How Do You Even Comment on This?

On the arena stage, Lu Yang fell into deep thought, as did Meng Jingzhou down below. Eldest Senior Sister had told them that the Qingzhou yamen invited Dao Seeking Sect disciples to attend the grand festival, and the requirement was cultivators under eighteen years of age. The two of them wanted to exchange pointers with the younger generation, so they signed up to compete. The logic was airtight; not a single flaw could be found. So why were Lan Ting, Bai Ming, and another person they didn't recognize sitting up on the judging platform? Were all of them over eighteen? When the crowd below heard that Lu Yang was from the Dao Seeking Sect, a sharp intake of breath rippled through the spectators. Who would have imagined that someone from the Five Great Immortal Sects would actually take part in this gathering? Such a thing had never been heard of before! "Wait, who is Lu Yang? Have any of you heard of him?" The spectators were thoroughly baffled. While the Dao Seeking Sect's reputation was renowned far and wide, practically no one knew who Lu Yang was. "Never heard of him. I've only heard of his opponent, Feng He." "Same here. I heard Feng He gained enlightenment through music, achieved Qi Induction, and set foot on the immortal path. After reaching Foundation Establishment, he acquired a damaged ancient zither at an auction that seemed to have belonged to an almighty expert. When marauder cultivators grew greedy and tried to rob him, Feng He actually turned the tables and captured that early Foundation Establishment cultivator and two late Qi Refinement cultivators using the zither's might!" Lu Yang's name wasn't nearly as famous as those top seeded contenders. The tournament's top seeded contenders all had their sects pushing behind the scenes to build up their reputations, advertising how their disciples had descended the mountain to rid the people of scourges, slaying bandits, vicious ghosts, and demons, or how they had taken first place in internal sect tournaments, finding rivals hard to come by within their realm. At the very least, they would spin tragic backstories—both parents dead, an ill-fated life full of hardships, overcoming a thousand trials and ten thousand tribulations to cultivate immortality... In short, whatever caught the most eyes was how they promoted them. Then there were Lan Ting, Bai Ming, Yan Tianzhi, and the like. When undertaking sect missions, their acts of eradicating evil and punishing wickedness were numerous. Local gentry, town mayors, and commandery governors had to treat them with utmost courtesy out of fear they would exercise their immortal sect enforcement authority. Stories of their deeds were widely circulated among the common folk, earning them even greater fame than the top seeded contenders. Look at Lu Yang, on the other hand. During his Foundation Establishment stage, he had gone undercover in the Immortal Cult, taken out the Yanjiang Branch Master who was moonlighting as a commandery governor, then lured the Immortal Cult's Vice Cult Master to his death in the Dao Seeking Sect, and finally helped uproot the entire Immortal Cult and its fourteen-thousand-year history. During his Golden Core stage, he had posed as an ancient genius to establish the Heavenly Court Cult, duping the Nine Nether Cult into temporarily giving up their thoughts of killing to run a barbecue shop instead. Setting aside the fact that these matters had to be kept strictly confidential, even if he spoke of them, not a soul would believe him. "So you are a fellow Daoist from the Dao Seeking Sect. Let us battle!" Feng He said, brimming with confidence. Flashing a bright smile, he retrieved a seemingly intact ancient zither from his storage ring. It gleamed brilliantly in the sunlight thanks to its golden strings. His master had found an expert to appraise it: the zither was a relic left behind by a Soul Formation expert and had already been seventy percent restored. Although it could not unleash its full power as it would in the hands of a Soul Formation cultivator, when activating an artifact of this caliber even slightly, peers of the same realm would find it nearly impossible to match. Feng He truly had the right to be proud. Lu Yang had a dozen or so junior brothers and sisters from the same batch who were also under eighteen. They, too, had only recently reached Foundation Establishment, and the fastest among them were perhaps at middle Foundation Establishment. Feng He's cultivation talent was readily apparent from this alone. Of course, Lu Yang's junior brothers and sisters were largely left to free-range cultivation, whereas Feng He had been painstakingly groomed by the sect backing him, so the comparison was not entirely fair. Facing a peer of his own age who was so brimming with confidence, Lu Yang did not let his guard down. He activated his Invincible Core. Before long, the Invincible Core delivered its verdict. "Fight however you like." Clang— The zither notes chimed like golden bells, resounding with the imposing presence of coiled dragons and crouching tigers. A faint golden shimmer began to vibrate, unleashing a fierce soundwave that swept toward Lu Yang. In an instant, the music traced a precise arc through the air like a white serpent, the soundwave carrying scorching heat and power, overflowing with malevolent energy. Feng He struck first, channeling his dharmic powers into the ancient zither to seize the upper hand and take the initiative in battle. Whether Lu Yang chose to face the attack head-on or dodge it, Feng He had already calculated his subsequent moves. Combat was all about calculation! "Soundwave materialization! He learned how to use that right after reaching Foundation Establishment?" an experienced cultivator blurted out in shock. Countless cultivators who specialized in musical arts spent a decade or two just to master such a technique, yet a mere junior like Feng He had already grasped it! "It's said that this was the very method Feng He used to defeat that veteran early Foundation Establishment marauder cultivator!" "Back then, the ancient zither was still damaged. Now that it's been restored, its power will only be greater!" "He's using his trump card right off the bat!" "Can Lu Yang from the Dao Seeking Sect withstand this move?" Facing the materialized soundwave, Lu Yang did not show the slightest carelessness. Going all out, he violently swiped his right hand downward, slapping the malevolent soundwave into nothingness. He stepped forward and pointed his index finger, unleashing an invisible burst of sword qi. Caught off guard by this move, Feng He could not react in time, but his artifact acted instinctively to protect its master, flying up to block the blow before him. The sword qi was both razor-sharp and immensely heavy. It slammed against the ancient zither, and the shockwaves jarred Feng He's internal organs. Clutching his zither, Feng He tumbled right off the arena stage. The cultivators below fell dead silent for a brief moment, and then a deafening clamor of discussion erupted, enough to make one's scalp tingle. "Did you see that move just now? Was that sword qi? That's the first time I've ever seen sword qi!" "He dispersed the soundwave with a single slap and defeated Feng He in one blow! This Lu Yang guy is terrifyingly strong!" "Just what realm is he in?!" Up on the judging panel, Lan Ting remained silent for a long time. When she accepted the provincial governor's request, she had thought the job would be simple enough—just minor squabbles among Foundation Establishment cultivators at best, so commenting on their strengths and weaknesses wouldn't be difficult. The scene before her was something she had never anticipated. What was she supposed to say? Praise Lu Yang for using his Golden Core stage cultivation to defeat the seeded contender Feng He? She couldn't bring herself to utter those words. Or should she praise Feng He's soundwave attack as proof of his musical talent, predicting he would achieve great things in the future? Yet that seemingly formidable soundwave had been slapped into oblivion by Lu Yang with a single backhand. She turned her head to look at Bai Ming and Yan Tianzhi. Bai Ming sat in silence, looking as though he had suffered temporary blindness and couldn't see what was happening on stage. Yan Tianzhi opened his mouth and slowly let out a single word: "Good." Good? Good what? Was he praising how skillfully Lu Yang had executed that burst of sword qi—flinging Feng He out of bounds without harming him, demonstrating pinpoint control of power? Just as Lan Ting was feeling puzzled, she heard Yan Tianzhi slowly add two more words: "...Shameless bastard." Lan Ting: "..." It seemed she couldn't count on either of these two. She let out a long breath, racked her brains, and offered her commentary: "Just now, contestant Feng He's soundwave attack was truly astonishing, fully living up to his reputation as a musical genius. Even if other seeded contenders had managed to block it, they would have suffered heavy damage to their vitality and been left utterly exhausted. "Regrettably, this time contestant Feng He crossed paths with contestant Lu Yang. Contestant Lu Yang is a sword cultivator wholly devoted to the sword path, single-minded in his pursuit of the supreme sword arts. His invisible burst of sword qi contained profound depths within, which speaks volumes of his mastery in the sword path! "Of course, none of the above was the decisive factor in contestant Lu Yang's victory. The most crucial point is that contestant Lu Yang is in the Golden Core stage."