Meanwhile, in the main hall of the Pang family estate.
The Fifth Realm assassin who had escaped back knelt on the ground, trembling all over as he recounted everything that had happened at the inn.
“Fifth Realm, Martial Opening?!”
Pang Jinbiao's eyes widened. The terrifying blood qi of an Eighth Realm expert erupted instantly, blasting the assassin back several meters and causing him to cough up blood.
“An outer city girl with absolutely no background, yet she managed to break through to the Fifth Realm at just twenty years old?! Is your intelligence department eating shit?!”
The hall fell dead silent. The elders lowered their heads, none of them daring to draw his ire.
Pang Jinbiao's chest heaved violently, the killing intent in his eyes almost solidifying, but he ultimately managed to suppress it by sheer force of will.
“Family Head, should we directly send a Sixth Realm consecrated expert to...” the grey-robed elder beside him whispered.
“Fool!” Pang Jinbiao interrupted coldly. “The Martial Arts Tournament is about to begin, and the imperial guards have secured the entire city. Causing another scene at the inn would be equivalent to slapping the imperial family in the face in public!”
He snorted coldly, his fingers crushing the armrest of his chair to powder.
“Since she registered, we will settle this on the arena stage. Go grease the palms of the deacons in charge of drawing lots. Secretly arrange the brackets so our people can beat her to death on stage in broad daylight! I want her to know that by offending the Pang family, the arena will become her living coffin!”
“Yes, Family Head!”
...
Inside the inn.
The private courtyard had suffered some damage from the brief clash last night.
However, the innkeeper was an incredibly shrewd man. To run an inn in the imperial city, he naturally knew how to read the room.
Knowing that a martial artist like Su Yueli, who could attract assassins and escape unscathed, was definitely not someone to be trifled with, he immediately arranged a quieter, premium room for her without another word. He didn't even mention compensation, simply chalking it up to his own bad luck.
After she moved into the new room, Lin Ye came over to chat for a bit.
“Miss Su, do you think the Pang family will send more assassins?” Lin Ye asked, gripping the hilt of his saber, his expression still somewhat tense.
“Probably not anytime soon.”
Su Yueli shook her head, seeing through their situation clearly. “Since they failed just now, they don't know my true depth. With the Martial Arts Tournament right around the corner, security in the imperial city is extremely tight. If the Pang family loses more death-sworn assassins and causes too much of a commotion, they won't be able to explain themselves to the city guards.”
Hearing this, Lin Ye let out a small sigh of relief. After chatting a bit more, he tactfully excused himself, no longer disturbing her.
Su Yueli closed the door and sat cross-legged once more, continuing to consolidate the blood qi of her newly achieved Fifth Realm.
For the next day and a half, things went exactly as she had predicted—perfectly calm.
The Pang family seemed to have gone completely silent, with no further assassination attempts occurring.
Su Yueli had also thoroughly stabilized her cultivation at the Fifth Realm, Martial Opening.
Time flew by.
Early in the morning two days later, just as the sky was beginning to brighten.
“Miss Su! The Martial Arts Tournament begins today!” Lin Ye was already waiting outside her door early on, his tone filled with excitement.
Su Yueli pushed open the door and stepped out. After a simple breakfast, the two of them headed straight for the Great Li Royal Martial Arena.
Upon arriving at the outskirts of the arena, they were greeted by a massive, bustling crowd.
Ten massive bluestone arena stages were lined up in a row. The surrounding spectator stands were packed to the brim with martial artists and commoners who had rushed over from various provinces. The sheer clamor of voices was deafening, rising straight into the clouds.
Suddenly, a violent commotion erupted in the crowd.
“Make way! The members of the Four Great Families are here!”
Su Yueli looked along the path that the crowd was parting to create.
She saw martial artists from four distinct camps surrounding their respective family heads and core descendants, marching grandly onto the high platform.
Su Yueli's gaze landed on a burly, middle-aged man leading the way.
The head of the Pang family, Pang Jinbiao.
This was her first time seeing the rumored leader of the Pang family.
With just a single glance from afar, Su Yueli could feel the extremely powerful blood qi within his body.
Just as rumored, he was in the Eighth Realm, but his actual foundation was likely even deeper. Su Yueli felt that Pang Jinbiao was perhaps only a hair's breadth away from becoming a Ninth Realm martial artist—undeniably at the peak of the Eighth Realm!
Having provoked such a deadly enemy, there was not a trace of fear in Su Yueli's eyes. Instead, she slightly clenched her fists, a surge of battle intent rising in her heart.
Looking past the Four Great Families, at the very top of the arena stood the spectator platform of the Great Li imperial family.
Underneath a bright yellow canopy, the Emperor of Great Li was not present today. The one sitting in the main seat to preside over the event was one of the current princes.
However, Su Yueli's attention did not linger on that elegant and dignified prince.
Her gaze fell upon a plain-robed young man standing slightly behind and to the side of the prince.
The young man had his arms crossed, looking down at the ten arena stages with a lazy expression that made him look completely out of place among the upright and solemn royal guards.
He had such a powerful sense of restraint, Su Yueli noted, narrowing her eyes slightly.
Even from such a distance, she couldn't perceive even the slightest ripple of blood qi from him, as if he were just an ordinary person.
Yet her intuition told her that this young man was far from simple—he was likely even more threatening than the geniuses of the Four Great Families below.
This imperial city was truly a place of crouching tigers and hidden dragons...
“My goodness, there are too many powerful experts here.”
Beside her, Lin Ye shrank his neck and swallowed hard. “I just took a quick glance, and there are dozens of peak Third Realm martial artists alone, not to mention plenty of Fourth Realm ones. Becoming the champion of this Great Li Martial Arts Tournament is completely out of the question. I feel like even squeezing into the top ten will be as difficult as ascending to heaven.”
Saying that, he turned to look at Su Yueli with a chuckle. “But since you're so strong, Miss Su, making it into the top ten will definitely be a breeze for you.”
Su Yueli withdrew her gaze, her expression flat. “In martial arts combat, cultivation level is only one aspect. When fighting for your life on the stage, your mindset and lethal moves are what truly decide the outcome. Don't show cowardice before you've even stepped up.”
Lin Ye nodded in deep agreement and shut his mouth as if he had just received a valuable lesson.
“Silence!”
A furious shout infused with robust blood qi echoed across the entire venue, instantly suppressing the clamor of the hundreds of thousands of spectators.
An official referee dressed in court robes walked to the edge of the high platform and began to read out the tournament rules.
“The Great Li Martial Arts Tournament only values martial arts, regardless of one's background!”
“Those who fall from the arena, defeated! Those who voice their surrender, defeated! Those who fall and cannot stand within ten breaths, defeated!”
“Blades and swords have no eyes, and life and death are up to fate. However, if an opponent has clearly conceded, you must absolutely not deliver a killing blow. Violators will be executed on the spot by the imperial guards!”
The rules were simple and brutal, immediately triggering a wave of heated discussions in the spectator stands.
After reading the rules, the referee paused for a moment.
Then, he continued:
“Next, we shall announce the royal rewards for the top three of this Martial Arts Tournament!”
The entire venue fell quiet, and over a hundred thousand people perked up their ears to listen.
“Third place: rewarded with one Profound-grade weapon and one hundred thousand taels of silver!”
“Second place: rewarded with entry into the Royal Vault to choose one martial technique, plus three bottles of Fourth Realm demon beast essence blood!”
Sharp gasps echoed from below the stage. The rewards for second and third place alone were already rich enough to make anyone's eyes turn red with envy.
The referee took a deep breath, his voice growing even louder. “And for the champion! A reward of one Earth-grade weapon!”
“Furthermore... they shall receive a promise from the Great Li imperial family! As long as it does not violate the laws of Great Li, the imperial family will unconditionally step in to fulfill any single request!”
As soon as these words were spoken, the crowd of over a hundred thousand people completely boiled over.
“Did you hear that? The reward for this year's champion is actually an Earth-grade weapon!”
“The most important thing has to be the imperial family's promise, right...”
“Yeah, no wonder the Four Great Families have sent out all the hidden geniuses they've been keeping under wraps this time. Especially the Pang family and the Lin family—I heard they've already signed life-and-death contracts in private just to compete for this weapon.”
“I don't know about that. There are some ruthless characters from the outer cities too. Like that Mad Saber from Shuozhou, and Lingshui City is rumored to have produced a mysterious powerhouse who killed Pang Hu with a single punch. I wonder if they showed up today...”
Listening to the discussions around her, Su Yueli raised her eyebrows, slightly surprised.
A martial artist's techniques and weapons were divided into four grades: Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow—the higher the grade, the stronger they were.
As for cultivators, there seemed to be an even higher Emperor-grade above those.
However... the Pang family had likely covered up the news of the assassination at the inn that night. No one associated her with that rumored mysterious powerhouse.
Soon, the results of the drawing of lots were announced.
Su Yueli looked at the token in her hand: Group Twenty-One.
Lin Ye squeezed over with his token. “I'm Group Thirty-Five. Thank goodness, I didn't run into you in the preliminaries, Miss Su. Otherwise, I would've just forfeited on the spot.”
Ignoring his banter, Su Yueli looked up at the massive matchup board and began searching for her opponent in this group.
The board was densely packed. After searching around, she only saw that her opponent's name was Chen Tie, with no mention of him belonging to any major faction.
From the looks of it, he was likely a rogue martial artist who had traveled from the outer cities to participate, just like her.
Boom!
The war drums thundered, and the first round of matches began simultaneously across all ten arena stages.
Twenty participating martial artists leaped onto their respective stages one after another.
Su Yueli swept her gaze over them. In this first round of the preliminaries, most of the participants' strength was quite ordinary, mostly stuck between the Second Realm, Meridian Opening, and the Third Realm, Bone Forging.
Although the fights were intense and punches landed solidly, in the eyes of a Fifth Realm expert like Su Yueli, their moves were riddled with openings.
“Look! The one on Stage Five is the second young master of the Yun family, Yun He!”
Someone nearby exclaimed, pointing at the arena stage not far away.
Su Yueli followed the gesture and saw a young noble dressed in fine brocade standing on Stage Five.
As soon as Yun He stepped onto the stage, he revealed the blood qi fluctuations of the early stage of the Fourth Realm, with faint gusts of wind swirling around him.
Reaching the early stage of the Fourth Realm at around twenty years of age made him a rare genius no matter where he went.
His opponent was a burly man at the peak of the Third Realm.
“Let the match begin!”
Along with the referee's order, the burly man roared, swinging a heavy hammer as he lunged toward Yun He.
A disdainful sneer played on Yun He's lips. Without dodging, he executed a profound footwork technique, then instantly chopped his right hand like a blade against the burly man's carotid artery.
Bang!
The burly man's eyes rolled back, and his body crashed to the ground, knocked out cold.
A one-hit instant defeat. A thunderous roar of cheers instantly erupted from below the stage.
Su Yueli raised her eyebrows slightly as she watched Yun He basking in the cheers on the stage.
The boxing and footwork techniques of these noble families were indeed exquisite, and the foundation built by their resources was solid enough.
However, in her eyes, Yun He's moves were too rigid and textbook. He lacked the ruthlessness and killing intent of someone who had crawled out from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
If it came to a true life-and-death struggle, Yun He would likely suffer a massive loss.
“Second round: Groups Twenty-One through Thirty, take the stage!” the referee's booming voice rang out once more.
It's my turn.
Su Yueli untied the wine gourd from her waist and handed it to Lin Ye. With a flash of her body, her cool, green-robed figure landed gracefully on Stage Two.
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