The world of martial arts, the immortal swordsman in the mortal realm.

Chapter 101, 116: The Six Meridians Divine Sword is in hand! [Seeking monthly votes!]

The five old monks were filled with doubt.

I can hardly believe that these two young people, a man and a woman, would dare to come to Tianlong Temple to steal the sword manual.

However, in the martial arts world, there are many extraordinary people. Knowing the fame of the "Six Meridians Divine Sword", they still dare to approach Tianlong Temple, which means they must have some arrogance.

Abbot Benyin of Tianlong Temple bowed with his palms together and asked:

"Amitabha Buddha, have you two come for the Six Meridians Divine Sword?"

Lu Chen originally didn't want to be falsely accused, and wanted to clarify that he wasn't there to forcibly seize the sword manual, but to have a martial arts contest.

But then he thought that he was just an unknown junior, without the same intimidating presence as Kumārajīva. If he directly asked to exchange skills and learn from him, the old monks of Tenryū-ji Temple would probably not grant him the honor.

He might just spout Buddhist platitudes and keep making excuses, and might not be willing to unleash his full power and let him witness the Six Meridians Divine Sword.

Without further ado, Lu Chen took out a copper coin from his pocket and flicked it upwards with his thumb.

With a clink, the copper coin tumbled and flew into the air.

As the copper coins began to fall again, Lu Chen suddenly raised his hand, made a sword shape with his fingers, and swung it in mid-air.

With a soft hiss, the copper coin split in two and fell to the ground.

Upon seeing this, all the monks of Tianlong Temple became solemn and their eyes sharpened.

They could clearly see that Lu Chen's sword-finger strike had been far from the copper coin, nearly a foot away, yet it had still managed to cut the coin in two.

Lu Chen finally spoke:
"I am Lu Chen, and I have also mastered sword qi skills. Today, I will test my sword qi against those of you Zen masters and see whose sword qi is superior!"

As soon as he finished speaking, without giving the monks a chance to refuse, he flashed and rushed to the front of a burly old monk. With a hiss, he pointed his sword at the burly old monk.

The old monk was the master of the Shaoze Sword, which he cultivated with the little finger of his left hand. Seeing Lu Chen's sword finger attack, he didn't allow him to explain. He could only raise his little finger and a streak of invisible sword energy suddenly shot out, colliding with Lu Chen's invisible sword light.

Sword energy and sword light are both invisible and ever-present.

In a low-level martial arts world where there is no "spiritual perception or qi sensing," if a martial artist's senses are not sharp enough, they may not even be able to detect the traces of sword qi. They may remain bewildered and clueless until the sword qi pierces several holes in their body.

With Lu Chen's sword cultivation, after comprehending the principles of hardness and softness, lightness and heaviness, and emptiness and fullness of "Sword Two", he was actually able to make the invisible sword light become extremely soft and light, even to the point of breaking through the air silently.

It was enough to prevent even a master of this rank from detecting the trace of the sword light through the sound of it cutting through the air and the disturbance of the airflow; they could only deduce the direction of the sword light through his sword-pointing movements.

However, Lu Chen's purpose in this trip was not to kill, so he naturally used his sword light in a dignified and upright manner, with a sharp and fierce sound of it cutting through the air, like the surging of wind and thunder.

It was precisely because of this that Bencan easily detected the trace of his sword light and swung his sword to defend.

The Six Meridian Divine Sword is not simply "sword energy" that shoots outward like laser beams.

Instead, it is like the sword light of Lu Chen, which can be condensed at the fingertips and maintained for a long time as an "invisible sword of energy", and it also has matching sword moves.

Of course, the Six Meridian Divine Sword can also be fired like a laser for long-range attacks.

For example, Duan Yu once shot his sword energy at the wall during the battle at the mill, and it bounced back and pierced the back of the head of a Western Xia warrior.

Overall, the Six Meridians Divine Sword is even more skillfully used than the Lu Chen Sword Aura.

After all, Lu Chen's sword beam was not only short, but it also couldn't be fired outwards.

Ben Can's "Shaoze Sword" is more than three feet long, with an attack range far exceeding Lu Chen's one-foot sword aura.

This is the difference in the intensity of the techniques.

However, stronger techniques and longer swords do not necessarily mean more powerful swordsmanship.

Although Lu Chen's sword light was short, he possessed a variety of superior and even top-level sword techniques. With his heaven-defying sword talent, he selected the essence of each and fused them into one. His swordsmanship had reached a state of unrestrained imagination, effortless mastery, and complete freedom.

In terms of swordsmanship alone, even in this world of Tianlong, he is the top expert, unparalleled and far ahead of the competition.

The most powerful aspect of the Six Meridians Divine Sword lies in the fact that this sword technique is an invisible sword of energy, which cannot be seen with the naked eye. One must constantly concentrate to capture the traces of the sword energy, which greatly consumes one's mental energy. Moreover, the range of the sword energy attack can be adjusted at will, whether it is long or short, or it can be extended outwards, making it impossible to defend against.

Speaking of sword techniques alone, although the Finger Qi Sword has its own set of sword techniques and the moves are quite exquisite, how can it compare to the Lu Chen Sword Technique?

Lu Chen's sword finger flicked and slashed, combining thrusts and points, the foot-long sword light hissing and whistling, incomparably sharp.

Although the sword of this person, "Shaoze Sword," on the little finger of the left hand, was far longer than the sword of Lu Chen, and its sword moves were also swift and subtle, it was still forced to retreat step by step under Lu Chen's offensive, and was in danger of being overwhelmed.

Lu Chen, caught up in the excitement of battle, laughed heartily:
"All Zen masters, please join us!"

As he spoke, his figure shifted, creating a series of afterimages. With a bizarre and unbelievable movement technique that left the monks of Tianlong Temple bewildered, he suppressed Bencan while simultaneously launching a sword attack on the three old monks, Benyin, Benguan, and Benxiang, as well as the Zen Master Kurong, whose left cheek was as rosy as an infant's and whose right cheek resembled a skeletal skeleton. He drew all four monks into the battle.

Left with no other choice, the four old monks unleashed their sword energy to fight Lu Chen.

Zen Master Kurong practiced the "Shaoshang Sword" with his thumb. His swordsmanship was powerful and vigorous, with the force of a thunderbolt and a great storm.

Abbot Benyin practices the "Shangyang Sword" of the index finger, whose sword moves are ingenious, flexible, and unpredictable.

This practice focuses on the "Zhongchong Sword," a sword technique characterized by its expansive and powerful movements.

Benxiang practices the "Shaochong Sword" with his right little finger, a sword move that is light, graceful, precise, and swift.

Unfortunately, Emperor Duan Zhengming of Baoding had already returned to secular life, and the Six Meridians Divine Sword was missing the "Guanchong Sword" of the ring finger, so it could not form a complete Six Meridians Sword Formation, and the power of the sword formation was greatly reduced.

But Lu Chen was quite satisfied.

He had discovered that when his sword's edge collided with the five old monks' invisible sword energy, he could also detect the trajectory of the five monks' sword energy circulating in his meridians through the feedback of the force of the collision.

It's like when you used to fight someone with a real sword, and you could learn the secrets of your opponent's swordsmanship by observing the force feedback from the collision of the swords.

"Indeed, a sword of qi is still a sword. As long as it's a sword, it's under my control!"

Lu Chen felt extremely happy.

Although exploring the inner workings of the Six Meridians Divine Sword through the clash of Qi swords is much more difficult than actual sword combat, he is confident that he can figure out the method of the Six Meridians Divine Sword after a few hundred or a thousand moves.

If the Six Meridians Divine Sword wanted to keep it a secret from Lu Chen, it could only use a shooting style of combat, directly releasing the sword energy outwards and severing the connection between the energy sword and the acupoints at its fingertips.

However, this type of outward-firing shooting requires extremely deep reserves of internal strength.

Because each sword aura is condensed from true qi, releasing just one will consume a considerable amount of true qi at once.

Even the most skilled monk of Tianlong Temple, Master Kurong, could only practice one style of Shaoshang Sword. How could such skill be enough for him to continuously release and squander his true energy?

The shooting style of sword energy projection is only suitable for overpowered players with an exceptionally deep and inexhaustible reserve of true energy. As for the five old monks of Tianlong Temple, they mostly condense their sword energy at their fingertips and fight Lu Chen with qi sword techniques.

Only in critical moments would they release a sword aura, forcing Lu Chen to dodge or parry with his sword. Compared to Duan Yu's boldness in randomly unleashing sword auras when fighting ordinary warriors of the Western Xia First-Class Hall, the Five Old Monks could be described as "stingy".

Unfortunately, neither the sword techniques nor the released sword energy could touch a single corner of Lu Chen's clothes.

His "Sword Shadow Step" movement technique was already unpredictable, and now with the addition of "Lingbo Step", his movement technique has become even more elusive. As he moves back and forth, there are afterimages all over the place. Those who are not skilled enough cannot tell how many Lu Chens are flashing around. They will only suspect that he has surrounded the five monks by himself.

While dodging the attacks of the Five Monks' Sword Formation with his agility, Lu Chen also freely wielded his one-foot sword light, each move a brilliant technique, constantly colliding with the Five Monks' Qi Sword, gradually exploring the method of circulating the Six Meridians Sword Qi True Qi.

To outsiders, this competition might seem rather strange.

Because Lu Chen and the five monks were quite far apart, they could only draw their fingers in the air, making it seem like they couldn't hit anyone at all.

Only Lu Chen's dazzling and even dizzying movements could elicit such amazement.

However, those in the know understand that this fight is extremely dangerous.

Because that invisible sword energy is as powerful as a real sword, even the Great Wheel King was once cut on the shoulder by the Six Meridians Sword Energy and bled when he was not careful. His protective true energy was practically useless.

Huang Rong retreated to the side, watching the battle intently.

At first, seeing Lu Chen fight five against one, she was a little worried—

In her world, "One-Finger Divine Skill" is the signature skill of the Southern Emperor, one of the Five Greats.

However, the five old monks of Tianlong Temple not only all knew "One Finger Divine Skill", but also used "One Finger Divine Skill" as a foundation to practice "Six Meridian Divine Sword", which is even more famous than "One Finger Divine Skill".

Huang Rong initially felt that these were probably five "Southern Emperors".

Even though their skill level was inferior to that of the Southern Emperor, who had practiced "Innate Skill" for many years, the kung fu they practiced was a divine skill even stronger than the Southern Emperor's "One-Finger Divine Skill".

Furthermore, when her true energy is projected into her world, it is a realm at the level of the Five Greats.

Below the Five Greats, even if someone has mastered a skill that allows them to project their true energy outwards, such as the "Splitting Palm," they can only use it to show off their skills; they can't actually deal any effective damage.

But these five old monks were all able to release their true energy, and their invisible energy swords were as sharp as real swords. When they landed on the ground, they could even crack the bluestone floor.

Although the worlds are different and the difficulty of releasing true qi varies greatly, in Huang Rong's opinion, the five old monks of Tianlong Temple, especially Zen Master Kurong, with their One-Finger Divine Skill and Six Meridian Divine Sword, would probably be qualified to participate in the Mount Hua Sword Tournament in her world.

Whether or not they can get a ranking is another matter, but they should have the qualification to participate in the sword competition.

Lu Chen may be the best in the world in martial arts, but how can she possibly win against five masters whose skill level is weaker than that of the Southern Emperor but whose divine skills are stronger?

When the sword energy surged across the field, but no sword shadows or lights could be seen, only the sound of wind and thunder breaking through the air could be heard, Huang Rong, who was already somewhat worried, was even more anxious and dared not even breathe.

He had already clutched a handful of chess pieces in his hand, and his long whip was ready to be used to provide assistance at any time.

Huang Rong only breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Lu Chen use his unparalleled agility to create afterimages that roamed the entire arena, single-handedly "encircling" the five monks and forcing them to guard their own positions and fight individually.

Yes, she was a little too concerned and made a mistake.

The five old monks of Tianlong Temple were indeed powerful, but their lightness skills and agility were far inferior to Lu Chen's.

Sufficiently refined lightness skills have always been the best way to defend oneself, protect one's life, and even overcome the strong with the weak.

Besides, Lu Chen was already a strong person.

Coupled with his unpredictable and supernatural lightness skill, which was enough to keep up with her father and Dongfang Bubai... well, Lu Chen also learned the Lingbo Weibu (a martial arts technique), so his lightness skill should now surpass that of her father and Dongfang Bubai.

With such lightness skill, even if he did not intend to kill or draw his ultimate sword, he could still stand firmly invincible in a fight against the five old monks, and even suppress them all by his own strength.

Huang Rong gradually felt relieved, but she did not completely let her guard down and remained ready to provide assistance at any time.

Lu Chen gradually figured out the method of the Five Paths and Six Meridians Sword Qi, and the more he fought, the more enjoyable it became.

However, fighting like this consumes a lot of internal energy.

After all, these five are not some minor figures in the martial arts world who can be easily dismissed.

They all represent the essence of the Dali Duan family.

The four senior monks, including Abbot Benyin, possessed One-Finger Divine Skill comparable to Emperor Duan Zhengming of Baoding, all at the fourth-rank level. The fourth-rank One-Finger Divine Skill is precisely the minimum requirement for cultivating the Six Meridians Divine Sword. Any lower, and one cannot even master a single level of the Six Meridians Divine Sword.

The most senior and most skilled Zen Master Kurong's One-Finger Divine Skill may have reached the third rank or higher, but not quite the second rank.

It should be noted that even Yideng only reached the pinnacle of One-Finger Divine Skill and became the number one One-Finger Divine Skill master in the history of the Duan family, relying on the powerful internal energy cultivated by practicing the Innate Skill and the Nine Yin Manual, on the eve of the Third Discussion.

Even though Yideng had practiced the Innate Skill for over twenty years, his One-Finger Divine Skill was probably only at the second rank or higher, but not quite the first rank.

Although the five old monks of Tianlong Temple were not as skilled as Yideng in the One-Finger Divine Skill, they used the Six Meridians Divine Sword, which was even stronger than the One-Finger Divine Skill.

Zen Master Kurong could even wield two swords simultaneously, using both thumbs at the same time to unleash the "Shaoshang Sword".

Furthermore, their Six Meridian Divine Swordsmanship today is not the same as the hastily practiced, rudimentary skill they displayed when facing the Great Wheel King; they have become far more proficient than they were back then.

Lu Chen was able to suppress the five-person sword formation because his movement and swordsmanship were strong enough, and his sword light was sharp enough.

Of course, given his ruthless methods, if he were to harbor murderous intent, killing these five old monks wouldn't be too difficult for him.

However, even with Lu Chen's current skill and energy recovery speed, it was still somewhat difficult for him to maintain a strong suppression of the five old monks on his own throughout the entire process, forcing them to fully display the essence of the Six Meridians Divine Sword.

Fortunately, he has gradually figured out the circulation path of the true energy of the Five Paths and Six Meridians Divine Sword.

Before his true energy was exhausted, he had enough time to fully grasp the mysteries of these five sword techniques.

Before they knew it, they had exchanged hundreds of blows.

The five old monks struggled to hold on, feeling that the pressure Lu Chen exerted on them was even greater than that of the Great Wheel King on that day.

Firstly, their sword formation was missing one person; secondly, Lu Chen's movement was too fast, far surpassing that of the Great Wheel King; and thirdly, his swordsmanship was unbelievably strong, even seemingly able to see through the flaws in the Six Meridians Divine Sword's moves, striking vital points with every strike, which made the five old monks feel extremely difficult.

Just when everyone was wondering when this battle would finally end.

Lu Chen's afterimages, which had been roaming the battlefield and "encircling" the five old monks, vanished in an instant, leaving only one figure. He then darted out of the battle like a shooting star and bowed respectfully to the five old monks.
"Thank you for your guidance, five Zen masters! My interest has been exhausted, so I'll take my leave now!"

After saying this, he laughed heartily, took Huang Rong's hand, and left, leaving the five old monks completely bewildered, looking at each other in confusion.

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(End of this chapter)