Quan Huyen

Hao Nhien climbed one step at a time.

Not fast.

But very steady.

Three steps.

Another stone door appeared before him.

He placed a hand on it.

Pushed it open.

Inside was still an arena.

But the moment he saw the figure standing on it, Hao Nhien stopped.

Black robes.

A build that was not particularly imposing.

A deep, heavy aura.

Silent.

Yet merely standing there was enough to create a pressure that was difficult to ignore.

Quan Huyen.

A man who had survived more than a few life and death battles in the Western Wastes.

One of the most formidable members of the Quan family’s younger generation in this Inner Secret Realm.

Hao Nhien looked at him for several breaths.

Then the corner of his mouth slowly curved upward.

A chance to fight someone like Quan Huyen on equal footing.

Normally, even if he asked for such an opportunity, he might not get it.

Quan Huyen looked over.

His gaze was calm.

“Dong City?”

Hao Nhien stepped onto the arena.

“Quan Hao Nhien.”

Quan Huyen gave a slight nod.

“I know.”

Nothing more.

The two walked toward the stone pedestal at the center of the arena.

Two deep handprints were still carved into its surface.

Quan Huyen placed his hand down first.

A pillar of light immediately appeared.

At first, it shone so brightly it was almost blinding.

Then it was slowly pulled downward.

Its color changed.

Finally, it stabilized at a deep red.

Then it was Hao Nhien’s turn.

He placed his hand into the remaining imprint.

Cold.

Then hot.

The pillar of light before him erupted in an ash gray glow.

It fluctuated far more violently than it had in the previous two battles.

Then it too gradually turned deep red.

The light spread across nearly half the arena.

At that exact moment, a surging warm current poured into his body.

Hao Nhien’s expression shifted slightly.

Stronger.

Deeper.

Fiercer.

The true qi inside his dantian immediately surged.

His meridians tightened.

His muscles burned hot.

His bones felt as though they had been pushed into an entirely different state.

The temporary power inside his body had already far surpassed the sixth layer.

Hao Nhien clenched his fist.

A faint crack came from his knuckles.

This was a rare opportunity.

A chance to feel in advance a level of strength he did not yet possess.

Quan Huyen looked at him.

“Need time to adjust?”

Hao Nhien rotated his wrist.

He felt the true qi inside his body for several breaths.

“No need. Thank you for the offer.”

Quan Huyen raised his chin slightly.

“Then begin.”

No probing.

No circling.

Quan Huyen stepped forward.

One step.

Then charged.

Fast.

Very fast.

Unlike the previous two opponents, who had spent several exchanges reading each other first.

The moment Quan Huyen moved, he drove straight through the centerline.

One punch.

Straight.

Heavy.

Decisive.

Hao Nhien tilted his shoulder.

Blocked.

Boom!

His arm shook violently.

His body slid back half a step.

Quan Huyen gave him no time to reset.

The second punch was already there.

Then the third.

Shoulder.

Chest.

Ribs.

Every strike was simple.

But brutally efficient.

Not a trace of wasted force.

Hao Nhien immediately understood.

This man was completely different from the previous two opponents.

He could do almost everything Hao Nhien normally relied on to gain an advantage.

A solid body.

Strong endurance.

Stable balance.

Clean fighting.

Fast reactions.

No greed for complicated moves.

No greed for excessive force.

Most importantly.

He gave his opponent no time to breathe.

Hao Nhien retreated.

Half a step.

Turned his hips.

Swept his leg.

Quan Huyen lifted his leg to avoid it.

Then immediately closed the distance again.

A shoulder strike.

Boom!

Hao Nhien was knocked off line.

Before he could stabilize himself, an elbow was already driving toward him.

He lowered his shoulder.

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Took a short retreat.

Escaped by half an inch.

The force of the punch brushed past his cheek.

His skin burned.

Hao Nhien immediately countered with a punch to the ribs.

Quan Huyen turned his body.

Dropped his forearm.

Blocked.

Then answered with a punch to the abdomen.

Boom!

Hao Nhien folded slightly.

His breath caught.

Quan Huyen still did not stop.

This feeling...

Was very familiar.

Hao Nhien gritted his teeth.

A memory flashed through his mind.

The Great White Ape.

Back then, he had also been suppressed by an opponent stronger in body, strength, and reaction.

There was only one difference.

The Great White Ape had still given him room to breathe.

Quan Huyen did not.

This man was not fighting to test him.

Not fighting to look impressive.

He simply kept forcing his opponent into the most uncomfortable position possible.

Every time Hao Nhien tried to recover his rhythm.

Quan Huyen cut it first.

One punch.

One step.

One shoulder collision.

One sweep.

Nothing unnecessary.

Hao Nhien was repeatedly struck across the shoulder, ribs, chest, and forearms.

No single blow was enough to finish him.

But every one made him a little slower.

He began using everything he had just learned from the previous two battles.

Do not resist force directly.

Follow it.

Turn the hips.

Withdraw the shoulder.

Cross step.

Wait half a beat.

Do not pull backward when locked.

Do not commit too much force without certainty.

But Quan Huyen knew these things too.

Not exactly in the same way.

But the result was the same.

Every time Hao Nhien thought he had cleanly avoided one strike.

The next had already arrived.

Every time he thought he had established a counterattack.

Quan Huyen had already retreated exactly half a step.

No more.

No less.

Hao Nhien began to understand what it felt like to be countered.

Not because of cultivation art.

But because the opponent possessed almost everything he normally used to defeat others.

And was more seasoned with it.

Boom!

A punch struck his shoulder.

Hao Nhien retreated.

Quan Huyen followed.

Leg sweep.

Hao Nhien lifted his leg.

But the sweep was only there to open the way.

The right fist had already arrived.

Boom!

Pain shot through Hao Nhien’s chest.

He retreated another two steps.

Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

His breathing grew heavier.

But his eyes remained bright.

He was learning.

Fast.

Every strike.

Every rhythm.

Every shift of Quan Huyen’s center of gravity.

But unlike the previous two fights.

Quan Huyen did not give him enough time to turn what he saw into an advantage.

If he slowed by even one beat.

Another strike arrived.

Hao Nhien suddenly felt the Spirit Sword within his meridians tremble.

He only had to call upon it.

One instant would be enough.

But the moment that thought appeared.

He forced it down.

This was Fist.

A battle in which the strength of both sides had been pulled close together.

If he used the Spirit Sword now...

Hao Nhien still felt it would be unfair.

That hesitation.

Extremely brief.

But more than enough.

Quan Huyen was already there.

Boom!

A punch smashed into Hao Nhien’s forearm.

His arm was knocked aside.

The second punch struck his shoulder.

Boom!

Hao Nhien was driven backward in succession.

One step.

Two.

Three.

His heel touched the edge of the arena.

He stopped immediately.

There was nowhere left to retreat.

Quan Huyen also stopped.

For only one breath.

He looked at Hao Nhien.

His gaze was perfectly calm.

No joy.

No contempt.

No impatience.

But Hao Nhien understood.

His opponent intended to finish this.

Quan Huyen moved.

This time.

Faster than ever before.

No holding back.

No testing.

No probing.

His body shot forward almost like a black streak.

Hao Nhien immediately lowered his center of gravity.

Observed.

Quan Huyen’s shoulder.

His hips.

His supporting leg.

His right side.

Then he saw it.

An opening.

Very clear.

Quan Huyen’s right ribs were exposed.

If Hao Nhien shifted half a step.

Waited for him to close in.

Then struck precisely there.

He could break his balance.

Turn the situation around.

Hao Nhien did not attack immediately.

He waited.

Half a beat.

Exactly as he had just learned.

Quan Huyen charged closer.

Three steps.

Two.

One.

The opening at his ribs was still there.

Even clearer.

Hao Nhien prepared to turn his hips.

At that moment.

The corner of Quan Huyen’s mouth curved slightly.

Barely.

A chill immediately ran down Hao Nhien’s spine.

A false opening.

He had been baited.

At that exact moment.

Deep within his Divine Soul, the Cosmic Ark trembled softly.

Only once.

Very faintly.

But enough.

Hao Nhien snapped fully alert.

Immediately afterward.

An invisible pain stabbed straight into his awareness.

Not true qi.

Not fist force.

Not killing intent.

The Divine Soul.

His intent to control his true qi stalled.

The true qi in his arm immediately froze for an instant.

In that moment, Hao Nhien suddenly understood what Moc Luc had felt back then.

So this was what it was like.

It was not that the body refused to move.

The intent controlling the true qi had been severed.

Once the true qi stalled, the defense immediately lost its rhythm.

Only for an extremely brief moment.

But without the warning just now.

If his Divine Soul had been even slightly weaker.

That single instant would have been enough.

Quan Huyen’s fist was already coming.

Straight toward his chest.

Hao Nhien gritted his teeth.

His Divine Soul hurt as though pierced by a needle.

But it had not collapsed.

His awareness remained.

His body, tempered again and again, also responded quickly.

He forced his true qi back into motion.

Quan Huyen was already right in front of him.

His fist was less than an arm’s length away.

Behind Hao Nhien was the edge of the arena.

There was nowhere left to retreat.

And nothing left to hesitate over.

The Spirit Sword within Hao Nhien’s meridians trembled softly.

It answered his intent.

A single strike.

Straight into Quan Huyen’s Divine Soul.

Quan Huyen’s charging body suddenly locked.

His fist stopped directly in front of Hao Nhien.

Quan Huyen’s pupils widened.

And in his eyes, Hao Nhien clearly saw surprise.

Then a flash of instinctive fear.

The opening that had been false.

Had now become real.

Hao Nhien could not let it pass.

His left foot dug into the stone.

His calf tightened.

His thigh clenched.

His hips turned sharply.

His waist pulled his entire upper body with it.

All the strength from his foot, thigh, hips, and waist surged into his right leg.

A horizontal sweep shot directly into the completely exposed ribs.

Boom!

A heavy impact echoed across the arena.

Quan Huyen’s entire body was knocked sideways out of the path of his own charge.

The momentum of his advance now became the force that carried him off the arena.

Both feet left the stone.

His body flew sideways beyond the edge.

The invisible force immediately appeared.

And wrapped around Quan Huyen.

As he was pulled away, his gaze remained locked on Hao Nhien.

Hao Nhien looked back.

Said nothing.

Quan Huyen vanished.

The arena fell completely silent.

Only Hao Nhien’s breathing remained.

One breath.

Two.

Three.

He still stood at the very edge.

Only half a step remained behind him.

Hao Nhien looked down.

Then toward the place where Quan Huyen had disappeared.

After a long moment.

He slowly breathed out.

“That was close.”

Only three words.

But true.

If he had been even half a beat slower.

The one who disappeared from the arena might have been him.

Hao Nhien remained still for several more breaths.

The final exchange replayed in his mind.

Quan Huyen was not weak.

Quite the opposite.

He was too strong.

Too decisive.

Too confident in his killing move.

And so, in the final moment, he had placed the entire battle into a single strike.

Hao Nhien had survived that strike.

He lowered his gaze to his hand.

The Spirit Sword within his meridians had already stabilized again.

Hao Nhien had no regrets.

Only caution.

He did not know whether the secret realm retained traces of the Spirit Sword’s fluctuations.

Nor how much of the battle outsiders might be able to see.

Precisely because he did not know.

He would have to be even more careful in the future.

Unless truly necessary.

Do not use it.

But this time...

Without it, he would have lost.

That simple.

Mist began gathering before him.

Hao Nhien immediately raised his head.

The battle with Quan Huyen appeared again.

Faster than the previous two.

Shorter.

But every moment held his full attention.

From the very beginning.

Quan Huyen had given him no time.

No probing.

No dragging things out.

Every strike had been meant to break his rhythm and end the fight.

Hao Nhien watched himself being constantly pressured.

Watched every time he used what he had learned from the previous two arenas to escape.

Watched the moment he thought of the Spirit Sword.

Slow.

Only slightly.

Then immediately took two consecutive blows.

Hao Nhien fell silent.

“Here...”

“I slowed myself down.”

The images continued.

Until the final moment.

Quan Huyen charged forward.

His right side opened.

The scene slowed.

Hao Nhien watched closely.

Shoulder.

Hips.

Legs.

Eyes.

Then he saw it.

Just before accelerating.

Quan Huyen’s shoulder lowered slightly.

His gaze cooled by the smallest degree.

His ribs deliberately opened.

Not a mistake.

Bait.

Hao Nhien held his breath.

Then.

A tiny fluctuation appeared.

Almost completely hidden beneath the fist force and true qi.

Extremely difficult to see.

But it was there.

Hao Nhien murmured:

“There was a sign...”

Very small.

Without the replay.

He would never have noticed it.

But once he knew.

Next time.

At least he would have a chance to guard against it.

The scene continued.

Until the moment the Spirit Sword answered.

The mist only flickered slightly.

No form appeared.

No sword light.

Only Quan Huyen’s body suddenly freezing for an instant.

Hao Nhien watched for a long time.

Said nothing.

The mist slowly dispersed.

The temporary enhancement inside his body also began to withdraw.

His true qi returned to its real level.

His strength returned.

His speed returned.

He was once again at the sixth layer of Qi Condensation.

But what he had learned remained.

And most importantly.

The feeling of personally being struck by a Divine Soul attack remained.

Before this.

He only knew that the Spirit Sword could make an opponent freeze for an instant.

Now.

He had experienced it himself.

Pain in the Divine Soul.

Intent slowing.

True qi stalling.

Defense losing rhythm.

A single instant.

More than enough.

Hao Nhien slowly clenched his fist.

“Quan Huyen...”

“Very strong.”

If the battle had lasted longer.

Hao Nhien was not certain the result would have been the same.

He had won.

But only in one exact moment.

The door behind the arena slowly opened.

Beyond it was no longer another arena.

Only a path covered in pale gray mist.

Hao Nhien stood.

His chest still hurt.

His left arm was still slightly numb.

But his steps were steady again.

He walked through the door.

Another flight of stone steps lay ahead.

Hao Nhien climbed.

One step.

Then another.

After around ten steps.

A large chamber appeared before him.

Pale gray light seeped from cracks in the stone walls.

Not bright.

But it gave the entire space an ancient and silent atmosphere.

Hao Nhien stepped inside.

Five people were already sitting cross legged on the stone floor.

The sound of the door opening echoed through the chamber.

All five opened their eyes at once.

Five sharp gazes immediately swept toward him.

Then.

Almost at the same moment.

Their expressions changed.

Someone in the corner blurted out:

“Sixth layer Qi Condensation?”

Disbelief filled his voice.

“How did you make it here?”

Hao Nhien did not answer.

He only smiled faintly.

His gaze quickly swept across the chamber.

Seven positions were carved into the stone floor with runes.

Arranged in a circle.

Each was just large enough for one person to sit cross legged.

Five were already occupied.

Two remained empty.

Hao Nhien did not hesitate.

He walked to the nearest empty position.

And sat down.

Only after stabilizing his breathing did he raise his head and look more carefully.

Everyone in the chamber was still very young.

None looked older than twenty.

Yet their bearing was far more沉稳 than their age suggested.

The fact that they had made it here was already enough to prove how far they had gone through the previous trials.

Hao Nhien did not try to judge each person’s exact cultivation level.

He only knew that all of them were stronger than him.

Among them.

One young woman held his attention a little longer.

Around nineteen years old.

Extremely beautiful.

Long black hair falling down her back.

Cold phoenix eyes.

Clear.

Yet carrying a trace of natural pride.

Quan Nha.

Hao Nhien was almost certain.

She sat with her back straight.

Her aura was not the strongest in the chamber.

But beneath the steady fluctuations of her true qi, there seemed to be something difficult to describe.

Hao Nhien could not see through it.

Perhaps some unusual talent.

Perhaps something connected to the Divine Soul.

Or perhaps simply something he was not yet capable of understanding.

Hao Nhien withdrew his gaze.

And looked no further.

At least during the arena trials.

The secret realm had deliberately narrowed the difference in strength between both sides.

Anyone who could still reach this place.

Could not have relied on cultivation realm alone.

If Quan Nha had made it this far.

She naturally had something exceptional of her own.

Hao Nhien looked at the others again.

None of them were simple.

None showed impatience.

The entire chamber was strangely quiet.

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.

Sixth layer Qi Condensation, sitting among a group like this...

This “young talent” medal of mine seems a little too shiny.

Hao Nhien slowly closed his eyes.

Only one word remained in his mind.

Soul.