Chapter 12 - I want you.

"I know a way, but what do I get in return?"

Shocked by what they had just heard, Lin Zhange and Hua Lin Chong stood silently staring at Li Dao's devilish grin.

As they thought about how to react, the elevator had finally stopped. "Oh! We're here." Li Dao crossed over to the sect's first peak.

"W-wait! Wait young master Li! Er... Li Dao!" Hua Lin Chong ran after Li Dao as long as possible, holding the disciple's hand that accompanied him by force. "Are you serious?"

The first peak was the most important of the Smooth Sword Sect. Located in the middle of all the peaks, it was where most of the sect's internal competitions took place, and today that it was the day for the core disciples to challenge Yan Zyer, the peak was full.

"Clear." Li Dao took his eyes off his fate and landed on Hua Lin Chong. "When did I lie to you?"

Without hesitation, Hua Lin Chong held Li Dao and with a firm expression said, "Li Dao, if you regain my disciple's sword path, I will be eternally grateful and do whatever you ask, even if you ask me to kill myself! "

Hua Lin Chong had already expressed himself too much, he was on the verge of madness trying to look for a solution in his memories, but no matter what he thinks he always comes to the same result: Young Master.

As long as he could beg his young master, anything was possible!

He saw Zheng Xiang grow up to become someone extraordinary that even his brothers feared, so he had complete confidence in his master, but who knew that the other young master he was ordained to serve could help?

The smile on Li Dao's face faded as he took in Hua Lin Chong's serious face. He shifted his gaze towards Lin Zhange who was silent until now with lifeless eyes and asked, "Is she that important to you?"

"IT IS!" He replied without hesitation.

"Aaah..." He looked at the crowd at the competition venue and turned his gaze to Hua Lin Chong. "Unfortunately, I don't want anything from you."

Li Dao pulled his arms back and placed them behind his back, he advanced on Lin Zhange leaving his face just inches from hers. "I want you."

"Y-do you want me?" Lin Zhange blushed in embarrassment as he let his master see this kind of situation.

"WHICH!?" Hua Lin Chong screamed in amazement.

"That's what you heard. I can heal you, but you'll have to become mine." Seeing that Lin Zhange had misunderstood, he tried again, "Just as Hua Lin Chong is Zheng Xiang's servant, you will have to become my servant if you want me to heal you."

Li Dao intently watched Lin Zhang's cold, thoughtful face, and ignored Hua Lin Chong actively staring at him. "Can I think about it?"

He smiled. "Of course. You have until the end of the tournament!" And just like that, he turned his back on the duo and walked towards the crowd.

[...]

Thousands of Sect disciples gathered on the day of the tournament, most of them being outside disciples. Their uniform bleached the entire arena white. They could see the leader of the sect that alone already attracted a lot of attention, accompanied by a man and a boy.

There were many outer disciples and they all wore white uniform, inner disciples also wore white with darker and core disciples wore white and gold.

Li Dao wore blue robes with a purple robe on top and Hua Lin Chong a black uniform.

There was a noticeable difference between the two and the other Inner Sect Disciples. The number of disciples in the Sect could be considered large, but it was not large enough for them not to recognize their disciples. No one recognized the two unfamiliar faces for a few moments, but since Li Dao's arrival, the rumor about a young Middle Heaven star appearing in this sect spread, causing some to soon recognize both of them.

"So this is Young Master Li!"

"Really? I heard from an acquaintance of the Thundercloud Sect that he fought the outer disciples and defeated them all, mid sky cultivators really are something else!!"

"Wow! He gives off a different aura!"

"If that's young master Li, then next to him must be the mysterious guardian of the holy realm!"

"Tsk, even I can defeat those Thundercloud Sect trash. If only I had the same resource as him, I'd be way above, I want to see him fight me, I'd beat him until he's unrecognizable!"

An Inner cultivator scoffed. There will always be people who think they are better than everyone else and that the world is unfair for being born unknown, whether out of jealousy, envy or whatever.

"I'm not so sure. I also heard from my friend that he being at the sixth level of the Mental Reinforcement, he was able to defeat ninth tier disciples. I can feel his cultivation base and it is that of a cultivator of the sixth tier of the Mental Reinforcement."

After they discovered his identity, the distance between them grew closer.

"Why is it that young master Li is here?"

"Perhaps he wanted to challenge the sect's disciples too?"

Li Dao just kept quiet, facing the middle of the arena where Yan Zyer was and ignoring the people around him.

Standing in a place reserved for the sect leader, he bit his lip when he realized he was still a long way off. Unlike the disciples who were seated in the chairs below the arena, Li Dao was higher up in a private room for Lin Zhange.

By then, Hua Lin Chong had stopped trying to convince Li Dao to help and Lin Zhange was more concerned at the moment with her disciple.

'Tsk, I don't have the vision of you who can see the details from a distance." He went down to the seats around the arena where the disciples were. "I'll come close, I'll be right back!"

He could feel the diverse gazes of both disciples and sect elders who watched him walk down from the place and into the crowd.

The place reserved for the elders and the sect leader was behind the arena and the seats for the disciples were in the front at a lower height. As he passed the arena, smiling he turned to Yan Zyer who was standing holding her sword and said:

"Good luck killer girl."

Those who could hear, were shocked by the nickname, but held back from saying anything when they saw Li Dao walk down the stairs of the arena and sit in one of the front rows with the disciples.

The rumors and gossip ended when Li Dao arrived. The disciples who were sitting next to him broke out in a cold sweat with fear of doing anything.

Despite not being approved by the elders, Yan Zyer was quite famous in the sect. In addition to being talented, she is extremely beautiful, she had long straight black hair with white tips, green eyes with a black iris and wore a short blue uniform that was a smaller version of Lin Zhange's outfit.

When they heard Li Dao call her a killer girl, Yan Zyer's fan club felt hatred towards Li Dao, but none of them had the courage to do so openly.

The Elder who was also on stage feeling the strange atmosphere due to Li Dao's presence then decided to intervene. "Now, let's start the tournament."

"The rules are pretty simple, and it's an opportunity for everyone in the top 50 of the Smooth Sword Rankings." The Elder pointed to one end of the arena where there was a stone wall and carved into it were several names in descending order. "And whoever manages to defeat number one can have a chance to become a disciple of Grand Master Lin."

"Now let's get started!" In the seats, a little further ahead of everyone, there were 50 separate seats for all the disciples who had a place in the Ranking. "Which of you wants to be the first to fight? Please raise your hand!"

Despite being a benefit that only the 50 strongest disciples could have, most of the disciples present knew that they were no match for Yan Zyer, she was not Lin Zhange's disciple by luck.

She had a talent for it, and she struggled as if she didn't.

As expected, only two people raised their hands.

Being them, rank 2 Yi Kum and rank 3 Qin Tian.

Seeing that no one else wanted to try he continued. "Yan Zyer, who will you fight?"

Most people were here to see this fight. Yi Kum was tipped to be Lin Zhange's disciple since he became core disciple, he was known as the greatest genius before the current disciple.

Yan Zyer was the typical heroine who was destined to be a member of a protagonist's harem. Known to all as a beauty, bearing the title of Fairy Zyer, she was the cliché of the cliché.

Someone she is cold and closed to everyone, but for some event she would open up to the protagonist.

In the novel, Zheng Xiang doesn't actually go to the Smooth Sword Sect and doesn't know either Yan Zyer or Lin Zhange, so Li Dao had been shocked by Hua Lin Chong's connection to that Sect.

Watching the two disciples who raised their hands, Yan Zyer laid his eyes on the elder and replied, "I can fight both of them at the same time.

"..." The pair of participants.

"..." Li Dao.

"..." The Elder who asked.

Only Lin Zhange was clapping while Hua Lin Chong smiled at the attitude of her student's disciple. 'It feels like I'm going back in time...'

"Yan Zyer! Don't get cocky because you were chosen as the master's disciple!"

Hearing Qin Tian's grumble, Li Dao smiled. 'Damn, it's the same in the novels! There's always this guy who tells the protagonist not to be arrogant!'

"That's right Yan Zyer, don't get arrogant, I'm enough to defeat you." Facing Qin Tian, Yi Kum stood up and started up the arena stairs.

Coming face to face with Yan Zyer, he got into a fighting stance, but his opponent just stood there staring at him.

Yi Kum was the typical arrogant young master who wanted to appear calm and understanding in public but was laughable and held a grudge inside. Seeing that his opponent wasn't taking him seriously, he stepped forward.

Clang!

A shock wave swept through the arena as the disciples watched in awe at the exchange of movements.

While Yan Zyer was standing in the same spot countering his opponent's attacks, Yi Kum was trying in every way to find a weakness in his defense.

One interesting thing Li Dao noticed is that none of them were using techniques or their understanding of the sword's intent, they were fighting purely using their sword skills.

However, these movements were so fast that Li Dao wondered if perhaps he had stayed in Lin Zhang's room and he would have been able to see everything.

Feeling the same feeling as before, Li Dao was able to observe their movements and compare them to his own. 'I'm still full of flaws compared to them.' And so in his mind, he started to correct those flaws in himself.

Suddenly, Yi Kum saw an opening in Yan Zyer's impenetrable defense, he attacked with his sword and moved his body, dropping a palm on her stomach.

Unfortunately her palm met the air when she saw Yan Zyer disappear from the reach of her sword and appear just a few feet away from him. She ducked and landed a knee in his stomach.

Feeling his stomach heave, her hand shook as he felt like he might throw up, but with no time to rest, Yan Zyer cut behind his leg and placing his hand on her face she pushed him to the ground.

Feeling the cut on her leg and seeing the blood on Yan Zyer's blade, Yi Kum puts his hands on the ground doing a backflip and throws himself back to gain distance.

As he distanced himself, he being a cultivator in the Foundation Establishment Realm, covered his sword with Qi.

"Art of the Three Blades!" Still in the air, three blades of Qi appeared around his sword and shot towards Yan Zyer.

A shock wave has intensified leaving a crater as Yan Zyer disappears from where he was rapidly advancing towards Yi Kum.

Unable to move in the air, time seemed to run in slow motion as Yi Kum saw Yan Zyer appear in front of him again.

He shielded his belly but watched her sword come towards him covered in Qi.

There was no exchange of blows, when the disciples managed to see the fighters again, Yi Kum was on the ground covered in wounds with blood running down them and his robes torn.

Yan Zyer was standing with the same expression she started as she looked at him.

"I wasn't kidding."

Silence dominated the place as they could see Yi Kum fall onto the arena.

"TH-THIS IS THE MANIFESTATION KINGDOM!!! THIS GIRL!?" The Elder who was in the arena to supervise the combat, forgot to go help Yi Kum when he observed Yan Zyer's understanding of the sword's intent. "Leader!! She managed to understand even the realm of manifestation!"

"Impossible!" One of the elders who was in the private room jumped into the arena to get a closer look." This girl..."

Oblivious to the reactions, Yan Zyer ignored everything around her, she looked at the audience, more specifically at a cultivator and again with the same expression, she asked. "Let's duel?"

Silence once again took the place as Li Dao got up quickly, feeling excited by the fight he went up the stairs. "Of course, ever since I saw you swing your sword I was curious."

He took out his worn blade. Showing all the strength of a cultivator in Mental Reinforcement, his blade began to catch fire.

"T-that... Elemental Qi!? Young Master..."

Yan Zyer responded by circling his sword art and getting into a fighting stance.

"Which will be stronger? your fluidity." He went on high guard. "Or my aggression?"

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Image of Yan Zyer in the comments.