Naked Sword Art Chapter 224 - No Excuses

Chapter 224 - No Excuses

"Very well. Follow me."
.
.
.
Since Lai Yun and Xiao Fang were preparing to fight, Su Lingxi made the other disciples move all of the tools and practice dummies off to the side. Once they were done, Su Lingxi told them all to wait in the classroom.
"Aww, can we watch, please~. We almost never get to see fights like these," the disciples begged.
"Elder Su, I wouldn't mind it if they stayed. Although, I would understand if Long Wang would prefer to not be embarrassed in front of so many people," Lai Yun mocked.
It was obvious what Lai Yun was trying to do, but Su Lingxi was still worried that Xiao Fang would fall for it.
"Let them stay. I also have no problem if they watched our fight," Xiao Fang said.
Su Lingxi sighed.
"Alright, all of you can stay, but if anyone interferes in their fight, they will be punished severely."
"Thank you, Teacher!" the girls said happily.
Bai Fan was worried about Xiao Fang, not because she was scared that he'd get hurt, but more so that he'd get humiliated by Lai Fan.
Zhao Pan was also there too, but unlike Bai Fan, she didn't really care about Xiao Fang's wellbeing. To her, this fight was simply an opportunity for her to see what he was capable of. Since she was still planned to force herself onto him someday, she wanted to know what his strengths and weaknesses were.
.
.
.
Xiao Fang and Lai Yun stood about 50 meters apart from each other. Xiao Fang seemed relatively calm, but Lai Yun seemed to be struggling to contain her excitement. She believed if she could beat Xiao Fang in front of everyone, Chen Li might look upon her more favorably and invite her into the White Jade guild.
The disciples watching were talking amongst themselves as they waited for the fight to begin, but the moment they saw Su Lingxi holding up a black feather, they immediately quieted down.
"The fight will begin the moment this feather touches the ground. Do you understand?" Su Lingxi said.
Xiao Fang and Lai Yun both nodded.
Su Lingxi placed the feather onto her palm, then gave it a light blow. The feather flew off of her hand, and floated towards Xiao Fang and Lai Yun.
The room was completely silent as they watched the feather slowly descend. It was probably the quietest it had ever been since they walked into the room.
When the feather was only a few inches off the ground, Lai Yun smirked and clenched her fists in anticipation. The moment the feather touched the ground, the crowd erupted with cheers.
...
"Lai Yun! Lai Yun! Lai Yun!"
"Lai Yun, make him eat dirt!"
"Get him, Lai Yun! No mercy!"
...
'These girls must really hate my guts...' Xiao Fang thought with a bitter smile.
Just as he finished that thought, he noticed Lai Yun coming at him with a fierce kick, but he easily dodged it with a simple turn.
Boom!
The ground shook violently from the force of her attack.
'She's in the lower stages of the Solid Body realm. Not bad for a spirit cultivator her age,' he thought.
As soon as she touched the ground she jumped towards him again, and again, each time getting faster and faster. However, no matter how fast she went, Xiao Fang was always just a fraction of a second faster than her.
...
Su Lingxi already knew Xiao Fang was strong, but she didn't think he was this strong.
'It seems that I've underestimated him. Lai Yun still hasn't used her spirit power yet, if he can beat her before she does, he might have a chance at winning,' Su Lingxi thought optimistically.
Bai Fan, on the other hand, was less optimistic. She also didn't know how strong he was exactly, but judging by the way he was just narrowly dodging each attack, it seemed like he was struggling. The girls cheering around her were all thinking the same, the only difference was that they all wanted him to lose.
Zhao Pan sat all alone as she watched the fight. Just for being a Body Cultivator, the other girls avoid her like the plague. She had been getting this kind of treatment all week so she didn't expect anything different. As for the fight, she didn't have any thoughts of it yet, but that slowly changed as the fight progressed.
Just from his movements, Zhao Pan could tell that Xiao Fang had mastered a pretty decent movement technique. He was able to quickly switch from being heavy footed to light footed in an instant, so that made him extremely nimble and difficult to hit. Still, she wasn't particularly impressed because she knew she could've easily dodged Lai Yun's attacks as well.
...
'Damn it! Why is it so hard to hit him?' Lai Yun thought angrily.
"Lai Yun, he's getting tired. Keep going!"
"Come on, Lai Yun! Stop toying with him and hit him already!" The girls shouted.
...
Lai Yun finally stopped trying to use basic attacks against him and tried to hit him with one of her body cultivation techniques. Sensing that she was finally going to use a body cultivation technique on him, Xiao Fang stopped moving and waited for her to come. Lai Yun didn't know why he stopped, but there was no time to think about it since she had already thrown her punch.
The punch missed, but then her body quickly spun in the air before landing a powerful kick.
Pa!~
Xiao Fang blocked the attack, but he was still pushed back by it.
'What a strong attack,' Xiao Fang thought.
Even though his body cultivation was an entire realm above hers, he had to admit that attack hurt quite a bit.
...
"Nice hit!"
"Get him!"
"Do it again!" The girls cheered.
...
However, Lai Yun immediately jumped back after executing her technique. What no one seemed to understand was the amount of force she put into that attack. Despite hitting him so hard, she somehow sustained more damage than he did.
It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on, so when she finally did, she began to frown even more deeply.
"All this time..." she said under her breath.
Her voice was too quiet for anyone to hear, but Xiao Fang still heard it.
'It seems she figured it out,' he thought.
Lai Yun didn't know why he was hiding his true body cultivation, nor did she care, all she knew was that she couldn't keep going easy on him. In the next moment, Lai Yun's body exploded with Spirit Qi, then 2 [ Illusory Clones ] appeared next to her.
Even though he couldn't see it, Xiao Fang could still feel the volumes of Qi around her dramatically rising.
Xiao Fang knew he could've easily won the fight by now. The only reason why he didn't was because he didn't want Lai Yun, or anyone else, making any excuses for her losing the fight. He wanted her to go all out, so that everyone could see her lose despite doing everything she could to win. That meant waiting for her to use her illusory techniques.
The other disciples began to cheer even louder when they saw her bring out her 2 illusory clones. Although they wished that she had landed a few more punches and kicks before she did, they were still happy to see that the real fight was about to begin.