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With the ancient sword in his grip, Cao Qiu turned to look at the crowd.

His eyes were like stars: blindingly bright. Those who met his gaze would inevitably tear up and look away.

"May I know who you are? How are you related to the warrior Hei Zhong?"

Cao Qiu had found Fang Yuan and stared at him with his eyes twinkling.

He had ascended to a level where he was one with the sword and was far more skilful than Gentleman Jiu, who was experienced in sword dao himself. Thus, Cao Qiu had a heightened spiritual sense and was able to pick up on Fang Yuan’s silent transmission.

"Greetings, Sir Cao. I am Jie and Hei Zhong is my servant. We have made fools of ourselves in front of you!"

Fang Yuan replied smilingly.

The crowd got worked up upon hearing Fang Yuan’s words. Even Cao Qiu’s face turned slightly greenish.

A challenger that had defeated two of his disciples was a mere servant. The Cao school of swordsmanship had been severely disgraced.

Cao Qiu regarded this Shang man with much uncertainty.

Cao Qiu had prided himself on his high level of cultivation in sword dao. He had managed to defeat quite a number of people with special talents and no one had been able to offer resistance so far. In fact, he was sure that he would be able to handle Hei Zhong with no trouble at all.

However, there was this Jie! Jie had met his piercing gaze blandly, which was a testament to his high level of cultivation. Jie’s prowess was probably very much higher than that of his servant.

"If you are also a cultivator, would you mind teaching me a thing or two?"

Cao Qiu bowed deeply to Fang Yuan with a solemn look on his face.

Cao Qiu’s disciples, including Ang and Can, were stunned. Their master rarely attended to outsiders personally. The fact that Cao Qiu was interested in this youth meant that he was special.

Besides, Cao Qiu’s respectful treatment towards him was quite shocking. After all, Cao Qiu was a man who had curtly rejected the Shang King’s offer to enfeoff him as a gentleman-bureaucrat of the first class!

"I am not exactly a swordsman..."

Fang Yuan shook his head.

"But you have a sword with you!"

Cao Qiu stared at the iron sword hanging at Fang Yuan’s waist.

"How dare you!"

Hei Zhong roared in anger. A white mist flowed out of his nostrils as he exhaled and swept towards Cao Qiu.

Even though Fang Yuan had told him that he was no match for Cao Qiu, Hei Zhong felt that he had to teach Cao Qiu a lesson for being so pushy towards his master!

"Swoosh!"

His face unchanging, Cao Qiu thrust his ancient sword into the heart of the white mist.

"Poof!"

Something unimaginable had happened. The white mist had been split into two.

How could something that was formless and substanceless be cut into two?

Hei Zhong was shocked. He felt a sharp pain in his chest and spat out a mouthful of blood. This was the consequence of having his technique successfully countered by someone else.

"Clap! Clap!"

Fang Yuan watched on bright-eyed and applauded Cao Qiu.

"A sword move that can counter ten thousand techniques. Very impressive!"

Fang Yuan went up on stage and hit a few acupuncture points on Hei Zhong’s body. Hei Zhong immediately regained some colour in his cheeks.

"I’ve told you before that your technique is merely a little trick. It won’t work on a powerful opponent. Now you’ve learnt it the hard way, am I right?"

Fang Yuan admonished Hei Zhong, who was too embarrassed to speak. He turned to Cao Qiu when he was done.

Cao Qiu was a man with a strong will, comparable to the True Divines among martial artists! He was able to project his will onto the sword and has countered every single one of his opponents’ techniques so far!

’A pity...that your foundations aren’t strong enough!’

Fang Yuan’s eyes gleamed. He had found Cao Qiu’s weakness. Although Cao Qiu had a will as strong as the sword, his body was lacking in some characteristics. Hence, he was not a true sage!

"A sword move that can counter ten thousand techniques?"

There was a glint in Cao Qiu’s eyes.

"No one has given a better description of my skill with the sword!"

"Forget it. It seems like you won’t give me a break even if I refuse to duel you today!"

Fang Yuan grinned and pulled out the black iron sword from his waist.

Although the sword was only slightly longer than three feet, it was a rare blade.

"However...to avoid compromising our harmonious relationship, let’s agree to duel in only three sword moves. What do you think?"

"Fine!"

Cao Qiu nodded and stepped forward.

"The first sword move!"

"Kaboom!"

A storm had been whipped up.

Cao Qiu’s first sword move seemed to carry with it heavenly powers. It was the scourge of all sorts of demons and monsters.

The swordsman Can watched the duel with his mouth agape. He realised his cultivation of the storm sword technique was nowhere near his master’s. If he had mastered this technique, he would not have fallen to Hei Zhong’s deceptive trick.

In the face of the impending blow from the storm sword, Fang Yuan simply placed his sword in front of his chest.

"Dang!"

A clear sound rang out for miles.

The winds and thunder vanished. It was as if all that was left in the world was an immovable black mountain!

Unbudgeable even as the storms raged around it!

"Awesome swordplay...it is nearly at the level of sword dao!"

Although Fang Yuan had parried the blow, he praised Cao Qiu.

"A pity...nearly at the level of sword dao but not yet at the level sword dao after all..."

Cao Qiu stared at Fang Yuan dumbfoundedly. A hint of desolation lingered in his gaze. He suddenly spoke.

"Let the duel end here. I admit defeat!"

"What?"

The disciples of Cao Qiu had their mouths wide open. They had seen their god fall and their faith was collapsing.

Who was Cao Qiu?

He was the legendary and widely-travelled swordsman who had not yet met his match in the world! He was a man known as the Sword Sage with countless disciples. He was the idol of every swordsman.

Now, in Shangyi, had he really been defeated by an unknown youth?

"Impossible..."

Can gripped his own arm so tightly that he drew blood with his fingernails.

Ang and the other disciples had ashen-grey faces and trembled at where they were.

"Thank you..."

Fang Yuan exhaled and said nothing more before walking away.

"Master..."

Hei Zhong ran after him together with Big White and Little White.

The people of Shang cleared out a path for him respectfully. After all, although the two men had only exchanged one blow, the shockwave had rendered everyone near the stage unconscious with blood pouring out from their ears.

How could anyone not be awed by this level of martial arts?

There was no doubt that people all over the Shang Dynasty were going to sing of the swordsman Jie’s victory over the Sword Sage Cao Qiu.

...

Nightfall.

In the moonlight, the silhouettes of two young ladies surfaced. They looked towards Fang Yuan deferentially.

Although Hei Zhong had been shocked the first time he had witnessed the transformation of the fox girls, he had gotten used to it.

"Big White and Little White, don’t you two recognise me?"

Fang Yuan was amused by the awestruck look that the fox girls gave him.

"That person’s sword moves...are very dangerous!"

Big White spoke after a long silence had passed.

"I know that if our Yin spirits came into contact with the sword, they would disintegrate...our Yin spirits had been suppressed in our bodies the whole day by the mere presence of that person!"

"You have good spiritual sense!"

Fan Yuan nodded.

"Sir Cao’s swordplay can be described as ’a sword move that counters ten thousand techniques’. Your Yin spirits stand no chance against him."

"But such a person has been defeated by you!"

Big White’s eyes had grown brighter.

"My sister and I would like to become your disciples and learn swordplay from you!"

"Swordplay is but a simple skill!"

Fang Yuan waved a hand dismissively.

"Do you know why Cao Qiu admitted defeat after exchanging only one blow with me?"

Upon hearing this, even Hei Zhong pricked up his ears.

"Although his sword skills are far superior to mine, he would surely die in a duel to the death against me! This was confirmed in the first blow that we exchanged and he had chosen to pull out of the duel so as to avoid further humiliation."

Fang Yuan explained blandly.

Even though Cao Qiu was an honoured figure among the Hundred Schools of Thought, Fang Yuan had read him thoroughly. Cao Qiu was but a Wu Zong in the Meridian Opening Realm. Nevertheless, his cultivation in sword dao and mind power was at the level of a True Divine!

Cao Qiu’s foundation was unstable while Fang Yuan’s was too powerful.

Even though his Ultimate Witch Body had not grown to its full potential, Fang Yuan was more than capable of killing Cao Qiu with brute force!

"Of course...Cao Qiu is only the sword dao representative of the Hundred Schools of Thought. It does not say anything about the highest level of martial arts in this world..."

Fang Yuan was acutely aware that even though the Shang Dynasty had not fallen yet, these were tumultuous times!

The brightest people from the various feudal states often interacted and exchanged ideas with each other. New talents were constantly emerging and impressing people with their achievements. Fang Yuan’s recent victory over Cao Qiu was destined to become another mere footnote in history.

"The Ancient One is a wily fellow. He has definitely worked out a plan and would be stirring up the world somewhere in hiding...the troublesome thing is that these chaotic times would make it much harder for us to notice anything out of the ordinary..."

500 years of Shang rule had passed and it was time for a new power to take over their mandate. Thus, as the world experienced major upheavals, strange occurrences would be seen as only part of the process.

It was like how Fang Yuan had not managed to notice any traces left behind by the Ancient One.

At this point, Fang Yuan suddenly frowned and looked towards the door.

"Who is spying on us?"

Fang Yuan was now residing in one of the inns constructed by the Shang for the envoys from the feudal states as well as travelling scholars. These state-run inns were built along the major routes and within major cities. It was as they said: "Within 3 miles of every wild road lies a cottage with food and drink", "there are halls in the city that are dedicated to receiving officials from the imperial court".

Security was very tight in a state-run building and for someone to make it so far into the inn was not easy. This person was definitely skilled.

In actual fact, Fang Yuan had thought about going back to Jie’s house to take a look but changed his mind upon realising that it might inconvenience Meng Kuo.

Hei Zhong let out an enraged roar and his pounced towards the disturbance.

"Ding!"

A large youth wearing a hemp shirt and straw shoes was forced to appear before them. He carried a weathered bronze sword that looked like it was on the verge of breaking.

The most striking feature about the youth was his fiery gaze.

"Greetings, Sir! My name is Nie! I hope that you will take me in as your disciple!"

"Your name is Nie?"

Fang Yuan’s impatient look had turned into one of curiosity.

"Don’t you have a surname?"

The youth lowered his eyes a little.

"I hail from the rural areas and never had a surname!"

"You can adopt the Ge surname if you intend to make a name for yourself one day. Your name shall be Ge Nie from now on!"

The bright-eyed youth fell to his knees in gratitude immediately.

"Thank you for granting me this name, master. From today onwards, my name shall be Ge Nie!"