Tan Yuechi’s defeat was due to his own arrogance and carelessness, not unleashing his full strength from the start. Secondly, his opponent was unexpectedly strong. He had wondered if he could have won if he had revealed his trump card earlier.
In the end, it was… not necessarily so.
Yes, not necessarily. A mere uncertain answer was enough to shatter his pride.
This time, six disciples from their Immortal Perch Cave were selected to compete in the "Newcomer Rankings." He was confident he would be the last one remaining. Who could have imagined encountering such a… monstrous fellow in the previous round?
“Do you concede?”
Danyǎ’s lips curved into a slight smile, her crescent-shaped eyes gazing at him, as if she hadn’t had her fill, or perhaps she was waiting for him to refuse so she could continue her torment.
Tan Yuechi stiffened under her playful gaze. He wasn’t foolish enough to fulfill her wicked amusement. Anger choked his chest, but he recognized the situation. He said in a dry voice, “I concede.”
As soon as he spoke, the Spirit Binding Formation dissipated. He clenched his fists tightly, his entire expression darkening like a cloudy sky.
Although Tan Yuechi was proud, he was also a man who knew when to bend. This was thanks to his not having a smooth journey; the failures and setbacks he had experienced taught him that temporary victories and defeats could not define a person’s entire future. As long as one survived, there would always be resources.
Once he conceded, he was immediately cleared from the arena. The flat, four-sided arena was left with only Danyǎ.
But it wasn’t long before another challenger was announced.
The second bout began.
Defending the spot, or being defeated and retreating, the process repeated until one accumulated ten points to apply for advancement and exit.
For Danyǎ’s second bout, the challenger was a burly man, strong in the early Golden Core stage. He appeared to be a body cultivator. His tall, sturdy frame was covered in muscles like stacked stones. His sparse hair was unbound on his head, and his clothes strained tightly against his bulging muscles. He glanced at Danyǎ. Although he couldn’t discern the other’s cultivation, the bloodstains on his small body indicated a fierce battle. Adhering to the principle of striking while the iron is hot, he immediately adopted a stance and charged forward with a punch.
Danyǎ viewed men of brute strength with the disdain one would reserve for an ant, and naturally, he wouldn’t use extraordinary measures. He retracted his sword.
The burly man shouted, “Mithril Hide!”
The muscles on his body writhed, their surface like a coat of silver paint, gleaming and shining. As his feet pounded forward, each footprint cracked the ground.
One could imagine the immense hardness of his body, likely impervious to swords and blades.
“Mountain Breaking Fist!”
He thrust out a punch, enveloped in rainbow light, bringing forth a fierce gale. However, this punch did not land on Danyǎ. Instead, it was caught in Danyǎ’s hand, a hand as flawless as a work of art.
His knuckles gradually tightened. The burly body cultivator’s brow furrowed deeper, his eyes a mixture of astonishment and extreme anger.
How could he block his strike with his bare body?
Take another move from me!
He roared and kicked out.
Danyǎ cast a faint glance and met the kick with equal force. Thus, they engaged in a fist and foot battle with only their bodies, without any weapons, the resulting air currents shattering.
Two figures flashed and disappeared, afterimages constantly shifting in the sky and on the ground.
*Crack!*
During their exchange, an ear-splitting sound continued to emanate.
Whose bones were breaking.
Two figures flashed and disappeared, afterimages constantly shifting.
*Bang—*
A heavy object was fiercely kicked away, scraping across the ground before crashing into the barrier. A long bloody trail was clearly etched on the ground.
The elegant figure in the sky, shrouded in a wisp of smoke, remained largely unchanged. The blood on his shoulder had dried to a dark brownish-red. He looked down upon the burly man lying on the ground as if a deity descended.
He gasped, his throat making a “heh-heh” sound. Blood foamed at his lips, his eyes wide with shock as he looked up at the refined and poetic blue-robed man.
Danyǎ smiled and said, “The human body has two hundred and six bones. How many of yours remain unbroken?”
Oh my.
This is sadistic!
The burly man’s face turned ashen with fear. Enduring the pain, he choked out, “I, I concede, I concede.”
This damned fellow is also a body cultivator?!
And a body cultivator tougher than him!
Damn it, a body cultivator who doesn’t look like one? Isn’t this a form of fraud?!
Easily dispatching the second challenger, Danyǎ’s smile on his face deepened with a touch of distortion, his eyes filled with interest. The brilliant light in them was the amusement of a beast tearing into its prey. He was now looking forward to who would challenge him in the third round.
—
Scripture Repository
Although Gu Junshi was within the building, she could still hear the consecutive score notifications coming from the Nine Peaks. Upon hearing that her little beloved was the second to win a bout, she lowered her gaze and smiled.
“Sister, I want to go out! Please let me out.”
Gu Er started his fuss again.
The thought of his beastly master being right there made him unable to wait a moment longer to seek revenge.
Gu Junshi’s smile vanished. She swallowed the word “idiot” that was about to escape her lips and asked him coldly, “Gu Er, can you defeat the Void Sect Master now?”
Gu Er: “……” No.
“Or can you defeat the seven Sect Lords of the Void Sect?”
Gu Er: “……” Still no.
As if hearing Gu Er’s silent subtext.
“So, Gu Er, you are seeking death.”
This quiet conclusion filled Gu Er with shame and annoyance. His heart felt blocked, and he became withdrawn, not making another sound.
As an evil corpse zombie, his strength was greatly diminished outside the “Dark Night Barrier” of the Du Sheng Daoist Temple. At most, he could only deal with a cultivator of the Nascent Soul stage. Moreover, he hadn’t learned to control his evil aura, and it would likely cause a commotion the moment he appeared, leading to the Void Sect’s forces to obliterate him into dust.
Seeing that he had calmed down, Gu Junshi said, “Don’t worry, the person is waiting there and won’t run away. Once I finish my important business, I will help you capture them for you to deal with.”
This was why they said it’s good to have a big tree to shelter under.
Upon hearing his sister’s domineering words, this sentence immediately flashed through Gu Er’s mind.
He too had a powerful backing now.
He too had someone to stand up for him now.
Gu Er was moved to tears, and many words flooded his mind, but in the end, they all coalesced into one sentence: “Sister, you are so good to me!”
“Mm,” Gu Junshi accepted calmly.
She thought to herself, if you want the horse to run, you can’t stop it from eating grass. The zombie’s role in the original plot hadn’t officially concluded yet, so she should first feed it some “grass” to appease it.
Just then, the Treasure Hunting Rat joyfully ran over, carrying a stack of books on its back.
Gu Junshi took them and, as a reward, patted its head.
She quickly flipped through these books. The books here were not like modern long-form vernacular texts; they were generally concise and abstruse, with few words. For Gu Junshi, who possessed immense divine sense, this meant she could read more than ten lines a day, quickly perusing them.
Then she stopped at a passage in a book titled “Demon Records”—Demons are controlled by heart蛊, their evil eyes are cunning, and they feed on spiritual energy, causing endless harm.
Evil eyes?
Could this description be referring to the pair of red pupils she had seen on the ghost infant or Ziying?