With a Thunder Whip in each hand, Gu Ran resembled a female executioner.
As the Thunder Whips danced, they moved with incredible agility, raining down upon her opponent like a torrential storm beneath a blur of lash-shadows.
The Liuyang Academy disciple parried frantically with his sword, struggling just to stay alive.
Yet with every strike, crackling arcs of lightning surged from the whips straight through his guard.
With half his body numb, the disciple suffered in agonizing silence.
By now, his right hand was charred black, and blood dripped steadily along the hilt of his sword.
His entire arm was scorched and blistered, countless lightning arcs flickering and dancing across his cracked skin.
Finally unable to bear it any longer, the disciple parted his lips, his chest heaving slightly.
“I surr—”
*Crack!*
A whip of lightning lashed viciously across his mouth!
Flesh split across his lips, leaving them charred and bloodied!
Gu Ran glared at him with piercing fury. “If I let you speak another word today, I’ll take your last name!”
Hurled back several zhang, the disciple had barely landed when several more whip-shadows came hurtling toward him before he could steady himself!
Already half-paralyzed, the youth took multiple lashes to his back before he could even regain his footing.
The strikes sent him stumbling forward!
A flicker of terror passed through his eyes. Disregarding his injuries, he shouted once more:
“Surren—!!”
*Crack!!*
Another lash slammed across his mouth, this strike even heavier than the last.
With a mouth full of blood, the youth spat out two front teeth. He looked up toward Ge Qing in the sky, waving his hands frantically.
With his mouth clogged with blood, he could only produce muffled, choked cries.
*Crack! Crack!!*
Gu Ran’s Thunder Whips fell upon him without mercy.
Convulsing all over, the youth lay on the ground, beginning to foam at the mouth.
In the end, the elder from Liuyang Academy could bear to watch no longer and called out,
“Enough! We admit defeat!!”
Inside the barrier, however, Gu Ran shot the elder a chilling glare.
She then looked up toward the heavens and said, “If I remember correctly, a surrender only counts if the disciple on the stage speaks it himself, doesn't it?”
Ge Qing looked impassively at the elder and said softly, “That is correct.”
The old man grew frantic and said in a heavy voice, “We are elders of Liuyang Academy, and we have already declared our surrender!!”
“Why does it not count?”
Ge Qing gave the old man a cold glance and replied quietly, “Those are the rules. Do you have an objection?”
The old man opened his mouth, but meeting Ge Qing's frigid gaze, he felt as if his throat were choked like a strangled duck, unable to utter a sound.
He could only glare venomously at Gu Ran and spit coldly, “Good, good, good!! What a Great Xia Sword Sect!! I will remember this!”
Hearing this, however, the fury in Gu Ran’s heart flared instantly!
The Thunder Whips conjured by the spirit incantation in her hands turned into a tempest of afterimages, savagely raining down upon the Liuyang Academy disciple!
Five breaths!
Ten breaths!
The savage barrage of lashes did not stop until the disciple was scorched black from head to toe, devoid of any sign of life!
The elder did not leave either, standing right beside Gu Ran’s arena, glaring as she finished every last strike!
Gu Ran dismissed the spirit incantation from her hands and met the old man's gaze with steely eyes.
“The moment your Liuyang Academy murdered a disciple of our Great Xia Sword Sect, this feud was forged!”
“If you want revenge, bring it on!”
“I hope we run into you lot again in the next round! You sons of bitches!”
Her slightly tanned face showed not the slightest hint of fear before the old man's murderous glare.
For Qin Xian stood right behind her—she had no fear of the old man making a sudden move to kill!
By this point, all the disciples on the other stages had concluded their matches as well!
Aside from Ye Feng, who had gravely wounded his opponent, Zhong Lin and the others had not been fast enough to stop their opponents from uttering a surrender.
In other words, out of the ten disciples representing the Great Xia Sword Sect,
the first round alone had cost them one dead and three severely wounded!
Liuyang Academy had suffered equally grievous losses: two disciples dead, four severely injured!
His face dark with fury, the Liuyang elder suddenly broke into an unsettling, eerie smile as he looked at Qin Xian.
With his hands behind his back, the old man lowered his gaze and swept his eyes over the faces of the Great Xia disciples.
“Great Xia Sword Sect... heh, watch yourselves.”
“I will remember every one of your little brats' faces. When you die, I will watch you wail with my own eyes.”
Then, the old man turned and waved his sleeve. “Let's go!”
Once the people from Liuyang Academy departed, the surrounding crowd erupted into jeers and boos.
After all, what they had tried to do was clearly a case of going out for wool and coming home shorn.
They had intended to use ruthless methods to intimidate the rest of the Great Xia Sword Sect, never expecting Great Xia's disciples to be even more ruthless!
Those youths whose cultivation was not particularly high yet fought with such desperate tenacity had also caught everyone's attention.
At that moment, the tally stele displayed the Great Xia Sword Sect’s score.
Among the early Foundation Establishment disciples, only Zhong Lin and Lin Dong had won, meaning of the four disciples, one was dead and one was injured, leaving their net points at zero.
Of the three middle Foundation Establishment disciples, only Ye Feng had won his match.
With Lin Qingyu and the other severely wounded disciple, their tally was docked another two points.
Li Guanqi, Yu Ye, and Gu Ran should have earned nine points, but after deductions, only seven points remained!
A clean sweep of victories would have brought nineteen points, plus an extra bonus point for winning every match, making twenty points in total.
Yet after the first round of clashes, the Great Xia Sword Sect held a mere seven points!
Even other sects with mixed wins and losses generally hovered around twelve points.
Qin Xian gazed up at the tally stele, where their sect's name sat ranked ninety-second, and let out a soft sigh.
In a low voice, he said, “Let us return and tend to your wounds first. We will discuss the rest shortly!”
Everyone nodded with grave expressions, then took to the air.
At this moment, none of them had the slightest mood to watch the matches of the other sects.
It was not until night fell that Qin Xian emerged from the room and breathed a sigh of relief.
Looking at the disciples before him, the elder said quietly, “It is fine now. Their lives are preserved, and their foundations have not suffered severe damage.”
Qin Xian paused in thought, then said, “Come, let us talk in the main hall.”
When everyone arrived, they found that Elders Tu Kui and Li Nanting were also present.
However, both of them wore extremely dark expressions, visibly infuriated by the day’s events.
Yet the helplessness on their faces also reminded everyone of the tournament's brutality.
Qin Xian said only a single statement:
“The upcoming matches will surely become fiercer, and our opponents’ tactics even more underhanded!”
“Therefore... my words remain the same: the sect’s glory does not require you to sacrifice your lives to forge it!”
“Prioritize your lives above all else!”
Returning to their rooms, everyone looked troubled and heavy-hearted. Ye Feng and several others gathered in Li Guanqi’s room.
Meanwhile, around Mount Tianyu, the spectators,
having witnessed the brutal clash between the Great Xia Sword Sect and Liuyang Academy, found the matches between other sects utterly flavorless by comparison!
Everyone was looking forward to seeing the fiercely spirited disciples of the Great Xia Sword Sect fight again tomorrow!
Without realizing it, the Great Xia Sword Sect had already drawn everyone’s eyes.
Though Great Xia Sword Sect sat at the very bottom of the score rankings, that did not stop many from believing in them!
Chapter 126