Chapter 291: Follow The Genius' Steps
Lily's features and appearance weren't consistent with an average person.
Her hair looked softer, and there was a fresh and young aura about her with a cropped beveled fringe.
Under those soft thin locks of hair resided her white and delicate face. With all parts of her face exactly matching with each other, she was highly attractive and beautiful. Right now, her pretty face was expressionless. But it could be imagined just how charming she would be if she started smiling.
Her costume was completely different from what was usually worn in the Eastern Region. Even the Central Region wouldn't have been bold enough like her. Unlike the conservative style of women across those regions, her dress style was much more open and bolder. For example, the upper armor she wore only covered her upper chest, showing her good figure and shape. Her bare waist looked even more slender under the armor she wore. Her long and slender legs were also visible in the short dress she wore. Even though her height was similar to that of Zen, she looked taller because of the differing ratios of their figures and her slender legs.
It had to be said that Lily, with her amazing figure and remarkable face, had perfectly copied the appearance of that lady from the Demon Night. She looked vividly beautiful even with her stiff expression. Almost every single member of the audience was baffled by her good looks and sudden appearance. Instead of trying to venture a guess to the identity of this beautiful lady, they were confused about from where this lady had come from.
There were also several spectators who were following the competition from outside the arena. For example, in Lady Peak, a large picture slab had been kept in the center of the hall.
Normally, the female disciples of Cloud Sect were more fastidious about their environment than male disciples. An example of it could be seen at Drizzle Peak where the disciples had just put the Picture Slab on the muster station. The muster station was full of dust, but they didn't mind and were now around the Slab to see the direct broadcast of the competition.
On the contrary, the female disciples of Lady Peak had cleaned the hall and put pieces of cushions around the Picture Slab. They had also prepared many snacks, such as spiced nuts, green tea melon seeds, and so on to enjoy along with the fight. It was almost as if movie night was going on. All the disciples were sitting around the slab, gossiping and eating as they enjoyed the All Peaks Competition.
Among them, Nina was leaning on a cushion and her eyes were closely following Zen's figure. Sometimes, she would sit straight when Zen's rivals were strong. Her only focus was Zen and she had watched all his competitions.
Some of her close friends knew clearly what was going on in her mind. Therefore, at the beginning, they had made jokes at her, “See! Our, oh sorry, HER dear Zen wins again!”
Even though Nina had pretended to be angry at the jokes, she had actually felt warm and happy and was blushing in her heart. The thinking of young girls was sometimes just simple and direct.
However, with the rapid rise of Zen's rank in the All Peaks Competition and his unexpected performance, he had attracted the attentions of the entire Cloud Sect, including most of the female disciples. Some special meanings had added themselves to their eyesight or rather, their gazes. Obviously, all the young ladies wanted to love and be loved. The meteoric rise meant that Zen's status was constantly rising in the eyes of those female disciples.
A character like Zen was sure to have brilliant future!
Because of this change, Nina's friends had stopped making jokes about Zen and her and focused on the competition now.
The world of martial artists might sometimes be very warm, but most of the time, its occupants were snobbish and realistic. Both Nina's appearance and family background could have been easily ranked as top level in the whole Eastern Region. Many people had adored her as an unreachable goddess. They had not even dared to dream of dating her simply because of the big gap between their normal life and this goddess' life.
In that way, one could even consider Nina and Zen the perfect match. One had a beautiful appearance and a notable family background, while the other was a gifted, brilliant, and talented disciple. However, since Zen was not from a noble clan, it would have seemed that he was inferior to Nina.
But with Zen's good performance in the All Peaks Competition, the situation was changing.
Zen had showed some excellent talents so far, and he definitely would not stay in the Eastern Region forever. It was natural that he would seek for better opportunities out of the area and travel around, which would let him show off his strength in a bigger world. The Eastern Region was too small. At this moment, Zen was easily qualified, or even exceeded the qualifications required to marry the princess of the Burning Sky Empire.
With a similar thought tossing and turning in her mind, Nina was having mixed reactions to Zen's outstanding performance. On one hand, she felt happy for Zen. And on the other, she felt a loss in her heart.
The first time she had seen Zen, she had carefully maintained her sense of superiority and pride before Zen, staying at a minimum distance. But this young man had grown rapidly. Such a fast growth rate had made her breathless and at the same time, made her feel that the distance between them was getting broader and broader.
Deeply indulged in these complex feelings and thoughts, there was a little lapse in her concentration right in the middle of the competition and she lost track. When she regained her consciousness, she suddenly found that a beautiful girl was standing beside Zen. She felt even more depressed now.
'Who is that girl? How could she suddenly appear and why is she standing by Zen?' Nina had many questions to ask, but it was obvious that none of the people around her could answer those.
She was not the only one to have such inquiries.
Actually, almost no one could understand what was going on and wanted to ask, 'Who on earth is that girl? How could she appear like a ghost out of nowhere without any sound and sign?'
Even some saints who were present could not understand what had happened!
“Sword spirit! A sword spirit with a body! Elder Xu, don't tell me that Zen has just obtained this sword spirit! And don't say that this sword spirit is a newly formed one!” Kenneth murmured, with his eyes fixed upon the girl in the arena.
Hearing the remarks from Kenneth, Elder Xu felt speechless and depressed. He didn't know what to say and therefore, did not respond directly. However, he also complained in his heart, 'What else can I tell you? Can't you see everything clearly by yourself? You also know that a swordsman needs to comprehend the sword intent completely before he can condense his sword spirit. And it normally takes years of time for the sword spirit to be condensed into a human shape. And only remarkably amazing swordsmen with extreme talents can do that after years of training. Some swordsmen in the past could not condense their sword spirits even though they have completely mastered the sword intent.' Apart from Elder Xu's arguments, one's destiny also played a big role.
But Zen's destiny was obviously too good! Even Elder Xu felt jealous in his heart. Normally, with his powerful strength and temperament as a high-level refiner, he could have dealt with any unexpected case in front of him calmly. Someone had even joked that he would not have blinked his eyes even when the mountains fell down. But this time, Elder Xu could not maintain his calmness. Such a supreme talent and luck had made nearly everyone feel jealous.
Even someone as calm as Patrick also felt surprised to see Zen's progress. His eyes sparkled and when he saw the sword spirit, he sprang out of his meditation. Normally, the essential condition of cultivating Buddhist method was to stay calm and hold an even temper. Patrick had a very fine temper and could be considered an outstanding Buddhist refiner. However, he could not keep his usual calm nature at this moment.
His story just now was like a monk who had chanted sutras all day long and lived a regular life. He would wake up in the morning with the sound of the bell in his temple and end his day after hearing the pounding of the drums. He would care the least about the wealth, relationship and love in the world. Buddhism was his whole life. He was sincere in his prayers and hoped that one day he could inherit Buddhism. But one day, his quiet life was broken. A small monk had come to the temple and it had not taken him long time to come across Buddha and receive the inheritance from Buddha.
So, on encountering this kind of thing, Patrick could only laugh bitterly and at the same time, secretly scolded in his heart, 'Idiot! This is unfair.'
Besides, Tracy was also pestering Patrick, continuously barraging him with questions, “Patrick, what on earth is that? I feel that she is not a real human! How could this woman appear so suddenly?”
Owing to her divine legendary beast blood, Tracy's instinct was sensing that Lily wasn't human and might be special. She could identify that Lily was not a real human, but she could not know what Lily actually was.
“That is a sword spirit!” Patrick was getting a little impatient by her nonstop inquiries and told her directly.
“Oh, really?” Sensing his impatient mood, Tracy pouted her lips. She did not know why Patrick was unhappy. How could he be unhappy? The sword spirit was not a special thing that they had never heard of before. How could it make Patrick's temper short? Hmmm!
Back inside the fighting field, Rocher had just condensed his own Extreme Thunder Sword Intent and had been very proud of that. But when he saw the appearance of Zen's sword spirit, he could not help it and a shiver ran across his whole body. People who did not know exactly what had happened to him would have thought that he had received an electric shock by his own thunder.
Then he just forced a weak smile on his face. That was a very, very bitter smile. He shook his head and remarked weakly, “I thought it was very lucky for me to meditate and form the thunder intent in the Sword Washing Pool, which let me combine it to my sword intent. After all, the famous Sword Washing Pool is an area where no one from the Eastern Region has ever been lucky enough to be allowed to enter for thousands of years. I was really happy and proud to come across this lucky chance. But I have never thought that you were able to condense your sword spirit and even form a human-shape out of it!” Rocher took a deep breath to calm himself down after this long speech.
His words cast a light to most of the disciples. Only after his explanation did they actually understand what had happened inside the arena.
“Sword spirit! That woman beside Zen is his sword spirit! Is that true? I cannot believe my ears!”
“But that is totally, utterly, impossible. I remember reading in a book of sword refinement. There were some records about the sword spirit in there. It said that after reaching the consummate sword intent, the sword refiner could form his sword spirit. But it can take at least three to five years if everything goes smoothly. And moreover, it can often take up to dozens of years to form it into human shape. Some sword refiners never get to form their sword spirit even after they have got the consummate sword intent!”
“Are you kidding? Is your book about some false refining method? Zen just meditated the consummate sword intent for a couple of hours, and now, you can see that he has a sword spirit by his side!”
“I don't know yet. That is the record in the book. I suppose, the record would not be wrong. I think what happened is that Zen has refreshed the record in the book. He might even have broken it and set a new one!”
No wonder that they were all so confused. Zen had directly transformed his sword spirit into a human-shaped one, which had shocked even the cyan dragon in his mind. The cyan dragon had lived for a long time. So long that no one knew exactly how old the cyan dragon was. In his eons of life span, the dragon had witnessed so many outstanding refiners or special events but had never seen someone condensing his spirit so fast into human shape. If even the dragon was stunned, it would clearly be even harder for the people of the Eastern Region to accept the fact that Zen had condensed the sword spirit and then formed a human shape from it in only a few hours. So, Zen had really broken the record in the book.
“Zen, the place where I practiced the consummate sword intent is Sword Washing Pool, which is a semi-sacred region. Would you mind telling me where you have been? What did you experience there?” Rocher asked out his doubts and then added hastily, “It would be fine if you think that is confidential.”
Zen shook his head. In his mind, there was nothing confidential regarding the place where he had got the consummate sword intent. He answered directly, “A mountain. It is called the Killing Sword Mountain.”
“Killing Sword Mountain!” Rocher's eyes narrowed into slits in shock.
The Sword Washing Pool could only be considered as a semi-sacred site. There were a lot of sacred sites much above the Sword Washing Pool. As far as Rocher could remember, the Killing Sword Mountain, the Tidal Sword Tomb and the Heavenly Sword Tablet were the top three sacred sites for practicing sword skills.
If he could choose, he would have most likely selected the Heavenly Sword Tablet, which was the best fit for his Heavenly Sword cultivation method. He would have been able to gain more if he had practiced his sword intent there. However, he did not have a choice. It all depended on his fate. It was always sacred sites which chose a person, and not the other way around. He, Rocher, was not qualified at all!
“You are too strong, Zen. I thought that I might not be as strong as Patrick before, but I always believe that I could catch up with him one day. But you, Zen, you are the first person whom I don't have the confidence that I can catch up with.” Rocher murmured, with a sad look in his face. “However,” he kept speaking, “there are too many talents in this world. The number is too big for me to imagine. Maybe I can be considered a genius in the Eastern Region but nothing in the Central Region! But I want to catch up with you. Even if I cannot keep pace with you, my efforts will help me achieve more progress!”
If he could not catch up with a genius, then he would probably follow the genius' steps closely.
It was not hard to figure out that Rocher had a good temperament. At least, he was not driven mad by jealousy and had not generated a private demon in his heart, which would have definitely blocked his road of refinement.
“Therefore, even though I know it is hard for me to win, I still want to continue our fight! I will insist on my sword refinement and will never give up!” After saying that, he raised his Blood-corroding Sword. He summoned his life vitality to drive the thunder and lightning flow around his sword and displayed the consummate sword intent. In this way, he stabbed at Zen.