6 Remember this, His Name is Xue Chang

"Junior brother! You're finally out of seclusion!" A young beautiful man with skin as smooth as the ocean and hair as silky and black as the night sky itself, excitedly ran up to the entrance of a cave.

His name was Liu Fang, a well known outer sect disciple within the Immortal Radiance sect. Liu Fang's name was known far and wide for his talent, strength, beauty, and pride. He was someone that never bowed to others and always held his head high. This was especially true since he was talented enough to reach the The tenth level of Qi refinement in only nine years, something only a handful of people had ever succeeded in doing in the history of their sect.

Yet this powerful and prideful individual was giving off such an excited and adoring expression to the person exiting from the mouth of the cave. A monster of the outer sect, said to be at the ninth level of Qi refinement.

Although he was only at the ninth level, no one underestimated his talents as it only took him four years to reach this point. And three years later he had finally exited secluded cultivation. Now even a tenth level Qi refiner like Liu Fang could not tell what level of strength he was at.

"Hello senior brother Liu Fang, what are you doing here?"

"Of course to accompany you junior brother! How could I, the great Liu Fang, possibly ignore his brother's return?! What a joyous day this is, this just makes me thrilled!" Although his words were kind and celebratory, the excited look on his face revealed his true intentions. The junior brother just shook his head calmly as he walked passed him.

"Wipe that gross look off your face senior brother, it doesn't suit you. But since you wish to accompany me, then let's move on to the ring of challenge. I wish to explore my new strength."

"Of course!"

The ring of challenge was a special arena within the sect. It was the only place where cultivators could challenge each other to a duel in order to test their strength against one another. Fighting between disciples out of the ring of challenge was forbidden, and as such challenges were frequently made within the ring for people to give pointers to one another.

Walking at a steady pace, the two people arrived at the arena in only a few minutes. Once there, they were met with a large crowd of people whispering to each other quietly. Once the crowd saw the two boys approaching, they quickly quieted down and waited for events to unfold with bated breaths.

Liu Fang reaches into a pouch that was tied to his side and surprisingly pulled out a large sign that was several times larger than the bag. The sign read "Battle of Legends! The Monster of Immortal Radiance VS The Sword of Despair: place your bets here and now!".

The crowd was quite surprised by the sign, not only was it well made and clearly prepared just for this day, it was stored away in a storage pouch. This special treasure wasn't rare and many foundation establishment cultivators had them. The reason why they were surprised was due to the fact that a Qi refiner had one.

Although anyone could find a pouch, the price to buy one was not something common Qi refiners could afford. In fact, even most foundation cultivators couldn't afford one, and only those with lots of contribution to the sect would be given the chance to trade for one.

Its main usage was the ability to store large objects within a bent space inside the pouch. The outside looked small but the inside probably had enough space to store several carriages inside. Clearly this Qi refiner was quite wealthy and from the looks of it, this gambling match of his might be the source of that wealth.

Immediately people began making bets and handing over their money to Liu Fang to keep watch over. No one was afraid of him scamming them as he had a pretty good reputation and was known to not be such a person. As such they only had to worry about the outcome of the match and nothing more.

Three years ago, before entering into secluded cultivation, the monster of the sect and someone called the Sword of Despair promised to duel one another after three years. He wasn't some average cultivator that no one had heard of. He was in fact a legendary foundation establishment level two cultivator who was known for his horrifying sword techniques! It was said he got his nickname from giving a cultivator such a beating that his face was permanently warped with an expression of despair and agony.

What was so incredible about this event was that the cultivator was at the peak of the third level of foundation establishment. He had beaten someone an entire level above him and nearing the breakthrough point as well!

This solidified his name and power in the hearts of many. So it was a surprise when the news came out that this legendary figure had promised to duel a Qi refiner disciple on this very day. So of course many people decided to come in order to watch this fight and find out why they were so interested in battling each other.

As bets were made and speculations were being spread around the arena, the monster of the sect and the man dressed in blood red robes approached each other on the stage. Without saying a single word to one another, they clasped their hands together in a bow and held out their weapons prepared to fight.

In a flash, the two opponents disappeared from sight and reappeared high in the sky above the stage. A shockwave washed over the spectators as the clang of their weapons clashing together sounded out.

Pushing away from each other, they both shot forward trading a series of stabs, slashes, and parries. The spectators were shocked by the sight before them as the earth trembled and the sky shook with each of their strikes.

And the foundation spectators were even more shocked as they could tell so,etching the others could not.

"Senior brother Zhu has gotten even more powerful!"

"Not only that, but it seems like Zhu Gang's cultivation base has even risen a little bit. I'd say even level four foundational experts would have difficulties defeating him. Yet that child is capable of keeping up with him! Who is that?"

"I've heard of him before, he was brought to the sect around seven years ago and spent only four years reaching the ninth level of Qi refinement! After that he went into seclusion for three years after talking to senior brother Zhu Gang and promising to face each other today. It is said the entire time he's been here, he's only left the sect twice! And supposedly the second time he left and returned, he was heavily injured. I don't know what he experienced out in the mortal world, but it was frightening enough to push his strength to this level."

"No, there's more than that. All of you look carefully, check on his cultivation!"

The group scanned the monster of sect quickly and when they did all of them sucked in a breath of cold air.

Meanwhile, Zhu Gang who was fighting the young man took in a deep breath as he pulled his arm back.

"Thorns Cross!"

He released a beam of light from his blade that shattered apart and formed a wave of sharp thorns in the shaped a cross. The thorns flew at blinding speed and struck out at the sect monster, who calmly pulled his sword back and gave out a simple thrust.

To others, the thrust looked extremely slow and unimpressive. But Zhu Gang saw things differently. What he witnessed was a thin swordlight covering the edge of the blade and shooting out to strike at the thorns. The actions seemed simple but the amount of fine control he would need was not something anybody could do.

Giving off a slight grin, Zhu Gang had to ask himself if faced with a similar situation could he do such a thing? And he had to admit, he could not!

Pushing away the thorns, the sect monster stepped forward and gave his own attack out.

"Dragon Step Lunge!"

It was as if he teleported in front of Zhu Gang as the sect monster's blade suddenly appeared right in front of him. The blade was now coated with a thicker swordlight that formed the appearance of a dragon that flew from the blade and smacked him in his chest.

The force of the attack was much greater than he expected and Zhu Gang flew out of the stage and into the spectator stand. The attack used was one of the most basic skills the sect taught, but the monster held such a mastery over the technique that it became a lethal weapon.

Although Zhu Gang was strong, the young man had more skill and better control over his own strength. Making him more than capable of defeating him. The fight was short but intense and everyone present could not help but stand up in shock. This was because in that last attack, the cultivation base of the monster was revealed.

Tenth level of Qi refinement! A Qi refining expert had actually beaten someone in foundation establishment!

The strength difference between these two titles was not something a bit of practice could cover. A foundation establishment expert was almost an invincible existence to Qi refiners like them, yet someone had actually succeeded in defeating one.

This blew away their understanding of the cultivation world!

Zhu Gang only took a moment to get himself out of the spectator stand and return to the stage. Once there he bowed once more and said, "Thank you for holding back."

This brought a chill down everyone's back as this insinuated many things. Watching the two disciples before them, they could tell Zhu Gang had more to say. And he did.

Looking up at the person in front of him, he asked, "Tell me, where did you learn such swordsmanship? Your skills are several times greater than my own and it would not be an exaggeration to say that they're number one in the whole continent!"

The young man shook his head and said in a calm manner, "My skills were built and refined over the course of seven days and seven nights. I've lost count of how many matches I've fought but I'm sure they numbered up to the thousands. Only one person faced me every single one of those days. And of the thousands of matches I've fought, I've yet to win one. When I returned to the sect three years ago and went into secluded meditation, I spent the entire time trying to gleam some understandings from my battles. In all of that time I disregarded my cultivation and just focused on increasing my sword skills. I don't know when I broke through to the tenth level and I do not know when I became this powerful."

As he whispered this, he looked down at the blade in his hand and saw the cracks forming across its surface from the strain of the battle and the strain of him practicing with it in the cave everyday for the last three years.

"All I know is that throughout those three years I've only comprehended sixty percent of my opponent's techniques and that was the him of three years ago."

This last sentence sentence brought fear into the hearts of everyone present. They've already had a glimpse of his power, yet there was someone out there who he couldn't best even after thousands of attempts?

Zhu Gang couldn't believe what he was hearing. Even he only had a basic understanding of the young man's strength, yet there was someone who's skills were unbelievably more powerful than even him?

With cold sweat dripping down his brow, Zhu Gang couldn't help but ask, "Who is this person?"

The young man smiled as he looked toward the sky in nostalgia, "He is someone who I will always consider my superior no matter how powerful I'll become in the future. He is my big brother. So remember this, his name is a Xue Chang!"