Daily life of a cultivation judge

The symphony of blades clashing continued to color the mountain peak, the atmosphere filled with tension and anxiety. That atmosphere had even affected Yang Qing and Yu Gen who had stopped their discussion with even the former putting away the brazier and whatever beef tongues were left as his eyes followed Chen Gutian and Chen Zholan.

The intensity of their fight grew with every passing second as the speed, ferocity, and power of their attacks increased with every swing and every clash.

Were the duel held anywhere else but this mountain, the surroundings would have likely been long ravaged beyond repair. The force created by the duo's attacks was capable of punching holes through mountains, or laying waste to hills and turning them into plains.

But because of the nature of the mountain and platform being a by-product of the chaos fog of manifestation, there was absolutely no damage to the platform or its surroundings. The fog contained and cushioned every destructive force created by the fight without interfering in the fight itself.

Chen Zholan and Chen Gutian were still going at each other neck to neck, but even after a few seconds had passed by, despite the ferocity of their attacks, not one of them had so much as a scratch on them. It was a true testament to their skills and the abilities of the owl vigilant sword art.

They held nothing back as they attacked each other, with each attack, fast, precise, and lethal to the extreme. They were constantly dancing at the edge of death or a fatal injury, but as if they could read each other's intentions, they both managed to dodge each other's attacks at just the right moment.

Looking at them, one would think they watching a delicate dance across a precipitous cliff where a moment's carelessness could spell one's doom.

The crowd's anxiousness was exactly for that reason. As fellow clan members, even if they were not the ones fighting, because of their intimate familiarity with the art both were executing, they knew how dangerous that fight was, even with no injuries on either side.

The owl vigilant sword art was built to exploit mistakes, especially tiny ones which it exploited to the extreme to provide a lethal counter. The art's aim was to reap the target's life from that one mistake no matter how small. One single blow, not five, not ten, not twenty, but a single blow to take an opponent's life. Everything was geared toward that end, taking the opponent's life with a single swing.

Chen Zholan and Chen Gutian may not have any injuries on them yet, but because of the art's decisive and lethal nature, all it takes is one hit for one of them to be incapacitated or gravely injured.

Five minutes quickly passed by with the two still at a stalemate, however, the intensity didn't wane one bit. As the fight continued, their individual qualities started to show along with the art's demands.

Chen Zholan's skills in comprehension of the art showed. Those with keen senses and sharp insight could tell his understanding of the art was deeper than Chen Gutian's. His movement, his attack, his defense, everything was seamless and free-

flowing,and had a lot of nuances and variations to it which showed how comfortable he was in the manipulation of the art. This in turn reduced the strain on his body as a whole, especially his muscles and spiritual qi reserves, while increasing the power and lethality of his attacks with how unpredictable and free-flowing he was with the art.

Chen Gutian on the other hand, despite being the one being pushed around the majority of the time, there was a reason he managed to hang on despite the difference in levels of comprehension and that was his experience. He may not have the deep comprehensionChen Zholan had but he had practiced the Owl vigilant sword art for far longer than him. As such from that experience he had ironed out his deficiencies with the art. He had a clear grasp of what his body could or could not pull off when it came to the art, down to the minute detail, and the result was someone who maximized those limitations to bring out maximum efficiency.

His attacks may not be varied or contain the same power as Chen Zholan's attacks did, but thanks to the deep understanding he had of his body when it came to the art, he always knew how to respond accordingly to whatever Chen Zholan threw at him.

One fought with his body, the other fought with his comprehension.

However, from the reaction Yang Qing saw in the Chen Clan elders even Chen Zian, Chen Gutian's display was a surprise to them, which Yang Qing found intriguing and it wasn't just them as Chen Zholan was the same too. Even though he was fully focused on the fight, the fluctuations he produced every time Chen Gutian defended against his attacks, or countered with one of his own, each time, there would be a reaction from Chen Zholan showing his surprise.

"How did he get strong? I've sparred with him over a hundred times, he was never this good. With his dwindling lifespan his body shouldn't be this fast, even his qi reserves seem to be at the same level as mine.Did he do something?" wondered Chen Zholan.

"Didn't I warn you and Xue'er every single time since you were young, never let your mind wander for even a second when in battle as it could spell your doom.."

Chen Gutian's calm elderly voice carried over as he took advantage of Chen Zholan's momentary lapse. As Chen Zholan was performing a diagonal slash aiming to tear Chen Gutian from his bowel across his sternum up to his shoulder, his lapse in concentration caused his muscle to tense slightly which lowered his speed, but not by much, only by a millisecond or so, however, for a practitioner of the owl vigilant sword art, that millisecond may as well have been a minute to Chen Gutian.