192: Eastern Roman Empire

After a trial session.

Lu Chen changed the environment again.

The arena's simulated environment shifted instantly.

It transformed into a place where neon lights dyed the Gothic spires dark purple.

Lu Chen stood under the stained-glass dome of an abandoned church, the tassels of his tianwen sword rippling in the night breeze.

He looked at Nita, who was curled up in the shadows of the altar; the girl's pale fingertips were unconsciously picking at dried blood in the cracks of the marble floor.

"Using the power of shadows isn't about tearing with fangs." Lu Chen tapped his finger against the scabbard; the crisp sound of bronze striking boxwood made Nita's ear tips tremble. "The third volume of the Vampire's 'Vampire Codex' records that the kin of the night can use moonlight as strings—"

Before he could finish, two scarlet claw marks suddenly tore through the air, only to be ground into dust by a cyan jade Sword Qi the instant they touched the hem of his clothes.

Ripples of annoyance appeared in Nita's crimson eyes. "You're so powerful, it's not fair at all! I don't need a powerhouse like you to teach me... fine!"

She flipped onto a hanging bronze candelabra, her lace skirt brushing against a dust-covered statue of the Virgin Mary, and the bone spurs extending from her ten fingers gleamed with the color of cold steel under the moonlight.

Lu Chen chuckled, the slanting flick of his blade conjuring afterimages of half a verse from "Song of the Ranger."

"Silver saddle shines on the white horse, dashing like a shooting star."

As the verse fell, the tianwen sword suddenly transformed into thirty-six afterimages.

Nita felt her ankles entangled by icy Sword Qi, and she was flipped upside down, falling into Lu Chen's arms.

As her ink-black hair brushed against his cuffs embroidered with cloud and thunder patterns, the girl caught a scent of pine smoke mixed with ambergris from his body, and her earlobes instantly turned red enough to drip blood.

"Watch closely." Lu Chen wiped his fingers along the spine of the sword. The moment the cyan light surged, the moonlight reflected through the stained-glass dome actually solidified.

As he spun, his wide sleeves unfurled like crane wings, and the light particles lifted by the sword tip gathered into a galaxy as he chanted "Lushan Ballad":

"The Milky Way hangs upside down over the three stone beams—"

The Sword Qi, carrying starlight, slammed into the courtyard, and the twenty-meter-tall stone angel statue shattered in response.

Nita looked at the man who had sheathed his sword gracefully amidst the rain of rubble, her fangs unconsciously biting her lower lip.

If that Move had landed on her... She suddenly remembered when her shoulder was pierced by Lu Chen three days ago; it was exactly this cyan Sword Qi that had cleaved through all her defensive capabilities.

He was abnormally strong!

Had he been hiding his strength all this time?

Perhaps!

This didn't seem to be merely Eighth-Order strength, right?

Perhaps even a Magister?

But his strength wasn't apparent.

Yet every Move and stance possessed the power of a Magister.

It was a bit mysterious!

Lu Chen's own strength in this world seemed to be not even at the beginner level.

But once he began to perform his Moves.

It was easily the power of a King-level Move.

It was like a Wuxia expert whose Internal Energy was clearly just that of a beginner, yet his sword techniques were at the level of a reclusive master.

A Wuxia expert who didn't need the support of deep Internal Energy.

That was the feeling.

"Try imagining the moonlight as blood." Lu Chen suddenly plunged the tianwen sword into the ground, and with his left hand, he pinched a seal, summoning a Bagua Formation Diagram.

Before Nita could react, she had already been lifted into mid-air by the Formation.

She discovered in horror that dark red energy was seeping from her pores, condensing into patterns resembling Eastern Talismanic Incantations around her body.

"The incense burner waterfall gazes from afar." The man flicked his sword finger, and Nita's energy suddenly transformed into a ribbon, wrapping around the dagger Lu Chen had knocked away earlier.

With a clatter, the metal hit the ground.

As Nita landed back on the ground, she stumbled and grabbed the front of Lu Chen's clothes, her nose bumping against the coiled-dragon jade pendant at his collarbone.

"This is called borrowing momentum." Lu Chen stepped back half a step nonchalantly, only to see the girl looking down at her wrinkled skirt.

The moonlight cast the shadows of her eyelashes onto her cheeks, like a black Phoenix butterfly covered in dew.

He coughed lightly to change the subject. "When you were studying, didn't your teachers teach you about energy materialization?"

"They said the Vampire's shadow power should only be used to tear throats." Nita kicked the rubble at her feet and suddenly raised her hand to summon two blood blades.

This time, she didn't recklessly launch an ambush; instead, she mimicked Lu Chen's footwork, spinning and slashing.

The arc traced by the blood light unexpectedly matched the rhythm of "Song of the Sword Dance," and when she instinctively recited "Arriving like thunder, withdrawing like gathered fury," the parasol tree leaves in the courtyard actually formed a taiji diagram following the wind of her blades.

Seeing this, Lu Chen smiled and nodded.

The little girl had good Comprehension Ability.

A flash of admiration crossed Lu Chen's eyes.

Three days ago, this girl could only scratch like a wild beast; now, she was actually able to touch the threshold of "using intent to control Qi."

He deliberately tapped the girl's calf with his scabbard. "Your wrists are too stiff; if Gongsun Daniang's sword dance were like yours—"

At this moment, Lu Chen thought for a moment and activated the arena's function again.

Instantly, his words were cut off by a sudden wolf howl.

Twelve black shadows crashed through the rusted iron fence; the pale face of the leader made Nita's pupils shrink. "Werewolves? Where did they come from?"

She turned, subconsciously wanting to pull Lu Chen to run, only to find that the man was already standing in front of her, the tianwen sword humming and shaking off the accumulated dust on its scabbard.

"These are sparring opponents simulated by the arena; it's just right for testing the results of our teaching." Lu Chen put the hilt of the sword into Nita's palm with a backhand motion; the warm touch made her fingertips tingle. "Remember, the sword's momentum starts at the Xingxu acupoint and travels along the Hand Shaoyin Meridian... The sword is also your claw; it can be anything."

The moment the werewolf warriors lunged, Nita instinctively swung her sword in a horizontal slash.

The tianwen sword suddenly guided her to step out the Seven-Star Steps, and the cyan light wrapping around the blood blades carved out the chilling Sword Intent of "killing a man every ten steps."

When the fifth werewolf turned to ash, she heard Lu Chen chanting "deeply hiding his body and fame" behind her, and her previously chaotic energy suddenly became as obedient as an arm or finger.

In the melee, a silver blade suddenly attacked Nita's back; Lu Chen's wide sleeves unfurled, knocking away the attacker, yet the sword seal his left hand was pinching did not falter in the slightest.

Nita took the opportunity to infuse her shadow power into the blade, and the tianwen sword instantly transformed into a swimming Dragon, piercing into the core of the enemy Formation.

When the last werewolf vanished into ashes amidst the Sword Intent of "Bring in the Wine," she realized she was being half-embraced by Lu Chen, and the wrapping cord on the sword hilt had somehow tied their wrists together like a lover's knot—quite a coincidence.

"Not bad, it's starting to look like something." Lu Chen's action of untying the cord made Nita's wrists tingle. She stared at the swaying emerald sword tassel as he sheathed his sword, suddenly wishing this teaching session would never end.

The night breeze swept the ashes past the ruined church walls; the girl didn't notice that she was using an ancient Vampire etiquette she had learned on her Embrace day, quietly clutching the hem of the sleeve stained with Lu Chen's scent into her palm.

This was all she dared to do.

She wanted to keep some of Lu Chen's warmth.

As the moonlight shifted, Lu Chen watched Nita practicing "returning to the cliffs and stacking peaks, soaring over the vast blue" with a thoughtful look.

Every time the girl glanced at him secretly after a mistake, she looked exactly like the white sable on the peak of Mount Kunlun that always came to steal Medicinal Pills.

When he used Sword Qi to help Nita adjust her grip, the sound of the girl's suddenly accelerating heartbeat traveled along the sword hilt, even more chaotic than those playing the piano when the key changed.

Her heart was in chaos!

"I'll take you to the nearest dungeon for a trial session."

"Huh?"