Zhao Luo who had warned Wu Yang threw his fist at Wu Yang's face 

Zhao Luo wasn't seriously trying to hurt him with his punch as there was almost no power behind his fist but the speed of that punch was fast. Way faster than what a disciple in the trainee hall could handle.

Especially Wu Yang who had been in the trainee hall for a long time. 

"Eat this for fooling with me."

Zhao Luo shouted with a grin on his face.

But soon that grin vanished as Zhao Luo was surprised.

'Swoosh.'

Wu Yang had dodged Zhao Luo's punch by bending downwards faster than the speed of the punch itself.

Zhao Luo pulled his arm back and looked at Wu Yang who was falling backward after dodging his punch with a questioning face.

He was now suspecting Wu Yang even more than before.

Thud!

"Why did you throw a punch at me?"

Wu Yang gave a slightly late reaction as he fell hitting his back on the ground after dodging Zhao Luo's punch.

"Why did you dodge it?"

Zhao Luo questioned Wu Yang as he walked towards him.

It was like Zhao Luo was complaining that Wu Yang didn't get hit by his punch.

As Zhao Luo reached Wu Yang, he extended his arm towards him which caused Wu Yang to close his eyes.

Wu Yang was getting ready to get hit by Zhao Luo but he never felt anything hitting him.

"What are you doing?"

Zhao Luo asked Wu Yang who still had his eyes closed and teeth clenched.

'This guy.'

Zhao Luo thought as he waited for Wu Yang to take his hand and get up from the ground.

"I thought you were to throw a punch at me again."

'Pat.'

Wu Yang grabbed Zhao Luo's hand as he told Zhao Luo the reason why he had his eyes closed.

"I will punch you but not now."

Zhao Luo declared his intention while pulling Wu Yang up.

There was a mysterious smile on his face which caused Wu Yang's heart to drop.

'Did he finally found out?'

Wu Yang was nervous but that nervousness daded away when Zhao Luo started walking again without asking anything from him.

Soon the two had reached Zhao Luo's hut.

Zhao Luo turned around to look at Wu Yang and showed him a grind.

This grin was enough to make Wu Yang go away.

He clasped his hands in front of Zhao Luo and said his farewell before running away from there.

'He knows.'

Wu Yang's mind was covered with only this thought as he was going towards his room.

Zhao Luo watched Wu Yang's back disappearing as he turned around to go inside his room.

"Let's train."

Zhao Luo said to himself.

He couldn't wait to practice again against his apparitions.

His hands were itching for some action as Zhao Luo had already started loving this current lifestyle of his.

Even Zhao Luo himself didn't know that he would be carving challenges with such intensity. This was indeed a new and fun feeling for him.

Zhao Luo lied down on the bed.

Before closing his eyes, Zhao Luo thought about his fights against the puppets.

Their abilities which he had already learned. 

"I should call them, Three Style Sword Arts."

Zhao Luo announced with a smile while lying on his bed.

The three styles he was thinking about were related to the nature of the puppets that he had to fight.

"Wood arts: Wood Drop, Double Wood Drop"

"Fire Arts: Burst Slash, Cross Burst Slash."

"Dual Arts: Dual Burst Drop."

Zhao Luo was putting his thoughts together as he categorized the techniques that he had learned from the puppets.

After recollection of his techniques, Zhao Luo closed his eyes to fall into a calm and undisturbed state of meditation.

The next moment.

Zhao Luo opened his eyes inside his mental world, the dark space.

"Let's do this."

Zhao Luo puffed up as he started stretching.

After doing the basic things he looked ahead seriously.

"Summon."

Zhao Luo shouted.

'Poof.'

Nine apparitions appeared at the same time, standing in front of Zhao Luo.

'They look better than before.'

Zhao Luo thought while looking at his apparitions which looked even more realistic than even the last ones.

"Swords."

Zhao Luo shouted again as two black swords appeared in the hands of each apparition.

After his apparitions were ready to go, Zhao Luo brought out his swords simultaneously.

The dark space of Zhao Luo was now shining with two different lights.

In his right hand was ifrit which shined like a miniature sun in his hand. The crimson light of Ifrit was oozing out from its blade.

While Blackey was in his left hand.

There were times when the dark space would experience a white twinkling of stars. This was coming from Blackey's blade.

"Come at me."

Zhao Luo ordered his apparitions as he tightened his grip on the swords.

"Let's get him, boys."

One of the apparitions said to the others raising the excitement in the air.

"Good. Show me what you all can do."

Zhao Luo challenged them head-on.

The apparitions pounced at Zhao Luo with their swords one after another.

Even though the apparitions weren't that intelligent enough but still they had the strength that resembled Zhao Luo's so it would prove to be a difficult match for Zhao Luo to fight all of them at once.

Slash!

The first apparition swung his swords at Zhao Luo.

"Wood Drop."

'Clang, Clang.'

Zhao Luo blocked the swords with Ifrit easily by using the technique from his wood art sword style.

After blocking this apparition's attack, Zhao Luo changed his form in less than a second.

Zhao Luo raised his left arm and pushed back his right leg while bending the knee of his left leg to bring down Blackey with an inhuman speed.

"Dual Burst Drop." 

'Swoosh'

Zhao Luo shouted as Blackey sliced through the apparition who couldn't even leave a scream before falling.

The other apparitions had stopped in their tracks as they could see Zhao Luo's black sword embedded in their fellow ghost right in front of their eyes. 

"If you won't come at me then I will come at you."

Zhao Luo said with a delighted face feeling the increase in his strength.

He threw his defeated apparition aside who was now recovering on the ground while Zhao Luo went after his other apparitions.

"Burst Slash, Burst Slash, Burst Slash."

"Burst Slash."

"Clang, Clang, Clang, Clang."

Zhao Luo who had leaped towards his apparitions was sent flying back.

His apparitions had started using his techniques too.

'If they were puppets then it wouldn't have been this challenging.'

Zhao Luo felt troubled as now his apparitions were on the attack while he could only defend.

Zhao Luo started jumping backward whenever one of his apparitions would swing at him.

One after another they kept on swing their swords at him while Zhao Luo only dodged.

He didn't even block the attacks. 

"Double Burst Slash."

One of the apparitions brought both of his swords down on Zhao Luo while using the Fire arts.

There was no time to dodge its swords so Zhao Luo decided to block it.

"Wood Drop."

Zhao Luo used his technique to block both of the apparition's swords and pushed him away with the collision of their swords.

Zhao Luo also moved back with a smooth sliding motion.

'I see.'

Zhao Luo had learned something new in the last exchange.

"Let's try it again."

Zhao Luo mumbled as he could see another apparition of his coming at him while using the same technique that the previous apparition had used.

"Double Burst SLASH."

This apparition was louder than the last as it brought its swords on Zhao Luo.

Zhao Luo didn't lift his swords to block the incoming swords of the apparition instead he waited for those swords to drop on his head.

"Now."

Zhao Luo waited as right when the swords of the apparition were a hair away from slicing his head like a watermelon, Zhao Luo dodged the attack.

He dodged the apparitions attack by spinning his body with his arms wide open.

"Counter Cut."

Zhao Luo shouted as he brought his ifrit and Blackey to slash through his apparition.

Zhao Luo was evolving as a sword warrior.

His eyes shined bright as his face looked clear after pulling off such a nice counter which would be hard to block for the others.

Zhao Luo directly aimed for the weakness of the Burst Drop.

'If my speed is faster than the speed of enemy's sword then I can do this.'

Zhao Luo ascertained himself.

After defeating another apparition, he moved towards the other apparitions.

In this dark space, both Zhao Luo and his apparitions were somewhat invincible.

Zhao Luo looked back at the two apparitions who were recuperating.

"Train the techniques."

And ordered them of their next tasks.

The swordfight between Zhao Luo and his apparitions continued for the whole night.

Without a single second of rest, Zhao Luo kept on fighting his apparitions.

Whenever he would defeat an apparition, they would be given the task of practicing the sword techniques or train among themselves.

So 6 of the apparitions were training the techniques while Zhao Luo fought with the other three continuously throughout the whole night.

The dark space was filled with different noises. Most of them were swords colliding.

"I can feel it."

"Dual Burst Drop."

Zhao Luo excitedly said as he pushed all three of his apparitions backward.

He could feel the improvement in his sword skills.