Huo Mu's young face was drawn tight. She gripped her silver spear, taller than she was, in one hand, a flash of shame and indignation crossing her dark eyes.
She had lost to the white-robed girl in fewer than three exchanges, and her only regret was that her natural gifts were not greater and her spear technique not stronger, that she had brought further disgrace to a Huo family already in decline.
Even so, this proud and spirited young girl still wanted to try again, with the fierce determination of someone who grew more resolute with every defeat.
At that, Huo Mu gripped her spear and stepped forward.
But in the next moment, Huo Shan reached out and stopped her, furrowing his brow, "Do not act rashly. You are no match for her. No matter how many more rounds you go, the result will not change. You will only end up injured."
At those words, Huo Mu gripped her spear, and her expression went through several shifts before she finally lowered her head quietly.
She understood perfectly well that fighting again would only end in defeat, and would only embolden Dugu Yan and the others.
She was just too weak.
But right at that moment, an unhurried voice drifted into her ear, "Do you want to win?"
At that moment, her father Huo Shan and Huo Qifeng were both wearing expressions of anger, with nothing unusual about them.
Across from her, the white-robed girl and Dugu Yan's group were smirking with contempt, looking down on the Huo family in the courtyard building as though they were beneath notice.
Huo Mu's brow furrowed, and her eyes moved to Li Musheng and Shen Anran sitting in the hall.
Eventually her gaze settled on Li Musheng.
But this unfamiliar young gentleman was busy petting a big black cat, and appeared to be paying absolutely no attention to their situation.
Seeing this, Huo Mu drew her gaze back, hesitated for a moment, and then ultimately bit her lip and gave an almost imperceptible nod.
"Since you want to win, I will teach you a few moves."
That light voice came again. Huo Mu looked around in startled puzzlement and still could not tell where the voice was coming from.
And no one else in the courtyard building appeared to have heard it at all.
Huo Mu was sharp, and her thoughts moved quickly. She guessed that the voice must belong to a master of some kind.
"What should I do?"
Huo Mu moved her lips barely, asking in an extremely quiet voice.
But however low her voice, how could she hide it from Huo Shan and Huo Qifeng standing beside her? Both of them immediately looked toward her with suspicion.
"Mu, what are you saying?"
Huo Shan asked with a furrowed brow. Huo Mu's expression changed at once, and she improvised quickly, "Father, I mean, what should we do next?"
At those words, Huo Shan thought nothing of it, only letting out a troubled sigh, "Right now our only option is to go and bring your great-uncle here."
As he said this, he glanced at Huo Qifeng, who nodded, and then moved quickly to leave.
At the same time, that drifting voice reached Huo Mu's ears again, "Do not stand there. If you want to win, the first thing you have to do is move."
At those words, Huo Mu's eyes immediately sharpened, and she gave a small nod.
The moment Huo Shan moved to go, her foot came down hard, her silver spear swept horizontal, and her whole body burst forward in a sudden charge straight toward the white-robed girl.
"Not bad after all."
At the sight, the white-robed girl raised an eyebrow, brought her sword up in a sweeping arc, and launched forward at the same moment.
The sword energy cut through the air in a blue gash, trailing fierce rushing wind straight toward the incoming purple-robed figure.
"Mu, stop!"
At the same moment, Huo Shan, catching this, halted abruptly. And Huo Qifeng had already moved, trying to pull Huo Mu back.
"When juniors are competing, we elders would do well to simply watch."
The elder in the blue robe narrowed his eyes, extended two fingers in a downward slash, and cleaved an appalling gash of sword energy directly across the space in front of Huo Qifeng.
Huo Qifeng's expression changed sharply, and he could only pull back and deflect in time. But he was clearly no match for the blue-robed elder, and the powerful sword energy sent him flying several zhang back before he could barely steady himself.
And in the gap this created, Huo Mu had already engaged the white-robed girl from the Dugu family, spear in hand.
"Step two steps left, lower the spear tip, block the sword and fall back five steps."
"Roll twice to the right, raise the spear to parry, roll once forward, then drive a full-force spear thrust toward the upper left, and you will win."
At the very moment Huo Mu charged out with her spear raised, that light voice had begun to drift quietly in her ear.
The other party was guiding her move by move with hands-on instruction, delivering every step and every move in a single breath, even telling her she could win against the white-robed girl in just a few exchanges.
It was almost unbelievable to Huo Mu, but her memory was excellent.
With a hum, the white-robed girl arrived close and, with extraordinary footwork, dodged Huo Mu's swift straight thrust in a form called the Dragon Emerging from the Sea.
In the next instant, without hesitation, the white-robed girl sent her sword slashing for Huo Mu's shoulder.
But what surprised her was that Huo Mu suddenly sidestepped two paces in a completely unexpected direction, just barely dodging the sword by a hair's width.
The white-robed girl's brow furrowed, but in a flash she spotted the opening in Huo Mu's lower stance and immediately turned, driving a direct thrust at the patella of both her legs.
But to her considerable shock, Huo Mu had already lowered the shaft of her spear, precisely catching the sword on the tip.
Though the girl could not withstand the force behind the sword strike and was pushed back five steps, she had genuinely and precisely deflected what should have been an unavoidable hit.
"What is this? Was she holding back before?"
The white-robed girl's brow tightened, and her gaze swept over the purple-robed figure. Her eyes darkened in an instant.
"Even if you have been holding back, you are still not my match."
She became utterly serious, her figure flashing into a white blur. The sword in her hand split into three arcs, and three streaks of sword energy descended, wrapping around the retreating Huo Mu from every side.
But what the white-robed girl found impossible to accept was that, right as she struck, Huo Mu seemed to have anticipated the attack entirely.
With nothing more than two rolls on the ground, she slipped free of what had been a near-perfect, airtight strike with ease.
"I refuse to accept this!"
A flash of fury crossed the white-robed girl's face. Her figure shifted, and she appeared behind Huo Mu, gripped her sword with both hands, and brought it straight down without any flourish, a clean vertical cleave.
And in the next moment, her eyes went wide as Huo Mu raised her spear with both hands to parry once again, this time blocking the strike perfectly.
"How is this possible?"
For one instant the white-robed girl went blank.
"Watch out!"
Right at that moment, a voice suddenly rang in the white-robed girl's ear.
Simultaneously, a flash of unmatched silver arrived before her at some unknown instant, driving directly toward her chest.
"This..."
The white-robed girl, snapping back, immediately looked up in alarm and moved to block with her sword, but it was already too late.
However, right at that razor's edge of a moment, Dugu Yan's figure flashed in front of her, and he lightly extended one hand, catching the spear tip between two fingers, stopping it cold.
Then he flicked one finger, and the silver spear bounced away, sending Huo Mu, who had been holding it, flying backward as well.
With a crack, Huo Mu's body struck a wooden pillar of the small building and split it apart before she finally came to a stop.
"Dugu Yan, you have no shame! Striking a young girl with such force!"
Huo Shan was incensed, and reached Huo Mu's side in an instant, frantically checking her for injuries.
Huo Mu simply wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth with one hand, then slowly rose from the floor. The small purple-robed figure looked coolly at the white-robed girl standing at Dugu Yan's side, and said, "I won."
At those words, the entire courtyard building went completely still.
Both Huo Qifeng and Huo Shan showed concern, but beyond that, shock and bewilderment.
They had watched everything that had just passed between Huo Mu and the white-robed girl.
Huo Mu, who had been thoroughly outmatched by the white-robed girl, had been able to precisely predict every move her opponent made, and had struck the decisive blow.
Her performance was simply beyond all expectation.
And the Dugu family members all wore extremely unpleasant expressions. That Huo Mu had managed to defeat the white-robed girl, whose martial cultivation and swordwork both surpassed her own, was something they clearly had not anticipated.
Just before this, in their earlier exchange, the girl had not even been able to withstand three of the white-robed girl's strikes. That there should be such a staggering difference in such a short span of time was genuinely hard to believe.
"That was not her real strength. Someone was interfering to help her. That round does not count."
Dugu Yan narrowed his eyes at Huo Mu, who was being supported by Huo Shan, and spoke coldly.
He then swept a look around, dropping his voice, "Whichever shadowy figure has been helping a junior in another junior's match, that is hardly showing any dignity."
At those words, Li Musheng, who had been sitting in the bamboo chair petting the cat, raised an eyebrow and then lowered his hand.
The big black cat, noticing that Li Musheng had stopped petting it, lifted its head in puzzlement and looked over. Then those green eyes began to spin busily.
At the same time, Huo Mu heard that drifting voice in her ear once more, "Tell them you are going to fight all four of them at once."
...
Huo Mu: ...
The purple-robed girl with blood at the corner of her mouth stood in place, visibly somewhat stunned.
Then she stiffly moved her gaze, taking in the white-robed girl, the young man, Dugu Yan, and even the blue-robed elder who had scattered Huo Qifeng with a single finger slash...
"One against four... that means... them, right?"
Huo Mu's wheat-toned little face was clearly going slightly blank. She had no fear of fighting the white-robed girl again.
But she was not reckless, and she knew her own limits.
Against the likes of Dugu Yan and the blue-robed elder, she genuinely could not bring herself to attack. She simply did not dare.
...
"Do not be afraid. At your age, fighting one against four is exactly the kind of training that will sharpen you."
And yet, that unhurried voice drifted into Huo Mu's ear again.
At those words, Huo Mu bit her lip, and wiped away another trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth.
The blow she had taken from Dugu Yan earlier had clearly left her with some internal injury.
Huo Shan beside her kept channeling his true qi into her, and said quietly, "Mu, you did well. Step back for now and tend your injuries. Your elders will handle the rest here."
He then turned and looked at Dugu Yan across from them with an expression that had gone dark and iron-hard.
They had dared strike his daughter with such force, and he was going to fight them even at the cost of his life.
"Dugu Yan..."
Huo Shan was about to issue his challenge, but was suddenly interrupted by a slightly young and unpolished girl's voice beside him, "All of you from the Dugu family, come at me at once. One against four!"
...
The entire courtyard building fell completely silent for a moment.
Huo Mu's voice was not loud, but it reached clearly into every ear around her.
In the next instant, everyone turned their heads at once, looking toward the girl with the ponytail.
She had slowly straightened to her full height. Blood still traced from the corner of her mouth, but she pulled it back quickly. Her slightly unpolished face bore a pair of dark, steady eyes, looking directly at Dugu Yan's group.
There was no question who she had been speaking to.
"Mu, what are you talking about?"
Huo Shan immediately reached out and felt his daughter's forehead, immediately fearing that Dugu Yan's blow had damaged her mind, and called out urgently, "No good, I need to take you to a physician right now."
As he said this, he moved to help Huo Mu up and leave.
But Huo Mu reached out and stopped her father, gritting her teeth, "I am not going. I want to fight all four of them."
"Stop this nonsense. Huo Shan, take Mu to the best physician in the capital right now. An injury to the head cannot be delayed!"
Huo Qifeng immediately barked a sharp command, and privately could have slapped Dugu Yan to death. Striking a young girl with such force that her head stopped working properly, it was absolutely unconscionable.
At the same time, the four Dugu family members all furrowed their brows with varying expressions.
A flash of uncertainty crossed Dugu Yan's eyes. When he had acted against Huo Mu earlier, he had already been holding back considerably. Logically, he should not have caused an injury this severe.
And beyond that, his earlier claim that a hidden expert was helping Huo Mu had been partly an excuse to give his own group a way to save face, but he did think there was a real possibility it was true.
The white-robed girl and the young man, meanwhile, both wore mocking expressions in response to Huo Mu's declaration.
The white-robed girl in particular, though she was not sure why Huo Mu had suddenly seemed to make such a dramatic leap in ability, remained convinced that simply based on Huo Mu's actual cultivation, someone daring to say something this outrageous was absurd. Even if there was a hidden master assisting her, could a girl of only an innate cultivation realm, whatever support she had, possibly beat Dugu Yan and the blue-robed elder of the Dugu family, whose sword cultivation was exceptional?
As for the blue-robed elder, his eyes stayed half-lowered, and he paid Huo Mu's words no attention.
He had already quietly swept the surroundings and detected no trace of true qi transmission waves, and no one hidden nearby.
In his view, the hidden master Dugu Yan had spoken of simply did not exist.
Huo Mu had beaten the white-robed girl probably through a stroke of luck, or perhaps through a sudden breakthrough in the Huo family's spear technique in the heat of battle.
After all, the reputation of the Huo family's divine spear had once resounded through the entire Great Li martial world.