Naked Sword Art

The sun was setting, the air was chilly, but no one could tell night from day from within the Ancestral Training Ground. The beautiful green and yellow orbs of light in the air always kept the caves illuminated.

Despite already doing her own investigation, Elder Yao Wu brought Xun Wei down to the 2nd level to investigate the murders of the 20 male outer court disciples. The reason why she brought Xun Wei down there was to give her some experience in the art of tracking and analyzing a crime scene, but also to make her feel more comfortable around dead bodies. However, when they arrived at the scene, Xun Wei didn't seem disturbed by the gruesome scene at all. What Yao Wu didn't realize was that Xun Wei wasn't just undisturbed by the scene, she was actually looking down at them unsympathetically.

Xun Wei had already guessed that Xiao Fang was responsible for their deaths. Since they were Xiao Fang's enemies, they were naturally her enemies too.

...

"Xun Wei, what can you tell me about what happened here?" Yao Wu asked.

Xun Wei took a quick glance at the bloody scene in front of her then began to speak.

"The 20 disciples ganged up and attacked another disciple from over there. Assuming the attack worked, they all came out of hiding. When they discovered he was still alive they all started to run."

"Did they miss?" Yao Wu suddenly asked her.

"What?"

"I asked you if the 20 outer court disciples landed their surprise attack on that boy."

Knowing Xiao Fang, Xun Wei was certain that they would never have been able to hit him, but her master, Elder Yao Wu, didn't know that. Xun Wei tried to analyze the scene a bit more, but she couldn't find anything.

'What would Xiao Fang say?' she thought.

Xun Wei suddenly remembered a conversation she once had with Xiao Fang in the Black Paradise sect:

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"Xiao Fang, what was it like being blind? Did you hate it?" Xun Wei asked him.

"I was definitely upset about it when I was younger, but I eventually learned to accept it when I realized it was a blessing in disguise."

"How so?"

"Hmm... well, I learned things I never would've learned if I still had my eyes."

Xun Wei found it hard to believe that there was any benefits in losing his eyes. Xiao Fang could understand her confusion so he tried to think of examples.

"Let's see... for one, it taught me the art of deception. People have a bad habit of letting their guard down when their enemy seems weak or defeated."

"So you're blindness made you a coward?" Xun Wei joked.

Xiao Fang laughed, "I suppose that's one way to put it."

Xiao Fang and Xun Wei looked into each other's eyes with happy faces.

"Xun Wei, close your eyes."

Xun Wei did as he said.

"Now tell me what you feel."

"... Is there something I should be feeling?"

"No matter where you go there is always life all around us. Every living thing is giving off qi, you can even find comprehension in the mountains, rivers, and sky."

Xun Wei tried to concentrate, but she couldn't feel anything at all. She finally opened her eyes and looked at Xiao Fang.

"Fang, are you playing a trick on me?" She pouted.

Xiao Fang smiled.

"Don't be impatient. Concentrate," he said before covering her eyes.

Xiao Fang began to emit his ordinary qi through his body before giving her a lesson.

"When qi is released it will stay in the area for a few hours before it disappears."

Suddenly, the qi he was releasing began to change.

"However, when method-specific qi is used, it will remain in the area for more than 24 hours," he explained.

Xiao Fang slowly released less and less of it.

"Can you still feel it?" He asked.

"Yeah. It feels like my Dual Cultivation qi," she replied.

"That's because it is. Don't break that focus. Keep concentrating on it."

Xiao Fang continued to release less of his qi till she couldn't feel it anymore. He then repeated the process over and over again. Like this, she was getting better at detecting the qi around her.

Xiao Fang had trained Xun Wei on how to detect qi for several months. Not just from cultivators, but also from different environments. This was a valuable skill, but it was useless in battle, so no sect wasted any time in teaching it. Xiao Fang had learned this skill unintentionally, and found use in it in various ways.

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Xun Wei now stood in front of Yao Wu with her eyes closed as she began to feel her surroundings come to life.

Despite how much guidance Xiao Fang had given her, she was still struggling to feel the lingering qi around her, but that wasn't too surprising since it had been more than 15 hours since the incident occurred.

'I can feel Divine Sword qi. Xiao Fang was definitely here,' Xun Wei thought.

A few seconds later, Xun Wei noticed that the natural qi was much thinner here than it was anywhere else in the Ancestral Training Ground. Finally, she could feel the Illusory qi that was at the center of the crater.

With all the new information she gathered she was able to paint a clearer picture of what happened here.

"They missed," Xun Wei finally spoke. "He knew they were following him, so he lured them here where the natural qi is weaker. Using his [ Illusory Clone ] technique, he tricked them into thinking that he was defeated, so when their guard was down, he quickly killed them off before they could react."

Yao Wu was at a loss for words.

"That's... right," Yao Wu said in disbelief.

She knew that Xun Wei was a genius, but she still couldn't believe what she was hearing. Yao Wu had brought her here to teach her about detecting qi, but it seemed that she could already do it.

"The person you're looking for is likely someone in the Spirit Core realm and he's registered under an elder," Xun Wei concluded.

Since news of the first male Phoenix class disciple began to spread, they both knew who the suspect was, but it was only now that Xun Wei was realizing that he was the mysterious man known as Long Wang.

"Just when I thought I've seen it all, you find more ways to impress me," Yao Wu said.

***

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