Seeing this, Ye Ling initially thought her opponent would control the ice blades from a distance as it had before. She was about to use her movement technique to dodge to the side.
To her surprise, the giant fish’s form suddenly blurred. In a mere instant, it crossed the ten-meter distance and lunged right in front of her.
“Such speed!”
The distance was too short to dodge. Ye Ling hurriedly held the Qinglan Sword horizontally to block her side.
In the next instant, the giant fish’s thick, massive tail, carrying violent demonic power, swept across and slammed heavily into the blade.
A deafening boom erupted as Ye Ling was slammed into the ground by the immense force.
Dirt and stone flew into the air as a deep crater was smashed into the earth. Immediately after, the twelve giant ice blades suspended in the air shot through the sky, all of them crashing into the pit.
With no way to escape, the ice blades hacked into her body one after another. Her clothes were torn, and more than a dozen deep gashes were sliced into her flesh.
A mouthful of blood could no longer be suppressed and sprayed from her mouth.
The giant anglerfish’s mouth curled into a smug smile as it laughed loudly.
“Do you now understand the extent of my power?”
Yet, in its heart, it was still secretly calculating. This girl had peerless talent and was surely a genius heavily nurtured by the sword sect. It couldn’t actually kill her; it would have to find a natural excuse to let her leave shortly.
It never expected that before the dust had even settled, Ye Ling at the bottom of the pit had already quickly devised a countermeasure.
First, she gathered her strength within the pit, brewing a majestic wave of Sword Force and slashing it toward the giant fish.
Immediately after, she activated the Turtle Breathing Art. Using the dust and mist as cover, she noiselessly shifted behind a thick, giant tree to the left to hide her presence.
Behind the tree, Ye Ling raised her hand to wipe the blood from the corner of her mouth, her eyes filled with gravity.
As expected of a Tongxuan Realm demon beast, the previous round of attacks was its true strength. No matter how powerful her physical body was, she only held the advantage in defense; her attack power and spiritual energy reserves were far inferior to a Tongxuan Realm demon beast.
She could not afford to recklessly trade blows again. It was time to leave.
She no longer lingered on the fight. With a flash of her figure, she quietly and rapidly retreated.
At the same time, the giant anglerfish took the Sword Force slash from the pit head-on. As the dust in the crater slowly cleared, it saw that the pit was empty.
Startled, it immediately spread its majestic demonic sense to search the surroundings. In an instant, it locked onto Ye Ling, who was withdrawing a thousand meters away.
With its terrifying Tongxuan Realm speed, a mere thousand meters could be covered in a heartbeat. It would be effortless for it to pursue and intercept Ye Ling.
But it had no intention of moving to give chase.
At this moment, it secretly praised her. This human girl not only had peerless talent and a powerful physical body, but her temperament also far surpassed that of ordinary disciples. Knowing she was outmatched, she immediately withdrew and did not succumb to greed for battle.
Since Ye Ling had taken the initiative to retreat, it didn’t need to worry about holding back its strength or finding a face-saving way to release her. It could simply let her go.
The giant fish paid no more attention to the distant figure. Swishing its massive tail, it leisurely returned to the deep pool, muttering to itself, “Playing around like that is exhausting for an old fish. I’ll have to sleep for two or three years to properly recover.”
With that, it sank to the bottom of the pool, and the surroundings fell into complete silence.
As for Ye Ling, the moment the giant anglerfish’s demonic sense swept over her, her expression tightened, and her internal energy surged in readiness. However, the pursuit never came.
She glanced back at the pool from the corner of her eye and saw that the giant Tongxuan fish remained still on the surface. It had absolutely no intention of hunting her down, which instantly confirmed the vague suspicion in her heart.
From beginning to end, this Tongxuan Realm anglerfish had been intentionally holding back.
At first, it deliberately restrained its demonic power and suppressed the strength of its moves. Only after seeing her powerful physical body did it use a bit of its true combat power. Even after wounding her, it chose to stop and not pursue when it saw her flee.
There was a chasm-like difference between the Tongxuan Realm and the Xiantian Realm. With its speed and strength, intercepting her would have been easy. The fact that it didn't act was enough to prove Ye Ling's deduction.
The Tongxuan Realm demon beasts of Bailing Mountain were likely restricted by the Qinglan Sword Sect and were strictly forbidden from killing the sect's disciples.
Of course, Ye Ling’s daring provocation of a Tongxuan beast was not a moment of reckless impulse. She carried a large amount of pills gifted by Peak Master Wen of Spirit Medicine Peak, including recovery pills and healing pills.
The moment she was injured, she had already swallowed several healing medicines. Although the wounds left by the twelve giant ice blades looked gruesome and terrifying, they hadn't struck her meridians or vital points.
Under the slow circulation and nourishment of the True Dragon qi within her, the wounds on her surface were rapidly closing and healing. Her combat strength was almost entirely unimpaired. Even if the giant fish had insisted on pursuing, she was confident in her ability to escape.
If this guess was correct, then this trip to the Bailing Secret Realm held even more possibilities.
However, Ye Ling was meticulous. She wouldn’t reach a final conclusion based on a single exchange. What if that giant Tongxuan fish was just mild-tempered and disliked killing? To fully confirm the rules, she would have to find another Tongxuan Realm demon beast to test and verify.
But before that, she needed to find a safe place to go into seclusion and heal.
Beyond that, the fierce battle just now had yielded an even greater harvest.
She had grasped One Layer of Sword Force for nearly a year, yet she had always found it difficult to make any further progress. But during the life-and-death struggle against the giant Tongxuan fish, she clearly sensed that her Sword Force had finally touched the opportunity to take another step forward!
The higher reaches of the second layer were crowded with Tongxuan Realm demon beasts. It was a place fraught with danger and certainly not suitable for peaceful seclusion.
Ye Ling immediately flew several thousand meters down on her sword, returning to the lower reaches of the second layer. She found a quiet, secluded valley surrounded by mountains and set up a concealing formation. There, she began her seclusion to heal and comprehend her Sword Force.
In just one day, the True Dragon Unfettered Art and the healing pills from Peak Master Wen worked in perfect harmony. The gruesome wounds from the ice blades all scabbed over, and there was no longer any tearing pain when she moved.
By the third day, the scabs fell off in patches, revealing new skin beneath that was smooth and delicate, indistinguishable from her original complexion. Her injuries were completely healed.
Seeing that her body had recovered, Ye Ling focused her entire mind on studying her Sword Force.
Ever since she first held a sword at age twelve, she had practiced basic sword techniques daily. The five stances—horizontal, vertical, slash, thrust, and hack—were already carved into her very bones. Yet with every focused practice, she could always extract new insights.
This time, she went against convention. She practiced the basic sword moves in reverse over and over, refining her foundation again and again.
The moment her 136th repetition of the reverse sword technique concluded, a qualitative change suddenly occurred.
A sharp, peerless Sword Force erupted from her as the center, enveloping the mountain forest for a thousand meters. The various demon beasts dwelling in this area sensed this suffocating pressure and fled in terror.
The leaves in the forest trembled incessantly as if cut by invisible energy, and the soil and rocks within dozens of meters of her shook uncontrollably.
The level of her Sword Force began to climb steadily.
One Layer...
One and a Half Layers...
Two Layers...
Two and a Half Layers...
Finally, it settled firmly at the Realm of Two and a Half Layers.
Ye Ling slowly exhaled a breath she had been holding for a long time. Her fingertips gently stroked the blade of the Qinglan Sword, her eyes filled with joy. Two and a Half Layers of Sword Force was several times more powerful than her previous One Layer!
If she faced that giant anglerfish again, she wouldn't just be able to knock off a few scales. If she struck now, she would definitely be able to wound its physical body.
She held the long sword horizontally and gently ran her left hand over the blade. The thick power of Two and a Half Layers of Sword Force was entirely concentrated upon it. The air seemed to be sliced and torn by an invisible sharp edge, and piercing whistles of broken air rose one after another.
The sharpness of the Qinglan Sword itself skyrocketed dozens of times, the sword light so bright it was hard to look at.
Ye Ling casually gave the ground a light stroke with her sword.
Ssh.
The silent Sword Force erupted, and the earth instantly trembled and split open. A massive rift dozens of meters long and several meters deep spread out. The rock walls of the crevice were as smooth as a mirror, fully demonstrating the power of that single stroke.
“This is the power of Two and a Half Layers of Sword Force!”
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