# Chapter 109: Dao Debate in the Starry River
In the depths of the Taixu Illusory Realm, Jiang Wang urged his Sword-Discussion Platform forward, charging directly into the river of stars.
Two Sword-Discussion Platforms met, and the scene shifted around them.
They were back in that foursquare room — simple, broad, and empty.
And there once more were Solitary the Invincible and Zhen the Invincible.
"Brother Solitary! Long time no see!" Zhen the Invincible was in exuberant spirits.
The words had barely left his mouth before he was swept away by a whirlwind, evading the sword-light Jiang Wang had already sent lashing toward him.
"Hey there, why attack the moment we meet? Won't you catch up first?"
His mouth was running, and so were his hands.
Two Wind Blades forced Jiang Wang back, whereupon Earth Spikes erupted from below and tangled vines came flying all around.
Jiang Wang cut through the wind with his sword and pressed forward.
He shattered the Earth Spikes. Pressed forward.
He severed the vines. Pressed forward.
The killing art of the Azure Qi Coming East sword was woven into every stroke, and Jiang Wang kept driving onward without a single breath of pause.
This battle space was vast and open, but even it could not withstand Zhen the Invincible's retreat — again, and again, and again.
Worse, Jiang Wang deliberately maintained the pressure, herding him all the way toward a corner and sealing off his room to maneuver.
Zhen the fat one discovered with a jolt that, in the time they had been apart, his opponent had grown thoroughly practiced at fending off his dazzling array of Dao arts!
However often he sprang a surprise, he still found himself steadily penned in.
In desperation, he began to unleash his true power.
His ten fingers shifted, the speed of his hand-seals nearly becoming a blur! Now every one of his Dao arts took form within half a breath, achieving the effect of "pseudo-instantaneous casting."
Three Golden Light Arrows cleared the way in a triangular formation, and Jiang Wang barely dodged them — only for a rank of Wind Blades to slash in from an angle.
Jiang Wang's sword surged with violet Qi, sweeping away the power of these Dao arts, but Zhen the fat one had already wrapped himself in a great wind and vaulted clear of his predicament!
His pseudo-instantaneous state could not be sustained, or he might have torn Jiang Wang apart with a complete assault. But for mere escape it was more than sufficient.
Yet he had only just leapt free when what awaited him were two vine serpents of stupefying nimbleness!
In truth, Jiang Wang's Dao arts had never been weak. The consummation of the Azure Dragon chapter of his Four Spirit Body-Tempering Art had made him peculiarly intimate with the Yuan-power of wood, granting no less than a thirty percent increase in his command over wood-type Dao arts.
Only, in their last battle, Jiang Wang had realized that his hand-seal speed lagged one to two breaths behind the fat one's. So he wielded his Dao arts with great caution, biding his time and holding them back until the most critical of moments.
And it came when Zhen the Invincible's "pseudo-instantaneous" state faded, at the instant he believed himself free.
The two vine serpents barred the one road he must take, their angles of attack so poisonous and exact that he could not but be caught.
Behind him, Jiang Wang was already closing in, sword aloft.
"I thought I'd found a nice fat sheep... as expected, everyone who shows up in this wretched place is a monster."
Even in this moment of crisis, Zhen the Invincible found time to grumble.
He gathered a shield of heavy water in midair and raised it against Jiang Wang's sword. His portly frame did nothing to hinder his deft turn as he reached out, seized one vine serpent, and smashed it hard into the other.
Jiang Wang had been burned by the heavy-water shield once before, and he would not repeat that error. His sword dipped, his whole body plunged low and swift, passing beneath Zhen the Invincible — and rising with his blade raised from behind the fat one's back!
Zhen had just disposed of the vine serpents. His plump hand pressed down, and a fireball greeted Jiang Wang full in the face.
The sword-glow slashed across it!
Jiang Wang meant to cut straight through that fireball, granting Zhen the Invincible no chance to free himself again.
But his sword suddenly weighed a thousandfold!
What nonsense about a heavy-water shield — that too had been a lie. The secret art Zhen kept at the very bottom of his sleeve was not a shield of heavy water at all, but the power to compress gravity into any Dao art. This fireball, at the very least, was so wrought.
Boom!
The explosion's shockwave burst outward. Jiang Wang could not evade in time and was blasted into flying ash in an instant.
Zhen the Invincible sat down heavily on the ground and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Mother above, that was almost a loss this time."
...
**[They have declined the challenge.]**
In his blessed land, Jiang Wang gnashed his teeth. He had just forced the fat one to reveal his hidden card, and he seemed one step from avenging his earlier shame — who would have thought the dead fatso had yet another trump in reserve!
Even so, reviewing the battle that had just passed, he considered that the match had not been utterly without hope. His chief mistake lay in being too hasty to finish in those final moments. Had he persisted with his oppressive tactics and denied Zhen the fat one any chance, he might not have lost.
The loss of twenty points of Merit galled him. His total now stood at merely 3,340.
Most infuriating of all, he had been ready to fight again at once — and the fat one had refused!
A fat paper crane flew over, bearing the words: *Brother Solitary, today my interest is spent. We shall do battle another day!*
Was this not the very fellow who'd sworn to spar whenever they had the time?
Whenever he was out of the Taixu Illusory Realm, this fat one sent a paper crane a day begging for a fight. And after this single match, he claimed his interest was spent?
Jiang Wang replied: Shameless!
Zhen the Invincible: Why do you curse at me?
Solitary the Invincible: If you disagree, then come fight.
Zhen the Invincible: Heh, I won't fall for your goading.
Jiang Wang could not be bothered to respond. He began to replay the whole battle in his mind once more, hunting down every point where he had erred, so as to avoid repeating them. This was his lifelong habit, and one of the reasons his strength improved so swiftly.
Zhen the Invincible: Why have you gone silent?
Zhen the Invincible: Brother Solitary?
**[Zhen the Invincible invites you to enter the Starry River Space. Agree / Decline.]**
Jiang Wang gave it some thought. Moved by curiosity about the Starry River Space, he chose to agree.
The Sword-Discussion Platform activated, and the scenery shifted. Jiang Wang appeared within a small pavilion.
The pavilion hung suspended in the void.
Looked at from afar, the starry river hung upside down above; from near, the stars filled the sky. From time to time a shooting star darted past on either side.
It was truly magnificent.
The interior of the pavilion, by contrast, was miserably sparse — nothing more than a single stone table and two stone chairs.
Zhen the fat one's flesh was piled wherever he sat.
"Hey, hey, don't attack me here — this is no place for sword duels!" He waved his hands.
Jiang Wang glanced around and said nothing.
Zhen the Invincible groused to himself: "A shabby place like this cost me ten points of Merit, you know? Just earned them back for nothing."
Jiang Wang's eyelid twitched, for the ten points of Merit the fat one had earned were none other than his own.
"Ahem." Zhen the Invincible changed tack, speaking with great confidence: "After that clash just now, you must already know my origins."
In the Taixu Illusory Realm he had no wish to expose his identity. Yet in the battle just passed, he had not been able to resist revealing his first card; and having revealed one, in for a penny in for a pound, he had immediately flipped over the second.
This had rendered his identity impossible to conceal any longer — for his clan's signature secret art was too famous.
Of course, such was only Zhen the Invincible's own belief.
In truth, Jiang Wang had not the faintest idea who he was.
"Ah, so you are..."
"Yes, I am in truth..." Zhen the Invincible waited a long while, only to realize that no continuation was forthcoming.
He had to chuckle and trail off: "You understand."
Jiang Wang understood nothing at all.
"What did you summon me here for?" he asked.
"Heh heh, don't you find the Taixu Illusory Realm terribly dull, Brother Solitary? Every time one enters, there is only this tiny room of three paces square — battle after battle after battle. Deductions for insights reward so little Merit; I contributed no small number of martial arts only to scrape together a pittance. Battles? And so many freaks!" Zhen the Invincible seemed to have been nursing his grievances for a long while.
"You are the first person to write me back at such length, so I invited you over for a talk, to make a friend." Zhen the Invincible glanced around and went on: "When the Hongmeng Space opens, it will be far more convenient for us to find a place to chat like this — and it won't cost any Merit either."
In his knowledge of the Taixu Illusory Realm, Jiang Wang naturally could not compare to the fat one before him. His Void Key had been "picked up," for the Taixu Illusory Realm had never allotted him a place.
From Zhen the Invincible's words, Jiang Wang gathered a number of revelations. First, that men like Zhen the Invincible held their stronghold within the Taixu Illusory Realm as a mere room of three paces square; his own blessed land was the exception, though its ranking sank lower and lower...
Second, that one could, in reverse, obtain Merit by contributing martial arts to the Taixu Illusory Realm.
Third, that a Hongmeng Space would later open within the Taixu Illusory Realm — seemingly a sort of public space. Moreover, entry would require no Merit, a clear encouragement to communication.
Under what circumstances would such a space be needed? Jiang Wang could imagine but one possibility — the number of people within the Taixu Illusory Realm was about to grow!
Perhaps one day the Taixu Illusory Realm would open to all cultivators.
And Jiang Wang, who had already tasted the benefits of the Taixu Illusory Realm, could well conceive of what that would mean: a sweeping and tremendous upheaval, a flood of human civilization!
It might directly overturn the entire extraordinary order of the present world!