Gao Wu: You have science, and I have magic!

After the exciting draw ceremony, the grand opening ceremony of the competition began.

"Next, please welcome our two special guests today, Mr. Montano from the Gorman Empire, and Ms. Aurora from the Northern Alliance!"

Then, a man and a woman appeared on the stage.

The man was tall and handsome, carrying a two-meter-long sword on his back. He had a thick and short beard on his chin. Just standing there, he was like a towering and majestic mountain.

The woman was tall, with fair skin, and had a peerless beauty like a winter elf in mythology. Her long straight golden hair fell casually on her shoulders, showing her intoxicating coldness and elegance.

At this moment, both of them exuded the astonishing aura that only high-level silver-level powerhouses could have. They were equivalent to the peak masters of the sixth level of the Dongji Kingdom. They could be said to be the strongest and most top-notch martial artists under the Martial Saint.

"Please enjoy the sword dance performance from a foreign country!"

The host's words completely ignited the audience's enthusiasm, and thunderous cheers rang out at the scene.

"This year's Heavenly Sword Cup actually invited the best disciple of the Sword Saint of Goman, Liechtenwarna?"

"Montano is known as a swordsmanship prodigy that only appears once in a thousand years in the Goman Empire. He is a high-level silver swordsman at the age of 27. I wonder what kind of grace he will show."

"Aurora from the Northern Alliance is not bad either. She is the 'Pearl of Winter' and is known as the most beautiful woman in the Slavic race! Her talent in swordsmanship is incredible. She showed her talent at the age of five and was able to enter the Winter Palace and become a member of the Steel Heart School."

"I support Aurora!"

Many LSPs expressed their firmest voices on the spot.

Then, there was a sword dance performance between Montano and Aurora.

Although it is called a competition, it is actually more like a ceremonial dance. The purpose of both sides displaying sword skills is not to fight to the death, but to compete in sword skills to see whose sword skills are more exquisite, whose movements are more coordinated, whose techniques are more complex, and whose moves are more beautiful and gorgeous.

Zheng~
On the ring, swords rang out from both sides, each performing the ultimate splendor of martial arts.

The greatsword in Montano's hand was heavy but not clumsy, and his sword was even faster than many people's one-handed swords. The sword blade stirred the air around it like stirring water, manipulating the changes in the airflow.

Ye Qingzhou recognized that the other party was the European swordsman who had appeared at the auction with Lin Bingwen before.

Even Ye Qingzhou was amazed at the sword skills displayed by his opponent.

"Is this the core secret of Stromgarde's school, the Wave Sword Technique? Everything has waves, and by guiding them with a sword, one can control this power."

With his third eye open, Ye Qingzhou was able to take in the secrets of the Ripple Sword Technique as if he were observing the lines on the palm of his hand. In an instant, he refined and purified it and integrated it into his own sword theory.

Montano's opponent, Aurora, the 'Pearl of Winter' from the Northern Alliance, also brought Ye Qingzhou great benefits from the battle pattern martial arts she displayed.

At this moment, six pure white runes appeared around Aurora. These extremely mysterious characters possessed incredible spiritual power, which was almost like a law and could interfere with everything in the material world.

"Battle pattern? This is similar to the power of a totem. Through daily prayers, you can inject thought energy into it, visualize a transcendent being, and constantly strengthen it. When needed, you can borrow its power."

Ye Qingzhou seemed to be thinking about something.

The principle of this martial art is very unique. It is equivalent to artificially creating an external reservoir, into which one's excess essence, energy, and spirit are injected using secret methods.

When fighting the enemy, you can use this power.

"The martial arts of the faith school. It seems that the Dongji Kingdom gave up the faith school as early as the Jinhong Holy Dynasty 3,600 years ago. It seems that there are great hidden dangers."

After just a little thought, Ye Qingzhou understood the biggest problem with this school, which is that for most martial artists who believe in the school, it is often difficult to get back the essence, energy, and spirit that they have deposited into it.

After all, the Northern Alliance practices monotheism, and the "God" they visualize is the same. Therefore, in theory, the essence, energy, and spirit stored in it by different people can be used by others.

According to the Matthew effect, 20% of people will occupy at least 80% of social resources.

In this way, the strong will always be strong, and the weak will always be weak.

Once the upper echelons of the martial arts community begin to behave unhumanly, the martial artists at the bottom will be cruelly exploited and eventually lose their motivation to make progress.

After all, if your efforts can only buy your boss an extra sports car but cannot bring any benefits to yourself, then is there any point in such efforts?
"No wonder the Northern Alliance's martial arts world has become increasingly withered over the past decade. Even their own best talents have to be sent out to perform on stage..."

Ye Qingzhou shook his head and sighed, but then he felt that the martial arts ideas of the Faith School were not without merit: "Exploiting others is not a long-term solution, but what about exploiting yourself?"

Ye Qingzhou immediately thought of the "Twenty-Four Gods Conservation Theory" he created: "I cut out part of my divine consciousness in my body and condensed it into twenty gods. I can completely use my own essence, energy, and spirit to support the twenty-four gods, and inject the energy that exceeds the conversion limit in normal days into them, just in case of emergency."

In the blink of an eye, Ye Qingzhou had a new idea for improving his skills.

At this point, the sword dance performance between Montano and Aurora also came to an end. The two did not fight for their lives, and naturally ended up in a draw.

"Montano is so handsome!"

"I heard that he is the most valued disciple of the Goman Sword Saint Lichtenwarna. Maybe he can inherit the Sword Saint's mantle in the future."

"Gorman's two-handed swordplay is so manly."

In the audience, many women were attracted by Montano, and his powerful and majestic performance of Goman's two-handed swordplay also aroused the interest of many male audiences. They took out their mobile phones to check how they could join Stromgarde and learn this martial art.

Aurora's elegance and beauty also attracted a large number of people to yearn for the Winter Palace, the martial arts holy land of the Northern Alliance, and inquired about the way to join the Steel Heart Flow.

Obviously, this is the purpose of the two. As the coexistence faction came to power in the Western world, all kinds of "demons and monsters" that gained power through blood transformation began to run rampant.

Under such social atmosphere, the overall decline of the martial arts world is inevitable.

After all, how can a person whose spirit is castrated become an indomitable martial artist who strives to reach the top?
In order to continue their own schools, Stromgarde and Winter Palace had to try to recruit talents from the East. The first-rate ones couldn't be fooled, but the second- and third-rate ones were also very good, and were better than the local losers in Europe.

…………

Behind the scenes of the match, Montano slowly walked over with a great sword on his back.

"Senior brother."

"Luo Jue, you have to perform well in this Tianjian Cup."

"Yes!"

Luo Jue's face was filled with excitement. Over the past ten years, he had traveled to Europe to learn skills. After more than three thousand days and nights of hard training, he finally became a powerful silver-level swordsman in Stromgarde.

Now he has returned with honor, just to prove his strength to everyone.

"Brother, rest assured. I will definitely promote the swordsmanship of Stromberg in the East Country and let more people know that Master's two-handed swordsmanship is the best in the world!"

"Haha, very good, young people should have such fighting spirit."

Montano patted Luo Jue on the shoulder and encouraged him.

In fact, Luo Jue is already 32 years old, four or five years older than Montano, and has entered middle age.

However, at this age, one is in the prime of life in the martial arts world and can be considered young. After all, most of the Outstanding Youth Awards are given to entrepreneurs and martial artists over the age of 40.

"correct."

Montano asked, "Your draw should have a result, which group were you assigned to?"

"The fourth group." "Who is the opponent?"

"Let me see, oh, an eighteen-year-old young man, the advantage is mine."

Luo Jue grinned: "Ye Qingzhou? I haven't heard of this name. I guess his strength is not that great."

He smiled very confidently, and even before the fight started, he already had a look as if he was sure of winning.

But Montano, who was standing opposite him, suddenly changed his expression and asked hurriedly, "Who!?"

"Ye Qingzhou."

"..."

Montano choked for a moment, then sighed, "Why don't you just admit defeat?"

"Why?"

Luo Jue became anxious instantly.

He had admired European culture since he was a child. After showing his talent in martial arts in junior high school, he immediately accepted the invitation from Stromgarde to study abroad.

Now that he has completed his studies, he wants to return home in glory and prove that his original choice was absolutely correct.

Seeing this, Montano was reluctant to persuade him any further. After all, as a disciple of Stromgarde, it was a good thing for Luo Jue to have confidence and fighting spirit, and he couldn't discourage his enthusiasm too much.

"Forget it, if you want to fight, then go ahead. Just do your best and don't push yourself too hard."

"Brother, don't worry. I will definitely win the applause of the whole room and show the prestige of Stromgarde! Master's two-handed swordsmanship is the best in the world!"

"..."

Montano didn't know what to say now.

"Alas, I hope Ye Qingzhou won't be too harsh and affect Luo Jue's subsequent performance in the game."

Montano didn't care about Luo Jue's life or death. What he cared about was whether the reputation of Stromgarde could be spread in the East Kingdom with the help of this sword fighting competition.

This is also the reason why he was willing to come as a guest and perform sword dance in public at the opening ceremony.

Otherwise, why would a European silver-level strongman and martial arts master condescend to come to a foreign country and perform monkey shows in public for a group of ordinary people?
…………

"Sister Yunxi, what was the result of your lottery?"

"Team Two."

"How about it, are you confident of qualifying?"

"You think I'm you?"

It was rare for Xu Yunxi to show her cute and innocent little girl attitude. In the past, she always acted like a mature, steady and gentle big sister next door in front of Ye Qingzhou.

I didn't expect that she could act coquettishly so naturally and lively now.

Ye Qingzhou's eyes seemed to penetrate Xu Yunxi's appearance and reach her heart. The corners of his mouth slightly raised: "But your heart tells me that you are eager to fight and eager to win."

"Hehe, don't mess around with a girl's heart!"

Xu Yunxi raised her hand to cover her swollen heart, and after leaving a silver bell-like laugh, she turned and left.

Ye Qingzhou felt the sword intent stirring in her body: "The innate Gengjin sword energy is indeed incredible. Once it erupts, it may be able to turn a person into a dragon when encountering wind and clouds."

As for Xu Yunxi and Xu Yuebing's qualifications, Ye Qingzhou no longer had any doubts since he learned that they were chosen by the Divine Feather Sword Emperor.

If I hadn't taken on the destiny that should have been theirs, perhaps the two sisters would have already shined in the martial arts world of Dongji Country.

Even so, what is meant to come will always come.

The innate Gengjin sword energy in Xu Yunxi's body has begun to be stimulated. In this state, she can only fight to survive, and become stronger and stronger.

"The trajectory of fate and the traces left by time are really interesting."

With the help of his own Heavenly Eye and Divine Eye, Ye Qingzhou was able to glimpse a glimpse of the power of the Great Way of Time in Xu Yunxi: "The Sword Emperor and the Green Emperor are both very good at the Way of Time, but the Sword Emperor focuses on the 'past', while the Green Emperor focuses on the 'future'. If these two powers can be combined, then we can master the complete Great Way of Time..."

There is no doubt that even if they are the same avenue, there are differences in strength.

Among the three thousand avenues, "Yu" representing space and "Zhou" representing time are both top avenues and have a fatal attraction to Ye Qingzhou.

"If I want to reach the pinnacle of martial arts, I must master the complete way of space and time. Both are indispensable."

Ye Qingzhou's mind was filled with thousands of thoughts at this moment.

The mental image of the five innate elements includes the understanding of the universe and the cognition of the great way of time and space. This is the only way to reach the pinnacle.

The observation of Xu Yunxi is the best observation sample.

She has the power of "time" left by the Sword Emperor.

As the prompt sounded, the main competition of the Tianjian Cup began.

As the number one seed in this round of competition, Ye Qingzhou was the first to step onto the stage and then saw his first opponent.

"It's your misfortune to meet me."

Luo Jue, who was slightly slender, held a sword taller than him in both hands, with a confident smile on his face: "I will drown you with an unstoppable torrent."

"interesting."

Ye Qingzhou felt the provocation in the other party's words: "You want to use this method to stir up my emotions, make me lose my calm judgment, and create an advantage for yourself. It's indeed a good idea..."

"but……"

"If you can't bear my anger, wouldn't such a provocation be like seeking death?"

When the word "ma" reached Luo Jue's ears, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He lowered his head and was shocked to find that a sword scar deep enough to see the bone had appeared on his chest.

In the splattering rain of blood, Luo Jue still had a dazed look on his face before he lost consciousness.

"what happens?"

"When did I get tricked?"

The body falling down on the ring announced that the game had just begun and was over.

Even the vast majority of the audience could not see clearly when Ye Qingzhou drew his sword, or how he drew it. (End of this chapter)