73: Give me a chance to show my wisdom!

Seeing Lu Jiuyuan's gaze, Ye Xue smiled softly, "It seems you are also a man, and a vigorous one at that, not a eunuch who castrated himself for the sake of practicing the sword."

"Of course I am a man, and a man among men," Lu Jiuyuan said.

"Let's make a deal!"

"What deal?"

"I'll let you sleep with me once! You give me one chance to kill you openly and fairly!"

"What do you mean?" Lu Jiuyuan raised an eyebrow. "If you're going to ask me to tie my own hands or something, then I'll have no choice but to kill you."

"You cannot use the Yamas Summons, nor can you use this Guhong Sword!" Ye Xue said.

"That's it?"

"That's it!"

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure!"

"I believe the Sword Saint will never go back on his word!"

Lu Jiuyuan sighed with emotion. If he didn't partake of such an offer, wouldn't he become a laughingstock for all who watched?

"I accept!"

A wisp of red gauze floated down, with the sky as a quilt and the earth as a bed, seven feet of red gauze making a tent... Three cups of tea later, Ye Xue returned to the mist, changed into a fiery red battle robe, and came back holding her sword.

The two stood five zhang apart. Ye Xue drew her sword from its sheath: "My sword is named Frost Snow, forged by the same master as Autumn Dew, which my brother holds.

Lu Jiuyuan, the tenderness of moments ago is gone. Today, I shall avenge my brother!"

Lu Jiuyuan plunged the Guhong Sword he held into the ground. If he couldn't use the Guhong Sword, then he would use a branch!

He walked to a tree, casually broke off a section of a branch, removed the leaves, leaving only a three-foot-long piece.

"Come! Let me witness your swordsmanship!"

"Kill!"

She let out a soft cry, her figure like an arrow leaving the bowstring. The "Frost Snow" sword in her hand transformed into a chilling cold light, stabbing directly at Lu Jiuyuan's heart!

This sword strike was without flourish, concentrating all her explosive power. Its speed was three-tenths faster than usual, and the sword tip tore through the air, emitting a faint "hiss."

Lu Jiuyuan's wrist flicked lightly. The three-foot branch in his hand seemed to come alive, no longer deadwood, but an invisible sharp blade containing peerless sharpness.

Facing Ye Xue's hateful, life-taking thrust, his feet did not move an inch, but his body, like willow catkins in the wind, drifted back half a step by a hair's breadth.

The tip of the "Frost Snow" sword, carrying bone-chilling coldness, brushed past the green robe on his chest. The fierce Sword Qi almost severed a few strands of his scattered sideburns.

Ye Xue missed her strike but was not discouraged. Her wrist twisted, and the sword's momentum instantly changed from a direct thrust to a horizontal slash. A torrent of sword light, like a bolt of silk, cut towards Lu Jiuyuan's waist!

The sword light poured down like an avalanche, its Aura astonishing.

Lu Jiuyuan's figure blurred again.

He seemed weightless, his toes lightly touching the decaying leaves, and his entire being slid sideways like a ghost. The withered branch didn't even show any intention of raising to block, merely hanging casually by his side.

Ye Xue's swift horizontal slash once again hit empty air, only stirring up a fallen leaf.

"First form," Lu Jiuyuan's voice was calm and unruffled, as if he were commenting on a practice unrelated to him.

Ye Xue gritted her silver teeth, her eyes growing sharper.

Her figure spun rapidly like a top, and the "Frost Snow" in her hand unleashed a sky full of sword shadows!

The essence of Wudang's "Nine Palace Linked Swords" was displayed in her hands, yet she imbued it with the ferocity and cunning of a leopard.

Sword light layered upon layer, like a raging storm, yet also like a woven spiderweb, enveloping Lu Jiuyuan's vital points.

Both real and illusory, fast and slow, it was her most good at (proud) killing move after integrating her own characteristics—"Instant Thousand Layers of Snow"!

For a time, sword light gleamed and fierce winds howled across the open ground.

Ye Xue's fiery red figure weaved and moved through the sword light, her offensive continuous, sometimes like an overwhelming blizzard, sometimes like a venomous snake striking, every move aiming for life, every form pursuing the soul.

However, Lu Jiuyuan's figure always moved through the gaps in the sword light.

He was like a wisp of green smoke drifting through a blizzard, or a deity who could foresee the trajectory of every snowflake.

Sometimes his feet didn't touch the ground, his body retreating like a swift flying swan;

Sometimes he twisted and bent at the waist, narrowly avoiding a sword edge that passed by his face;

Sometimes he was like a fallen leaf in the wind, leisurely drifting through the gaps in the sword net.

The withered branch never once lifted.

Seven forms... fifteen forms... twenty-eight forms... Ye Xue's sword became faster and more urgent.

Each time a fierce killing move was lightly avoided by the opponent in an incredible way, it was like a heavy hammer striking her proud heart.

Sweat drenched her temples, her fiery red tight-fitting attire clung to her heaving chest, and her gasps gradually became clearer.

She felt as if she was chasing a phantom, an unreachable nightmare.

Forty-nine forms completed!

Lu Jiuyuan, who had been moving with such ease, finally moved!

The branch in his hand finally "moved" for the first time in a true sense!

There was no earth-shattering momentum, no dazzling light.

The withered branch merely pointed forward lightly, as naturally as brushing dust from a shoulder.

The speed was then pushed to the extreme!

It surpassed the limit of Ye Xue's visual capture!

In her eyes, the withered branch seemed to disappear into thin air and then reappear, already having touched the "Jianjing acupoint" on her right shoulder!

A vast and irresistible, yet incredibly precise, force, like an ice needle piercing an acupoint, instantly penetrated her body!

"Ugh!" Ye Xue groaned, feeling her entire right side instantly numb, unable to muster any strength.

The "Frost Snow" sword, tightly gripped, clanged as it slipped from her hand and fell to the ground, deeply embedding itself in the soil.

She froze in place, maintaining her forward-charging posture, her eyes filled with unbelievable shock and bewilderment.

The forty-nine sword strikes, like a torrential storm, had failed to force the opponent to block with the branch even once!

Yet the opponent's single, nonchalant "point" completely dismantled all her attacks and utterly defeated her.

Lu Jiuyuan slowly retracted the withered branch and casually tossed it aside.

He remained composed in his green robe, his breathing steady.

"You only had this one chance, and you've used it."

Lu Jiuyuan said indifferently, "The next time you attack me, under the Guhong Sword, no one will be left alive."

"Under the Guhong Sword, no one will be left alive." Ye Xue looked at the Guhong Sword plunged into the ground not far away.

"So, if you don't use the Guhong Sword, I can live?"

Feeling the numbness in half her body recede, Ye Xue picked up her sword: "I won't submit, and I won't admit defeat.

I will return to challenge you again!

Remember, my name is Ye Xue!"

When Ye Xue returned, treading the cold, suspended iron chains, the mountain wind swept away the last trace of warmth from her face, and she became expressionless again.

"You're back!" Gou Hun asked, "How was it? You're the only one who got close to him and came back alive."

"Did you sleep with him? How was it?" Ye Ling asked curiously.

"Shut up!" Ye Xue glared at Ye Ling, then said, "Strong, extremely strong, and incredibly formidable."

"I used all my sword moves and couldn't harm him in the slightest. He took a branch and defeated me with a casual strike. From beginning to end, it was a world of difference.

Besides Old Handle of the Saber, or if the four brothers Lion, Tiger, Leopard, and Elephant attacked together, I don't know who could contend with him."

Upon hearing this, Cousin lightly licked his thin lips, the fire in his eyes burning even brighter:

"Sword Devil, a man like that must be a man among men. If I could sleep with him once, even if I died immediately, it would be worth the price!

Alas... he surely wouldn't be willing! It truly makes one itch with unbearable longing!"

"No, I can't stand it any longer!

Luckily, luckily, if there's no Sword Devil, there's still Four Eyebrows Lu Xiaofeng. If I can't sleep with the Sword Saint, sleeping with Lu Xiaofeng can also satisfy my craving." Cousin smiled, covering his mouth:"

"I won't get involved in the following matters; my meager strength is useless anyway. Lu Xiaofeng has been hungry for so long, I need to go comfort him. Hehe..."

After he left, Gou Zi directly spat, "Pah, that sissy, so disgusting!"

"Hua Guafu, what do you think?"

"I'll watch lying down!" Hua Guafu said, "Don't look at me with that kind of gaze. If you keep looking, I'll dig out your eyes."

Saying that, she twisted her slender waist and swayed her hips as she walked out.

"You stinking bitch, I'll sleep with you sooner or later!"

Gou Zi muttered in a low voice, his eyes sweeping over the mocking Ye Ling: "And you, little fox! I'll sleep with you sooner or later too!"

With that, he also turned and left.

Only Gou Hun, Guan Jia Po, Ye Ling, and Ye Xue remained here.

"You really slept with him?" Ye Ling asked,

"Yes, I did!" Ye Xue said indifferently, "It felt pretty good!"

"Can you still bring yourself to harm him?" Ye Ling asked angrily,

"Of course I can. I have never forgotten my brother's hatred! It's just that his strength is too great; I can only outsmart him, not confront him head-on," Ye Xue said calmly:

"And my wisdom is beyond your imagination! My foolish sister!"