Naked Sword Art

'So... this is a Divine Realm cultivator's Qi."

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Seeing the amount of Qi a Divine Realm cultivator naturally emitted intimidated Xiao Fang. Even though his Lightning Spirit Attribute gave him the strength to fight against one, it didn't give him more Qi, it only increased the damage output of the Qi he already had.

...

"Good morning, class. I hope you enjoyed your week off as much as I did. Let's see, I believe we have a few new faces this year. When I call your name, please stand up."

The girls all started to look around waiting to see who the new disciples were.

Every time the Elder called out a name, a disciple quickly stood up. After calling out a few names, she stopped to congratulate them before telling them to sit back down.

"The next names I call out come directly from the Outer Court."

The girls started to get a bit noisy, but the Elder reading from the scroll didn't mind it because she knew they were just excited.

"The first disciple I'm going to call out didn't just finish the Inner Court Exam in first place, she also beat her competition by a large margin. Zhao Pan, please stand up."

Zhao Pan stood up. Since her sleeves were rolled up, it wasn't hard to tell that she was a body cultivator, so the girls started to whisper a bit louder about her, but many of the things they were saying weren't very nice.

"Welcome to the Phoenix-Class, Zhao Pan. Next up, we have the daughter of Supreme Elder Bai. Bai Fan, please stand up."

When Bai Fan stood up, gasps could be heard all around the room. For a time, Bai Fan was known as the most beautiful girl in the Outer Court, but even now she was still the prettiest girl in the room. Unlike Zhao Pan, Bai Fan was clearly a spirit cultivator, and it gave her a fairy-like presence.

"Bai Fan, I haven't seen your mother for quite some time now. Is she still doing well?"

"Yes, she's alright. If Elder would like, I could ask her to come visit you sometime," Bai Fan replied.

Bai Fan's voice sounded so pleasant, many of the girls couldn't help wanting to be friends with her.

"No need for that, it's fine just knowing that she's doing well. We used to be classmates, you know," the teacher said.

Bai Fan smiled and nodded before sitting back down, once she did, the room became a bit noisy again. There were those that were there during the Inner Court Exam ceremony, so rumors about Xiao Fang quickly spread.

"We have one more disciple on this list."

As soon as the teacher said those words, the girls became even more rowdy, because it seemed like the rumours were true.

"This disciple did the special test in the fastest time, and passed the Spirit Cauldron test with flying colours. Long Wang please, stand up."

The moment the teacher said those words, Yan Mei and her friends all gave Xiao Fang shocked expressions. Ye Ming was shocked as well, but since she already figured it out, she was able to hide it.

Xiao Fang stood up then immediately attracted the gaze of everyone in the room. A man in the Phoenix-Class was completely unheard of. Even the top Phoenix-Class disciple, Chen Li, who didn't even bother to look at Zhao Pan or Bai Fan, spared a glance at Xiao Fang. A smirk crept up on her face, she unconsciously licked her lips, and she looked at him as if he was fresh meat.

On the night Xiao Fang became an inner court disciple, Chen Li sent a messenger to go retrieve Xiao Fang for her. However, Xiao Fang rejected her invitation and even dared to tell her to come find him herself. However, despite searching all week, no one was able to find him.

'If you thought you could hide from me, then you'll have another thing coming,' Chen Li thought.

"Congratulations to all our new Phoenix-Class disciples. As you might already know, in addition to being given a higher allowance every month, you can expect to be assigned a mentor some time later this week."

The disciples began to murmur quietly to themselves. Many of them were excited about joining the Phoenix class because they knew only Phoenix and Dragon class disciples would be assigned a core court mentor.

Xiao Fang was familiar with the concept of having core court disciples as mentors, because they had similar system in the Divine Sword sect.

"Any questions?" the teacher asked.

"Elder, will we be assigned the same mentors as last year?"

"That's correct, you'll all be getting matched up with the same mentors you had last year."

No one seemed to be displeased by this, which went to show just how much respect they all had for the Core Court disciples.

"Since there aren't any more questions, class will begin."

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In the Matriarch's special training hall, Shi Lan was training Li Lian when she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," she said.

The Elder that entered the room was the Matriarch's best friend, Yao Wu.

"Yao Wu, did you come to brag about your disciple again?" Shi Lan asked.

These days, whenever Yao Wu visited, she would always talk about how amazing Xun Wei was. Although it was true that Xun Wei was an exceptional disciple, the real reason why Yao Wu enjoyed bragging about her was because she knew it annoyed the Matriarch. 

"Xun Wei is still in seclusion," Yao Wu replied before sitting across from the Matriarch.

"Are you still making her practice the [ Illusory Clone ] technique? At her cultivation, 1 should be enough," Shi Lan said as she was pouring her a cup of tea.

Yao Wu thought the same, but there was nothing she could do. She already agreed to let Xun Wei visit Xiao Fang if she could make a 3rd clone. 

Judging by her lack of response, Shi Lan assumed that Yao Wu wasn't convinced.

"Li Lian, please show Elder Yao what we've been practicing for the past few weeks."

Li Lian cupped her hands then created a clone of herself. In the next moment, Li Lian's clone dashed forward, dispersing into a powerful fire attack before reforming into a clone again a few meters away.

"Clone Reanimation!" Yao Wu said in shock.

Shi Lan simply took a sip of her tea as if it were no big deal, but the truth was that she was just using the cup to hide the smile on her face.

The Clone Reanimation technique was a technique anyone could learn, but the difficulty was so high and mentally straining that not even many of the elders had the patience or tolerance to learn it. This just went to show how incredibly driven Li Lian was to get stronger. Since she wanted to catch up to Xiao Fang she was ready to go the extra mile, and then some to do so.

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