Yielding

"What kind of ghost Golden Core is this? You rambled on and on, but the conclusion didn't change at all!" Lu Yang fumed. "What do you mean 'rambled on and on'? That was an analysis of the situation!" The Immortal Fairy leaped to defend her Golden Core's reputation. She was the founder of the Invincible Core, after all; she could not tolerate Lu Yang slandering it. Just as Lu Yang and the Immortal Fairy were locked in a fierce debate over whether the Invincible Core was actually of any use, Zhou Fangge seized the opening to strike. "Die!" Zhou Fangge pulled four small pennants from his robes and tossed them into the air. They positioned themselves in the east, south, west, and north, hemming Lu Yang in on all sides! Lu Yang felt the space above him darken. He looked up to see a miniature mountain materialize overhead, plummeting at astonishing speed. "The Mountain-Moving divine ability!" Lan Ting recognized the art Zhou Fangge had unleashed. Even for someone in the Golden Core stage, executing this divine ability was exceptionally difficult; Zhou Fangge was using the four pennants to perform a feat beyond his current realm. Zhou Fangge had not let down his guard in the slightest. He led with one of his three trump cards, sufficient to pin down a Golden Core cultivator until they were completely immobilized. Facing the rapidly descending peak, Lu Yang countered with an ancient divine ability. "Heaven-Swallowing Earth-Devouring!" Lu Yang opened his mouth, gulped the mountain whole into his belly, and let out a burp. "That's the Taotie clan's Heaven-Swallowing Earth-Devouring!" Bai Ming's face was plastered with disbelief. That was the foundational art of the Taotie clan—who would have thought Lu Yang had actually mastered it? Compared to Mountain-Moving, the difficulty of learning Heaven-Swallowing Earth-Devouring was several tiers higher. From what Bai Ming had heard, not even a pureblood Taotie could grasp this bloodline divine ability while still in the Golden Core stage. "I knew Lu Yang knew more than one ancient divine ability!" Yan Tianzhi narrowed his eyes slightly. As expected of a cultivator capable of punching above his realm, he had even learned a divine ability like Heaven-Swallowing Earth-Devouring. Yan Tianzhi knew it as well, but his was through a clever shortcut—far inferior to Lu Yang, who had grasped it through sheer personal ability. Zhou Fangge had never expected the trump card he had meticulously prepared to be dismantled so easily. "As expected of an immortal sect disciple, but I came prepared!" Zhou Fangge clapped his palms together. A blinding white light erupted between his hands with a screech so piercing that the spectators below were forced to cover their ears. A ball of blazing lightning coalesced in his palms. The electric radiance illuminated Zhou Fangge's face, casting eerie, ominous shadows across his features. "That's Palm Lightning," the Immortal Fairy recognized the spell. "It's an art Immortal Ying Tian developed. When I challenged him across realms, he used it on me. Except he did it to catch me off guard, so he condensed it on the sole of his foot when he kicked me. Later, when the move spread to the world, heaven knows how it changed until it ended up on the palms of the hands." "...Probably for the sake of aesthetics." In the time it took Lu Yang to speak, the Palm Lightning crashed down, striking him square-on. *Boom!*— The lightning detonated with terrifying power. Clouds of smoke billowed out, and the shockwave swept across the entire arena stage, buffeting even Heir Yan and the others locked in combat nearby. Zhou Fangge stood gasping for breath. Palm Lightning was an art he had acquired from a Tribulation Transcendence inheritance. His spiritual energy was ten times that of peers in the same realm, yet unleashing this single spell had drained him dry. "Take that full-on, and forget an early Golden Core—even a mid Golden Core would end up dead or crippled!" Zhou Fangge sneered. That was the price of underestimating him. "Oh? Really? I was wondering why it barely felt like anything." Lu Yang's voice drifted from within the smoke and dust, sending chills straight down Zhou Fangge's spine. Just as Zhou Fangge scrambled into a stance to meet Lu Yang's assault, Lu Yang appeared behind him, smiling brightly as he patted Zhou Fangge on the shoulder. Zhou Fangge instinctively leaped forward to dodge, only to find Lu Yang's hand bearing down like a mountain, pitching his body sideways and robbing him of his balance. Zhou Fangge swallowed a Qi-Replenishing Pill, glaring warily at Lu Yang. "As expected of an immortal sect disciple. To think not even that could hurt you. In that case, I won't hold back." The cost of his third trump card was severe, but its power was enough to rival a late Golden Core. To claim victory, Zhou Fangge decided it was worth the gamble. Just as Zhou Fangge steeled his resolve to unleash his ultimate technique, his body suddenly went weightless. The scenery blurred past at dizzying speed as Lu Yang caught him by the sleeve and hurled him clean out of bounds. Heir Yan and the others, still locked in their desperate struggle, felt utterly helpless watching Zhou Fangge—who had been brimming with confidence beforehand—get casually swatted aside by Lu Yang. And *that* was the guy who had boasted he would defeat Lu Yang? Lu Yang hadn't even gone all out from the start; couldn't anyone see the hand holding his sword hadn't lifted once? Immediately after, they heard words that plunged them into despair: "Haha, Old Meng, you haven't finished yet? You're fighting so slow—count me in!" Lan Ting and the other two judges couldn't help but shut their eyes, unwilling to watch what was about to unfold. Both Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou were monsters capable of matching early Nascent Soul cultivators. Beating up a bunch of Foundation Establishment disciples was easier than spanking children. The moment Heir Yan and his companions saw Lu Yang join the fray, they tossed all their pre-battle plans out the window and scattered in flight. Rather than stubbornly bashing their heads against that wall, it was better to see who could run fastest and who was luckiest—whoever was the last one knocked off the stage would scrape by with third place. The spectators below watched Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou grinning merrily as they chased Heir Yan's group around like chickens. The onlookers couldn't shake the feeling that these two were absolute menaces, and whispers broke out. "Why do Heir Yan and the others look so pitiful?" "Tell me about it. Golden Cores bullying Foundation Establishments and grinning like that—they don't care about their dignity at all!" "Brother Meng, I'm of the Yan family from Qingzhou! We're both from prominent clans!" Heir Yan called out his lineage, trying desperately to forge a connection. As members of aristocratic clans, he had long heard of Meng Jingzhou's renown. Meng Jingzhou assumed an expression of solemn integrity. "This is a tournament stage where all are equal, with no high or low, noble or humble! How could status and rank decide victory? Holding back against you would be an insult to the competition, and acting like this will only disgrace the Yan family's honor!" Heir Yan asked cautiously, "Then, Brother Meng, doesn't you competing in this tournament with your Golden Core cultivation bring shame upon the Meng Family?" "Of course not. I ran away from home." And with that, Heir Yan was kicked off the stage. When Gu Qisheng jumped off the arena of his own accord, only Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou remained standing. "Looks like first and second place will be decided between the two of us," Lu Yang said with a smile. He hadn't fought to his heart's content just now, and now they could finally let loose without restraint. Meng Jingzhou smiled as well, unleashing the aura of his Golden Core until the pebbles on the ground trembled. "Speaking of which, we haven't actually had a real match between us yet. This is a good opportunity." "Great minds think alike." Lu Yang released his own aura, matching Meng Jingzhou stride for stride. On the arena stage, two auras that far exceeded anything an ordinary early Golden Core possessed collided. The entire platform seemed to turn into a boiling cauldron, bubbling and churning with horrifying intensity. Suddenly, Lu Yang recalled something and looked up toward the judges' bench. "Oh right, Lan Ting, there's one thing I forgot to ask." "Go ahead." "Is there a reward for first place?" Lan Ting wore a smile that struck Lu Yang as distinctly eerie. "Of course there is." "What is it?" "The reward for third place is a Core Formation spiritual item that increases the success rate of forming a core by fifty percent, with a ten percent chance of achieving a first-grade golden core." "The reward for second place is a Core Formation spiritual item plus the esteemed provincial governor's personal collection of Core Formation insights." "As for first place, besides receiving the spiritual item and the insights, the provincial governor also noted that the contestants in this tournament lack combat experience and have no familiarity with core formation. Therefore, the three of us judges are to personally step into the ring to instruct the champion on how to fight." Lu Yang blinked. He looked at Lan Ting, Bai Ming, and Yan Tianzhi, all three wearing uncanny smiles, and his hair stood on end. He spun on his heel, about to leap off the stage. "Old Meng, first place is all yours!" Meng Jingzhou grabbed Lu Yang in a vice grip and bolted toward the edge himself. "I was born with thin fortune—my destiny can't bear the weight of first place! You take it!"