# Chapter 96: So What
Jiang Wang stepped up onto the sword-dappled platform with a single stride.
After ten merit points had been deducted, the Sword-Discussion Platform rose abruptly, shooting straight up into the river of stars.
This was the first time Jiang Wang had set foot on the Sword-Discussion Platform outside of a hallowed-land challenge — strictly speaking, the first time he had sought out an opponent here within the Great Void Illusion.
That familiar, gentle voice rang out again: [Commencing the Sword-Discussion Platform pilgrimage. Please write down your name to begin the sword-discussion ranking.]
A blank sheet of paper appeared out of thin air, hovering before him, along with a brush.
The paper was thin and light, yet when tapped it did not so much as tremble.
Given the mysteries of the Great Void Illusion, learning one's name would be all too easy. Yet the voice did not simply use his name — instead, it asked him to write it down himself.
And then there was the matter of Zuo Guanglie's death. The one-time master of the Green Jade Altar had still been cowed by the man, delaying long before challenging him.
This suggested that within the Great Void Illusion, Zuo Guanglie had possessed a second identity.
The thought crossed his mind, and Jiang Wang lifted the brush and wrote — Solitary the Invincible.
This was certainly not his style. Either Huang Azhan or Du Yehu would have been more likely choices; the former was always one to boast, the latter naturally fierce and fond of battle.
But Jiang Wang had thought that such a name would more readily kindle a rival's thirst for combat. Was it not precisely for the sake of seeking battle that he had spent merit to use the Sword-Discussion Platform?
[Solitary the Invincible has not yet entered the top hundred of the Wandering-Meridian Realm. No ranking is shown. Do you wish to conceal your appearance?]
Without a second thought, Jiang Wang chose yes. Wasn't taking a false name precisely to hide one's true self?
Then he found another ten merit points deducted... but at least this had not seemed to be a one-time charge.
[Ninth-Rank Sword-Discussion Platform matching...]
[Match successful!]
Jiang Wang came to himself and found he was within a perfectly square room — a ceiling overhead, walls on four sides, with neither door nor window. The floor was smooth, the view open, all visible at a glance.
And across from him, a plump Taoist, round both in face and in frame, was slowly opening his eyes.
"Solitary the Invincible?" As he frowned, the upper half of his fleshy face seemed to cave inward. "With a name so arrogant, yet such an ordinary appearance — a practitioner of true skill, then."
After the Great Void Illusion's concealment had done its work, Jiang Wang's face had indeed been adjusted to be extremely handsome, almost rivaling Zhao Rucheng. Yet it had earned no better than a verdict of ordinary.
Jiang Wang also saw the name of his opponent in his very first matched battle within the Great Void Illusion — Zhen the Invincible!
The name made his eyelids twitch. A feeling of being specifically targeted. What did it mean — was his own Solitary the Invincible false, then?
Jiang Wang's dharma sword materialized in his hand as a projection, though it lacked the power to release the golden-light arrow of the real world. The complete materialization of external objects demanded spent merit, and for Jiang Wang that was hardly worth the cost at present.
"Then come, then!"
Zhen the Invincible was still delivering his opening line when Jiang Wang's sword-light stirred and his body shot forward in a burst.
His swordsmanship had from the very first been honed in killing. He had always seized the initiative, held the center line, and never wasted time.
From first among the outer-school swordsmen to champion of the first-year students in the Three-City Dao Debate, and that single blade barring the gate in Wangjiang City — all of this had given him immense confidence. The momentum that belonged to him had slowly taken shape.
This sword was like a serpent dragon startling the heavens, twisting and diving like lightning.
"What a sneaky cur!" Zhen the Invincible still found the moment to hurl an insult as, with one hand, he pressed before his chest and a round shield of swirling water rose to block him, catching the sword tip dead on!
"You dared sneak up on me!" he shouted again.
His plump hand slashed sideways, and a fire blade sliced out sharply.
At the same time, vines shot up from beneath, coiling tightly toward Jiang Wang.
A Wandering-Meridian cultivator could not carve and instantly release Dao arts — to have launched so many attacks almost simultaneously meant this fatty had long since clasped his sigils in readiness. Yet here he was, loudly denouncing Jiang Wang for sneaking.
But to be fair, his command of Dao arts could only be called precise and cunning.
Jiang Wang felt a surge of excitement. In the Fenglin City Dao Academy, he could never have met such an opponent. It was either one too strong, towering several ranks above him, or one too weak, crumbling at a single blow. It was hard to taste any real joy of battle.
His heart surged, yet his hand remained steady as forged iron, and with overwhelming control, he let the sword kiss the Water Wave Shield and withdraw in a single point, without sinking into the shield and being caught by the swirling water.
He leapt high, dodging that fire blade, while wheeling the sword to cut through the onrushing tangled vines.
But he swiftly realized something was wrong.
His sword was too heavy!
Only a single drop of water had touched the sword tip, yet that drop seemed to weigh a thousand jun, dragging him straight down.
The fatty burst into laughter: "You thought that was a Water Wave Shield? That was a Heavy Water Shield, little thief!"
The tangled vines had already closed on Jiang Wang, and he flung two more fire blades, striking crosswise before him — both to crush Jiang Wang and to deny him any chance to counter.
His ten plump fingers flew through sigil-clasping as if to be a fitting mockery of any claim to invincibility.
Jiang Wang exerted his strength and shook hard — the sword tip snapped off, flying away bearing that drop of heavy water. Even as he fell, he suddenly coiled a purple qi that roared and surged, and in a single instant swept up the two fire blades, charging straight at Zhen the Invincible!
This was the deadliest killing art of the Purple Qi from the East Sword Art.
Boom!
The purple qi scattered, yet in the space where it had been there was only Jiang Wang, sword in hand.
What he had pierced with his purple qi from the east was nothing but an illusion!
And fully nine vine serpents had already twisted and wound their way to him, forming a makeshift cage that penned Jiang Wang in.
Jiang Wang reached out and pressed the barely-formed flame bullet against the vine cage, blasting open a hole. Yet because he was enclosed in the cage with no room to dodge, his left hand was also scored with a bloody mess from the blast.
But Jiang Wang's expression did not change; he merely flourished his long sword, ready to slip out through the gap.
Only...
Through that gap, one could clearly see, floating in the air outside the cage, a dense-packed array of wind blades.
Zhen the Invincible stood beyond the cage, keeping his distance from Jiang Wang, dabbing at his sweat: "Close one — you nearly turned it around on me."
Even as he said it, his hand swept out.
Countless wind blades sliced Jiang Wang to pieces on the spot.
...
Lost!
Jiang Wang returned to his hallowed land, still somewhat stunned.
His opponent was too strong!
Heavy Water Shield, fire blades, tangled vines, Phantom Art, vine serpents, wind blades. Nine vine serpents had even combined into a cage, and while the Phantom Art was already rare, the Heavy Water Shield was a Dao art Jiang Wang had never heard described before.
He had mastered so many Dao arts, and deployed them with precision and cunning.
Unlike Sun Xiaoyan's simple, honest nature, Zhen the Invincible, though he looked clumsy and simple, had controlled the rhythm of the battle throughout — in that clash, every step Jiang Wang took had been within his reckoning.
Now Jiang Wang traced through the whole battle again yet could find not a single point of victory.
On the sundial, the figure representing his merit had reached 3,360 points. Ten to activate the Sword-Discussion Platform, ten to conceal his appearance, and ten lost in defeat.
A single battle had cost him thirty merit points. And the lowest-ranking hallowed land, East Sea Peak, produced only a hundred points a month. Given his strength now, Jiang Wang doubted he could even take East Sea Peak.
Just then, a plump paper crane, he knew not from where, came weaving and wobbling its way to hover before Jiang Wang.
Jiang Wang caught it by instinct, and the crane unfolded itself in his hand, becoming a letter:
"Brother Solitary: this letter greets you as if we met. That single battle of ours, I cannot forget. Your strength fills me with admiration as one gazes up a mountain; to have won by luck a single bout fills me with trembling awe. I humbly beg for a rematch, to vindicate your power."
What nonsense was this? Jiang Wang scanned down to the signature, and there, sure enough, stood three bold characters: Zhen the Invincible.
Even his paper cranes were fatter than others'.
Only, this manner of speech — it looked for all the world like he meant to use Jiang Wang to "farm merit."
The merit cost of the Sword-Discussion Platform was borne by the loser. So in that battle just now, Jiang Wang had suffered the loss, while Zhen the Invincible had netted ten merit points.
Jiang Wang could only rue that he was not Huang Azhan; lacking in the art of abuse, his cursing was far from satisfying.
At that moment, another plump paper crane came wobbling over.
Jiang Wang took it and looked — it was still that same Zhen the Invincible, only he had changed his way of speaking—
"To be honest, Brother Solitary. I seldom meet an opponent so evenly matched — a great gain, a great gain indeed! I'm busy today, so next time will do. Come now, just send some word back by my flying crane, so we can keep in touch!"
Whatever followed those three words "to be honest" was always rather less than honest...
Jiang Wang's face twitched. He picked up brush and paper and wrote back: "We'll stay in touch."
And then, feeling the Silver Moon mark in his palm, he left the Great Void Illusion.
Damn that fatty. Just you wait.