all.

“Ravage of the Golden Dragon!”

Yuan Wendong’s body suddenly began spinning swiftly, drawing in vast amounts of air into the dueling ring. The air became so dense that it almost felt tangible. The gale-force winds left Zu An feeling as if he were surrounded by massive waves that were ready to devour him whole.

Yuan Wendong’s movements began to blur as well. In the blink of an eye, he suddenly appeared right behind Zu An, his sword aimed straight at a ki meridian on Zu An’s right hand. Once a cultivator’s ki meridian was destroyed, he would be crippled for good, no matter how high his cultivation used to be. 

Of course, there were treasures in the world that could heal severed ki meridians, but those were incredibly hard to find. Even so, who would bother wasting such a precious treasure on a cripple?

You have borne the insults of the whole world for so long, hoping to turn everything around in this tournament. You wanted to awe the Chu clan and the entire Brightmoon City. Unfortunately, you came up against me. I shall beat you down like the trash you are. You have gotten used to being trash over the years anyway!

“Stop!” Chu Zhongtian noticed Yuan Wendong’s sinister intentions, and rushed toward the dueling ring.

However, both Wu Wei and the patriarch of the Yuan clan were prepared, and stepped forward to block his path. “Brightmoon Duke, why do you keep trying to interfere in the fight between juniors?”

“You two!” Chu Zhongtian was infuriated. He unleashed his full might against the duo standing in his way, but the Sunspring Duke was his equal in cultivation, and had the support of Yuan Zhengchu. Even if he were to break through their defense, there was no way he could get to Zu An in time.

The tip of Yuan Wendong’s sword was on the verge of piercing Zu An’s wrist. All of a sudden, Zu An shouted out loud, “Whatcha starin’ at?”

Yuan Wendong was stunned. Is this man sick in the head? Why is he asking such a question in the middle of a battle? Nevertheless, he still ended up replying reflexively, “I’m staring at you, shithead!”

What’s going on?

Yuan Wendong was stunned. He hadn’t planned on answering Zu An’s question at all, but the words had come out of his mouth anyway, as if he were possessed.

In this brief lapse of concentration, Zu An’s sword suddenly darted forth. The next moment, Yuan Wendong felt a stabbing pain. He lowered his head in disbelief, and saw the tip of Zu An’s sword plunged into his wrist. Blood trailed down from his wrist and onto the floor. 

His own sword was only a few centimeters away from piercing Zu An’s wrist. Such a distance was a trifle to him, and he could have covered it by exerting the smallest force from the tip of his finger. However, at this moment, it was a cavernous gorge between two worlds. 

His face twitched continuously as he tried his best to push his sword forward. However, he was somehow utterly powerless. He couldn’t even hold onto his sword anymore.

What’s going on? Have I… been crippled?!

Yuan Wendong was in complete disbelief. Everything that had happened today was so ludicrous that he refused to believe what he was seeing was real.