Lin Mu’s immortal sense observed the moves of Yao Changying. 

The moment the flower petals had appeared on the ring, Lin Mu knew that Luo Liqin was done for.

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From what he had heard from Princess Shang Yingtai, Yao Changying was someone who had tricked others and sacrificed them to gain power. 

‘But this level of proficiency doesn’t come that easily…’ Lin Mu was a bit doubtful. ‘At the very least, the technique she is using right now is of the Orthodox path.’ He reckoned.

~WHOOSH~

The numerous flower petals followed the gesture of Yao Changying and rushed towards Luo Liqin.

“Dammit!” The man couldn’t do much other than curse before he got bombarded by the petals. 

Each of the petals looked supple and beautiful, but in reality, they were all made out of Qi and had Dao Traces of Sword in them. They were incredibly sharp and left hundreds of cuts on Luo Liqin’s body.

His robes were shredded while a pool of blood soon formed under him. Eventually, though, it was as if Yao Changying had enough and she made a flicking motion.

~BANG~

The petals all came together and transformed into a large palm that knocked Luo Liqin out of the ring.

~DENG~

His body collided with the formation barrier of the ring and wasn’t sent crashing into the audience. 

~THUD~

He eventually fell to the ground and fainted. Lin Mu who ‘watched’ this, furrowed his brows and realized that Yao Changying was a lot stronger than he had thought. 

“Yao Changying is the winner!” The referee in the ring announced. “Take Luo Liqin for the treatment!” he ordered next.

A few people quickly arrived and took the man away. With the injuries that had been inflicted on him, it was clear that it would take him a while to recover. Though Yao Changying had fully stayed within her limits and hadn’t done anything that would be in the violation of the rules.

The cheering of the audience only made it seem like they were pleased with the result.

Those who were seeing Yao Changying for the first time were impressed by her strength, while those that had heard about it decided to bet on her in the coming rounds. Though, of course, with the strength of Yao Changying, the odds of her winning would be very high. 

The profits that the gamblers intended to make wouldn’t be much. Only when the competition was fierce would the odds be better. Otherwise, it was the same as following a predetermined result.

‘At least they wouldn’t let the contestants die.’ Lin Mu was pleased that the temple of the four guardian beasts also provided treatment to the wounded contestants.

Though this was only in the case that they were injured in a fight and it would be given to them up to a certain limit. The priests would make sure that they wouldn’t die, but wouldn’t prevent anything like an internal injury or more.

That was something the contestants needed to deal with themselves.

After the match ended, Yao Changying left the ring and walked up to her VIP seat, which was located in a tower that overlooked several rings at once. Lin Mu wanted to take a look there to but found there to be protective formations that prevented any immortal sense from spying on them.

‘Hmm… Guess they keep this much security.’ Lin Mu noted.

He looked around more to see if there were any other acquaintances of his that were in battles, but didn’t find any. 

‘Other than Luo Liqin there’s no one nearby. They must be in the rings on the other side.’ Lin Mu thought that it was already luck that Yao Changying was located this close to him.

Or rather, a few rings away from his ring. 

One thing was assured though, Yao Changying would have no issues reaching the semifinals. As far as Lin Mu’s sense could tell, there weren’t that many who could oppose her. The only ones that did exist were those in the top five.

After an hour or so, Lin Mu got bored of looking around and focused his attention back on his own ring. 

“Fifteen battles have gone by and there’s still not a single good one.” Lin Mu muttered, having seen a few.

None of the contestants were strong enough to be worth his attention and neither did they have any good skills. Chang Fa was the last person to have interested him, both character and skill wise.

This led his mind to wander and the memories of the last tournament reappeared in his mind.

‘It seemed all so interesting back then. Everyone’s skill seemed novel and new, but now… it seems mundane.’ Lin Mu pondered deeply.

Another hour passed like this, after which Lin Mu suddenly thought of something.

It was not a normal thought and was something that could even be considered a bit risky.

“The Nine Divine Heart Sutras…” Lin Mu muttered as he recalled a particular thing he had done in the last tournament.ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

It was also something he hadn’t done for a while now.

‘I haven’t practiced using them on other people much now… Should I try them again?’ Lin Mu wondered.

Before this, he hadn’t had that many opportunities of using them on strong immortals. And even if he had seen others, they were usually weak enough that Lin Mu never needed to use them on his enemies.

But now, he reckoned this was possibly the best place he could test it out.

‘They are ultimately, all my opponents. It should be fine for me to test it out after their fight’s progress a bit.’ Lin Mu thought to himself.

Knowing that he had to be selfish in a competition like this, Lin Mu made his decision. He then took out a paper fan and held it out in front of him, hiding half of his face. It even suited him, as there were several people doing the same.

~huu~

Taking a deep breath, Lin Mu looked at the current fight.

It was a fight between two men, and both seemed to be evenly matched. One was named Xiong An and the other was named Yang Jagak.

Xiong An was using a saber and its matching skills to fight, while Yang Jagak was a staff user. 

The two had been battling for five minutes now, but no one was coming out on top.

“Yang Jagak’s Six Fluted Staff technique is decent.”

“But Xiong An’s Splitting Wrath Saber is fiercer.”

Two people among the audience chatted.

“Bah! Even if it is fierce, it doesn’t seem like his skill is beyond Yang Jagak’s. It can’t match the swift blocks and dodges of the staff.” Another expert commented.

It was normal since Yang Jagak’s staff gave him some extra range and allowed him to attack Xiong An at a distance. Overall, Yang Jagak was of the passive and controlled stance, while Xiong An was the aggressive one.

Lin Mu who heard the conversations as well as the match, felt like it was a decent chance to use his skills.

‘Let’s start from the beginning…’ Lin Mu thought as his lips started to move.

No sound came out of his lips, but an esoteric chant was being recited right now. No one heard it, but one person felt its effects.

“Will you be a man and stop dodging! Fight me stra—” Xiong An who had been trashtalking Yang Jagak suddenly stopped his sentence.

His anger from the fight was suddenly washed away as a feeling of tranquility took over. 

“Huh?” Yang Jagak who was in the middle of moving, noticed this too, as his opponent’s expression had changed rather quickly.

From his squinted angry expression, the man now looked like he had just come out of a meditative session. 

~SLASH~

Yang Jagak eyes went wide as he saw the glint of the saber edge. “How—” 

~CLANG~

The man was barely able to bright his staff towards his chest, when the slash connected.

“Ugh!” he grunted in pain, as a thin cut was left on his hand.

His staff had managed to block a part of the attack, but it had still managed to hurt his hand. 

“WHOA! Xiong An has inflicted the first injury!” the audience screamed out loud.

To them, only when blood was spilled would it be worth watching the fight.

Xiong An though, didn’t say anything as his face stayed expressionless. Instead, he simply drew his Saber again, swiping in a wide arc, sending out a mass of crescent Saber energy.

It rushed towards Yang Jagak, and the man spun his staff to block it.

~CLANG~CLANG~CLANG~

Sparks flew as the metal staff tried to resist the power of the slash.

‘What happened to him… how did his attacks get strong?’ Yang Jagak was confused. ‘No wait… the strength behind his attacks is the same… it’s his speed and accuracy that has increased.’ 

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