“Parlor tricks!” Qiao Haisheng scoffed, and with a single wave of his arm, he summoned a sword aura.
The razor-sharp sword aura slashed out horizontally and swept all the needles away.
Chen Jingzhai was not surprised. Instead, he grinned and sped up.
Qiao Haisheng frowned and was about to chase after his target when he noticed the ice needles that he had swept away were starting to change.
As the needles fell into the clouds, they changed into green vines that lunged toward him.
The vines looked extremely real. The details were perfect, down to every crack and leaf.
The only thing that separated them from the real thing was their size. They were no thicker than a human finger and no longer than a straw.
Qiao Haisheng decided to ignore the vines. Instead, he gathered his sword vapor and was ready to take off.
However, the vines caught that timing and attacked him.
Three vines merged into one long vine. One clung to Qiao Haisheng’s leg while the other wrapped around his arm.
Even the sharp sword vapors were not able to cut the vines.
Qiao Haisheng’s expression changed, and he quickly opened his mouth to spit a sword pill out.
The sword pill was about the size of a walnut. Once out of his mouth, it immediately expanded into a sword the size of a palm.
It started to spit out silk-like sword vapors which wrapped around his body.
These vapors were even sharper than the sword aura, and he was able to cut the vines.
“Damn it!” he cursed as signs of humiliation could be seen in his eyes.
Because of the vines, Chen Jingzhai was now even closer to the stage than he was.
Qiao Haisheng immediately thought of something, and the palm-sized sword expanded.
The sword shone in spirit light, and he stepped on it.
Once again, he was ready to ride his sword to chase after Chen Jingzhai, but once again, the vines started to change.
They wriggled as if they were alive and suddenly changed into iron needles.
The green exterior, cracks, and leaves were now nowhere to be seen.
The needles were longer and slimmer than straws and shot toward Qiao Haisheng like arrows.
Even though he was in a hurry, he was still prepared for anything to happen.
He immediately evaded the needles by side-stepping before increasing his speed.
However, the needles were like homing missiles, and no matter how fast he went, they seemed to be able to catch up to him.
That made Qiao Haisheng furious.
He immediately performed the orthodox sword skill of the Golden Jade Sword Branch.
Flowers made out of swords began to appear around him.
They started to spin and cut down the needles that were approaching him.
The needles were turned into dust by the flowers.
Thinking that he was now free, he merged with his flying sword and charged toward the stage.
However, after the sword flower had disappeared, the needles that were turned to dust started to gather again before igniting into fireballs.
The fireballs chased after Qiao Haisheng, and the sight of them made him gasp.
The other cultivators who were spectating started to talk about the technique Chen Jingzhai had used.
“Isn’t that the five elements spell?” Mrs. Yang gasped. “It’s amazing! Junior brother is able to control it according to his will! It seems he has fully mastered it.”
“His celestial bone is a perfect match for all five elements, so it’s not surprising that he’s able to master it.” Peak Master Yang shook his head and smiled. “Did you not notice it? So Jingzhai is fighting like a formation master should?”
“Like how a formation master should? You mean using restriction spells?”
“That’s right! Junior brother is able to merge the five elements spell with the five elements restriction spell. By merging them, he’s able to switch freely between both and confuse his enemy.”
The Peak Master was satisfied with Chen Jingzhai’s performance.
The biggest reason was that Chen Jingzhai had been fighting like a formation master should.
From the Yin Yang Sword Formation to the five elements spell, all of them had to do with the Path of Restricted Formation.
Not only that, but he was also able to use them flexibly, unlike the disciples of Daoxuan Peak, who could only perform formations according to how they were taught.
That was the change that Peak Master Yang wanted to see in Daoxuan Peak.
“I see…” Mrs. Yang was delighted after thinking of what her husband had said. “Who would’ve thought that junior brother is so talented at using restriction spells too? He sure is the carrier of the celestial bone.”
“Right? By using our scripture as the basis, he’s able to borrow the power of the Small Heavens Cloud Forbidden Restriction to perform the five elements spell. He’s able to wear the disciple of the sword branch out like that.”
“Do you think that our other disciples can learn from him?”
“It’ll be hard…” Peak Master Yang said after a brief pause. “Not everyone can understand the will of a spell. Although it’s easier than the will of a sword, they would have to understand the will of restriction spells as well. If junior brother had not comprehended the heart of restricted formations, he would not be able to perform this either. It’s hard to let everyone learn this, but…”
“But, it’s a great path for our genius disciples to walk.” Hao Feng suddenly appeared next to the married couple and finished the Peak Master’s sentence. “Congratulations, Peak Master. It looks like Master-Uncle has helped open another path for our future disciples.”
“That’s right!” Peak Master Yang laughed.
Although what Chen Jingzhai had just done was hard to replicate, it was still a good idea.
Setting up formations wasn’t the only thing a formation master was good at doing. If they had mastered restricted formations, they would be able to use restriction spells and even derive these restriction spells into attacking or defensive spells.
It wasn’t surprising that Sage Hao would congratulate the Peak Master for that, as it was something that could change the future of the branch.
In the past, even Golden Core Sages would ignore the importance of restriction spells because the scripture of Daoxuan Peak focused on formations and nothing in them was suitable for restriction spells.
However, the Small Heavens Cloud Forbidden Restriction was able to derive spells out of Restrictions and was the perfect solution for formation masters.
When Chen Jingzhai first joined Daoxuan Peak, everyone thought that he would not be able to achieve much.
No matter how talented he was, he was still a formation master among the branches that had inherited formations.
Not one person had expected Chen Jingzhai to outperform their expectations by a million folds.
Even Qiao Haisheng, who ranked third in the previous battle forum, had no idea how to counter Chen Jingzhai’s menacing spell.
That result alone made a lot of people regret not pulling Chen Jingzhai to their side.
Above the Sea of Clouds, Qiao Haisheng had a dark expression as he felt humiliated by the fireballs chasing after him.
He was not able to get rid of Chen Jingzhai’s spell even after he had used the orthodox sword skill of his branch.
The disciple was unable to accept that outcome.
What infuriated him even more was that Chen Jingzhai, Wang Yao of the Spot Star Sword Branch, and Kong Guang of the Azure Sparrow Sword Branch had set foot on the stage at the same time.
For someone who was ranked in the top three previously, not being one of the first three to reach the stage was a huge humiliation.
He did everything he could to speed up, to the point where his sword vapors were cutting the air itself.
That was when the fireballs behind him changed once again.
They exploded and formed a huge hammer made out of rock.
With the boost from the explosion, the hammer was approaching Qiao Haisheng at an astonishing speed.
It only took a second to catch up to him, inches away from him.
Only cultivators of the visible peaks clearly saw that the hammer was able to speed up even more because Qiao Haisheng’s sword vapor had cut away the air, thus removing the only resistance left.
However, Qiao Haisheng was not able to understand how the hammer moved so fast.
With a skip in his heart, he threw out another sword aura.
It broke the hammer into dust, and due to the slight delay, he was surpassed by Chu Jingsong, Jiang Youning, and others who were hot on his tail.
