"That Jiang Qingyi is really something."
"I heard that when Elder Xiao first brought her up to the Dragon Spring Sword Sect, she couldn't even get into Qi Refining for months."
"Tell me about it. Word back then was that Jiang Qingyi was practically a cripple. Who'd have guessed she'd suddenly see the light and improve this fast?"
"Elder Xiao really does have a good eye."
In the spectators' stands, the people around Xiao Mo were all chattering about Jiang Qingyi.
Watching Qingyi receive healing, Xiao Mo felt a little dazed himself.
Never in his wildest dreams had Xiao Mo imagined Qingyi would really fight her way into the finals.
It felt like this.
Qingyi was the protagonist of a novel. Whenever she was a hair away from losing, she'd grasp something at the critical moment—or break through on the spot.
Take the semifinal: Jiang Qingyi had refused to surrender no matter what, and in the end she actually broke through into the ninth layer of Qi Refining!
Xiao Mo was starting to wonder whether every "life experience" in the Hundred Lives Book was really the saga of some protagonist's struggle, with himself playing nothing but a supporting role.
If that was how it worked, he supposed he didn't mind. At least Qingyi had a protagonist's plot armor; at least she wouldn't come to harm so easily.
"The final! Jiang Qingyi of Lingqian Peak versus Xiao Yan of Yunhai Hall!"
It came on the heels of a deacon's bellow.
Jiang Qingyi rose to her feet and walked toward the largest formation array at the center of the plain.
The moment she stepped into the array, Jiang Qingyi turned her head, looked toward Xiao Mo, and gave him a radiant smile.
Xiao Mo's brows drew together, and he mouthed four words at her: "Don't push yourself."
Before the finals, a master was allowed to surrender on his disciple's behalf.
But in the finals, only the disciple herself could surrender.
And who ever reached the finals without being a proud, gifted genius?
Unless they were beaten until they couldn't rise, such people would never surrender.
In past New Blood Tournament finals, people had even died.
As though she had not heard her master's instruction at all, Jiang Qingyi stepped into the array.
The match began. Xiao Yan lived up to his reputation as the title favorite and the most promising talent of the new generation.
Having already absorbed three kinds of exotic fire, he stood at half-step Foundation Establishment, and the quality of his cultivation was simply outrageous.
Each exotic flame in his body carried its own property, and as his longsword swept out, their might only grew.
Jiang Qingyi had no room to strike back at all; she could only keep running and dodging, hunting for an opening.
"Is running all you can do?"
Xiao Yan sneered and raised his longsword high.
A blade wave carrying the traits of Bone-Spirit Cold Fire came slashing down.
Jiang Qingyi couldn't dodge in time and forcibly blocked it with Xuanshuang.
The girl was blasted twenty meters away.
Her longsword planted in the ground, Jiang Qingyi coughed a few times, blood seeping from the corner of her mouth.
Xiao Yan gave her no chance to catch her breath.
In a flash his longsword came again, aimed straight at her brow.
Jiang Qingyi flicked it aside and unleashed the second form of the Cursive Sword Formula—Brush of Dragons and Snakes.
The girl's swordwork was like wild-cursive calligraphy: every move was bizarre and unpredictable, yet flowed with natural ease.
Her sword aura left ink-black afterimage trails in the air.
Jiang Qingyi might lack power, but her footwork was nimble.
Movement and swordwork combined, every attack came from a wickedly tricky angle.
When she pressed the attack, afterimages even lingered in the air, faintly confusing the eye, persisting just long enough to squeeze the space her opponent had to work in.
In under ten exchanges, cuts opened across Xiao Yan's body.
Some thought Jiang Qingyi had turned defense into attack, and even seized the advantage.
But in truth, the elders and deacons—Xiao Mo among them—all knew her attacks could barely hurt him, and that Xiao Yan was brewing something big, aiming for a single killing blow!
"Interesting. But a pity—not enough. First place in the New Blood Tournament is mine."
After opening up the distance, Xiao Yan judged the moment about right.
He stepped forward, and one sword lotus after another bloomed on the ground.
Blistering flames ruffled Jiang Qingyi's long hair.
"As a fellow disciple, I'll give you one last chance: surrender! Otherwise, when this move lands, you'll die!" Fire surged around Xiao Yan.
He was plainly nothing but a Qi Refining cultivator, yet at that moment Xiao Yan seemed like a god.
Jiang Qingyi drew a deep breath, stood, and pulled her longsword free. "Come on!"
"You've got guts!"
Xiao Yan bellowed, and sword lotuses bloomed beneath his feet.
Cracks spread across every lotus.
The next moment, the sword lotuses burst apart.
"Qingyi! Surrender!" Xiao Mo shouted.
Yes, it was only a life experience, and Xiao Mo knew everything in the Hundred Lives Book was fake.
But after so long together, how could he not care about Qingyi?
It was like following a show: when Ran Bing in Ling Cage gets pulverized into a Wangwang Freeze-Pop, it still hurts to watch.
Xiao Yan's sword aura, spiritual power, and exotic flames blended into one.
Each lotus that shattered sent a shockwave crashing toward Jiang Qingyi.
When nine sword lotuses had burst, blood ran from all seven of Jiang Qingyi's orifices; she knelt on one knee, unable even to stand—and still she would not surrender.
The last sword lotus was about to burst as well, and it was the strongest of them all.
Looking at that sword lotus,
Jiang Qingyi remembered bandits bursting into her home, her parents stuffing her into a cupboard; through the crack she could only watch, helpless, as her parents died before her eyes.
She remembered being carried off by the bandits to a splendid, opulent mansion, where they talked about taking her bones.
She remembered waking on a hillside littered with corpses.
She remembered begging in the streets, living one day at a time.
And last of all,
the girl remembered stealing a few steamed buns and nearly being beaten with a stick by the shopkeeper—and then her master had stood before her.
Because she met her master, she had been able to live.
Because she met her master, she had been able to cultivate.
I can't let Master down!
Master is my everything.
The girl drew a deep breath and stood up; Xuanshuang in her hand bloomed with sword intent, one after another.
Nine in all.
"Is that... the fourth form of the Cursive Sword Formula, the Nine-Leaf Sword?"
"Boom!"
At the instant the last sword lotus burst, the girl thrust out her sword.
A tremendous noise erupted from the array, and a cloud of sand and dust billowed a dozen meters high.
Xiao Mo hurriedly flew down from the stands and charged into the array.
Xiao Mo swept his hand, the dust scattered, and there stood Qingyi, still on her feet.
On the other side of the array, Xiao Yan had collapsed and was completely unconscious.
"Qingyi!" Xiao Mo called.
Hearing him, Jiang Qingyi turned, smiled faintly at her master, and then toppled forward.
Xiao Mo rushed over and caught Jiang Qingyi in his arms.
"Master..."
In Xiao Mo's arms, Jiang Qingyi said weakly,
"Master... the money you bet, your disciple has won it back for you..."