Chapter 252 - Face Hurts   “Let’s get started. Please move to the field!” Gao Yangyu stretched his hand out. With that, all the elites got on the stage, one after another. Xia Tengfei and Lin Lan both wore a smile and they arrogantly looked at their surroundings. It was as if the quotas were already in their pockets.

“Stay away from those two.” The faces of the elites turned cold when they looked at Xia Tengfei and Lin Lan. Those two were plague-like existences and encountering them was courting death. Those two would definitely claim two quotas and everyone was just praying that they wouldn’t be targeted by them.

“Lin Yun?” Everyone’s eyes lit up when they saw Lin Yun. Their eyes even flickered with ill-intent.

“Hehe, leave this fellow by himself. Don’t get dragged down by him.”

“This fellow will definitely be the first one to get eliminated.”

“Obviously. Not to mention that he offended both Xia Tengfei and Lin Lan. His cultivation in the third stage of the Profound Martial Realm is nothing to us!”

“That’s right. We’re all inner sect elites and all of us are in the fifth stage of the Profound Martial Realm. Why do we have to be afraid of him? If Xia Tengfei and Lin Lan weren’t making a move for him, I’d personally teach him a lesson.”

“Speaking of which, I’ve never beaten up a disciple from the four great sects.”

Everyone smiled sinisterly when they saw Lin Yun going up on the stage. It was as if he was prey waiting to be hunted. Gao Tangyu’s eyes flashed with a hint of pity. He wanted to protect Lin Yun, but Lin Yun had denied his goodwill again and again. There was nothing he could do. Since Lin Yun wanted the court death, there was no need for him to stop Lin Yun.

“Everyone, I hereby announce the start of the battle for the quotas!” declared Gao Yangyu.

Right after he spoke, origin energy exploded on the stage, surging like a wild wave. It was the signal to the start of battle. Everyone on the stage was either an elite from the four great sects or an inner disciples from the other sects.

Strictly speaking, none of them were weak. Even the ones from the other sects were undeniably in the fifth stage of the Profound Martial Realm. When the intense battle broke out, the massive stage began to tremble. Although the stage was spacious, it was on the verge of collapsing since all sorts of martial techniques were being thrown around.

In just a few breaths, several candidates were blown away as they vomited blood. Gao Yangyu took a deep breath and muttered to himself, “It has just started, but it’s already so intense…”

“It started?” A gentle voice sounded out under the intense atmosphere. Her voice was gentle like a chirping sparrow, which sounded like music to the ears.

Gao Yangyu turned around and saw a young lady dressed in white. Her hair draped down like a waterfall and her white skin flickered like jade. She looked like a gentle fairy.

When Gao Yangyu saw that woman, his face immediately changed, “Lady Bai, what brings you here?”

The young lady smiled, “I’ll be leading the team to the Bloodbone Forest tomorrow, so I’m here to check out my companions. Patriarch Gao, I wonder who you fancy among them?”

“I dare not to make any judgment before Lady Bai. But I do have an unworthy opinion that you can consider,” Gao Yangyu replied.

“Go ahead,” she responded.

“First is the Primal Origin Sect’s Xia Tengfei. His Dracophant Battle Physique is in the pinnacle third stage, giving him the strength of fifty thousand kilograms. He can easily fight those above his cultivation and he’s also known to be invincible among the same generation. He will definitely obtain one of the eight quotas.

“Then there is the Heavenly Qin Institute’s Lin Lan who is equally powerful to Xia Tengfei. He’s also the Lin Clan’s direct descendant, not to mention that he practices the Berserk Python Spear. The Lin Clan’s Aquamist Art complements the Berserk Python Spear, covering up its flaws. But these two aren’t even the strongest around here.”

The lady had a wisp of shock in her eyes and she smiled, “Patriarch Gao, what opinion do you have?”

“The strongest here should be Demonic Moon Villa’s Xiao Ran. We’ve been paying close attention to him since the start. His cultivation is strong and there aren’t any traces of it leaking. He has been low-profile throughout the start, so he’s stronger than those two in this regard.” Gao Yangyu paused briefly before he continued, “There’s also the Heavenly Profound Sect’s Bu Chen. He’s definitely not any weaker than those three.”

“You’ve basically mentioned all the four great sects. What about the Sword Firmament Pavilion?”

Gao Yangyu sneered, “Let’s not mention them. It will be good enough if the Sword Firmament Pavilion’s candidate can survive this ordeal. I have no idea what the Sword Firmament Pavilion is trying to do by sending a piece of garbage to this mission…”

“Garbage?” The young lady was puzzled as she turned to the stage.

While the two of them were talking, the battle on the stage reached its climax. Everyone was giving it their all right now. A huge commotion rang out and the Demonic Moon Villa’s Xiao Ran clashed with Heavenly Profound Sect’s Bu Chen.

In Bu Chen’s hands, the Dragon-Tiger Fist exhibited great lethality, but Xiao Ran released moon essence that flowed like the river. The Demonic Moon Villa’s Frost Moon wasn’t any weaker in comparison.

The two clashed and produced powerful fluctuations that spread out into the surrounding. The shockwave drew several yells as five unlucky blokes were blown away. They didn’t even have the chance to respond.

As for those that weren’t blown away, they took quite a hit and only managed to regain their footing after exhausting a great deal of origin energy.

“How powerful!”

Dozens of eyes fell on Xiao Ran and Bu Chen in deep fear. Suddenly, everyone realized that Lin Yun hadn’t moved from the center. He was still standing there peacefully and it seemed that he wasn’t affected by the shockwave.

“What’s going on?” Gao Yangyu was shocked. After all, he had just said that it would be great if Lin Yun could survive the ordeal. But the current situation didn’t seem right. This made him feel awkward. He secretly peeked at the young lady who was also looking at Lin Yun with interest.

“It was probably luck…” Gao Yangyu comforted himself.

When Xia Tengfei saw this scene on the stage, he was briefly stunned before he smiled, “Good brat. You’re actually still around. And to think that I nearly forgot about you. Why aren’t you kneeling before me? There’s no way Patriarch Gao can protect you on this stage!”

The dracophant’s power spread throughout his body, sending several people in the surrounding area flying away. He charged at Lin Yun like a bolt of lighting as the origin energy in his body exploded. He clenched his fists together and started accumulating power.

“Protect me? I’m not the one who should thank Patriarch Gao…” Lin Yun wasn’t afraid when he faced Xia Tengfei. He would’ve taught Xia Tengfei a lesson if Gao Yangyu hadn’t stopped them earlier. But it wasn’t too late to do so now.

“You’re courting death! You think I’m the one who should thank Patriarch Gao?” Xia Tengfei soared into the sky furiously and threw out his accumulated strength. Xia Tengfei threw out fifty thousand kilograms of strength, which echoed like an ancient cauldron. The ear-deafening rumble started to hurt Lin Yun’s mind.

People offered sacrifice cauldrons to heaven in ancient times and cauldrons were known to be sacred objects. At the same time, fifty kilograms were also known as a cauldron of strength in units.

His surging strength came crashing down on Lin Yun’s head. Xia Tengfei sneered inwardly. He didn’t believe that Lin Yun could take this attack from him. However, Lin Yun merely took a step out just when the punch was about to land onto him.

When he took the step out, the Dragon-Tiger Might echoed within his body. After reaching the seventh stage in the Iris Sword Sutra, his Iris Flower grew from thirty-six petals to forty-two.

According to his will, the forty-two petals blossomed and produced a strand of sword aura on the flower bud. Simultaneously, the boundless sword intent surged throughout Lin Yun’s body, causing everyone’s weapons on the stage to tremble.

“What powerful sword intent!” Everyone was shocked because they never expected that Lin Yun would possess such a powerful sword intent. However, that was just the beginning of their shock. Lin Yun’s sword intent began to condense into his fist and he threw out a punch.

His fist bolted out like a sword. It was a combination of sword energy and a wisp of violet flames. The roars of a dragon and tiger could be heard when Lin Yun threw his punch out.

The two fists clashed together, producing a huge explosion that raised a cloud of dust in the surrounding. But what left everyone surprised was that Xia Tengfei was the one who was blown away. The sword energy from Lin Yun’s fist tore his right sleeve into pieces. Under the shock of everyone present, Xia Tengei was blown away and threw up a mouthful of blood.

Lin Yun began to form seals and followed up with the Sky Breaking Seal. Under his attack, the Dracophant Battle Physique gave a huge thump sound. The sound that reverberated out was almost as if Lin Yun’s fist came into contact with metal.

Xia Tengfei threw up another mouthful of blood and was blown away yet again. But he managed to stabilize his figure when he descended to the ground. He was at the border of the stage, just a half step away from being knocked off.

“The Dragon-Tiger Fist!” Xia Tengfei started laughing, “Sword and fist as one. The Sword Firmament Pavilion is truly despicable. But my physique isn’t for show. That was far from enough to break through my defenses…”

No one had expected that Xia Tengfei could still fight by relying on his physique despite being heavily injured. But before Xia Tengfei could even finish his words, Lin Yun shot out five sword gleams from his fingers. He was using the Flicking Divine Sword–Flashing Aura, Flicking Fingers.

The sword gleams pierced through the air and reached Xia Tengfei in the blink of an eye. Before Xia Tengfei could even react, the five sword gleams penetrated into his body and the huge impact sent him flying before pinning him into the wall.

The entire stage fell into silence as everyone looked at Lin Yun dumbfoundedly. Gao Tengfei was speechless, he looked lost as he stood underneath the stage. He had just finished telling the young lady how much of a piece of garbage Lin Yun was. But now, Xia Tengfei was pinned on the wall. This scene was like a resounding slap to his face.

“Condensing aura into a sword! This…” It took him a long while to recover and he still couldn’t figure anything out. At this moment, he only felt the burning pain on his face.