Chapter 40: Crushing the Sword Stance with Bare Hands

Feng Xi felt as if her head were splitting; the spiritual energy rampaging through her meridians made her increasingly restless.

Going to the Ten Thousand Sword Cave might be a good idea. If she could vent the excess spiritual energy in her body, perhaps the discomfort would subside.

Therefore, without waiting for the disciples from the Dharma Transmission Hall in charge of her escort to urge her, she took the initiative to step onto one of their flying swords.

The inner-sect disciples who had been attending the lecture felt a pang of sympathy and began pleading on her behalf.

"Elder Duanmu, Junior Sister Feng Xi certainly didn't do it on purpose. She simply hasn't mastered the control of her spiritual energy yet, which is why this disaster occurred. Please, spare her this time!"

"Yes, Elder Duanmu, Junior Sister Feng Xi's dantian injury has not yet fully healed. It would be a tragedy if she were hurt by the sword aura! We implore you to show mercy and handle this leniently!"

Elder Duanmu had not expected so many people to intercede for Feng Xi. However, regardless of whether she had done it on purpose, she had to be punished; otherwise, what authority would an elder of the Dharma Transmission Hall have?

After some thought, he said to the disciples escorting Feng Xi, "Send her to the auxiliary cave."

Beside the Ten Thousand Sword Cave was an auxiliary cave used for disciplining newly initiated disciples with low cultivation; it was virtually devoid of any real danger.

Struggling to maintain her composure, Feng Xi thanked Elder Duanmu and the inner-sect disciples who had pleaded for her, then followed her escorts to the auxiliary cave of the Ten Thousand Sword Cave.

The moment Feng Xi entered the auxiliary cave, a phantom of a flying sword lunged at her.

Under normal circumstances, Feng Xi would have dodged it and then released spiritual vines to bind it. But she was currently feeling extremely agitated, and the abundant spiritual energy in her body made that flying sword phantom seem not only slow but incredibly weak.

It barely deserved to be called a flying sword; it was more like a chopstick!

So, channeling her spiritual energy into her right hand, she grabbed the phantom directly and gave it a forceful squeeze.

To her surprise, the phantom simply dissipated under her grip.

Feeling a bit more comfortable as the spiritual energy was released, Feng Xi began searching the entire cave for more sword phantoms.

There weren't many phantoms in the auxiliary cave to begin with, so in less than a quarter of an hour, she had run out of "toys."

Feng Xi was a bit speechless. Shouldn't these things be endless? How could she have finished them off in one go?

The sword phantoms were indeed endless, but Feng Xi's method of dealing with them was akin to sheer brute force. The faint remnants of will within the phantoms had simply collapsed!

When the will collapsed, the sword aura ceased to exist. In other words, Feng Xi had completely wiped out the source of the sword aura in the auxiliary cave.

However, she was unaware of this and merely thought the so-called auxiliary cave was far too weak.

Seeing no more phantoms to play with, she began to constantly cast the Binding Spell, filling the entire cave with spiritual vines.

Since she lacked a specific target, the vines just went wild, resembling a chaotic dance of demons.

She didn't know which vine triggered a mechanism, but an entrance suddenly appeared on the northern wall.

Feng Xi’s eyes lit up, and she squeezed through.

Inside, she saw a bewildered Jun Wen.

"Jun, Jun, Junior Sister?!"

Jun Wen felt as if he had seen a ghost. He pinched himself and grimaced in pain, confirming it wasn't a hallucination.

Feng Xi looked disappointed. "Fifth Senior Brother, have you finished playing with the sword phantoms here too?"

Jun Wen looked dazed. "Junior Sister, are you referring to the sword aura? There is only one wave of attacks every hour, and this wave only passed half an hour ago."

Feng Xi frowned. "Then let's just wait."

Her condition was much better than before; the restlessness had faded, and she felt hungry. She took two meat buns out of her storage ring and began to eat.

It must be said that the economic situation of the Xuantian Sect had improved quite a bit; they could even eat meat buns now. Of course, they were all made from the meat of low-level demonic beasts, but as long as it was meat, Feng Xi wasn't picky.

Seeing her eat with such relish, Jun Wen swallowed hard. "Junior Sister, could you give me one?"

Feng Xi was quite generous and handed him five.

After eating her fill, Jun Wen asked, "Junior Sister, did you crawl over from the auxiliary cave? Were you punished by Elder Duanmu, too? What did you do?"

Feng Xi replied with an air of nonchalance, "Nothing much, I just burned his beard."

*Cough! Cough!*

Jun Wen nearly choked to death on his own saliva.

His Junior Sister was truly fierce! Elder Duanmu treasured his beard above all else; she was practically courting death in the most creative way possible.

"If you burned his beard and he only punished you by sending you to the auxiliary cave, he really has shown you mercy."

Feng Xi explained, "He originally intended to send me to the Ten Thousand Sword Cave, but many senior brothers and sisters pleaded for me, so he sent me to the auxiliary cave instead."

She sighed. "Actually, I didn't want anyone to plead for me. I’ve never been to the Ten Thousand Sword Cave, and I was looking forward to playing around. But those seniors were crying and begging for me... sigh, being too popular is a burden."

Jun Wen: "..."

*Do you know that talking like that makes people want to punch you?*

And those inner-sect disciples—they had barely spoken two words to the Junior Sister, yet they risked offending Elder Duanmu to plead for her? Should he call them foolish, or was the Junior Sister’s charm just that powerful?

Jun Wen pointed to the entrance between the caves and asked, "How did you open that? I truly didn't know the auxiliary cave was connected to the Ten Thousand Sword Cave."

Feng Xi gave a simple summary of what had happened.

Jun Wen: ...Nonsense!

*You? You crushed a flying sword phantom with your bare hands? Who are you trying to fool? Even our Master couldn't do that! If the sword aura could be dispersed that easily, the Ten Thousand Sword Cave would have ceased to exist long ago!*

However, Jun Wen didn't call her out. Since the Junior Sister had already been punished, there was no need to rub salt in the wound.

He estimated that the next wave of sword aura was imminent and warned her, "Junior Sister, a new wave of attacks is about to start. I estimate you can only hold out for a few hundred breaths at most. When you can't hold on any longer, hide in the auxiliary cave, do you understand?"

Feng Xi nodded. "Alright."

A short while later, three sword phantoms darted toward the two of them.

Feng Xi narrowed her eyes as she watched. These phantoms were much stronger than those in the auxiliary cave, but they were still nothing special.

Since Jun Wen clearly hadn't believed her earlier, she would let him see her crush the sword aura with her bare hands!

Just then, a wave of weakness washed over her, and the feeling of fullness in her meridians vanished in an instant.

Feng Xi: *#@%%@%##%!*

*I was just about to show off, and you disappear on me now?!*