Yan Li was not surprised at all that Lin Jingyun nailed it on the first day of the contest. After all, you were talking about the future Sword G.o.d.“Congratulations!” Yan Li walked up as Lin Jingyun hopped off the Stage.
The latter nodded before heading off.
The second round in the Huang Section had come to an end and the third round was about to kick open. There were quite a lot of disciples that really stood out in the first two rounds, among which were Yan Li and Lin Jingyun, but they were in no way as much the eye-catcher as these three people.
The first one was a guy name Jiang Han, who knocked out his opponents, one Shenyuan realm disciple and one Poyuan realm, with just a single hard blow! The second one was a girl called Feng Yan"er, who attracted the spotlight not because of her skills but her good looks. The eighteen-year-old Shenyuan realm pract.i.tioner won both rounds by a small margin, but the way she moved and attacked was mesmerizing enough to let people fall for her. The third disciple was a Poyuan realm pract.i.tioner named w.a.n.g Yu, who was ranked No. 11 in last year"s contest and directly advanced to the third round this year when his two opponents both decided to drop out of the match.
“Attention, please! The third round starts now!” One enforcer announced after logging some data in and rearranging the match-ups.
Yan Li was a little surprised as he learned that his third-round opponent was a Shenyuan realm pract.i.tioner.
“You know I won"t fight you, s.h.i.+xiong Yan.” The guy was well-aware that he stood no chance of winning this thing and admitted being defeated almost instantly.
The sun had already set when the third round finally ended, and the contest field was lit up brightly by giant torches surrounding it.
There was still one last round down the road which was to determine the forty disciples qualified for tomorrow"s match.
Soon, it was Yan Li"s turn to get on the stage again.
“So, leave or get beaten up, which one do you prefer?” The other guy called out, obnoxiously c.o.c.ky, and stared at Yan Li in a disturbing way.
The guy was Tang Yuan, who also exceeded in the previous three rounds where he, instead of using a sword, knifed his way into the fourth round, both literally and figuratively.
“Nice to meet you, s.h.i.+xing Tang!” Yan Li replied calmly.
“Fair enough! Since you don"t want to leave yourself, then I"ll help you with that!”
Tang Yuan huffed as the knife in his hand discharged tentacles of pressure and came barreling down at Yan Li with a chilling flash.
Yan Li yanked his sword out and shackled the other"s attack with it.
This caught Tang Yuan a little off guard, but he was quick to regain his composure and, twisting the knife, delivered a dozen consecutive fierce chops with both hands holding it.
Xue Zhan and others felt their heart clenched as they watched Yan Li being shrouded in the glow of the knife.
Yet, with a ringing roar, a figure shot up from the ground as a flash of lightning fanned out and charged toward Tang Yuan.
The latter"s expression altered for a second but soon was replaced by an eerie sneer as a jade plaque appeared in his hand.
“s.h.i.+t!” Yan Li scoffed as he jerked his body the other way and swiftly retreated.
“Too late!” Tang Yuan let out a vicious smile and snapped the jade plaque.
A beam of red light exploded off before reaching Yan Li"s chest in almost an instant.
“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”
A surge of fury swelled up inside him as Yan Li drew a circle in front of him with the sword, distorting the air.
The red light hit the distorted area with a deafening “Bang” before blowing up.
Yan Li stepped back immediately after pulling off that move, which absorbed most of the exploded red light, but a few of the stray pieces still got him in the chest, causing blood to spurt out.
The enforcers sitting underneath all shot up from their seats, watching the scene on the stage in disbelief. However, what surprised them even more was the fact that Yan Li, a Yuan realm pract.i.tioner, could somehow dodge the attack from a Jade Weapon without hurting himself too badly.
A Jade Weapon was a special kind of vigor-container made only by people who had exceeded Mi realm and could store part of their vigor inside a customized jade plaque; so whenever they needed to use it, all they had to do was snap the plaque and the vigor inside it would be discharged.
The one Tang Yuan used was only an entry-level Jade Weapon, but the effect it produced was almost the equivalent of a Dixuan realm master"s attack.
So even an entry-level one was precious enough to most people, and many advanced pract.i.tioners would specifically made some of these for the younger ones in their families as an extra protection.
Tang Yuan was extremely disappointed that Yan Li was still basically intact, so he again waved his fuming knife and came charging toward Yan Li.
A cold glared swept across Yan Li"s eyes as he thought that, had he not been a royal member who recognized the Jade Weapon and pulled off the move Naxu in the Mixed Yuan Cla.s.sic to counter off the attack, he would have already been severely injured to say the least, if not dead by now,.
Normally, ordinary people would not possibly possess a Jade Weapon, and even if they did, they would only save it for life-and-death matters.
Clearly, Tang Yuan was planning to kill him on the Stage.
A murderous glow blinked off in his eyes as he thought about this.
Looking at the blinding light of the knife coming his way, Yan Li smirked, thinking, “You have no idea who you"re dealing with!”
“Go to h.e.l.l!”
A black-and-white s.h.i.+mmer appeared on the length of Yan Li"s sword as his figure suddenly became transparent and almost indiscernible.
Tang Yuan watched in horror as Yan Li completely disappeared into the thin air before he felt a sharp pain on his right arm and let out a shriek.
Then, up went his chopped off arm!
Another shriek sounded off as the chilling black-and-white glow flashed again, followed by yet another arm hurled up high into the sky.
Losing both arms, Tang Yuan was practically useless and was kicked off the stage like a sack of potatoes by Yan Li.
He fell to the ground with a thud, blood seeping out of the wounds incessantly.
The enforcers were quick to gather around and help to attend to the wounds.
Expressions cold, Yan Li looked down at Tang Yuan from the stage with his sword s.h.i.+ning threateningly in hand, thinking that were they not in Dahuang Palace, he would have just killed him directly instead of only cutting off his two arms!
“How, how brutal you are,” one enforcer looked up and scoffed, “One is enough, why do you have to cut off both his arms?”
“With all due respect, he is the one who wanted to kill me! He should feel lucky that I didn"t just finish him right there and then!” Yan Li replied nonchalantly.
The enforcer went silent before huffing out a sigh, admitting that Yan Li did have a point, since Tang Yuan was indeed trying to kill him using the Jade Weapon; and if he were in Yan Li"s position, he would probably just make Tang Yuan a dead body no matter what.
“What a lucky b.a.s.t.a.r.d,” Li Zhe, blending in the crowd, muttered indignantly, “Even the Jade Weapon couldn"t kill him?”
Out of the blue, he felt an intense sight torching a hole on him and jerked his head up instinctively, only to find Yan Li staring at him with murderous eyes from up the stage.
Then, Yan Li leaped out from his spot and travelled all the way above the crowd using a few of the disciples" heads as stepping stones before stopping in front of Li Zhe.
Looking into his eyes, Li Zhe felt a pang of fear creeping up inside him, “What, what"re you doing, Yan Li?”
He was answered by a slap in the face, which sent him stumbling to the ground as blood smeared the corner of his mouth.
People around them were all stunned speechless since everybody in Dahuang Palace knew that Li Zhe was the prince of Dayun Empire and who would have thought that Yan Li would be so reckless to just slap a royal member.
Yan Li then directed his eyes toward Li Fenghuang, who unconsciously took a few steps back.
“Fenghuang,” Yan Li began, “I won"t do anything to you since you"re a girl! But if you two dare to pull some stupid stunt behind me again, I guarantee you that you"ll regret!”