Mystic Eyes: My Eyes Steal the Laws of Cultivation

Chapter 165: Five-Year Tournament (10)

The silence after Li Fen’s fall was broken not by applause, but by the quick movements of the servants and the constant whispering of the audience.

Kyrian’s cold and precise execution had left a deep impression.

Dong Zhen did not allow the energy to dissipate. As Li Fen was removed, his voice cut through the murmur.

"The second match of the next phase of the tournament is concluded. However, we have three finalists." He raised the obsidian urn once more.

"Due to the odd number, one name will be drawn to advance directly to the decisive fight for the title. The other two will compete for the final spot to face them."

The arena, which had begun to calm, grew tense once again. All eyes turned to the urn.

Bai Zhu, Yan Ling, and Kyrian watched, each with their own expectations.

Dong Zhen plunged his hand inside and withdrew a single piece of parchment. He unfolded it and read it, his face impassive.

"The participant who advances directly to the final fight is... Bai Zhu, of the Military Branch."

Bai Zhu let out a grunt, this time of pure satisfaction. He could not deny that he wanted to fight. But this time, not only would he rest more, he would also have the privilege of observing his two possible opponents face each other, studying their strengths and weaknesses a bit better.

A corner smile crossed his face.

"That means the next fight will determine who will face Bai Zhu for the title. Yan Ling, of the Resources Branch, versus Kyrian, of the Main Branch." Dong Zhen continued.

A new murmur heavy with speculation swept through the stands.

"The combatants will have thirty minutes to rest and recover. Take advantage of this time to treat your injuries and recover your Qi. The fight will begin after this interval."

The servants hurried about, offering water and cloths to clean the blood. Yan Ling, still a bit pale from her previous fight against Kai, immediately sat down in a meditation position, closing her eyes and beginning to circulate her Qi to recover as much as possible. Every second would count.

Kyrian, on the other hand, merely accepted a damp cloth from a servant and cleaned the superficial cuts on his arms and shoulders.

He did not sit down to meditate. Instead, he remained standing, his eyes fixed on Yan Ling in the distance, analyzing her. He had seen her fight. Her style was one of field control, weaving networks of blood and Qi to drain and restrain.

It was the opposite of Li Fen’s direct frontal assault. The same approach would not work on her.

Bai Zhu, meanwhile, watched the two with a voracious look. He savored the situation. One of them would come out even more devastated, while he would be fresher. Even if he enjoyed fighting, the most important thing was securing resources for his branch.

Because of this, final victory seemed increasingly certain.

The thirty minutes passed quickly. Yan Ling stood up, her face still serious, but with renewed determination in her eyes. She had recovered a large portion of her Qi, not all of it, but enough for a good battle.

Kyrian looked the same as ever, his breathing calm, his wounds practically sealed.

"Yan Ling, Kyrian. To the arena." Dong Zhen ordered.

The two descended. The arena, still marked by the previous battles, seemed ready to bear witness once more.

Yan Ling took her position, her whip uncoiling silently at her side.

Kyrian stood still, ten meters from her, his hands empty, his eyes already glowing with the same carmine hue.

"Begin."

Yan Ling acted first but did not attack directly. She retreated, widening the distance.

Her arm moved, and the whip cracked through the air, not toward Kyrian, but drawing rapid patterns around her.

’Blood Merchant Field!’ Yan Ling said in her mind.

With each crack, nearly imperceptible threads of pure Blood Qi were released, beginning to weave a defensive and sensory network around her. She had created her own territory first.

Kyrian observed. He did not move to interrupt. Instead, he raised his right hand. From his nearly healed cuts, a thin stream of his own blood was extracted.

He did not immediately form a weapon. It hovered in the air before him, like a dormant serpent, waiting.

Yan Ling finished her initial pattern. The air around her seemed denser, more carmine. Anything that entered that field she would sense instantly, and she could react with her counterattack techniques.

She then attacked. Her whip cracked, and this time a broad, curved blade of Blood Qi, similar to the one she had used against Kai, flew toward Kyrian, but in a wide arc. This was meant to test his reaction and perhaps force him into her field.

Kyrian did not dodge. The stream of blood before him shot forward, not to intercept the blade, but to coil around itself, forming a small, dense circular shield.

The Qi blade struck the shield and dissolved against it with a hiss. The blood shield trembled but held.

Yan Ling frowned. Kyrian was using his own blood as a shield. That was terribly inefficient in the long term. But she could not underestimate him. She launched two more blades in rapid succession, from different angles.

Kyrian repeated the maneuver. Two new tiny shields formed from his blood and intercepted the attacks. Each impact caused the blood of the shield to dissipate slightly, but Kyrian immediately extracted another droplet from his wounds to reinforce it.

To the audience, it looked like Kyrian was once again merely defending, spending his precious blood to block long-range attacks. A suicidal strategy in the long run.

But Yan Ling began to feel a chill down her spine. She was spending Qi on her attacks. He was spending... blood, yes, but in minuscule quantities.

And he seemed to have such absolute control over his own blood that the loss was irrelevant. Worse, he was not advancing. He was letting her attack, forcing her to spend energy while he... what was he doing? She could not understand.

She stopped the blade attacks. Instead, she began to move laterally again, trying to see him from a different angle, trying to understand.

That was when she realized. As she moved, the small remnants of blood that dissipated from Kyrian’s shields... did not fall to the ground. They remained suspended in the air, like an almost invisible carmine dust. And as she moved, she was passing through them.

Her Qi field detected the particles. But they were inert, without intention or Qi. Just blood. She almost ignored them.

It was her mistake.

Kyrian, who until then had remained still, finally made his first move toward her. It was a simple, direct step, without exceptional speed.

Yan Ling reacted instantly. She channeled her Qi to activate the defenses of her field, to drain and stop any attack that came.

But the attack did not come from Kyrian.

It came from within her own field.

The suspended blood particles, which she had ignored as inert because they possessed no blood intention, suddenly flared after the command of Kyrian’s eyes.

In truth, she could not sense Kyrian’s intention in those droplets because they were only activated when Kyrian willed it, due to his eyes. The droplets then awakened. They did not try to control Yan Ling’s blood, instead, they exploded.

They were not large explosions. They were micro-explosions of pure force, like tiny blood fragmentation bombs, detonating the air around her.

The shock did not physically injure her but violently destabilized the delicate fabric of Blood Qi that formed her defensive field.

The Blood Merchant Field shattered into a series of chaotic flickers. Yan Ling screamed, not in pain, but in shock and sensory disorientation. Her control over the area was broken.

And Kyrian was already in motion. He did not run. He walked, fast and decisive, directly toward her. The main stream of blood he controlled stretched out, forming a long, thin spear.

Yan Ling, recovering, tried to raise her whip to defend, but her Qi was momentarily disordered, her field destroyed. She raised a weak Qi barrier.

Kyrian’s blood spear pierced it as if it were not there. It stopped centimeters from Yan Ling’s neck.

She froze, eyes wide, feeling the cold, sharp point of Kyrian’s intention grazing her skin.

The fight lasted less than a minute.

The silence was absolute.

Kyrian did not pierce her. He simply held the spear there.

Yan Ling swallowed hard. She looked into the merciless crimson eyes and understood. Kyrian had been calm from the beginning. As if this battle were just another one for him. There was no concern in his gaze.

"I... surrender." She said, her voice trembling.

Kyrian lowered the spear. It dissolved back into blood and was reabsorbed through his pores.

The bright carmine glow in Kyrian’s eyes slowly faded, returning to the deep, controlled tone from before. He took a step back, creating distance.

Dong Zhen stood up, his voice echoing through the silent arena.

"Victory to Kyrian, of the Main Branch."

Once again, the murmur exploded.

Kyrian lifted his gaze, already focused on the final name. Bai Zhu. The final fight of the tournament was now decided.