The audience felt the pressure and those who were in the lower and middle stages had their faces pale.
"Brother Xu, why did you do that?" Xiao Lao looked at his senior brother, worried as he realized that Ma Dongpil had become serious after being provoked by him repeated times.
Ling Xu looked at Ma Dongpil erupting his aura and the next second he disappeared from everyone's view.
Only those who were in the later stages of Blood Qi could follow his image as he moved extremely fast.
"Try to react to this."
Appearing right in front of Ling Xu, his wooden sword moved and made a thrust that moved the air with it.
"Uh?" Ma Dongpil was surprised as he never expected for Ling Xu to dodge, he only wanted to hit him hard aiming to injure him for a few days.
Reacting in time, Ling Xu counterattacked as he swung his sword and made an horizontal one.
But his technique was so crude in front of Ma Dongpil that he only hit the air as his target had already evaded.
What followed next was a series of attacks and slashes that overwhelmed Ling Xu one-sidedly, displaying a superiority in technique.
"Is this the difference in technique?"
Feeling the pressure from the precise and continues attacks that he was receiving while he could barely block a few and dodge the rest desperately, he was cornered into one end of the combat square.
But while he was feeling that way the rest felt different.
"What is this? Shouldn't the fight have ended after the first strike?"
"How can he stand for more than ten exchanges and still continue?"
The crowd, including Xiao Lao, were surprised as Ling Xu had managed to fight back after more than a dozen exchanges.
They weren't surprised by the difference in skill, as those who were in the later stages of Blood Qi could see perfectly that Ling Xu was barely using the entry level of mastery of the Three Purities Sword technique.
They were surprised that he could withstand the strength of someone who was in the ninth stage of Blood Qi, while he was only in the seventh. That was a two stage gap that couldn't be reached easily, as just one stage of difference was extremely hard.
From the general knowledge, only those who had gone through one blood exchange could go against someone who was a stage higher while having gone through none.
But Ling Xu was going against someone two stages higher, so what did that mean.
"He is my senior brother for a reason after all." puffing his chest out, Xiao Lao felt proud of who he had chosen to be his brother.
On the other side, Ma Dongpil was getting mad as he realized that Ling Xu could withstand his strikes even though they had a two stage difference.
"How can this be?" he couldn't believe that he was resisting the attacks when he was using all his strength.
The only thing that made him have an advantage was the difference in skill in the Three Purities Sword.
"Don't blame me for not going easy on you!" he started displaying the small success level of mastery as he had almost completed it thanks to his previous experience in reaching the great success in his family's sword technique after years of training.
All of a sudden, his sword technique seemed to completely change.
From the previous three moves he was displaying while connecting properly, he deflected a vertical slash Ling Xu had made.
Then he threw his own horizontal slash and when Ling Xu was already blocking he revealed that it was a feint.
A diagonal slash from top to bottom was made as it hit Ling Xu on the left side of his body, but to Ma Dongpil's shock he didn't manage to make him move in the slightest.
"Phew! Fortunately my skin is as hard as iron and it could resist even if he was using a high grade semi-treasure."
Ling Xu realized that he didn't have anything to fear as his skin could resist any of his opponent's attacks without worry.
He focused and started observing his opponent's technique, trying to learn as much as he could without letting any kind of external distraction affect him.
"What is this?!"
Fighting with wooden swords, Ma Dongpil didn't expect to manage to cut through Ling Xu's skin as it was obvious that anyone who had completed the organ refinement could resist the attack from a low grade semi-treasure.
But still, this wasn't a fight between two people at the same level, it was between a seventh stage and a ninth stage of Blood Qi.
Although he could think that Ling Xu had undergone a blood exchange and could bridge the gap from one stage that way.
He never thought that he had managed to undergo two body transformations and even less that his blood qi had been condensed through a blood condensing technique.
It was something so rare that not a single person at Lesser Crimson Town had and even at the Formless Sword Sect there were only a few, giving access to it only to those talented disciples in the Blood Qi Realm who directly entered as outer disciples and were classified as geniuses.
The only possibility he considered was that Ling Xu was born with strong bones and that he could resist that way the several impacts he was receiving from him.
"Isn't this too much? Although he could have been born with a strong physique, why isn't he showing any sign of getting tired already?!"
After all, to resist so many of his attacks, Ling Xu could have done so only at the cost of his blood qi draining faster.
But he didn't show any sign of his strength diminishing or even his pace as he was showing an extreme focus in Ma Dongpil's sword moves.
While Ling Xu was following the precise and continuous strikes from him, he was growing as his sword had slowly started to become more precise.
"Now is the time!" he thought and a command could be intuitively heard from it, as the next instant the channel between his eyes started to move.
A barrage of golden and pure energy entered bathing him completely as he was relieved from all the fatigue he had accumulated from the physical effort he had made for the last week.
Feeling free of any restraint, Ling Xu's mind flew as it became clear and a slight shiver of gold appeared in his eyes for a moment.
"Am I seeing things?"
On the outside, Ma Dongpil noticed a change as he saw Ling Xu's expression become free as if nothing could bother him anymore.
The next instant, his sword strikes that were making his opponent loose his balance weren't doing the same effect anymore.
On Ling Xu's hand, a sword could be seeing using the three same moves from before.
But it had started to become more precise as every few strikes it could be seen striking in the same place.
These few times turned in a breath into every three strikes and this three into two strikes. After only three breaths of time, his sword was hitting precisely every spot his hand intended to move the sword to.
"Why is his precision getting better by the second, was he hiding his mastery level?"
After a few dozen exchanges, the balance of the fight had turned into something completely different.
What appeared to make Ling Xu lose his ground and receive a strike or two every few swings of Ma Dongpil's sword, had become almost a draw.
After his sword became extremely precise, it advanced to the small success level as it had started to show different variations.
After an horizontal slash Ling Xu would then move his body and make a diagonal one, or he would make a feint and then change the attack of his sword into something else.
Even when he was receiving Ma Dongpil's anxious moves, he was deflecting and then he would counterattack.
"Coult it be…?"
Seeing his face as if he was in the middle of a trance, an idea popped into Ma Dongpil's mind.
He thought of a concept his father explained to him a long time ago, when he had just met Xie Lan and felt frustrated as he realized the gap of talent, having awakened his blood qi two months before him.
"There is always a sky above the sky." he heard from his father as he was told next that Xie Lan was a genius and the person with the highest talent found at Lesser Crimson Town in years.
It was normal for such geniuses to naturally advance faster than you and your only chance to get on their level was to make several times the effort they were making.
But even then, there were occasions where you could do nothing about, such occasions were when these type of people entered enlightenment.
Although it was rare, and even people with normal talents could enter this state, once a genius enter enlightenment he would fly like a fish in water without any difficulty.
In this state his cultivation could advance several times or even his technique as it could affect anything, increasing their comprehension to a terrifying level in that short time.
Back in the fight, Ling Xu's sword had reached the completion of small success as Ma Dongpil had started to waver against the slight difference in technique.
"Is this real?"
Xiao Lao and the rest of the crowd could see a change.
Even those in the lower stages could notice it as they noticed the fast images of Ma Dongpil turn from advanced to slowly clashing in the same place against Ling Xu, and now to even retreating a bit.
This followed into the opposite as Ling Xu's mastery on the Three Purities Sword technique didn't seem to slow down at all as it had advanced another level, showing every move being followed by the next without stop.
This process continued for dozens of clashes as Ma Dongpil was now retreating, feeling completely cornered by the difference in sword mastery and even physically as he was being pushed into the corner of the square.
"I surrender!"
Ling Xu heard the cry as he took control over his body once again and stopped the path between his eyes from bathing him with more of the golden energy.
"I didn't expect him to turn into this state, I will have to be more careful about entering enlightenment with other people as it's too risky."
He didn't know if to feel bad for him as he had only provoked him to feel pressure and make him go all out, not expecting that entering enlightenment and comprehending the sword technique would turn the flow of the fight to such a degree.
"Thanks for teaching me the way of the sword."
Ling Xu saluted and decided to leave, having attracted the attention from such a large crowd he didn't plan on staying here any longer.
Opening a path for him to get out of the combat square and go back to his room, the disciples that were observing were left speechless.
Ma Dongpil couldn't say anything either as he was too shocked to make a few words come out of his mouth.
"Genius…" he whispered as he was still left with the phrase that his father said several years ago, remembering that there always was a sky above the sky.
"Why is senior brother becoming more impressive every time I see him?" his junior brother thought as he couldn't say anything to Ling Xu when he exited the square, being as shocked as the rest of the crowd.
"I can't fall behind or I won't be able to follow his side after he enters the outer sect!" he said full of determination, not wanting to see his first senior brother become distant to him because he didn't put in enough effort.
"Did you say something?" someone from the crowd asked him.
"No…nothing!" he said nervously.