61 FROM CHALLENGER TO CHALLENGED IN ONE NIGHTS TIME (1/2)

After the axe-wielding youth and the finger-sword elderly, five more people remained on Xiao Wu's list of targets for the night: three more Low Level Basic Stage cultivators, one Middle Level Basic Stage, and even a High Level Basic Stage disciple. Had it been anyone else, fighting such a gap in cultivation as an Inferior Stage eight-year-old, they probably would have had no chance of victory.

And yet, despite the disparity in stages, in the end victory still fell in the hands of the enigmatic Night Challenger wearing a blue training garb, black Sect robes, and an azure mask.

Those who wielded weapons were outsmarted by Xiao Wu's impeccable use of the powerful Black Dragon Blade and the Vengeful Talons, while those that fought without one were defeated by her through her domineering hand-to-hand combat techniques and with the aid of the Purple Moon's heaven-defying scripture.

Of course, all the while she had made sure to restrain the output and aura of the two Martial Ways as much as she could, so that the people she fought would mainly think that they were some random treasures, or the fruit of some strange cultivation techniques. Although this might still incur the greed of some, it was nowhere near the chaos that would ensue were they to be discovered to be 'the' Martial Ways.

Under her meticulous control, the emerald-eyed girl's opponents mainly lost because of her superior skills, which would be further and further sharpened with each bout and clash. However, the last opponent had actually forced her hand, making her attack with her Pseudo-Advanced Stage cultivation more than a dozen times before she could break past his astonishing defense… And this had been with her Vengeful Talons at her current maximum of six blades at once.

This had brought her to realize one thing… which was that, in spite of her said superior techniques, she would still need the aid of a powerful cultivation base to back her up. Otherwise, breaking through the defenses powered by much more Spiritual Energy than her own would be simply way too hard.

Nonetheless, it was an undeniable truth that after just three days of activity, the eccentric Night Challenger had already defeated more than twenty people of varying cultivation without suffering a single loss. Each time, the ones she fought would have a cultivation bases even higher than that of those she had challenged the previous day. By the time the third night of activities came to an end, many people were discussing this Night Challenger and 'his' mysterious endeavors…

That's right, not 'their', nor 'her'… but 'HIS'; that's because it was discovered that the night challenger was actually a 'he'!

To them, he would then answer like this:

”He's very young, far from his teens. In fact, he's just a child! However, even at such a young age, he is also so good looking that I could swear to have never seen any grown man as handsome as him, or any woman with traits as elegant and perfect as his! He has piercing green eyes, dark-purple lips and a small nose, so perfect in all his proportions that at first I thought a sculpture of some divine being had come to life. His purple and blue hair is also a first for me; it was the first time in my life that I had seen someone with hair like that! Although he probably isn't even ten years old right now, in the coming years royal princesses and female cultivator from all over the world might actually come flocking all over him just because of his looks alone… add that onto his monstrous talent that could defeat even me with a Low Level Inferior Stage -and I can proudly declare to have the confidence to face weaker Advanced Stage experts head on- and the sole reason any woman wouldn't want him would be because their brains had turned to mush from all that perfection!”

Hearing those words, some thought that he exaggerated. However he, who had seen 'him' personally, was certain of his predictions and didn't bother caring about the thought of others. Instead, he had already decided to aid this new idol of his on spreading their fame as the Night Challenger far and wide in the Vacant Sect!

Although he, Fa Ningsan, was already twenty-five years old and had been defeated by someone who was still so young, he actually was somewhat proud of being challenged by and losing to such a genius: he firmly believed that in the future he would be able to tell his children and grandchildren that he had been defeated by THE Prince of the Mysterious Light-Shadow Sect!

…

Xiao Wu got home early in the morning, just before the fourth bell. She took off her training clothes and sect robes, dirtied by the night of battle, and washed them all in the water basin by the rear garden. She changed the water and then doused within it herself, enjoying the sensation of freshness encasing her tired, burning body. When she eventually got out, she wore a fresh pair of black robes -with a single white stripe starting from her right shoulder and ending at her left ankle, fading into black somewhere around the middle- and undergarments comfortable enough to move around below it.

The slight chill of a summer night breeze battered against her paramount-perfect face as she dried her hair with a towel, yawning and struggling to keep her eyes open.

She hung her wet laundry with the rest and then took the garb from the night before, which had been cleaned and then hung, and by now had dried. Just like she had done those past few days, she planned to place that one underneath the pillow for her nightly excursions later on: this had become a routine ever since she had kept challenging disciples as the masked challenger.

After all this, as per routine, she took out the mask from her Heaven\u0026Earth Pouch, and her expression soured.

”Aoo, to think it'd be reduced to this state…”

Running all throughout the length of the pale, featureless mask were deep cracks, with a gash on the upper-left where her opponent had desperately struck back in a vain attempt to regain back momentum. With that, her opponent had managed to steal away a single glance at her beautiful face, barely hardened at all even after all that makeup, and the tale of the purple-haired prince was spun.

When she saw the large crack, Xiao Wu couldn't help but frown, as she did not have a spare on her. Normally, she could have simply bought another one, but that would waste time and effort, especially seeing how half the Vacant Sect was looking for 'her': even if she covered herself up in her hood, her small frame, uncommon in a Sect of cultivators, was bound to give her away and land her in some difficult situations. She had thought of searching amidst Liu Biao's belongings, but Cheng Hao had taken the dimensional pouch with him in his cultivation behind closed doors…

”So no chance of that idea getting anywhere, either… How bothersome.”

Xiao Wu shook her head. Then, she applied pressure with her fingers, crushing the azure mask into bone powder.