Looking Down on the Arena!

Ye Feng’s words were spoken with resolute conviction, his boundless confidence rooted in his current terrifying strength! Looking at the man beside him, Lu Wuhen suddenly recalled something. With a grave expression, he warned, "Brother Xiuzhong, do not underestimate this fellow named Ye Feng under any circumstances! "For him to hold out for so long against an Earth-rank assassin of the Sha organization proves his strength far surpasses that of an ordinary cultivator!!" Even as Lu Wuhen spoke, the man had already flashed onto the stage. To Lu Xiuzhong, his opponent’s cultivation realm did not matter in the slightest. He would make the man pay with his life, sending him into the grave alongside his younger brother! Only thirty paces separated the two men. Ye Feng’s golden hair fell loosely over his shoulders. Without a care, he swept his bloodstained hand through it, pushing it back behind his neck. The gesture looked effortlessly wild and untamed, the slight curl of his lips bearing an enigmatic, cold sneer. A deep, suffocating killing intent hid within his sharp gaze. From just a few brief words from Li Guanqi, he already understood what terrible harm his two brothers had suffered. Clutching his longsword, Lu Xiuzhong was just as lethal, even as the murderous intent in his heart threatened to drown his reason. Yet like Ye Feng, he remained exceptionally cautious before his foe. To step up as the fourth contestant in this arena duel already proved that the opponent was no ordinary person. The sun dipped in the west, and rays of twilight pierced through the heavy clouds, stretching their shadows across the ground. Under the stifling atmosphere and the deep, rumbling cadence of war drums, everyone felt as if a heavy boulder weighed upon their chests. Their gazes clashed in midair, unleashing a creeping chill of bloodlust that rippled outward! The surrounding tension grew suffocatingly solemn. After all, beginning from the previous round, every match for the Great Xia Sword Sect had been a desperate gamble! The Great Xia Sword Sect... could not afford to lose! Meng Jiangchu sat slowly upon a throne conjured from the flames of five ghosts, with Gu Yong beside him. Meng Jiangchu spoke in low murmurs with Zhou Yunqing. It seemed Zhou Yunqing wanted to ask something, but Meng Jiangchu offered no direct reply, casually darting a glance toward Nangong Xuandu instead! The instant Zhou Yunqing caught that glance, realization struck him like lightning! "Brother Meng, do you mean to say... that scholar-robed swordsman hails from *that* place?!" Meng Jiangchu glanced sideways at him and replied calmly through voice transmission, "I said nothing of the sort." Zhou Yunqing took a deep breath, having grasped the implication. Turning toward the elderly man at his side, his form of address shifted from "Fellow Daoist Gu" to "Elder Gu." "Elder Gu, let us grow closer in the days to come." Gu Yong nodded with a genial chuckle, accepting the goodwill Zhou Yunqing extended. Truth be told, he had dealt with the lords of the Six Domains to varying degrees, yet he kept his distance from all of them. Furthermore, those lords had previously harbored designs to pull the Tianji Pavilion into their own grasp, which naturally made Gu Yong reluctant to reveal himself in public. The presence of three Mahayana Realm experts anchoring the side of the Great Xia Sword Sect exerted immense pressure on the Ancient Clan. Moreover, anyone with discerning eyes could tell that Nangong Xuandu subtly favored the Great Xia Sword Sect! Otherwise, why would he have extended the intermission at such a crucial juncture? The corners of the scholar-robed man's mouth curved slightly. He took a long, deep look at Ye Feng, then raised a hand to dismiss the barrier of the formation, shouting in a resonant voice: "Fourth match: Ye Feng of the Great Xia Sword Sect versus Lu Xiuzhong of the Lu clan!" The moment his voice fell, two deafening booms erupted. In an instant, thick dust billowed across the Dao platform as the ground beneath their feet plunged several feet downward! Before the onlookers could even react, the rapid, metallic clamor of colliding blades rang out in a frenzied barrage. A breath later, Lu Xiuzhong’s figure shot backward out of the swirling dust! *Skrrrt! Crunch! Crack!* Lu Xiuzhong’s feet dug into the stone as he skidded back over a hundred zhang before finally grinding to a halt! The man stared ahead with profound gravity, a scorching pain radiating from his chest. *Swish!* Gripping Nu Sha, Ye Feng swept his sword, dispersing the cloud of dust. Standing a hundred zhang across from Lu Xiuzhong, he sneered coldly. "Did the Ancient Lu Clan really send out useless garbage like you to fight?" At those words, many cultivators of the Lu clan caught their breath. Lu Xiuzhong had been the hope of the entire previous generation in the Lu clan. Back then, he and Lu Xingyuan had been hailed by the other hidden clans as the clan's Dual Holy Sons! Before Lu Wuhen had been born, none had ever questioned Lu Xiuzhong's terrifying might! Yet now, as a peak late Void Refining Realm expert, he had actually suffered a slight setback in his very first clash against that golden-haired youth... This sight shook every cultivator of the Ancient Clan to their core! "Hiss... Am I seeing things? In the span of a single breath, that youth struck over a hundred times, repelling the unreasonable onslaught of 'Lu the Elegant Tiger' and even managing to inflict a counter-wound!!" "What a terrifying junior! The student truly surpasses the master. Still... the Lu clan's Elegant Tiger is no simple adversary." Even the elderly matriarch aboard the Zhu clan’s cloud boat narrowed her eyes. The Zhu clan had heard the fame of Lu Xiuzhong, the Lu clan's Elegant Tiger, many times before. When it came to sheer strength, few among their own clan’s younger generation could claim a certain victory over him. "Heh, who would have thought that a tiny Great Xia Sword Sect could nurture such a monstrous talent?" "Lu Hengtian, did you ever consider that the Lu clan might one day lose?" Standing on the Zhu clan's cloud boat with his hands clasped behind his back, the elder looked down at the arena below with an utterly placid gaze. He let out a cold sneer. "Nothing more than a preliminary probe. It is still far too early to say who wins and who loses. "Reaching a conclusion so soon is a bit premature, don't you think?" The old woman leaned on her cane and chuckled softly, murmuring, "Then let this old woman see just what the Lu clan's Elegant Tiger is capable of." By contrast, morale on the Great Xia Sword Sect's side soared to its zenith. Lu Kangnian’s fists blurred into afterimages, slamming blow after blow into the war drum before him. The drumhead trembled, unleashing heavy, thundering booms. The rapid, rousing beats evoked the image of a vanguard general charging the enemy lines—unstoppable, unmatched, and holding the pass against ten thousand foes! The Great Xia Sword Sect might lose, but Lu Kangnian could bear that price! He firmly believed that even without relying on the meager heritage left by the predecessors, the modern Great Xia Sword Sect could still stand proud atop the highest peaks! On the arena, Lu Xiuzhong rose, chuckling at himself with self-deprecation. In an instant, a terrifyingly suffocating aura surged violently outward! In the blink of an eye, his aura shattered the limits of the Void Refining Realm, soaring straight toward half-step Body Integration!! *Buzz!!* The sheer aura he released sent faint ripples across the barrier of the formation—a phenomenon never seen in the prior three battles! A majestic, surging sword intent detonated from within Lu Xiuzhong, shooting straight toward the clouds! He fixed his gaze on Ye Feng in the distance and muttered to himself, "Being in seclusion for so long without killing anyone has made me a bit rusty. "In that case... I shall use your head as an offering to appease my brother's spirit in the heavens!!" *Boom!!* The stone platform beneath him fractured and collapsed like a massive spiderweb! Ye Feng rolled his neck, eliciting a sequence of sharp popping sounds. With a faintly demonic grin on his face, he leaned forward and sneered coldly, "Kill me? With just you?"