Naked Sword Art

"Don't tell me, show me."

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The female guard could see that his robes had the image of a Phoenix embroidered onto it, but anyone could fake something like that if they were committed enough.

Xiao Fang let his qi circulate through his arm. The guard then put a device over it then her expression changed to shock when she turned the device over.

"You're really-"

"Will you let me through now?" Xiao Fang asked.

"Y-y-yes, of course," she said nervously with a slight bow.

She heard the rumors about him, but she didn't think they were true. Who would believe that a blind man became a Phoenix Class disciple straight after taking the inner court exam.

...

Xiao Fang had to go through the same hassle with the next 2 floors, but when he reached the floor reserved for the tiger class disciples he stopped to look around. There were only 5 trial pods being used. Each pod was black and rectangular in shape, He didn't sense Xiao Hei within them so he continued walking up to the next floor.

As Xiao Fang was walking up the stairs, one girl opened her eyes and saw Xiao Fang.

'Isn't that the new guy?' She thought.

The girl's name was Li Yahui. Like many of the other Li family clansmen, Li Yahui had emerald green eyes and long brown hair. She was 169cm tall and wore comfortably baggy robes that hid her proportions.

The reason why Li Yahui was interested in Xiao Fang was simply because Li Xiang had told everyone from the Li Family clan to keep a look out for him. If anyone was to find him, they were to bring him to her.

Despite being new to the inner court, everyone listened to Li Xiang. They didn't just listen to her because her father was the Patriarch of the Li Family Clan, they listened to her because she was a natural born leader. Even if she wasn't done growing and only standing around 157cm tall, no one looked down at her. Her confidence, reputation, and presence was too overwhelming.

...

Instead of leaving the pagoda, Li Yahui stayed seated and patiently waited for Xiao Fang to come back down from the top floor.

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On the top floor of the Pagoda, Xiao Fang was a bit surprised to find that no one was there. Since he was alone he lifted his blindfold to take a look around.

Each trial pod was stationed along the walls, completely black in colour, and rectangular in shape. It was only about 2 meters tall, so Xiao Fang's head wasn't too far from the roof when he entered. There were some instructions within the Trial Pod around knee level, so Xiao Fang sat down then began to read them.

Xiao Fang skimmed over most of the instructions, but paused when he saw the virtual leaderboard. It was constantly changing meaning that it was recording everyone's scores in real time.

He didn't see any Dragon-Class disciples on the leaderboard, so he assumed they couldn't participate. It made sense now that there wasn't a floor higher than this one.

Beside each score was the disciple's name, class, and in some cases even the name of the guild or group they were associated with. There were a few disciples that left some of their information empty, but it was more common the higher up the leaderboard he looked. Strangely, the disciple that occupied the 9th position on the leaderboard had left their name, class, and guild all completely blank.

'Interesting,' Xiao Fang thought.

...

Xiao Fang eventually paid the 100 merit points fee to activate it, then the door to the cramped trial pod closed behind him. He followed the instructions and circulated his qi through his spirit mark so that the trial pod could identify who he was. He then had the opportunity to add his name and class, but he decided to leave it all blank.

Xiao Fang closed his eyes then took deeper breaths. He slowly slipped into a meditative state, then felt his spirit body begin to separate from his physical one. In the next moment, his surroundings began to change.

The feeling was identical to when he was in the Spirit Cauldron, so it gave him goosebumps. Similarly to when he was in the spirit cauldron, he was no longer blindfolded and his dantian was shining light blue because of his Spirit Attribute.

Xiao Fang looked around but he didn't see anything unusual. He was standing in an open field that seemed to extend as far as the horizon. However, when he looked up, he could see a scoreboard.

[ 000,000 ]

A few moments later he began to feel a change in the atmosphere, but it wasn't the weather that was changing, it was the natural qi around him. Suddenly, a 2nd tiered beast materialized not too far from where he stood, but Xiao Fang simply flicked his sleeve shooting out Profound power at the beast, instantly killing it.

The mutilated beast turned into a mist of qi then it went up towards the scoreboard in the sky.

[ 000,000 ]

[ 000,001 ]

Xiao Fang frowned. The top scores on the leaderboard were numbered in the tens of thousands.

'This is going to take forever...' he complained inwardly.

More 2nd tiered beasts started to spawn all around him, but Xiao Fang easily defeated them as soon as they appeared. He eventually killed a 3rd tiered beast, but he didn't even notice since it was still so much weaker than him.

[ 000,100 ]

[ 000,135 ]

'Should I just leave?' Xiao Fang thought.

Since he could still feel the connection to his physical body, he knew he could leave whenever he wanted.

However, Xiao Fang convinced himself to stay since he knew he could get more merit points per month if he placed high on the leaderboard.

...

Eventually, flying-types beasts began to appear as well, but Xiao Fang effortlessly killed them all the same.

It wasn't that the beasts were weak, it was just that Xiao Fang was too strong. Xiao Fang treated it like a game where he would try to kill the beasts the moment they spawned, he even attempted to predict their spawning locations too. Xiao Fang got carried away and activated his [ True Immortal Lightning Tribulation ] spirit attribute so that he could attack them even faster.

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Several minutes later, Xiao Fang had killed more beasts than he bothered to count. He had reached a point where every beast that spawned was at the 6th tier. That was equivalent to fighting a 1st stage profound realm cultivator

Although he was trying to defeat the beasts as fast as he could, he wasn't foolish enough not to pay attention to the scoreboard.

[ 029,701 ]

Xiao Fang was nearing the top 10 so he was soon going to stop. He no longer killed the 6th tiered beasts as soon as they spawned, instead he carefully watched as his score increased from each kill.

[ 029,977 ]

[ 030,253 ]

When his score passed 31,000 he finally stopped. It was at that moment that he saw a 7th tiered beast spawn. Xiao Fang could tell that the beast was much smarter and much stronger than any of the 6th tiered beasts he faced. Even though he was tempted, he knew he had to stop.

Finally, Xiao Fang recalled his spirit body back into his physical one then watched as the leaderboard in front of him began to change.

...

11th - [ 027,655 ] Tan Xue, Phoenix Class, Spring Flower guild

10th - [ 031,081 ] ---

>>> 9th - [ 031,081 ] ---

...

Even though Xiao Fang tied with 10th place, his score was being highlighted in 9th. He assumed it was because he did it faster.

Xiao Fang then checked the allowance list, posted next to the leaderboard.

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Top 100

> 20,000 merit points

Top 50

> 30,000 merit points

Top 10

> 40,000 merit points

Top 5

> 50,000 merit points

1st

> 70,000 merit points

Xiao Fang's eyes lit up greedily when he saw the amount of merit points he would receive this month.

'If I get Xiao Hei to reach the top 10 too, wouldn't I get 80,000 a month?'

Thinking about that, Xiao Fang pushed finding Xiao Hei higher up on his list of things to do. Luckily, as he was leaving he ran into Li Yahui.

"Y-You're Long Wang?" She asked.

"I am."

"C-Can you come with me? L-Li Xiang wants to see you."

Xiao Fang was blindfolded, but she still couldn't look at him. How could there be such a shy girl in this world?

"Alright, lead the way," Xiao Fang replied.

Xiao Fang could tell that she was going out of her way just to talk to him, so he didn't make it hard for her. Since she already mentioned Li Xiang's name, that was all he needed to hear to make him follow her. If anyone would know where Xiao Hei was, it would be her.

***

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