Phoniex Requiem
Chapter 40: Breakthrough

Chapter 40: Breakthrough

"Miss Yun, you are truly a straightforward person." Out of habit, Wang Kuang narrowed his eyes and once again touched his square jaw.

“I really underestimated you Miss, winning against my other group even with your less fortunate cultivation. If I don't defeat you, then I guess we from the Yue kingdom won't have the face to stay here.”

"How shameless!" Lin Qingxue exclaimed. “What happened to the best of the three? You still try to fight despite losing twice?”

“This matter concerns my reputation as a member of the Yue kingdom, so I have to fight,” Wang Kuang continued. “You are free to fight with me consecutively, just like my group did with Yun Ruoyan, and I will admit defeat if it loses at any stage. But from what I can tell, none of you three will be able to withstand more than three blows from me.”

"Don't bother." Yun Ruoyan raised her hand, stopping the conversation of the Lin brothers. He once again looked at Wang Kuang. "I'll face you again."

After fighting and winning two matches in a row, Yun Ruoyan was a little tired, but her competitive spirit was burning.

"Good." Wang Kuang raised his right hand. In a few moments, the dagger in his hand had turned into a simple, unadorned sword. He entered the fighting position. "Miss Yun, you may have the first blow."

Yun Ruoyan's hand trembled as she pierced Wang Kuang's head.

He tilted his head to the side and repelled the attack with his sword, sparks appearing where the two weapons clashed.

Yun Ruoyan felt her wrists numb as she twisted her body to dissipate the momentum from the clash. The sword that Wang Kuang displayed was truly unusual, but it seemed to be slightly inferior to his spear.

Even during that blow, Yun Ruoyan did not borrow the strength of the bracelet. Instead, he had clashed directly with the far superior Wang Kuang based on the cultivation of his third rank blademaster alone. Despite this huge loss, he barely lost the clash.

Wang Kuang looked at Yun Ruoyan's expressionless appearance, becoming increasingly surprised by the slender girl standing in front of him. He was already a rank six sword master, an incredible achievement for his age, and almost unrivalled among his peers in the Yue kingdom. 

The punch contained nearly half of his strength, and even coupled with his high-tier weapon. Despite being harmed both in terms of age and cultivation, Yun Ruoyan could actually take the blow.

"Not bad." Wang Kuang could not help but be impressed by his skill, but the cruel glint in his eyes was still there. There must be something unusual about the girl that she is so different from what all the rumors say, and she intends to find out what makes her so special.

"Again!" This time, it was Wang Kuang who was suppressing the attack, his footwork had never been seen before by Yun Ruoyan. In three consecutive clashes with their weapons, Yun Ruoyan retreated many times.

Suddenly, his left hand slipped, and the spear almost slipped out of his hand. Fortunately, Yun Ruoyan's reflexes were fast enough that she bent over, rolled over, and dodged Wang Kuang's attack while repositioning her spear.

This time, Wang Kuang used half of his total strength and combined it with a low-level footwork technique, greatly increasing his attacks. Even so, Yun Ruoyan still did not use the strength of her bracelet.

He stood back up, his forehead covered in sweat. Sweat flowed into the scar on his birthmark, causing a slight numbness and itching.

“Look, pus is coming out of his face again! How disgusting!”

"That's right! Was he trying to disgust his opponent to death, since he couldn't defeat him based on skill?”

Jin Fei'er chatted with another girl from the Yue kingdom, saying all sorts of unpleasant things in an attempt to distract Yun Ruoyan.

"You're despicable!" Lin Qingxue called from afar. “You didn't just hoard Yun Ruoyan even with your better cultivation, you even tried to distract her during the fight! Is this how honorable the people of the Yue kingdom are?”

“If your brother doesn't catch me unconscious with spiritual weapons, I won't lose either.” Jin Fei'er clearly recovered from the shock she had suffered during the fight. Thinking about how he seemed to lose in a more unsightly manner than Liu Sheng, and how his nose was almost cut, he could not help but shudder. "Sister Wang is a peak rank six swordsman, so just wait to take care of Yun Ruoyan's corpse!"

Lin's sister's heart sank. Caring for bodies? Did Wang Kuang intend to kill him?

"How stubborn is my brother." Yun Ruoyao shook her head helplessly. “Again, she is the only daughter born as the wife of the Yun family and a cultivation genius from birth. Everyone praised her, so she grew up to be a stubborn girl. Even when he lost his talent and became useless, his personality remained unchanged in the slightest. It's past time she suffered in the real world.” Hopefully, he will also lose his life!

"Ruoyan sisters aren't useless," Lin Qingxue unwillingly spoke up. “It was Yun who mem—”

Lin Qingchen immediately gripped Lin Qingxue's mouth.

When Yun Ruoyan told them about this, she emphasized that they should keep it a secret. Lin Qingchen glanced at her brother reproachfully.

After recognizing his mistake moments after he started speaking, Lin Qingxue ignored the ridicule coming from the other side, apologized to her sister, and anxiously focused on Yun Ruoyan's match.

Wang Kuang shouted loudly before moving even faster than before, rushing into Yun Ruoyan's face and slashing, stabbing, and cutting, not holding back in the slightest as he unleashed an unceasing attack. Unable to even blink for fear that he would miss something, Yun Ruoyan barely dodged every blow with her pliable body, but she was forced back many times.

When Wang Kuang dodged Yun Ruoyan's spear and thrust his sword forward from close range, Yun Ruoyan immediately shrank the spear to the size of a sword and fended off.

This clash was purely based on spiritual energy, and the difference in spiritual energy for a peak rank six blademaster and a beginner third rank was obvious.

Facing such a disparity in strength, the weaker party was often severely injured, if not dead.

"Sister Ruoyan!"

"Yun Ruoyan!"

Wang Kuang did not put all his spiritual energy into the sword at once. Instead, he started with just a third, then slowly increased the amount his sword inspired.

It had been a long time since he had met someone as attractive as Yun Ruoyan, and it was too boring to kill him in a single blow. He had a faint premonition that Yun Ruoyan was hiding a secret, and he was anxious to see what kind of surprise he would give her in his death.

Yun Ruoyan's entire body was drenched in sweat, and she had already filled her spear with all of her spiritual energy, barely able to withstand her opponent's sword.

But Wang Kuang obviously pushed him back, and as his spiritual energy grew stronger, he finally could not hold on.

"Madam, hurry, use the power of that bracelet!"

Yun Ruoyan looked towards her silver bracelet, her stubborn brow wrinkles finally succumbing. He was already very satisfied with his appearance today.

With great difficulty, he raised his left hand and touched his right wrist, slowly twisting the bracelet. An unceasing stream of spiritual energy immediately permeated his body and entered his spear under Yun Ruoyan's direction.

Wang Kuang had forced Yun Ruoyan to retreat step by step, and she would be destroyed with just 40% of her strength. However, suddenly, strength exploded from him. Unconscious, he was forced to take a few steps back, and he vomited out a mouthful of blood.

How come?! He looked at Yun Ruoyan in surprise. Something is definitely going on with this girl!

"What's been going on?!"

"Sister Wang!"

"Geez!"

yun Ruoyao, Jin Fei'er, and Pei Ziao exclaimed simultaneously. How could Yun Ruoyan's spiritual energy defeat Wang Kuang's energy?!

“Ruoyan sisters win! Oh, thank goodness! His talent is growing again!” Lin Qingxue shouted excitedly.

What does it mean to develop his talent? Lin Qingxue's words quickly aroused suspicion amidst the crowd.

“Hng! Do you really think that Sister Ruoyan's talent just disappeared? NAY! His talent was only temporarily dormant, and is now growing once again!” Lin Qingxue placed her hands on her waist as she exclaimed proudly.

His inactive talent is rising? Did it really happen?

Even so, he did not believe that, even with the cultivation of rank six pinnacle, he would lose to a third rank novice. He must have been too careless back then.

"In that case, I won't hold back." Wang Kuang immediately increased his spiritual energy output to the maximum he could handle, and put everything into his sword.

Yun Ruoyan felt depressed once again. Wang Kuang's peak rank six spiritual energy was not something he could handle, even if he used the full power of the bracelet.

“Mrs, what should we do? You are no match!” The anxious voice of Qiuqiu rang out from Yun Ruoyan's mind. “The power output restriction of the bracelet lasts at least one year after installation, so I also can't remove the limiter! Why don't you admit defeat?”

"It's not that easy." Yun Ruoyan's entire body was drenched in sweat. Pus kept coming out of the birthmark, and the numbness and itching on his face grew stronger. “He obviously intended to kill me, so even if I admitted defeat, I won't be able to escape.”

"Then, what if you release the Feilai Blade?"

“I can't do it either. If I use any spiritual energy to summon a sword now, my unprotected body will soon be exposed to the opponent's spiritual energy.”

“Then what we do, what we do.” Qiuqiu groans in frustration from the dimension of his pocket.

But Yun Ruoyan suddenly felt a surge of strength from her body, and her dantian, which had been completely drained, seemed to have given birth to a weak little current.

Spiritual vortex! He actually developed a spiritual vortex once again!

When cultivators reached the fourth rank, a spiritual vortex would appear in their dantian and allow them to gather spiritual energy more efficiently throughout their bodies.

Three years earlier, Yun Ruoyan had faintly sensed the presence of the spiritual vortex forming in her dantian, but her sudden retreating talent had caused the feeling to fade.

But now, three years later, he had once again sensed her existence! After three difficult years, he had finally broken through to the fourth rank once again!

"Aah!" Yun Ruoyan suddenly tilted her head and howled long into the sky, shocking everyone around her.

At the same time, Wang Kuang spewed out another mouthful of blood, his entire body being flung backwards by a huge gust of spiritual energy before he fell violently onto the floor.

"How is that possible?!"

Blood gushed out from his throat. Yun Ruoyan had actually broken through this critical point! Moreover, the spiritual energy he felt was clearly enhanced by more than what a third to fourth level breakthrough would provide. Could there be anyone who could break through two ranks at once?

No, that's definitely impossible!