Later that night, long after the banquet had ended and the sect had fallen into a peaceful slumber, five figures made their way to Li Yu’s pagoda. The air was cool and crisp, the moon hanging high in a sea of stars. It was a perfect night for a fight. Li Yu and Jian were going to spar. They had both talked about for awhile now but never had the chance with everything else going on.

They were finally new and able to have it now and both were using this spar to test their new strengths. Li Yu led Jian down a hidden staircase within his pagoda. It descended deep underground into a familiar, yet utterly transformed space. Jian had fought in this place before, but it wasn't as big as it was right now.

While Li Yu was on his adventures, the Guild’s best craftsmen had been busy. They had taken the original training room and expanded it tenfold, excavating a massive cavern and reinforcing it with the strongest materials and formations money could buy. The walls were lined with thick plates of a dark material, forged with runes designed to absorb the shock of cataclysmic blows together with the formations.

The air hummed with the barely contained power of dozens of interconnected formations, designed to hide the energy signatures of their combat from the world above. It was also to keep everyone safe from their battle below.

“This is impressive,” Jian said, his eyes wide as he took in the sheer scale and quality of the construction. “You’ve certainly upgraded the place.” Li Yu smiled. “I thought you would appreciate it, it was all thanks to Kui and the craftsmen he’s obtained. Shall we begin?”

They took their positions at opposite ends of the vast chamber. There was no countdown, no signal. The spar began in an instant of shared understanding. Jian was the first to move, a blur of motion as he closed the distance, his sword DayBreak a streak of dark light. Li Yu started by using just his body, without a weapon, meeting Jian head-on, his body a bastion of immovable strength.

Li Yu wanted to take this chance to see how resistant and durable his body was. What better opponent than Jian who was strong as he was controlled. He wouldn’t be injured too badly if things went wrong.

The first clash was a simple test of power. Sword met fist, and a shockwave erupted from the point of impact, shaking the very foundations of the cavern. Jian was immediately, profoundly shocked by Li Yu’s physical strength and toughness. His fist was able to meet directly with his sword.

It was on a completely different level than before. The raw, brute force behind Li Yu’s fist was enough to numb his entire arm. Li Yu was also impressed by Jian’s strength. His techniques, which had always been superb, were now more free, more smooth, flowing from one to another like water.

In terms of pure technique, Jian was miles ahead of Li Yu. His finesse with the blade was at a different level entirely. He parried, he redirected, he flowed around Li Yu’s overwhelming power, his sword a beautiful, deadly dance. After accepting who he was, his style had also become more free and animalistic, like a beast on the attack.

Each strike was fierce, powerful, and aimed with lethal precision. Seeing that his physical body alone was not enough to overcome Jian’s sheer skill, Li Yu decided to even the playing field.

With a flick of his wrist, his true weapon appeared in his hand. It was of course his trusty staff. Li Yu had the upper hand in raw, physical strength, his every blow carrying the weight of a collapsing mountain. Jian had the upper hand in technique, his every movement a masterclass in the art of the sword. For several minutes, they were locked in a stalemate, a whirlwind of steel and crushing force that sent tremors through the reinforced chamber.

Kael and Bai Yin were stunned by what they were witnessing. They didn’t think that Li Yu would be able to keep up with Jian Xuan at all. The story of him losing was not some exaggerated tale that Jian Xuan told to make Li Yu seem better than he actually was, to boost his prestige. It was real and they were witnessing it now.

This was also just a spar, they both knew that the two of them weren’t going all out. If anything, it seemed like the two of them were testing things out on one another. Which means they both still had more to give and sure enough it came quickly.

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Jian, growing frustrated with the stalemate, decided to escalate. His grin widened, his battlelust flaring. “Let’s stop warming up!” he roared. He began to channel his martial spirit. The magnificent winged sword materialized behind him for a brief instant before merging with his body. The martial spirit just empowered him further. A faint, silver aura flared around him, and his speed, strength, and the power behind every swing of his sword increased dramatically.

His sword aura became sharper as well. His sword martial spirit truly suited him perfectly. Li Yu had a sudden thought, he wondered if Jian Xuan went the path of the sword because of his martial spirit or if something else had drawn him in that direction. Having a sword for a martial spirit would make you go into the sword dao with its advantages.

It made him think of his own and the path it somewhat set him upon. While he is now built from all of his experiences and those around him, his own martial spirit had a profound impact on his direction.

His mind quickly shifted back to the battle at hand, Jian’s power was now at a dimension of combat ability that Li Yu was not yet equipped to handle with the current abilities he had shown in this fight. The empowered Jian was a force of nature. His dual-layered assault, one of pure physical prowess and one of spiritual enhancement, began to push Li Yu back.

He could block the physical blade with his staff, but the sheer force, amplified by the martial spirit, was overwhelming. While it was overwhelming, Li Yu was still holding on, his body being extremely tough and strong. Jian pressed his advantage, his assault a relentless storm of silver light and dark steel.

Forced onto the defensive, Li Yu adapted. He changed the nature of the battle entirely by using a weapon he was holding back this entire time. As Jian lunged forward in a devastating thrust, Li Yu unleashed his own weapon: his soul. He focused his will and sent out a silent, invisible pulse of soul power, Leviathan’s Strike.

Jian felt it instantly. It was not a physical blow, but a deep, resonant clang against his very consciousness. The attack was far stronger than what he remembered in their last battle. This should also be Li Yu holding back as well to avoid real injuries.

It seemed that with Li Yu’s soul and body merging together, both had gotten stronger. The ease and speed at which he could now use his soul attacks was quicker, the power behind them was stronger, and his control was far more precise.

His soul attacks have become even more dangerous. It could be said he had no challengers under soul formation just from his insane soul alone. Unless they were special like him, the soul was much too weak before soul formation to withstand such a directed attack against it.

The soul attack, while not damaging, was incredibly disorienting. It broke Jian’s rhythm, his perfect flow of techniques faltering for a crucial instant. With the soul attacks now involved, Li Yu immediately regained the upper hand.

He pressed forward, his staff a blur of dark metal, each crushing blow now preceded by a disorienting pulse of soul energy. Jian found himself in a frustrating predicament. He was a 4th stage Soul Formation expert, a master of the soul, yet he was being beaten back by the soul attacks of a Nascent Soul cultivator at only the core formation stage. He could only sigh to himself. What a freak indeed.

With only his physical strength and his newly enhanced soul attacks, Li Yu won the match. He landed a final, powerful blow to Jian’s shoulder that sent him stumbling back, his sword arm numb. They both stood down, breathing heavily, the spar concluded.

They both knew they had more to give, but it would never be revealed in a simple spar. Jian hadn’t used his most devastating, life-or-death sword arts, and Li Yu hadn’t used any of his void techniques.

It was a test, and they had both learned what they needed to know. Li Yu had confirmed that his body and soul had indeed grown much stronger, and Jian had confirmed that he was able to put up even more of a fight against Li Yu, with both of them getting stronger since their last battle. He saw Li Yu’s strongest advantage against him, it wasn’t his powerful body because there were ways to get around that.

It was his freakish soul power that was the trump card Li Yu held over him. There was just no way to defend against it, it came instantly and swiftly. There is no time to react and even if he could attack, what could he do against it? Soul was all about the strength of the soul, if his was weaker he would lose.

He decided that he needed some kind of soul defensive treasure or soul technique that allowed him to defend against it better. It would be useful for his future battles, if he fought someone with a freakish soul like Li Yu, he would be in trouble. The only problem was that soul related treasures were rare and techniques well guarded secrets of top level sects and clans. At least he was able to identify his shortcoming, now he had to somehow fix it.