"The disciple will do his best."
Mu Jinyu said with a wry smile.
Sure enough, Xie Chenkun had placed a bet with Zhou Taiping and the others.
Xie Chenkun only said this one sentence and didn't say anything more, not wanting to put too much psychological pressure on Mu Jinyu. He turned and left with the elders.
Yun Ge originally had a few more words to say to Mu Jinyu, but seeing Jian Ruyan's unkind expression, he gave an awkward laugh and went back inside.
Once everyone had left, Mu Jinyu turned to look at Jian Ruyan, noticing her face flushed red as if it were about to drip blood and her unkind gaze.
Mu Jinyu knew that his evasive words still let her guess what happened in the third stage of the Sea of Fire. He laughed sheepishly and said, "Little Yanzi, why is your face so red? Are you having a fever?"
"You're the one who's feverish!"
Jian Ruyan glared fiercely at Mu Jinyu.
Mu Jinyu smiled bitterly, "There's nothing I can do, the third stage is like that. But believe me, I had no inappropriate thoughts about you!"
Seeing Jian Ruyan's face full of disbelief and disdain, Mu Jinyu continued to explain,
"Really, the moment I saw you, I felt something was off. Luckily you were there, otherwise, with just Xiyan and Wenrou around, I would have really failed the third stage of the Sea of Fire!"
Jian Ruyan felt both angry and ashamed, chastising, "Enough, shut up!"
She then lowered her voice a bit, "This matter ends here. Don't let Wenrou know, so she won't misunderstand and ruin my reputation."
"Alright, alright..." Mu Jinyu quickly promised, vowing to keep the scenes of the third stage of the Sea of Fire to himself.
Jian Ruyan's expression softened a bit, she made a light hum, and found an empty room to enter.
Mu Jinyu watched Jian Ruyan leave, touched his nose, and murmured to himself, her shy look just reminded him of Wenrou when she was affectionate, making him feel a bit itchy inside.
'What a pity, I wonder when they can switch back their bodies, sigh...'
Mu Jinyu shook his head in distress and found an empty room to settle in.
Yun Ge crouched by the window, watching the argument between Mu Jinyu and Jian Ruyan after everyone left. As they both left, he thought, "Didn't he say she was his sister? Why does their interaction seem a bit off?"
"Could it be..." Yun Ge's mouth curved into a strange smile, "She's his lover-sister?"
"Hahaha..." Yun Ge couldn't help but chuckle lightly, then he shook his head and went to meditate and rest.
...
The next day.
The sun had just risen.
Many disciples of the Blood Sword Sect got up early and began to busy themselves with the opening ceremony of the Four Sects Martial Meeting.
After refining the last strand of East-coming Purple Qi, Mu Jinyu opened his eyes, got up, and went out with the crowd to have breakfast.
After breakfast, the Heavenly Sword Faction came to a wide square of the Blood Sword Sect.
In the center of the square, ten combat platforms about thirty meters each were set up.
While Mu Jinyu was observing the combat platforms, Yun Ge was explaining the rules of the Four Sects Martial Meeting.
The rules of the Four Sects Martial Meeting are relatively simple. There are a total of two rounds of competition.
The first round is the guard-the-platform match, where each of the four sects sends their top disciple to the combat platform to accept challenges from the other three sects!
Each sect can challenge a guardian three times, meaning each guardian has to face a total of nine challenges.
In the past, it was Yun Ge who represented the Heavenly Sword Faction to guard the platform, but now this task naturally fell on Mu Jinyu's shoulders.
Yun Ge told Mu Jinyu that guarding the platform is not easy and should not be underestimated.
Don't think that since the top disciples of the four sects are on the platform, the second and third disciples of the other sects mean nothing.
In practice, their role is to consume the guardian's energy and True Yuan, to prepare for the second round of the competition.
The second round is the capture-the-platform match, where the guardians challenge each other.
The points earned for winning this match are incredible.
Therefore, each sect tries their best to deplete the guardian's True Yuan and energy during the first round, to increase their chances in the second round!
Non-guardians can also challenge each other; winning earns points as well. The sect with the highest points at the end wins the Four Sects Martial Meeting!
And the most cultivation resources of the Yan Kingdom will go to the winning sect!
As time passed, disciples from the other three sects arrived at the square.
Yun Ge pointed at a group of people in white clothes and introduced to Mu Jinyu, "Those are people from Beixue Mountain Villa. The person behind the several elders is Lin Tianxue, the top disciple of Beixue Mountain Villa's Inner Gate."
Mu Jinyu followed the direction of Yun Ge's finger and saw a tall, handsome young man in white, expressionlessly following behind their sect leader.
"So that's Lin Tianxue?"
Mu Jinyu murmured softly.
Lin Tianxue's aura was also very cold, but unlike Dao Wuming's sharpness like an unsheathed blade, his coldness was bone-chilling, more akin to Jian Ruyan's temperament.
Of course, this was due to the cold nature of his cultivation technique. He did not have an Ice Spirit Root or an opportunity that turned his True Yuan into True Cold Ice Essence like Jian Ruyan and Yu Shenfeng, so there were still some differences.
Lin Tianxue's strength was at the Ninth Layer of the Divine Transformation Realm, otherwise, he wouldn't have surpassed Yun Ge on the Four Sects' Genius Ranking!
Whether he comprehended the Intent Domain or not was uncertain.
Then the Blood Sword Sect people appeared, and Yun Ge pointed at Dao Wuming and introduced him to Mu Jinyu, "That person is the top genius on the Genius Ranking, Dao Wuming."
"Yeah, I know."
Mu Jinyu replied while observing Dao Wuming.
"You've seen him?"
Yun Ge asked curiously.
Mu Jinyu explained, "Yesterday, after I finished the Sword Mountain Fiery Sea challenge, I met him while I was returning with our sect leader."
"Looks like he knew your result in the Sword Mountain Fiery Sea and came to issue you a challenge first!"
Yun Ge remarked with a worried look in his eyes.
At that moment, Dao Wuming seemed to sense their gaze and looked over at them.
"Hmph!"
Yun Ge locked eyes with Dao Wuming but soon showed a hint of fear, instinctively taking a few steps back!
His face turned pale instantly.
His eyes avoided, not daring to meet Dao Wuming's gaze.
Dao Wuming ignored Yun Ge and continued staring at Mu Jinyu. After a moment, he took back his gaze and stood at the position of the Blood Sword Sect.
"This..."
After a long while, Yun Ge felt his body recover, with a look of suspicion in his eyes, he muttered,
"How did his aura become so strong? Did he comprehend something new? Or did he break through to the Fanxu Realm?"