A Martial Odyssey

Chapter 97: The Infinity Swordplay vs. the Virtuous Swordplay

All the visiting celestials were looking at this lovely and demure maiden now who had stepped quietly forward. It was as though they had noticed her for the first time.

She had dull expressionless eyes but there was unfathomable intelligence within her eyes as well.

They could scarcely believe their ears and eyes when they heard her quiet firm proclamations to duel with the Immortal Sword Sages!

The Immortal Sword Sages were not only Golden Celestials but they were all ancient as well and were all at least a seventh tier celestial while this lovely maiden who carried herself with an air of magnificent dignity was only a celestial practitioner that had only reached the Emotion Level.

By all accounts, she was just an insignificant practicing celestial that possessed no threat to these mighty Golden Celestials! Even if she had a divine sword, it did not matter to these Golden Celestials. The level and power difference between them were simply too vast!

But at the same time, Yunzi was the type that could attract the attention of all the others if she made any slight move. It did not matter if she was surrounded by other extraordinary beauties! If she was alone, her extraordinary beauty would surely radiate like a rainbow!

All of a sudden, the visiting celestials were all looking at her with an extraordinary appraisal. They had suddenly noticed that this maiden had a virtuous air around her, instantly attracting their attention. They began to notice that even though she was dressed in ordinary gray attire which was devoid of any jewelries, the arrangements of her dress was extremely particular and tidy. Even her long hair was tied into many beautiful knots and with an elegant design.

Keen observers would notice that this arrangement was not simply an artistic design or arrangement and it was not easy to be loosened during a battle!

Many of the visiting celestials were highly attained and were not interested in any Dual Celestial Practice. But somehow the elegant quiet Yunzi had the effect of making them had that second thought as they stared blankly at her delicate features and every single small movement!

Even the Northern Tyrant who was not interested in any Dual Celestial Practice was secretly thinking of bedding her and ruining this virtuous maiden. Maybe that was why Yunzi had always been attracting the wrong attentions but it was also precisely for the same reason that Yi Ping had been attracted to her quiet yet compelling air!

Yunzi blinked at Yi Ping as she said gently, "Ping'Er, don't cry. Knowing you is the happiest day of my life and moreover, the outcome is still undetermined."

Yi Ping muttered, "Yunziplease reconsider"

Even the Deadly Wanderer was saying, "Maiden, maybe you can reconsider. I am sure that the three Immortal Sword Sages are all eminent practitioners. They surely will not mind if you back off of your words!"

Yu'Er and Mei'Er were still recovering from the startled shock. They tried to reach to her with their Dual Inertness Intricacy but it was a complete blank.

They always had difficulty deciphering Yunzi's emotions. Yunzi was very quiet and her state of divinity was as tranquil as the Celestial Fairy, who was their protg mistress. Even in the direst of situations, Yunzi was able to maintain her level-headed.

Lingfeng was secretly trembling but she quickly recovered her composure before anyone had noticed her. She had a sudden frightening thought, "Is Yunzi planning to sacrifice herself for our sake?"

She had been through many battles with Yunzi. Among all the maidens, Yunzi was perhaps the most virtuous among them all. She was cool, well-liked, intelligent and self-sacrificing. There were many key battles that without Yunzi to make the first decisive move, they would have either lost or would have completely lost their courage!

In short, they had grown to be dependent for her support and she was certainly not the weakest among them!

Yunzi was a quiet maiden but in a fight, she was the most analytical and the most observant. She was the type that was willing to sacrifice for her friends and using herself as their shields to unravel the opponents' loopholes and weakness.

This had happened too many times and Yi Ping was trembling nonstop silently, "Yunzi, are you planning to sacrifice yourself so that the others can witness the sword strokes of the Immortal Sword Sages?!"

Xiao Youxue was gasping, "Sister!"

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage hummed coldly to Yunzi, "Maiden, you are simply overrating yourself!"

Yunzi lifted her eyes and looked sharply at the Immortal Sword Blitz, "Senior, I know that your finger stance is particular powerful and is more than a match for my precious sword."

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage was secretly startled at her unwavering pose. It was because she was just a lowly celestial practitioner; even for most Golden Celestials, it was hard for them to maintain an unwavering pose under his watchful gaze.

So he waited for her to finish first as he was suddenly interested to hear what she was going to say.

When Yunzi saw that the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage was quiet, she took it as a signal for her to continue, "Your Six Negative Ley Infinitude Sword Aura is already so overwhelming and your internal strength is also superior to me. Is that so?"

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage nodded quietly.

Yunzi had correctly pointed out their martial differences!

All the visiting celestials were completely allured by Yunzi's captivating voice. It was as though she had a mesmerizing hold on everyone!

Yi Ping had suddenly remembered the scene when he had first met her. She also had the same similar mesmerizing hold on everyone back then!

Yunzi added, "This is a duel and there are rules to state what type of challenges it will be right?"

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage smiled bitterly, "Maiden, if you want to challenge me to poetry or an art contest then will it be considered a martial contest?"

Yunzi replied assuring, "It will be a martial contest of course. After all, affairs of the martial fraternity are best to settle with the strength of our martial arts. If Senior does not mind at all, shall we have a contest on who has the superior swordplay? What do you think?

All the visiting celestials, Yi Ping, the Universal Old Man and the other maidens were all stunned. Swordplay was the undisrupted strength of the Infinity Sword Celestial Clan and the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage was renowned for his epitome swordplay!

He was known as the Immortal Sword Blitz Sword because of his extremely fast swordplay that could end the lives of his opponents in a blink of an eye. Unless the celestial practitioner had at least reached the Transverse Level, it was impossible to catch the slightest movement of his first stroke!

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage asked coldly, "You are sure?"

Yunzi asked, "You dare not?"

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage roared with laughter, "Young maiden, I accept your challenge. But remember, swords are blind and I cannot promise you that I may restraint myself. I will treat you as an equally respectable opponent and don't expect me to give any leeway to you."

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage was not someone who would underestimate his opponents or treat his opponents lightly. Or else, he would not be able to survive this long and became a Sword Sage!

In short, there was no chance that Yunzi would be able to exploit his momentarily carelessness!

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage asked, "Your name and clan?"

Yunzi replied, "Your junior name is Dugu Yunzi. I am from the Sacred Divine Clan. It is but a lowly status clan in the lower realm and is not worth mentioning."

Indeed, no one here had heard of the Sacred Divine Clan!

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage raised his fingers forward as he said, "Good! I will remember your name. I will give you the benefit of the first move!"

Yunzi nodded as she unsheathed her long precious sword and displayed a sword stance, "Then I shall not decline then!"

She inhaled a deep breath of vital energies and immediately four wisps of bluish spheres could be seen around her!

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage said coldly, "The Invincible Divine Force! Unfortunately, your attainment of this divine skill is too slowly to threaten me. At most, you will be able to protect yourself from my sword energies"

All of a sudden, Yunzi had raised her long beaming sword into danced into a zigzag display on him!

This type of swordplay attack was called the Darting Swallow Attack and was an extremely difficult maneuver to execute but Yunzi had executed it flawlessly!

Yunzi's first attack had missed the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage of course but she responded by displaying the Darting Swallow Attack again, realigning her attacks on the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage instantly!

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage was impressed by her swordplay to say, "Good attack!"

But this type of attack had too many weaknesses and exposed her vulnerability. While he was praising her attack moves, he had raised his fingers to stab her with his sword fingers!

In a blink of an eye, the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage sword fingers were on her!

Yi Ping, many of the maidens and many of the visiting celestials were gasping anxiously for Yunzi! It was because the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage attacking moves were too fast that they could not even see clearly!

Yi Ping had to focus with his Absolute Spirit and the highest level of his Emptiness Translucent to get the slightest sight of the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage's attacks!

Yunzi had imbued the Invincible Divine Force on her left palm and had blocked off the sword fingers of the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage!

Not once, but twice, thrice!

As Yunzi blocked the attacks of the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage, her vital energies were starting to reverse; it was because the sword energies and martial power of the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage were really too powerful!

As the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage and Yunzi began to exchange their sword and fingers furiously, the entire flooring beneath them were completely ripped off and flying in all directions!

But many of the visiting celestials, Yi Ping, the Universal Old Man and the other maidens were not willing to step back as they were mesmerized by their attacking swordplay! But at the same time, they were startled how Yunzi could be able to predict the moves of the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage with such uncanny accuracy, with many of the defensive stances readied before the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage had even made his actually attacks!

The Ascension Goddess was startled as she thought, "She has also my superior energy sense? That is impossible. My energy sense skill is the result of centuries of energy practice and is extremely gruesome to perfect.but she seems to be able to predict all the attacking moves of the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage!?"

But nevertheless, Yi Ping and the rest were all watching intently! It was because Yunzi was showing them ways of countering the Infinity Swordplay of the Infinity Sword Celestial Clan!

Yi Ping, the Universal Old Man and the rest of the maidens were startled that Yunzi could counter the swordplay of the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage, even though it was obviously that if Yunzi could not find a way soon, she would eventually be defeated.

Yunzi and the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage had exchange another dozen strokes when Yunzi had suddenly coughed out blood and exposed a momentum weakness as she staggered weakly backward!

But the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage did not exploit this moment of weakness. Instead he asked coldly, "How did you know Infinity Swordplay!? Can you take my Ten Thousands Blitzing Swords?!"

The Immortal Sword Aegis Sage and the Immortal Sword Zealot Sage were startled that the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage had actually used his secret killing technique, the Ten Thousands Blitzing Swords!

The Immortal Sword Aegis Sage and the Immortal Sword Zealot Sage were suddenly very solemn. What were they thinking?

As the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage shouted his secret technique name, he had raised his hands forward and flicker his fingers. Immediately, dozens of sword energy bursts shot towards Yunzi!

The air around him burst forth with deadly sword energies and many of the celestials quickly moved backward for fear of getting injured by the sword energies!

Yi Ping shouted panicky, "Yunzi!"

But Yunzi raised her precious long sword and suddenly executed her flying sword technique!

Her sword arm had flipped and rotated her long precious sword and immediately her sword had spin forth into a flying sword that was imbued entirely with deadly martial power! But this flying sword was different from usual; it was because she had imbued the martial power of the Invincible Divine Force into it!

In one instant, her flying sword had dispersed all the sword bursts of the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage and had flown directly at the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage!

The visiting celestials were startled for they had never seen such a flying sword technique before!

But the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage had simply raised his fingers forward and knocked the flying sword aside with his martial power!

As the flying sword was knocked aside and crushed into the ground with a thunderous impact, the flying sword had suddenly rebound with an even more powerful martial force as it absorbed the martial force of the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage and redirected back at him again!

At the same time, Yunzi had taken out a hidden wrist foldable sword and had executed another flying sword at the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage. But that was not the end; she had thrown her scabbard forward into a martial power imbued flying scabbard that sped ahead of her flying sword!

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage was startled that he was suddenly faced with three different attacks from three different directions!

He immediately drawn out a precious sword from his back, while deflecting the two flying swords and the flying scabbard, he had also counter attack with a powerful sword energy directed at Yunzi!

This sword energy directly struck Yunzi, who saw it coming. She struggled to raise her martial power again and displayed both the Holy Amalgamate Force to neutralize the offensive force and the Invincible Divine Force as a protective shield at the same time. However, she had exhausted much of her martial power in her offensive and the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage's sword energy was simply too overwhelming; she coughed out blood and was flung to the air!

Yi Ping, Yixian, Lingfeng and Youxue immediately got into action and caught hold of her!

Yi Ping was shouting, "Yunzi, are you alright?!"

Yunzi smiled weakly, "I am sorry, II have done everything that I can but I guess, I am still unable to defeat him"

Yi Ping said gently to her as he channeled his internal strength to her to expel the sword energies from her, "No Yunzi, you did good. Close your eyes and rest first. There are still two duels left and we may not lose. Don't say anymore.

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage was also besides Yunzi in an instant.

Yixian said coldly, "What do you want? You have won already. Are you thinking of weeding your opponent completely?"

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage sighed softly, "Don't get me wrong. She has been afflicted by my Six Negative Ley Infinitude Sword Energy. Only I can save her now."

Without waiting for Yi Ping and the rest of the maidens, he had already reached out and in a blink of an eye had struck Yunzi on several of her accupoints!

His finger attacking skills were simply too astonishing!

Immediately, Yunzi coughed out black blood and at the same time, she had opened her eyes as she stared blankly at the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage.

She got up and said weakly, "Thank you Senior for showing mercy on me. You have won and I concede willingly."

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage said solemnly, "Maiden, you have won. It is a contest on swordplay. You have the superior swordplay and this flying sword technique is unique. I have never seen anything like this before. Given time, this technique of yours will surely be one of the divine sword techniques of the Celestial Realm."

Yunzi murmured weakly, "I have won? Really?"

The visiting celestials were all startled that the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage had actually conceded on his own accord!

Yi Ping, the Universal Old Man, the other maidens and all the visiting celestials were looking at the Immortal Sword Aegis Sage and the Immortal Sword Zealot Sage. They were expressionless and did not seem to protest either.

Even Lingfeng was smiling bitterly. She could not eavesdrop on their Great Whispering Skill anymore now that the Immortal Saint of Swords was here. They seemed to be aware of her ability now and were exchanging their thoughts with their sword intentions instead!

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage stroked his long white beard as he said softly, "You have forced me to use my sword. For a junior to be able to push me to that extreme, that is proof that you have indeed possessed the superior swordplay. The result actually did not matter. However, I have a question"

All of a sudden, the hall was shaking as the Immortal Saint of Swords asked in a rumbling and earthshaking resonance, "Junior, how did you know the Infinity Swordplay? Who impart you the Infinitude Skill?! Aren't you from the Sacred Divine Clan? Is the Infinity Sword Clan still existing in the lower realm?"

Many of the maidens were startled that Yunzi had actually known of the Infinity Swordplay! No wonder she had volunteered to be the first one to duel with the Immortal Sword Blitz Sage in order to show them the weakness of the Infinity Swordplay!

Yi Ping had suddenly remembered that Zuo Tianyi had mentioned to him before that Yunzi was actually his cousin!

Yunzi said with a quiet demeanor, "I only know the basic Infinitude Skill. However, I do know the Infinity Swordplay intimately."

She paused for a while before her eyes turned sorrowful, "My grandfather is actually the Old Sword Saint of the Infinity Sword Clan!"

Yi Ping was stunned and so were Youxue, Lingfeng and Yixian who had known her for a long time! They had never heard her telling them about it but now that she had mentioned it, everything made sense!

Yunzi said weakly, "The Infinity Sword Clan is still doing good and is one of the seven major orthodox clan in the martial fraternity. As for why I know the Infinity Swordplay. My mother, Dugu ZhenZuo Zhen was expelled by her father, the Old Sword Saint for falling in love with a member of the heretic clan. She has imparted the Infinity Swordplay and the basic infinitude skill to me. That is all I have to say."

Yi Ping had suddenly remembered that it was Yunzi that had carefully instructed Zuo Tianyi in the Infinity Swordplay and she was a frequent visitor to the Infinity Sword Clan in the past!

No wonder until today, he still could not beat Yunzi in swordplay!

The origin of Yunzi's swordplay had come from the Infinity Swordplay, the Virtuous Swordplay and the Sacred Divine Swordplay, three of the major clans in the martial fraternity!

Also, the sources of her martial strength were the Invincible Divine Force, the Holy Amalgamate Force and the Infinitude Skill!

The Immortal Saint of Swords sighed softly and the rumbling shaking ceased immediately, "Good! It has been a long time since the Zuo Clan has a member in the Celestial Realm and I have thought that the Infinity Sword Clan has ceased to exist now that the Blue Heavens Divine Sword has fallen into the hands of the others."

The Immortal Sword Blitz Sage said quietly, "Maiden Yunzi, you should very well know how important this Blue Heavens Divine Sword is to the Infinity Sword Celestial Clan and to our clan patriarch, the Immortal Saint of Swords. If you still consider yourself as a bloodline of the Infinity Sword Clan, you shouldn't have opposed us."

Shen Xingyue sighed softly

But Yunzi replied as she took a quick glance at Shen Xingyue and Yi Ping, "There are still two more duels left. Let fate determines the outcome"

The Immortal Sword Zealot Sage immediately stepped forward, "I will be the next in line for the duel but don't expect me to show any mercies or accept any other challenges!"

Yixian, Shen Xingyue, Lie Qing and the Ascension Goddess had all stepped forward at the same time!

But Yixian the Celestial Fairy had pushed Shen Xingyue and the Ascension Goddess back with her Divine Emerald Force as she stepped forward, "I will be your next opponent then!"

Yu'Er and Mei'Er were gasping, "Protg mistress!"

Yi Ping was startled, "Xian'Er!"