Page 75: Proving to be the strongest

"I choose Feng Bolin and Zhou Xue!"

Ah Mu screamed while pointing at Li Xianliang's direction. His action was clearly to piss off Li Xianliang who was expecting to be called. Because the sect leader allowed him to choose freely, he took this chance to stay away from the angry Xianliang. Although he is confident that he can defeat him the second time, he doesn't want to go again on that messy kind of fighter. Instead, he called unto the 10th and the 9th placer. Everyone was laughing at Ah Mu's decision since they thought that he really was cleaver.

During the fight, Ah Mu took on the two simultaneously since he did not receive any damage from the first challenge attempt. Another thing was that his opponents were still at the 7th level of flesh tempering which means that the gap was too big. The two whom Ah Mu chose didn't have a chance to win against someone at the 1st level of visceral tempering. The two fights ended with no drama or whatever.

After his fight, he went back on his seat satisfied with his ploy. Even the sect leader was a bit taken with Ah Mu's way of doing things. He never thought that this Ah Mu will take advantage of him.

The challenges continued until only Li Xianliang was left to order his last chance. The rest tried to fight Ling Tian and Mo Lan however, they just suffered instead. Feng Bolin even tried challenging Chen Weimin because he thought he was an easy target. However, unlike what happened during Weimin's fight against Yue, Weimin used Feng Bolin to let out all his frustrations. The latter was carried out of the stage unconscious.

Li Xianliang went back on the stage to announce his second try. This time, he decided to ho all out.

"I challenge Yue!"

Questions came out from many spectators. They were curious as to why a rank 6 would challenge the rank 1participant. Of course, they can only speculate but until the person will say his intentions, they will never know.

Yue stood immediately from her place and jumped towards the platform. With her 4th level of visceral tempering strength, jumping from 8 meters away is not a difficult task to do. Her bright figure just as she landed was too stunning for the crowd. Many gave the same "whoa" reaction at the same time. It can't be helped since they only see these kind of moments few times in their lifetime.

As usual, the two participants did not forget to greet the people who are most important during that time. Just after the sound of the gong was heard, Li Xianliang spoke out some words.

"Sect leader's 3rd disciple Yue, I have a request. Can you hear my demand as a challenger?"

Seeing that Yue nodded with his question, he continued.

"Since this is my last fight, I would like to go all out with all I have, to fight with all means necessary. Will lady Yue accept this term?"

People who was listening to this felt like he was brewing a plan. On the other hand, they were curious on how strong she really is. If Li Xianliang can give the best fight of today, they think it is worth a shot. People started compelling Yue with their cheers saying:

"Goddess Yue, crush him!"

"Smite the insolent lad, our beautiful goddess!"

Will all the noise, Yue raised her hand to calm down the people. Wen everything became quiet, Yue gave her reply.

"Then let is fight with all we've got."

Cheers erupted again. The crowd gained such hype with just some few words from their goddess. Yue on the other hand did not mind this since she did not ask them to cheer for her.

"Lady Yue, then please give me some guidance!"

Li Xianliang yelled those words as he took out a pill from his pouch. Everyone recognized the pill on his hand, it was a berserk pill that can temporarily increase one's cultivation strength by 4 or 5 levels. Add the effects of his blood sword, his cultivation rose to the strength of someone from the 5th level of visceral tempering.

Yue felt the pressure coming from the murderous aura coming from the blade. For a little bit, she felt the pressure of death trying to take her consciousness however, it was not still enough. Her experience during the past at the forest have honed her mind to fight strong opponents even with the signs of danger.

"Here I come, lady Yue!"

Li Xianliang's hoarse voice echoed in the entire martial grounds. The people who were on Yue's side started to feel anxious for Yue. The same case were for the elders. On the other hand, the sect leader did not bat an eyelash. Instead, he just looked at the stage with full of interest. The elders don't know if the sect leader was just confident with the little lady or it was something else.

Back on the stage, Yue prepared her stance with the grade 2 sword on her right hand. Both feet apart with her side facing the opponent, left arm stretched out with the sword on her right oriented parallel to her left arm, she was ready to receive the attack.

The frenzied Li Xianliang slashed his sword from above giving Yue an overhead slash. Yue received the attack but redirected most of the force towards the ground by slanting her sword so that the blood red sword would slide down.

Next attack was a slash from below aimed to slice Yue's body to half but before it could reach her, she spun to Li Xianliang's right and used the her sword to strike the side of his sword to disarm him. However, his grip of the sword was tight and her attempt was unsuccessful.

Before Li Xianliang can make another move, Yue used the momentum of her previous spin and gave out a spinning kick. Her right foot aimed at the back of his head, she gave a one mighty whack.

Li Xianliang received the kick and fell forward. Although he was falling due to the force, he did not lose his consciousness. Trying to get back his balance, he used his sword to stop his fall by stabbing the floor. Seeing that Yue was still on the air, he took the chance to pull out his sword and strike back. It met with Yue's sword and caused her to be flung 4 meters away from him.

Yue cushioned her landing by spinning once in the air. On he landing, she saw Li Xianliang approaching. Just as she predicted, he was trying to finish the fight as fast as he can since the effect of the berserk pill is not infinite. With such aggressiveness, she can only reciprocate with the same fierceness. If it is about speed, Yue would definitely fight with glee.

Since her regular speed was not enough to hit him, it is time for her to use the <thunder steps> that she just learned. Although she was still on the initial success, the speed boost it have was already astounding. In this ring, there's no place Li Xianliang can run to once the skill is activated.

<thunder steps>

Whoosh!

In a blink of an eye, Yue disappeared from her original position and showed up on the other side of the ring. Li Xianliang on the other hand began screaming as a wound showed up on his left arm. A long wound has been opened and blood was flowing out of it. His scream was filled with pain and fury. Little by little, his eyes turned blood red and his sanity switched off. The present Xianliang was now rampaging.

Many family members of the Li started to stand and worry about his situation. Looking back on the stage, Li Xianliang saw Yue and made another attempt. Running like a madman, the dark red aura surrounding him made him appear like a demon.

Yue again moved while under the effects of the movement skill and disappeared and appeared on the other side. This time, a wound opened on Li Xianliang's chest.

The scream was even louder as he felt more pain. Watching such event, some people started to faint due to the gruesome appearance. The Li household looked up on the sect leader's place and saw him stand up. After a few breathes, they felt an oppressing aura coming from him. Although it was directed on Li Xianliang to render him unconscious, the range of the pressure reached the audience. Yue who was closer to Xianliang was also under pressure and caused her to fall on her knees.

What everyone felt was the spirit oppression from someone who reached the spirit tempering stage. It is the stage before reaching the immortal realm. In merchant City, only the sect leader is at such level.

After reverting the oppressive aura, Li Xianliang has already been rendered unconscious. Medical staff of the sect came and provided aid to the unconscious young lad.

While a lot of things were happening on the stage, the household head of the Li family slowly approached Yue.

"Young lady, you are young yet vicious. Aren't you afraid that you'll die in a very savage way? Are you not a goddess just like they say and instead a demoness cloaked to look like a human?"

The Household head was trembling with anger. Even his voice was hoarse from almost weeping because of his son's situation.

"Elder, are your eyes blind? Between me and him, you said I'm the vicious one? If you think the way I handled was wrong, would you still say the same words to him if I received one of his attacks? By the way, you shouldn't have given him something he cannot use yet. He became like this because he got drunk by the power that sword brought."

"She is right!"

A voice came from behind the household head. When he looked who was it, he saw the sect leader with an angry face. Immediately the household head kneeled on the floor.

"Both agrees to use everything they have. This means that they understand the consequences of their actions. What happened to your son was his fault. Let him use this experience to grow and teach him again from the beginning. To fight this way is not how a cultivator should behave. I will be taking the sword. I will only return it when the time comes."

The rest of the event became an awarding ceremony. The top 3 received 2 breakthrough pills while the 4th and the 5th received one each. They were also given a chance to enter the sect's inner armory and choose a weapon of their liking. With this, the martial competition was ended. While many went home happy, most of the major families went back dispirited since no one from their young generation received a benefit. While this was their atmosphere, people who made their bet with Yue winning the first place went home with their gains. Some called their friends and went for a drink but only a small population remembered that there was still one event that was taking place, the alchemy competition.