Chapter 142

"Haa!" Xiu Ye, with a stoic expression, deflected the long single-edged blade that was going to behead from the side with a wooden sword, with a tiger strap attached to its guard, that seem to radiate and scream bloodlust every time it came into contact with the opponent's sword.

His eyes met with the owner of the katana, a katana he once wielded as a substitute from using Ryūjin Jakka due to the latter being extremely powerful and a danger to his peers, a katana that was imbued with the knowledge of a Breath/Sword Technique which would transmitted into the user.

To which he gifted the sword to a friend and disciple of his.

Mu Xi jumped back and took a short deep breath in, steam and flames coming out through her mouth as she exhaled, her feet stopped for a moment on the solid concrete floor before she leaped towards Xiu Ye, shattering the ground beneath her feet, she raised her sword over her head horizontally.

"Sun Breathing: Flame Dance!"

Xiu Ye took a step back, dodging the down slash of her sword with intense fire covering it, and jumped back as Mu Xi's feet hit the ground and leaped towards him once more and went for a horizontal slash at the right side of his abdomen.

The heterochromia haired boy deflected the attack once more and it caused him to fly to the left, which he landed perfectly and gracefully back on his feet.

Xiu Ye held his wooden sword with both hands and swiped up to his side to slide Mu Xi's sword past his body and deflecting it once more.

The two blacksmiths looked at each other's eyes for a brief moment before they engaged themselves into an fight of wood and metal blades against each other.

Contrary to everyone's perception of Mu Xi, she wasn't a swordwoman, as she was known back during the Unholy War and in the fighting tournaments she entered, but a blacksmith with the power of the sun's flames. Due to the Yang Sword's ability, which Xiu Ye used alteration into giving it such a ability, she received the knowledge and experience of using the Sun Breathing or Hinokami Kagura.

Although her achievements in the sword art was progressing well, to the point she managed to awakened her Sword Will, Mu Xi, at her core however, was a blacksmith.

Even if she used numerous weapons with great mastery to rival a master, even including fighting unarmed, even if she became known as the strongest soul master–she didn't care. In her heart and soul, she was someone who creates things out of metal.

Xiu Ye respected that. That drive, that conviction... Mu Xi had long since found her path of life. A goal. To push herself above and beyond from her limits.

Just like himself. As both Xiu Ye and EMIYA.

A smile spread across his cheeks.

'Heh, this is why I like you more compared to Tang Wulin and the rest, Mu Xi. You're a decisive and straightforward person.' And not because she doesn't annoy him much like the others.

Xiu Ye raised Tora-Shinai, the name of the bamboo sword in his hands, over his head vertically, he reinforced it and red Sword Aura covered the blade that seemed to snarl for blood and death, and slashed down on Mu Xi.

Mu Xi momentarily froze, having been caught in the bloodlust of the sword that could make an adult wet themselves, but she quickly snapped out of it and hurriedly blocked it with the body of her sword, with the handle in her right hand and the flat surface of the blade on her left. Blue circuit lines appeared across her entire skin and her sword.

The moment Tora-Shinai made contact with Mu Xi's sword, it caused wave of shockwave and bloodlust to spread out.

Mu Xi's knees buckled, she felt her arms turning heavy, her sword trembled as it was straining from the impact of Xiu Ye's attack and killing intent surrounding the wooden sword.

'Seriously, what is with that wooden sword?! Its killing intent is much more potent than the evil soul masters I fought three years ago! Is that thing fucking sentient?!' With how much she hung around with Xiu Ye, seeing the impossible things he'd done, she wouldn't be surprised if Tora-Shinai was.

'If I hadn't already experienced Xiu Ye's own killing intent, more times than I can count that I'm surprised I haven't been traumatized by him by now, I would have thought that killing intent was his.' Mu Xi gritted her teeth, letting out a war cry, she used every strength in her body and pushed Tora-Shinai back and sent a reinforced high kick up Xiu Ye's chin.

Xiu Ye dodged it, backflipping in midair, he landed back on his feet.

"First, second and third soul skills:" Mu Xi held the Yang Sword horizontally over her face, its tip pointing at Xiu Ye. Her martial soul, Shining Sun, appeared above her head and five soul rings glowed into existence around her body: purple, purple, purple, purple and purple soul rings and three of them shone brightly. "Burn Up, Blue Flare, Nine Inferno Suns."

The fire surrounding and covering her body turned sky blue, her martial soul duplicated into nine copies of itself.

The temperature around her turned up to an unbearable level of heat. So much that it burned the air around her and caused the space to become unstable.

Mu Xi gritted her teeth. She instantly felt her well of soul power almost drained dry as she used half of her soul skills. But if she had the chance to defeat Xiu Ye, she didn't have to hold back like she does to her new classmates in the outer court.

"Sun Breathing!" She yelled, not finishing to tell what technique she was going to use, as she charged towards him once more.

And this time, she was rushing in with the intent to kill.

The storm of perpetual blue fire surrounding her started to warp together and condensed at the tip of the Yang Sword's blade, it swirled together like a hurricane but to a onlookers view, it looked what seems to be a sword.

It almost looked like a sword from hell, sent to destroy everything in its path of conquest.

Its target, Xiu Ye, only smirked at the approaching blaze of flue flames that can rival the breath of a ten thousand year old fire dragon.

'Well damn. Not only did you managed to use three of your soul skills at the same time without pause, but you also incorporated it to amplify the power of the Sun Breathing technique? I knew that technique was best suited for you when you said you wanted to use a sword to fight in the Unholy War.' Xiu Ye began to recall why and how Mu Xi ended up with the Yang Sword.

It was a simple reason really. Three years ago, during the whole evil apocalypse situation in Skysea City, Mu Xi felt helpless against the undead and evil soul masters.

They were tough after all, especially the undead since they have the sturdy body of a Soul King or Soul Emperor. It would take more than fire bending and martial arts to kill them.

So, she decided to use a weapon and Xiu Ye gave her one, the Yang Sword. As using it was no longer necessary for him. Though he did had to reforged it again, to shorten its length as it was too long to use efficiently.

He just didn't think she'd reach this far.

He knew that with just Tora-Shinai and Reinforcement, despite the former being surprisingly sturdy enough to block the Yang Sword without using Reinforcement on it at first; which is capable of cutting through spirit refined metals like a knife through butter.

It still wouldn't be enough to block Mu Xi's attack and get away without suffering any injuries.

Xiu Ye really wasn't that concerned about being hit with a flaming javelin/missile, capable disintegrating and melting through a small village, because of his high fire resistance and health regeneration.

That wasn't the problem however. It was that Mu Xi is charging at him with the intent to kill him.

If there's some things his regeneration can't heal him with, it was his heart, brain and decapitation. The last one was due to the point of Mu Xi aiming for his neck.

'... Looks like I have to get a little serious.' Xiu Ye thought.

Oh and although it looks like several minutes has passed, in truth, it was but a fraction of a second. It was all because of a skill Xiu Ye had inherited from EMIYA.

Mind's Eye, a danger-avoidance ability that calmly grasps of the enemy's strength as well as his own situation during predicament and deduces the available means of survival on that situation. As long as there is even a 1% chance of victory, it draws in the chance to put said strategy into motion.

This wasn't the result of talent, but due to an overwhelming amount of combat experience.

'For overcoming countless battlefields. Not even once retreating. Not even once being understood. I guess it was natural for him to get this skill, huh...' Xiu Ye thought to himself as he let out a sigh. Though, even without Mind's Eye, he would have still come up with something to block Mu Xi's attack.

He didn't want to activate the skill at all, as it was a really broken skill, but because he was still unused to it the skill would sometimes activate on its own.

It's a great skill, he wasn't going to lie as it was almost like foresight, but it really ruins his fun when he goes to spar against his friends and some of the faculty members.

"I am the bone of my sword..." He muttered, dematerializing Tora-Shinai, and he stretched his right hand forward.

"Rho Aias!"

As it was a training for Mu Xi and his friends, it was also training for him as well. He was always hesitant in using much of his weapons in his inner world, what with the possibility of the Federation, Spirit Pagoda or the Holy Spirit Cult kidnapping him.

Xiu Ye blocked the fire storm that smashed onto his shield for a moment, managing to make cracks on the first petal out of four, his lips curled into a smile full of pride.

'To make cracks on Rho Aias, her attack is equal to a full powered attack by a Soul Sage!' He knew that very well during his sparring spree with the faculty members in the academy. 'Good job, Mu Xi.'

He dropped his hand when the flames dispersed into a haze of steam, he traced a black colored sword, spun on his heel, and swung the sword to the side–cutting through the heavy steam to deflect a sword thrust away that would have pierced his head.

He winced

Xiu Ye smirked, lowering his broken sword, as he regarded a heavily panting Mu Xi with pride.

"Sun Breathing: Solar Heat Haze and Sunflower Thrust. Not bad. Using the Solar Heat Haze as a feint and used Sunflower Thrust as a sneak attack under the cover of the steam. If it were anyone else at your cultivation level, they would have been overwhelmed by just the heatwave and if it were a Soul Sage, you would have successfully killed them with that Sunflower Thrust."

Mu Xi forced a smirk in return.

"But I still wasn't able to land a successful hit on you..."

"What? You're more concern over that? Don't worry about it. You're getting stronger Mu Xi. It's not like the others had done it."

Mu Xi pouted. "Exactly! I want to be the first one to land a hit on you! Especially to that smug face of yours!"

Xiu Ye's expression darkened.

"... Looks like you aren't tired just yet. Alright! Raise your sword up again!"

Mu Xi's face started to drain out of all colors.

"N-No. Ye, no, teacher! You must be so tired, much more than me, so how about let's rest for now? Hey? Let's talk about this–noooooo!"

It was just another day of training between two Shrek students.