"T-There has to be some kind of mistake! I must be dreaming or something! There"s simply no way that anyone in the True Spirit Realm could emit sword intent!" Elder Zhong felt as though the world was spinning much faster than before, causing him to have headaches.
After all, as a swordmaster himself, Elder Zhong knew very well how hard it was to comprehend sword intent, much less create it. The requirements were simply too profound for someone at the True Spirit Realm.
Although Su Yang could also create sword intent, he was in the Heavenly Spirit Realm, so Elder Zhong did not find it too weird despite his young age. Furthermore, it was not as though these disciples could have a master from the Holy Central Continent lecture them.
"I...I give up…"
Despite having a huge advantage over Jin Xi with his superior cultivation, the Divine Sword Sect disciple surrendered without even lifting his sword, as he had no intent fighting someone who has already mastered sword intent, something even most of their Sect Elders cannot achieve.
"What?!" Elder Zhong looked at his disciple with wide eyes.
"Why did you surrender without fighting her?!" He immediately lectured the disciple after he returned.
"B-Because she has sword intent… Anyone that can create sword intent is a formidable expert regardless of their cultivation base. Just looking at her sword intent, I can tell that her understanding with the sword is much higher than mine. I am no match for her." The disciple shook his head and explained the reason behind his actions.
"In other words, you were scared of her, huh?" Elder Zhong shook his head and sighed, "To think my sect would raise such cowards. It appears that we all have gotten complacent over these years."
He then turned to look at the other disciples with narrowed eyes and spoke in a grim tone, "I don"t care if you have no chance of winning, you will not surrender without putting up a fight and bring shame to the entire Divine Sword Sect! As for those of you who surrender, you can consider today your last day as a disciple of the Sect!"
"S-Sect Master! I-I was wrong!" The disciple who surrendered immediately kowtowed with despair in his expression.
However, Elder Zhong merely snorted with a cold expression and said, "No matter how talented you are, if you cannot act with at least some dignity, I do not want you in my sect. Now scram!"
"..."
The other disciples remained silent, as they did not want to anger Elder Zhong any further.
"The Sect Master is probably p.i.s.sed that some random junior had managed to understand sword intent when it took him nearly his entire life to do so…" The disciples thought to themselves as they looked at Elder Zhong.
"Disciple Lu… No, Lu Xuan, you can only blame yourself for being a coward and bringing shame to the Divine Sword Sect." One of the disciples suddenly said.
"S-Senior sister Ye… can you please help me out here?"
"Hah? Senior sister? Don"t try and act like we have any kind of relations.h.i.+p now, Lu Xuan." The young lady coldly snorted. "You have betrayed us the moment you stepped off that stage without a fight. If not for the millions of people here watching us, I would"ve already killed you."
"..."
"Anyway, we can continue this conversation later. Right now, we must focus on the match." Elder Zhong said to them.
A few moments later, the Divine Sword Sect sends another disciple onto the stage.
"On behalf of the Divine Sword Sect, I apologize for what happened previously, as that does not reflect upon our Sect"s values." The disciple said to Jin Xi in a calm manner.
"I don"t care about any of that, really." Jin Xi quickly shrugged.
"Good. Then allow me to give you a proper fight."
The Divine Sword Sect disciple raised his sword, and an aura similar to the previous disciple surrounded him.
Jin Xi watched the young man with a serious expression.
A moment later, Jin Xi"s eyes narrowed, and the sword in her grasp flew at the young man with incredible speed and sharpness.
"!!!"
The young man was slightly surprised by Jin Xi"s sudden approach, but he managed to barely fend against her sword strike with his own sword technique.
"What a heavy strike!" The young man could feel his arm become slightly numb after Jin Xi"s strike, who had prowess that should not belong to someone at the True Spirit Realm.
"Profound Blossom Art: Sweeping Petals!"
However, Jin Xi did not give the disciple a chance to rest for even a second and immediately followed up with a second attack.
The illusion of thousands of flower petals suddenly appeared and surrounded the Divine Sword Sect disciple, and each of these petals had the sharpness of a real sword.
When Liu Lanzhi saw this, her eyes widened with shock, and she mumbled to herself, "How could a mere Mortal-grade technique display such strength? At its current state, it definitely wouldn"t lose to even an Earth-grade technique!"
"Haaa!"
The Divine Sword Sect disciple tried to break out of Jin Xi"s sword technique, but no matter how hard he tried, he wasn"t able to escape.
Feeling like a trapped beast, the disciple decided to force his way out of the technique, but alas, the second his body touched the petals, all of the petals attacked him simultaneously.
"Ahhhhh!"
The Divine Sword Sect disciple felt as though he was being pierced by thousands of tiny swords within that short moment, and a few seconds later, he collapsed onto the floor with blank eyes.
"The Divine Sword Sect"s fighter has lost consciousness! The Profound Blossom Sect wins the second round!"
The audience erupted with shouting and pure noises after Zi Dong"s announcement.
"What"s going on?! How did the Profound Blossom Sect suddenly become so much stronger out of the blue?!"
"This kind of monstrous growth is not something that talent could achieve alone! There must be something else that"s helping them!"
The people there began to wonder if the Profound Blossom Sect had some heaven-defying treasure that allowed their disciples to become so powerful, as that would make the most sense for the majority there.