Chapter 382

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　　Upon hearing this, Xu Taiping remained calm as usual.
　　Unlike Shang Jiu, this competition not only concerns his life and death, but also the life and death of his second senior brother. There can be no mistakes.
　　“But for a saber cultivator, as long as the physical body is sufficient, the most important thing is still the saber in the hand.”
　　While speaking these words, Shang Jiu leaned forward and suddenly accelerated his steps. In just two or three steps, he rushed to Xu Taiping’s front with his saber raised.
　　“Swish！”
　　Amid the sound of breaking through the air, Shang Jiu’s saber horizontally slashed towards Xu Taiping’s neck.
　　The angle at which he made the saber strike was very tricky. Xu Taiping couldn’t oppose the saber like just now and could only dodge backward to look for an opportunity to strike.
　　But Shang Jiu seemed to have long guessed the direction in which he would retreat. The saber blade stopped, and the tip of the saber pointed at Xu Taiping’s throat, stabbing out with a single strike.
　　Xu Taiping had to retreat again.
　　But every move of his was accurately guessed by Shang Jiu. If it weren’t for his fast enough body skills and reaction, and timely wielding the saber to block, I’m afraid he would have already been stabbed a dozen times.
　　Even more crucial is that Shang Jiu’s saber is also becoming faster and fiercer.
　　If it were an ordinary warrior, facing Shang Jiu’s such fierce saber momentum, I’m afraid they wouldn’t even be able to hold on for a cup of tea’s time. Because of the panic in their hearts, they would eventually make mistakes with their hands and be unable to catch Shang Jiu’s saber.
　　But Xu Taiping had fought tens of thousands of battles with the Blade Ghost within the Blade Domain. The Blade Ghost had changed his saber techniques hundreds of times and used thousands of routines to test his saber on him. The current situation was not even enough to warm him up.
　　“Bang,　bang,　bang！”
　　Amid the sound of clanging of hard iron like that of forging, the saber in Xu Taiping’s hand was like a shield. No matter how fast and tricky Shang Jiu’s saber was, he could catch it.
　　In those tens of thousands of battles with the Blade Ghost, rather than how to strike with the saber, Xu Taiping had learned more about blocking the saber.
　　Once during a whole night of saber testing, he had blocked almost every saber strike of the Blade Ghost. It was not until dawn when his divine soul became extremely exhausted that he was finally killed by the Blade Ghost with a single strike when he found an opportunity.
　　“Bang！”
　　As another of his saber strikes was blocked by Xu Taiping, the relaxed expression on Shang Jiu’s face gradually became solemn.
　　If it was possible to block one or two saber strikes by coincidence or due to talent, but to block every saber strike like this at this moment, this explanation could never be used.
　　“It’s not a coincidence, not a talent. Only day after day, year after year of hard practice can achieve this.”
　　With this thought in mind, the look in Shang Jiu’s eyes when he looked at Xu Taiping no longer had any hint of contempt.
　　“Bang！”
　　Just at this moment, the saber strike he chopped out was blocked by Xu Taiping again.
　　And this time, the difference was that a sharp pain came from his palm.
　　At this moment, he was fighting with Xu Taiping in a saber fight. Once he stopped the saber momentum, it would be broken.
　　So Shang Jiu ignored it and continued as planned before, step by step forcing Xu Taiping into a dead corner.
　　According to his plan, even if Xu Taiping could block each of his saber strikes, as long as he forced Xu Taiping into that dead corner, Xu Taiping wouldn’t even be able to exercise his saber and naturally couldn’t block his saber anymore.
　　“Bang！”
With the sound of the wrought iron colliding again, the exquisite saber strike that Shang Jiu had been planned for a long time was blocked by Xu Taiping once again.
　　Although he had expected it, Shang Jiu still felt a sense of frustration in his heart.
　　How many years had it been since he had experienced this feeling.
　　Perhaps precisely because of this, he didn’t even notice that his hand holding the saber was already covered in blood.
　　“Bang！”
　　“Huh？”
　　But with another collision of the two sabers, Shang Jiu finally realized this.
　　His hand holding the saber was injured.
　　And it wasn’t just a superficial skin injury. The tendons and bones in his palm had already been damaged, and even when holding the saber, pain began to appear.
　　“Bang！”
Although the pain was still there, Shang Jiu’s saber momentum still didn’t stop. However, just like before, no matter how fast he struck the saber or how tricky the angle was, Xu Taiping could still block it.
　　And this time, at the moment when the two sabers collided, he finally realized how the injury on his hand came about.
　　Accompanied by a clear “click” sound, the phalanx of his index finger broke under a strange tremor force.
　　”It’s　dark　energy！”
　　Shang Jiu’s face became a bit ugly.
　　”He used dark energy when fighting with me with the knife, and didn’t use all his strength at the beginning, but increased the strength of the dark energy little by little, so that my hand wouldn’t feel anything strange, and let the damage of the dark energy accumulate little by little in my palm. By the time I found out, this hand would almost be ruined.”
　　At this thought, a layer of cold sweat suddenly broke out on Shang Jiu’s forehead.
　　”Whoosh！”
After feinting with a knife to deceive Xu Taiping, Shang Jiu’s body suddenly flew back and opened a certain distance from Xu Taiping.
He raised his palm and took a look, only to see that the palm was already bloody and the tendons and bones on the palm had also suffered not light injuries.
　　If he hadn’t discovered it in time, I’m afraid this hand would really be useless.
　　”What a pity. With one or two more knives, I could have disabled the senior.”
　　Xu Taiping put away his knife and smiled at Shang Jiu.
　　As Shang Jiu guessed, Xu Taiping did do some tricks when fighting with Shang Jiu with the knife.
　　However, it was not dark energy, but the thousand-layered energy taught to him by Fairy Lingyue.
　　In order not to let Shang Jiu discover it, his thousand-layered energy was added layer by layer, and by the last knife, it had only been added to thirty layers.
　　But with the accumulation of each strike, the hand of Shang Jiu had already suffered serious damage without him realizing it.
　　Although it was still discovered by Shang Jiu, for a saber cultivator, even the slightest injury to the hand could be a fatal flaw when facing an enemy.
　　”Wonderful.”
　　Shang Jiu smiled and clapped his hands.
　　”I, Shang Jiu, am indeed old. I used to love to use my brain, but after breaking through to Soul Refinement, I have become lazier and lazier. I always feel that if a problem can be solved with one saber strike, why bother using my brain？”
　　He flicked the blood on his hand and shook his head with a sigh.
　　But soon, he raised the corner of his mouth and looked at Xu Taiping and said：
But I was also young once, and I was also loved to use my brain like you.
Xu Taiping could tell that there was something in last Jiu’s words, so he didn’t say anything and just Quietly looked at him.
　　”When I was young, in order not to be seen through by my opponent at once, I specifically practiced the left-handed saber. After practicing for a long time, I actually developed a saber technique that was stronger than that of my right hand.”
　　Having said that, Shang Jiu switched the saber to his left hand.