Anthony gritted his teeth and endured Song Mingqin's move, his face instantly turning pale.
"Impossible! How can a Nascent Soul early stage be so strong?" Noda, witnessing Song Mingqin's sword technique, felt an immense pressure.
Noda placed himself in Song Mingqin's position, wondering if he could withstand such an attack.
Song Mingqin looked at Anthony and took a deep breath. In truth, this move was meant as a deterrent, unleashing his full power solely to intimidate those with ill intentions.
Suddenly, Anthony produced a blood drone, launching it towards Song Mingqin's head.
The blood drone, as if guided by a homing device, zeroed in on Song Mingqin's head. Song Mingqin's Crimson Sword silently materialized before him, rising from the ground to pierce the blood drone, creating a hole.
"Impossible!" Anthony cried, seeing the small hole in his blood drone, his heart aching.
Song Mingqin smiled faintly. The Crimson Sword in his hand was no ordinary spiritual artifact. When Song Mingqin met Lin Xiaoyao, he had helped Lin Xiaoyao modify the Crimson Sword. The sword only needed to absorb spirit stones to continuously strengthen itself, and with spirit mines, it could evolve further, transforming into an Earth-grade, or even Heaven-grade, artifact.
After years of being nourished by spirit stones, the Crimson Sword had long become a true Earth-grade artifact.
Ye Bufan's artifact forging techniques were taught by Lin Xiaoyao, and he could clearly see Lin Xiaoyao's influence in the Crimson Sword. He nodded in approval.
"What kind of artifact is your Crimson Sword?" Anthony asked.
"Earth-grade, low-tier," Song Mingqin replied.
Anthony trembled. His blood drone was only at the Profound-grade, high-tier. Facing an Earth-grade artifact was akin to a moth flying into a flame.
"Mr. Anthony, shall we continue our spar?" Song Mingqin asked.
As he spoke, Song Mingqin was secretly refining a spirit stone from his person, attempting to quickly recover his true qi.
Anthony looked at Song Mingqin and said, "We will! You damaged my blood drone, so we must continue! If I, a Nascent Soul mid-stage cultivator, cannot defeat you, a Nascent Soul early stage cultivator, I'll be a laughingstock."
With that, Anthony's aura surged. The next moment, a cluster of spider-like appendages extended from his back, numbering eight in total.
"Three Heads, Eight Arms!" Anthony roared. His head suddenly split into three, but Ye Bufan, scanning with his spiritual sense, discovered that two of the heads were illusions. He couldn't help but chuckle.
"Did you plagiarize our Nine Provinces' 'Three Heads, Six Arms' for your 'Three Heads, Eight Arms'?" Ye Bufan quipped. "This is far from authentic, and eight arms that look like spider legs. So crude."
"Ye Bufan, shut up!" Noda snapped at Ye Bufan.
"Whether it's crude or not, you'll know soon," Anthony's face contorted, his killing intent flaring.
Ye Bufan, unfazed, turned to Noda. "Earlier, didn't you say there's an ancient saying in our Nine Provinces: 'When Heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on a man, it first exercises his mind with suffering'? I'm merely helping your Mr. Anthony exercise his mind."
"You!" Noda's face flushed crimson at Ye Bufan's retort.
"Ye Bufan, I challenge you next!" Noda pointed at Ye Bufan. "I want to see if the prodigies of the Nine Provinces are truly as renowned as they say."
Ye Bufan shrugged indifferently. "Anytime. By then, I think we can raise the stakes of our bet a little higher."
Noda narrowed his eyes and snorted, then said, "Fine! I hope your wager won't disappoint me then."
Ye Bufan smiled faintly. "I'm more worried that you won't be able to match my wager."
"Impossible!" Noda looked at Ye Bufan with utmost confidence. Their gazes then shifted back to Song Mingqin and Anthony on the martial arts stage.
"No matter how many arms you have, today I will transform you from a grotesque deformity into a proper human." Song Mingqin moved, sword qi surging around him.
Ye Bufan smiled as he watched. Soon, Song Mingqin's sword qi enveloped himself and Anthony, forming a space of sword energy.
This was a newly comprehended technique by Song Mingqin, temporarily named Sword Qi Space.
The inspiration for the Sword Qi Space came from the Sword Domain. Although Song Mingqin had not yet achieved the Sword Domain, he had gained some understanding from observing Ye Bufan's battles and the Sword Domain space he unleashed.
Thus, Song Mingqin began his own comprehension based on this concept, ultimately mastering the Sword Qi Space.
"Is this... a domain?" Noda, seeing Song Mingqin's technique, was greatly astonished.
"No, it's not a domain! Mingqin Sword Immortal is only at the Nascent Soul early stage. How could he have comprehended a Sword Domain?" Johnsen, observing Song Mingqin's Sword Qi Space, immediately recognized the difference. He continued, "This is clearly using sword qi to simulate the energy of a domain. It seems Song Mingqin's understanding of the sword path is far ahead."
"But... he hasn't even seen a domain," Noda mused. "No, according to the information we have, Ye Bufan already possesses a Sword Domain."
"I say, Noda, did you have a bad dream? How could Ye Bufan possibly possess a Sword Domain space? Do you think Sword Domain space is like cabbage, easily attained?" Johnsen sneered at Noda.
Noda frowned. "That's true. Ye Bufan is at most a Nascent Soul mid-stage cultivator. No matter how monstrous his talent, he couldn't possibly comprehend something like a domain."
Ye Bufan, having already broken through to the Nascent Soul late stage, heard their conversation word for word.
"Sword! Break!"
Song Mingqin shouted, and within the Sword Qi Space, dozens of sword qi flying swords detached and flew towards Anthony.
Within the Sword Qi Space, Song Mingqin and Anthony dueled for over five minutes, seemingly evenly matched. However, due to the cultivation gap, Anthony gradually gained the upper hand in sustained combat.
Seeing that the stalemate could not continue, Song Mingqin unleashed one sword technique after another, leaving Anthony unable to defend himself.
"What is Old Song doing? He's going to lose like this," Qu Fei frowned, watching Song Mingqin's assault, and worried for him.
Ye Bufan currently could not discern Song Mingqin's intentions and could only watch his offensive from afar.