Lu Wuhen's Demonic Intellect!!

Lu Xiuzhong’s pupils shrank to needlepoints. Almost purely by instinct, he raised his hand and slashed out with his sword. Yet Ye Feng had long been prepared. A beam of sword light flashed, and an arm flew into the air! Immediately after, a burst of scorching flame incinerated the severed limb to nothing. When Lu Xiuzhong saw this flame, he visibly froze, his expression turning bewildered. Before he had time to dwell on it, the fire dragons behind him were already closing in to swallow him whole. Left with no choice, he had to dodge first. The pitch-black flames transformed into titanic dragons of fire, dozens of them stretching over a hundred feet long. Ye Feng commanded the fire dragons, pressing forward step by step, his figure flickering through midair as he fiercely pursued and hemmed Lu Xiuzhong in. Seeing this, Li Guanqi’s brow furrowed slightly. He turned to look at Lu Wuhen, but the man’s expression remained indifferent, revealing not the slightest anomaly. Yet Li Guanqi noticed that beside him, the Lu clan's old ancestor, Lu Hengtian, looked rather displeased. Li Guanqi could not tell if it was simply because Lu Xiuzhong was being suppressed and battered by Ye Feng, but an uneasy feeling nagged at him nonetheless. The turn of events on the stage had exceeded everyone’s expectations. Before this battle began, no one could have imagined that an unknown youth could overpower and beat down Lu Xiuzhong, known as the Lu clan’s Elegant Tiger. Moreover, even when Lu Xiuzhong displayed extraordinary power from start to finish... Ye Feng was still completely crushing him! No matter what techniques his opponent unleashed, Ye Feng did not dodge in the slightest, choosing to meet every single blow head-on. Spectators even realized that through it all, even while talking, Ye Feng’s offensive had never ceased for a single moment. His suffocating, relentless assault left even the onlookers breathless. It was hard to imagine what Lu Xiuzhong, standing on the stage, was experiencing. At this moment, the Lu clan's old ancestor wore a dark expression. The old woman of the Zhu clan also frowned slightly, refraining from taunting Lu Hengtian. Reflecting on the prowess Ye Feng currently exhibited, she realized that across the entire younger generation of the Zhu clan, there were scarcely any who could be his match! "What kind of monster has the Great Xia Sword Sect produced?!" This thought crossed everyone’s mind. In the preceding three fights, the immense power displayed by Cao Yan and Xiao Chen had already shaken them to the core. In the first match, Cao Yan’s sweeping, grand boxing style already carried the air of a grandmaster. If demonic qi had not suddenly erupted within his body, he likely would have won the first round. Needless to say, Xiao Chen in the second battle wielded his spear with transcendent skill, and when he finally fought to complete exhaustion, he had missed victory by only the slimmest margin. Watching Lu Xiuzhong flee in frantic panic, the primal energy within Ye Feng suddenly began to roar, secretly shifting its circulation route! The cultivation art inside Ye Feng surged in an extraordinarily violent and rough fashion. Stabbing pain tore through his meridians, yet Ye Feng did not care in the slightest. Having likewise cultivated the Dragon Elephant Prison-Suppressing Art, his physical body was fully capable of enduring this strain. Boom! In that instant, Ye Feng’s aura broke through its limits, similarly reaching half-step Body Integration! This sight terrified many onlookers... "That aura... Could it be that his cultivation was only at the peak of late Void Refinement before this?!" "This... he's simply a monster!" Ye Feng’s figure flashed, appearing before Lu Xiuzhong in an instant, sword light flashing as swift as lightning. Lu Xiuzhong hastily raised his sword to defend, but Ye Feng’s sword strikes fell like a torrential downpour, leaving him overwhelmed. Ye Feng’s swordplay was razor-sharp, his techniques shifting unpredictably, the momentum of his blade surging endlessly like an uninterrupted river. Every single strike of his carried lethal danger, leaving Lu Xiuzhong utterly powerless to strike back. Under Ye Feng’s furious assault, Lu Xiuzhong retreated step after step, incapable of mounting any counterattack. Just when everyone assumed the victor was decided, the heavily wounded Lu Xiuzhong suddenly let out a deafening roar. A violent burst of primal energy erupted from his sword, shoving Ye Feng back. As he recoiled through the air, Lu Xiuzhong seemed to have made a desperate resolution. Boom! A crushing pressure comparable to the Body Integration Realm erupted with a roar! "Secret Art: Soul Burning!" Boom! A shroud of invisible flame enveloped his entire body. Ye Feng halted his charge, eyes narrowing as he gazed at his foe. This aura... "You are courting death." Indeed, Lu Xiuzhong was backed into a corner where his only option was to burn the power of his divine soul to bolster himself! In this battle... time was running out for him. Even if he won in the end, death was certain. Even if Lu Xiuzhong immediately achieved Body Integration after defeating Ye Feng, it would be impossible to halt the momentum of his burning soul. Soul Burning meant consuming one’s very life, and once begun, it could not be stopped by any means. Yet this act posed a very real threat to Ye Feng. Facing the majestic, imposing man before him, an inexplicable oppressive weight washed over him, setting his heart pounding. Ye Feng’s current condition was far better than his opponent’s; most of his wounds were merely superficial. However, the intense combat had severely depleted his primal energy. He reached into his robe, pulled out a radish, and began crunching away noisily. After gulping it down, he pulled out a small section of ginseng... Feeling a warm current coursing into his dantian, Ye Feng’s primal energy rapidly replenished. This restored energy did not even require refining... Compared to swallowing medicinal pills and absorbing spiritual energy, such a method was practically unheard of. Perhaps when Li Guanqi first brought Pengluo away back then, the spirit had never imagined that one day, he would become a substitute for spirit pills... Still, this method could only serve as a temporary replenishment of primal energy. "Phew..." Solemnity filled Ye Feng’s brow, for he knew that the battle ahead would be a true fight to the death! A slaughter fought purely for victory. The Lu clan cultivators had fallen completely silent. Regardless of the reason, Lu Xiuzhong would surely die after this battle. And he had chosen to trade his life for victory. Both Ye Feng and Lu Xiuzhong bore heavy burdens on their shoulders, each bound to their own stand. Boom! The instant their gazes met, both figures shot forward once more. Li Guanqi watched the stage with calm eyes, then turned to look at the equally composed Lu Wuhen. Suddenly, a terrifying thought struck his mind! Lu Wuhen had first sent out two branch patriarchs to throw everyone off, leading people to believe they were the ones who ambushed Ye Feng and the others. In reality, no one could find any proof, because those two were not Lu clan members at all! By having the Sha organization carry out the ambush, Lu Wuhen had injured Cao Yan and Xiao Chen without sacrificing a single one of his own men. Furthermore, hidden demonic qi had been planted inside them, lying dormant until erupting when Cao Yan took the stage. Li Guanqi had lacked the time to purge Cao Yan’s demonic qi, which led directly to their consecutive defeats in the first and second matches... Yet in the third match, when young paragons from the other eight branches had not even taken the field, Lu Wuhen chose Lu Xingyuan from the main lineage to fight! The Lu clan could never have missed his intention to ask Zhou Shiyu to step forward! Even knowing that Lu Xingyuan would likely fall to Zhou Shiyu, Lu Wuhen had sent him into battle anyway. He could clearly have sent Lu Xiuzhong, who had been in secluded cultivation and was far more powerful, to fight instead!