Chapter 117: The Final Rankings

The water was neither constant nor consistent.

Chen Jingzhai defended himself with the White Jade Sword as the water dragon surrounded him.

All the water-colored swords hit the water dragon head-on and slowly melted away by the water dragon.

But after a few moments, the water dragon could not take it anymore.

The Dharma Intent within the water dragon had been consumed by the sword’s will.

Although Chen Jingzhai’s Dharma Intent was not less than that of Jiang Youning’s, there were simply too many water-colored swords for him to deal with. Moreover, Jiang Youning’s sword’s will was far too unusual.

The water dragon that melted those water-colored swords quickly became ponderous and dissipated soon after.

Immediately, Chen Jingzhai turned to the Golden Flame Sword as the flames blazed around him.

“It’s useless, Little Master-Uncle!”

“The water is heavy, and burning is ineffective. Under pressure this heavy, even the flames will be overwhelmed.”

…

“More importantly, given time, your physical body will not be able to bear it.”

“And then your physical body, as well as your spiritual power, will both collapse.”

“Use the true will!” Jiang Youning said proudly.

He was already a genius talent in the Lijian lineage who had quite a high regard for himself. Ordinary peers of his in the same generation were not taken seriously by him.

He had thought that only disciples from the sword branches were his proper opponents on the battle forum.

He could never have imagined that it was the Master-Uncle who came out of nowhere and crushed so many disciples with all-out victories.

If he had not already approved of the Master-Uncle, Jiang Youning would have preferred to take him on as an opponent.

And the fact that Chen Jingzhai chose him as the final opponent delighted Jiang Youning to no end.

In his own opinion, his sword’s will was on track, and the will of the water’s might was powerful.

The only way the Little Master-Uncle could break free was to use his true will.

“It’s not time yet!” Chen Jingzhai smiled and tossed out the White Jade Sword.

The White Jade Sword turned into an ice dragon, roaming about on the Eight Trigrams Platform.

The icy air quickly permeated the surroundings, sweeping over all the water-colored swords that were floating about.

“This method is useless.”

“Each of these swords has preserved my sword’s will. Ordinary coldness cannot freeze them whatsoever,” Jiang Youning said calmly and confidently.

It was impossible to freeze his sword’s will, even if urged by Dharma Intent.

“Freeze them? You underestimated me a bit too much!”

Chen Jingzhai shook his head, then threw out the Golden Flame Sword again.

The Golden Flame Sword turned into a fire dragon, chasing the ice dragon that was transformed by the White Jade Sword.

The two dragons chased one another all over the Eight Trigrams Platform. The power of ice and fire quickly filled the air.

A smile flashed across Chen Jingzhai’s eyes.

His fingers made a quick gesture as he commanded softly, “Formation up!”

The two dragons of ice and fire quickly flew to his right and left as the two formed the Yin Yang Sword Formation.

What was different from the previous Yin Yang Sword Formation was that this time, Chen Jingzhai had also communicated with the formation patterns inside his body.

A faint pattern of Tai Chi now appeared at Chen Jingzhai’s feet.

A sharp power quickly overflowed from Chen Jingzhai’s body.

“Watch how I break you!” Chen Jingzhai smiled as he pointed with his finger.

[Psst!]

The power from the Yin Yang Sword Formation now gathered at Chen Jingzhai’s fingertips.

With this light touch from him, the mighty pressure seemed to be annihilated instantly.

Those densely packed water-colored swords in the air were quickly hit by the sword vapor that was unleashed by the pointing of the finger.

The water-colored swords where the sword’s will lingered had all been sheared off.

Moreover, Chen Jingzhai’s finger also pierced through Jiang Youning’s shoulder.

The power of the strike did not diminish but fell on the protective Restrictions of the Eight Trigrams Platform and penetrated through 24 layers of it.

“Master-Uncle?” Jiang Youning was so stunned that he could only look at Chen Jingzhai without a word.

“I took the easy way out!” Chen Jingzhai said with a smile. “This is the power of the formation.”

He did not expect that the Yin Yang patterns in his body could unleash such great power that it enhanced the force of the Yin Yang Sword Formation by quite a lot.

Especially since that sheer force hinted at the unlocking of the power of Yin and Yang.

From this perspective, the Yin Yang Formation had great potential, and he was correct in his choice.

“I lost!” Jiang Youning conceded with a bitter smile.

Whether it was a magic treasure, spells, or formations, they were all means at the disposal of cultivators.

He himself also possessed a magic treasure, and it was a sword at the level of magic treasure, no less.

But he did not use it because he could not exert its full power.

On the battle forum, losing was something plain and simple. There were no excuses that could justify failure.

“Your sword’s will is very good,” Chen Jingzhai said with a smile, “but a bit too scattered, which made it easy for flaws to show. Why don’t you concentrate on your sword’s will? A drop of water weighs a thousand mountains—this is what you should aspire to.”

“A drop of water weighs a thousand mountains?” Jiang Youning murmured to himself softly.

“The Lijian lineage had originally used water to control the sword—the water as the essence, and the sword as the form.” Chen Jingzhai nodded as he continued, “There is no need to deliberately pursue the sword’s will, especially in the Foundation Establishment Plane. You should focus on polishing the foundation at this stage. If you can polish the spiritual power in your body into rolling drops of water, your strikes will also be mellow and free, as each drop of water is a strike of sword vapor. Then, when your foundation is perfected, you will be able to reach a higher level, and there will be fewer flaws to be found during battle.”

These were all heartfelt words from Chen Jingzhai.

The Lijian lineage, in particular, was fond of fancy moves, especially the combination of swordsmanship and spells.

It also paid special attention to ranged attacks, focusing on points of strike.

Chen Jingzhai had seen the sky scriptures of Lijian. Although it was only the beginning chapters, he got a good idea of what it was about.

The Lijian lineage focused on the purity and vastness of water. If the two could not be had at the same time, it was best to take the path of specialization, as it was the only way to establish a solid foundation.

Until the Golden Core Plane was reached in the future, other things would naturally be aligned as well.

Looking at Jiang Youning, who still did not speak, Chen Jingzhai continued, “Disciple nephew Jiang need not take it to heart. It is only my opinion. I don’t know much about the Lijian lineage, and these are just my thoughts.”

“No.” Jiang Youning bowed to him. “I would like to thank Master-Uncle for the guidance.”

He walked away, and the jade token took him back to the stands.

Jiang Youning did not pay attention to anyone else but closed his eyes to ponder.

Chen Jingzhai’s words gave him a great deal of inspiration.

His sword’s will was one of a kind in the Lijian lineage. No one had been able to instruct him further.

He had been figuring it out little by little on his own.

Being able to master the entry-level sword’s will was enough to testify to his talent and natural ability to comprehend.

Chen Jingzhai’s words were not baseless, however. Vaguely, he seemed to have caught on to something.

No one bothered Jiang Youning either.

Although Jiang Youning’s shoulder still had some blood stains, the wound had actually healed.

This level of injury was nothing to be concerned with.

On the Eight Trigrams Platform, Chen Jingzhai was now being elevated to the position of first place in the battle forum.

“Little Master-Uncle, is that really the Yin Yang Formation?” Li Yifei asked a little impatiently.

“It is the Yin Yang Sword Formation.” Chen Jingzhai nodded. “I figured out a whole new Yin Yang Sword Formation after having fought with the disciples from the sword branches. The formation is no longer just to keep individuals simply in bondage but to use the formation’s power in a real way to temper the two swords, combining two very different sword vapors into one in the way of the Yin and the Yang. More precisely, it is the power that is derived purely by colliding one with the other.”

“Power derived purely by collision!” Li Yifei muttered to himself, digesting the information quickly in his head.

“Master-Uncle is genius!” Kong Guang exclaimed with emotion. “To be able to think on your feet during battle and improve the formation in the heat of the moment, this is the kind of thinking that the likes of us are incapable of. I, Kong Guang, am a believer now!”

“Indeed!” Everyone nodded in acknowledgment as well.

During the Zhengdu battle, many were still unhappy to see him present and unconvinced of his abilities.

Today, Chen Jingzhai had completely proven himself, battle after battle.

At that moment, even Lin Feiyang and Feng Liuyun had nothing to say. This was the benefit of true strength.

It was immediately effective.

Chen Jingzhai smiled and openly accepted everyone’s praise and recognition.

He had won all this rightfully, so there was no embarrassment whatsoever.

As to some of the questions asked by the disciples, he was careful to answer every one of them and allowed the disciples to discuss the topic.

However, after Chen Jingzhai left the Eight Trigrams Platform, the battles did not end.

Qiao Haisheng began to challenge the rest of the disciples.

Although Chen Jingzhai took the first place with certainty, the rest of the ranking had yet to be determined, and no one wanted to miss out on it.

Therefore, after Qiao Haisheng, Tian Feng, Shen Yurong, Wang Yao, Kong Guang, Li Yifei, Zhao Qinghe, and the others went up successively for the challenge.

It was as much for the challenges as to prove what they each had earned.

Thus, time passed by quickly.

The battles in the battle forum took a full 36 days to conclude.

Especially in the last seven or eight days, the duration of fights was getting longer and longer.

The battles between those in the Advanced Foundation Plane were often more about learning from each other than rushing to produce a winner.

It was not surprising for some battles to take anywhere between an hour and two hours.

The battle between Wang Yao and Kong Guang, in particular, took about four hours.

After all the rankings of the battle forum had been completed, everyone was sent out of the battle forum.

The battle forum closed up and disappeared where it was, leaving only the leaderboard that was composed of what seemed to be clouds and mists.

Any inner disciple who participated in the battle forum this time could find their rankings here.

There was no doubt that Daoxuan Peak was the biggest winner this time.

Not only did Chen Jingzhai, the Little Master-Uncle, become number one on the battle forum, but even Li Yifei had made great progress, improving his ranking to 12th place.

The second place went to Kong Guang, who beat out Wang Yao with superior skills.

In third place was Wang Yao.

In fourth place was Jiang Youning.

In fifth place was Qiao Haisheng.

In sixth place was Shen Yurong.

In seventh place was Zhao Qinghe.

In eighth place was Zhang Kui.

In ninth place was Tian Feng.

In tenth place was Jiang Lin.

In 11th place was Chen Fuxiao.

In 12th place was Li Yifei.

This ranking had shocked the entire Luo Sheng Sword School, which, no doubt, would gradually spread outside the celestial clan and become known by other cultivators.