Chapter 74

Chapter 74: Crushing Defeat and Entanglement

At the Qi Refining Stage, cultivators had at least heard of the Sword Light Realm.

But to reach the Sword Radiance Realm at that cultivation?

That was closer to legend than rumor.

When Du Fan Zhi first reported it, Li Shu had found it hard to believe. Only after Jiang Yun confirmed it did joy surge through him, and he thanked the heavens that the sect’s revival might finally be within reach.

The Chang Yuan Sect could boast all it wanted; it would never dare imagine the Ling Zhen Sect held a genius like that.

Li Shu was certain. He sat in the pavilion with Huo Zi Xun, unhurried, smiling as if the outcome were already decided.

On the Chang Yuan side, Meng Yuan noticed it too. “Senior Brother,” a disciple whispered beside him, “Ling Zhen looks… too calm.”

Meng Yuan folded his arms and arched a brow. “Junior Sister Sun is Elder Shi’s personal disciple,” he said lazily. “Her strength can match ninth-level Qi Refining. They’re only pretending. Just watch how Junior Sister handles her opponent.”

Zhao Chun stepped onto the platform, a single blade in hand.

Calling it a sword was not quite accurate.

When she’d bought the Crimson Edge Dagger, she’d still been a little girl, barely grown. Now she stood in the early bloom of youth, taller and slender, and among girls she could even be called statuesque. In her hand, the Crimson Edge Dagger no longer resembled a child’s short blade. It was clearly a long, narrow dagger.

Sun You Yi narrowed her eyes at the stance Zhao Chun took. A dagger held like a sword.

“You cultivate the sword?” Sun You Yi asked, skepticism sharpening her tone.

Zhao Chun brought the blade before her and cupped her hands. “Ling Zhen Sect sword cultivator, Zhao Chun.”

For those who had not entered the Entry Realm, the title “sword cultivator” was sometimes used out of courtesy—empty praise more than fact.

But Zhao Chun claimed it without hesitation.

The meaning was unmistakable.

Sun You Yi’s expression changed. She straightened, the playfulness draining from her face. Blade and sword cultivators treasured their path with fierce pride. When it came to realm, they did not lie—could not afford to lie.

If Zhao Chun dared to call herself a sword cultivator like that, then she had to be the same as Sun You Yi.

Entry Realm.

Dao-realm geniuses were rare beyond measure. Yet today, on this vessel, two had appeared at once.

Li Shu laughed quietly and sent a voice transmission across to Shi Tong. “A coincidence,” he said, echoing Shi Tong’s earlier boast. “It seems I, too, have accepted a fine disciple. Fellow Daoist Shi may take a look.”

Shi Tong heard the words clearly. With Essence Condensation Stage senses, there was no hiding them. His face darkened.

How could the Ling Zhen Sect produce a Qi Refining Stage Dao-realm disciple?

Still, Sun You Yi was his. He had guided her personally for years. Her saber art was his teaching through and through.

Li Shu, on the other hand, was a spell cultivator. The sword was not his specialty. Whether Zhao Chun truly matched Sun You Yi would be proven on the platform.

“Chang Yuan Sect, Sun You Yi,” Sun You Yi said again, saluting with a sharp sweep of her long saber. The blade drew a slanted line before her and came level at her side.

Both girls were at the eighth level of the Qi Refining Stage.

Both were in the Entry Realm.

The air tightened. Spectators across the surrounding ships fell silent, breath held.

Sun You Yi had roused Ling Zhen’s fury by humiliating Bian Ru—by holding back and dragging the fight out for her own amusement.

It was true: Bian Ru was weaker. In the cultivation world, the strong trampling the weak was an unwritten rule. But even unwritten rules had limits. Cross the line, and it became wrong.

The righteous path called itself righteous because it held to restraint. It almost never struck at mortals. Heaven had its constants; cause and effect tangled all beings together. Cultivators fought, killed, and earned karma through conflict over benefit. Wanton slaughter without cause—or preying on others to strengthen oneself—was what marked an evil cultivator, someone everyone had the right to kill.

So Sun You Yi’s behavior was not evil. It was simply bullying, born of an unruly temperament. And because what she relied on was her own strength, only the Ling Zhen side truly cared enough to be furious.

Zhao Chun had no interest in humiliating someone for sport.

What she wanted was to strike at Sun You Yi’s pride and break it cleanly.

For someone arrogant, nothing was more insulting than being forced to recognize the vast gap between herself and another.

Sun You Yi attacked first, two fierce saber strikes slashing toward Zhao Chun’s throat and chest.

Zhao Chun met them with easy precision, turning both aside as if brushing away rain.

Then she countered.

Her blade moved, and sword radiance burst forth like scattered starlight.

For a heartbeat, it looked as if the strike would pierce Sun You Yi’s throat.

At the last instant, Zhao Chun turned her wrist. The edge became the flat. With a dull, decisive impact, she struck Sun You Yi squarely and sent her flying off the platform.

A single exchange.

A single blow.

And it was over.

Back when Zhao Chun had been only at the sixth level, she could already defeat Shen You Zhen with one full-force strike. Now her movement and swordsmanship were honed. Her cultivation had reached the eighth level. She had mastered a top-grade sword method. She could even spar with Jiang Yun and trade blows without being overwhelmed.

How could Sun You Yi—also in the first realm—possibly compare?

Sun You Yi had never tasted defeat since she began cultivating the blade Dao.

Today, she tasted it for the first time.

Shock hit deeper than the pain of being knocked down. In that instant, what she’d seen was unmistakable:

Sword Radiance Realm.

Within the blade Dao there was an equivalent realm—Blade Radiance. Sun You Yi was nowhere near it. Yet someone her age had already reached it.

That truth struck like a hammer.

Zhao Chun sheathed her blade. “Thank you for the match.”

Her calm gesture signaled the end of the debate between the two sects—and Ling Zhen’s victory.

The Ling Zhen disciples had long known Zhao Chun’s talent. They erupted in relief and exhilaration. But the true astonishment belonged to the spectators.

The young sword cultivator among them stared as if he’d been struck. The Yuan Cang Sect’s Martial Uncle stroked his beard and sighed. Their sect master claimed the Ling Zhen Sect’s fortune had fallen to its lowest valley… but perhaps he had misjudged. With Qiu Silhouette before, and talents like Zheng Chen Qing and Zhao Chun after, the Ling Zhen Sect looked less like a dying flame and more like something ready to roar back to life.

What the outside world would say about this battle, Zhao Chun had no time to care.

They had only a few days left before reaching the Tun Qi Pool, and a new problem had already wrapped itself around her.

On the deck of the Immortal Crane Roaming Vessel, Meng Yuan stopped Zheng Chen Qing and spoke in a low voice.

“Fellow Daoist Zheng,” he said, “yesterday I asked you to pass a message to our Junior Sister Sun. Today I’ll have to trouble you again.”

Zheng Chen Qing looked embarrassed. “It’s not that I won’t help,” he said. “It’s that your Fellow Daoist Sun won’t budge. I’ve tried persuading her every way I can. It’s useless.”

After losing to Zhao Chun, Sun You Yi had been listless for a while—then she snapped back like a spark catching dry grass. As if refusing to accept reality, she came again and again to challenge Zhao Chun.

She lost.

She challenged again.

She lost again.

She kept coming anyway.

Eventually she even declared she would stay aboard the Ling Zhen Sect’s vessel so she could spar with Zhao Chun whenever she pleased.

For most cultivators, “debating the Dao” was a chance to display style and win face. For Sun You Yi, it seemed to mean exactly what it said.

Zhao Chun already spent a great deal of time sparring with Jiang Yun aboard the ship. She had no strength to spare for Sun You Yi’s obsession.

Yet Sun You Yi would rather sit nearby and watch Zhao Chun and Jiang Yun trade sword blows than return to the Chang Yuan Sect’s glazed ship.

Meng Yuan had tried three times now. Back on his own vessel, Shi Tong had raged, “If she won’t return, then send her to the Ling Zhen Sect and grant her wish!”

It was only angry talk. A sect did not simply hand over a Dao-realm genius. And for all his fury, Shi Tong clearly cared for Sun You Yi deeply—loving hard, scolding hard. The thought of her lingering aboard Li Shu’s vessel made him restless enough to keep sending Meng Yuan back again and again.

Seeing Zheng Chen Qing’s expression, Meng Yuan understood this attempt would end the same way.

Fine, he thought.

Once they reached the Tun Qi Pool, each sect would have its own quarters. Elder Shi would drag Sun You Yi back himself then—whether she liked it or not.