Chapter 7 – I Just Want to Win
Having her own senior brother protecting her, nobody else could say a thing!
Song Zhen looked at her fifth senior brother with a face full of emotion. Sure enough, family protects family—how touching!
The others: …You two are really something else, huh?
And then there’s Ji Fan—aren’t you the one always going on about all that “noble love duel” stuff? If you’ve got the guts, why don’t you go up yourself?
“Alright then, Junior Sister Song, you’ll team up with me,” finally said the senior brother who was teaching them, stepping forward.
There was no choice—no one else was willing to step up. Most of them were at roughly the same cultivation level, just barely reaching the Qi Refining stage, while he had at least reached the Foundation Establishment stage.
Even though Junior Sister Song’s swordsmanship was a little… unconventional, she had only just started drawing in her internal energy. The others, for all their courage, were just too timid.
Seeing someone step up, everyone else breathed a collective sigh of relief. It wasn’t fear—they could handle normal injuries—but being injured by Song Zhen’s attacks? That would be humiliating!
Right hand wields the sword, left hand grabs the groin, tickles the armpit, pokes the nose…
The right-hand sword technique alone was tricky enough; with her left hand adding all those antics, who could withstand it?
And these guys had only just reached the Qi Refining stage; their sword skills weren’t even as polished as Song Zhen’s. They only had the advantage of being a little earlier in practice, and her talent probably far outshone theirs.
At this moment, Song Zhen was thrilled. For a junior disciple who had just started drawing in internal energy, defeating a Foundation Establishment senior brother? That would definitely make her famous!
Originally, she thought she would first have to defeat her peers, but now she could skip a level entirely—perfect!
“I accept, Senior Brother Bi. I respectfully request your guidance in this duel!” Song Zhen swung her wooden sword in a perfect, elegant flourish, her posture looking effortlessly graceful.
Ji Fan stood beside her, head held high with pride, watching his junior sister’s stance. Maybe… just maybe, a surprise was about to happen.
When it came to sword practice, she practiced seriously; in a real duel, she would be deadly serious.
The others exchanged uneasy glances at Senior Brother Bi.
One whispered, “Logically, we should be more worried about Junior Sister Song, but… I don’t know why, but I’m more worried about Senior Brother Bi.”
They nodded in agreement, unsure whether it was just their imagination.
Song Zhen and Senior Brother Bi bowed to each other, then assumed their stances.
This duel was only about swordsmanship, so Senior Brother Bi had plenty of restrictions.
Song Zhen struck first. Her wooden sword shot straight toward Senior Brother Bi’s face. He blocked—but in the next moment, Song Zhen vanished.
What?! How did she move so fast?!
Senior Brother Bi spun, instinctively raising his sword for a swing, but Song Zhen just chuckled. With her right hand holding the sword to block, her left hand shot straight toward his armpit.
“Hahaha! Junior Sister, that’s not fair!” Senior Brother Bi couldn’t help but weaken his grip. It wasn’t that he was weak—it was just that Song Zhen’s movements were far too fast. Had she been slower, he definitely could have blocked her.
But he recovered quickly, though Song Zhen’s next moves became even more cunning and fast.
Her heart was soaring with joy—teleportation really was incredibly useful. She hadn’t even pushed this technique to its limit yet; she was just slightly increasing her speed, enough to be subtle but still effective.
‘All martial arts under heaven can be defeated by speed’—this saying holds true in the cultivation world as well, hahaha!
In the next move, as Senior Brother Bi opened his mouth, Song Zhen quickly jabbed her fingers at his throat.
Hehehe… here she comes again.
“Ugh!”
Senior Brother Bi rolled his eyes and nearly vomited. This time he completely surrendered.
“I give up, I give up! Who even does this… ugh!”
Her speed was just too much—he couldn’t react in time to block her moves.
The surrounding spectators’ jaws dropped. W-wait… C-Can it really be done like this?!
Ji Fan had already buried his entire face in his sleeve—how embarrassing!
Even though she won, why was it so embarrassing? Scratching someone’s armpits, poking at their throat—how on earth is she this good?!
So basically, whatever you practice normally, you just use it in battle, huh? Looks like all that training wasn’t wasted at all!
He doesn’t know Song Zhen at all—he doesn’t have a little junior sister! His Master only has five disciples!
Seeing the stunned expressions around her, Song Zhen beamed and performed a polite bow and said modestly, “Thank you, thank you! All thanks to Senior Brother Bi for going easy on me.”
Next to her, Senior Brother Bi almost rolled his eyes to the ceiling—everyone else practices swordsmanship (jian), and she… practices shamelessness (jian). Absolutely unbelievable.
Normally, this person was already bizarre when practicing swordsmanship, but it became even more bizarre in actual combat….
The others, looking at the sky and looking at the ground, couldn’t help but silently feel relieved that they hadn’t chosen to spar with Song Zhen just now.
They definitely didn’t want to get their armpits tickled or their throats poked.
“Isn’t anyone going to congratulate me? I won, you know!” Song Zhen glanced at everyone, noticing their muted reactions.
“Hahaha, congratulations! We were just too shocked to react!”
“Yes, Junior Sister, defeating Senior Brother Bi… truly, the new generation surpasses the old!”
“Junior Sister’s talent is remarkable—no wonder she’s the sect master’s final disciple!”
Song Zhen smiled brightly and glanced at her senior brother.
Ji Fan… couldn’t quite bring himself to voice the praise, but he couldn’t dampen his junior sister’s spirits either. After all, this was her first duel, and the result was excellent.
After a moment’s struggling, Ji Fan finally relented. “Junior Sister, well done. Though… it would be even better if you were a little more ‘gentlemanly.’”
That sentence voiced exactly what everyone was thinking. No kidding! Those moves were just way too underhanded.
Their sect’s sword style was famous for elegance and grace—how did it suddenly mutate? And the sect master’s direct disciple was leading the charge!
Song Zhen waved her hand casually. “Why be gentlemanly? The point is to win. If we fight the demon sect, would we act like gentlemen? Practice should always be treated as real combat—so we can perform at our best when it really counts.”
“You guys are too gentlemanly. Learn from me—strength is what matters. Sword cultivators shouldn’t be too straightforward, or we’ll end up losing out.”
“From what I’ve heard, you’ve suffered plenty of losses. Learn from me, develop a little cunning. With your personality, when will our sect ever become the greatest?”
Indeed, the straightforwardness of sword cultivators was a disadvantage. Song Zhen had been here long enough to understand the situation: every sect wanted to be number one, but other sects were just as strong and far more cunning. Compared to them, the path for the Mystic Cloud Sect to become the top sect wasn’t easy.
Hearing her words, the others began to reflect… and she was right.
In cultivation, strength always comes first.
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