"Li, over here!", Jian Li heard her brother yelling from the distance and saw him pointing towards a smaller and more notably, empty stage.

She made her way over to Jian Chen, and she spotted him talking with someone that looked like a woman with messy red hair. Jian Chen glanced at Jian Li and gave a slight nod, then continued talking to the person.

"How old are you?" the red-haired woman asked.

"I'm 14 and my little sister Li here is 10 years old.", Jian Chen said, pointing at Jian Li. The woman looked at Jian Li with a puzzled expression, and Jian Li stared back at her. Jian Chen then continued,

"Um, we're from the Jian family in Qianye Village. We came to the sect earlier today, but we aren't familiar with it that much. I saw that the stage was empty and had not that many onlookers. So, I wondered if me and my sister could spar with each other on the stage. She is at the Mortal stage in body cultivation by the way."

The woman looked at Jian Li again, and Jian Li's eyes narrowed slightly. The woman then looked at Jian Chen, who nodded at her.

"Alright. But only for a little while. Be careful you two." she said.

"Thank you!", Jian Chen said happily. Jian Chen grabbed Jian Li's hand and then headed towards the stage.

"Come on, Li!", Jian Chen said, dragging Jian Li along.

Jian Li and Jian Chen reached the stage, and the woman was still there below the stage, observing them. "Good. You can spar here for a while. I'll watch from over there.", the red-haired woman said, pointing to a small distance away. Jian Chen nodded and then turned to look at Jian Li.

"Alright, then. Let's start.", Jian Chen said.

Jian Li nodded slowly, and then the two of them readied themselves.

"You can guard. I'll attack. We’ll do it like we usually do.", Jian Li said. They stood facing each other, both of them wielding their wooden swords.

Jian Li then attacked, her sword aiming for Jian Chen's chest. Jian Chen blocked the attack and stepped backwards, and then counterattacked. Jian Chen attacked Jian Li's left shoulder, causing Jian Li to stagger backwards.

Even though Jian Li put every ounce of strength on all of her strikes, Jian Chen was able to dodge and parry by barely using any effort. Every move he did looked elegant and planned, compared to Jian Li who looked like she just waved her sword around.

"You can't use strength against some people, you need to use your agility.", Jian Chen said. Jian Li nodded, and then focused on mainly using her speed to hit Jian Chen. Jian Li's speed was extremely fast, but Jian Chen was able to dodge and parry again.

"Your speed is outstanding. But you can't use any strength at all now, can you?", Jian Chen said.

Jian Li nodded, and then used her speed to attack Jian Chen again. Jian Chen blocked all of the attacks, and then attacked Jian Li's chest with a fast but powerful strike. Jian Chen's strike hit Jian Li's chest, causing Jian Li to stagger backwards.

"See? You need to use both strength and speed. You need to attack where you can't defend.", Jian Chen said. Jian Li was did not really get what he was saying, but still nodded in response. Then, the two of them readied themselves again.

"Okay, then. Let's go again.", Jian Li said. Jian Chen nodded, and then the two of them attacked each other.

The next few exchanges went like those that had come before. Jian Li tried to attack him, but Jian Chen would parry and counterattack, and then the two of them would reengage again. However, at the eighth exchange, Jian Li's wooden sword broke in two.

"Damn.", Jian Li said.

As she was channelling her soul energy to use the Jian Family Art of Refinement to fix the wooden sword, Jian Chen didn't give her a chance to finish her repairing. He directly attacked her, causing Jian Li to stumble backwards and fall to the ground. Jian Chen then sheathed his wooden blade and walked over to Jian Li.

Jian Chen sighed and said,

"You're getting a lot better. But you have a long way to go. Remember what you were just doing, and think of how to defend yourself better, okay?" Jian Li nodded, and then the two of them started fighting again after Jian Li repaired her wooden sword.

A small crowd of curious onlookers gathered to watch them spar, but the two siblings were too focused to pay any attention to them.

After a couple minutes, Jian Chen broke her blade again. While Jian Li's wooden sword was still broken, Jian Chen attacked her with his blade. Jian Li didn't have time to repair her wooden sword and she instinctively tried to summon her soul greatsword.

For a split second, everything in Jian Li's eyes turned black as the greatsword appeared in her arms, blocking Jian Chen's blow. There were a few gasps in the crowd.

Jian Chen was confused by the unexpected attack and backed away.

"I forgot that you had just gotten that soul sword. You're almost making me use my Art, since you are using your own Art." Jian Chen said while laughing. Everytime she had seen Jian Chen use his Art, she felt never even had the slightest of chance resisting. His body cultivation level was already higher than her in the first place and even if he suppressed his strength, he still had more years practicing with the sword. Not to mention, he was a lot more talented than her when it came to combat related matters.

Jian Li was surprised by her own quick reaction, and she didn't know how she had managed to block the attack. She took a quick step back to catch her breath and sighed in relief. The greatsword felt a lot better in her hands than than the shorter wooden sword she had previously held in her hands.

Then, just as Jian Chen was about to advance again, Jian Li gasped, and a look of horror filled her eyes. She felt like she was being suffocated, as her soul energy was being sucked into her sword.

She could barely speak, so she couldn't tell Jian Chen what was happening. She just closed her eyes and tried to control her sword with her soul energy.

Jian Chen frowned in concern when he saw Jian Li suddenly close her eyes and retreat. He lowered his sword and quickly ran up to her, but when he saw her greatsword, he knew that something was very wrong. It was pulsating with unnerving dark light. Jian Chen's face turned pale as he stared at Jian Li in horror.

"Li, what's happening? Are you okay? What's wrong?" Jian Chen grabbed Jian Li's shoulder.

However, Jian Li did not answer. Her body was spasming, and Jian Chen could only watch as dark violet veins appeared on her temples.

"Li, are you alright? Answer me!" Jian Chen cried out in alarm.

Jian Chen was panicking. He had rarely seen Jian Li use her soul energy before, and he didn't

know what was happening since he was not proficient in it.

"Unsummon it. Try to unsummoning your weapon .", the red-haired woman from earlier said. Unnoticed, she had silently appeared behind Jian Chen like a ghost.

Jian Li could barely hear her, but she took her advice and tried to unsummon it anyway.

As the greatsword quickly turned into small black particles, it went inside her chest. Her veins started to visibly turn back to normal and her soul energy stopped getting sucked.

"Li, are you okay?" Jian Chen asked in relief.

"Yes, I am fine", Jian Li said in a weak voice.

Jian Chen helped Jian Li up. She looked exhausted, and her face was pale.

"Li, are you sure you're alright?"

Jian Li did not immediately answer since she was in deep thought.

The first time she had summoned her greatsword, went completely different to the second. 'What caused this to happen now though', she thought to herself. She felt drained after all the fighting and her soul energy getting sucked did not make it any better.

The both of them left the little stage with the weird stares and the whisperings of the small crowd behind them.