Chapter 61: The Outcome Is Decided

"Hahaha, my dear imperial concubine, you have always been magnanimous and benevolent, but after all, a martial arts duel must have a winner and a loser."

Hearing the Emperor's words, the Imperial Noble Consort covered her mouth and chuckled softly.

On the arena, Meng Yuxi saw that this sword technique was extraordinary. Although the Wu family's swordsmanship also possessed a similar move, that was merely a single strike, whereas Cui Xiucheng had unleashed over a dozen sword flashes. What was even more terrifying was that Cui Xiucheng still held his treasured sword in his hand, and at this moment, his right arm drew backward, gathering genuine qi in preparation to deliver a final, decisive blow against him.

Meng Yuxi immediately executed the Cloud-Supporting Star-Pressing Sword technique that Zhang Tiantai had taught him. This technique inherently grew stronger when countering formidable opponents. On the mountaintop that day, Zhang Tiantai had imparted the footwork of the Cloud-Supporting Star-Pressing Sword—which encompassed the ultimate numbers of heaven and earth—to Meng Yuxi all at once. Relying solely on his exceptional memory at the time, Meng Yuxi had managed to memorize seven or eight out of ten.

Using this technique in actual combat for the very first time, he felt that although the pressure from the dozen-plus sword strikes unleashed by Cui Xiucheng was so intense that even breathing became difficult, with a single movement of his feet, his first step forward made him feel as though a heavy burden had lifted. With his second step, he felt as if he had stepped outside of a cage, and with the third step, the universe expanded infinitely, leaving him free to roam wherever he pleased.

Seeing that Meng Yuxi had actually leaped out of his dozens-of-swords array, Cui Xiucheng hurriedly unleashed a fraction of his Divided Heaven Sword technique. This time, he pushed it to his absolute current limit: a complete set of thirty-two moves, resembling a sword array wielded simultaneously by ten people, with the variations among the thirty-two sword forms being immensely complex.

Meng Yuxi gathered his focus to receive the attack, gradually letting his mind become pristine and tranquil. The millions of complex footwork variations gradually cleared up in his mind, these fragmented steps converging like streams and small rivers into mighty torrents, and finally into a ladder capable of ascending to the heavens. The universe was so vast that there was nowhere one could not go, let alone this tiny arena.

Executing this set of sword techniques consumed a massive amount of genuine qi. White vapor was already rising from the top of Cui Xiucheng's head, while Meng Yuxi lightly swayed his black fan, strolling as leisurely through the sword array as if walking in his own courtyard garden.

Although Cui Xiucheng's mastery of this fraction of the Divided Heaven Sword was still somewhat lacking in refinement, these thirty-two sword moves had earned high praise from his master, who called him the premier talent of the One-Character Sword Sect in a century. Yet today, after an intense battle, these thirty-two sword moves failed to defeat a mortal without any cultivation realm, and could not even manage to scratch a single cut upon his body!

What on earth was the use of these two years of bitter study!

A sense of anxiety inevitably welled up in his heart.

"Hah!"

With a furious roar from Cui Xiucheng, the sword shadows of the thirty-two moves gradually dissipated. Cui Xiucheng swept his sword horizontally, and a massive wave of sword qi surged across half of the arena.

Cui Xiucheng intended to use this large-area sweeping attack, empowered by genuine qi, to knock Meng Yuxi down.

Meng Yuxi felt the pressure surrounding him suddenly ease the moment the thirty-two moves passed. This horizontal sweep merely looked vast in area, but in reality, it was dense close up and dispersed further out, acting much like a thin thread—making it exceedingly easy to dodge.

How could Cui Xiucheng, who had always been exceptionally clever, resort to such a clumsy method?

Taking two steps, Meng Yuxi had already arrived behind Cui Xiucheng. With a direct thrust of his black fan, he silently struck the Zhangmen acupoint on Cui Xiucheng's body.

Previously, he had deliberately made every strike of his fan produce a loud sound so that Cui Xiucheng would become accustomed to listening for his position. His real killing blow was meant to be unleashed in absolute silence, thereby achieving the goal of winning with a single strike.

The poke felt as though it had landed on a mass of cotton. It was only after Cui Xiucheng was struck that he sensed it, and he immediately executed another horizontal sword sweep.

Meng Yuxi easily evaded it.

"Brother Meng, I truly admire your footwork. Anyway, my martial arts exam score is already leading yours ahead of time. Why don't we call it a draw, and neither of us will take the scores for this match?"

Cui Xiucheng whispered with a smile to Meng Yuxi.

"Right now, I have channeled all my genuine qi to protect my body. No matter how heavy and marvelous your iron fan is, it is ultimately just a blunt instrument; it cannot pierce through the genuine qi barrier protecting my body."

When Cui Xiucheng used the thirty-two moves of the Divided Heaven Sword, the mobilization of genuine qi was immense. He had feared that Meng Yuxi would use his bizarre footwork to approach him and deal a heavy blow while his defense was unguardable during the execution of his moves. Given how strange and heavy that black fan was, coupled with Meng Yuxi's innate divine strength, a single strike would undoubtedly leave him severely injured and collapsed on the ground. Therefore, the moment he realized he could not subdue Meng Yuxi, he wanted to resort to a drawing strategy.

Outside the arena, Eunuch Wen couldn't help but curse under his breath at how utterly cunning Cui Xiucheng was!

"You placed first in the literary exam, and if you draw with me now, our comprehensive scores will either tie us for first place, or you will still remain first. Either way, you will receive the Emperor's reward no matter what, and I will also have a chance. Isn't this the best possible outcome for both of us?"

Cui Xiucheng was deeply afraid that these words might be overheard by others, so he spoke in an extremely low whisper, ensuring that only the two of them could hear.

"Seeing that there is now less than half an incense stick of time left, Meng Yuxi, it is impossible for you not to want a draw. Why bother making more futile attempts?"

Meng Yuxi glanced at the burning incense and couldn't help but chuckle softly. Cui Xiucheng's sneaky tricks were endless; he would rather believe himself to be Qin Shi Huang than trust a single syllable of the man's ghost stories.

Instantly, the Cloud-Supporting Star-Pressing footwork shifted, and he appeared right beside Cui Xiucheng. Cui Xiucheng's eyes were still scanning the area for Meng Yuxi's trace when he felt a heavy blow land on his chest and ribs. Fortunately protected by genuine qi, Cui Xiucheng sidestepped and swept his sword horizontally, but Meng Yuxi had already shifted his position once more.

The two of them engaged in close combat. Despite numerous attacks, Meng Yuxi failed to take Cui Xiucheng down. He felt as though he had already struck multiple points on Cui Xiucheng's body in an attempt to find his vital meridian, but these attacks had been rather disorganized, yielding very little effect.

*Disorganized? Little Cui?*

Meng Yuxi suddenly recalled Little Cui cleaning his room earlier, how the leftover garbage scattered in tufts here and piles there on the floor was also completely disorganized. Thinking back now, the placement of that garbage seemed to correspond precisely to multiple acupoints on the human body, such as the Futu acupoint, Tiantu acupoint, Quchi acupoint, and Qihai acupoint.

Since he currently had no counter for the genuine qi barrier anyway, he might as well give it a desperate try at this very last moment.

Without breaking his movement technique, Meng Yuxi launched consecutive attacks targeting these exact acupoints on Cui Xiucheng's body.

The moment Meng Yuxi struck his third acupoint, Cui Xiucheng felt the bizarre sensation that the protective genuine qi he had dispersed outside his body was actually being driven back into his body.

When Meng Yuxi attacked the fourth acupoint, Cui Xiucheng felt as though the genuine qi within his entire body was churning like a stormy sea and overturning rivers.

As Meng Yuxi moved to strike the fifth acupoint on Cui Xiucheng's body—

Cui Xiucheng shrieked at the top of his lungs like a slaughtered pig, "Brother Meng! No!"

Yet Meng Yuxi had already struck. Cui Xiucheng was hit, and the genuine qi within his body surged turbulently. The multiple streams of genuine qi he had absorbed previously refused to obey commands or coalesce any longer, feeling instead as if they were desperately trying to burst out of his body. The skin all over his body felt as though it was on the verge of cracking apart by the inch, and he felt as if the next second he would explode and die from the pressure.

The Qi-Transforming Pearl inside Meng Yuxi's bosom was now radiating an intensely brilliant light, as wave after wave of formless, colorlessness genuine qi surged overwhelmingly into the pearl.