Naked Sword Art - Chapter 132

132 Perfect Clone

Suddenly the whole maze began to warp in front of them. Before she realized it, they had suddenly stopped moving.

Li Xiang eventually opened her eyes and saw that the exit was just 10 meters away. The strangest thing about it was that everything around them had changed. The maze was no long behind them, they were in a completely empty space, and the floor that Xiao Fang stood on was so black that it reflected everything perfectly like a mirror.

"What? How did we..." Li Xiang couldn't understand what just happened.

In the next moment she heard a loud splash.

Li Xiang looked at the spot where she heard the splash and saw ripples in the mirror-like water that Xiao Fang stood on. It was at that moment that she realized that Xiao Fang wasn't standing on land, but a body of water.

Xiao Hei suddenly peeked her head out of the water.

"Ugh, I hate water," Xiao Hei complained.

"Why do I find that hard to believe," Xiao Fang said with a smirk and a naughty look in his eyes.

Xiao Hei didn't catch the meaning behind his words. She just looked at Li Xiang enviously in his arms. She couldn't help feeling bitter, because if Li Xiang wasn't here then the person being carried by Xiao Fang would've been her instead.

Xiao Hei took her arms out of the water then a layer of qi briefly shined blue around her hands. Using it as support, she climbed out of the water till she was standing on the surface like Xiao Fang.

"Fei Lin, are you alright?" Li Xiang asked.

"Mn, the abyss is just an illusion. Whoever cast this illusion must've been extremely powerful."

"How did you know it was an illusion?"

"I didn't."

"Then why did you jump?"

Xiao Hei looked up at Xiao Fang then said, "Because I trusted him."

Hearing Xiao Hei's words, Li Xiang looked up at Xiao Fang. Even when she was unable to see it, Xiao Fang was able to do it blindfolded.

'Who is this guy? Why have I never heard about him before?' Li Xiang had so many questions, but she couldn't bring herself to ask them.

It was at that moment that she realized she was still being carried by him. She wanted him to put her down, but she didn't know how to walk on water like he did and she preferred to be dry.

She looked away embarrassingly. She didn't feel anything at first, but the longer she stayed in his arms like that the warmer her cheeks felt.

"This position is a bit embarrassing, can you carry me on your back instead?" Li Xiang asked.

After all he did, she felt like she was asking too much from him, but she felt like her heart was going to pop out of her chest if he kept carrying her like that.

"Hm? Sure, why not," Xiao Fang replied.

Li Xiang planted her face on his back as if to hide her face, and her hands made small fists on his shoulders. It was at that moment that he realized that his hands were too high up her thighs. Any higher and he would've been touching her butt.

Even if she didn't complain, he still found it a bit inappropriate so he retreated his hands lower down her legs before walking. She could tell that he realized her discomfort, so her heart felt a bit more at ease when he took his hands away from that area.

The three of them eventually passed through the exit, but Li Xiang climbed off of Xiao Fang's back before they did.

When Xiao Fang opened the door, it didn't lead back outside like they had expected it to, but it led directly into another large room with someone standing in the center of it.

Standing at the center of the large room was an elder. However, this wasn't just some ordinary elder, the colour of her robes were white and purple, and her hair was long, silky, and as white as snow. Although she was simply standing there, she was emitting a light majestic glow that gave her a profound presence.

She was a Supreme Elder, the same one that gave the speech at the start of the exam.

"Disciple greets Supreme Elder," the three of them greeted her respectfully.

The supreme elder was a bit surprised. She wasn't surprised by how quickly they completed the 2nd test, she was surprised to see Xiao Fang and Li Jiang still dry.

'Could they have seen through my illusion?' She thought.

She was a bit worried that she had made the test too difficult to pass, but it seemed there were disciples able to see right through it.

After a moment of thought, she quickly got over it then greeted them.

"Congratulations for making it this far. This will be your final test."

The supreme elder released the illusory qi from her body to create a clone of herself.

"To pass this test you must make 2 perfect clones of yourself. Anything less than perfect will be a fail."

Li Xiang was the first to make her clones, followed by Xiao Hei then Xiao Fang.

The elder watched as the 3 of them easily made perfect clones of themselves.

She walked around each of them, inspecting them closely.

"Hmm. Good, very good."

Even though she said she wanted them to be perfect, she didn't really mean it. The level they were able to display with this simple technique far surpassed what she expected out of the outer court disciples. Although there were a few rookie mistakes, they were still much better than some of the inner court disciples in the sect. However, when she inspected Xiao Fang's clone she suddenly froze. 

She stared at the two clones standing side by side with Xiao Fang. His clone was so well crafted that even she was unable to discern which was real and from the fakes. She just went with her gut and picked one.

"Mn, not bad. I could hardly tell the difference," she said.

"Hm? Elder, I'm not the clone. This is," Xiao Fang corrected her.

"Ah, of course."

She looked at his clones thinking that he played a prank on her. There was no way a disciple at his level should've been able to make a clone this flawless.

This wasn't something an [ Illusory Body ] Foundation Realm cultivator was capable of doing. This level of accuracy was usually only possible from elders with years of experience.

Truth was, not even Xiao Fang realized how perfect his clones were, but since dual cultivating with Yu An and some of the elders in the black paradise sect, he was able to quickly learn and perfect the technique much faster than any of his peers.

"Do we pass?" Li Xiang suddenly asked.

"Huh. Oh right, you all pass."

Following those words, Li Xiang clasped her hands and bowed her head, she could hardly contain her joy.

Using her finger and some spirit qi, the supreme elder created 3 small identical images in the air, one for each of them. The images made with spirit qi suddenly imprinted itself into their upper right arms.

The qi seemed to have marked their skins like a tattoo, but after a few seconds it glowed one last time before hiding under their skins.

They received a less complicated version of the same insignia after passing the entrance exam so they knew what it was for. Anytime they needed to verify their identification as a disciple of the sect they would only need to channel their qi into their right arms to make the insignia glow and show that they were inner court disciples.

The supreme elder then took them over to a peculiar looking cauldron. Cylindrical in shape, it stood 6 meters tall with a radius of 2 meters across.

The elder briefly explained it's function then asked,

"Who would like to go first?"