Lost in some memories of his past, Devanshu arrived at Long Gao's house again.

"Ahhh, I drank too much. We should've stopped drinking early yesterday this really makes me feel that I am getting on in the years, I used to drink triple this amount and never feel it. Grab me some lime juice to clear my head."

Still reeling a little from his hangover, Long Gao trudged along the slowly filling streets to the most prosperous part of the city as he rambled about different things to Devanshu.

They soon reached the heart of the city where a huge mansion loomed over a giant square. It was the City lord's mansion which also functioned as the office for all the governing officials.

Trees lined the path to the entrance to the grand mansion and at the front was a very spacious and beautiful garden with a grand fountain.

The grand and beautiful garden however only seemed to be designed to display the seven grand statues which surrounded the fountain.

Even though this wasn't his first time at the City Lord's office, Devanshu still gawked at the statues and appreciated their grandness. Only two of the statues had any appreciable details to identify the person who was carved, the other five were just general figures only telling if the subject of the statue was a man or a woman.

Of the two distinct statues, one depicted a very dashing and heroic young man. He stood smiling, his gaze filled with confidence. His waist was adorned with a sword and his left hand rested on the sheath.

The other statue was of a peerlessly beautiful woman, her condescending expression seemed to look down upon the world.

Long Gao sighed as they walked beneath the gigantic busts,

"No matter how many times I look at these statues, my heart always beats and my mind always fills up with admiration. It's sad that they weren't able to preserve the appearance of the other founders.

These were the peerless people of their own generation, their names resounded across the world yet most of their information has already vanished in the sands of time."

He turned around and looked at Devanshu as he continued.

"You probably don't know but they've got these 7 founder statues at every city that is a member of the free city alliance, it is like a sign of membership.

I've had the pleasure to visit different cities on some occasions earlier in my life, the statues are always something grand to see."

Long Gao suddenly lowered his voice and whispered,

"Although you don't really have the permission to be here, many servants gather to witness the young miss challenge Ha Ken.

The young miss challenges Ha Ken everyday ever since he has started living in the city lords mansion. A lot of people enter the city lord's mansion everyday, if you don't tresspass into important areas nobody will pay any attention to you. Follow me."

"I didn't think that young miss would become so dedicated, didn't she only play around before that and always tried to skip on her cultivation."

"Don't say that, young miss isn't like that anymore, since she's got a new rival now she has changed.

Although she is trying harder these days, she hasn't been able to last more than five minutes against Ha Ken. Let's see just how she'll do today."

Sure enough, After crossing through some doors and crossing some halls they soon arrived at a big training courtyard surrounded by an eager crowd.

Devanshu and Long Gao slipped into the throng, pushing their way to a place they could watch comfortably from.

Devanshu, looked towards the courtyard.The first person he noticed was a young man standing one one side of the ground.

His robe hung loose and tied off at his waist, his tough shoulders and wide chest naked for the crowd to view. Body covered in sweat and a wooden sword in his hands.

It was as if he was carved from granite. His body rose in straight lines and clean planes giving off a sharp and cutting aura like a dangerous sword.

Ha Ken was not deathly handsome but he had an irresistible masculinity about him, thick lashes and thicker brows and thin lips that matched up with a sharp jutting nose and a hard jaw.

His eyes were striking, pupils black as the night, the same colour as his short hair. It seemed that he had already been training for some time.

He stood facing a very beautiful girl who still seemed to have room to grow. She wore very luxurious and fancy clothes and had a little blush on her juvenile face. She was the city lord's daughter, He Xianru. Looking towards Ha Ken she energetically shouted.

"I'll definitely last more than 5 minutes today."

He Xianru's shout marked the beginning of theur daily battle. She dashed towards Ha Ken, taking small and fast steps.

Ha Ken's lips curved into a slight smile, which made it look as if he didn't take this fight seriously at all. He voiced out.

"You should always aim for victory in a battle, even if it's unlikely."

He got into a stance with his wooden sword as he waited for her to reach him.

As she was running, He Xianru suddenly threw out long needles from between the fingers of both her hands. She had no confidence to damage Ha Ken in any way with this attack, all she wanted was to create a distraction and then to capitalise on that distraction to land a blow.

Ha Ken's face still had a small smile as he resolved the needles with minimal movement, he dodged some and shot some out of the air with his wooden sword and one he caught with his left hand and promptly threw back towards He Xianru.

He Xianru dodged, slowing down slightly she took out a very large fan. Leaping a little into the air, she attacked with the folded fan which could also work as a short sword from its side.

Ha ken blocked the downward slash by holding up his wooden sword. He then performed a high kick targetting her torso to knock her away..

Being kicked away, she stood up again and dashed towards Ha Ken. Using her fan like a two sided short sword, she fell into close combat.

Now in close quarter she slipped into a trance like state moving in ethereal and illusive fashion. Her hair fluttering in the wind she utilised the double edge. Ha Ken still wasn't pressed, he kept deflecting all the strikes she made effortlessly.

He Xianru could only pick up the pace of her attacks to look for an opening to exploit. The acttacks from her fan kept increasing with every twirl, the pace rising to an approaching crescendo.

To the spectators it seemed as if they were equal but to the participants and some with keener eyes it was obvious that although He Xianru seemed to be on offensive, her every strike was getting cut short and her rhythm constantly being disrupted.

Ha Ken still with his confident smile, decided to take some initiative to end the fight. Stepping in very close, his strikes increased in power and in a flash they were separated.

It was like a clean cut across a beautiful painting, He Xianru rolled across the ground and made the most unladylike recovery as she stood up with her clothes dirty and knees scrapped.

Tears started to well up and she gave a cry of frustration. She began to furiously display her technique attacking faster and faster without any semblance of strategy and planning only lashing out direct telegraphed slashes.

This was a common sight to the viewers, young miss would usually lose her composure later into the fight and start leaving bigger and bigger openings which Ha Ken utilised to easily put an end to the fight.

The spectators were very familiar with the character of He Xianru. She didn't like training at all and always looked for excuses to slack off but her cultivation was still very fast compared to other people her age in this region.

Although she liked to prank people and was willful, the people still liked her very much since she was very cute and didn't have anything bad in her heart.

Since everybody liked her, they felt bad when was beaten in fights but they knew it was necessary so that she could become stronger and even the City Lord had instructed her strictly to improve her attitude towards cultivation.

He was making her fight Ha Ken who was at an equal cultivation to her to make her realise just how weak and inexperienced she was, this was all so she could realise her faults earlier in life and not be as proud as she was of her cultivation speed.

The spar continued, losing out in every exchange He Xianru soon grew tired and gave up her initiative. She seemed to lose the will to fight and her strikes started losing their strength, her movement getting much slower than she started with.

Ha Ken's eyes narrowed a little and his smile vanished, the impatience to end the fight flashed across his face, it was obvious to all that he had decided to end it.

He dropped his sword by his right foot and assumed a form with his center closer to the ground. Placing all his weight on the left foot, his muscles stretched taught as he stepped one step forward and made a diagonal slash from his right foot to his left shoulder.

Thinking that it would be the same as always, Ha Ken's lips curved into a smile but that smile soon froze up as he found a cut on the side of his robe and He Xianru with her fan open and covering her face standing some distance away from him.

The audience cheered loudly, their young miss was finally able to land a blow on Ha Ken after getting beaten one sidedly for so many days.

She dropped her fan to reveal her beautiful black eyes and shouted.

"Don't think it'll be the same everyday."

Ha Ken only smiled feeling amused that the spoilt girl was able to draw up an elaborate act and then dodge at the final moment and even counter attack.

"That was an act? So you've finally become able to use that technique. Good; it will be more interesting this way."

They once again began exchanging moves, their fight continuing a little longer than usual.

The end however was the same as always, this time even more brutal. Almost nobody could figure out what happened, Ha Ken's sword slashed out so fast that He Xianru couldn't even react and could only fly away.

If this was a real fight she would already have been bisected into two but since Ha Ken was using his Qi to control the cutting edge of his wooden sword, he could use it just as a stick too.

"I hope that you can take these fights seriously and start to concentrate more on your cultivation, the City Lord has told me not to be lenient with you so don't expect me to go easy."

Ha Ken walked towards her as he said this, he tried to hold out his hand to help her stand up but she stood up by herself and ran back to her room, leaving only her voice in the courtyard.

"Damn you, I'll defeat you sooner or later."

Devanshu felt very satisfied after seeing this battle, he had noticed some things which he thought might come in use to Yun Fei if he faced any of them in a battle.

He had also realised that Ha Ken was much more formidable than he originally thought, using not much of his battle prowess in this spar. The young miss though, wasn't very experienced in utilising her cultivation.

Bidding farewell to Long Gao since he had to complete his duties for the day at the City Lord's mansion and promising him to meet someday later Devanshu moved back through the corridors and promptly exited the city lords mansion.