15 White Robes

After few minutes Shangguan Ning'er left .

Jiang Bingyue "Elder brother I just have one question ."

Jiang Chen " Sure I am interested in her and I am waiting for things to unfold to make my move."

Jiang Bingyue was just silent he got his answer even before he could frame his question.

Jiang Bingyue "Brother can Bai Mo perfect that Shadow sword art."

Jiang Chen smiled "Can't say for sure ,but you have better chance in perfecting it than Bai Mo.If Bai Mo gives his best suppressing his pride then he can learn it."

Jiang Chen "Developing instincts is like forging you should get hit repeatedly to shape yourself and more the better. You need proper mindset for that."

Jiang Chen "And no you are not suitable for that technique and we don't have sword technique of that style."

Jiang Bingyue smiled shamelessly at Jiang Chen's response he know everything.

Jiang Bingyue "Elder brother when did you learn so many things? You seemed to know almost everything around."

Jiang Chen "You idiots learned splitting your mind and multi tasking recently I have learned it at age of 9. Do you think I spent all my time cultivating. Aunt Ming used to throw tons of books at me when ever she came to me."

Jiang Bingyue "Sure you got hammered by a earth rank weapon smith." chuckled in response.

Jiang Chen gave a offended look for once and then burst to laughter at that."

Next day Jiang Chen as usual came to his practice of Tribulation technique Jiang Chen already found the correct mixture for the technique now he is trying to learn timing for different ranges.

As Jiang Chen was about to start practicing he saw Ha Ling coming to him so he decided to finish the spar first. As the spar was decided previous day everyone got to know of it so many people gathered around the arena to see how Ha Ling face Jiang Chen. Both Ha Ling and Bai Mo are considered top talents of River Spring city but they haven't fought head on yet. So no one knows who is stronger among them. They have competed in different ways but the tests were not real measures. But now with presence of Jiang Chen as a standard .It would give them rough estimate on who is stronger. Even Bai Mo was watching this from distance . Su Mo and Su Ming gathered below the arena too. Su Mo also wanted to ask some pointers from Jiang Chen for long so he came along with his sister.

Fight started with Ha Ling making the move first but he was not able to gain immediate advantage over Jiang Chen like Bai Mo did yesterday . But he steadily build up pressure on Jiang Chen by his aggressiveness of Ha Ling. But Jiang Chen was able to break through it with bit difficulty and tried to counter press on Ha Ling but with attribute advantage. Finally around 50th move Ha ling defeated Jiang Chen.

At Distance Bai Mo smirked even though both defeated Jiang Chen in 50 moves at least Bai Mo was in complete domination unlike Ha Ling who stumbled repeatedly and only could counter because of attribute advantage .

Jiang Chen "Brother Ha Ling you should fight using your own style and rhythm you need not imitate others." Ha Ling understood what Jiang Chen meant , Ha Ling wanted to defeat Jiang Chen thoroughly so that he could prove that he is better than Bai Mo ,so he made thorough plan to counter Jiang Chen's style of fighting but to his surprise today Jiang Chen fought in complete different way and he was caught off guard and stumbled a lot.

Jiang Chen "I use my fighting style based on my instincts so it will mostly depend on whom I am fighting? I realized that you were trying to use my yesterday's fight with Bai Mo as reference and made plans for it so I easily laid a trap for you to press on you ,even though it failed there was some possibility you might not be lucky same way every time. Even if Bai Mo used yesterdays fight as reference and made a plan he will fail because I would not repeat the same mistakes again that is the true meaning behind spars to know your own short comings and learn from them."

No one said anything even though Jiang Chen lectured after loosing it instead made sense ,Jiang Chen is not regular opponent he is a true martial maniac.

Ha Ling "What you said is true, if I had fought in my style it would have been different fight."

Ha Ling "Now we should check our weapon skills."

Jiang Chen nodded his head and took out his fire attributed sword.

Ha Ling could feel a distinct pressure coming from the sword.

Ha Ling "What grade is the sword you are using?"

Jiang Chen raised his sword to look at it he was not able to determine the grade of this sword ,even Aunt Ming said to she couldn't.

Jiang Chen "I too don't know brother it was fist fire attributed sword I forged personally from then on I felt like I have special connection with it. Its grades always shuffles few times it gives vibe of mortal grade sword few time human few times common grade. So I don't know what grade it is."

Everyone looked amazed at the sword it was really a mysterious sword.

Ha Ling "I am not a sword user or else I would have tried to coerce you to sell me that sword." Ha Ling laughed while he spoke that looking at Bai Mo who was observing the sword in Jiang Chen's hand. Even he felt some pressure when facing that sword previous day but he ignored it. Now that Ha Ling mentioned it he could confirm that it was truly from sword.

Jiang Chen "No price in the world can make me part from this sword. I have my soul embedded to it." Jiang Chen spoke of course it is no ordinary weapon it has his unknown seventh attribute as its core he don't know what it is but know it would be more powerful attribute than his space and time attributes else how could it occupy the center of the Pagoda in presence of two giants. This weapon can't be considered with common sense. Also he has some kind of spiritual bonding with all his weapons.

Jiang Chen lowered his sword and signed to Ha Ling to make a move. Ha Ling started of with one of his heavy moves and tried to press forward on Jiang Chen he was not able to gain any superiority in the fight but he continued to press forward on Jiang Chen after 50 moves Ha Ling stopped the fight as they have set prior this was only spar not a fight.

Ha Ling "Brother Jiang something is missing right?"

Jiang Chen nodded his head and was making some calculations in his mind. He stood silently on the arena and closed his eyes reanalyzing the fight that took place.

Jiang Chen " Brother I couldn't figure it out ,I mean the fight went too perfect for you I am unable to identify the weakness in this technique at all perfect offensive saber technique no doubt about it (Moon spring technique mentioned in previous chapters) but there is surely a flaw in it."

Jiang Chen was truly unable to find the flaw in first place but realized that in second glance.

Jiang Chen "Brother lets have a spar one more time don't use attribute energy just its moves alone and heavenly energy."

This time after 30 rounds of exchange it was Jiang Chen who was in the dominating position and defeated Ha Ling. Every one now understood how powerful Jiang Chen was if it was equal footing with out attribute disadvantage, even Bai Mo was shocked seeing this he was sure if it was him in Jiang Chen's place he wouldn't be able to gain such swift victory placed in same situation.

Ha Ling "Brother Jiang did you identify it?"

Jiang Chen " RHYTHM of the fight ,if you failed to get initial advantage or some one break you attack you are unable to bounce back .It was like berserk style. You have very good sabre and perfectly suited mentality to wield it but once the rhythm breaks you will collapse."

Ha Ling thought for a while analyzing both fights in his mind ,even though he was in advantage in first round it was because of his momentum in the second round Jiang Chen broke his attack early on and from then on he was not able to regain his momentum.

Ha Ling "Is there a way to counter it ?"

Jiang Chen "It is generally common for saber wielders there is no particular remedy for this problem except not loosing initial advantage and not let opponent broke rhythm but that is not possible every time. If I was able to perfect my third move Sword of noon it is easy to break the rhythm with overwhelming power. It would consume lot of my power but from then on momentum would be on my side that is acceptable. "

Bai Mo who was hearing this was ecstatic he now held an advantage over Ha Ling he know Ha Ling

s weakness and as Jiang Chen spoke there seemed to be no remedy for it, so all he had to do was not let Ha Ling gain initial advantage or somehow break the rhythm of Ha Ling's attacks. He hoped Jiang Chen wouldn't find a solution .

Jiang Chen "Brother Ha Ling I guess I have to thorough research on various skills to find a solution for it , there is no flaw in the technique but it is style." Jiang Chen felt like he was struck with something and jumped of the stage as a martial maniac he is. Jiang Chen turned to his cousins.

Jiang Chen "Bring me all common grade techniques available in our family ."

Jiang Chen "Brother Ha Ling I will see you later." Jiang Chen had a worried expression on his face and there is an ecstatic look too.

Jiang Chen started running towards his home and Jiang family disciples followed him.

With seriousness in Jiang Chen's face everyone understood one thing finding the solution to this problem is top priority for him now and he would be researching on all kinds of skills to find a solution.

Bai Mo "If I am not wrong even Jiang Chen faces same problem." he cursed it in his mind.

If it was just Ha Ling's matter Jiang Chen didn't need to stress himself to find a solution ,no one would blame him for not finding a solution for it because it was not a simple issue so it would not be a problem for Bai Mo .But now even Jiang Chen the Mr.Perfect have that issue he will not stop until he find a solution and going by Jiang Chen's nature he would definitely tell the solution to Ha Ling on inquiry.

Ha Ling also realized the same and there was a smile in his face now. So he decided to help Jiang Chen in finding a solution. He invited Jiang Chen to city lord mansion as they have more techniques than whole the city combined.

Jiang Chen gladly accepted the offer. Jiang Chen then continued his training in archery he was sure he will reach small perfection in two weeks just before they would go to Moon Mountain.

That evening both Jiang Chen and Shangguan Ning'er were taking stroll around the city leisurely and doing all kinds of purchases.

Jiang Chen "City changed a lot in few years?"

Shangguan Ning'er realized that Jiang Chen was not in city for all these years.

Shangguan Ning'er "Where have you been all these years ? " she want to probe on how Jiang Chen trained and how he managed to reach such cultivation speeds even though he only have a mortal grade cultivation technique.

Jiang Chen made up a story on how Aunt Ming trained him to study daily and research on various fighting styles and he was made to learn everything from scratch. Jiang Chen didn't tell her about him learning all three weapons and only stressed on sword and fist styles.

After they discussed on cultivation for some time.

Shangguan Ning'er "There seemed to be a new cloth store there you want to try new white robes." Shangguan Ning'er made fun of strange habit of Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen's eyes brightened hearing word white robes. Shangguan Ning'er burst out laughing seeing this . No one would have imagined that Jiang Chen have another obsession other than martial arts.

Jiang Chen emptied all the white robes from all the stores he went by.

Jiang Chen "While I was training for this past six years my clothes were always tattered and dirty and Aunt Ming only visits me occasionally and only then did I get to wear fresh set of clothes."

Jiang Chen "I was only a kid then so seeing new set of clothes every time. So I made a resolution every time that I will never wear soiled clothes and it somehow embedded to me. To me perfect me is me in white robes carrying my sword attached to my back and having a surplus meal."

Jiang Chen spoke with an evil smile. Shangguan Ning'er couldn't help but laugh out again.

She sensed Jiang Chen is very simple and straight forward person all he care about was his progress in Martial arts, his clean white robes ,plenty of delicious meals and he doesn't care about anything else. He doesn't have any foe he treats everyone as his friends. This was proved again and again. Even though Bai Mo and Ha Ling are enemies to each other , they still treat Jiang Chen as friend even though he is helping others.

Shangguan Ning'er "About Ha Ling's problem is there really no solution to it."

Jiang Chen "It is not exactly a problem ,it is not problem with that technique but instead users style. It exists for many techniques even your Whirl wind sword have that problem but not you. I mean it speaks of mentality of the fighter. You guys carefully irritate the enemy by many attacks and don't press forward continuously and rely on experience and judgement in fighting . There would be other style who continuously harass the enemy with non stop barrage of attacks similar to Ha Ling for them power is not the problem as these style fighters have more power than you people so they need proper rhythm once rhythm breaks it leads to collapse."

Jiang Chen explained "that is similar to Ha Ling's technique he used this approach to suppress Moon Spring techniques inherent weakness to agility users.This way Ha Ling continually suppresses the people who uses agility in fights. But it left a weakness somewhere else. "

Shangguan Ning'er "Then what is the original solution you would have suggested for this problem."

Jiang Chen " Same as Bai Mo ,shadow saber art.They both are created by two brothers in war period."

Shangguan Ning'er remembered the name to pass it to her family so they can use it to curry favor from City lord mansion.

Shangguan Ning'er "Then what is the solution now?"

Jiang Chen "I am also trying to find same ,even though I fight calculatedly too but once I get ecstatic I will loose control too. "

Shangguan Ning'er didn't suspect anything she didn't doubt Jiang Chen was lying to her .

Shangguan Ning'er " Then who among Bai Mo and Ha Ling is better?"

Jiang Chen "There is no correct answer to this question Bai Mo's style is to rely on agility for defense and Ha Ling's style is suppress agility users using hard press. If Bai Mo can break Ha Ling's rhythm then Ha Ling would loose and if Ha Ling could get initial advantage Bai Mo is bound to loose."

Jiang Chen "So it all depends on whose day it is." Shangguan Ning'er listened to this and prepared mental report of everything.

Shangguan Ning'er "What if we fight both of them?"

Jiang Chen was silent for a moment and then replied "If either of your sisters fight alone you are bound to loose with out doubt your power is too less to make an impact and your sharpness of sword well its useless. But if both of your sisters fight together with them you have over 70% chance to win against them. Both their styles are suited for individual fights you can triumph them with both of you together."

Shangguan Ning'er was shocked hearing this. She know she could give a good fight but she never thought there are chances of winning too.

Shangguan Ning'er "Against you?" wanted to ask this question most importantly.

Jiang Chen "Don't even think of it. You will not hold any advantage against me. Instead weak wind increases the power of fire. Similarly strong fire evaporates water. Even if you both combined you will not last for more than twenty rounds."

Shangguan Ning'er immediately left after hearing this giving an excuse. Jiang Chen smiled at her departing figure.

Jiang Bingyue who was following Jiang Chen in distance came forward immediately after she left.He is Jiang Chen's lackey for ever.

Jiang Bingyue " Elder brother did you make a move just now?"

Jiang Chen "Yes.Lets see how this storm plays out."

Jiang Bingyue "Truthfully who among Bai Mo and Ha Ling is powerful."

Jiang Chen "Ha Ling already developed instincts he is clearly more powerful than Bai Mo. Bai Mo will not last 50 moves against Ha Ling whether he breaks rhythm or not gain initial advantage. That disadvantage only exists when fighting equals."

Jiang Bingyue "So city lord faction is ahead this time. Both Shangguan sisters and Ha Ling can defeat Bai Mo."

Jiang Chen "Yes, I guess I have to make and early move to reduce the gap." Jiang Chen gave a smug smile thinking whether he could take another living being along with him to his natal palace.