Chapter 2173 - Shhh
Lin Xiaogui heard all of the murmurs and her confidence ballooned! Lin Jianjia had already been doing rather badly, and Lin Xiaogui's interference only made her even more distraught.
"Lin Xiaogui, have you gotten sick of living? I'll get someone to kill you once we’re out of here if you don't stop!" Lin Jianjia shot her a fierce glare, though she spoke in the softest volume she could muster, only barely mouthing her words. She knew that Lin Xiaogui could recognize every word she was saying.
When they were still children, whenever Lin Jianjia raised her foot, Lin Xiaogui would crawl toward her to serve as her footrest. But this time, every word she heard coming from Lin Jianjia's mouth only further enraged her. Many dark red scales appeared on Lin Xiaogui's body, covering her arms, thighs, and torso. Her tail grew to tens of meters long and moved about like a venomous snake, attacking in tandem with her wavy snake-like sword.
"You dirty mixed-blood bitch! You're a mutation!" Lin Jianjia's rage burned even brighter. She flicked her wrist and sent her sword piercing toward Lin Xiaogui like a beam of light.
Nine metallic whip-like tails sprouted from Lin Xiaogui's back out of nowhere! The tails anchored her onto the ancestral guidance stele, giving her even more flexibility and speed and allowing her to intensify her sword strikes! Never before had she shown this fighting style of hers. She didn't say a single word, merely directed her attacks in her adversary's way. From time to time, her sharp tails also joined in the flurry of strikes.
"Get out of my sight!" Lin Jianjia used Hour Strike, a fullstella battle art. Yet little did she expect that Lin Xiaogui would be as fast as she was. Her strikes were so rapid that her sword felt like a devious snake, attacking from all kinds of unexpected angles! Before Lin Jianjia's Hour Strike could properly be unleashed, she had been pressured back into a corner by the countless piercing tails.
"Aaaagh!" She managed to block three tails, but the fourth slipped through her defenses. A bloody squelch was heard, followed by a scream as Lin Jianjia was nailed to the stele.
"Lin! Xiao! Gui!" she howled, raising her sword with the intent to kill. She had completely lost face from her performance that day. Yet Lin Xiaogui simply ignored her cries, using her remaining eight tails to launch a barrage of thrusts Lin Jianjia's way. Even more sounds of flesh being pierced sang out, almost rhythmically punctuated by the poor girl's shrieks. The pain was like nothing she had ever felt before, thanks to the fine thorns and hooks all over the tails! More and more tails firmly pinned her down, and the more she struggled, the more it hurt.
"Aaaaaaagh!" Tears and blood flowed nonstop and the pain made her mind go completely blank. She couldn't stand that she had so utterly lost on both fronts! It was already horrid to be outdone by a hundred-year-old trash in mastering the sword art, but to think that she would be defeated by one she considered her plaything! Not only that, she had been nailed to the stele in a most humiliating fashion, not being able to fight back in the slightest!
What was even more terrifying was the notion of how the seniors would react after word of who inherited the legacy of the Grandvoid Swordfiend spread. It had been her greatest chance to shine, yet all that awaited her was a harsh fall from the heights she had climbed to, and much of it was of her own doing. If she hadn’t bothered Tianming, she wouldn't have been crushed in a fight with Lin Xiaogui.
"You’re dead!" she yelled, glaring at Lin Xiaogui. Her body and soul shuddered at the thought of what she would have to face once this was all over, but the other girl didn't move in the slightest. Lin Xiaogui now shared nothing in common with Lin Jianjia.
Once the defeated girl was nailed down like a beast, clarity returned to Lin Xiaogui's eyes. Her mental state had completely transformed. As Lin Jianjia began running her mouth again, Lin Xiaogui used one of her tails to wrap around it like a gag, muffling the raging screams while she merely smiled. Nobody but her knew how significant this moment was to her.
"Shhhhh," Lin Xiaogui said with a finger to her lip, pointing at Tianming. Despite the simple gesture, it was the biggest humiliation Lin Jianjia could suffer. The audacity of asking her to stay quiet and not move while she watched Tianming take the legacy under the eyes of all her seniors was stunning.
Lin Jianjia tried struggling again, but to no avail; she had been thoroughly bound. Lin Xiaogui's mixed bloodline sometimes had its uses, as the tails demonstrated. She had to thank Tianming for the chance to show off her abilities, too. Had she not heard what he’d said, she would have still been struggling. She looked at him again, only to get praised in return.
When it was all over, Tianming said, "Damn, thankfully I was smart enough to only ask to arm wrestle you back then. If we’d really fought, you would've crushed and bound me. A man like me can't allow myself to be bound to a single girl, you know."
Lin Xiaogui was absolutely speechless. How could he still flirt in a situation like this?! "How many more layers are left?"
"Three more. Wait and watch the miracle happen," Tianming said. He knew without a doubt that the atmosphere in the Swordsoul Chamber would be incredibly tense. Lin Jianjia had boasted too much before everything had turned out the way it did. Not only had she lost the fight, but her words before it had also thoroughly humiliated her and damaged her character. Only one thing remained to be settled with the ancestral guidance stele. There was no question that Tianming would be able to break through the final three layers with three entire days remaining.
He didn't give them any chance to imagine what could happen, either.
"Three...."
"Two...."
"One...."
"Whoa! I managed to unlock it!" The Myriadfold Swordbarrier had been broken through! The entire ancestral guidance stele shook and decelerated, coming to a quick stop. Then it shrank from the size of a sword-shaped island to a palm-sized, black sword covered in sword patterns before assimilating into the flesh of his left hand. It was clear to see that Tianming had obtained the recognition of the Grandvoid Swordfiend and obtained the first strike of the Grandvoid Compendium, which would make the following strikes much easier.
"That felt great."
The hundreds of thousands of seniors in Swordsoul Chamber looked at the white-haired youth without making a single sound.
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Dongshen Yue 'laughed'.
"Apologies for my grandson's lackluster performance.... He should've done more than that," Lin Xiao added. Apart from those two, most people in the chamber were completely frozen.
Tianming looked at his bracelet, or rather at the people watching him through the bracelet's projection, and placed his middle finger on his lips.
"Shhhh."