Chapter 3899: Swiftslash

Alex took in the information from Sunflare, going through it several times as he came to understand what it meant to form a Spirit.

"I see," he said. "Thank you for your explanation."

"Yeah, that does sound better than mine," Bladedance said. "But in my defense, my Spirit was a sword as well, just like my Creation. So it was kind of the same thing for me."

"A sword, huh?" Sunflare said. "It’s a simple Creation, so it makes sense you wouldn’t have come across many changes."

Alex listened to their conversation and nodded.

"What are you going to do now?" Bladedance asked. "Surely you’re not close to forming a Spirit yet. You need to be very close to breaking through for that to be possible."

"I’m not yet, but I would love to work toward it. Although, with my lack of resources, the only thing I could possibly do right now is learn the Dao I was preparing to learn," Alex said with a sigh.

Bladedance raised an eyebrow. "Your Blood Essence is healed, isn’t it?" she asked.

Alex nodded. "It is."

"Alright, then delay learning the Dao for now," she said and turned around. "Let’s go test your sword instead."

Alex’s eyebrows rose, not just in surprise, but also in excitement. "Yes, Master."

He had wanted this for a long time.

The courtyard Bladedance stayed in was called the Sword Courtyard, meant entirely for the Sword God. It was quite large, with a massive area in the back where one could train freely. Giant barriers rose all around it, offering quite a bit of protection.

As Alex followed Bladedance to the backyard, he slowed down as he noticed a person already on the training ground. Instead of training, however, he sat cross-legged in deep cultivation.

"Who is that?" Alex asked with a confused look.

Bladedance walked up to the man and kicked him lightly, waking him up.

The man arose instantly and looked up. Quickly, he got on his knees and bowed toward Bladedance. "Your Majesty, have you forgiven me?" he asked.

Bladedance rolled her eyes and turned toward Alex. "This is Swiftslash. He will be your training partner for now."

The man looked up and toward Alex. His eyes widened slightly. "You are Junior Dawnblade, aren’t you?"

"Yes," Alex answered slowly, sensing the man’s cultivation base. He was quite strong, in the latter half of the Divine Manifestation realm. Though beyond that, Alex got nothing else from the man.

The man looked handsome with short brown hair, but the clothes he wore were red and green, the colors being a total mismatch in the way they were used. It made the man look worse than he actually was. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"I’ve heard rumors saying he’s your disciple, Your Majesty. Is that true?" the man asked.

"It doesn’t matter. You want atonement, help him train," Bladedance said.

"Of course. I will do whatever you wish of me. I am your humble servant," the man said, turning toward Alex. "Very well then, Junior Dawnblade. Let us train."

The man brought a sword out of his Soul Space, one that was thin and long. The blade alone was over a meter and a half long and looked entirely unbalanced for a sword.

Alex didn’t know what exactly to think of the man, but he too brought out his sword.

The moment Alex brought out his sword, Sunflare’s eyebrows rose instantly. While Alex had brought the sword out before the Celestial in the past, it had been inside the barrier behind which he cultivated. Despite seeing the sword before, Sunflare had never deliberately checked the aura it held.

Now that he was getting to sense it freely, he was incredibly surprised by the powerful Yang aura that he could sense. If not for having seen the Nine Yang Divine Tree with his own eyes, he could have easily been fooled into thinking the sword had been created by destroying his God.

Though, since he knew that wasn’t the case, he could only wonder what else there was in this world that held an aura similar to his God.

Bladedance turned toward Swiftslash. "You can harm him physically as much as you want. Just make sure you don’t harm his Soul."

"Really?" the man asked with slightly widened eyes. "What if I accidentally cut him in half?"

"So long as his Soul survives, that’s fine," Bladedance said as she moved to the side and crossed her arms. She then turned toward Alex. "This may be a training session, but I want you to fight as seriously as you can with your sword. Your opponent is no ordinary swordsman."

Alex’s expression grew stern, and he grew serious overall. If Bladedance gave such quiet praise about this man, then he would not dare lower his guard against him.

"Are you ready?" Swiftslash asked. "I’ll attack now."

Alex nodded. "I’m ready. Please proceed, senior."

"Here I go."

The moment the man finished speaking was the same moment Alex saw the man’s sword move. And that very same moment, a flying slash struck Alex’s sword and slashed through his shoulder.

A short explosion came from behind him where the rest of the attack had landed on the barrier.

Alex slowly looked down at his arm as blood dripped from a cut that had flayed away part of his skin.

"How..."

The attack was so ridiculously fast that Alex hadn’t even seen it coming at all. He hadn’t even realized that the man had swung his sword.

Swiftslash.

If nothing else, the man lived up to his name.

"Focus!" Bladedance’s command came from the side, harsher than any of the other times before. "I told you, the man before you is not a simple swordsman."

Swiftslash held a faint apologetic smile. "My apologies. I wanted to show off a little, considering how jealous of you I am."

"Jealous?" Alex asked.

"Her Majesty took you in as her disciple," he said. "I always wanted to be one, but she never officially took me in at all."

Alex’s eyes slowly widened.

That meant...

This was one of Bladedance’s unofficial disciples.