Naked Sword Art

["Xiao Fang, hurry up. The exam is coming to an end."]

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'Xiao Hei?' Xiao Fang thought.

He didn't understand how Xiao Hei was able to communicate with him while he was still in the spirit cauldron, so he couldn't send a message to her back.

'So the exam is coming to an end already, huh. I've been having so much fun here I didn't even realize how much time had passed.'

Under his grip, the spirit beast was convulsing as Xiao Fang clenched onto its head. The spirit beast felt like it was being repeatedly struck by lightning, similar to how Xiao Fang felt for the past 10 hours. He finally released the spirit beast, letting it collapse on the floor.

...

As it turned out, the spirit beast didn't make any real copies of himself, they were just illusory clones but they were more solid than his own. Each solid illusory clone had a strength that was only a single realm below the original. That meant Xiao Fang was actually fighting against a 14 Profound Spirit Beasts and 1 Divine Spirit Beast.

The down side was that the spirit beast couldn't make any more solid clones whilst in combat. Once Xiao Fang figured that out, it was easy to keep the original body busy while fending off the solid clones' attacks.

Although the solid illusory clones provided the spirit beasts great openings to attack, it was in no position to do so, it could only defend. The spirit beast would've been better off using a simple illusory clone during their fight to evade Xiao Fang's attacks instead.

...

"Are you still unconvinced?" Xiao Fang asked as he turned to look at the mysterious elder.

He could tell that she still couldn't believe it, but after thoroughly defeating the Divine Spirit Beast there was no longer any room for doubt. Xiao Fang had taken full control of his True Immortal Spirit Attribute.

The elder didn't reply to Xiao Fang's question. She simply walked up to him then placed her hand over his upper right arm. Once she removed her hand, the Black Paradise insignia lit up for a brief moment before hiding itself under his skin again. She had given him a class.

"Congratulations, it seems I was wrong about you," the elder said with a light smile.

Considering everything she put him through, her little smile didn't make him feel any better.

"Elder, aren't you forgetting something?" Xiao Fang asked.

She knew what he was referring to. She promised him a powerful spirit cultivation technique. Unfortunately, it was impossible for her to give him one.

'Just what kind of monstrous technique could she give me?' Xiao Fang thought excitedly.

He knew that her cultivation was immeasurably deep. So with that in mind, he assumed the cultivation technique she was going to give him would be just that much more impressive. If he had even a single powerful spirit cultivation technique then he would've been able to defeat the Divine Spirit beast far more quickly.

While he was happily waiting for her to give him a powerful spirit cultivation technique, he noticed that she was starting to frown.

"You're too weak to learn anything I have. Just forget it," the elder said.

"Elder, I'm already in the Profound Spirit realm, and with my spirit attribute you could say I'm already in the Heavenly realm. So whatever technique you have, I'm certain I'll be able to learn it."

"Heavenly realm? Even if that was true, you still wouldn't be able to learn a Heavenly Realm technique." the elder explained.

"I don't understand. isn't my battle power at the Heavenly realm right now?"

The elder shook her head. From his question she could tell that he had never seen a real Heavenly Realm cultivator fight before.

"Your battle power was only at the peak of the Divine Spirit realm. If you were really at the Heavenly realm, then your fight with my spirit beast would've been far more one-sided."

Truthfully, Xiao Fang was a bit skeptical himself. He wasn't able to suppress the Divine Spirit Beast with his oppressive might during the fight, so he knew something was off.

At first he assumed he just didn't know how to release it yet, but judging from the elder's words, it seemed that he was never really in the Heavenly realm.

Instead of telling him, she decided to show him instead.

"This is the Heavenly Realm."

Suddenly her aura began to change then his body began to feel heavier. In the next moment, Xiao Fang almost felt compelled to fall to his knees. Feeling it now, he finally understood what an oppressive might was. It wasn't an ability or technique, it was simply a Heavenly realm practitioner's overwhelming presence.

'How could the gap between us be so vast. Didn't she say my battle power was at the peak of the Divine Spirit Realm with my spirit attribute?' Xiao Fang thought with a frown.

Seeing Xiao Fang struggling so much after only releasing a fraction of her strength, she couldn't help but sigh. It was like looking at an infant learning how to walk. However, considering that Xiao Fang had only started spirit cultivation for a year, that analogy wasn't too far from the truth.

Her aura eventually returned to how it was, but Xiao Fang was still a bit shaky. It took all he had just to stand on his two feet. He finally understood the immensity of the Heavenly Realm. It was on a league of its own.

"In the cultivation world, you are only considered a real cultivator after you step into the Heavenly Realm, better known as the 'Heavenly Origin realm'. But it seems that you are still a long way from even achieving that."

"Aren't I only 1 realm away? If I breakthrough into the Divine Spirit realm, then wouldn't my Spirit Attribute increase my cultivation into the Heavenly realm?"

"No, it wouldn't. Although your Spirit attributes can help you increase your spirit cultivation by a minor realm, it's impossible for it to make you jump over any of the major realms. Otherwise you would have already been in the Heavenly realm now."

Suddenly, Xiao Fang realized something that seemed off.

"Major realms? just how many major realms are there?"

"After the [ Mortal Realm ] comes the [ Heavenly Realm ], then finally the [ Immortal Realm ]."

[ Heavenly realm ]

" Heavenly Origin (9 stages)

" Heavenly Scholar (9 stages)

" Heavenly Lord (9 stages)

" Heavenly Sky (9 stages)

" Heavenly Star (9 stages)

" Heavenly Sage (9 stages)

" Heavenly Dragon (9 stages)

" Heavenly Emperor (9 stages)

" Heavenly Immortal (9 stages)

The elder explained.

Xiao Fang was in a bit of a daze.

"Then what about the Immortal realm?"

"I can't say. Very little is known about that realm," the elder replied.

The immortal realm was a realm of myths and legends that only a few of the emperors could reach. Immortal Realm Cultivators were seen as the gods of cultivators. Only the most renowned and legendary of cultivators had ever reached that realm.

As interesting as it all sounded, Xiao Fang was starting to feel a bit bitter. He couldn't understand why she would wager a spirit cultivation technique if she didn't have any techniques to give.

"Elder, since you lost the bet, you should follow through on that promise."

"I already told you it's impossible, you little brat. The only way I could give you a technique is if you met all the prerequisites to learning it, but considering how low your cultivation realm is, I wouldn't even be able to give you my weakest one."

"Then, what about the technique your spirit beast used?"

"You want to learn how to make a [ Solid Clone ]?" She asked with a confused expression.

"Yes, I would," Xiao Fang replied.

"Why would you want to learn that? Didn't you realize how useless the technique was during your fight against it?"

"I don't plan on leaving here empty handed," Xiao Fang replied simply.

"Fine, let's just get this over with," the elder said begrudgingly.

The elder didn't understand why he would want a technique like that. It couldn't even be considered a technique, but a useless skill to her.

What she didn't know was that Xiao Fang had learned a lot about the Black Paradise sect from watching the annual tournament every year, and by listening to his mother's stories. So he could say with confidence that they definitely didn't teach that technique at the sect.

The elder allowed the information for the technique to transfer over to Xiao Fang.

Once he received the information, he quickly discovered that the technique was far more complicated than he expected it to be. Even though the prerequisites for the technique was only at the Spirit Core realm, he could tell that it would take him a lot longer than any other technique he had to master.

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Technique Name: [ Illusory Body ]

Type: Support

Realm: N/A

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[ Solid Clone ]

> Prerequisite: Spirit Core realm.

> Create a solid illusory clone.

> The strength of the clone will be equal to the caster's body cultivation realm.

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Xiao Fang was a bit surprised. He knew every cultivation method had at least one technique that would grow with the cultivator. For the [ Illusory body ] method, it was thought to only be the [ Illusory Clone ] technique, but now it seemed that he found another.

"Thank you elder," Xiao Fang thanked her genuinely.

Despite everything she put him through, he wasn't so blind to not see how much he had gained from it.

The elder nodded approvingly then said, "No need for thanks. I lost the bet. If you return to me with a higher cultivation realm then I will reward you properly in the future."

In the next moment, she waved her hand, sending Xiao Fang back into his physical body, then looked back at her spirit beast. It was pretty beaten up, but it was still obediently taking a knee to her.

"He's gone now, you can drop the act."

The spirit beast suddenly healed itself back to perfect health in an instant.

"Why did you let him beat you up like that?" The elder questioned it.

"Fist and clones. It seemed as if that was all he was capable of. I wasn't expecting him to already know how to use his lightning spirit attribute like that at the end," the spirit beast said.

The spirit beast might've been weaker than Xiao Fang, but it had some powerful Divine Spirit realm techniques it could use against him. So if the spirit beast went all out, there was a chance it could've tipped the battle in its favor.

However, since they were both being constantly healed, there was no point in treating it like a real match. The spirit beast could overpower Xiao Fang with its Divine Spirit techniques, but it couldn't use them forever. Since it wasn't a real fight, it didn't take it all too seriously. What it didn't expect was for Xiao Fang to catch it and torture it with his lightning spirit attribute at the end.

"You only have yourself to blame for that," the elder lectured before sending the Spirit Beast back into her body.

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Outside of the spirit cauldron, Xiao Hei and Li Xiang watched in shock as they saw something they didn't expect to see.

The door to the spirit cauldron was suddenly opening, grabbing the attention of the girls.

"Long Wang, you made it out in time. But..." Li Xiang paused midsentence.

Even though he had his blindfold on, Xiao Fang could still sense the strange expressions they all had on their faces.

No one could understand what they were seeing, but when Xiao Fang scanned the room he didn't notice anything strange, but then it finally dawned on him.

How many lights were shining around the cauldron? He didn't do any tests, but the elder still put him into a class because he completed her challenge.

Were there 3 lights around the cauldron or where there none. The only thing that mattered was the class the elder had put on his arm, but he was still curious to know if the cauldron was shining or not.

Since no one was saying anything, he finally asked.

"So... how did I do?"