Qin An frowned involuntarily. The feeling of being stared at by this cold gaze was like a cold snake coiling around his body, and the full of malice was like a maggot clinging to his bone that he could not shake off.

After defeating his opponent in this round, Qin An immediately looked around warily, hoping to find some clues. But unfortunately, when he looked up, the gaze had vanished without a trace.

"Qin An wins this round!"

Qin An had no choice but to refocus his attention on the arena, but he was already on high alert.

Shu Lan stood on the stands, his hand gently covering his chest, his brow furrowed. He felt his heart beating too fast, a sense of unease creeping into his heart, as if something bad was about to happen.

"Junior brother, what's wrong?" Venerable Lieyang noticed that something was wrong with Shulan and asked.

"I have a feeling that something bad is about to happen." Shu Lan's tone was somewhat serious, her eyes fixed on the arena where Qin An was.

"Really?" Venerable Lieyang did not believe it was a coincidence. Cultivators often have stronger intuition than ordinary people. They have a kind of intuition in the dark, and this intuition is often very accurate.

“But this is the Cloud Ascension Gathering.” Venerable Lieyang really couldn’t imagine what kind of bad things might happen here.

"I hope I'm overthinking it." Shu Lan's brows remained furrowed.

After Qin An defeated several more people, fewer people came up to the arena, and everyone was watching.

Just then, a man dressed in green stepped onto the ring.

Qin An turned his gaze over, and was momentarily surprised.

This man had triangular eyes and a gloomy face, giving off an unsettling feeling. He was staring intently at Qin An, his gaze extremely sinister.

This person was none other than Cao Quan, the son of the Third Elder, with whom he had clashed in the Tianyuan Secret Realm. However, unlike before, his entire demeanor had become much more gloomy, making people feel extremely uncomfortable and wanting to avoid him.

What sent chills down Qin An's spine was the strangely familiar look in Cao Quan's eyes. Although Cao Quan had tried his best to conceal his gaze, Qin An immediately recognized it as the same look that had made him feel cold and uncomfortable twice before.

"Cao Quan," Cao Quan introduced himself.

"My name is Qin An." Qin An had no choice but to suppress his extreme discomfort and focus his energy on the competition, but his vigilance was already at its highest.

Although Cao Quan's cultivation level was at the Golden Core stage, it was achieved through the use of elixirs. His spells and swordsmanship weren't particularly advanced, but he possessed a large number of magical treasures. In his battle against Qin An, Cao Quan unleashed a barrage of these treasures.

Qin An kept dodging the attacks of the magical weapons, and from time to time he also had to endure Cao Quan's slashing blows, making him feel extremely miserable.

But even the most powerful magic weapons eventually run out. When Cao Quan used up his last talisman, Qin An, though in a sorry state, was still standing on the arena without suffering much damage.

When Cao Quan ran out of magical weapons, Qin An seized the opportunity and launched a series of attacks on Cao Quan.

Just as Qin An pointed his sword at Cao Quan's chest, he still felt like he was dreaming. Had he really defeated him so easily? He hadn't even used much of his strength.

Cao Quan lowered his head, making it impossible to see his expression.

Qin An sheathed his sword and turned to walk towards the center of the arena.

"I hereby declare."

Cao Quan quietly slipped his hand into his robes.

The winner of this round is—

"Oh no!" Two voices rang out.

One was Shu Lan's voice, and the other was the voice of the elder responsible for maintaining order.

Cao Quan then swiftly shot whatever he had taken from his robes at Qin An with lightning speed.

After shooting the object, Cao Quan laughed sinisterly: "Let me destroy you! Hahahaha!"

Shu Lan's heart was in his throat. He had been paying close attention to Qin An's situation, so he was the first to notice that something was wrong.

Shu Lan leaped down from the stands and rushed towards the arena. The elder in charge of maintaining order also rushed towards the arena, but he was nowhere near as fast as Shu Lan.

When Cao Quan shot the object at Qin An, the hairs on his body immediately stood on end. He only had time to turn his head and watch helplessly as two black dots shot towards him, unable to stop them at all.

Just then, Shu Lan arrived at his side with lightning speed and quickly erected a protective shield.

To Shu Lan's surprise, the two black dots passed through the protective shield without any hindrance and continued to rush towards him and Qin An.

Shu Lan had no choice but to pull Qin An into her arms, turn her back slightly, and shield her face with her arms.

Qin An watched helplessly as his master brother rushed to his side, then hugged him tightly and shielded him with his own body.

The two black dots pierced his arm, which he had been holding in front of him, with a "hiss".

"Master!" Qin An's eyes widened suddenly, his pupils trembling violently. He saw the two black dots embedded in his master's body, and for a moment his mind went completely blank.

"Master, are you alright?!" Qin An anxiously pulled Shu Lan over to check his wounds.

Shu Lan shook his head, stopping Qin An's actions. He quietly pulled the two objects off and used a cleaning spell to remove the bloodstains.

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