Chapter Ninety-Six: Make It Up, Then Keep Making It Up

The young swordsman from the Greenwood Hall trembled as his blade burst into five blossoms at once.

Three of those sword blooms moved first to intercept Xiao Nan’s withering-flower strike, while the other two split into ten petal-like flashes, stabbing toward every part of Xiao Nan’s body.

A shrill tearing sound rang out as the air itself seemed to explode.

"I’ll pierce your clothes and strip you naked," he sneered. "Let’s see if you can still look handsome when you’re standing here bare-assed in front of so many female students."

To be fair, as the top elite student of the hall, he did know how far to go.

Even though he was furious enough to spit blood, he had no intention of truly crippling his opponent.

After all, however obnoxious the other party might be, he was still a student here to learn the sword. It would not do to go too far.

A little humiliation would be enough.

If that also happened to swell his face black and blue, all the better.

He was still savoring the thought when his sword had barely left the scabbard and he froze.

He discovered that the long sword in his hand had been caught up by an inexplicable current of force, involuntarily veering to one side.

He had thrust out five blossoms, twenty-five sword strikes in all, and every one of them felt as though it had plunged into a whirlpool.

There were downstream currents, upstream currents, entangling forces, and even scattered traces of a soft, hidden power that shattered the sword’s intent and prevented him from gathering his strength into one.

The blade wavered wildly, shaking like a seizure.

What withered-flower strike? What thunder-sword true intent?

All of it was gone.

The move was no longer a move, the sword no longer a sword.

It was exactly like a child waving a fire-poker.

Light flashed before his eyes, and the three unhurried sword blossoms that had come stabbing in were already at his chest.

With a sharp sound, they tore through his sword robe.

He was horrified and hurriedly retreated, but it was already a little too late. His clothes were slit open by a long gash from the sword edge.

How could this be?

Nearly wounded by a single strike, he was shaken to the core.

As expected of an elite student, he had plenty of combat experience with the sword.

The moment things looked bad, he slid away like a foot on a melon rind and dashed to the edge of the platform, evading the pursuing sword force.

Of course, that was also because Xiao Nan had no intention of pursuing him.

“Ha ha...”

“So this is all an elite student amounts to. That’s ugly.”

“I told you, Senior Xiao is the best. As soon as he stepped up, that Brother Jiang got scared and started flailing his sword around.”

Those were the comments of the people who hadn’t understood.

Indeed, to the surrounding students, the scene was somewhat bizarre.

Xiao Nan thrust out his sword blossoms; Jiang Lin followed with a counterattack, the momentum even fiercer than before.

What came next was almost funny.

The moment the two sword edges met, Brother Jiang’s nerve seemed to drain away first.

It was as if he believed his opponent’s sword blossoms were some monstrous flood and beast; instead of blocking, he kept shaking the sword in his hand about in wild disorder.

Like a frightened child.

Had he grown timid?

Or was he ashamed of his inferiority and afraid to exchange blows?

Laughter rippled all around.

Instructor Yang was in charge of commentary, but even he did not know what to say.

He had not understood it either.

As an instructor, it was only a job.

In truth, he had merely practiced the sword forms until they were familiar, without truly comprehending the deeper intent of the sword. Being able to execute the techniques correctly and without error was enough.

For day-to-day teaching, that level was basically sufficient.

True elite students had to be personally trained by the head instructor.

“Just now, when the two of them faced each other with their swords, Student Xiao Nan struck first, while Student Jiang Lin responded afterward; both used attacking moves.

“In such a situation, things are usually extremely dangerous. Victory depends on who is faster and whose sword force is stronger.

“Student Jiang Lin’s sudden retreat should have been because he did not wish to injure Student Xiao Nan...

“After all, this is a teaching demonstration, and I do not recommend using such an all-attack, no-defense style of swordsmanship.”

After much effort, Instructor Yang managed to squeeze out a whole explanation, speaking himself into a sweat and exhaustion.

He suddenly realized that commentary was hard labor.

Xiao Nan looked at him with a faint smile that was almost not a smile. He was utterly speechless.

The Four Seasons Sword was originally an excellent sword art, profound in essence and far-reaching in meaning.

Unfortunately, this branch hall in Yuanjiang City was not much to speak of.

Not only were the students mediocre, but the instructors’ standards were also rather half-hearted.

“Is that so?” Zhang Xiaorou said, thoroughly bewildered.

“Pah, it’s obvious that that ugly senior brother was beaten so badly by Senior Xiao he dropped his helmet and armor. The instructor is just talking nonsense.”

“That’s right, that’s right. Senior Xiao simply didn’t want to hurt him, that’s why he didn’t chase after him. And he’s supposed to be teaching swordsmanship? Isn’t it embarrassing to be beaten like this?”

“I told you Senior Xiao was the best, didn’t I? I was right, wasn’t I?”

The girls chattered on and on, sitting dead straight in their seats.

The whole place sounded like it had been filled with thousands of ducks.

“Want to continue?” Xiao Nan said lightly as he spun a sword blossom.

His tone carried a trace of mockery, but inwardly he was thinking: You can’t hold back any longer, can you? Hurry up and use the thunder sword. Aren’t you good at that?

To observe a person, one must first observe the intent in his sword.

With his formidable spiritual strength and the bronze mirror he carried, which could illuminate every minute detail, Xiao Nan had long since seen through this elite student: what he truly excelled at was the true intent of thunder.

Every one of his strikes carried a powerful personal imprint.

“Again.”

Having been mocked by the female students and then dismissed and challenged so lightly by Xiao Nan, Jiang Lin’s face flushed crimson. He could no longer care about anything else.

He swung his long sword, stamped heavily with one foot, and with a boom, the ground trembled slightly.

The velvet carpet beneath his foot was torn open by a long rip at once.

His figure shot forward, and another five-flower blossom thrust out.

This time, as the sword edge trembled, a streak of sword light flared with blinding brilliance.

With a hiss, it stabbed straight toward Xiao Nan’s chest.

“So fast.”

All sound fell silent.

Everyone watched wide-eyed as that flash of thunder suddenly leapt from within the twenty-five petals of the five blossoms.

“Good.”

Xiao Nan was overjoyed.

The fellow across from him was far too proud and far too small-minded; he truly could not endure provocation.

The three sword blossoms circled around him, and the invisible curtain of sword force was broken through layer by layer by that streak of thunder light. Fiery, explosive intent burned into his heart.

He withdrew his focus and, while still responding with his sword, carefully recorded every motion Jiang Lin made, every tremor of muscle, every change in breath, every surge of blood and qi, down to the smallest detail.

Then he analyzed it and unraveled it.

He would learn as much as he could in this moment. If he did not master it completely, he could still enter the inner space and spend energy battling an image of it to study further. In any case, this move was already within his grasp.

Once the goal was achieved, he intended to retreat, avoid the edge of this sword attack, and say a few casual words just to go through the motions.

Indeed, the power of the summer thunder sword was far above that of the three spring swords.

Even the spring true intent he had comprehended himself had its three layers of sword curtain broken through two of them...

Compared with Jiang Lin’s earlier withering-flower strike, which had failed even to shake a single layer of his own sword barrier, this thunder sword was truly extraordinary.

He was admiring it inwardly when he suddenly realized Jiang Lin was nearly driven mad.

“No, impossible, impossible! My berserk thunder sword actually cannot break through the defense of withering flowers? Using the same force, the same Four Seasons Sword, how can this be happening?”

Disbelieving, he struck again, then again, his face purple with strain.

Unknowingly, he had even begun using the strength of a first-rank martial artist.

As a mid-stage first-rank martial artist, although he had not yet reached the level of flesh and skin sealing the pass, his strength was still over thirteen hundred jin.

With the berserk thunder sword added on top, he could amplify his sword force by a full third and unleash eighteen hundred jin of power.

By his own estimation, even against the bloodthirsty wolves of the ten-li grasslands, he could pierce straight through them with a single strike.

Yet he never imagined he still could not break the three leisurely sword blossoms that the other side had sent out.

“Good, keep going,” Xiao Nan said with a smile.

The other side was stabbing wildly, one sword after another, the sword light dazzling, the feeling of explosive force echoing in his chest.

The three layers of light curtain were pressed thinner and thinner, until only the last thread of vital energy remained to hold them back.

Just as it seemed they would be broken through, his heart suddenly shook.

Within the spring-character three-sword technique in his hand, amid boundless life force, a trace of restlessness was born.

Boom.

His vital energy trembled, and his sword force suddenly leapt.

His blood and qi surged, and from the deepest part of his spirit there arose an irresistible urge to speak, to burst forth.

It was like a bug that had been hidden underground, hibernating through an entire cold winter, suddenly awakened by a great crash. It was desperate to crawl up from the earth and display its claws and fangs.

That impulse grew harder and harder to restrain, then suddenly blossomed into full bloom.

A huge sword blossom rose beside Xiao Nan.

Within that sword blossom too, a streak of lightning appeared.

Thunderlight was born from boundless vitality, and with a crackling hiss, white brilliance blazed.

Everyone felt a wave of scorching heat, and their skin grew faintly numb.

“Awakening of hibernating dragons and snakes, with all grass and trees reduced to ash.”

Xiao Nan instantly understood the true intent of this move.

He had actually deduced a thunder sword on his own...

Not only does summer have thunder; spring has thunder too.

As he laughed out loud, his sword flashed with radiant color, and Jiang Lin’s sword snapped as his body flew backward.

Jiang Lin’s face was filled with disbelief. His body was blackened in some places and bruised blue in others, and every strand of hair stood straight up.

He tumbled off the stage and rolled several times.

...

Silence fell all around. No one had expected the scene to end this way.

Instructor Yang stood there with a blank face. Fine, this time he could not even make up an explanation.

Zhang Xiaorou had been a little worried at first, but when she saw Jiang Lin attacking with sword after sword in such a fierce, man-eating fashion, even she and the girls around her no longer dared to cheer.

And then...