56 Chapter 56. Fight between two sect disciples

As they entered, a large gust of wind struck them as a small explosion appeared in the middle of the arena as two cultivators were currently fighting.

The match was at a standstill and it had become a fight of stamina. The two exchanged about a hundred moves before one of them had an unlucky lapse of judgment and received a full-fledged punch and was sent flying into the arena wall.

"I admit defeat!" the man called out, realizing that the battle was now over as he had received a series of injuries while his opponent was in better shape.

"Match over, Gerald Fandeux wins," an announcer's voice called out and a loud cheering sounded from the crowd as they were satisfied with another round of such entertaining fights.

"Ladies and gentlemen! We are now going to move to the battle that you have all been waiting for. Next up, our rank no.3, Laura Redkin against our rank no.2, Drexler Yeates."

Immediately an empoweringly thunderous roar of applause and screams filled the arena as sect disciples began to fill with excitement as they cheering the two on.

An extremely beautiful girl about sixteen years of age came out from one end of the arena, walking like a goddess as the men all looked at her in reverence and praise. She had silky smooth white hair that flowed with the comforting light breeze that calmly swept over the arena and was wearing a kimono-style robe that was also white with countless stencils of insects engraved on it.

And on the other end, a boy about seventeen years of age walked out. He had short jet black hair that was perfectly complimented his moderately handsome face as loud cheers of girls sounded from the whole of the arena. He wore a black colored pair of glasses with a dark brown robe that did not seem to be a part of the sect's clothes.

"Interesting," Aurora quietly spoke as she observed both of them curiously.

As the roaring of the crowd reached a peak, the official himself seemed to be affected by it as he excitedly ran out to the arena and raised his hand. And with an extreme amount of force, he brought his hand down in a vertical wave, creating a large quick gust of wind as he loudly declared, "Fight!"

"Laura! Are you ready to lose?" Drexler coldly spoke out as he laughed haughtily in the middle of the arena.

"Haha. I am not going to lose to you again. Last year will not repeat itself," Laura replied as she spoke with utmost confidence.

"We'll see about that, I'll end it in one move. I don't want to waste my energy on you, I'm waiting for Yang," said Drexler arrogantly.

Not bothering to wait around, Drexler charged at Laura and they began to exchange punches as each blocked and retaliated.

A minute had quickly passed in a flash but the two cultivators had already exchanged over a hundred punches.

Realizing that he had to be more serious, Drexler retreated a few steps back. an extremely evil smile appeared on his face as his body began to vaguely glow as an afterimage of a lion with golden flaming manes formed right behind him brimming with arrogance and pride while radiating an overwhelmingly amount of energy.

"I can't believe it! Drexler has decided to use the lion hall's top black ranked, Golden Lion's kick," a spectator exclaimed.

"Oh my, that is the Golden Lion's kick?"

"Amazing! Its power is so immense, he must have trained it to middle stage."

"I see. Well then, I won't hold back either. I have trained hard. If you think I am still the same girl that lost to you before then you are wrong," Laura spoke out in retaliation as she immediately moved her hands in an elegant and majestic manner as an illusory figure of a butterfly took shape on top of her.

"My butterfly art is also now at middle stage mastery!" she confidently announced.

"Look, guys! Laura is also using her strongest art," another bystander shouted in excitement.

"This is going to be amazing, Goddess Laura will win now!"

"What a showdown, just the appearance of these figures is enough to affect my inner energy."

At that moment, both cultivators dashed forward, one gracefully, one mightily.

Golden Lions Kick!

Majestic Sonic Slash!

A firm beautiful flawless hand met against an unrestrained ruthless leg. And an incredibly bright explosion of gold happened as the two energies met. Both seemed equal in power as a roar of a lion and screech of a butterfly resounded in the arena.

As the battle of radiance continued, the shockwave of their energies began to crack up the arena and small cracks appeared in the walls. Each sect disciple was unable to move due to the sheer pressure.

Up in the very top of the stands where no one would be sitting, Lex, Aurora, and Leila were spectating the battle. Leila had to move her body and stood behind Aurora to hide from the shockwaves as she was not used to the energy radiations that came from a condensing realm. Lex seemed to be enjoying the battle as he had a smile on his face. He did not seem intimidated by this battle at all rather he seemed excited. His bright yellow eyes were fixed on the two that were currently in another stalemate.

Meanwhile, Aurora only had half of her attention on the battlefield. Her main focus was primarily on looking out for the sect leader. She knew that he would be here as it was a core disciple examination was an extremely important event in the sect. In addition to that, she already knew who would end up winning anyway. However, she was silently limiting her cultivation to condensing realm so that Leila could use her as a shield for now.

Back in the battle, Laura and Drexler were still caught in a stalemate.

Drexler was pleasantly surprised as he did not expect Laura's art to be able to equal his art but this did not change the overall end result of the battle so he was still calm.

He gave a cold grin as he retreated another dozen steps and plottingly spoke, "Laura, it's time to end this."

A shiver of fear and uneasiness was sent down Laura back as an intense sense of foreboding began making her uncomfortable. Nevertheless, she forced herself to gain confidence again as she just convinced herself that he was bluffing.

"We'll see about that," said Laura as she convinced herself and charged at him again.

This time, however, Drexler did not move at all and instead shifted his feet and took an unusual stance.

"What is he doing?" Leila asked confusedly.

"He is going to lose at this rate," Lex disappointedly spoke.

"Hehehe... Brace for impact," Aurora lightly laughed as she now turned her head towards the arena.

The distance between them got shorter and shorter until there were only ten meters between them. At this point, Laura would be able to get a direct hit on Drexler as he would not be able to move in time.

"Stupid commoner, you had the chance, now it's too late!" Drexler loudly shouted as a sudden barrage of energy was unleashed from him and a huge lion that was two times bigger than the first one was formed. And not wasting any time, Drexler smiled evilly as he immediately sent a full-powered kick at Laura which as barely visible to the naked eyes of the spectators.

Boom!

Shriek!

The loud cry of a butterfly sounded weakly as it disappeared, giving it's placed on the floor to the lion. A large cloud of dust immediately followed as the air was furiously swept up.

A few seconds had to pass as the dust cloud slowly cleared up, Drexler was standing tall his chest puffed up. His clothes were not at all messied by the destruction and dust brought up by the clash although there were some creases here and there.

Crack! Crack!

Crash!

Several large crevices appeared on the arena walls and some parts began to crumble causing a few cultivators to fall in while the others dashed higher up the stands.

"Unbelievable!"

"How is this possible? The arena walls could take a full-fledged attack from a peak gathering realm and still not crack. Yet his attack managed to cause large gaps in the walls."

"The arena wall is about twenty meters thick. His attack went into the wall and reached fifteen meters deep. How strong was that attack!?"

The spectating cultivators that were not in danger or any risk were in complete bewilderment as they could not believe the scene that had occurred right in front of their eyes.

Cough!

Cough!

Laura was in an extremely sorry state now after being suddenly attacked by Drexler's art. She had been sent flying into the arena wall about fifteen meters deep.

She coughed up multiple mouthfuls of blood and there were harsh burn marks all around her body from the golden flames. Her hand was completely charred black and there were numerous compound fractures that managed to poke through her arm. The pain was completely unbearable as puddles of blood oozed out of the cut and holes.

To her benefit, there was a cloud of dust currently covering her from being seen by Drexler and the spectators.

"Yo… You… were at middle condensing realm!" she managed to scream out with much pain from deep within the hash brown dust cloud.

"Hahahaha! Indeed. Didn't I tell you that you were going to lose? And not just that, I have reached final stage mastery of my black ranked art. You had absolutely no chance," Drexler's voice mocking voice sounded as the dust cloud quickly cleared.

"I surrender!" Laura angrily shouted unwillingly. The last thing she wanted was to concede defeat to this guy but the situation was all in favor of him so she did not have a choice at all.

"You surrender?" Drexler's voice sounded as he appeared in Laura's field of view.

"Haha! Don't bother! I am going to kill you now and no one in the sect will stop me. You are just a stupid commoner. Back when I had my eyes set on you, you should've just accepted my love. You can only blame your stupidity now. No one cares about a commoner being killed by a noble," Drexler coldly spoke.

"You!" Laura was completely enraged. She could not believe that this boy would kill her just because she had rejected him.

"Killing a fellow sect member is against the sect rules," Laura spoke quite desperately.

"Haha. Against the rules?" Drexler laughed, paying no mind to what she was saying, " I am a noble! I am the rules!"

"Let's get rid of this filthy cloud. I want everyone in the stands to be able to see you. Let the whole sect witness your death!" Drexler spoke evilly as he laid out his hand and swept it across.

Immediately, all the dust that was lingering on the arena, blocking the spectators' view, cleared up almost as if it were swept up by a gigantic broom, and Laura was seen by all the spectating cultivators.

Silence… Complete silence… Everyone was completely silent, not wanting to offend Drexler or even get on his bad side at all.

Suddenly…

"Achoo!... Achoo!... Achoo!"

A series of sneezes sounded and the crowd immediately became confused.

Who was sneezing so loudly?

The sound seemed to come from a hole formed from the attack near Laura. Everyone had their eyes glued in that direction.