Chu Huoluo reached the fifth realm at the age of fourteen. For cultivators, this was excellent progress.

 

But excellence was relative. Compared with Zhou Wenzi who had already trained for years and was about to break through his bottleneck soon, she was only a girl who hadn’t grown up yet.

 

So Zhou Wenzi felt disappointed when he saw the last name on the challenge letter.

 

"Was this a mistake? Are you sure it’s not the other sister?” Zhou Wenzi asked Shen Baihe.

 

Before he came to the Abandoned Sword Villa, the two were already decent friends. If Chu Zhu Xi had challenged him, he would still win, but at least the competition was better than Chu Huoluo.

 

Shen Baihe had a gloomy look on his face. He forced a laugh and said, "She’s probably just a kid who doesn’t know any better. You should still go easy on her though, unless you want to incur the wrath of Grandma Chihuo."

 

In a challenge at the Abandoned Sword Villa, killing wasn’t punished. If their strength was similar, the discussion between teachers and brothers could turn into life-and-death battles. This rarely ever happened, though.

 

Zhou Wenzi grew impatient and said, "I’m trying to gain enlightenment from the Nine Dragons Wall Scripture.”

 

He was too busy to care much. After confirming the time and the location, he went back to studying the wall in front of him.

 

Shen Baihe silently retreated. He felt that there was something was fishy about the battle tomorrow. After hesitating for a moment, Shen Baihe finally couldn't hold it in and went up the back hill.

 

As he expected, Chu Huoluo was taking care of Shen Zhenyi.

 

Shen Zhenyi wore a white robe and sat with his eyes closed. He looked very peaceful.

 

Shen Baihe went straight to the point. "Third Brother, Sister Chu, why are you challenging Zhou Wenzi?"

 

Shen Zhenyi wasn’t surprised at his arrival. He opened his pure eyes indifferently. "I trained her for three months. It's time to see the results."

 

Shen Baihe gritted his teeth. "Zhou Wenzi has been famous for many years and is only one step away from the seventh realm of martial arts. How could Little Sister Chu be his opponent?"

 

"So what?"

 

Shen Zhenyi was calm and unconcerned.

 

He waved to Chu Huoluo to push his wheelchair.

 

"You... Where are you going?"

 

Shen Baihe started sweating. This year, Shen Zhenyi stayed cooped up in the back hill. Why was he moving towards the path?

 

Shen Zhenyi glanced at him. "You’ll see soon. Can I go down the hill now?"

 

"D-Down the hill?" Shen Baihe became even more flustered. "Weren’t you resting and recovering up here? Why are you suddenly going down the hill?

 

His tone became frantic. When he came up the hill, he had wanted to play the part of a mature and steady elder brother. But as soon as he heard that Shen Zhenyi wanted to go down, he lost his composure and panicked.

 

It wasn’t easy to trap his godly Third Brother in the back hill. How could he give him the chance to go down?

 

Shen Zhenyi responded indifferently, "I’m going down the hill because I want to. If Big Brother has the assurance to stop me, then please try."

 

The wheelchair brushed past Shen Baihe.

 

Shen Zhenyi's head was only half a foot away from his arm.

 

If the short sword hidden in Shen Baihe’s sleeve could pierce his temple quickly enough...

 

His palms started to sweat and his heartbeat exploded.

 

Maybe, I can seize this opportunity...

 

His hand had grasped the handle of the sword.

 

Shen Zhenyi calmly smiled at him.

 

After a moment, the chance quietly faded away, and Baihe didn’t do anything after all. He slowly loosened his fingers and dropped his arm to the side. His knuckles were white from the tension.

 

Chu Huoluo pushed the wheelchair down the hill.

 

She sighed, “I now realize that your relationship with your sibling isn’t much better than mine.”

 

Before this, Chu Huoluo had the feeling that the relationship between the people in the Villa and  Shen Zhenyi was somewhat strange. It was now confirmed.

 

"Every family has its own difficulties."

 

Shen Zhenyi didn't take it seriously. This wasn’t anything too important to him. If Shen Baihe dared to attack him, he would have ended his brother once and for all. Unfortunately, his brother was indecisive and chickened out.

 

"Why doesn’t he want you going down the hill? Are you going to steal his limelight or something?” Chu Huoluo tried to guess.

 

Shen Zhenyi looked at her. "It doesn’t matter. Instead, worry about your opponent. He has rich battle experience, but you are too soft-hearted. If you lose, your sister won't let you go today."

 

Chu Huoluo stuck out her tongue, "I was trained by the Third Prince himself. There’s no way I will lose."

 

"By the way, Third Prince, why did you go down the hill without a sword?"

 

Shen Zhenyi’s sword was still in the sword grave.

 

"I don't need a sword anymore. All things in the world, have integrated into my sword."

 

“What do you mean you don’t need a sword,” Chu Huoluo asked, confused.

 

"The mountain under my feet is my sword. The cold wind and snow in the air are my sword. You, Miss Chu, are also my sword." Shen Zhenyi smiled.

 

The formal battles at the Abandoned Sword Villa had certain rules. People with a higher ranking couldn’t challenge people with a lower ranking than themselves. If you lost three times in a single month, you would lose the qualification to challenge others for a period of time. If you are challenged and fight more than ten times in a month, you can reject all other challenges until the month ends.

 

Chu Huoluo was ranked very low because she hadn’t fought in a single challenge since joining the Abandoned Sword Villa.

 

Zhou Wenzi's strength was so great that no one dared to challenge him except his fellow Top Ten members.

 

Because of this, he was forced to spare some time to battle a little sister he had never met before.

 

Zhou Wenzi's mood wasn’t very good. Did Chu Huoluo think that just because he went to easy in his other challenges, others could take advantage of him? If so, it would be good if he taught the little girl a lesson so no one would challenge him again.

 

Chu Zhu Xi was clever and deliberately apologized to him. "Sorry, Brother Zhou, my sister is young and unreasonable. I hope you can forgive her."

 

Zhou Wenzi sneered and said, "Don't you want me to kill her?"

 

Liyang Manson’s rules for inheritance were well-known. Chu Huoluo and Chu Zhu Xi were sisters with the same last name. Only one of them could live or else the loser might start up trouble in the future. Zhou Wenzi knew that Chu Zhu Xi was a fake person and didn’t like her very much.

 

Chu Zhu Xi was silent for a while. But then Zhou Wenzi surprised her: "You can rest assured. She disturbed me from my cultivation, so I won’t go easy on her. She’ll probably either be dead or seriously injured by the time the battle ends.”

 

Zhou Wenzi was fierce and murderous by nature. His origin and background weren’t the best, but he was still one of the four most gifted children in the Nine Hells. This mentality made him arrogant and aggressive.

 

Chu Zhu Xi was delighted. She didn’t speak another word and stood back obediently.

 

More and more people gathered to watch as it got closer to the time of the match. Chu Huoluo might have been very uninteresting, but who wouldn’t want to watch Zhou Wenzi fight?

 

"Brother Zhou obtained the strength of eleven swords in the Shangqing Palace. His swordsmanship is fast and absolute. Today, he might accidentally destroy the delicate flower who challenged him!"

 

"It's just a little girl. Who cares how beautiful she is! I think she is self-righteous and deserves to challenge Mr. Zhou!"

 

"I just hope that she can last for a little while so that we can see Zhou Wenzi's exquisite swordsmanship."

 

There were many discussions, but barely any had sympathy for Chu Huoluo.

 

Zhou Wenzi listened to them and sneered.

 

Shen Baihe also hurried over and went silent when he saw the scene.

 

Sunlight poured down onto the glazed tiles and reflected off of the Yin and Yang fish pattern in the middle of the arena. Zhou Wenzi stood in the center, tall and proud.

 

"It’s time. Why hasn’t Chu Huoluo come yet? Is she too scared?"

 

His voice was full of disdain. "If she doesn’t dare show up, then she should just go home early and leave the Abandoned Sword Villa."

 

A resounding laughter broke out among the audience.

 

Just then, the door slowly opened.

 

"Who’s not coming?"

 

A girl in red slowly came in pushing a wheelchair.

 

The crowd exclaimed, acknowledging that Chu Huoluo had actually come. Wait, what was that wheelchair, and why was she pushing it? Who is that? Is it…. Holy crap!

 

The Third Prince Shen Zhenyi!

 

The Unparalleled Son of Heaven!

 

Although his meridians were broken, and he couldn't even walk on his own, he was once the strongest in the world!

 

Why did the Third Prince descend today?

 

Did he train Chu Huoluo?

 

Zhou Wenzi's mouth became dry, and the long sword he was holding clattered to the ground. At a time like this, no one cared about his inappropriateness.

 

When the Third Prince was present, all eyes would be on him.

 

He didn’t move, didn’t say a word, did nothing, but seemed to radiate the aura of benevolence.

 

Wherever he was present, that was his world.

 

Shen Zhenyi secluded himself on the back hill of the Abandoned Sword Villa for an entire year. Today, the wind and clouds of the Nine Hells would surge once more.