A Battle of Equals

Lu Yang was torn over whether or not he should continue learning the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation. He had only just grasped the basics when the devastating truth of the sword formation's true origin hit him, utterly crushing his motivation to practice. If he didn't learn it, he had no other sword formation to study. If he did, this was an array concocted by Immortal Kirin just to appease his wives, its actual power completely unknown. He just hoped that after all this effort, its ultimate function wouldn't turn out to be making sword tips go soft. "That won't happen," the Immortal Fairy said, outright dismissing Lu Yang's worries upon hearing them. "There's no need to worry about its might—it's very strong. Immortal Kirin and Immortal Ying Tian only tampered with the immortal swords." "Fairy, you understand sword formations too?" "I rely on intuition." "...Is your intuition reliable?" "My intuition tells me that this Immortal's intuition is extremely reliable." "..." Lu Yang fell silent for a moment and sighed, feeling somewhat resigned to his fate. *Whatever, I'll learn it.* Regardless of its actual power, in terms of grade, it was undoubtedly the highest-level sword formation possessed by the Dao Seeking Sect. Jiang Lianyi shared the Immortal Fairy's view, agreeing that the formation was formidable and well worth learning. To Lu Yang, Jiang Lianyi's opinion carried zero persuasive weight—he had never once seen her disagree with the Immortal Fairy. "There is another matter I must explain to Senior Brother," Jiang Lianyi said with a grave expression. "What is it?" "I have lived in the Dao Seeking Sect for over two months now and grasped the basic situation of today's cultivation world. It is time for me to go out and travel, and while doing so, look for Daoist Buyu as well as that talented junior of the Phoenix Clan. I promised to instruct her, and a promise made must be kept." *Just as I thought,* Lu Yang mused inwardly. Jiang Lianyi couldn't stay in the Dao Seeking Sect by the Immortal Fairy's side forever. She had another purpose for leaving, which Lu Yang could guess without being told. The whereabouts of Immortal Kirin and Ao Ling. Jiang Lianyi's feelings for those two were no less deep than her devotion to the Immortal Fairy. "Then I wish Senior Lianyi a smooth journey, may all your wishes come true, and may you accomplish your goals soon." Lu Yang cupped his fists with a smile. Although he had exposed that his master was the author of *Dragon Phoenix Transformation*, he hadn't told Senior Lianyi that Eldest Senior Sister could locate Master, thus buying his master a bit more time to live. As a disciple, he had already done everything humanly possible for him. The Immortal Fairy also poked her head out to bid Jiang Lianyi farewell, putting on a fierce tone. "Achieve your goals and come back as soon as you can! If anyone bullies you out there, tell me, and this Immortal will have Girl Yun teach them a lesson!" "Most certainly." Jiang Lianyi didn't leave immediately. Instead, on an afternoon during Lu Yang's fifth day of contemplating the sword formation, she quietly departed. Two more days passed. Lu Yang's mastery over the sword formation grew increasingly adept, and his energy consumption dropped considerably compared to before. "All I'm missing is a target to test the formation's power." After practicing for so many days, the sword formation had sheared off several layers of turf, leaving Lu Yang feeling that its power was immense. Still, without a proper target to serve as a benchmark, it always felt like something was missing. There were only so many potential targets on Tianmen Peak. Eldest Senior Sister was definitely out of the question, and so was Third Senior Sister. That left only that damned puppet... Thinking back to how that puppet had thoroughly dominated him ever since he began cultivating, Lu Yang felt that his current self ought to have no problem against it. The ideal test subject! No sooner said than done. Tianmen Peak wasn't so vast that it took long. Beneath a pine tree, Lu Yang quickly found the puppet digging a hole to plant a tree. "Heh heh, found you at last! Time to settle all our scores, old and new!" ... A well-matched battle commenced. Ten breaths into the fight, the Invincible Nascent Soul fled for its life. Twenty-five breaths in, Lu Yang was beaten black and blue, howling in agony as the iron shovel clobbered him. One minute in, Lu Yang was buried in the dirt, becoming brothers with the pine tree planted right next to him. The battle concluded; the puppet won by a hair. Only after the puppet hoisted its shovel onto its shoulder and sauntered out of the pine grove did Lu Yang dare crawl out, his heart still pounding with lingering terror. "As expected of the puppet that's beaten me from the start of my cultivation till now. It has some real skill. Looks like I'm still no match for it at my current stage." During his fight with the puppet, the battle had ended before Lu Yang could even unleash the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation. With Lu Yang's cultivation sitting right at the very bottom of Tianmen Peak, finding a target he could test his formation on freely was indeed a tall order. "Old Lu, are you here?" Meng Jingzhou's voice echoed through the pine grove. He had come looking for Lu Yang, drawn by the huge commotion from the recent battle, guessing that Lu Yang might be here. Hearing this, Lu Yang hastily patted the dirt off himself. He couldn't give Meng Jingzhou any chance to mock him! Plucking away the pine twigs clinging to his hair and tidying himself up, he only then acted as if he had just heard, snapping irritably, "Stop yelling, I'm over here!" "The wounds on your face..." The puppet was very measured in its strikes; the facial swelling could only recede naturally. Lu Yang maintained an air of complete composure. "It's nothing. I just took a medicinal pill, but its potency was too overwhelming to digest, so Eldest Senior Sister stepped in to strike the acupoints on my face to accelerate the medicinal absorption, that's all." Meng Jingzhou eyed Lu Yang suspiciously, strongly suspecting the bastard was talking nonsense. "Oh, right. I just happened to master a sword formation. Come give it a try." Lu Yang hurriedly diverted Meng Jingzhou's attention to keep him from noticing any flaws in his story. Besides, wasn't this guy the ideal target? "Oh? You've started learning sword formations? Let me see just how powerful your sword formation is!" A sword formation was a sword cultivator's trump card. Meng Jingzhou could use this chance to gauge Lu Yang's true depth. "Then you'd better watch out!" Knowing that Old Meng would agree, Lu Yang showed no reserve. With a flick of both hands, nine gleaming longswords appeared above Meng Jingzhou's head, radiating a sharp sword qi that set hearts trembling. With a low shout, Meng Jingzhou manifested Three Heads and Six Arms, six arms thrusting upward to hold up the heavens, intending to tank the strike head-on. "Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation!" "Holy crap, wait a second! What did you call this sword formation—" The moment Meng Jingzhou heard Lu Yang shout the name, alarm bells rang in his head. The thing sounded outrageously overpowered! Yet before the sword formation even descended, Meng Jingzhou—six arms still holding up the heavens—dropped to both knees with a loud *thud*, landing in an immaculate kneeling posture. Startled, Lu Yang quickly halted his attack, retracted the sword formation, and helped Meng Jingzhou up, his face brimming with delight. "Old Meng, if you wanted me to stop, there was really no need to perform such a grand gesture!" Meng Jingzhou flew into a rage. "Bullshit! Who's performing a grand gesture for you?! Your damn sword formation forced me onto my knees!" Lu Yang was completely baffled. Seeing Lu Yang playing dumb, Meng Jingzhou cursed, "Don't play dumb with me! You brat definitely did this on purpose! Your sword formation forces people to kneel! The moment I stood beneath it, my legs stopped obeying me!" Lu Yang had never stood beneath the formation himself, so he had no clue it had such an effect. He scratched his head. *Testing it really works—what an unexpected bonus.* *But why on earth does the Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation have this kind of effect?* The Immortal Fairy pondered for a moment before having a revelation. She explained, "I get it! Immortal Kirin must have worried that his kneeling posture wouldn't be standard enough to earn Lianyi and Xiao Ling's forgiveness, so he added an 'Automatic Kneeling Formation' to the sword array!" "I knew it! Immortal Kirin is meticulous in his work—there was no way he'd set up just a simple sword formation!" Lu Yang: "..." *Thank goodness Senior Lianyi left early. If she had found out about this, who knows what would have happened?*