A cruel smile played at the corners of Zhao Yuan's mouth as he slowly walked onto the arena stage to compete in the late Foundation Establishment division.
Cultivators of this era lived far too comfortable a life, having never tasted real blood and fire. With just a slight application of his ruthless methods, they would weep miserably and abandon the fight.
He had fought his way up from the city- and province-level competitions in precisely this manner. Had the referees not stepped in to stop him in time, every opponent he had faced would be dead.
On the Dao Seeking Sect's home turf and under the watchful gaze of so many eyes, taking a life was indeed tricky.
So be it. If he could not kill, he would terrify his opponent out of his wits and ruin his path of growth. That way, there would be one less potential threat in the future struggle of the Golden Age.
What kind of genius was this so-called Dao Seeking Sect prodigy he was up against?
It did not matter. Whoever it was, all effort was futile before an insurmountable gap.
"Greetings, Fellow Daoist. I am Wei Nanfei of the Dao Seeking Sect."
Wei Nanfei was a disciple from the same cohort as Lu Yang. Poisoned in his youth by his stepmother, he had been saved by Dai Bufan, who had happened to be passing by.
"Rogue cultivator Zhao Yuan," Zhao Yuan replied offhandedly, casting a disdainful glance at Wei Nanfei.
Were it not for these finals, someone like him would not even have had the right to stand on the same stage.
After all, he was a grand peak Body Integration cultivator who had dispersed his cultivation to start anew. This second cultivation journey would surely take him a step higher, allowing him to reach the pinnacle of the Tribulation Transcendence stage.
"Fellow Daoist Zhao Yuan, please make your move."
Zhao Yuan moved. An emerald long saber materialized in his hand, its hilt set with a dragon-eye stone the size of a pigeon egg, and slashed horizontally toward Wei Nanfei.
"So fast!"
Wei Nanfei let out a cry of surprise and dodged sideways.
Zhao Yuan was not about to let him off so easily. With a flick of his wrist, the emerald blade spun in midair and swept down toward Wei Nanfei's lower abdomen once more.
*Clang—*
Wei Nanfei drew a pair of axes from his waist and crossed them before his abdomen, blocking the strike.
"Why do those axes look so familiar?"
Man Gu muttered under his breath, turning to Li Haoran beside him. "Junior Brother Li, do you recognize those two axes?"
At that moment, Li Haoran had Su Yiren on his left and Qin Yanyan on his right, enjoying the company of two beauties—though his left hand had already been broken several times by Su Yiren's crushing grip.
Fortunately, he possessed the ability of limb regeneration, and the wounds knitted back together in no time. He simply treated it as practice for wielding his Golden Core.
"Those are replicas of the Mountain Cleaving Axe. I forged them for Junior Brother Wei."
"The Mountain Cleaving Axe?"
That name sounded familiar to Man Gu as well.
Li Haoran had to explain further. "The three axes the river spirit presented to us during our sect entrance test—the mortal axe, the spirit treasure Mountain Cleaving Axe, and the immortal artifact Heaven Splitting Axe. Junior Brother Wei fancied the design of the Mountain Cleaving Axe, so he asked me to forge a pair for him."
Only then did dawn break upon Man Gu.
By now, the combat on stage had reached a white-hot pitch. Wei Nanfei was far more troublesome than Zhao Yuan had anticipated.
While Zhao Yuan was confident of victory, a clash of this intensity would hardly crush Wei Nanfei's Dao heart.
In ancient times, what Zhao Yuan had loved most was playing the pig to eat the tiger, disguising himself as a genius just to shatter the Dao hearts of proud prodigies.
*Time to bring out the real measures!*
Growing ruthless, Zhao Yuan drew upon his trump card. His blood boiled and his flesh flushed red and swollen, turning him into what resembled a rabid beast!
The dragon-eye stone on the saber's hilt flared with an eerie scarlet gleam, as though an ancient dragon had opened its eyes, radiating an oppressive menace.
*Boom—*
The blade cleaved toward Wei Nanfei's face. Even though Wei Nanfei parried with his twin axes, his arms trembled under the immense force.
***
"What technique is that?"
Yang Ding frowned. The Prison Suppressing Sect did not delve deeply into diverse cultivation arts; he could only discern that Zhao Yuan was utilizing an explosive method that granted a brief burst of power.
"It appears to be an art that burns lifespan to temporarily boost combat prowess," Luo Hongxia analyzed. Very few cultivators in the present era practiced such techniques.
"It is the Heaven-Burning Blood-Igniting Art," the Immortal Fairy stated nonchalantly, showing off her vast repertoire of ancient lore.
Methods of burning lifespan to increase battle strength had been commonplace in antiquity. Whenever the Five Ancient Celestials had nothing better to do, they would casually burn a few years of life just for amusement.
Immortal Suiyue, in particular, had burned lifespan regularly long before ascending to immortality, making him an exceptionally difficult opponent to handle.
After all, Immortal Suiyue's true form was the Jianmu tree. The lifespan of the Jianmu was roughly equivalent to—if not longer than—the entire history of humanity, effectively bordering on infinite.
"So it is that art." While the others did not recognize it on sight, they had certainly heard of its name.
"Then things are looking grim for your Dao Seeking Sect disciple. I fear he won't be able to defeat this Zhao Yuan," First Prince Jiang Qun said with a slight frown.
Every sign suggested that Zhao Yuan was very likely an ancient cultivator.
"No matter. Wei Nanfei also cultivates the Heaven-Burning Blood-Igniting Art."
"He does too?" Qiu Jin'an was surprised, thinking to himself that it was no wonder she had recognized Zhao Yuan's technique right away.
"Yes. Written by Girl Yun."
***
Wei Nanfei opened his mouth as if to say something, but Zhao Yuan was quick of eye and hand, launching a preemptive strike to silence him.
*Thinking of surrendering? Not a chance!*
Seeing how utterly unreasonable his opponent was, Wei Nanfei shook his head helplessly and had no choice but to activate his technique as well.
Zhao Yuan's strength surged wildly. Even though his cultivation remained at late Foundation Establishment, his combat power was enough to stand toe-to-toe with someone in the late Golden Core stage!
*Kill!*
Zhao Yuan laughed maniacally in his mind as his aura climbed relentlessly. Wei Nanfei avoided confronting him head-on, dodging the onslaught.
Refusing to let up, Zhao Yuan was determined to leave an indelible psychological scar upon Wei Nanfei's mind through this battle.
*Kill, kill, kill!*
Zhao Yuan grew steadily stronger, and his lifespan burned away faster and faster.
"Wait! Why is my lifespan burning away so quickly?!" Zhao Yuan cried out, seized by panic.
The Heaven-Burning Blood-Igniting Art was his lifebound technique, something he had cultivated his entire life. There was no way an error could occur.
"It's you!" Zhao Yuan glared venomously at Wei Nanfei.
Wei Nanfei gave a light sigh. "I was trying to tell you earlier that if you surrendered, I wouldn't use this move. But you refused to let me speak. Look, both of us cultivate the Heaven-Burning Blood-Igniting Art, so why must we fight to the bitter end?"
"Besides, the most important thing is that you can't beat me at it anyway."
"Are you out of your mind?! What kind of Heaven-Burning Blood-Igniting Art are you even using?!" Zhao Yuan roared in fury. Who was he trying to fool? Who understood this technique better than he did?
He had never heard of an art that helped *someone else* burn their lifespan!
"Well, Eldest Senior Sister said it's called the Heaven-Burning Blood-Igniting Art," Wei Nanfei muttered. He had found it peculiar as well: when he had been picking out a technique, the elder had brought out two manuals. One was called the *Heaven-Burning Blood-Igniting Art*, and the other was also called the *Heaven-Burning Blood-Igniting Art*.
The difference was that the former had been unearthed from an ancient grotto-heaven, while the latter had been written by Eldest Senior Sister.
He had decisively chosen the latter.
Seeing his lifespan draining away without pause—and realizing that even halting his technique did nothing to stop it—Zhao Yuan hurriedly conceded defeat.
***
"What on earth is going on?" Qiu Jin'an looked at the arena in sheer bewilderment.
The Immortal Fairy flashed an excited grin, just about to expose Yun Zhi's embarrassing history, when a cup of tea was set down beside her hand.
Turning her head, she saw Yun Zhi standing behind her, cold as frost, asking with great solicitude, "Acting Sect Master, have a sip of tea to moisten your throat."
Cold sweat broke out across the Immortal Fairy's forehead, and she did not dare say another word.
Yang Ding recalled a certain rumor. It was said that every disciple in the Dao Seeking Sect had to complete two missions each year. To fulfill her quota, Yun Zhi had claimed that she had visited ancient grotto-heavens and retrieved ancient cultivation arts. While she claimed they were ancient arts, they were in truth completely fabricated by her based solely on their titles.
And the techniques of the same name that Yun Zhi had composed were often far more formidable than the originals.
Chapter 488