Chapter 61: Nine Heavenly Swords Formation Pavilion

"Sister, if brother Cong goes into the Nine Heavenly Swords Formation Pavilion, wouldn't he die?!"

"He's dead either way…" Xia Xing Yue gritted her teeth and glared at the gloating Cang Zhong. "That corrupted bastard elder was literally trying to murder him in broad daylight! Disregarding the rules of the school! What does he think he is doing? If this gets out, he won't be able to get away unscathed. He'll definitely get punished!"

She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.

"Shu Cong might still have a chance if he chooses the Nine Heavenly Swords Formation Pavilion. If he stayed outside, there is no doubt that Elder Cang would have killed him. But there is a small chance that he will survive the Nine Heavenly Swords Formation Pavilion. A very small chance, but much larger than being attacked by a superior opponent."

"Really?" Xia Xing Ling's voice was shaky. Xia Xing Yue nodded, even though doubt continued to fill her heart.

"Legend has it that this Nine Heavenly Sword Formation was created by the founder of Ten Thousand Swords Academy. As was said before, if any student is able to survive the formation and leave the pavilion, then the headmaster of Ten Thousand Swords Academy must personally take him as his core disciple. However, it has been a hundred years since anyone has successfully broken out of that formation."

"Then…what if brother fails? Will he really die?"

"…most likely." Xia Xing Yue sounded very reluctant. "All the people who had failed to clear the Nine Heavenly Swords Formation…they never showed up again. Nobody knows what happened to them. They disappeared inside the pavilion, their bodies never to be found."

"No way…"

"Senior Xia, why do you care so much about an insignificant trash?" the student who was punched earlier dragged himself to his feet and glared at Xia Xing Yue. "You shouldn't bother with the likes of him. If you're looking for a friend, how about me?"

Xia Xing Yue glared at him. "Where were you when my sister was in danger? When child traffickers tried to kidnap my sister, it was Shu Cong who saved her. I owe him a debt of gratitude. What about you? What have you done for me? What have you done for my sister? And you are thick-skinned enough to ask me to be your friend after mocking the person to whom I owe a debt of gratitude? Why don't you go look in the mirror and see if you're still worthy?"

"T…that…!" the guy spluttered.

"So what if Shu Cong saved your sister, Xia Xing Yue?" Cang Zhong asked with a sneer. "Anyone can save your sister. If I happened to be around when your sister was abducted, I would have saved her too. With much less effort."

"The fact remains that you didn't and Shu Cong did. Therefore the one I owe gratitude to is Shu Cong, not you, Director Cang."

Xia Xing Yue clenched her fists and forced herself to control her rage. She couldn't get into a fight with Cang Zhong now. She had recorded the events and was determined to send them to the proper authorities. If Director Shen Jian had received her message, he would be on his way now.

Speaking of Shen Jian, he was currently training inside his office. Dense wisps of qi drifted around him, helping to speed up his cultivation.

However, in the middle of his meditation, Shen Jian suddenly opened his eyes.

"Someone actually entered the Nine Heavenly Sword Formation Pavilion. Interesting! Seems like we have quite the impressive youngster this year!"

As for me, I looked around the interior of the pavilion, not exactly pleased with the situation I had been forced into. Despite Xia Xing Yue's warning, I had decided to try my luck. Sure, nobody had succeeded in a hundred years…but conversely, that meant someone succeeded a hundred years ago. Furthermore, I doubted they would keep this formation around and put up such a condition for direct admission as long as one cleared this formation.

I might as well take my chances with it and rubbed it over the faces of the idiots outside instead of enduing a sure-death match against Cang Zhong, who was far too strong for me to fight right now. I wondered briefly if he might have been a demonic cultivator sent back through time and space to eliminate me, but I doubted that.

He seemed purely to want revenge for his grandson, Cang Mu. No wonder all the other people in the reception hall were so reluctant to intervene. Cang Mu was not just individually strong, but he also had the backing of an elder in Ten Thousand Swords University. I didn't regret beating up that bastard, though. It was totally worth caving his body in, to stop him from raping the poor girl.

But for now, I should focus on the present.

I could see nine glowing swords at the back of the pavilion. Without warning, thy flashed forward to stab me but I drew my sword and deflected them.

"Hmm…"

These swords were easy to evade because of my Heavenly Flow and Earthly Paths. If I closed my eyes, I could even see the qi networks and lines that composed these nine swords. Even though their relatively smaller size and swift speed made it hard for me to land a precise hit, as long as I was patient and determined enough, I could finally launch my counterattack.

Weaving through the persistent nine swords, I fended them off and evaded as best as I could while lashing out. My first few strikes sailed through air, futile attempts to trace the vulnerable lines of qi I could sense on the swords. But I finally got used to their rhythm and was able to obliterate the first sword when it drew close enough.

Exhaling in relief, I then took a step forward. Ducking under another sword, I then moved my head to the side and avoided a third by a hair's breadth. The fourth tried to sneak upon me from my blind spot, but it was useless to my Heavenly Flow and Earthly Paths. Curving my sword about, I swept my blade upward and shattered the glowing sword.

Reversing the grip on my sword, I then deflected the fifth before I cut the sixth apart. The remaining swords danced around me furiously, snaking through my strikes and trying to get under my guard. I had to twist my body to evade them, but they left several cuts on my body. I hissed from the pain and felt blood drip from my wounds, but I steeled my resolve and continued darting about. I wasn't going to let these swords beat me.

Patience…I had to be patient.

Closing my eyes briefly, I managed to destroy a third sword. Then a fourth. Slowly but surely, I was getting used to the speed and attack patterns of these swords…and I was going to prevail. It wasn't long before I smashed the last sword.

"Phew."

Exhausted, I dropped to my knees, breathing heavily. Leaning on my sword, I looked around, half-expecting celebratory confetti to drop down on me as a sign that I had cleared the formation. That was tough, but not the hundred year impossibility that I thought it would be. Blood continued to drip from the cuts I had suffered, but most of them had dried by now.

Then I heard the creak before I sensed the emergence of a new foe.

No, new foes. In plural.

Nine terracotta soldiers emerged, each of them wielding a sword. I studied them, my qi sense perceiving something odd about them. If I wasn't mistaken, these were spirit puppets. Uh, something like golems or automatons, usually wielded by a puppeteer. If I recalled, Spirit Forge University was famous precisely for these types of products. I didn't expect to see them here.

Then again, just like Imperial Valley University, it wasn't as if only swordsmen enrolled in Ten Thousand Swords University and spirit puppeteers, blacksmiths and artisans enrolled only in Spirit Forge University.

"This is fucking unfair," I complained. Even so, I knew it was pointless. If this was the test that the Nine Heavenly Swords Formation had for me, then I had no choice but to go with it.

No wonder nobody had cleared it for the past hundred years. I should have known that it wouldn't be that easy.

Taking a deep breath, I raised my dragon sword. The first terracotta soldier approached me, intending to ram his sword into my chest. I could already see the trajectory of the blade, the flow of qi in form of violent currents that swirled around the spirit puppet. Even though there was no human puppeteer to control this particular automaton, it was being powered by the formation that was etched into the interior of the pavilion.

However, it didn't matter to me that the terracotta soldier was made entirely out of rock. As long as it was something that existed in this world, I could kill it.

I took my glasses off and closed my eyes. My already sharp qi sense was further heightened, and the qi currents that I perceived earlier took on fresh tones.

"All right. Come at me, bro."

I dodged to the right, allowing the spirit puppet's sword to clumsily blow past the spot where my face had been. Then I rammed my own blade into the gigantic qi point that I could see, a hug vortex of churning energy that represented the foundation of its existence.

My single strike obliterated the essence of the spirit puppet and it literally fell apart, crumbling into pieces of stone before me.

Opening my eyes and temporarily deactivating my enhanced qi sense for the moment so that I wouldn't overload my brain, I glared at the remaining terracotta spirit puppets. There were still eight of them and they were closing in on me, forming a circle of steel blades.

They were a dangerous foe, yeah. But they weren't invincible.

I smiled. "I see dead…statues."

Then I lunged forward.

Outside, Xia Xing Yue and her sister found themselves joined by a fresh group of people. They were the girls who I had protected the other night from Cang Mu.

"We saw the event on social media and we hurried over to protest," the prettiest girl of the bunch, Hu Mei Er, explained. She was angry. "How can that elder abuse his authority?! His grandson and his gang harassed us first! They would have raped us if Mr. Shu didn't step in!"

"Wow…Shu Cong is really a hero." The sarcastic words were out of Xia Xing Yue's mouth before she realized it. She shook her head. "Does he go around saving people all the time?"

"I saw in a comment that he's the same person who saved the second young miss of the Na Lan clan," one of Hu Mei Er's friends spoke up.

"Why am I not surprised?" Xia Xing Yue sighed. But she smiled and held Hu Mei Er's hands while nodding toward the other girls. "Even so, I appreciate your help. The more people we have, the better. We can't let this injustice slide!"

"That's right!" Xia Xing Ling agreed angrily. "They are just angry at brother for doing the right thing! Those despicable people cornered them!"

Her breathing grew heavy and she doubled over. Xia Xing Yue quickly caught her, but her sister waved her back.

"I…I'm fine. I won't let…anything happen to me…until brother comes out!"

"What's happening to her?" Hu Mei Er asked worriedly. Xia Xing Yue swallowed.

"The cold qi in her body is rampaging. It's a side-effect of the forbidden technique she tried to practice. She's suffering the backlash now."

"Maybe the professors at Snow Plum University might know about this," Hu Mei Er suggested as she took her smartphone out. "I'll ask around. They specialize in ice techniques, so if there's anyone who knows how to treat your sister's condition, it might be them."

"I'll be relying on you then," Xia Xing Yue said, though it was clear she didn't hold much hope. She had thought the same last time, only to be disappointed. She studied the group of girls. "Are you all from Snow Plum University?"

"That's right. We got accepted. We were about to celebrate our admission when we saw this event on social media, so we rushed over."

"Really…thank you." Xia Xing Yue bowed her head.

"Not at all."

"Ha ha ha ha!" Cang Zhong laughed. "You girls are deluded. Shu Cong is definitely dead now."

"How is it that that trash Shu Cong has the support of so many pretty girls?!" the guy who got punched earlier was furious. A few of the other guys around him nodded in angry agreement, but they said nothing.

Cang Zhong, on the other hand, continued chortling. Xia Xing Ling glared at him defiantly.

"Brother will definitely pass! You'll see!"

"Xia Xing Yue, haven't you told your sister about how no one has cleared the Nine Heavenly Swords Formation for about a century now?"

"Well, that record seems to have been broken now."

I stepped out of the pavilion, kicking a broken piece of a crumbling terracotta soldier out of the way. Sheathing my sword, I put my glasses back on and stared at Cang Zhong. I wasn't able to conceal the smug smirk on my face.

"So does this mean I gain direct admission to Ten Thousand Swords University now?"