Whim! Min Hong materialised and suspended in the air as he dodged the massive wave that was generated from their clash. Then he turned to look at the Azure Queen Boa who was about 60 metres away from him, and as if responding to Hong's expectations;

Shraaaa! ​​

Deep, azure-like blood came gushing out of a large wound on the serpent's body, but quickly, the blood flow slowed to a crawl as the wound began to shrink, but at a slower pace than normal.

The Azure Queen Boa coiled its body, staring at the human child some metres away from him. It then glanced at its slowly healing wound, and then to the one of the swords in Min Hong's hands.

That particular sword was serrated, it had a saw-like tooth on one part of the blade with a normal sword blade on the other.

This human child had actually wounded it in a single exchange. Moreover, there was still bits of its skin between the tooth of that blade which was now completely stained with azure blood.

Suddenly… something weird happened.

The enormous body of the Azure Queen Boas started to shrink at a speed visible to the naked eye. Previously it was about a hundred -foot long and at least 30 feet wide, but in a few seconds, it transformed to a third of that size.

Now it measured about 30 feet long and about 5 feet wide, the Azure Queen Boa stared venomously at Min Hong and then hissed.

"Not good." Hong's face grew very solemn. He knew the Azure Queen Boa had a bloodline purity of about 22 percent and that enabled it to shrink and increase its size at will. But the current problem was, if it was that agile when it was that huge, how agile would it be now that it had shrunk by over a third of its original size?

A violet pill appeared in Hong's palm out of nowhere, and he popped it into his mouth instantly. It was one of the various potent antivenom pills given to him by his mother, should he encounter some poisonous spirit beasts.

This one was specifically used to resist hallucinatory venoms and toxins.

He wielded the twin blade once more staring at the serpent which was glaring at him.

The Azure Queen Boa wriggled lightly as if flexing its joints, before looking at Hong with a scrutinizing gaze of a predator searching for the weak points of its prey.

It began to approach, but this time slowly while zigzagging. Hong started moving backwards step by step trying to maintain the same distance between them.

" !" Suddenly the Azure Queen Boa transformed into a line of azure blur as it soundlessly charged towards Hong.

Min Hong's eyes widened, as he branded his swords and then slashed at a speed that looked normal but felt extremely fast. This attack also noiselessly made its way towards the approaching azure line.

This was one of the four, attacking stance of the [Song of the Wind Spirit], 'Silent Scream'. This technique relied on two principle. 'Speed' and 'Silence'. It was virtually the fastest attack Min Hong was currently capable of. That was the only technique he could use against the current Azure Queen Boa.

Hua! Fua! Shua!

The serpent abruptly swapped positions about twenty times, transforming into a ghostly shadow that breezed through Hong's attack. But Hong's other hand once again executed the 'Eye of the Cyclone'

Smash! The serpent's head and the edge of the sword collided and the water cyclone slightly altered its head to one side and the two of them went past each other.

"Slap!" in that moment when they went past each other, a terrifying shadow burst out of the water and struck Hong heavily on the chest. Caught off-guard, Hong couldn't help but spit out a mouth full of blood, as he was sent tumbling across the surface of the lake.

The serpent swam at top speed, streaking towards Hong's position. "That whip strike was too fast. At least twice as fast as the serpents speed earlier." Hong flipped mid-air and landed gracefully on both feet, clutching his chest which was now dented because of his three broken ribs.

Instantly, the broken ribs started reconstructing themselves as the powerful regenerative properties of the 'Jade Primal Dragon Body' kicked in.

"But its strength is only at the 2 Star Dan Formation." He stared at his chest. His clothes were ripped, but with the protection of the Black Star Shirt, his injury wasn't too severe.

Whim! He sensed the serpent arrive in front of him. "Come!" the battle heated Min Hong wildly wielded his swords in an effort to defend.

The serpent raised its head to bite him, as it secretly sent its body coiling around Hong, before using the same momentum to smash its tail at him from behind. In this extremely close combat, it usually needed an instance of carelessness to lose the battle.

Min Hong's sword technique was already trained to its peak, but he had yet to reach the 'One with Dao' level in swordplay. If his swordplay was at the 'One with World level, every ordinary pierce, thrust, slash would carry the universal essence of all swords.

Furthermore, an expert of such caliber would be able to use anything as a weapon, from his fingers to an ordinary leaf or tree branch and they would still do critical damage. Plus, one would also be able to send attacks in form of Qi towards their opponent.

For example, Min Hong's previous sword attacks could draw upon the essence of the world but it was forced, which is why he still had to touch the serpent with his sword before he could damage it.

But if he was 'One with Dao' of sword, he could just swing his sword and his sword technique would be projected with Qi and deal damage to its enemy.

The Azure Queen Boa was simply too fast, since it shrunk its size, its attack, defence and agility increased significantly and it rained attacks on Min Hong relentlessly forcing him entirely into defence mode.

The pressuring attacks of the serpent and the relentless defending by Min Hong push him into a state of mind where nothing else existed asides the next attack.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

At first, he was accumulating wounds here and there, but the healing abilities of a body cultivator did its job and the antivenom pill countered the serpent's poison.

However, there was the issue of blood loss, but he didn't seem to care one bit about that. He was now using basic blocking skills as his martial art techniques couldn't catch up to the attacks of the Azure Queen Boa.

If one sword couldn't block it, the second would just about do the job and as time went on the Azure Snake seemed to find it harder and harder to break through the defence and land a strike.

"Hnmm?" all of a sudden Min Hong found out that he could actually think again.

Earlier, the serpent had simply put Hong under extreme pressure by drowning him with attacks, forcing him to concentrate on defence and even limiting him to use the basic defence skill of block and intercept.

But now, the pressure actually reduced, and he could actually spare a little time to think.

He discovered that under the serpent's relentless attacks all the basic moves he had trained over a million times became simpler and simpler to execute.

Each stroke came out more fluidly than the last, until he broke down all the moves into just two moves and from there, they became one.

That one attack would seem like a defensive move but at the same time look offensive and vice versa. He noticed every other sword move in existence came from this single stroke.

This stroke was divine, like the first and last stroke of a master piece. It brought its own unique feeling of 'simplicity in profundity and profundity in simplicity.'

"My swordplay…" Hong's face slowly changed as a joyful expression gradually overtook his previously tensed expression.

"Hahaha!!!" Min Hong suddenly laughed loudly and happily. "I broke through, hahaha! You've helped me once again. You've pushed me into the 'One with Dao' level in swordplay".

After experiencing two major, bloody battles, especially with the intense pressure the Azure Queen Boa put on him, Hong had finally taken the final step into the level of being 'One with Dao' in swordplay.

If Min Hong had stayed in the castle, there was no way he would have even achieved a tenth of his current progress.

"Hisssss!" the Azure serpent hissed in fury, as it pounced aggressively towards Hong, discarding its own defence.

Previously, when it still had the advantage, it didn't pay too much attention to the little kid, but now that he was being humiliated time and time again, serving as a whetstone for his cultivation, it really wanted to kill this arrogant human child.

"Come now, you little worm!" Hong taunted the Azure Snake as he branded his swords. At this moment Min Hong felt as though the single sword move was a like tree trunk, with the 10 basic moves being its branches and the several sword arts being its many leaves.

This would help him comprehend extremely complex sword techniques easily. This makes displaying one's techniques or battling your opponent very enjoyable, as one's movements would be effortless, elegant and graceful.

He delivered one stroke after another, each flawless and perfect in their own trajectory.

Even the most basic strokes like chop, stab, scrape and so on, were utterly precise, unbreakable and immaculate.

"Our battle comes to an end here for today, Queen Azure Queen Boa. For the last time, thank you so very much for helping me breakthrough." Min Hong yelled as he began to retreat at a break neck speed.

The Azure serpent still chased after him as he ran but, Min Hong had no intention of attacking as he only defended whilst gradually retreating. This caused the Azure serpent to be totally unable to do anything to him and this continued until Min Hong fled out of the lake and far away.

Extremely disappointed and pissed the Azure Serpent swam back, and all it could do was raise its head towards the heavens and hiss in dissatisfaction.

Over the course of its life, it had met multiple Dan Formation experts who had even reached the 'One with Dao' level, but it had still beaten the snot out of them…but that young human child with two swords just made her feel like she was fighting two of such experts, at once.

No matter the situation it forced the human child into, it would either serve as a source of breakthrough for him or an opportunity for him to land a painful blow. Even when it managed to get past the first sword, the other sword would still intrude and interrupt its attacks.

------------------------------

Swoosh! A figure kept blinking from one tree to another, at an irregular interval and position in the forest. Moving as graceful as the wind and as fast as lightning, the figure made its way through the dense forest and thick branches. With a few more blinks, the figure appeared at the peak of the mountain in this area.

Sitting on the mountain peak, he casually took out a piece of dried cooked meat and a bottle of fruit wine. After eating, the figure smiled as it spoke "Fantastic! Truly fantastic." It was Min Hong, who was currently recalling everything that had happened today.

Firstly, he had killed the 'Aquatic Rhino Emperor' and then battled the 'Azure Queen Boa!'.

Secondly, he had broken through to the, 4 Star King and Qi Sea stage. And then lastly, he had achieved the 'One with Dao' level in swordplay! He couldn't help but feel elated. "Although, some of the competitors in the coming-of-age ceremony would have entered into the Dan Formation stage, I can imagine most of them would be inferior to me."

"Only I don't know what level Min Bai and Mi Ming are at, exactly. Even before entering the Soaring Cloud forest, they were already named as the strongest of the Min Family's current generation and have been sent to the wall to be tempered. Nobody knows how strong they have become." He thought to himself as he shed the elated look off his face.