My Clones Can Cultivate

Chapter 114

Yuexin’s gaze couldn’t help but twitch... once, then again, and then again. The reason her eyes kept twitching was none other than the fact that one of the people on her list of opponents she absolutely didn’t want to face was now standing right before her with a cute smile plastered across her face.

Xueyi was strong, very strong; she was at the peak of the Qi Refining Realm, just like Shi Tian and Guan Haoran, meaning she was practically the second strongest from the Guan Clan and the third strongest among all the candidates here. Yuexin had hoped and prayed that she wouldn’t have to face her, instead planning on fighting the remaining candidates whom she actually had a good chance of defeating.

But Xueyi had just gone ahead and ruined all of that by stepping onto the stage herself. Of course, Yuexin knew she couldn’t avoid fighting her forever; after all, she and Guan Xueyi went way back, ever since they were children.

Ten years ago...

A little girl dressed in a laughably oversized training outfit stood proudly before another girl, who looked back at her with a twitching face. "What is it now, Xueyi?" the girl, who appeared to be around the same age as her, asked.

Although the purple-haired girl radiated an aura of playfulness and adorable stubbornness, the black-haired girl’s gaze was much more mature, firm, and serious as she looked at the girl who always seemed determined to disturb her.

"Sister Yuexin! I have finally mastered a God-Level Technique, and I can finally defeat you for once in combat!" she declared with an unbelievably proud grin as she assumed a battle stance.

She raised one leg upward, stumbled a few times, nearly fell over, somehow regained her footing, and then grinned even wider. "You see this? This is the ultimate battle stance of the Shi Clan! The Clan Lord taught me himself!" She puffed out her chest proudly.

Yuexin, whose eyes twitched even harder, couldn’t help but scoff; without even needing to ask whether she was telling the truth, she already knew the answer. She was lying through her teeth. Her battle stance looked worse than the very definition of bad; it honestly looked more like she was preparing to play some strange rabbit game than fight. Yuexin shook her head helplessly.

"Xueyi... I don’t want to fight. Just let me focus on what I’m doing." She turned around, ready to leave, but the purple-haired girl, as always, wasn’t about to let her go that easily; she immediately attacked. "You’re scared of fighting me, aren’t you? Is it because of my God-Level Skill?" she shouted as she rushed toward Yuexin.

Yuexin casually dodged every attack while continuing to put distance between herself and the troublesome girl. "I see now! You must really be scared of my God-Level Skill! If you have the guts, fight me!" Yuexin finally stopped. "If I defeat you..." She turned around and looked calmly at Xueyi.

"...promise me you won’t bother me again." Xueyi’s eyes immediately lit up; she grinned from ear to ear before nodding enthusiastically. "I promise!"

The battle began, and it ended just as quickly; Yuexin effortlessly pinned the self-proclaimed greatest warrior, the great Xueyi, to the ground.

"You lose," Li Yuexin said calmly. Xueyi struggled with all her might, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t break free. Finally, Yuexin believed she would be able to enjoy the peace she wanted.

Xueyi kept her promise and left, but only for two years. Two years later, she came back again; this time, she had actually developed some real battle skill, and once again, she challenged Yuexin.

With great difficulty... and mostly because of Xueyi’s endless persuasion, or rather, her relentless determination to make sure Yuexin had absolutely no peace until the two of them dueled once again... Yuexin finally decided to duel her again, and once more it ended in a flash.

"It is not fair! Why can’t I defeat you?" Xueyi cried. Despite no longer being a little kid, all of her behavior was still unbelievably childish as she clung tightly onto Yuexin as if she were grieving the loss of a beloved family member. .

But no... she wasn’t grieving because anyone had died; no one had. She was only grieving over the fact that she had lost. "Sister Yuexin... why did I lose?" she asked before bursting into even louder cries, holding tightly onto Yuexin as she genuinely sobbed.

To Yuexin’s dismay, she somehow found herself being the one who had to calm Xueyi down. Looking at her cute yet childish expression, Yuexin couldn’t help but feel like she had to say something an elder would tell a younger child. Heck, the two of them were the exact same age, yet she was clearly the more mature one between them.

And so she simply said what she believed: "If you want to beat me... all you have to do is train harder. Harder... and then harder... until you become strong and skilled enough to defeat me." She shrugged after saying the first thing that came to her mind.

Little did she know, those words would become Guan Xueyi’s pillar; she made it her life’s goal to one day defeat Yuexin. And so, to Yuexin’s continued dismay, almost once or twice every single year, Xueyi would challenge her to another duel.

The outcome never changed: every single duel, Yuexin won, and Xueyi lost, even after both of them started cultivating. The battles gradually became closer and closer, and Xueyi no longer lost in a flash like before.

But still, at the end of the day, she always lost; not once had she ever managed to defeat Yuexin in a duel. It continued like that for years until the incident where the Li Clan Lord, Li San, nearly beat the remaining two Clan Lords... Shi Gubing and Guan Ju... to death because of their corruption.

After that incident, the bad blood the Shi and Guan Clans held toward the Li Clan, which had previously been mostly hidden, became completely obvious. It even seemed to double; the two clans cut off every connection they had with the Li Clan.

Xueyi still sneaked out every now and then just to duel Yuexin, although that didn’t last forever. It had been a very long time since Yuexin had last fought her. Back to the present, Yuexin looked at the girl before her as a headache slowly formed; she hadn’t changed much since the last time they had seen each other.

Her face, her childish personality, her appearance, even the cheerful aura she gave off... none of it had changed. But there was one thing that had changed, and it was painfully obvious: her aura and the strength she radiated. She was strong, plenty strong.

Meanwhile, Shi Meng slowly walked toward the seats of the Shi Clan, her heart racing harder and harder with every step she took; the closer she got to the remaining Shi Clan candidates, the louder her heartbeat became.

The moment she stepped into their area, a cold, detached, yet strangely beautiful voice reached her ears: "Kneel." It was as if the world itself had obeyed that single command; an overwhelming wave of qi crashed onto Shi Meng, forcing her onto both knees.

Crack! Her kneecaps shattered from the sheer pressure. She gritted her teeth, desperately biting back the scream that was threatening to tear out of her throat. Her situation was already bad before, and if she screamed now, it would only become worse.

She endured it; instead, she slowly lifted her head toward the one suppressing her with nothing more than his passive qi. "You have disgraced the clan and lost to someone weaker." Shi Tian’s cold voice echoed. "After the tournament... prepare for your sentence."

Shi Meng’s heart pounded violently as fear spread across every inch of her face. Shi Mo and Shi Lan couldn’t help but pity her; what did Shi Tian mean by losing to someone weaker? Hadn’t they all seen just how insanely skilled and powerful Yuexin was?

Even Shi Lan wasn’t confident that he could defeat her. They wanted to speak on Shi Meng’s behalf, but they couldn’t. If either of them said something Shi Tian found even remotely annoying or offensive, he would kill them; his mind worked in a strange and unnerving way.

No one could predict him, so they could only lower their heads in pity for Shi Meng. Without any doubt, she would be dead after this tournament ended.

Li Yuexin caught the entire scene from the corner of her eyes. "So that is why I saw fear in her eyes back then..." She frowned slightly. "She wasn’t afraid of me... she was afraid of the punishment from their clan heir... the so-called Devil."

She couldn’t help but think, "I just hope her punishment isn’t something too unbearable." What Yuexin didn’t know was that Shi Meng’s punishment wouldn’t be painful because it would simply be death; she was going to be killed by their insane clan heir after the tournament.

Yuexin turned her gaze back toward Xueyi, who still had that bright smile plastered across her face. "Sister Yuexin, are you ready?" Xueyi asked cheerfully. Yuexin looked at her for a brief moment before asking, "And why did you step up to fight me? You know I wasn’t planning on fighting you, right?"

Although she could already guess what Xueyi’s answer would be... and it was exactly as she expected... "Why else?" Xueyi beamed. "So that I can finally defeat you and win for once! Don’t worry. You won’t be beating me in a flash this time around.

After all..." She proudly puffed out her chest. "I am strong. Very strong." She smiled while tilting her head toward Yuexin. Yuexin suddenly felt slightly exhausted before the battle had even begun. Out of every possible time, why did Xueyi have to ruin her mood today?

And out of all days to insist on fighting, why did it have to be during such an important occasion? Yuexin simply looked at Xueyi with a gaze that silently asked, "Don’t you ever get tired?"

While the two girls chatted, the crowd exploded into countless murmurs and theories. After all, one had to know that one of the most anticipated matchups in the entire Night Region had always been the comparison between the two: who was stronger, the Battle Princess of the Li Clan or the Beast Slayer of the Guan Clan?

Many cultivators among the audience had already written Yuexin off before her first match after sensing the vast difference between her cultivation realm and Xueyi’s; they had all believed that if the two fought, Yuexin would undoubtedly lose, without question.

But after witnessing how Yuexin defeated someone five stages above her using nothing but pure skill, many of them completely changed their minds.

After all, they believed that if that had merely been Yuexin taking things easy against Shi Meng, then had she gone all out and used her full strength alongside every combat art she possessed, there was simply no way Shi Meng would have lasted even a single minute in that previous battle.

And if Yuexin truly wanted to win this match, then there was no doubt she would have to become serious; after all, Guan Xueyi was ranked second among all the geniuses of the Guan Clan.

The referee stepped onto the stage and began the introduction. "On my right, we have the Battle Princess of the Li Clan... Li Yuexin!" He paused before pointing toward the other side. "And on my left, we have the Beast Slayer of the Guan Clan... Guan Xueyi!"

He raised his voice. "Let the match between the Battle Princess, the number one genius of the Li Clan, and Guan Xueyi, the second greatest genius of the Guan Clan... begin!"

With that, he vanished from the stage, appearing nearby so he could clearly observe everything that happened during the battle. The two girls didn’t charge at each other immediately; instead, they first assumed their battle stances.

Xueyi gripped the pair of daggers tightly in her hands, meanwhile, Yuexin’s grip around her blue sword was both loose and firm, allowing it to move freely at any moment. Her blue eyes glowed gently; then, at the exact same moment, the two launched toward one another.

They met in the middle of the arena and struck... blade met blade, steel clashed against steel. The two exchanged moves without using any combat arts or qi attacks; instead, they relied purely on combat skill and mastery of their weapons.

Li Yuexin couldn’t help but feel surprised; the last time she had fought Guan Xueyi, her dagger skills hadn’t been anywhere near this good, but then again, that had been several years ago. She had truly improved tremendously since then.

She was skilled, extremely skilled, but still, she had yet to surpass her. Yuexin twisted her sword midway through her strike; the blade slipped past Xueyi’s guard and headed straight for her shoulder. Xueyi reacted instantly... incredibly fast... it was almost as if she had predicted Yuexin’s movement beforehand.

Her leg slid forward while her back bent almost completely backward, narrowly avoiding the sword.

At the very same moment, her leg whipped toward Yuexin with the force of a giant hammer; because Yuexin was already committed to her attack, her body naturally leaned toward Xueyi’s waiting daggers.

Yuexin’s eyes flashed; she reacted immediately, countering while regaining her footing through an almost unnatural twist of her body. The two continued battling; with every exchange, with every strike, with every collision, the arena floor gained more and more sword marks and deep cuts.

The two girls seemed to be dancing across the stage; their flawless combat, weaving back and forth without pause, completely captivated the audience and left everyone sitting on the edge of their seats.

Unlike the battle against Shi Meng, where Li Yuexin had completely dominated through pure skill, this time Xueyi truly seemed to be her equal in terms of technique. The two moved faster than most of the crowd could even follow; their battle gradually resembled an elegant dance, one forged through blades instead of music.

It was beautiful, it was dangerous, and it made everyone’s hearts race as they watched in anticipation. Soon, the two disengaged; Yuexin landed lightly with a thin crimson line across her cheek. She calmly wiped away the tiny drop of blood before lifting her blue eyes toward Xueyi.

"You’ve grown much more skillful," she couldn’t help but admit. Xueyi landed a short distance away; a thin red line had also appeared on her cheek.

Seeing Yuexin acknowledge her growth, she beamed brightly. "I told you, Sister Yuexin... This time... I won’t be losing to you."