The Romantic Cultivator

The dueling platform was large and there were defensive arrays around the platform to absorb any stray profound energies.

When Yuan Ji had arrived, thousands of cultivators were already presented and the crowd was chatting loudly.

Bai Qianfeng licked his fingers and leapt from Yuan Ji's arms just before he had stepped into the dueling platform.

Little Princess, Ling Feiyue and Xue Qianxue gave him an encouraging look at the same time too.

Yuan Ji grinned, "Don't worry, I will surely win this duel."

Ling Feiyue giggled softly, "You have better or else I will have to get myself another lord."

Yuan Ji: …

Yuan Ji: …

Yuan Ji: …

"Then you have to wait a fifth lifetime for us to be together. But for the fifth lifetime, I have to reconsider if I want to be with you." Yuan Ji grinned.

Ling Feiyue: …

Before Ling Feiyue could hit him with her fists, a laughing Yuan Ji had already leapt into the dueling platform.

At the same time, Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi had also just arrived with the other patriarch elders. There were thunderous claps and cheers as the thousands of cultivators waved their support for Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi.

Yuan Ji shrugged his shoulders since he did not care whether he had any support or not. He was basically spoiling for a fight so that he can prove to everyone that sword cultivators are not as useless as they were supposed to be.

Therefore he decided to use this Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi as a stepping stone to show the Desolate Celestial Fraternity what the sword cultivators were made of. However he knew that he also had to give some face to his opponent as well so he did not have the intention to win.

Yuan Ji had immediately displayed the heaven-step precious sword that he had borrowed from Ling Feiyue on his left hand.

Ling Feiyue, Xue Qianxue and Little Princess were startled that Yuan Ji was not using his celestial-step divine sword.

Ling Feiyue looked a little panicky, "Ji Yuan, Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi is a formidable power cultivator. Please do not underestimate your opponent! Use your other sword!"

But Yuan Ji pretended not to hear her as he said to Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi, "Um. This isn't a life and death duel, am I right?"

Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi laughed coldly, "Naturally it is not. The one that waves the white flag will be able to concede. That is, if you still have the voice to call out."

Many of the cultivators were laughing jovially when they had heard their Patriarch Elder Chen Yi. It was because they had all thought that Yuan Ji was looking for an exit.

Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi took a look at Yuan Ji's heaven-step precious sword before he unsheathed his heaven-step divine sword. "You don't even have a half-step divine sword?"

Yuan Ji swung his precious sword in front of him and said. "This is good enough."

Many of the cultivators were laughing nonstop now. In terms of cultivation realm level and weapon, Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi was the superior. In their minds, the winner had already been decided!

"Please give me your instructions." Yuan Ji added.

"I definitely will." Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi scoffed coldly.

Yuan Ji had immediately mustered his sword energies into his sword as a gentle outburst of profound energies burst forth around him.

"Middle saint…"

"This Ji Yuan is actually a middle-saint!"

"No, half-step great saint!"

"He is not an initial saint?"

"But he will still lose horribly. He doesn't even have a divine sword to back him up."

Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi looked a little surprise. It was because he had thought that Yuan Ji was at best only a mortal-step initial saint. But all of a sudden his divine sense had identified him as a half-step great saint.

Actually Yuan Ji could only muster his profound strength to the peak middle saint level. The reason why his opponents had thought that he was a half-step great saint was because it was difficult to hide the profound animus of a great saint.

Since he could not muster his cultivation strength to the great saint level, naturally his opponents had thought that he was only a half-step great saint. The truth was he was actually at the earth-step seventh realm sacred saint level.

A strong golden animus had enveloped over Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi as he smiled to Yuan Ji, "As your senior, I will be gracious to give you the benefit of a first strike."

What a strong profound animus! Yuan Ji thought.

Is he a profound animus cultivator, an external power cultivator, an internal power cultivator or several hybrids?

This was actually Yuan Ji's first thoughts. It is because the cultivators from the major celestial clans often had more time to pick up plenty of cultivation methods since they have accessed to more plentiful celestial resources. Because of the rich spiritual auras in their mountains, they did not even need to spend as much time in their cultivation and can free their time to do some excess things.

I will know very soon.

Yuan Ji immediately displayed a nonchalantly smile. "Alright then I shall make the first move."

Yuan Ji immediately swung his sword as he released a wave of ground sword energy that sped toward Chen Yi.

Chen Yi smirked coldly as he calmly swung his sword. With just a single stroke, he had completely dissipated Yuan Ji's sword energy attack.

"Is this the best that you can do? Ha!"

Yuan Ji quickly leapt upon Chen Yi with his sword strokes. His left hand was now as fast as his right hand before he had mastered the Natural Instinct. Therefore his sword strokes were swift and dazzling.

However because of the defensive profound animus of Chen Yi that was radiating around him, even before Yuan Ji could come near to his opponent, the profound power of his sword strokes was halved.

Therefore with just two powerful strokes that were from Chen Yi, Yuan Ji was sent flying backward due to the vast disparity of power between them.

Many of the cultivators in the hall were now cheering madly for Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi. It seemed to them that Yuan Ji was too weak!

Even Ling Feiyue was cursing Yuan Ji softly, "Darn, what is he doing? He didn't use his celestial sword, didn't display his physical sword energy form, uses a puny single sword energy wave and now he is getting beaten!"

Xue Qianxue smiled weakly, "Sister Feiyue, you are mouthing profanities?"

Ling Feiyue quickly covered her mouth with her fingers, "Ops sorry. I just got so…uncultured."

The instant when Yuan Ji was knocked furiously backward, he had released several bursts of sword energies that exploded around Chen Yi to cover him in a outburst of smog.

Chen Yi did not even need to block because these sword energies bursts were just too weak to penetrate through his formidable profound aura.

"Sword Demon Ji Yuan, you do know that you have to bypass my profound aura before you can even hurt my golden body. Do you?" Chen Yi laughed aloud.

It was as though he was giving an instruction to Yuan Ji.

But Yuan Ji was grinning, "I just enjoy seeing my sword energies attacks on you. Since it is so dangerous to meet you in a direct confrontation, I may as well throw my puny firecrackers at you."

Chen Yi: ...

"You think that I am not able to get you?" Chen Yi hummed coldly.

All of a sudden he had raised his sword and used his unique sword art; burning flames began to explode around his sword as he condensed his profound power.

"Nine Yang Divine Sword Art!"

In a blink of an eye he had already raised his unique sword art to its peak power. This spoke volumes of his proficiency with this sword art.

Chen Yi had already gauged the profound strength of his opponent. With this sword art and his profound animus combined, his opponents' sword energies would not be able to hurt him. Therefore he did not even need to defend against his opponent.

Yuan Ji swung his sword to release a white beam of light in the dancing form of a coiling dragon. This was the Heavenly Light of the Coiling Dragon that he had created with Ling Feiyue.

Chen Yi was slightly startled that Yuan Ji still had a trump card of this power as both their profound arts clashed against each other.

Chen Yi was forced to take a step back while Yuan Ji was forced to take five steps back as he coughed out a bout of golden blood!

The profound power of the Nine Yang Divine Sword Art was greater than the Heavenly Light of the Coiling Dragon!

Chen Yi was actually secretly startled that Yuan Ji was still able to stand.

Therefore he attacked again with his Nine Yang Divine Sword Art.

Again Yuan Ji displayed the same profound art. This time round he was knocked back four steps backward and coughed out another bout of blood.

This caused Chen Yi to be surprised. He had used the same exact profound strength.

Usually when a weaker opponent was injured by the same profound art, he would not be able to mount up a higher defense due to his injuries.

This caused Chen Yi to be a little perplexed because Yuan Ji had a weak profound aura and it was too weak to resist his profound art. Therefore the only way for Yuan Ji to resist his profound attack was to invest his profound strength into his profound sword art.

But the same profound attack did not seem to work that well against Yuan Ji.

Maybe he is mustering all his profound strength to resist my second attack and trying to save his face. Four steps or five steps, it is almost the same.

Therefore with this thought in mind, Chen Yi had suddenly mustered a bright halo around him.

This caused many of the cultivators to shout excitingly. "This is our Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi's spirit entity!"

Chen Yi actually had a spirit entity that could increase his profound strength by an additional 30%.

Ling Feiyue shouted panicky to Yuan Ji, "My lord, please be careful!"

Chen Yi smirked as the profound power of his sword increased tremendous. "You didn't think that I have already used my trump card, do you? Let me show you the ultimate sword art of my Nine Yang Divine Sword."

The divine sword of Chen Yi had suddenly turned flaming red as nine rolling balls of flames began to hover around him. Even though his spirit entity had given him a 30% profound strength increase but his actual profound power gained was actually a whopping 120% because it enabled him to use his Ultimate Nine Yang Divine Sword Art.

Chen Yi was now upon Yuan Ji like a flaming firebird. His profound attack was so fierce that the entire dueling platform was heating up with this powerful display of his profound power!

Ling Feiyue, Xue Qianxue, Little Princess and even Bai Qianfeng were all nervously watching the duel. There was one way for Yuan Ji to block off this powerful profound attack and that was to display his celestial-step divine sword. The power of his celestial sword would be enough to preserve his life.

But Yuan Ji did not take out his celestial sword. Instead he displayed three waves of sword energies ahead of him, only to have these sword energies to be totally melted under the profound power of Chen Yi.

In the next instant, his heaven-step precious sword was shattered to pieces and Yuan Ji was sent flying more than twenty steps backward and an explosive streak of burning profound energies could be seen around him.

Even Yuan Ji's weak profound animus was completely burnt off and his golden body was burnt.

Ling Feiyue, Little Princess, Xue Qianxue and Bai Qianfeng were all gasping with shock.

Many of the cultivators were laughing and cheering for Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi.

"Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi has won!"

"This Ji Yuan is dead?"

"He is still breathing…"

"But he has not surrendered yet so this duel is still not finished yet…"

Ling Feiyue was bleary eyed as she shouted, "Stop! Ji Yuan…has lost…"

Chen Yi smirked coldly, "He has not waved the white flag yet so this duel must still continue."

"Yea. That is right. I have not lost yet." Yuan Ji had suddenly picked himself up as he looked at his broken precious sword. "Guess that I need another sword now but against such a powerful sword art, I may end up breaking another precious sword. So I guess I have to make do with this broken sword for now."

When the many cultivators saw that Yuan Ji was still looking spirited despite the injuries that he had received, they were actually quite startled.

Even Chen Yi was blinking his eyes. This is impossible, right? He doesn't seem to have any defensive profound art that can absorb my attack…

He did not know that although Yuan Ji did not have any defensive profound art but he had allocated his profound strength into his recovery.

Yuan Ji had wanted to know how much his great saint golden body would take and he had purposely taken the hit.

"It is actually quite painful. Haha." He thought. "But I am still alive."

Chen Yi hummed coldly, "You are only putting on a brave front. Since you are standing up now. Let's continue our fight."

"Alright." Yuan Ji said.

Just as Chen Yi had raised his sword to point at Yuan Ji, a barrage of nine sword waves had exploded around him and even caused him to take two steps backward!

Chen Yi was quite startled. He is able to display three waves of sword energies waves consecutive? He still has that much profound strength?

Yuan Ji had actually used very little of his profound strength while Chen Yi had consumed quite a lot of his profound strength.

But before Chen Yi could think further, Yuan Ji was now upon him with his broken sword and he was displaying his sword strokes, faster than ever before.

This startled Chen Yi. He is not at his limits earlier?

The two of them immediately encircled each other furiously as they flashed their swords and profound arts at the same time.

This went on for another thirty minutes and Chen Yi was now beginning to inhale lightly while Yuan Ji was still looking as fresh as ever.

This was not lost on many of the cultivators.

Ling Feiyue muttered, "He has not used his right hand, celestial sword and his best profound arts yet…what is he trying to do?"

Little Princess was smiling as she whispered to her, "He is trying his best to be your Dark Lord. Hehe."

Ling Feiyue: ???

Ji Yuan pretended to inhale heavily before he suddenly said to Chen Yi, "We have been fighting for some time now. I wonder if there is a draw outcome for our duel?"

Chen Yi was actually feeling a little perplexed and at a loss now on how to defeat Yuan Ji. It was because he had expended too much of his profound strength at the start of the battle. Even if he used the same profound art against him now, it was much weaker than his earlier attacks.

He just could not understand why Yuan Ji was not affected by the profound might of his attacks.

Naturally he did not know that Yuan Ji did not use his full profound strength at the very start and had limited himself to 70% of his strength. When he was attacked by Chen Yi's powerful profound attack, he had raised his defensive power to the maximum, only to lower it immediately before he attacked again.

Yuan Ji only had one goal and that was to weaken his opponent while conserving the rest of his profound strength into his recovery. It was because he knew that it was impossible to defeat Chen Yi at the very start when he was at his strongest.

Although he had the confidence of defeating Chen Yi but he did not want to because he would end up with some backstabbing elders at the end of the day.

Chen Yi was not stupid so he was grinning. "I think that you have already proven yourself. Therefore it is pointless for me to continue. If I were to use my full strength, this will be most unfair to you."

Yuan Ji laughed, "Really? Haha. Then I can get to be with your Dark Mistress even if it is just a draw?"

"Naturally." Chen Yi was smiling.

Yuan Ji chuckled, "Alright. So shall it be."

Chen Yi made a pretentious laugh, "Ji Yuan, congrats on winning the heart of our Dark Mistress!"

When he had announced as such, all the patriarch elders and many of the cultivators were stunned.

Why did Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi have to announce the duel as a draw when it is obviously that Ji Yuan is losing?

To the many onlookers, Yuan Ji was indeed badly beaten up and he was at a disadvantage.

"…..."

"So Ji Yuan wins?"

"A draw means that Ji Yuan also wins? But why?"

"But come to think of it, this Ji Yuan didn't get killed by our Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi. This is already a miracle thing."

However to Chen Yi, he was feeling the stress of maintaining his formidable profound aura and his attack strokes. The drain of his profound strength was much greater than Yuan Ji and he had suddenly realized that Yuan Ji was recovering faster than he had expected. Moreover, Yuan Ji always seemed to be able to avoid his most deadly strikes and he had suddenly realized that Yuan Ji was too quick.

Therefore he was actually facing a lot of pressure. Now that Yuan Ji had offered him a chance to salvage his face while everyone was thinking that he had an advantage, naturally he would quickly accepted it.

When Chen Yi returned to the company of the other patriarch elders, he simply said. "It is not right for me to bully a junior. Moreover he has already proven to me that he is a capable fighter."

This was his only explanation when all the patriarch elders were asking him why.

Chen Yi just could not understand it and his only conclusion was that his opponent may have some powerful internal profound art that can aid his recovery!

Actually Yuan Ji did not have any powerful internal profound art but after he had undergone his soul tempering, his profound strength was stronger than any of the same rank saint. Plus he had also undergone the Purple Lightning Tribulation.

When Yuan Ji had stepped out of the dueling platform, he was immediately surrounded by Little Princess, Xue Qianxue and Ling Feiyue as they surrounded him anxiously.

"Ji Yuan, how are your wounds?"

"Are you hurt in any way?"

"If you have any discomfort, please tell us immediately!"

Yuan Ji was suddenly in the middle of all the envious glares of many of the jealous cultivators.

He did not care on what was in their minds as he purposely staggered weakly so that he could grab Ling Feiyue's slim waist and butt in front of their eyes, causing many of them to have blood curdling blood rages.

Ling Feiyue was smiling at him with a most affectionate look, "I didn't expect that you can actually draw with my Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi. This is good…"

Yuan Ji chuckled. "I was only lucky, that's all. Patriarch Moon Elder Chen Yi is a really strong opponent. But luckily, I have a better trump card than him in the battle."

"Oh? What is it?" the maidens began to wonder curiously and at the same time, many of the nearby cultivators were also secretly listening into their conversations.

"Because I did not have a beard to hinder me, I was able to think and move quicker than my previous beautiful beard self."

This message was not lost on the many cultivators who were eavesdropping on him.

That very day, several dozen cultivators began to shave off their beautiful beards. When some of them asked the lady cultivators if they were quicker, many of the lady cultivators began to praise them as better than before.

This created a false belief that being beardless is good from this day onward and creates an upward beardless trend as more and more beardless cultivators began to appear throughout the Desolate Celestial Fraternity.