Naked Sword Art

Chapter 517: Li Roh’s Test

Sensing the subtle shift in the atmosphere, Li Huxin turned toward them. When his eyes landed on Xiao Fang standing next to Li Lian, a faint smile crossed his face.

Walking up to Xiao Fang, he raised his hand, drawing the soldiers’ attention once more.

"This," he announced, his voice carrying across the assembly ground, "is Xiao Fang."

A ripple of murmurs spread through the ranks.

"He will serve as an independent captain under my command."

The murmurs exploded.

"Fang—" Li Lian wanted to warn him not to accept too many weak people into his team.

But she silenced herself when she heard the way they spoke about him.

...

"He’s a captain, but he’s blind?"

"He doesn’t even give off the presence of a cultivator."

"Is this a joke?"

"How can someone like that lead a team?"

"Why would anyone want to join a captain as incapable as him?"

"If we join him, we would be the first to die."

...

Xiao Fang heard every word, yet he didn’t react at once.

Li Lian, who had been worried he would be overwhelmed with requests, now found herself anxious for the opposite reason—that no one would step forward at all.

Then, unexpectedly, someone did.

A young man stepped out from the crowd, fists clenched at his sides, his brows drawn tight with resolve. Each step he took toward Xiao Fang was steady, deliberate.

Stopping before him, the youth cupped his fists deeply.

"Captain Fang," he said, voice firm, "I wish to fight by your side. If you believe I am unworthy, then test me. I will not fail."

Xiao Fang was momentarily speechless.

He hadn’t expected anyone to volunteer—much less someone willing to place his life in the hands of a blind captain. Yet the moment the young man stood before him, Xiao Fang felt something off.

A faint pressure. Not something a mere Refinement Realm cultivator should’ve been able to make him feel.

The crowd quickly recognized the boy, and murmurs spread.

...

"Isn’t that Li Roh?"

"That’s Li Tufa’s son."

"I heard his entire family was wiped out during the last beast wave."

"He’s illegitimate, isn’t he? But... he’s the only one left now."

...

Xiao Fang listened in silence.

He himself was an illegitimate son—and at Li Roh’s age, their body cultivation realm was similar. The difference was that Xiao Fang cultivated the Divine Sword method, a method notoriously harsher and more demanding than any other body cultivation method in this country.

Still, that unexplained pressure gnawed at him.

Xiao Fang lifted his head slightly, so he wanted to investigate it.

[ Spirit Perception ]

A faint blue light flickered behind his blindfold as the surrounding Qi came into view. Streams of energy pulsed through the courtyard—and then through Li Roh.

Nothing obvious stood out.

Yet his Qi fluctuated unnaturally, surging and receding as if he was already locked in the heat of battle—despite standing perfectly still.

’He’s certainly a hot-blooded young man. Exceptional will,’ Xiao Fang assessed. ’But his cultivation... is still too weak.’

Xiao Fang remained silent, yet his attention never left Li Roh.

Xiao Hei, still sitting on Xiao Fang’s shoulder in her kitten form, quietly raised her head and curiously looked down at the boy.

’So she noticed it too,’ Xiao Fang thought.

That strange pressure coming off from Li Roh, he still couldn’t understand it.

He hesitated only briefly.

[ Soul Search ]

A subtle ripple passed through the air—so faint that no one around them sensed a thing. But within Xiao Fang’s perception, the world inverted.

He saw past flesh. Past Qi. Past bone and blood. Then he saw it, but what he saw was something he never could’ve expected.

’This—’

Xiao Fang’s breath caught. His brows tightened, and a bead of sweat trickled down his skin.

Xun Wei was the only one to notice the subtle shift in Xiao Fang’s composure. Silently looking at Xiao Fang from the corner of her eye, she turned her attention to the young man standing before them.

He seemed to only be 15 or 16 years old, meaning he was strictly a body cultivator. But to make Xiao Fang react in this way, Xun Wei couldn’t see it, but like him, she could feel the pressure coming from the boy too. It wasn’t physical, it was something only her soul could perceive.

Xiao Fang’s eyes glowed a golden light behind his blindfold as he looked at Li Roh, what he saw wasn’t something he had ever seen in any other cultivator.

’This boy—’

Most cultivators only possessed a soul as small as ember—small, fragile, barely defined. Even powerful experts only carried larger embers, brighter and denser, but still contained.

But Li Roh’s was different.

Xiao Fang’s gaze lifted.

His soul was a raging inferno.

Nearly three meters tall, its shape mirroring Li Roh’s physical body exactly—arms, torso, head, all formed from roaring soul-fire. It pulsed with each heartbeat, vast and overwhelming, radiating a pressure that had nothing to do with cultivation level.

Xiao Fang swallowed hard.

He had absorbed countless souls—Core Realm, Profound Realm, Divine Realm. He had even devoured the soul of a Heavenly Realm cultivator.

Yet none of them compared.

Not in size nor intensity.

’What does this mean?’ Xiao Fang thought.

Power relating to the soul was still a mystery to him. What did having a large soul mean in terms of strength? Xiao Fang didn’t know yet, but he was curious.

Li Roh stood there, fists clenched, unaware of the storm burning within him—yet holding it together through nothing but sheer will.

Xiao Fang finally understood where that pressure was coming from.

"...Interesting," he murmured.

Li Roh stiffened slightly, unsure whether that word was praise or rejection.

Xiao Fang lowered his head as if to be eye level with Li Roh.

"You think you can pass my test, then I’ll test you."

In the next moment, a [ Solid Clone ] created using Xiao Fang’s spirit attribute stood between them.

Typically, a solid clone’s strength would be a realm below the caster’s body cultivation realm, but since he used his lightning attribute to create it, the clone’s body was nearly as strong as Xiao Fang himself.

"Strike my clone with your strongest attack. If you can destroy it with a single move, I’ll accept you into my team."