Read Novel Full Chapter 160: Five-Year Tournament (5)
Chapter 160: Five-Year Tournament (5)
"Surrender." Kai said, his voice flat and bored.
The words were clear. The fight had been decided in seconds.
Chen Lu, his face twisted in pain and humiliation, managed to mumble one word through clenched teeth.
"I surrender..."
Immediately, Kai gave a nod. The invasive blood inside Chen Lu lost its active malevolence, becoming merely a foreign substance that the young man’s body could expel or absorb.
The sharp pain diminished into a faint throbbing ache, and Chen Lu collapsed forward, gasping on the ground, defeated and intact, though the defeat would be deeply etched into him.
Kyrian kept a neutral expression, but inside him, a gear turned. Observing the techniques and the combat styles these disciples used.
Kai had used extreme speed and surgical precision. The style was direct and dirty, focused on ending the confrontation as quickly as possible with minimal effort. He was as dangerous as the other two previous winners.
The tournament progressed quickly, and the hierarchy solidified. Those with a natural affinity for blood along with blood intent weren’t just winning, they were crushing their opponents.
Dong Zhen looked to the remaining two pairs.
"Fourth match. Yan Ling, from the Resources Branch, against Feng Bo, from the External Missions Branch."
The audience now expected another display of supremacy. The question was how Yan Ling would choose to show her strength.
The arena fell silent as Yan Ling and Feng Bo descended. Feng Bo, from the External Missions Branch, had a similar appearance to Kai, but with a more weathered face and a cautious gaze instead of boredom.
He wielded a wide, curved blade, his posture that of someone already prepared for the worst. He was the last participant who did not possess blood intent.
Yan Ling, on the other hand, seemed unshaken.
Her serious and calculating expression showed no emotion. From within her robes, she pulled out a long, flexible whip made of intertwined red leather strips and some smooth metal that gleamed under the crimson light.
She did not assume an aggressive stance, she simply held the whip’s handle.
Dong Zhen then gave the signal.
"Begin."
Feng Bo advanced immediately, trying to close the distance. He knew that against a whip user, giving space meant trouble.
Yan Ling stepped back once, a single precise movement, and her arm moved.
The whip snapped in the air, but not as a simple physical attack. As it extended, red energy, pure, dense blood Qi, emerged from her natural affinity with blood and wrapped around the whip’s tip, turning it into a crimson cutting tongue.
"Crimson Blade Whip!" she announced, her voice clear.
The whip didn’t aim at Feng Bo directly. It tore through the air beside him, creating an arc of red energy that exploded into a curtain of blood sparks around him.
Feng Bo raised a Qi barrier, but the sparks corroded his cultivated Qi, making the barrier hiss and weaken.
The quality of their Qi was obvious, even at the same cultivation stage.
Feng Bo hesitated, dodging away from the corrosive energy. That was exactly what Yan Ling wanted.
Her next attack was a series of rapid cracks. Each crack of the whip launched a compact projectile of blood Qi, fast as a bullet, forcing Feng Bo to either dodge or block with his blade, which screeched under the impact.
She controlled the entire battlefield with her whip’s range, keeping him always at a distance, always reacting, never acting.
She didn’t use her blood intent to control blood or unleash superior techniques on Feng Bo. She didn’t need to.
Her blood Qi alone was so pure and dense, so refined, that she could mold it into ranged attacks with devastating efficiency.
Each strike was economical, precise, and designed to expend minimal energy while forcing her opponent to waste the maximum.
Feng Bo tried to counterattack. He channeled his Qi into a large strike, advancing under a rain of projectiles.
"Blood Claw of the Beast!" His blade glowed with a red light, forming a phantom claw that swiped at Yan Ling.
She didn’t move from her spot. With a single fluid movement of her wrist, the whip curled in the air, forming a defensive whirlpool in front of her.
The blood Qi in the whip densified, creating a spinning, solid disk of crimson energy.
The crimson Beast Claw struck the shield and shattered like glass against stone, its impure Qi, compared to Yan Ling’s, dissipating with little effort.
The force of the impact didn’t even make Yan Ling step back.
Seeing his chance vanish and his Qi rapidly depleting under the constant pressure and consecutive attacks corroding his barrier, Feng Bo made a decision. He retreated, lowered his blade, and raised his left hand in a clear gesture.
"I surrender," he said, breathless, sweaty, but intact.
The fight was one-sided, but not brutal. He had been overwhelmed in technique, range, and Qi quality.
Yan Ling immediately withdrew her whip, the crimson energy disappearing. She nodded, a gesture almost professional, and stepped out of the arena.
"Winner, Yan Ling, from the Resources Branch." Dong Zhen announced.
Her victory was as controlled and methodical as her personality. She demonstrated superiority without wasting energy or needing to go beyond the basics.
Kyrian watched, mildly interested. She had won using only her superior Qi quality.
That made him think even more about the strength of his eyes. Usually, the talented possessed only one innate natural affinity. But he, because of his eyes, could change the affinity of his Qi with a single thought.
And now he was seeing what it truly meant to advance to the Liberation realm with natural affinity, not merely with the help of a cultivation technique.
The difference between the two was staggering. The purity and quality of Qi were superior.
That left only one match in the first round. All eyes, filled with expectation, curiosity, and a hint of skepticism, turned to the last pair.
Dong Zhen did not prolong it.
"Fifth match. Kyrian, from the main branch, against Mei Li, from the Diplomacy Branch."