Volume 3 Chapter 14
As soon as Ye Luo and Su Xiao engaged in a long-distance contest, Ye Luo looked obviously angry. However, she wasn’t using fatal blows. She used her silver bow as her weapon and then entered close quarters combat with Su Xiao. Ye Luo most likely learnt from a reputable school and teacher. Not only was she skilled in archery, her palm techniques were also splendid.
Unfortunately, she was paired up with Su Xiao.
Su Xiao and his Cold Sabre are like masters of close quarters combat when combined. Su Xiao’s broadsword skills aren’t so good, but his personality is well-suited for broadsword styles. Su Xiao’s personality borderlines on brash, daring and fearless; for example, threatening the orange prince, storming the Qilin Guards’ office and arresting Yi Yixian, and he even tried to chop their plaque. If we were to consider it from a martial artist’s perspective, those actions have virtually reached the point of evil and violence.
Broadswords are the king among weapons, so they require the wielder to be prideful.
As such, while Su Xiao wasn’t skilled with a broadsword, and his strikes weren’t fluid, he wasn’t afraid of death! Su Xiao didn’t evade or hide. He put everything behind every blow. He didn’t care about Ye Luo’s palm strikes, or maybe he just couldn’t tell how fatal her strikes could be. When she put her true power behind her strike and prepared to strike at him, Su Xiao went head-on regardless. He fought like it was life-or-death. But thanks to that, it took longer to defeat him.
The difference in their skill was very obvious. Ye Luo didn’t hold any particular rank in the first-ranked masters, but she was among the top of the second-ranked masters, that’s if you don’t consider her incredible Tie Zhen Divine Archery skills. Ye Luo’s martial arts style made it inevitably impossible for her to become the top ranked fighter in the emperor’s entourage. But that aside, she was a great assistant on missions that was highly sought after. With her archery sides on their side, not only would they be able to prevent enemies from escaping, she could also be a powerful partner in a two-man fight situation.
However, once she mastered Tie Zhen Divine Marksmanship, everything was different because she was now a formidable fighter at close-range alone. That jump allowed her to go from a Bing-rank warrior to the second-ranked Jia-rank warrior within two short years.
Now let’s talk about Su Xiao. The cold sabre and the broadsword style that his family passed down were the greatest combination. However, Su Xiao was too young. His internal strength hadn’t developed enough. If he wants to utilise the full power of his broadsword skills, he’ll need to wait another three or four years. At his current level, it’d be tough for him to even beat multiple bandits. The two of them won’t trade more than ten moves. If Ye Luo gets serious, I’m afraid it won’t even take her two moves to win. However, Su Xiao’s life-or-death style of fighting caused Ye Luo to stiffen up.
Real arrows were not permitted in the imperial martial arts tournament. Ye Luo didn’t think Su Xiao was so tough either. His ancient cold sabre was incomparably sharp. Ye Luo tried to block with her carefully crafted silver bow, but his sabre nearly cut it in half. That gave Su Xiao a small advantage. As a result, Ye Luo had no choice but to evade his blows. Ye Luo was fairly angry since she was caught off-guard by his ruffian-like style. And so, the two of them exchanged more than ten moves.
“You scoundrel!”
Ye Luo couldn’t hold it in and cursed him. She placed her feet behind her and jumped back, putting distance between her and Su Xiao.
“You scoundrel, try this for size!”
Ye Luo held up her silver bow up with her slender hands. She formed a shape like she was playing a fuqin with her fingers in her left hand, and the qi in her changed as if layers of transparent silver qi encaged her body. Even the audience members who didn’t know martial arts could tell that it was the prelude before her unleashing a powerful qi art.
Sitting his seat, the emperor said: “She is the sixth generation of the Ye family’s divine marksmanship art. It’s not an easy style to learn, and is heavily reliant on the innate potential of the learner. Most of the disciples of the Ye family this generation’s potential are average, if they don’t… Uhm, that’s the mental cultivation art, and that’s the hand techniques, Ye Luo isn’t bad.”
Ye Luo held her bow up with one arm and locked her focus on Su Xiao intently. She used her thumb, index finger and middle finger to pull her bowstring back into a crescent shape like half-a-moon. When she extended her fingers, her qi spun together in a screw shape. When she pulled her bowstring, her qi formed a round shape. When Su Xiao saw her movements, he intended to push her back, but when he saw her mould energy making her look like she was refreshed, he felt something was wrong, and thus couldn’t make it in time to attack. All he saw was Ye Luo replace her beautiful smile with a cold smile after moulding her energy.
“Goodbye!”
The collection of qi shot out following her release of the string. The two moulded together and shot out in a spiral path. When her qi left her bow, its force increased more than several folds.
The speed of her qi-arrow travelled as fast as an iron arrow. Her qi-arrow was invisible. Su Xiao had never seen an invisible arrow which could hurt their opponent from a long-distance. However, he could tell it was dangerous.
“What’s this?!”
Su Xiao had no time to guard. He swung his sabre without a thought. His blade and the arrow collided. Su Xiao felt his wrist hurt causing him to almost drop his Ancient Cold Sabre. He suddenly felt a spontaneous burst of ice-cold qi energy from his body. As soon as Su Xiao could grab his sabre again properly, he flung the qi-arrow back along the route where it came from with his Ancient Cold Sabre.
As the person who fired the qi-arrow, Ye Luo was fully aware what was happening. She was surprised to discover that Su Xiao deflected it back to her with a stronger internal strength.
Su Xiao… is a hidden internal arts style master?!
Faced with danger, Ye Luo didn’t panic. She placed three fingers onto her bowstring and fired two consecutive shots. The two shots shot at the shot Su Xiao deflected back at her, but they looked like they got sucked up. The two newly fired shots didn’t do anything except look like they vanished.
Actually, it’d be better to say that they broke as opposed to getting sucked up. It was like two small breezes running into a tornado, getting completely absorbed by the stronger one. The two shots Ye Luo fired with full power were completely useless.
She thought: This kid… managed to destroy three of my arrows with a single slash… I can’t believe his internal strength can compare to my father’s.
The arrow came back at her travelling very quickly, leaving her with no time to fire another shot. At the forefront of the powerful qi-arrow seem to be some sort of object about the size of a mosquito or fly. But there was no doubt there was something at the forefront of the qi-arrow.
Ye Luo: It’s a hidden weapon!
When the arrow got closer, Ye Luo finally saw its black shape clearly. It was a tiny melon skin……
Ye Luo: What the heck is this?!
Before she could shout out her thoughts, her qi-arrow had reached her. The qi which was supposed to be concentrated into an arrow dissipated like it was destroyed by light. All that was left was the melon skin which didn’t stop. It hit Ye Luo’s temple, knocking her out.
“Victor, Liu Shan Men’s Su Xiao!”
The voices of the audience filled the air. They didn’t suspect Su Xiao’s abilities to win at all. They considered Ye Luo’s short-time with the upper hand nothing but a small obstacle Su Xiao had to overcome to become a hero. Those good-for-nothing girls, wives and ladies were still Su Xiao’s loyal supporters.
Su Xiao was puzzled as he accepted his victory-cries filling the air and thanked them.
I who was down below put my hand I used to flick the melon skin away……
I’m not picking on you, Miss Luo. It’s just that I’m busy, so please let me through.