Chapter Forty-Nine: The Gap in Cultivation. The chapter schedule has returned to normal from now on.

What one knows cannot be told to others; what one does not know, how can one tell it to others?

Although Hao Tian wore an absent expression on his face, his mind was clear about what mattered most.

“They’re only sparring. They’ll be fine in a moment!” Hao Yun said, watching them.

“Really?” Ruoxi said, her face full of concern.

Yet inside, she could not help but think that things were far less simple than he made them sound. Her eyes shifted toward the two in the “sparring match.”

The fight was almost entirely one-sided. Hao Po’s twin swords worked together with seamless perfection.

To Ruoxi, Xiaoshan was scrambling to receive the blows, his face growing uglier by the moment. Was this really just simple sparring?

“Do you know? Someone once did this to me too!” Hao Po said to Xiaoshan in a voice as cold as ice.

“And then!” That voice seemed to come from far away, ancient and desolate.

Everyone present gaped in disbelief.

Yet Hao Po on the opposite side did not change expression. His swordplay remained brutally sharp as he said to Xiaoshan, “By now, the grass on his grave is taller than a tree!”

His tone was cold, arrogant beyond measure.

Grave grass... taller than a tree? Just how many years had he been dead? Xiaoshan’s expression changed. Ten years? Five?

Shocked?

The battle was being crushed in Hao Po’s favor. His dual blades fit together as if forged for each other, flawless and merciless.

In the next instant, the long sword in his left hand slid back into its sheath, while the broad sword in his right was lifted high with terrifying force.

With both hands raised, blood aura billowed around him. In an instant, the several-yard-long blade had been dyed red.

Xiaoshan hurriedly retreated, his face faintly panicked. His hand, lowered at his side, trembled uncontrollably. A strike from that heavy sword was no joke.

“You’ve held this sword before. You should know its special nature as well.

Though it is ominous, if that ominous power can be used, then it becomes a deadly weapon!”

As he spoke, Hao Po’s eyes lit up, and his whole body radiated killing intent. More blood aura surged out around him.

The sword in his hands began to move. Blood aura flowed with the blade, and in the air a tangible crimson gleam appeared.

Hao Po’s expression changed little by little—from a deep frown between his brows to a smooth, relaxed brow—in the blink of an eye.

Then the killing intent and blood aura around him vanished all at once. At the moment the light burst forth, he seemed to be drained of strength; his imposing presence dissolved, and he looked almost like a completely different person from before.

“He is drawing out the power within the sword, then controlling it with internal force to compress it back into a single point!”

“And then releasing it all at once!”

“That requires extraordinarily powerful control of internal force!”

“Hao Po is already this strong?”

“While treating his injuries, I discovered that his internal force in his dantian had already condensed into something almost tangible—at any moment, it could be refined into force and transformed into astral energy!”

“At the very least, he is at the early stage of Astral Force!” Hao Yun concluded, his gaze fixed ahead.

Ruoxi’s mouth fell into a perfect O. She had tried to guess what level Hao Po had reached, but no matter how she speculated, it was nowhere near as shocking as getting a definite answer.

The blood-red sword light formed a crescent, nearly a meter long. Wherever it passed, the air seemed to be torn apart, revealing faint rippling patterns.

Only one word: fast!

In the blink of an eye, it was already before Xiaoshan. His face tightened with alarm; clearly he had not expected such a swift, ferocious attack.

He swung the sword in his hand repeatedly, and several strands of sword qi burst forth in response, pale blue sword light.

They struck the blood-red sword light with uncanny precision.

By comparison, the force between the two was as different as heaven and earth.

Without the slightest hesitation, the blood-red blade light swallowed the pale blue sword light. Its momentum undiminished, it tore through the surrounding currents of air. The power was so overwhelming that Xiaoshan was forced to retreat in haste.

No matter how fast he was, he could not outrun the blade light ripping through the air. Xiaoshan closed his eyes, as if he had made up his mind, and his grip on the sword suddenly tightened.

The sword body flared brilliantly.