Comprehending Myriad Techniques as Woodcutter

A Grandmaster sword duel—at once farcical, comical, and yet strangely enlightening—had concluded. The crowd buzzed for a moment, laughing and sighing at what a fine final act it had been.

Aside from the Sword Storage Pavilion disciples, who felt their faces burning with shame, the atmosphere by the arena had warmed up a little.

However, the crowd’s urge to gossip and discuss gradually died down, and their voices faded.

They knew that the final, and most important, sword duel was about to begin.

In fact, all the previous matches of this tournament weren’t particularly important; they were merely a warm-up act for this one.

Li Xingtuo, ninth on the Flying Dragon List and Sect Leader of the Cloud Mountain Sword Sect, had recently meditated on the sword while seated upon Sword Peak. When he drew his blade, it shot straight into the high heavens, scattering the layered clouds.

When news of this spread, Wei Dong—fifth on the Flying Dragon List and Pavilion Master of the Sword Storage Pavilion—took the initiative to issue a challenge. He traveled thousands of miles from East Lake in Jiangnan to Cloud Mountain on the northwestern border, just to witness Li Xingtuo’s newly enlightened sword technique.

For the past few months, the martial world of Great Li had been fixated on this, all of them speculating what realm Li Xingtuo had reached to make Wei Dong travel such a vast distance just for a duel.

And now, the time had finally come for the answer to be revealed.

The main peak fell completely silent.

The two Sect Leaders, seated near each other, exchanged a glance. Li Xingtuo smiled faintly and gestured.

"Pavilion Master Wei, please."

"Sect Leader Li, after you."

Wei Dong stood up, motioning for Li Xingtuo to go first.

Li Xingtuo didn’t stand on ceremony. His figure flickered, vanishing abruptly and reappearing just as suddenly, now standing in the center of the arena with a long sword on his back.

He wore plain white robes. He was tall and slender, with a youthful face, but his eyes were incredibly deep, as if they contained all the stars in the sky. His silver hair was meticulously tied into a topknot.

Li Xingtuo watched Wei Dong quietly as the latter stepped off the high viewing platform and descended, walking on the air as if treading on invisible stairs.

Suddenly, the sound of a tidal wave echoed across Cloud Mountain’s main peak.

As Wei Dong took each step, everyone on the peak seemed to hear overlapping waves, crashing one after another. The sound grew closer and louder with his every move until it became a roaring tsunami!

The crowd grew tense, their minds captivated. They watched as Wei Dong finally landed in the arena. Though he was of average build, it felt as if they were staring at a monstrous wave sweeping over Cloud Mountain, rushing to engulf them!

Many disciples with ordinary cultivation levels became so tense they could hardly breathe. They needed help from their senior brothers and elders just to withstand his aura.

The audience was aghast. If just spectating created such pressure, how powerful were the Grandmasters at the top of the Flying Dragon List? And what must Li Xingtuo be feeling, facing this tsunami head-on?

They looked at Li Xingtuo and saw that as Wei Dong approached, his eyes grew brighter and brighter until they truly shone like stars.

With his eyes blazing, Li Xingtuo’s aura suddenly soared. Like the Sword Peak behind him, it burst through the waves and shot toward the heavens, utterly fearless in the face of the tsunami.

Everyone was struck with awe, realizing that the invisible contest between the two Sect Leaders had already begun.

And in this first exchange—a clash of auras—they were evenly matched.

When masters clashed, their aura was paramount. To them, it wasn’t some ethereal concept but a tangible part of controlling the battlefield. If two experts of similar strength were to fight, whoever’s aura was even slightly weaker at the start would be like fighting on enemy turf—forced onto the defensive and with little hope of victory.

Xie Yuan watched the two masters vie for dominance with their auras, his expression grave.

’The top Grandmasters are even stronger than I imagined. And to think, Wei Dong started building his momentum the moment he left his seat, all to seize this initiative... Considering he was the one who came all this way to issue the challenge, his respect for Li Xingtuo is unprecedented. He shows no sign of assuming he’s stronger just because his rank is higher. It seems the top masters have a solid measure of one another.’

Xie Yuan found himself looking forward to the outcome of the duel and continued to watch the arena.

The two men now stood on the stage, the arena seemingly split in half between them.

The crowd could almost faintly see a towering mountain rising behind Li Xingtuo and ocean waves churning beneath Wei Dong’s feet. This strange, ethereal scene was bisected by the line between the two, perfectly balanced.

"Sect Leader Li, let us begin!"

Wei Dong said with a grave tone, slowly drawing his two-handed greatsword.

"Pavilion Master Wei, please enlighten me!"

Li Xingtuo’s expression turned serious. He reached back, drew his long sword, and gave it a sudden swing.

The swing of the long sword was plain and unremarkable, as if nothing had happened at all.

Yet Wei Dong’s eyes narrowed. He raised his greatsword vertically and held it level to his side.

CLANG! Li Xingtuo abruptly appeared at Wei Dong’s side, his long sword striking squarely against the greatsword.

Only then did the afterimage at his original position dissipate.

He withdrew his long sword, turned, and strode away, seemingly leaving his back exposed to Wei Dong.

Without even looking, Wei Dong thrust his greatsword to the other side. CLANG! He perfectly blocked Li Xingtuo, who had just appeared in the opposite direction.

For a moment, it looked as if there were two Li Xingtuos in the arena, one on the left and one on the right—a truly bizarre sight.

"The Floating Light and Shadow Sword! It’s the Floating Light and Shadow Sword!"

A disciple from the Cloud Mountain Sword Sect couldn’t help but shout in excitement.

The Floating Light and Shadow Sword!

The ultimate, defining technique of the Cloud Mountain Sword Sect—a peerless style of swordsmanship, both fantastically magnificent and infinitely powerful.

This swordsmanship pushed the Cloud Mountain Sword Sect’s signature characteristics—its ever-changing, cloud-shrouded unpredictability—to their absolute limit. Once a move was executed, it was both real and illusory, making it impossible to distinguish truth from falsehood!

Someone sighed in amazement.

"As expected of the Floating Light and Shadow Sword. The illusions look identical to the real thing; you can’t tell them apart at all."

"If that were all, the Floating Light and Shadow Sword could not be called a peerless Divine Sword."