Duel

A few hours later the group of four had settled down at a hill clearing. Red was cooking some Zerg meat from the beetle he had killed earlier. He had been eating Zerg meat now whenever he could and the spirit in his qi lake would get satisfied from the meat.

Suddenly Master Lu came and stood beside him and coughed. Red looked up and saw that he wanted to talk something important to him so he got up. "What's up?" Red asked.

"I wish to challenge you to a duel!" Master Lu said very formally.

Red looked at Master Lu weirdly. Ever since they had reunited, both this guy and Shuli had been acting very bizarrely. Even the holy child was looking at Master Lu with a crooked smile on her face.

"We just got together and you just healed yourself. Why do you want to suddenly fight?" Red asked, puzzled at what exactly was going on.

Master Lu turned and looked at Shuli, who was also staring at the two of them. "I want to know what makes you worthy!" He said, looking deeply at Red again.

"Ha?!?" Red made a weird sound, he was totally confused now. When Shuli saw that reaction she choked on her throat and coughed and the holy child was struggling to hold back her laughter.

"Just fight him one." Shuli told Red. Red was even more confused now. "Okay, but what is the point?"

Shuli got angry and yelled with an elevated voice. "Why do you ask so many questions? Just fight him once."

"Okay, okay." Red surrendered while wondering why people were so hard to understand and acting so mysteriously.

Both Red and Master Lu went to a plain a little away from the resting point to have a duel. Lu looked at Red. "How do I address you?" He asked. "My name is Red." Red replied.

"Red, you may call me Lu Shen." Master Lu said. "I want to challenge you to a duel. If you win I will give you a bottle of Blinding Light Liquid, but if you lose... you must stay away from Shuli."

When Red heard that he frowned. He had heard from the holy child during their travel that Blinding Light Liquid was a unique treasure grown by Radiant Sect in a spirit treasure and was highly sought after. It could be used to raise spirits in weapons, but the terms of the duel made Red confused. What did him being around Shuli have anything to do with this?

Regardless, Red chose to accept. The both took out their swords. Red swung the sword to his side while Lu Shen held the sword in a peculiar form perpendicular to his chest towards Red. A slight gust of wind blew past and the two moved.

Red was quick and his sword already arrived at Lu Shen's neck who was shocked by the lethality of the sword and desperately brought his sword up to block it.

The clash of swords rang throughout the valley , however, it was constantly Lu Shen being pushed back. He was bleeding from his lips as he desperately defended against Red's powerful blows. Red had not being using his sword intent yet, just simple sword strikes which seemed poorly thought out, but lethal with every blow.

With a final strike Lu Shen was thrown back and fell to the ground. However, Red did not move, because he saw that Lu Shen was breaking through to core formation stage.

At core formation stage the qi sea would fuse to form a core that would rapidly increase one's combat ability. Surprisingly, Lu Shen's newly formed core actually looked like a sword. Red did not interrupt his breakthrough and guarded him until he completed consolidating his core formation realm.

Lu Shen suddenly got up and charged towards Red. He had become visibly faster and stronger and decided to go on the offensive. Red was ready with his sword. Suddenly Lu Shen's sword vibrated and a small chime sounded.

Red was surprised. It appeared that Lu Shen had grasped a hint of a sword intent, but it was very faint. Red continued to parry Lu Shen's attacks but did not use his own sword intent. He wanted to absorb the shocks from this new sword intent to learn.

An hour later, Red and Lu Shen had returned to the resting area and the two women looked on curiously. Lu Shen looked terrible, but he seemed to have broken into Core Formation like the two of them, while Red was smiling, holding a bottle of Blinding Light Liquid.

The holy child was shocked. "A whole bottle of Blinding Light Liquid?" Blinding Light Liquid was very rare and used by the Sect as diplomatic gifts to other super organizations and only a few drops would usually be given. To give Red an entire bottle, Master Lu must have lost his mind. She looked at Lu Shen, who didn't say anything and just sat in the corner.

Red asked the holy child how to use the Blinding Light Liquid and she explained that he just needed to drip a drop on a treasure and it would automatically absorb it. It was very useful for spirit treasures or spirits within a cultivator.

Red summoned the cauldron and showed the Blind Light Liquid. "Pot, do you want this?" The cauldron sensed the energy and surprised. "Lad, you actually found such a good thing? This won't work on me unfortunately. Feed it to the spirit that was just born."

Red nodded and took out a drop of the bright gold like liquid from the bottle and swallowed it. Immediately, his body began running Profound Asura Scripture at rapid speed and Red could literally hear a cry of joy from his qi lake as the Blinding Light Liquid was absorbed by it. The qi lake shined brightly for a long time until the drop was completely absorbed. He could feel that the qi lake was feeling full and had suddenly acquired a starry quality to it. The lake looked like a sea of twinkling stars as the color of the lake became a deeper blue as well.