"..." The genius youth fell silent. It wasn't that he didn't know this point, but he had always felt that even if everyone knew his sword technique, as long as his cultivation level was deep enough, he could still unleash maximum power.
His thinking wasn't wrong, but he hadn't considered one thing, when competing against someone of equal or higher level who already knew your technique variations from the start, you were naturally at a disadvantage.
Of course, he had thought about this problem and put in effort, modifying the Demon Subduing Sword Technique to make it more suitable for himself and unpredictable to others.
Unless someone was very familiar with Demon Subduing Sword Technique, it would be difficult to see through his changes.
But today he was unlucky, encountering exactly such a person who understood Demon Subduing Sword Technique very well. The girl before him.
"Though you can practice new variations of Demon Subduing Sword Technique, there are still traceable patterns. I advise you to switch to other sword techniques, or you could create your own sword technique," the girl continued saying calmly.
"Creating one's own sword moves, how is that easy," The genius youth smiled bitterly. He hadn't reached grandmaster level yet.
"Is it difficult?" The girl seemed confused. Someone she knew could create sword and palm techniques. What she practiced was taught by him, and why she understood Demon Subduing Sword Technique was also because of him.
At that time, he not only had her break down Demon Subduing Sword Technique but had her memorize almost all martial techniques he knew, then figure out how to counter them.
"..." Seeing the girl's expression, the genius youth felt she didn't understand. This girl seemed to come from nowhere, appearing naive but with terrifyingly high strength.
Such people were like disciples of reclusive masters, but why would a reclusive master's disciple be in such a place? For training?
Thinking this, the genius youth asked: "Miss, may I ask your name?"
"Guxing!" the girl replied simply.
"Guxing?"
Everyone's minds began working, thinking of girls or even names related to the words "Guxing," but none seemed to match the girl before them.
"May I ask Miss Guxing's surname?"
Guxing felt like a given name or even a code name, not a full name.
"I have no surname. Guxing is my name, nothing else is needed. Names are just code names anyway,” the girl said faintly.
As she said, what the name was didn't matter. Real name or fake name, as long as it could represent this person, even a fake name would become their name.
She was a Guxing. Whether this name was real or her original name didn't matter. She was now called Guxing.
"Excuse me, is the match over? Did I win?" Guxing asked.
"Correct, you won!" the referee nodded.
"Can the next match begin?" Guxing continued asking.
"I think it's no longer necessary... Here's your jade plaque, proof of passing preliminaries. You will represent our Qingyun City people in the Dragon Gate Tournament. I hope you achieve good results." The referee handed a jade plaque to Guxing.
"??" Guxing's face was full of questions. Though she said nothing, her expression told everyone she didn't understand!
The referee continued: "Because you defeated Zhan Bai, you also gained his battle record. He was just one match away from qualifying, and you just won another match."
"Oh, I understand! Thank you!" Guxing bowed to the referee.
Then Guxing also bowed to the genius youth, Zhan Bai as the referee called him, saying: "Thank you too!"
"..."
The girl could skip other battles, so naturally she should thank Zhan Bai. But for Zhan Bai, this was definitely a blow.
He smiled without warmth and said helplessly: "You're welcome!!"
"By the way, if you really can't create your own techniques, you can learn moves from various martial arts that suit your characteristics, could be several moves, one move, or even half a technique! This way there's less chance of being recognized..." Guxing seemed to be repaying that gratitude, speaking to Zhan Bai.
"..." Zhan Bai was stunned, thinking of simple things he had never considered.
"If you continue long enough, you'll form your own martial techniques, taking the best from many schools. This inherits predecessors' experience and is much simpler than creating from nothing,” Guxing said faintly, then stepped away, leaving everyone with an infinitely beautiful departing figure.
Perhaps Guxing didn't know her words had made a genius become a true genius, or rather, elevated this genius's level considerably. Her words opened the genius's thinking, giving him a broader sky.
However, this required the genius to continue forward. Fortunately, Zhan Bai was a genius among civilians who had experienced much and wasn't a hothouse flower. He withstood this blow and quickly turned it into motivation.
After Guxing left, Zhan Bai immediately went to fight more battles, obtained a qualifying jade plaque, then immediately sought martial arts manuals and found places for intensive cultivation. He still had considerable time for improvement.
After civilian preliminaries ended, there would be time before noble family preliminaries began, then more time for an optional friendly match, then even more time before national preliminary preparations started.
So there was plenty of time.
Regarding preliminary rules, one more point should be added, being defeated didn't disqualify you. Like Zhan Bai after defeat, he could still find others to continue fighting. As long as he collected enough qualifying victories, he could still gain qualification.
All this was unrelated to the departing Guxing. She wouldn't care about this either. She just needed to go somewhere to meet someone.
Many people were interested in Guxing's appearance and wanted to know her specific identity. Because of this, some sent people to follow her.
After about half an hour, those tracking returned. Without exception, they had all lost her.
Somewhere, some people were having conversations...
"What do you mean lost her? You're all experts, how could you lose track of one person? Were you discovered?"
"We shouldn't have been discovered!"
"Then how did you lose her?"
"Because there were many people where she went..."
"So what if there were many people? That's no excuse!!"
"It is an excuse. In there, we couldn't even track someone if we knew exactly where they were, we got scattered by the crowd!!"
"...Don't tell me you went to..."
"Right! The temple fair!!"
"Then forget it..."
...
Every year at this time, there was a large temple fair near the City God Temple in Qingyun City. The liveliness could be described as a sea of people, especially in the first few days.
In such places, following someone undetected was easy, but keeping up was harder than reaching heaven. You'd lose sight in moments, swept away by crowds. Looking around, all you saw were masses of dark heads, who could tell who was who?
As for what Guxing came here to do, no one could guess. After all, temple fairs had everything, who knew what she was really doing unless she said so herself.
Also, if someone could follow her in such difficult circumstances, they would discover she was actually looking for someone, a youth tinkering with temple fair viewing apparatus, with something like a furball beside him that seemed alive and moving.
Also, this youth wore coarse cloth clothing that looked like some family's servant attire. Plus, the temple fair machinery all came from the Mo family, so this youth was definitely a Mo family servant.
This servant youth was—
"Xiaoyao!" Guxing came before the servant and called softly.
Right, this servant was Xiaoyao. He had been helplessly assigned here to maintain this equipment and keep it running to add splendor to the temple fair.
On the fifth day of New Year, while others were still celebrating, few were willing to do this work, so it was pushed to Xiaoyao.
If this servant was Xiaoyao, then who was this Guxing? When had Xiaoyao met such a girl?
The answer was—
"Boss, you came so quickly! How was it? Did you get a qualification?" Xiaoyao looked at Guxing and asked somewhat strangely.
Only one person could be called "boss" by Xiaoyao like this. The Mo family's Seventh Miss. There could be no second person.
Guxing was the Mo family's Seventh Miss. This was her first time leaving the Mo family. She wanted to register for the Dragon Gate Tournament in her personal name, without any Mo family connections.
This wasn't because she wanted to prove something to the Mo family, but because she wanted to go with Xiaoyao to major sects and academies where there were more advanced martial arts manuals unavailable anywhere else.
They could only achieve this possibility through the Dragon Gate Tournament.
At the same time, Xiaoyao also felt participating in the Dragon Gate Tournament was good, it would let Guxing gain experience and practical experience.
The name she used was Guxing. Heavenly Fiend Lone Star. (Guxing mean Lone Star)
"I already got it. Look, this is the qualification jade plaque!" Guxing took out the plaque, seeming to show off to Xiaoyao while looking at him expectantly. The meaning in those eyes was about to burst forth.
Praise me, praise me...
"Really good - you finished so quickly! I thought it would take a day or two!" Xiaoyao didn't stint on praise, making Guxing very happy.
"Actually I was lucky, meeting someone who just needed one more match. I beat him and got this." Guxing said.
(End of Chapter)