1 The ice young master

"Here comes our ice young master," said a clansmen as if he was talking about someone else.

This remark attracted the attention of the others to be redirected to the handsome lad that came.

The youth ignored the stares and went to the arena to practice. His name was Li Jian and the one who came to the same arena as him was a tanned youth.

As they drawed their swords a loud "clang" appeared.

Li Zhao - Li Jian's opponent - was quick enough to take the advantage against his peers, while Li Jian was decissive, and wouldn't let the speed defeat him - as he wins the match soon.

When Li Zhao was about to strike Li Jian used Lion Swipe - which he raised it to the imperfect level as seen by the image of the lion that appeared.

Lion Swipe was a move from the Lion Sword Art a yellow rank low tier sword art, but had the strength and sword qi characteristic to be on par with a middle tiered one - thus he won.

Furthermore the Lion Swipe Art has two advanced versions, Fire Lion Sword Art and the White Lion Sword Art, and these two still had other advanced forms to the Black Rank and following the tradition they are comparable to sword arts of the next tier. Unfortunately, only half are intact while the others are incomplete - as the general members know, however only the patriarch, the elder in charge of the Martial Library and a few of the older generations people with high enough cultivation know the number of Black-ranked martial arts that are complete, incomplete and not lost forever.

"You never had a chance to begin with" were the words that came to everyone's mind once they saw the move being executed. Then came the commotion!

"Li Zhao lost? But he is at the fifth level! And he even cultivated Yellow rank mid-tier sword art to the novice level and almost reaching the amateur level!"

"Well despite the attaintment it's not like he could execute it that well."

Only a few manage to recognize that there was something abou the Sword Art he used. To be more specific about the image of the lion that appeared once with the delivery of the winning slash

An elder passed through the arena, while in the middle of his walk where he saw the commotion and saw Li Jian winning with the imperfect level of the Lion Sword Art.

" Martial arts are split into the ranks of: Yellow, Black, Earth and Heaven and are also classified into low, middle, high and peak tiers. As to the stages of practice they are split into novice, newbie, imperfection or imperfect, perfection or perfect, master and grandmaster."

He also knew that it chipped very close to the perfection level, something which scared him very much. Although the Lion Sword Art was comparable to a Yellow rank middle tier sword art that didn't apply to the complexity. That stayed the same to even cultivating it to other realms, at least if one wanted only to reach the realm of imperfection level. From then on if one wanted to elevate it to a higher realm it was the same as trying to do the same with a middle-ranked sword art, and even cultivating to the same level as Li Jian it would still take a few weeks or so for someone with the courtivation of the fourth level of Qi Refinement.

"Li Jian only got it literally only a week ago, so how did he managed to do it?" This elder was named Li Xion and true to his name he was quite muscular, but he also had an elegant bearing akin to someone who rode a lot. That air was because he was the elder of the Martial Library so he should know the best about the time Li Jian acquired the sword art, he wasl also the latter's cousin-grandfather. Then he contemplated while stroking his beard about his visit to the Library and that he chose two manuals for the sword arts.

"If memory serves me right he also got the Quick Slash Sword Style that is good for surprise attacks at the early stages and in some lucky chances at the middle stages . Coupled with a good swordsman and a good technique one could be unrivaled in the Qi Refinement realm and once breaking out of Qi Refinement one could even win against cultivators of higher cultivators of higher levels speaking strictly against the common ones or even beat geniuses in the same realm of the early phase of the Soul Fighter Realm." Thinking up to here he could see the Li Clan avoiding the crisis and even have a few chances to rise up in a way or another.

"This contest is going to be exciting." Li Xiong had a smile on his smile and he quickly went to the Martial Library.