Chapter 324

Chapter 324: Challenge

Xi Ci stopped swinging.

He stood still, sword in hand, watching Jing Hong walk back step by step.

Jing Hong took a few steps, then stopped.

He had returned to his original position.

He turned and looked back.

Xi Ci lifted his sword. “Then make me disappear.”

His blade trembled.

The void erupted with seventy-two sword shadows.

Upper Purity Seventy-Two Swords.

A legendary technique. Rumor said even Qing Huan, one of the four wandering gods, had failed to master it.

Old Man Du Mu’s signature art.

Spectators held their breath.

Jing Hong nodded appreciatively. “Not bad.”

Xi Ci leaned forward.

One sword from the east.

He advanced in steps.

First step—nine sword shadows vanished.

Second—six more.

Third—four.

Fourth—two.

Fifth—he closed in.

The sword fell.

With Upper Purity Seventy-Two Swords, the more you compressed the shadows, the greater the power. Xi Ci could compress away fifty-one of them.

This strike was everything he had.

He believed it was enough to stand at the peak.

Jing Hong raised his arm.

Two fingers closed around the blade.

In the same instant, every sword shadow vanished as if erased.

Only Xi Ci’s sword remained, angled toward the sky, trapped between Jing Hong’s fingers.

Xi Ci froze.

He couldn’t move.

He stared into Jing Hong’s smiling face.

Jing Hong chuckled softly and began to bend the sword.

The blade curved under his fingers as if it were soft metal.

The tip slid toward Xi Ci’s forehead.

Xi Ci didn’t step back. Didn’t flinch.

He watched the sword tip touch, then pierce—

And he vanished.

It all happened as smoothly as a rehearsed performance.

Jing Hong shook out his hand and laughed lightly at the silent crowd.

No one spoke.

Contestants inside the tournament hadn’t understood the sphere score.

Spectators outside had.

Even so, no one had expected Xi Ci to lose like that.

Xi Ci’s legendary sword art looked like a child’s trick in Jing Hong’s eyes.

And Jing Hong had shown no visible strength at all.

No one could read his method.

The boy who looked barely twelve became the center of the universe. No one could look away.

Wang Jie exhaled, chest tight.

He still couldn’t see Jing Hong’s qi.

This wasn’t full-star realm strength.

If someone claimed Jing Hong was hundred-star realm, Wang Jie would believe it.

Several matches followed, but the air had changed. Nothing held the crowd the same way.

Even so, one fight drew attention.

Zhou Ye versus Blood Vine.

Blood Vine was a starry sky behemoth from the South Dipper Bridge-Pillar, famous for defense. In the war between the South and North Bridge-Pillars, Blood Vine had caused the North Dipper Bridge-Pillar endless trouble, often pairing with other creatures and becoming living armor.

Li Ao and Blood Vine had once teamed up and lost to Shao Gu Chen, which dulled the fear of its name—but Shao Gu Chen was an Enlightenment Tea recipient. The comparison wasn’t fair.

Blood Vine had never been weak.

And Zhou Ye, praised and ranked near the top by Star Vault Vista, had earned curiosity as well. In the Balance Battle, he’d pinned Imperial Kun until it couldn’t fight back. Now people wanted to see more.

The barrier dissolved.

The fight was straightforward.

Zhou Ye’s arrows were impossible to fully evade. Blood Vine’s defense was strong, but it couldn’t endure forever. And Blood Vine couldn’t catch Zhou Ye at all.

In the end, Zhou Ye wore it down and killed it.

Clean. Efficient. Not especially flashy.

Then Wang Jie fought again.

His opponent was an elite with more than 200,000 combat power. Respectable.

But compared to Wang Jie, it was nothing.

One finger ended it.

Thirty-eight contestants remained.

The arenas expanded again. The distance between contestants grew wider, the emptiness between them more oppressive.

Wang Jie looked at his next opponent and felt his expression tighten.

Yuan Mu.

Interesting luck.

Yuan Mu of Sword Court. The kind of man who dared charge the Dual-Wind Line battlefield and even wound a hundred-star realm expert. In Star Vault Vista’s commentary, there had been only six words:

“Either die, or win.”

The biggest doubts about Enlightenment Tea distribution had centered on people like Xi Ci and Yuan Mu—monsters who hadn’t received it.

At the start of the Balance Battle, Sword Court’s Pan Fan had been unwilling to accept that and had targeted Wang Jie outright.

Now Wang Jie was facing Yuan Mu himself.

Outside, debate surged again.

Not just Wang Jie versus Yuan Mu, but also Hou Qing Ge versus Qin Xiao Shu—and Wen Qing versus Jing Hong.

Hou Qing Ge was an Enlightenment Tea recipient, but after Qin Xiao Shu’s fight with Li Ao, even those who trusted the Enlightenment Tea rankings couldn’t confidently say she would win. Bu Zou Guan was deep. Qin Xiao Shu’s methods were frightening.

And Wen Qing versus Jing Hong was the match everyone feared to predict.

Wen Qing was an Enlightenment Tea recipient. His brother, Tian Cang, was a Guarding Star Realm figure—a hundred-star realm invincible powerhouse. Star Vault Vista and the North Dipper Bridge-Pillar had both acknowledged Wen Qing as a top full-star realm contender for first place.

People argued endlessly about his true strength.

Jing Hong had seemed ordinary at first. Then came the 3,000,000 score. Then he erased Xi Ci in an instant.

He’d become a myth overnight.

No one dared say Wen Qing would certainly win.

No one dared say Jing Hong would certainly win, either.

“This is it. All three Enlightenment Tea recipients are being challenged.”

“And honestly? It feels like they might all lose.”

“Star Vault Vista’s Enlightenment Tea recipients have never finished outside the top twenty. We’ll see if the record holds.”

“I can’t speak for the others, but Wang Jie is definitely losing. My Senior Brother Yuan Mu is a monster. If it weren’t for that marriage alliance with the Cold-Smoke Ferry, he’d have broken through long ago.”

“Our elders said that once he breaks through, he’ll jump straight into the very top ranks of Sword Court disciples, standing alongside Senior Brother Yuan Bai of the Sword-Heart Devil Seed.”

“What does Wang Jie have to win with?”

“Star Vault Vista’s authority is about to be tested.”

Inside the tournament, none of it could be heard.

Matches finished. Many were lopsided—strong fighters, weak opponents—nothing to hold the crowd.

Everyone waited for the match that mattered.

At last—

Hou Qing Ge versus Qin Xiao Shu.

All eyes turned.

Qin Xiao Shu immediately looked for Qing Kong again, bright as ever.

“Kong Er—”

Qing Kong’s gaze remained calm, indifferent. No response.

Qin Xiao Shu didn’t look discouraged.

A slash of sword qi cut past his face.

He dodged by a hair and snapped his head around, offended. “Hey! No manners at all. Sneak attack?”

Hou Qing Ge didn’t answer. Her sword art spread through the void, sharp and relentless, fully committed.

Within Sword Pool, spectators watched as well.

A woman with a cold, poisonous gaze hissed, “That little bitch is disgracing Sword Pool. Sneak attacking like that.”

“Mother, when she comes back, we’ll teach her a lesson.”

“Stop,” another said coolly. “Once the barrier drops, the match begins. There’s no sneak attack. If Qin Xiao Shu wasn’t paying attention, that’s on him.”

“Is that so?” someone replied. “When Jing Hong walked up to Xi Ci, Xi Ci didn’t strike until Jing Hong spoke first. Compare the two, and the difference is obvious.”

No one argued.

On the arena, Hou Qing Ge’s sword grew sharper and sharper. Sword Pool had countless techniques, and she cycled through them—yet she couldn’t touch Qin Xiao Shu.

Qin Xiao Shu slipped through the void like smoke, effortless. He even had the leisure to keep glancing toward Qing Kong, as if Hou Qing Ge were an inconvenience, not an opponent.

Sword Pool’s spectators bristled. And their resentment turned, inevitably, toward Hou Qing Ge.

They thought she had no right to carry the name of Enlightenment Tea, no right to represent them.

Hou Qing Ge changed.

Starforce flowed along her blade and blossomed into blue lotuses—beautiful and chilling.

Someone in Sword Pool gasped. “Azure Lotus Burying Flowers?”

“She knows that?”

“Azure Lotus Burying Flowers is one of Sword Pool’s most profound sword arts. Throughout history, fewer than ten have mastered it.”

“In this era, only the future sword lord has it. And even the future sword lord mastered it at roaming-star realm.”

The venom-eyed woman sneered, but her voice had lost its certainty. “Luck. Some techniques just suit certain people.”

The lotus sword qi stiffened the surrounding void, forcing Qin Xiao Shu to retreat out of the field.

He clicked his tongue in admiration. “Nice sword art. Still useless.”

He leapt.

Wondrous Roaming Art.

His body sank into the void and became a shrinking vortex that vanished.

The blue lotuses swayed and withered, one after another.

“Ah,” someone sighed. “Not fully cultivated yet. What a pity.”

“But to master Azure Lotus Burying Flowers at all is already terrifying.”

On the arena, Qin Xiao Shu appeared behind Hou Qing Ge without warning.

A finger extended.

Hidden-Breaking Seal.

The strike that had pierced even Li Ao’s terrifying defense.

Hou Qing Ge was skewered through the body in an instant. Blood splashed across the arena stones.

Many spectators leaned forward, satisfied.

Some had been waiting for an Enlightenment Tea recipient to fall—waiting for the Star Vault Vista myth to crack.

Hou Qing Ge lowered her head, watching her blood drip like plum blossoms opening.

Qin Xiao Shu’s voice drifted to her, calm and almost kind.

“Enlightenment Tea doesn’t go to someone this weak. You’re hiding, and I haven’t gone all out either. If you keep hiding, you lose.”

Hou Qing Ge turned, eyes steady now.

She raised her sword.

And attacked.

A dark circle of starforce formed behind her. When she thrust, the circle swept forward like a shadow swallowing light.

Sword Pool’s spectators jolted. “Eclipse Slash?”

Another rare technique.

It failed.

Hou Qing Ge changed again—and again.

She unleashed sword arts one after another, each one drawing stunned whispers from Sword Pool. They couldn’t understand how she had learned so many.

The venom-eyed woman watched in silence, her face darkening until she could no longer speak.

And still, Qin Xiao Shu broke every technique, flawless.

“If all you have is a lot of sword moves,” he said lightly, “then it’s over.”

He slipped into the void.

A finger extended again.

Hidden-Breaking Seal—unavoidable.

Hou Qing Ge spat blood.

Small makes a sword, great shapes a person.

Hou family Bridgeway Art.