At the same time, the swamp instantly expanded, quickly covering every corner of the stage.
Only the spot where Senior Sister Wen stood remained untouched.
A collective gasp arose from below the stage. “Senior Sister Wen is actually using that move—Ten Thousand Wood Flying Blades!
The senior brothers and sisters in the mid Foundation Establishment stage who lost to her before all fell to this very move. Can Junior Sister Gu really dodge it with just her movement technique?”
“The Ten Thousand Wood Flying Blades seal off every angle and blind spot. How could anyone dodge it? Not to mention, the entire stage is covered by the swamp.”
The conversation from below drifted into Gu Ningyun's ears.
Treading on the wind, she walked across the swamp as if it were level ground.
With her current movement technique, she could have easily closed the distance and knocked Senior Sister Wen off the platform before her ultimate move, Ten Thousand Wood Flying Blades, fully formed. After all, the fighting platform was small, unlike an open battlefield.
However, she had come to Fighting Peak specifically to seek out multi-spirit root cultivators to spar with, aiming to hone her skills and break through her bottleneck. Since such a formidable spell was being unleashed, she naturally wanted to test herself against it.
Within a mere two breaths, the Ten Thousand Wood Flying Blades fully formed and swept toward her in an impenetrable wave. If she were hit by these withered vine fragments, it would probably be no different from having her heart pierced by ten thousand arrows.
The moment the withered wood blades took shape, Gu Ningyun knew she couldn't escape by relying solely on her movement technique. There were absolutely no gaps between the flying vines for her to slip through.
She decisively drew her peach wood sword. The most basic sword moves—chop, stab, slash, and parry—which she had practiced tens of thousands of times day after day, were already engraved into her very bones, a natural extension of her body.
Her past experience at the Penglai meditation courtyard, where she had practiced slicing water droplets with Jue Sheng, played a crucial role now. Facing withered vine fragments that were a thousand times more numerous than those water droplets, Gu Ningyun actually managed to deflect most of them.
The remaining fraction struck her body, producing a series of metallic clangs.
“A defensive magic tool? No, that's not right. Junior Sister Gu is wearing ordinary yellow-rank robes, and I don't feel any spirit energy fluctuations from a defensive tool.”
When cultivators came to Fighting Peak to spar, they almost always changed out of their disciple robes into ordinary robes and removed any defensive magic tools.
“Body refining? That's impossible. All of us formal disciples in Xiaoyao practice body refining, but our physical cultivation is at most on par with our spirit energy cultivation. None of us are as monstrous as Junior Sister Gu.”
“Unless... on top of the sect's body-refining technique, she underwent additional body tempering.”
“To... be this ruthless to herself?”
“It looks like Junior Sister Gu is tanking it with her bare body.”
“Could she really withstand Senior Sister Wen's Ten Thousand Wood Flying Blades?”
“Has no one noticed that Junior Sister Gu is walking on the swamp as if it's level ground, without her speed dropping even a fraction?”
“That's even more absurd! How is she doing that?”
“In my years of experience, water, ice, and earth-attribute movement techniques can allow one to move freely in a swamp, but speed is always affected to some degree. How does Junior Sister Gu keep her speed completely undiminished? Could it be that the wind beneath her feet simply doesn't sink into the swamp?”
“Look! Senior Sister Wen has withdrawn the swamp.”
“After sparring for so long, Senior Sister Wen must be running low on spirit energy. Since the swamp was useless against Junior Sister Gu anyway, she chose to withdraw it.”
“Senior Sister Wen broke through to Foundation Establishment nine years ago, yet even she is running out of energy. Junior Sister Gu has been in Foundation Establishment for at most two or three years, right? How has she managed to hold out this long?”
“Top-grade spirit root, the Peak Master's progeny disciple, and the double champion of both her class's New Disciple Competition and the inner disciple promotion competition. She is not to be underestimated.”
On the stage, Gu Ningyun's spirit energy was also on the verge of depletion. But even if she had enough energy, she was reaching her absolute limit.
Although both she and Senior Sister Wen were in the early Foundation Establishment stage, in terms of finer progression, Senior Sister Wen was an established veteran at this stage, and her cultivation was actually quite a bit higher than Gu Ningyun's.
The Ten Thousand Wood Flying Blades truly lived up to its reputation as a spell capable of defeating even mid Foundation Establishment stage cultivators. The withered vine fragments were arranged according to a specific pattern, leaving no visible openings. At least, the current Gu Ningyun could not find any.
Bombarded by the fragments, she could no longer hear the voices from below. In her eyes and in her heart, there was only the sword in her hand.
Upon reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, a sword cultivator had to further refine their sword qi to develop a sword intent prototype.
Yet, at this moment, Gu Ningyun did not consciously think about the sword intent prototype at all.
She merely followed her instincts, tuning into the wind by recalling the sensation she felt when 《Wind Walk》 broke through to Small Success. Relying solely on the basic sword moves etched deep into her muscle memory, she unleashed wind-attribute sword qi to intercept the incoming fragments.
One hundred, one thousand, ten thousand strikes—she used her sword qi to construct a protective shield around herself.
But as numerous as her sword qi strikes were, the withered vine fragments of the Ten Thousand Wood Flying Blades were even more abundant. Debris constantly slipped through her defenses, striking her body.
Even though her body had been tempered by heavenly thunder, spirit spring water, and star power, she could not withstand such a relentless, shredding onslaught at the Foundation Establishment level.
Blood quickly dyed her entire body red. Summoning her final shred of spirit energy, Gu Ningyun shouted, “I admit defeat!”
The spirit energy sustaining the Ten Thousand Wood Flying Blades vanished. Deprived of control, the withered vine fragments rained down onto the ground, piling up into a half-person-high mound. Gu Ningyun stood enclosed right in the center of it.
At some point, the crowd below fell silent. Everyone stared at the stage, gazing at the blood-drenched figure who had withstood the flying blades with her bare body.
Her face pale, Wen Lin panted as she stared intently at the young girl before her, momentarily at a loss for words.
On Fighting Peak, without relying on any external aid, this was the first time a cultivator of the same stage had withstood half of her Ten Thousand Wood Flying Blades. In fact, this person was not even at the exact same level; her cultivation was slightly lower.
She pulled out a bottle of pills, her lips trembling slightly.
Before she could do anything, a red-robed female cultivator carrying a mace leaped onto the arena. She draped an outer robe over the young girl, pulled the collar tight, and scooped her out of the pile of debris.
“By the body-refining ancestors of Xiaoyao! Weren't you practicing your movement technique? How did you end up like this!”
As the red-robed female cultivator spoke, she fed the young girl a pill and cast a Cleaning Technique.
The deep, bone-revealing wounds gradually stopped bleeding and began to heal. Gu Ningyun gave Senior Sister Wen a polite nod before Wen Xuan whisked her away.
On the way back to Cloud Residence, Wen Xuan didn't stop nagging. “You're so ruthless to yourself every time you cultivate. Is someone chasing you down to kill you or something? Could it be that Gu Lianxue's inner demon still hasn't been resolved? No, that can't be. You aren't that fragile.”
“It's just some superficial flesh and bone wounds. It's not as serious as you make it sound,” Gu Ningyun said with a smile, offering a few weak excuses.
Hearing this, Wen Xuan stopped flying and scrutinized her from head to toe before letting out a long sigh. “Forget it.”
“???” Gu Ningyun's mind was filled with question marks.
Wen Xuan gave her a helpless look and continued to steer her mace forward. “I should have known. What inner demon? This is simply your true nature!”
“What do you mean! I'm just a bit diligent in my cultivation, that's all.”
Wen Xuan said nothing, merely letting out a dry chuckle.
A few moments after they departed, voices finally returned to the crowd below the fighting platform.
“She actually withstood half of Senior Sister Wen's Ten Thousand Wood Flying Blades!”
“Senior Sister Wen, do you have any spirit energy left?”
Wen Lin swallowed a Spirit-Replenishing Pill, cleared away the withered vine debris, and jumped down from the platform.
“If she hadn't admitted defeat, my remaining spirit energy would have lasted at most another half a quarter-hour.”
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