“Yes!” Wang Jiandong nodded as he took Liu Lujie’s card and walked up to the receptionist.
There were many others who had been provoked by Zhang Xuan’s words. They quickly took out their Sword Pavilion Coins and placed them in the hands of the receptionist. This way, even if they were killed, they would be able to complete the bet.
“That fellow is really asking for it…”
Upon seeing this sight, Zhu Yanzhi and Wei Suifeng were so exhilarated that they could have exploded from glee.
The reason they had taken Liu Lujie and Wang Jiandong there was incredibly simple. They wanted to borrow their strength to teach the other party a lesson, as well as to force the other party into revealing his identity so that they could coerce him into returning the money that they had lost. Who could have known that the other party would make such an audacious move? Did he think that he could singlehandedly defeat all the inner disciples there?
He must have gone mad!
It was undeniable that the other party was powerful, but as the saying went, ‘it’s hard for two hands to cope with four hands’… Furthermore, there were over a thousand hands there!
Even if that fellow doesn’t display his ultimate technique, there’s no way he’ll be a match for everyone here. There’s no doubt that he’ll be severely punished by the sect for his preposterous actions…
With such a thought in mind, the two of them felt a lot more balanced inside.
They had initially been rather furious at having their money taken away just like that, but just imagining the pathetic plight that awaited that conceited brat quelled their anger completely.
“That fellow might be formidable, but it’s a pity that he has a loose screw in his head!”
“How could a person possibly defeat so many people at once? He must be bonkers!”
“Nevertheless, regardless of the outcome of this battle, his name will probably resound across the entire sect after this…”
…
Most of the disciples were infuriated by Zhang Xuan’s provocations, but there were a few who admired his courage.
At the very least, there was no one in the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion who had dared make such an audacious challenge for the past few centuries.
“Who wants to come first?”
Paying no heed to the discussions from the crowd, Zhang Xuan leaped into the dueling ring before looking at the crowd all around him, as if challenging them to take him on.
If he had known that he could challenge everyone and take all their wealth, he would have long made such a move. He would not have wasted ten minutes hesitating over what he should do.
“What arrogance… I can’t take it anymore. I’ll kill him!”
Unable to take it anymore, an inner disciple leaped into the dueling ring.
“I am Wu Feng. In the previous Inner Disciple Tournament, I was ranked 157th. I might not be the strongest among the inner disciples, but I won’t allow the likes of you to insult me!”
Unleashing a ferocious roar filled with killing intent, the inner disciple drove his sword toward I Am Low Profile.
Since the other party had made such a bold claim, it was likely that he had the strength to back his words up. Wu Feng instinctively felt that he would not be a match for the other party… but so what? Even if he died there, he would not allow himself to be insulted in such a manner!
Hula!
In the blink of an eye, he had already launched eighteen consecutive slashes, and each of them was faster than the last!
Sword Art: Eighteen Curvatures of the Mountain Route!
This was his strongest battle technique, and it was with this sword art that he had defeated many opponents on this dueling ring.
His execution of the technique was smooth and refined, and sword qi flowed out from the edge of his blade like flowing water.
“Show your move!” Wu Feng roared ferociously as he wrapped his sword qi around his body.
“Show my move?” Zhang Xuan shook his head with a light smile. “I’ve already made my move.”
“You have already made your move?” Wu Feng was stunned.
It was only at that moment that he felt a sharp pain intensifying on his throat. He tried to lower his head, but fresh blood suddenly spurted forth like a fountain.
Padah!
His head fell to the ground.
“How is this possible?”
Those were the last words murmured weakly from Wu Feng’s mouth before his body dissipated into fragments of light.
He had put up an absolute defense, but the other party had still managed to lop off his head without him noticing. How was that possible?
The crowd was also flabbergasted.
They had thought I Am Low Profile too arrogant for challenging them all at once, but from the looks of it, it seemed like his arrogance was not unfounded!
Even though their eyes had been on the dueling ring, no one actually saw how I Am Low Profile managed to lop Wu Feng’s head off!
“Remarkable!”
“But so what if he’s powerful? Even if we go at him one at a time, it’s just a matter of time before he runs out of zhenqi!”
“Indeed! There’s no need to be afraid of him. We’ll only lose an Ethereal Token at most!”
“Let’s slowly grind him down. I don’t believe that he can continue spouting such smug words after facing a couple of us!”
…
The crowd slowly recovered from the shock of Wu Feng’s death. Before long, there were a few roars that roused the morale of the crowd, and a new challenger stepped into the dueling ring.
If their lives were really at risk, most of them would probably have been hesitant. However, as the duel was held in the Ethereal Hall, the worst that could happen to them was losing an Ethereal Token. As long as they killed that fellow, they could accept such a loss.
Even if they had to slowly wear I Am Low Profile down with heaps and heaps of corpses, they were determined to finish him off!
“I am…”
The inner disciple who leaped onto the stage raised his sword as he began to introduce himself. However, before he could even finish his words, he felt an itch at his throat, and before he knew it, he was staring at his own feet.
His head had been lopped off as well.
“What about the rest of you?” Zhang Xuan frowned in displeasure. “Honestly, I think it’s a huge waste of time for you all to come up one by one. How long will it take for me to slaughter all of you at this rate? Just come up all at once!”
While he was glad that there were people taking on the challenge, this was taking way too long. If he had to kill them one by one, he would not be done even by daybreak! Why in the world were they wasting his time by dawdling before?
“You b*stard! You are asking for it!”
Meanwhile, the crowd beneath was really on the verge of losing their rationality.
It was for the sake of fairness that they had decided to go at him one by one. Yet, that fellow actually wanted all of them to go at him at once. Was he asking for a lynching?
“Let’s go together!”
Huala!
In an instant, five inner disciples leaped into the dueling ring.
Those five inner disciples were not too weak. They were ranked in the top three hundred of the Inner Disciple Tournament.
The de facto leader of the group harrumphed coldly. “Rest assured, we won’t use a collaborative formation against you!”
It was already beneath them as proud inner disciples of the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion to gang up against a single opponent. They could not lower their pride any further to resort to using a collaborative formation.
“Whatever.” Zhang Xuan raised his sword and slashed it horizontally through the air. Following which, he turned to the crowd and shouted, “Next!”
Putong! Putong! Putong! Putong! Putong!
Right after those words were spoken, the heads of the five inner disciples fell to the ground before their bodies dissipated into light fragments.
Zhang Xuan also knew about the limitations of his stamina and zhenqi. If it had been his main body, having cultivated the Heaven’s Path Divine Art and undergone the Saint Ascension Ordeal and such, he would have had no worries about depleting his zhenqi at all. However, the body that he was given in the Ethereal Hall did not enjoy such a luxury.
So, he unhesitatingly chose to kill them within a single move, not giving them a chance to retaliate at all. This saved him quite a bit of zhenqi and stamina.
“Next!”
“That fellow’s swordsmanship is pretty fast. We mustn’t waste our time talking cr*p with him. We need to unleash our strongest sword arts as soon as we step into the dueling ring!”
“Indeed. Everyone, don’t bother holding back at all. Release your strongest moves! Even if you can’t kill him, at the very least, try to deplete as much of his stamina and zhenqi as possible!”
Not expecting the five inner disciples to be killed before they could even make a move, a huge commotion broke out amid the crowd.
Determined not to give Zhang Xuan a chance to rest, yet another group of five quickly leaped into the dueling ring.
At this point in time, there was no one who dared underestimate I Am Low Profile anymore.
However, they were still unwilling to believe that the other party could singlehandedly defeat all of them. If they could not defeat him with their combined might, what would others think of them? Their dignity would be completely crushed! They could not back down there!
Weng weng weng weng weng!
Without any hesitation, the five who had just stepped onto the stage immediately unleashed an ocean of sword qi into the dueling ring. Driving their zhenqi to their limits, they executed the strongest moves that they knew.
This prevented them from coordinating with one another through a collaborative formation, but as experts, they were still able to control their attacks such that they would not hinder one another. Their torrential offense had Zhang Xuan’s movements completely sealed, such that there was nowhere he could escape to.
Seeing that at least this batch of opponents was a little smarter than the last, a slight smile finally emerged on Zhang Xuan’s lips. He took a step forward.
Puhe! Puhe!
No one saw him move his sword, but two heads had already fallen to the ground.
Zhang Xuan took a step back, and yet another head fell to the ground.
The two remaining opponents in the dueling ring were a piece of cake. With a swift slash of his sword, they disappeared from the dueling ring in less than a breath.
…
“This…” Upon seeing this sight, Liu Lujie’s body trembled in shock. “He could tell that the collaboration between the five wasn’t complete, so he redirected their attacks to kill one another!”
“This saves him quite a bit of zhenqi, reducing his energy consumption to the minimum!” Wang Jiandong’s eyes were also widened.
What I Am Low Profile had done was use a little bit of force to redirect the offense of the five against one another. While those five were trying to coordinate with one another, it was still impossible for them to constantly keep track of each other’s movements and attacks in the midst of a dynamic battle. This was the very opening that I Am Low Profile exploited to defeat those five.
But as simple as it sounded, it was far more difficult than it seemed to put into practice.
Firstly, I Am Low Profile had to have a deep understanding of the moves of the five, such as the trajectories of their attacks and the next move they would take. Otherwise, there was no way he could step into the midst of their attacks without guaranteeing that he would not be hurt.
Secondly, his calculations had to be absolutely precise. Amid the barrage of five powerful attacks, he had to maintain a tight overview of the chaotic situation and determine the ideal move that he should make.
Thirdly, he had to have absolute confidence in his abilities. The slightest hesitation could result in a mistake in his redirection, and the one who would be killed could very well be him!
Those three points had to be met in order to achieve this feat.
Wang Jiandong was confident that he would be able to defeat those five inner disciples, but there was no way that he would be able to do it with such ease!
He could not help but turn his gaze to Liu Lujie, hoping to know whether the number one expert of the inner disciples would be able to achieve this feat or not.
“I couldn’t do it.” Liu Lujie shook his head. “He has only used a single surge of zhenqi to kill those five, but I would require at least five surges…”
He would have been able to charge into the attacks of the five and swiftly slay all of them, but it was beyond his means to redirect their attacks against one another and defeat them without even lifting a single finger.
Naturally, it was obvious which fighting style was superior.
Liu Lujie paused for a moment before adding, “The precision of his control, his overview of the battlefield, and his swordsmanship skills are truly formidable. However, as long as I can uncover his ultimate technique and trump card, I should be able to kill him with my full strength!”
There was no doubt that the other party’s movements were swift and unorthodox, but he could do the same. In terms of swordsmanship skill, he did not think that he was beneath I Am Low Profile at all.
As long as he could uncover what the other party’s strongest move was and take precautions, it should not be too difficult for him to achieve victory given his strength!
Slowly, the other cultivators among the crowd also saw through the crux behind Zhang Xuan’s earlier actions, and they exclaimed in horror.
“Everyone, be careful! Don’t use collaborative formations or go at him in a group! Otherwise, he’ll just redirect your attacks against one another!”
If they continued going at him as a group, instead of expending his zhenqi and wearing him down, they would only become his murder weapon.
“What should we do then?”
“If we don’t go at him as a group, we’ll just die much more pitiful deaths going up one by one!”
All of a sudden, the area around the dueling ring fell silent. No one dared to head up anymore.
One by one would not work, and going as a group only backfired on them. It was like there was no way out of this at all!
No matter which way they chose, the outcome was still a tragic defeat!
Seeing that no one was moving at all, Wang Jiandong glanced at Liu Lujie before walking over to the dueling ring with widened strides. “Allow me!”
However, before he could step in, he discreetly sent a telepathic message to Liu Lujie and said, “I’ll try to force him to use his strongest move. Take a good look and try to decipher it. When it’s your turn, make sure to kill him in a single blow! Don’t give him any time to react!”
Knowing Wang Jiandong’s motives, Liu Lujie nodded. “Alright!”
Those who had challenged I Am Low Profile so far were not too strong. Not a single one of them was ranked in the top fifty among the inner disciples.
On the other hand, Wang Jiandong was ranked third place. With his strength, he should be able to force I Am Low Profile to reveal his true strength, thus allowing Liu Lujie to make a more wholesome assessment of the other party.
This way, Liu Lujie would stand a better chance of defeating the other party when it was finally his turn.
“I am Wang Jiandong. Please allow me to witness your strongest move,” Wang Jiandong said.
The leisurely aura around him vanished as soon as he stepped into the dueling ring. The zhenqi in his body roared, and his aura rose into the heavens. In an instant, it felt as if he had transformed into a War God.
As if responding to his Sword Intent, his sword reverberated in agitation. It sounded like the growl of a massive dragon.
“It’s Senior Wang Jiandong!”
“He’s actually here! This is wonderful!”
“He’s ranked third among the inner disciples, right? With his formidable swordsmanship, he should be able to end the other party quickly!”
“Well, even if I Am Low Profile wins the match by chance, he’ll probably expend a huge chunk of his zhenqi in this battle!”
Hearing the name, the crowd began cheering excitedly.
Liu Lujie and Wang Jiandong did not frequent the dueling ring, and they used aliases for the names of their avatars. Thus, unless they declared their names, no one would be able to recognize them.
Hearing the discussions amid the crowd, Zhang Xuan said, “Wang Jiandong? You are ranked third among the inner disciples?”
“Indeed! Shall we get started?” Wang Jiandong asked.
He channeled his sword qi into the sword in his hand, ready to launch a devastating strike on his opponent.
“Sounds good!” Zhang Xuan replied.
He took a step forward.
Padah!
Wang Jiandong’s head fell to the ground.
Silence.
