At the moment the silver-white streak of light struck the eyes of the fire dragon on the left, the three fire dragons let out a simultaneous wail and dissolved into a shower of sparks!
An Jinhan's expression shifted slightly. He hadn't expected the weaknesses of his two magic tools to be seen through and broken so easily by his opponent!
When facing other cultivators, once he unleashed these two magic tools, the opponent had only two choices!
Either dodge or endure it head-on!
He had never imagined that one day a cultivator of the same level would see through the weaknesses of his magic tools so effortlessly!
How was this possible?!
But there was no time to overthink. An Jinhan quickly performed a hand seal and threw out a crimson bead at Jiang Yifan!
The moment the bead exploded, it turned into a sea of fire. Jiang Yifan still didn't dodge, instead summoning another magic tool.
An ice-blue light shield protected him, preventing the sea of flames from encroaching even an inch.
"You have explosive beads too?" An Jinhan said in surprise. "Wait, no... this is ice-attributed?"
Jiang Yifan didn't answer. He performed a hand seal, casting his most frequently used technique, the golden needle rain. Countless thin golden needles shot toward An Jinhan like raindrops. In his haste, An Jinhan brought out a copper mirror.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
The golden needles struck the mirror's surface, letting out crisp clinking sounds.
Before An Jinhan could breathe a sigh of relief, he saw Jiang Yifan change his move: "Burst!"
Three crimson beads flew toward him in a triangular formation. An Jinhan was horrified: "Wait! This isn't right!!"
Boom!
The beads exploded, and the airwave sent An Jinhan flying back several steps. He looked at his damaged magic tool with heartache. It wasn't that he couldn't continue fighting, but if the opponent kept fighting like this, his entire fortune would be squandered.
Helpless, he could only grit his teeth and say, "I concede!"
Jiang Yifan withdrew his seals, all his magic tools flying back into his sleeves as he turned and walked off the stage.
"Jiang Yifan of the Five Elements Dao Sect wins!"
This time, the victory didn't cause much of a stir in the audience. After all, in their eyes, it was only natural for those from the Five Elements Dao Sect to possess such strength; Feng Qingping's failure was the actual outlier.
As for Zhu Yinxi...
With his current strength, even an ordinary cultivator at the late stage of Golden Core would find it difficult to defeat him, let alone an opponent who was only at the mid-grade of the Golden Core stage.
With just a few moves as usual, he dealt with his opponent directly.
With the three matches over, two members of the Five Elements Dao Sect had advanced to the top twelve!
Inside their residence, everyone gathered together.
"Fifth Junior Sister's acting was quite good," Mu Wenyan praised. "It seems the Sword Heart Sect was completely fooled."
Feng Qingping smiled lightly. "I intentionally reduced the power of the array by fifty percent."
Zhu Yinxi was deep in thought. "Rong Yuying and the others seemed to have noticed."
"It doesn't matter." Feng Qingping waved her hand. "The Hehuan Sect won't expose this, and even if they did, it wouldn't benefit them."
While the group was discussing, Jiang Yifan suddenly spoke, "Seventh Junior Brother is back."
Everyone turned to see Duan Xianxing walking in dejectedly, followed by two disciples of the Sword Heart Sect.
"Seventh Senior Brother!" Li Nanzhu feigned surprise. "How could you..."
Wait, Duan Xianxing gave her a meaningful look and spoke with intentional hesitation, "I... I think the Sword Heart Sect is actually quite good. I..."
Hearing this, the two Sword Heart Sect disciples showed faint smiles.
Li Nanzhu took two "shocked" steps back. "Seventh Senior Brother, you... how could you..."
"Little Junior Sister, everyone, I'm sorry..." Duan Xianxing lowered his head "painfully." "The sword dao of the Sword Heart Sect... I feel it's more suitable for me..."
The two Sword Heart Sect disciples exchanged glances and quietly exited the residence.
Once they were far away, Feng Qingping's fingers moved slightly, activating the previous array again. Soon, the two disciples heard the sounds of an argument coming from inside the room.
Seeing this, they quickly took out communication jade slips to transmit the news to the other side.
Meanwhile, inside the room, Duan Xianxing had already recovered his vitality, leaning back lazily in a chair. "How was it? Was my acting realistic?"
Feng Qingping slapped him. "You brat, you gave me a fright!"
Mu Wenyan said seriously, "Seventh Junior Brother, what's the situation with the Sword Heart Sect?"
At this, Duan Xianxing's expression also turned solemn.
"Zhao Wufeng gave me a sword-nurturing jade, claiming it could help me break through." He pulled a white jade pendant from his robe. "But I feel there's something wrong with this thing."
Zhu Yinxi took the jade pendant and inspected it carefully. "There is indeed a problem. There's a restriction hidden inside that can temporarily suppress the Natural Sword Physique."
"As expected," Mu Wenyan said deeply. "They're finding every way possible to set a trap for Seventh Junior Brother."
Li Nanzhu asked worriedly, "Will this cause any harm to Seventh Senior Brother?"
"No." Zhu Yinxi tapped the jade pendant. "He does have a Natural Sword Physique, after all. A constitution this rare is something they’ll treat like a treasure. This is merely a masking treatment."
"I suspect they plan to remove this restriction only after Seventh Junior Brother has truly committed to joining the Sword Heart Sect."
"However, they probably didn't expect that we already know their plan," Duan Xianxing chuckled. "Since there's no harm, should I keep wearing it?"
"Wear it," Zhu Yinxi threw the jade pendant back. "It won't affect anything before entering the Sword Mound anyway. Or perhaps..."
He glanced at Duan Xianxing. "Will you forget how to fight without your Natural Sword Physique?"
"How is that possible?!" Duan Xianxing quickly caught the jade and tied it back to his waist. "Even without it, it won't affect my cultivation!"
"Still, this jade pendant itself should be a good item," Jiang Yifan tapped the table to signal Duan Xianxing to quiet down. "Zhao Wufeng wouldn't use a subpar item to fool you."
"Does this count as Seventh Senior Brother getting lucky?" Li Nanzhu joked.
Duan Xianxing grinned. "Not bad, not bad at all. Now I can have some fun playing along with them!"
"But about tomorrow's matches..."
"Second Senior Brother is up against Yun Xuanji, while I'm against Qu Chen."
Li Nanzhu quickly pulled out a paper slip covered in writing and handed it to Jiang Yifan. "Fourth Senior Brother, this is all the intelligence I have on Qu Chen."
Jiang Yifan took the slip and scanned it, his brows furrowing slightly. This was even more detailed than the intelligence provided by Rong Yuying and Liu Qingyang. "How does Junior Sister know..."
"I encountered him before in the Forest of Demonic Beasts." Li Nanzhu was prepared, blinking innocently. "And while we were in the cave dwelling, I saw him fight more or less."
This was half-true; she had indeed seen Qu Chen's status through Xiao Yan, but the lie was that she hadn't actually seen him fight.
Her understanding of Qu Chen came more from the descriptions in the original novel.
As one of the important supporting male characters, certain details were described very thoroughly.
Duan Xianxing, who was munching on a spirit fruit, almost choked. "Huh?! Wait, Junior Sister, you can see... then my... mushrooms..."
The look on his face became quite colorful, clearly remembering those psychedelic memories.
Seeing this, Jiang Yifan didn't ask further and began reading carefully.
The paper slip recorded the characteristics of Qu Chen's techniques, his common sword moves, and even several unknown weaknesses.
"Thank you, Junior Sister. However..."
Rate on N.U.
