Magic Treasure

While the matter with Xiao Yu was going on, the other battles were halted. Now that that matter has been temporarily resolved, they could continue.

Naturally, the other two top candidates for the first position were the next to catch the attention of the masses.

Shi He was battling against another commoner, so one would think that she would easily triumph against this other commoner, given her violent nature.

However, Shi He's opponent has proven herself formidable, except that he was barely holding on.

Yes, Shi He's opponent was a male. He went full defensive and hasn't even attacked once.

Shi He was puzzled and furious. Why aren't you attacking?! She thought. The exact words in her mind came out from her mouth.

"Why aren't you attacking me?!"

She briefly stopped attacking to see if he was just looking for an opening.

After sensing that Shi He had stopped attacking, the male stood up and showed an unharmed face. However, his arm was completely bruised. It was only a matter of time before his arm breaks.

The expression the male showed was that of a happy one.

Everyone was confused, even Li Bai. Shi He was especially confused. Why is this man smiling at me? An M, probably.

The male suddenly opened his mouth and spoke.

"Shi He, milady."

This man said as he was bowing in front of Shi He.

"I am a chivalrous man, and therefore I do not hit women."

The crowd immediately showed different expressions. Many were disgusted, but some were actually relating to this man. They were nodding and smiling in satisfaction.

Many from the crowd considered themselves to be a "chivalrous man". Even though their upbringing was that of a commoner, it was a mystery how their pride inflated so much.

Nonetheless, unless their ego was forcibly destroyed by someone, it was extremely likely that they'll continue acting like this until their death.

Shi He was extremely furious at this man. He said he was a chivalrous man, but the truth was that he found her too weak to begin with, disregarding her as just a "girl".

However, this opponent of hers had the talent to prove it. He did not get a scratch even once during her assault against him. He even stood up smiling after as if nothing was happening.

Li Bai observed from a distance and shook his head.

"To think that this fellow's so audacious as to use a magic treasure! Come to think of it, where did this commoner get one?"

After the man stopped speaking, Shi He's rage built up and she leaped towards the man again, attacking him mercilessly.

When Shi He unleashed her assault, Li Bai could feel the energy within her attacks from the distance they were in. This was impressive, even for Li Bai.

It was just that this treasure her opponent possessed absorbed all attacks from Third Level Mark and below. If it received an attack of higher caliber than that, the man would be done for.

The magic treasure was an arm guard that was not visible to the naked eye. It emitted a bit of Light energy to trick the eyes of people. However, Li Bai could see it clearly, this weirded him out!

"I know this magic treasure... this is the one that I made as a test when I was two-years-old in my past life... it was a failure so I didn't even give it a name..."

Regardless of whether Li Bai could see it or not, Shi He was clearly in a disadvantage.

No one else saw the treasure and thought that this fellow that was battling Shi He had high defensive capabilities. Even Shi He herself thought so.

Every time she struck the opponent, his arm would block her and she would feel like she just hit a brick wall. This didn't hurt Shi He that much, but the problem wasn't in how much pain she could endure, it was in how much longer she could continuously assault the man.

She stopped again to catch her breath, when the man opened his mouth and spoke up.

"Since you know my capabilities now, I suggest you surrender. Who knows, in the future, when I make it big, I might consider having you as my wife!"

Upon hearing the other party's statement, Shi He nearly vomited blood. It was just one second ago that he claimed that he was a chivalrous person, and now, he was clearly stating his intentions to proposing to a girl he had just met. What kind of world does this man live in to have that kind of backwards logic?

Even though Shi He was fierce, she was considered extremely beautiful among the commoners.

While this man was still full of himself, Shi He analyzed the man speaking arrogantly in front of her and noticed something amiss. Why would he use only one arm to protect from Shi He's attacks?

She concluded that there was something peculiar about the arm he was using to defend himself, but that that was the extent of his defense.

To test her hypothesis, she had to trick her opponent, but given his arrogant nature, she doubted that it would be hard. Shi He sent a kick straight to the other party's head and, as soon as he sensed her attack, he immediately raised his arm to protect his head.

Upon seeing this defensive move of his, Shi He instantly threw a punch to his chest whilst retracting her previous kick! The transition was so fast that the man had no time to react!

While his hand was still covering his face, the man felt a sting on his stomach.

"Oof!"

Before he knew it, he was sent flying. He quickly lost as he fell outside the stage.

The man was knocked unconscious as he dived headfirst into the ground, nearly breaking his fragile skull.

The magic treasure loosened when the man came in contact with the floor, and it removed itself from the man's arm.

The unnamed item became visible to the everyone's view.

"Is... is that a magic treasure?!"

An elder was flustered. He was supposed to check the participants to see if they were carrying something or not.

However, this elder was too lazy to check the commoners as he thought that they would be too poor to afford anything anyway. He only checked the clansman.

The people didn't know at first what fell off of the man's hand. As they heard the elder's cry, their expressions turned from confusion to disdain.

"How shameless!"

"Chivalry, your head!"

The general consensus of the audience was that the man was shameless to have been using a magic treasure in a battle, even more so, against a girl!

The man, currently out cold, felt that he was being insulted, despite being unconscious.

Shi He had won her battle!

.....

The other battles continued. Out of the four, only Zhao Mei was still fighting.

Zhao Mei was in the corner crouching, in a similar position to Shi He's opponent when he would defend himself from Shi He's endless assault.

Even though she was crouching, she was not defending herself with her arm, instead constantly throwing punches to her opponent who wasn't able to get close at all.

His legs were already severely injured as he got hit by Zhao Mei's constant punching. Now, he was just waiting for Zhao Mei to run out of stamina.

However, much time has passed since he started to wait. All of the other battles have already concluded. Only the two were left.

Zhao Mei was still punching thin air like a maniac, while the other party was just staring at her, waiting for her to get tired. Zhao Mei was getting close to her limits.

She was already panting heavily as her punches slowed down. Her forehead was filled with sweat as she perspired profusely. Her opponent's eyes lit up as he saw this.

He stood up and walked closer as Zhao Mei's hand kept getting slower and slower. Eventually, the man was only a few inches away from Zhao Mei.

Zhao Mei had completely ceased to move her hand, trembling on the side of the stage, preparing for what her opponent might do next.

The man, as his legs were hurt, threw a punch instead of a kick despite the latter being his specialty. Zhao Mei looked at her opponent's hand in despair as it was rapidly approaching her.

Li Bai felt something was amiss. Regardless of her obviously high cultivation level, she was acting so timidly. Even if she was just acting, to win, she didn't even need to deceive her foe, she could just beat him up straight!

Anyone else other than Li Bai would not be able to detect her cultivation level, but he was different. He had his methods.

His soul had been tempered for centuries, so his Soul Strength was higher than anyone in the continent. Flow Detection was a special ability upon reaching a certain level of Soul Strength. It had been long since Li Bai reached that level.

Li Bai had used this to determine everyone's cultivation levels without their knowledge.

Liu Yang was at the Fourth Level Mark.

Xiao Yu was at the Third Level Mark.

Shi He was at the Third Level Mark as well.

Using this method, he tried it out on Zhao Mei as well, and he widened his eyes in shock. Zhao Mei... was at the First Level Godly Mark!

This Zhao Mei looked as though she was just turning nineteen this year, but she was already at the First Level Godly Mark!

This was an impressive achievement! Of course, reaching this level before he was even fifteen was normal for Li Bai, but this would be normally impossible for anyone other than him!

How did she have this high of a cultivation level? Was she possibly a member of a powerful clan in disguise?

If that was the case, why would she do that? It didn't make sense in Li Bai's mind. In any case, Li Bai wanted her as a disciple, but with her high level, she would be difficult to persuade.

As he was contemplating the different reasons, he continued observing the only fight going on.

Just as her opponent's hand was right in front of her, Zhao Mei's expression went from hopeless to scheming. A wide grin had appeared on her face.

No one noticed this as the grin appeared in only a split second. Of course, an exception to this was Li Bai. He saw the exceedingly fast changes happening to Zhao Mei's face.

Zhao Mei swiftly dodged the hand approaching her head and stretched her foot out. The other party didn't notice Zhao Mei's dodge until the last moment. He stumbled and tripped on Zhao Mei's outstretched foot.

As Zhao Mei was at the edge of the stage, the man fell off the stage when he tumbled on Zhao Mei's foot.

Zhao Mei immediately pulled her leg back, and no one except for Li Bai noticed a thing. The crowd only saw the man tripping suddenly and falling headfirst outside of the stage.

Zhao Mei still had her "frightened" face on when she acted like she didn't notice that her opponent fell over.

A look of confusion slowly overtook her face. Of course, this was just a facade, but it fooled many.

"Huh?"

"What happened?"

"Why did the man trip?"

Everyone looked at the stage in bewilderment. Only Li Bai remained calm, but the truth was that he was panicking inside.

Even though he had all the knowledge in the world, without the strength to execute it, it might as well be useless trash. Based on his past lives, Li Bai was still a few years off before he could reach the level of Zhao Mei.

Given her supposedly excessive talent, by then she would have already reached the Fifth Level Godly Mark pinnacle! It would take a few more years for Li Bai to catch up.

Li Bai wasn't confident that he would beat this girl this day.

"This girl... will be a formidable opponent! I want her as my disciple."

An elder announced that Zhao Mei had won the battle.

Just like their treatment with Li Bai, they credited her win with her luck!

"No fair!"

"He just fell off!"

"This is unjust!"

.....

As soon as Zhao Mei's battle ended, the elder shook the container again to determine the next few battles.

Anyway, whatever the result of the next battles were, they have already qualified to be brought to the Red Dragon City.

Like before, the first one to get picked would get a free pass to the next round.

People in the crowd were discussing.

"Hey, want to make a bet? I bet Li Bai will get picked again."

"Huh? Let's bet five bronze coins then!"

"I wish Li Bai wouldn't get picked anymore!"

"I don't know. If Li Bai got picked, it would prove his luck!"

The elder finished shaking the container and put it down. He inserted his hand inside the container and grabbed one.

Many on the people in the crowd were kneeling, praying that Li Bai wouldn't get picked again.

The elder was secretly thinking this in his mind as well. If Li Bai got picked again, that would be excessive. As he thought this, he dropped the one in his grasp and reached his hand deeper into the container.

He grabbed this one, but he still felt anxious that it would be Li Bai who he picked. He dropped it again and picked another one.

"Third time's the charm!"

The elder excitedly pulled his hand out of the container.