Chapter 1004: The Xuanzi Sword Discussion

On Discuss Dao Mountain, early morning.

Disciples from each sect gathered together, forming a vast sea of people.

The elders of the four sects, eight doors, and twelve streams took charge of their sect's order. Witnessed by the sect leaders of the four great sects, they threw the bamboo slips into the Discuss Dao Heaven Instrument. After a round of isolating the heavenly mechanism and deducing karma, the Discuss Sword list for the "Xuan" character bureau was finalized.

The elders of each sect copied the list and then retreated, leading their disciples back to their sects.

The Yellow character bureau was a preliminary competition, with numerous participating disciples, a packed schedule, and tight timing. Therefore, the drawing of lots was in the morning, and the competition began in the afternoon.

Upon reaching the Xuan character bureau, after the preliminary screening, fewer than one in ten Discuss Sword teams remained, and the number drastically decreased. Consequently, there was much more flexibility in arranging the competition schedule.

The lots were drawn today, and the formal Discuss Sword would only begin tomorrow.

Moreover, the form of the "Xuan" character Discuss Sword would change, opponents would become stronger, and the battle situations would become more complex. The disciples' struggles in the Discuss Sword assembly would also truly intensify.

Therefore, before each round of competition, everyone was given time to discuss tactics and formulate countermeasures.

Within Tai Xu Gate, on the Great Dao Field.

The list for the "Xuan" character bureau had already been sent down.

Mo Hua held the Tai Xu Order, his expression focused as he looked at the list, his eyes revealing deep thought.

Approximately fifty teams from Tai Xu Gate entered the Xuan character bureau, an elimination rate of eighty to ninety percent.

This also meant that roughly eighty to ninety percent of the disciples had their Discuss Sword assembly thus ended. They could only participate in the "Yellow" character bureau, competing in only about ten matches. Their only Discuss Sword opportunity in this life had thus ended.

This elimination rate was actually much lower compared to other sects.

Furthermore, with Tai Xu Gate now having numerous disciples, they could take a huge advantage in the preliminary competition and secure the first place in the Discuss Sword.

Mo Hua looked at the surrounding disciples.

Although the eliminated disciples felt unwilling and regretful in their hearts, they were not dejected.

They had given their best effort, contributing to Tai Xu Gate's Discuss Sword ranking and making real contributions.

Tai Xu Gate's current Discuss Sword first place was won point by point by them.

What the situation would be like in the subsequent Discuss Sword was still uncertain.

But at least the current victory was not won by a few "heavenly talents" standing above everyone else, but by these numerous, seemingly ordinary disciples, fighting it out with every strike.

Mo Hua was suddenly startled, as if he had a realization.

"In this world, existence and non-existence give rise to each other, difficulty and ease complement each other, strength and weakness form each other..."

"Where there is strength, there is naturally weakness; where there is weakness, there is naturally strength..."

"Since there are 'heavenly talent' disciples, then there are 'ordinary' disciples who are ordinary compared to 'heavenly talents'."

"Heavenly talents are strong, and ordinary disciples are weak..."

"There are few heavenly talents, and many ordinary disciples."

"Suppose... the power of ordinary disciples, ordinary cultivators, and even the lowest-level cultivators in the vast cultivation world can be united to the greatest extent and fully utilized, would that not mean one can 'accumulate the weak to turn strong' and 'win against the strong with the weak'?"

"If enough cultivators are united, the power will be sufficient, even to... truly change the heavens and the earth?"

Mo Hua's gaze was startled.

A thread of insight related to the coexistence of existence and non-existence, the reversal of strength and weakness, and the transformation born from the killing and creation of the "Two Instruments" suddenly arose in his heart.

The notion of "accumulating the weak to win against the strong" was also like a "spark of fire," buried deep in his heart, illuminating a faint path like a scorching flame.

Above the Dao Field, Elder Xun Zi Xian, who was about to say something, saw Mo Hua's "out of sorts" appearance and subconsciously stopped speaking, afraid of disturbing him.

After an unknown amount of time, Mo Hua raised his head, his gaze deep, his pupils bright, like a wisp of candlelight in the night, somewhat dazzling.

Xun Zi Xian was startled by the sight.

"Has this child... realized something again?"

Possessing divine sense that surpasses others, stunning talent, thorough thoughts, clever divine thoughts, and the ability to observe, learn, and think extensively, it was indeed easier to achieve "sudden enlightenment" about everything in the world, even the principles of the Great Dao.

He had seen Mo Hua in this kind of out-of-sorts "sudden enlightenment" state not a few times.

To be honest, Xun Zi Xian was envious in his heart.

Only this time, Xun Zi Xian always felt something was different.

It was as if Mo Hua's sudden enlightenment this time was something he hadn't grasped.

The faint "fire light" in his eyes revealed a hint of... "great reversal against the Dao"?

Xun Zi Xian shook his head. Seeing Mo Hua come back to his senses, he collected his thoughts, cleared his throat, and began to talk about the Discuss Sword matters:

"The previous Yellow character bureau Discuss Sword was only a preliminary competition, so the mode was just simple melee."

"Upon reaching the Xuan character bureau, it's different."

"In the Xuan character bureau, other Discuss Sword competition systems are mixed in. This system is random and is also deduced by the Discuss Dao Heaven Instrument."

"Each bureau is different."

"What the specific competition system is will only be revealed six hours before the Discuss Sword..."

Some disciples asked doubtfully, "Elder, why isn't this competition system decided earlier?"

Other disciples also nodded. "Exactly, this way, everyone can prepare in advance."

Xun Zi Xian then retorted, "When you travel in the cultivation world in the future, will someone who wants to kill you notify you in advance so you can prepare?"

"Or when you lead Dao soldiers into battle and encounter an ambush on the road, will you ask others to wait so you can discuss how to fight them?"

The disciples were silent.

Xun Zi Xian continued, "The earliest Discuss Swords all revealed the competition system only a moment before they began, precisely to train disciples' ability to respond randomly."

"Whether to attack, defend, kill, escape, behead, or save one's life... all require you to decide instantly."

"Later, considering that you are after all still disciples, who haven't personally experienced so many 'licking blood from the blade' and 'life and death on the line' kill situations..."

Xun Zi Xian was talking when he suddenly paused, and couldn't help but glance at Mo Hua again.

He had always heard of Mo Hua's deeds.

Fire Buddha, Ten Thousand Monster Valley, Rouge Boat, Dragon King Temple... and Lonely Mountain Tomb...

Every one of these was a life-and-death "kill situation".

It was truly somewhat unbelievable that Mo Hua could go from beginning to end in these perilous major events without missing a single one and still come out alive and well.

The most unbelievable thing was that he had experienced so many things, yet could still have a pure face and clear eyes, blending into the crowd, truly like an ordinary disciple who was "not deeply involved in the world".

A hungry wolf, wearing sheep's skin, blended into the flock of sheep, looking even more "harmless" than the surrounding sheep...

Xun Zi Xian sighed slightly, changing his tone:

"The majority of you haven't experienced such kill situations, so it's too difficult for you to make instant decisions."

"Therefore, the competition system will only be decided six hours in advance."

"These six hours are a buffer period for you to discuss, decide, and prepare well for the Discuss Sword."

"But you must know that once you leave the sect and step into the cultivation world in the future, many dangers will occur in an instant, and there will fundamentally be no ample time for you to think and react."

"The Discuss Sword is a kind of competition, and also a kind of tempering..."

"Yes, Elder!"

A crowd of disciples said solemnly.

Afterward, Xun Zi Xian explained some more points to pay attention to and then let everyone prepare on their own.

Saying he was letting everyone prepare on their own was actually giving Mo Hua time.

Mo Hua then gathered the little junior brothers who would participate in the "Xuan" character Discuss Sword into a small grove and, according to custom, explained some tactics to them and gave them some array equipment.

But what he could do was limited to this.

The explanations had already been given early.

The training had also mostly been completed.

Spirit tools and arrays were also fully equipped.

During the battle, Mo Hua had no way to command. In the "Xuan" character match at that time, it would still mainly depend on the on-the-spot performance of these disciples themselves.

After Mo Hua finished explaining, there was still some time, so he let the disciples go to the practice field to train on their own.

Mo Hua also brought Ling Hu Xiao and the others, practicing Dao methods on one side and considering what means he should display to the crowd in the next Discuss Sword...

And on the high platform, the sect leaders of the three mountains, Tai Xu, Tai A, and Chong Xu, gathered together. Looking at the diligently training disciples, besides feeling gratified, there was also a layer of gloom covering their hearts.

"The Yellow character bureau is over, and the good times are coming to an end."

Tai A's sect leader sighed softly.

The sect leaders of Tai Xu and Chong Xu, though they didn't say anything, both secretly nodded.

What others could see, they, the sect leaders, naturally also knew clearly in their hearts.

The title of "Discuss Sword First," to them, the sect leaders, was greatly tempting, no less than immortal pills and spirit treasures.

Having tasted the flavor of being first, it was indeed hard to give up.

Even if they knew in their hearts that this first place was only temporary, only "borrowed," and would eventually be returned.

But when it truly came time to "return," their hearts were still very uneasy.

People are truly all greedy...

Even the Tai Xu sect leader, who had always cultivated himself and nurtured himself, experienced this taste of "fame and fortune," and his heart was also hard to calm.

In the face of real interests, even a "Buddhist" person is hard to calm.

If they are calm, it is because the interests are not yet big enough.

"The bitter battles are ahead; it's hard on these children."

"Yes, ah..."

"It starts tomorrow..."

The Xuan character Discuss Sword was about to begin.

Tai Xu Gate's Discuss Sword ranking was also finally going to begin to slide down step by step.

Just like cutting meat with a blunt knife, all the fat accumulated before would be cut away knife by knife.

The three sect leaders each drank tea, silent.

The next day, the Xuan character Discuss Sword formally began.

The participating disciples already knew the match mode before the competition. The majority of them still used the "melee" system from the Yellow character bureau as the main mode.

Only a few teams drew "attack city," "defend city," or "behead" type systems.

Obviously, just entering the Xuan character bureau, there was no sudden radical change.

The change in the Discuss Sword competition system was still a gradual process, allowing disciples to slowly adapt.

On the first day of the Xuan character Discuss Sword, Mo Hua still didn't need to appear.

He would only be scheduled for a Discuss Sword with the twelve streams on the second day.

Therefore, on the first day, he mainly came to watch the matches to see how the fellow disciples of Tai Xu Gate were doing.

Above the huge square's heaven-painting shadow, the Discuss Sword matches were splendid and varied.

The heavenly talents of each sect also began to reveal their true strength.

Tai Xu Gate's situation, as expected, began to become severe.

The system of Dao soldiers, the constraints of spirit tools and arrays, could indeed strengthen low-level cultivators, but this "strengthening" was ultimately limited.

Moreover, Tai Xu Gate disciples had limited training time, making it impossible for them to truly surpass the limits of cultivation and Dao methods and defeat the heavenly talents of each sect.

Especially, the opponents in the Xuan character Discuss Sword were mostly from the twelve streams and some disciples from the eight great doors. It was not easy to truly defeat them.

Most Tai Xu Gate disciples fell into bitter battles.

The battle situations were very intense, requiring multiple back-and-forth struggles and consumption. Winning each match became increasingly difficult.

And in the Xuan character Discuss Sword, winning one match would add ten points.

That is to say, winning one bureau in the Xuan character was equivalent to winning ten bureaus in the Yellow character.

With this waxing and waning, Tai Xu Gate's ranking also stopped its upward momentum, and the gap with the second-place "Heaven Sword Sect" was also shrinking step by step.

After a day of fierce battles, the ranking had many changes, but Tai Xu Gate was still first.

However, everyone knew that this "first place" had already gone from "winning" to "declining" and had begun its downhill path.

And today would be the "peak" of Tai Xu Gate, after which it would decline day by day.

Many people were already looking forward to the day when Tai Xu Gate would fall out of the first place, or even fall out of the "top four."

That also meant that Tai Xu Gate would truly be beaten back to its "original form."

And it was under this kind of situation that Mo Hua's first "Xuan" character Discuss Sword match also formally began.

This match was also watched by tens of thousands of people.

Mo Hua's identity was originally special, and his fame was extremely high.

Adding to his "unsatisfactory" performances in the previous Discuss Swords, he suffered even more "criticism."

Although his fame plummeted, the degree of attention soared.

The entire Discuss Dao Mountain was packed with spectators, many of whom came to see him.

Some hoped he would perform well and not disappoint expectations, while others wanted to see him fail so they could gloat and mock him.

Mo Hua generally didn't know about these things.

All his thoughts were still focused on the Discuss Sword.

In this first Xuan character Discuss Sword match, Mo Hua's luck was average, and he drew the ordinary "melee bureau" system.

A simple five-on-five match.

His opponent was "Xuan Iron Gate," one of the twelve streams.

This was a sect that specialized in refining tools and also taught body refining. They had a set of secret body refining methods that complemented their tool refining techniques.

The disciples in the sect cultivated both tool refining and body refining. Not only were their tool refining skills exquisite, but their muscles and bones were also as hard as iron.

Xuan Iron Gate was considered a strong sect among the twelve streams.

However, the team Mo Hua faced was not the strongest team from Xuan Iron Sect, but a team within Xuan Iron Gate that was below the top level and above the first class.

Their strength was already considered not bad.

When the time came, both sides entered the field, and the battle began immediately.

But this time, the battle situation did not end quickly.

Both sides fell into a certain degree of stalemate.

Xuan Iron Gate was in a stalemate because their strength was indeed limited.

Tai Xu Gate was in a stalemate because of Mo Hua.

Because he stood aside, watching with his hands in his sleeves, not moving.

As a result, Tai Xu Gate was forced into a four-on-five situation.

Moreover, having experienced previous battle situations, the tactics of Ling Hu Xiao and the others were largely exposed to other sects.

Xuan Iron Gate also took targeted measures.

They directly ignored Mo Hua and treated the remaining four people as their opponents.

As a result, their advantage was very significant.

Everyone was a talented disciple at the Qian Xue state level. Although talent was divided into superior and inferior, those who could participate in the Discuss Sword assembly and reach the "Xuan" character bureau were not truly bad.

In such a five-on-five battle situation, as long as the strength difference was not too great, having one more person or one less person had a huge impact.

Ling Hu Xiao was tightly restrained by two Xuan Iron Gate disciples.

Ouyang Xuan was in a one-on-one fight with a very large body refining disciple.

Cheng Mo and Si Tu Jian also fell into a deadlock.

Tai Xu Gate had the upper hand, but the advantage was not obvious.

While Xuan Iron Gate, relying on their numerical advantage, utilized the extra person to constantly switch attack targets and conduct offensive flow, putting pressure on Ling Hu Xiao and the four. Both sides were temporarily fighting back and forth.

Fortunately, Ling Hu Xiao was genuinely strong.

After a deadlock of nearly half an hour, Ling Hu Xiao finally found an opportunity from Xuan Iron Gate's offensive flow. Withstood the pressure and condensed a Chong Xu sword qi, directly eliminating one of the opponents and breaking their Discuss Dao jade.

As a result, it became a four-on-four situation, and the pressure suddenly eased.

Afterward, Tai Xu Gate relied on the two "heavenly talents," Ling Hu Xiao and Ouyang Xuan, to constantly expand their advantage and finally end the battle step by step.

Throughout the entire process, Mo Hua remained in a "cold eye watching" state, watching his teammates fall into a dilemma while remaining unmoved.

This time, it truly angered the audience outside the field.

Especially, as Tai Xu Gate's ranking had already shown a downward trend, and teams were successively falling into bitter battles, with teammates also struggling, he still acted like this, ignoring and not participating, truly annoying many people.

"This person called 'Mo Hua' is really too much!"

"Eating people's rice but not doing people's business!"

"Does such a person deserve to be called the 'Array Dao Chief'? Does he deserve to be called a 'genius'?"

"What exactly is Tai Xu Gate raising him for?"

"Normally, he relies on the sect's blessings and acts willfully, that's fine. Now that Tai Xu Gate is in a dilemma, he is still putting pressure on his teammates, while doing nothing himself..."

"This is sucking the blood of the sect and his teammates!"

"For the virtual fame of the Discuss Sword, he doesn't even want his face."

"What exactly are the sect leader and elders of Tai Xu Gate thinking? Are they muddled? Why haven't they withdrawn him? Do they have to treat him as a 'little ancestor'?"

"Who would have thought that the mighty Tai Xu Gate, one of the eight great doors, would be so rotten internally..."

"In my opinion, he might as well just withdraw from the competition, to avoid losing face here. Let others see, they'll think all of us in the Qian Xue state are such mediocrities..."

The voices of denigration were temporarily very noisy.

Wen Ren Wan, Murong Cai Yun, and other cultivators familiar with Mo Hua also heard these rumors and couldn't help but feel angry in their hearts.

But Discuss Dao Mountain was a sea of people, and there were too many cultivators saying these things. They temporarily didn't know who to argue with and could only silently suppress this anger in their hearts.

Meanwhile, the high-level officials of the major families and sects also silently shook their heads.

They could also see that Ling Hu Xiao's team of five was currently the strongest Discuss Sword team in Tai Xu Gate.

If the strongest team in Tai Xu Gate was only at this level now, then Tai Xu Gate's Discuss Sword this session was indeed over...

Three people become tigers, and a multitude of tongues can melt gold.

Public opinion confused the heart.

Even within Tai Xu Gate, some elders began to waver, questioning whether letting Mo Hua form a team with Ling Hu Xiao was a wise move.

These elders were mainly the original elders from the two mountains of Tai A and Chong Xu.

They were also secretly discussing behind the scenes.

But these discussions were all suppressed by the sect leaders of the two mountains.

Willing to gamble and lose, since they had already made an agreement and formed a team, and the Discuss Sword had progressed this far, there was naturally no reason to regret.

Moreover, regretting now was useless.

And Tai Xu Gate, the reason it could temporarily take first place in the Discuss Sword, was mostly due to Mo Hua's contributions.

It was Mo Hua who had made the overall arrangements.

They couldn't turn around and "cross the river and demolish the bridge" and criticize him just because he was not performing well in his personal small team Discuss Sword and had not made contributions.

Furthermore, although the sect leaders of the two mountains, Tai A and Chong Xu, did not have much contact with Mo Hua, they always vaguely felt that they could not see through this little disciple.

This Array Dao Chief of Tai Xu Gate was definitely not as simple as he appeared.

Within the Tai Xu Mountain lineage, it was the opposite – a scene of peace.

From top to bottom, basically no one had any objection to Mo Hua's performance.

Especially, those elders who knew more or less about Mo Hua's "deeds," in the face of all sorts of outside questions and criticisms, only sneered in their hearts:

What kind of situations does Mo Hua deal with daily?

What kind of situation is your current Discuss Sword?

Can they be compared?

If experts could all be seen through by you, would they still be experts?

Just amidst this overwhelming criticism that covered the sky like a tide, Mo Hua's second "Xuan" character Discuss Sword match also formally began.

This time, the opponents were still from the twelve streams.

However, the opponents were much stronger than the previous Xuan Iron Gate.

As soon as they entered the Discuss Dao Mountain Discuss Sword preparation room, a tall and imposing youth, leading a group of people, walked up to Mo Hua and the others.

The youth didn't even look at Mo Hua, but directly stepped over him and walked up to Ling Hu Xiao, asking:

"Are you Ling Hu Xiao?"

Ling Hu Xiao nodded coldly.

The youth pointed at himself, with a face full of confidence, "Remember my name, I am the one who will defeat you!"