"Yes, why else?"
Han Feng frowned, looking at Luan Jian, who suddenly looked like her whole world was falling apart, and comprehension slowly dawned on him.
Good grief!
No wonder you were talking in circles—you were putting on an empty city bluff!
Thud!
Severely injured, Luan Jian finally could no longer hold herself up and slumped unceremoniously to the ground. The imposing aura she had forced herself to project vanished in an instant. Her already overly pale cheeks lost every trace of color, turning as white as paper. Pressing a hand against her chest, she breathed heavily, her vital energy shattered and weak.
She no longer even had the strength to raise her arm, letting it fall limply to her side.
As Luan Jian's arm dropped, a clear hole suddenly ripped open in the front of her robe. All the fabric right around the aperture was instantly ground into fine powder and drifted away on the wind!
"Sect... Sect Master..." Luan Jian's gaze was unfocused as she looked at this suddenly mysterious Sect Master. Her eyes were filled with deep bewilderment, though she finally managed a slight breath of relief, speaking in broken, halting gasps:
"Since it's you... th-then it's fine! Just now, this disciple thought some powerful enemy coveting our sect had sneaked into the Jiushen Sect... That sword strike was unimaginably fierce. Even though I was caught off guard, with my False Nascent Soul Stage cultivation, I was completely unable to block it. I was terrified that doom was upon us, so..."
Cough!
This made it even more awkward!
Only now did Han Feng realize that Luan Jian had been forcing herself upright just moments ago, deliberately putting on a display of strength to perform an empty city bluff in order to frighten off an imaginary formidable enemy.
Such painstaking effort—it certainly hadn't been easy for her!
Yet, it seemed this Jiushen Sect really was fraught with danger on all sides. Even while staying right inside one's own sect, one had to worry about assassins coming for their life?
"Stop talking for now, just get some rest..." Han Feng hurriedly stepped forward, caught Luan Jian's limp body, and carried her over to sit securely against a large tree.
He casually tore off a strip of his own sleeve to cover the tear in the front of Luan Jian's robe, gently averting his gaze so as not to look at the alluring cleavage faintly visible through the hole.
Huh?
Luan Jian's expression grew even more perplexed. She felt as though the Sect Master before her had suddenly become as unfathomable as a mystery, completely changing like a different person, making it impossible to tell what was real and what was false.
By all logic, at a time like this, he should have lunged forward to rip away the rest of her clothes—unless, of course, her injuries simply weren't severe enough yet.
Could it be that he had really turned over a new leaf?
"Sect Master," Luan Jian panted for a long while, gradually gathering the chaotic spiritual energy surging through her body and catching her breath. Looking at Han Feng, who was right beside her with an expression of deep concern, she asked urgently: "Did you just say that terrifying sword qi came from our sect's *True Explanation of Swordsmanship*?"
Cough!
She had barely recovered before she started asking about swordsmanship. This Peak Master of Sword-Asking Peak really was a fanatic for the blade.
Han Feng gave a dry, helpless laugh and nodded. "Indeed."
"That's impossible!" Luan Jian shook her head repeatedly, murmuring with a bitter expression: "The Sect Master previously said your cultivation was only at the Spirit-Activation Realm—how could you possibly possess such a terrifying, boundless might?! Just now, when I was meditating in retreat, I suddenly felt a fierce sword qi bearing down on me and hurriedly tried to parry, but there was simply no way to block it! If I hadn't already cultivated the *Wenxin Sword Canon* to the seventh stage, I fear my soul would have been scattered and I'd be dead by now..."
Spirit-Activation Realm?
Oh, wait, no, I've reached the Golden Core stage now.
Han Feng didn't bother to explain. After all, the last time he offered a supplementary explanation, the result hadn't seemed to make her very happy—he still remembered that.
An educated person had to have high emotional intelligence and know how to consider the other party's feelings.
"Why stop at the seventh stage?" Han Feng kindly changed the subject and asked, "I've read that *Wenxin Sword Canon*, and it records a total of nine stages of Swordsmanship!"
"Cough, cough..." Luan Jian, who had just been feeling a little better, started coughing violently again, her expression thoroughly depressed.
Sect Master!
You used to be merely shameless and sleazy. How did you change your style now to something that could kill a person of pure exasperation?!
A total of nine stages! That's true!
But I... tried with every ounce of my being, and I've only managed to cultivate it to the seventh stage! Could you perhaps consider that possibility?!
With a dismal complexion, whether from the backlash of her injuries or sheer anger, Luan Jian gasped for breath a few more times and struggled to say: "This disciple... is of dull aptitude. Although I have poured my heart and soul into the sword, I am still unable to fathom the highest realm of the Sword Canon. In recent years, despite exhausting every fiber of my mind, I have still struggled to make even an inch of progress..."
There was no help for it; she could only blame her own lack of talent.
Otherwise, was she supposed to blame the cultivation technique?
Yet, speaking of the *Wenxin Sword Canon*, among all the recorded past Peak Masters of Sword-Asking Peak in the Jiushen Sect, Luan Jian had already reached the highest realm. Utilizing the wondrous sword techniques of the seventh stage of the *Wenxin Sword Canon*, although she had failed to form a Nascent Soul, she truly could rely on boundless sword intent to go toe-to-toe with mighty Nascent Soul figures!
Fighting a Nascent Soul expert while at the Golden Core stage—that pride was enough to shock the world, and it was precisely one of the vital reasons why the Jiushen Sect, despite being frail for many years, still stood tall without falling.
Yet today, before this very Sect Master, she seemed... utterly mediocre?
Luan Jian looked at Han Feng, naturally feeling extremely unconvinced. But since the other party hadn't formally studied the *Wenxin Sword Canon* and was merely speaking out of sheer ignorance, she didn't know what to say.
"Hmm, let me try."
Hearing Luan Jian's words, Han Feng merely gave a casual nod as he began recalling the contents recorded in the *Wenxin Sword Canon* he had browsed through before.
?
Luan Jian didn't understand. What was he going to try?
No way!
Was he going to test that terrifying, soul-shredding sword qi from a moment ago again?!
Sect Master... we're on the same side, please don't!
Hum!
Before Luan Jian could even finish that thought, she suddenly felt an extremely familiar wave of aura, filled with the sharp, cutting edge of a thousand armors and iron horses—it was precisely the natural manifestation of a sword's edge leaking out to look down upon the world when the first stage of the *Wenxin Sword Canon* was successfully mastered!
???
Luan Jian's mind went numb. She felt her injuries must be too severe, causing her to hallucinate.
Thinking back to those years, she had been supremely talented and high-spirited, determined to forge her own unique path of the sword. After joining the Jiushen Sect, starting from the *True Explanation of Swordsmanship*, she had successively cultivated the sect's *Jiushen Sword Classic*, *Thirteen Chapters of the Heavenly Sword*, and *Cloud-Slicing Sword Intent*, before finally reaching the *Wenxin Sword Canon*!
It had taken the effort of countless winters and summers of hard work to finally break through the barrier and truly step across the threshold, causing this sharp, iron-clad sword intent to diffuse around her entire body.
And now?
It had taken him... just a breath or two?
Could this Sect Master have been secretly practicing this Sword Canon all along, and today, by some twist of fate, he had finally pierced through the threshold as well?
Hum!
Before that thought could even settle, brilliant and piercing lights flared once again upon the body of the Lord Sect Master before her!
Puff...
The spiritual energy Luan Jian had managed to gather with such difficulty shattered and scattered through her body once more. A mouthful of rebellious blood rose to her lips, though she felt no metallic sweetness at all. The swordsmanship confidence she had built up over so many years crumbled with a deafening crash in that exact moment, shattering into a pile of rubble.
Hum, hum, hum!
After that, not only did Han Feng not stop, but his realm breakthroughs grew faster and faster!
Luan Jian was completely numb. She could only stare blankly as that sharp radiance flashed time and time again, marking the birth of an unprecedented and peerless Supreme Master of the Sword, achieving divinity right before her eyes...
Seven!
Eight!
Nine!
He had reached the ninth stage!
This... took merely the span of a single cup of tea?
With a dazed expression and slightly parted red lips, Luan Jian felt an overwhelming emptiness in her heart. She felt as though the place she inhabited was no longer the Human World, and what she was witnessing was certainly no mortal man.