My sword!
It broke!
Three gold coins!
I don’t usually kill people, so how am I supposed to get three gold coins back?
He was simply on the verge of tears!
Jiang Xueyao looked at his expression, shook her head, and asked again,
“What were you thinking when you fought me just now?”
“Nothing—wait, why did you suddenly attack me? Why did we have to fight this match?” Xu Yuan asked, full of resentment.
Jiang Xueyao fell silent for several breaths.
This was too awkward.
How was she supposed to say it?
I thought you were an ignorant fraud?
She suddenly sheathed her sword and tossed it straight to him.
“?” Xu Yuan stared at her with wide eyes.
“I was the one who broke your sword. Take this sword as compensation.”
Jiang Xueyao spoke indifferently.
Xu Yuan was startled and hurriedly drew the sword to have a look.
The sword was about three feet and seven inches long, a little over two fingers wide. Its edge was like cold jade, nourished year after year by snowmelt, naturally carrying a faint frosty hue.
The longsword lay in his hand, exuding a faint, elusive fragrance.
—Probably from its original owner.
In the void, lines of prompts quietly appeared:
“You have obtained a sword weapon.”
“Qiongjia.”
“Sword weapon, Rare grade.”
“Sharpness +5, Agility +3, Strength +2.”
“Divine Might: Blowing Snow.”
“Description: By activating this might with spiritual power, you can double the speed of your next sword strike.”
“—Jade blossoms and pearly stamens fall before the pond; ask whence the flowers came, and you shall not know.”
A Rare-grade treasured sword!
Xu Yuan’s eyes nearly popped out.
No wonder, during the battle, he had felt her attacks surge like a tide, one wave higher than the last.
No wonder that sword strike had been so fast he couldn’t react, sending his own sword flying!
A pay-to-win player!
—We mechanics players hate running into pay-to-win players the most!
This battle was just like life: unfair from the very beginning.
Fortunately—
Xu Yuan swiftly sheathed the sword, fastened it to his waist, cupped his hands toward her, and said with a smile,
“You’ve gone to some expense, truly.”
“It’s nothing,” Jiang Xueyao said, shaking her head. “Answer my question, and the sword is yours.”
“Huh? What question?” Xu Yuan was baffled.
“What were you thinking during the battle?” Jiang Xueyao asked.
Xu Yuan opened his mouth.
Miss, you’re so beautiful, but you’re actually insane?
During a battle, of course he was battling.
What was there to think about?
For the sake of Qiongjia—
Xu Yuan thought it over seriously, then said,
“Nothing special. I was just striking with my sword.”
“What was your battle strategy?” Jiang Xueyao asked.
“……” Xu Yuan said.
She had stumped him.
That made him ponder more deeply. After weighing his words, he said,
“I roughly understand what you mean, but in an intense confrontation, using thoughts to plan strategy is actually a huge waste of time.”
“A waste of time?” Jiang Xueyao asked.
“Right. Thoughts are too slow,” Xu Yuan said.
“What in this world could be faster than a thought?” Jiang Xueyao pressed.
“Instinctive reaction—turn every move and technique into instinct, so you don’t even have to think. Sometimes you’re just that instant faster than someone else, and victory or defeat is decided.”
Xu Yuan stated honestly.
This was indeed one little insight he had gained from countless esports matches.
And not just esports.
In athletic competition, the pursuit of training “volume” was also for the sake of turning techniques into bodily instinct, thereby achieving a breakthrough in “quality.”
This was the simplest truth in competition!
“Oh right, I have a question for you too. Why did we have to fight this match?” Xu Yuan asked again.
Awkward.
Jiang Xueyao turned her head and gazed at the autumn scenery in the distance, saying,
“The Divine Might on Qiongjia is called ‘Blowing Snow.’”
“Among all the high school students who fought me for the first time, you are the first who didn’t lose to that strike.”
“So this sword is yours.”
After fighting all the way here, the two of them were now standing on the rooftop of the teaching building.
Yang Xiaobing stood not far away.
“It’s fine. We were only sparring—Xiaobing, you won.”
Jiang Xueyao said this to her as well, then turned and left.
She left the rooftop, descended the stairs all the way down, walked out of the teaching building, and headed toward the school gate on her own.
As she walked, she took out her phone and dialed a number.
“Hello.”
“Send Chixiao over.”
A startled inquiry sounded from the receiver.
“…Don’t ask. Send it immediately. I’ll wait at the school gate.”
After Jiang Xueyao finished speaking, she hung up.
—That boy really was as strong as Yang Xiaobing had said.
Yang Xiaobing hadn’t been deceived.
They trusted each other, and they weren’t influenced by the outside world.
So.
The one who was deceived was me?
I was treated as someone who could trick Yang Xiaobing, handed that fake love letter, and used to gain her trust?
The purpose was—
To drive Xu Yuan away, pull Yang Xiaobing into the team, and achieve excellent results in this important monthly exam.
Jiang Xueyao’s almond eyes turned ice-cold.
When she stopped at the school gate, a streak of flowing light swept over from the sky.
A flying boat.
From the flying boat, six cultivators leaped down together and landed before Jiang Xueyao.
“Eldest Miss.”
The six spoke in respectful unison.
“The sword?” Jiang Xueyao asked.
“Here.” One of them patted the storage pouch at his waist, releasing a sword case covered all over with talismans.
The six of them performed hand seals together.
Following their incantations, the talismans peeled away from the sword case one by one.
Only after every talisman had detached did the sword case slowly open.
Inside lay a longsword, hidden within a crimson scabbard.
“The family head brought a message.”
“Speak,” Jiang Xueyao said.
“Don’t kill anyone.”
“Hmph. He thinks his own daughter is that fierce? I’ll scold him when I get back.”
Everyone lowered their heads and said nothing.
Jiang Xueyao reached out and summoned the crimson longsword into her hand, fastened it at her waist, then turned and entered the school gate.
On the rooftop.
Xu Yuan and Yang Xiaobing looked at each other.
“She would rather give me a sword than answer my question?” Xu Yuan asked.
Yang Xiaobing laughed and smoothed things over:
“I bet that you could take one strike from her, and she didn’t believe it.”
“The stake was this sword?” Xu Yuan asked.
“Right,” Yang Xiaobing said.
—Neither of them had bad intentions. Both of them were good people. Why say the truth?
“You really do have good judgment, Xiaobing. This sword is partly thanks to you. I’ll definitely treat you to a meal later,” Xu Yuan immediately praised.
A Rare-grade treasured sword.
He’d made a killing!
……
There were still ten minutes left in the pre-exam warm-up.
Xu Yuan returned to the sports field.
By now, the students from every class had more or less arrived.
Everyone had also seen Xu Yuan and Jiang Xueyao clash earlier.
Only, after the two of them had charged up to the rooftop, they could no longer be seen.
The teachers maintaining order shouted at everyone, forbidding them from following to watch, lest they be accidentally injured.
—The killing power of sword qi was still very strong.
So until Xu Yuan stepped onto the sports field, no one knew the result of the battle.
“Look, he came back alive!”
Someone couldn’t help shouting.
Xu Yuan rolled his eyes.
Ignoring those doubtful, fearful, scrutinizing, and curious gazes, he waved at Zhao Afei.
Zhao Afei had just finished a set of punches to warm up. Panting, he ran over, sized Xu Yuan up and down, then suddenly cried out,
“Qiongjia!”
With that shout, the others looked over too.
Sure enough.
That sword, which had originally belonged to Jiang Xueyao, was fastened steadily at Xu Yuan’s waist.
A silent uproar began to spread through the crowd.
Jiang Xueyao’s sword!
She gave it to him!
“Awesome, awesome. So the love letter was written to Jiang Xueyao?”
Zhao Afei looked at Xu Yuan with an almost worshipful gaze.
“Bullshit!”
Xu Yuan grabbed the scabbard and smacked Zhao Afei on the butt, explaining,
“My sword was broken by her, so she compensated me with a sword.”
“So that’s what happened.” Only then did Zhao Afei let out a breath of relief.
Still not right.
—Compensating him with a sword was only proper.
But there was no need to compensate him with her own personal sword, right?
This sword was a genuine high-grade weapon!
“Wait, did you just use that sword to hit my butt?”
Zhao Afei pointed at the sword and asked in an incredulous tone.
“What, got a problem?” Xu Yuan asked.
“Can you hit me again?”
“…Since when did you become this disgusting?”
“That’s Goddess Jiang’s sword!”
“Enough nonsense,” Xu Yuan said, glaring at him. “I formed a team with Xiaobing. Do you want to join us?”
“Of course!” Zhao Afei agreed at once.
At that moment.
A teacher walked onto the stage and announced loudly,
“Students of every class, attention.”
“You may now begin forming teams.”
“Each team will consist of four people to face this monthly exam.”
“Students who fail to form a team, gather on the left side of the sports field. In five minutes, you will be randomly assigned teams.”
“Begin!”
The formations of every class immediately descended into chaos.
The twelfth-grade students all headed toward teammates they had already discussed things with.
Those who had never managed to find a team could only stand where they were, looking enviously at the teams being formed one after another while waiting for the random assignments later.
Xu Yuan waved into the distance.
Yang Xiaobing walked over and greeted Zhao Afei with a beaming smile:
“We’ll be relying on you for pills, Zhao Afei.”
“No problem. I also prepared plenty of mechanisms and traps—I’ll be waiting for you to carry me, Xiaobing!” Zhao Afei hurriedly put on a smiling face.
“You also went down the path of artifact refinement?” Yang Xiaobing asked curiously.
“I really don’t like fighting head-on,” Zhao Afei said, scratching his head in embarrassment.
Xu Yuan stood to the side and was just about to speak when he suddenly saw lines of prompts appear before his eyes:
“The monthly exam is about to begin.”
“This exam may be converted into a ‘match.’”
“Do you wish to convert it?”
As expected, as long as there was combat, it counted as a match!
Xu Yuan immediately asked, “If it’s converted into a match, will there be rewards?”
A line of small text appeared before his eyes:
“Every match has rewards corresponding to its level.”
“Convert,” Xu Yuan said without hesitation.
—Before the nightmare arrived, he had to do everything he could to accumulate more strength!
Aside from that.
There was an even more important point.
“The Qi Refiner’s Combat Preparation Room” actually hadn’t displayed the power it ought to have.
—Because he had no money!
He only had 14 gold coins left.
And matches could be farmed for gold coins!
In any match, if you didn’t develop your economy, update your equipment, and raise your overall strength—
Then no matter how good your mechanics were, it was useless!
This could even be considered another form of “even the cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice.”
After waiting several breaths.
Lines of faintly glowing small text quietly appeared:
“Selectable match: ‘Eight-School Joint Exam’ has begun.”
“Difficulty: Simple (fluctuating system).”
“Open-format match. The observation groups from all parties of the current world are already in position.”
“Win the audience’s lamp-bursts, and you will obtain special rewards!”
“Requirement: Do your utmost and strive for the best possible results.”
“Explanation: Your actions in the match will be presented before those people secretly observing everything, and there is a certain possibility that they will influence their decisions.”
“If you win at this difficulty, or become the student with the highest score in this match, there is a certain probability of influencing the direction of the subsequent Nightmare-grade match.”
“If you fail to meet the requirement, you will immediately enter the Nightmare-grade match: ‘Road to Survival and the Revival Match One Has No Choice But to Undergo Because One Got Stuck by a Sword While Transmigrating and Couldn’t Come Back to Life (Second Half).’”
“—Please strive with all your might for victory!”