Inside the punitive expedition map, in the Zhenyuan Guardian Mansion, on the rooftop of the cliff, Zhenyuan, who had a giant ship floating behind him, and Gu Han, who only held a poor sword in his hand, stood opposite each other.
"Rules of the competition: Both sides are not allowed to use ship equipment, sword maidens, cannons, sword qi, or any other supernatural means. They can only rely on the most basic swordsmanship to fight.
Once either side is hit by three swords, they will lose immediately! "Jin Gang, who was the referee, announced the rules of the duel loudly.
This was a duel between swordsmen. Putting aside ship equipment, sword maidens, cannons, and sword qi, it was a duel purely based on one's own swordsmanship.
Zhenyuan patted the ship equipment behind him and sighed. "I've long been used to fighting with these effortless cannons. I didn't expect to fight with a sword again. It's really nostalgic!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the huge warship turned into specks of starlight and disappeared into the void like fireworks.
Zhenyuan, who had withdrawn his ship equipment, suddenly thought of something. He turned around, spread out his empty hand to Guhan, and shouted loudly, "I haven't used a sword for a long time. This new body is not like before, and it doesn't have a sword. Can you lend me a sword?"
"He actually wants to borrow a sword from me, an enemy …" Guhan's face darkened, but he did not dare to refuse. What if the other party used this reason to destroy the situation of a swordsmanship duel that he had painstakingly created?
Guhan hesitated for a moment, and had no choice but to take out a shining bronze sword from his dimensional pocket.
It couldn't be helped. He did not have a second sword on hand. As long as he did not inject sword essence into it, it did not matter if it was a famous sword or a treasured sword. Compared to an ordinary sword, it was just stronger and more durable.
"Catch!"
Guhan threw the sword to Zhenyuan and was secretly worried. "I hope Mingyue and the others recognize this sword, otherwise there will be trouble."
"Good sword!"
After receiving the bronze sword that Guhan threw over, Zhenyuan immediately felt that this sword was extraordinary. Although it didn't look special compared to other bronze swords, there was a faint breathtaking aura flowing under the sword.
"For the sake of this sword, I'll hold back 30% of my strength later so that you won't lose too badly!" Zhen Yuan's face was full of smiles, as beautiful and contented as a valley welcoming spring.
In her opinion, there was no difference between keeping 30% or 70% of her strength. It was more than enough to deal with this arrogant human.
"No need!
Zhen Yuan, bring out your true sword technique! "Guhan moved his sword sideways and took a big stride forward, taking the initiative to attack Zhen Yuan.
"I also want to know how strong my swordsmanship is!"
"Big sister!
Why do I feel that the sword in Zhenyuan's hand looks somewhat familiar? "
An Ran, who was watching from the side, felt that the bronze sword was too familiar. It was as if he had seen it somewhere before, but he couldn't remember it.
"It should be a replica of the King of Yue's Goujian Sword … Looks like he's a fan of the Queen of Yue. This sword replica isn't cheap."
Back then, Ming Yue had recognized that this was the King of Yue's Goujian Sword. However, she had never imagined that this King of Yue's Goujian Sword would belong to Guhan's Sword Maiden. Instead, she took it for granted that it was a replica that Guhan had bought to admire … This was very normal. Many swordsmiths' main income came from forging 100% similar replicas of famous swords, even though creating artificial Sword Maidens was their job.
… ….
"This man is so strong!"
This was the sigh that came from the bottom of Zhen Yuan's heart three minutes after the battle with Guhan began. She had never thought that this human would be so strong in terms of swordsmanship, to the point where he was on par with her.
Zhen Yuan had long since taken back the words he had said during the meeting, such as holding back 30% of his strength. If Zhen Yuan had really held back 30% of his strength, he would have probably been KO'd by Guhan by now.
Zhen Yuan's sword technique came from a famous swordsman during the Northern Ocean Period. At that time, there were still many masters in China's Martial Arts Festival. When the Qing Dynasty entered the pass, they also snatched many sword technique manuals and stored them in the palace's treasury.
After finding out that Zhen Yuan liked swordsmanship, Li Hongzhang asked for a lot of imperial family's secret manuals from Empress Dowager Cixi and invited a swordsmanship master to teach Zhen Yuan swordsmanship. In addition to Zhen Yuan's high talent in swordsmanship, the three of them combined to form Zhen Yuan's invincible swordsmanship.
After practicing swordsmanship in Zhenyuan for two years, the swordsmanship master who taught her resigned in shame. When she visited Fusang's naval base several times, she beat up all the shipgirls in Fusang. That shipgirl Taketori, who claimed to have inherited Kaguya's swordsmanship, was also defeated by Zhenyuan. From then on, she was no longer willing to mention anything related to swords.
However, with the continuous development of cannons, the battle between the warships had become a situation of firepower and planes exploding. There was no room for swordsmanship in a naval battle.
The era of people like Zhiyuan, who relied on their own swordsmanship to collide with the opponent and even perish together, was no longer there.
Returning to the main topic, Zhen Yuan and Guhan exchanged dozens of moves in a row and used some of their trump cards, but they gradually fell into a disadvantage. They were suppressed by Guhan's sword momentum step by step and were in a disadvantageous situation.
"There's a chance!"
Suddenly, Zhen Yuan saw a flaw in Guhan's movement. Eager to turn the situation around, she did not think too much and immediately attacked that flaw.
"Good timing!"
Guhan exclaimed in his heart. He did not expect Zhen Yuan's swordsmanship to be so powerful that it was almost on par with his. Fortunately, his mind was not flexible enough and he could not tell that he had deliberately exposed this flaw!
Zhen Yuan did not expect that the flaw that he saw as a way to turn the situation around was deliberately exposed by Guhan. When he swung his sword, Guhan, who was already prepared, dodged it. However, his back was exposed in front of Guhan, and his clothes were cut by the other party's sword.
"Zhen Yuan, you've been hit by a sword!" King Kong hurriedly announced the result.
Zhenyuan, who had been struck first, began to panic. When he attacked again, his entire sword momentum was like a ferocious tiger that had been released from its cage. He attacked everywhere and used killing moves. Coupled with Zhenyuan's inexhaustible physical strength as a ship girl, the entire situation was reversed in an instant. Zhenyuan was suppressing Gu Han, and Gu Han was in a disadvantageous position.
"I'm a little excited!
This is the first time I've encountered an opponent who can suppress me head-on! "
Guhan felt that his blood was already burning. In the future, when he practiced swordsmanship, many of the basic swordsmanship that he did not take seriously and did not practice well would be completely exposed.
The Nine Swords of Mysterious Heaven was not a simple swordsmanship technique. Almost all of the nine swords relied on sword elements and sword Qi to launch moves. Swordsmanship was only the foundation and was hidden in each sword move. Usually, it was covered by various powerful sword Qi skills, so Guhan did not pay much attention to it. This time, with the help of Zhen Yuan's pure swordsmanship, Guhan honed these parts that he usually neglected.
Gradually, as these details that he usually ignored were honed more skillfully and meticulously, Guhan's swordsmanship became more and more perfect and difficult to target.
On the other hand, Zhen Yuan slowly felt that the situation was developing in a bad direction again. He vaguely felt that he could no longer suppress his opponent.
If his opponent had used a cunning trick to defeat him, then his opponent had now begun to surpass him in strength and suppress him.
At this moment, his opponent was starting to surpass him in terms of strength and suppress him. It was like Mount Tai was pressing down on him, gradually pressuring him to the point where he couldn't breathe.
"Ah!"
Zhen Yuan shouted and suddenly attacked three times at an extremely fast speed. Each strike was faster than the last, and each strike was aimed at the same place. This was Zhen Yuan's most powerful move, the Three Strokes of Plum Blossom.
Although the name sounded a little vulgar, it was the most powerful move in the Qing Dynasty's ancient books.
"Good!"
Guhan could also see the danger of this move and knew that victory or defeat depended on this moment. As he concentrated, he felt that the entire world had stopped for a moment …
"Clang!"
Qingpin's sword struck the Yue King's Goujian Sword. The Yue King's Goujian Sword let out a sad cry and deviated from its original path. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Guhan took the opportunity to attack and left another sword mark on Zhen Yuan's shoulder!
"I'm done …" Zhen Yuan threw the Yue King's Goujian Sword away and waved his hand. His charming face was full of exhaustion … It was mental exhaustion. For a powerful ship girl like her, the intensity of this battle did not consume much of her physical strength.
"There's still one more strike …" Guhan did not want to take advantage of Zhen Yuan.
"I'm done. I admit that in terms of swordsmanship, I'm not as good as you … I didn't expect there to be a human with such powerful swordsmanship like you in the real world … Didn't I hear that you humans have forgotten how to use a sword ever since you had a sword girl?" Zhen Yuan waved his hand.
When Guhan heard Zhen Yuan's words, he suddenly felt that something was wrong. There seemed to be some great secret in this sentence!
"This is for you …" Zhen Yuan took out a dimensional brocade box and threw it to Guhan. "This is what you want, right?
It's rare for you to skip work, but you're going back early! "
"King Kong!
Xuefeng!
We should go back! "
Zhen Yuan waved at King Kong and Xuefeng, then turned to look at Guhan. "If there's a chance, I'm looking forward to fighting you again with my ship's equipment … Of course, it'll be on the sea." After saying that, Zhen Yuan tapped the air slightly and disappeared in front of Guhan.
"Don't!
Zhen Yuan, King Kong, I still want to play more … "King Kong shouted. Seeing that Zhen Yuan had left, he made a face at Guhan and also disappeared.
"Goodbye!" Xuefeng also waved at Guhan and also disappeared!
"System prompt: Zhenyuan Guardian Mansion Crusade Quest completed. The quest map will close in ten minutes.
"System prompt: Zhenyuan Guardian Mansion Crusade Quest completed. The quest map will close in ten minutes.