Absolute strength

Liu Yan naturally knew that Jin Chengcheng could get in, but if a few more words of advice could make her more careful, she would definitely be willing to say so.

On the arena, Ruan Qingyu waited quietly for a quarter of an hour. Soon, a familiar sound of wind suddenly came from the opposite side.

Looking up, they saw that the auspicious clouds, almost identical to those in the originals, brought a man up. He was still wearing the robes of a disciple of the Xuantian Sect, but his attire was exceptionally rough.

Blinking, Ruan Qingyu guessed that this person was probably a body-refining cultivator. The path he cultivated should be body tempering and blood refining, and all his techniques relied on his strong flesh and blood body.

Seeing this, Ruan Qingyu smiled slightly and said, "Please."

The body-refining cultivator happened to be at the late Golden Core stage as well, so he wasn't surprised by Ruan Qingyu's words. He laughed loudly and charged towards Ruan Qingyu.

In every battle he fought against cultivators, few disciples who got close to him could defeat him. Therefore, his first priority was to find a way to close the distance with Ruan Qingyu, but he could run away.

Ruan Qingyu naturally wouldn't sit idly by and wait to die. She quickened her pace and constantly dodged the opponent's attacks and pursuit.

“Fellow Daoist Ruan, it’s not good to keep hiding like this,” Lin Zida said loudly, his eyes full of determination. Ruan Qingyu’s constant dodging only made him more confident.

He knew that within the Xuan Tian Sect, cultivators like him who focused on body refinement were few and far between. Even the Dao Lord's closed-door disciple was merely a magic cultivator who relied on spells.

Lin Zida's provocative words reached Ruan Qingyu's ears, but she ignored them. After all, this was a competition, and if she got angry over a few words, she wouldn't need to participate.

After carefully observing the surrounding layout, Ruan Qingyu thought to herself that her preparations were finally complete. Then she suddenly turned around, startling Lin Zida behind her.

Lin Zida first cautiously observed her for a moment, and seeing that she did not make any move, he took a deep breath and swung a punch at her.

Despite being swept by the force of the punch, Ruan Qingyu remained unfazed, facing the heavy blow head-on. A barely perceptible smile played on her lips. It wasn't that she underestimated body-refining cultivators; it was just that she had encountered such people in her previous life, and very few of them were truly intelligent.

Before the fist wind arrived, Ruan Qingyu's wall of fire suddenly stretched across the two, isolating Lin Zida from the outside.

He quickly withdrew his fist, having just felt the scorching heat of the wall of fire, which almost dried out his proud and strong body.

After cautiously glancing at the wall of fire, Lin Zida decided against forcing a close-quarters fight. He immediately slammed his fist into the ground, instantly shattering the hard rock of the arena and creating a wide crack that stretched from Lin Zida's position straight to where Ruan Qingyu was standing.

The ground crack came with tremendous force. Ruan Qingyu didn't have time to change her position. With a flick of her right hand, she retracted the wall of fire. At the same time, she felt a heat on her back, and a pair of fiery wings sprouted, carrying her straight upward.

Lin Zida couldn't help but look up. Ruan Qingyu's spiritual energy conversion was so fast? He glared fiercely at the fiery wings that Ruan Qingyu was flapping high up.

The next moment, Lin Zida summoned his natal spirit sword, stepped on it, and flew up.

High in the sky, Lin Zida conjured countless pebbles out of thin air, which smashed towards Ruan Qingyu's left and right sides, before rushing straight towards Ruan Qingyu's face.

Below the arena, the disciples watching gasped in astonishment: "They haven't even reached the Nascent Soul stage yet, but they can still fight for so long in the void using their own spiritual power. Their dantian must be extremely deep."

"Lin Zida is still a bit lacking. Flying on a sword relies on external force after all. Although it is his natal spirit sword, it consumes much more energy than his own magic. Now it's a matter of who falls first."

"Although the magic cultivator is powerful, Lin Zida is a well-known body cultivator in the sect. I think it's doubtful that he can become the last disciple of this Dao Lord."

The disciples below the arena were buzzing with discussion. On the arena, Lin Zida snorted angrily, watching as Ruan Qingyu dodged his illusion.

He immediately stopped struggling and unleashed dozens of punches at Ruan Qingyu. Instead of trying to close the distance between them, the dozens of punches appeared like phantoms, flying towards Ruan Qingyu in the next moment.

Seeing the dazzling fist techniques coming towards her, Ruan Qingyu first summoned a wall of fire to block some of them. When the remaining fist shadows rushed in, she released a Fire Phoenix Palm, which barely blocked all of Lin Zida's attacks.

When his first attack failed, Lin Zida didn't hesitate and swiftly opened his mouth, letting out a tiger's roar. The deafening roar came from all directions.

Caught off guard, Ruan Qingyu immediately covered her ears and plummeted from the sky. A huge plume of smoke rose from the ground, and Ruan Qingyu, caught in the blast, sat up, supporting herself on the ground.

The tiger's roar seemed to come from the blood of the demonic beasts he absorbed during his body tempering. Ruan Qingyu tried to think, but every time she thought of a crucial moment, Lin Zida would let out another tiger's roar, suppressing her thoughts and emotions completely.

"I knew it! Lin Zida has been cultivating his body for many years and has drunk more blood from demonic beasts than he has his own. How could he not beat a magic cultivator!" a very scantily clad, muscular cultivator murmured.

Beside him, many cultivators who looked extremely resolute nodded in agreement. They were all cultivators who had chosen the path of body refinement within the Xuan Tian Sect, and all of them aimed to achieve physical sainthood.

They were naturally very interested in Lin Zida's arena match. Many cultivators, on the other hand, weren't as nervous as they were; they simply watched the competition with great interest, as if they were enjoying a performance.

After a quarter of an hour of tiger roars, Lin Zida was overjoyed and stomped down on Ruan Qingyu. Coming down from the sky and using the power of his movement technique, this kick would surely injure anyone who couldn't dodge it.

Ruan Qingyu raised her head slightly, and as her eyes widened, a clear bird's song rang out from her throat. A golden-red flame spread from her brow to the back of her head, like a red jade hair ornament.

At this moment, Ruan Qingyu abandoned her magic and chose to confront the enemy head-on. A layer of phoenix flames lightly enveloped her body.

With a somersault, he kicked out as well.

With three loud 'boom boom boom' sounds, the two exchanged kicks for three rounds. Aside from the constant clanging and thuds, the Xuan Tian Sect disciples below the arena were trembling with pain and their teeth ached.

"Lin Zida is one thing, but Ruan Qingyu is clearly a magic cultivator. How come she's started using the physical combat style of body cultivators?"

One of the disciples shuddered and said, "Is that the point? Isn't it? Whoever faces her later will have to be careful that she might not be able to fight at close range?"

Upon hearing this, the surrounding disciples all fell silent. The idea was so plausible that no one wanted to delve deeper into it.

All I could do was pray silently that I wouldn't encounter those two evil spirits.

In the clash of spells, the worst that could happen is torn clothes or scratches. But if you were to fight someone head-on, you'd probably end up with broken bones, legs, and arms.

The two secretly gathered their strength, concentrated their spiritual power on their feet again, and stomped down hard.

In an instant, the two of them staggered backward in opposite directions like shooting stars, only managing to stop at the edge of the arena.

In the waiting area, only Liu Yan remained without an opponent, and she was secretly worried for Ruan Qingyu. Lin Zida was a well-known figure in the Xuantian Sect, and it was truly bad luck for Qingyu to be matched against him in the second round.

Only when Liu Yan saw Ruan Qingyu's effortless and even increasingly fierce expression during their fight did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Just as she was watching with bated breath, a white light suddenly flashed past her. Liu Yan instinctively turned her head to look and saw that Liu Feng, whom she trusted the most, had lost the match and stepped off the stage.

Before Liu Yan could speak, Liu Feng said, "It was my carelessness. We've won two out of five games and lost two, so we still have one game to go."

These words struck Liu Yan as truly strange: "What? You said before that you wanted to enter the team competition with a perfect record. You'd better win. When we applied to register, there were no substitutes."

As she spoke, Liu Yan's eyes grew increasingly dangerous. After all, this team competition was crucial to whether their Ni Chang Society could obtain the faction token and continue to exist.

If Liu Feng messes up, she will personally take action to clean up the mess, not only against her own siblings, but also against her own father.

His older sister's threatening gaze felt like a tangible knife, each strike aimed directly at Liu Feng. He unconsciously swallowed hard, and just as he was about to beg for mercy, he suddenly heard a heavy thud behind him.

"Huh?! Lin Zida lost!" Liu Yan was excited and agitated. For a moment, she forgot to continue threatening Liu Feng and instead turned to ask the disciple beside her who was watching intently.

Seeing this, Liu Feng breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Senior Sister Ruan! Senior Sister Ruan is truly amazing; she saved my life at the crucial moment!" At this moment, Liu Feng was no longer the scoundrel he once was; he now had the expression of a lackey fawning over his underling.

Ruan Qingyu stood on the ring and exhaled a breath of stale air. Just now, she had taken a risky move, managing to withstand Lin Zida's punch, and while his fist was still on her right shoulder, she slammed her palm into his chest.

They sent the person off the ring just like that. Although the fight was a bit painful, it felt incredibly satisfying afterward.

Below the ring, Lin Zida immediately got up and looked up at the people on the ring with some frustration.

"It was I who lost. Senior Sister Ruan, you must keep winning, or I will be the one who loses face." Lin Zida looked sullen, gave a slight bow towards the arena, and returned to his waiting area.

On the arena, Ruan Qingyu had just recovered 70% of her spiritual power when she saw another auspicious cloud descend from opposite her.

A young girl in white gracefully descended from above, her face innocent and lovely. She looked like the girl next door. After landing steadily on the arena, she smiled slightly at Ruan Qingyu: "Greetings, Senior Sister Ruan!"

"Senior Sister Ruan, could you please spar with me without using physical techniques? Although I know I am half a realm below you, I still want to have a proper exchange with you." Mo Tiantian clasped her hands together and blinked her eyes as she spoke.

A moment of regret crossed her mind. Ruan Qingyu had just had a great fight with Lin Zida in the previous round and was originally planning to continue fighting in close combat.

However, Mo Tiantian's expression seemed genuine; she truly intended to spar. While a late-stage Golden Core cultivator was indeed at a disadvantage against her, he didn't immediately concede defeat. Such a fellow disciple deserved her serious consideration.

He nodded and said, "Okay."