Chapter 724: 724 Douling Commerce’s expert
"The Three-legged Ice Crystal Toad is a kind of Poison Vein Demon with extreme yin and cold properties. Even in his previous life at the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud, Yun Xiao had only seen it once.
Even the Long Xiao Battle God from his former life, a high-level Saint Rank peak Meridian Refining Master, dared not touch that Three-legged Ice Crystal Toad after it reached great success in cultivation. Its ice cold poison was simply not something humans could resist.
Yet in this life, after his rebirth, due to the Blood Moon Jade, Yun Xiao underwent some changes within his body, and with the aid of the self-proclaimed Five-Clawed Golden Dragon, Golden Snake Worm Xiao Wu, he surprisingly absorbed the majority of the Three-legged Ice Crystal Toad’s intense poison, thereby activating the second Ice Attribute Ancestor Vein Power.
Due to a twist of fate, when Fu Du attempted to employ the Three-legged Ice Crystal Toad’s Meridian Spirit, it was unexpectedly seized by Yun Xiao, making it his first Meridian Spirit.
There seemed to be a mysterious connection between the Three-legged Ice Crystal Toad and Yun Xiao’s right arm’s Ice Cold Ancestral Vein, which felt almost non-existent in everyday life, causing him to subconsciously forget about his first true Meridian Spirit until this moment when he suddenly realized it.
"Hehe, if tomorrow’s opponent isn’t too strong, I might as well try out this Three-legged Ice Crystal Toad!"
After fiddling with the Three-legged Ice Crystal Toad for a while, a light chuckle suddenly came from Yun Xiao’s mouth. Remembering the covetous looks that many had shown towards the Golden Snake Worm during the day, he suddenly became much more cautious.
Although Yun Xiao knew that not many believed his half-joking claim about Xiao Wu being a dragon, Xiao Wu’s performance today had been too eye-catching, and he couldn’t ensure that it wouldn’t attract the covetousness of some greedy fellows.
It might be fine to deal with Cultivators at the early or middle stages of the Qi Seeking Realm, and Yun Xiao would not have any concerns, but if it were those at the late stage or even at the peak of the Qi Seeking Realm, Yun Xiao feared he could only do his utmost to hold his ground and then seek a path of escape.
Furthermore, this year’s Spirit Fighting Conference had attracted many powerful figures from the Seeking Origin Realm to the audience, such as the Branch Chairman of the Spirit Fighting Branch and the Special Envoy from headquarters, Xia Yong. If Yun Xiao faced them, it would become extremely difficult even to extricate himself, after all, they were an entire Great Rank and more above him.
However, since he had already decided to participate in the Spirit Fighting Conference, Yun Xiao would not easily back down before securing the championship and obtaining the Thunder Spirit Crystal.
He also believed that if anyone coveted his Meridian Spirit, they would hardly dare to take action during the period of the Spirit Fighting Conference. It would be a direct affront to the Douling Commerce, and neither the Branch Chairman Xu Huang nor the Special Envoy Xia Yong from the headquarters would allow such a thing to happen.
...
The night passed in a flash!
When the first ray of sunlight in the morning spread over the city, the whole Yuyang City stirred into activity like a machine starting up, becoming bustling with noise and excitement.
Of course, the real excitement was not within Yuyang City, but outside the North Gate, because that’s where the Spirit Fighting Conference took place. Almost all the Cultivators were gathered here.
After yesterday’s dozens of arena Spirit Fighting battles, the four or five thousand contestants had been halved, and those defeated naturally became spectators. Naturally, their expressions were somewhat sullen, especially in certain areas where many were grinding their teeth.
"Yun Xiao!"
One of the elders, upon seeing a young man in coarse clothing stepping slowly into the contestant area, could no longer hide his malicious resentment and squeezed two words through his teeth.
This elder was naturally Jiang Nanchao, who, being exceedingly proud, was crushed by Yun Xiao in front of everyone, and his old face still burned with shame.
Had it not been for the consideration of Douling Commerce’s power, he would have probably taken action on the spot yesterday, so upon seeing the indifferent young man in coarse clothing again, a surge of rage almost broke free. In his view, the person who should be standing on that stage was him, Jiang Nanchao.
"I announce, the second round of the Spirit Fighting Conference officially begins!"
Xu Huang on the northern high platform saw the appointed time had come. Without bothering whether all the second-round contestants had arrived, he stood up and announced aloud, instantly igniting the atmosphere in the arena, making it fiery hot.
The second round of the Spirit Fighting Conference followed similar rules to the first round, with random pairings drawn from the Entry Tokens. However, this time, they did not start from numbers one to fifty, as many had already been eliminated in the first round.
The hosts of the Spirit Fighting Conference had their own methods of tally, and it wasn’t long before Yun Xiao and Lin Xuanhao heard the number "three hundred and twenty-six."
Yet when Yun Xiao raised his head and saw the figure on the stage, he couldn’t help but think to himself that there were indeed some unknown tricks at play in the Spirit Fighting Conference.
"Look, it’s that young man called Yun Xiao who’s going up!"
"Eh? Isn’t his opponent that guy from Douling Commerce, Ji Fu?"
"I heard that Ji Fu is a powerful figure at the peak of the late stage of the Qi Seeking Realm, just half a step away from reaching the peak of the Qi Seeking Realm!"
"So it seems that Ji Fu should be somewhat stronger than Jiang Nanchao from yesterday, right?"
"Stronger? Ji Fu is from the Douling Commerce, his research and expertise in Meridian Spirits far surpass anything a mere Jiang Nanchao can match."
"This is going to be quite the spectacle!"
"..."
As Yun Xiao stepped onto the arena, the whispers he heard also informed him who his opponent was this round. A cold smirk flashed across his eyes, and he discreetly glanced in a certain direction.
There, a noble-looking young man was gently waving a folding fan with an air of indifferent ease, as if the matter at hand had nothing to do with him.
In fact, this arrangement was indeed made by Xu Huan, the young master of the Douling Commerce. However, after witnessing Jiang Nanchao’s defeat yesterday, his contempt for Yun Xiao had lessened somewhat, and he impressively dispatched Ji Fu, a member of Douling Commerce, to the fight.
There was no prohibition against partiality in the Spirit Fighting Conference, thus any cultivator from the Douling Commerce in Yuyang City who met the requirements could participate.
Moreover, as cultivators from Douling Commerce, their research in Meridian Spirits might be even deeper than that of ordinary cultivators. For instance, Ji Fu, even though he is at the late stage of the Qi Seeking Realm just like Jiang Nanchao, his understanding of Meridian Spirits is incomparably deeper.
In the way of Meridian Spirits, not only must one erase the Spirit’s own wisdom and refine it, but also the compatibility between the cultivator and the Meridian Spirit is crucial—the higher the compatibility, the more fluently the Meridian Spirit can be commanded in battle.
"Hey, since this guy is so confident, let him have a taste of the power of the Three-legged Ice Crystal Toad!"
The first thing Yun Xiao saw as he ascended the stage was Ji Fu’s cold smirk, through which he could sense a cryptic hostility, not knowing when he had ever offended him.
But the next moment, Yun Xiao realized the reason; since the opponent is from the Douling Branch, he probably can’t escape his connection with Xu Huan, and their collusion was not an impossibility.
Just two rounds in, he had encountered two late-stage Qi Seeking Realm cultivators, each stronger than the last. To say there wasn’t some trickery involved would mean Yun Xiao was simply unlucky.
As for the spectators, they were naturally unaware of these subtle reasons. Some of them even appeared excited, as the scene of Yun Xiao defeating Jiang Nanchao yesterday was still fresh in their minds.
Given this, everyone believed that if it were some early or middle-stage Qi Seeking Realm cultivators facing Yun Xiao, there would likely be no contest. Now, facing off against Ji Fu from the Douling Commerce, the battle might become much more thrilling.
Therefore, at this very moment, the twelfth Qi Seeking stage had become the center of attention for everyone—an unexpected dark horse who had overpowered Jiang Nanchao the day before, and a well-known strong contender from the Yuyang City Douling Commerce. Everyone was eager to see who would prevail.
"Kid, don’t think you can look down on everyone just because you defeated a mere Jiang Nanchao. I’m not afraid to tell you that when it comes to Meridian Spirits, that guy probably hasn’t even reached the threshold!"
Watching the calm-faced, even smiling young man across him, Ji Fu, who bore no grudge against Yun Xiao, suddenly felt a surge of anger and envy.
Ji Fu knew that at Yun Xiao’s age, whether it be Meridian Qi Cultivation or Meridian Spirit combat, he probably wouldn’t have reached such a level, so he couldn’t help but feel a sense of injustice.
Plus, with the orders from the young master, Ji Fu had already made up his mind that if the opportunity arose, he would make sure Yun Xiao would remain on this stage forever.
As Ji Fu spoke, a certain old face beneath the stage turned ashen—this was the unwittingly targeted Jiang Nanchao.
Jiang Nanchao considered himself a late-stage Qi Seeking Realm cultivator, yet in Ji Fu’s eyes, he was nothing but trash unworthy of entering the threshold, an insult he could hardly swallow.
But at this moment, being a loser, Jiang Nanchao couldn’t just jump onto the stage to argue with Ji Fu face to face; all he could do was silently curse in his heart, hoping the two on the stage would come to mutual destruction.
However, Jiang Nanchao was perhaps thinking too much—this was a battle of spirits, where a mutually harmful outcome might be possible, but the chances of mutual annihilation were slim.
As for the thoughts of Jiang Nanchao under the stage, how could Yun Xiao and Ji Fu care? Especially Ji Fu, who stretched out his right hand abruptly after his words.
Then, not just Yun Xiao, but also some cultivators nearby felt a surge of ice-cold Qi sweep over, causing them to involuntarily shiver.
"An Ice Cold Meridian Spirit?"
Feeling the overwhelming Ice Cold Power, Yun Xiao’s eyes flickered with a hint of peculiarity, wondering if it could be such a coincidence—right as he was about to test the power of the Three-legged Ice Crystal Toad’s Meridian Spirit, the opponent had brought out an Ice Cold Meridian Spirit. Was this an arrangement by fate?