If a "fifth sect" must be selected in addition to the four major sects, then the Tianqiang Leihuo Fortress, which is famous in the northern frontier, is undoubtedly one of the most qualified sects. Tianqiang Leihuo Fortress's two unique skills - one is "Heavenly Spear" and the other is "Thunder and Fire". This time, Tianqiang Leihuo Fortress lived up to its reputation, with a total of two disciples entering the thirty-two battles, and the profound strength of the two disciples is as high as the eighth level of the Spiritual Profound Realm. The comprehensive strength is far better than the previous ranking battle. Among all the participating sects, it is only slightly inferior to the four major sects.
The first opponent in the Thirty-Two Battles was someone from one of the four major sects. Mu Xiongyi's heart instinctively tightened, but when he saw that it was Ling Jie, who was only sixteen years old and whose profound strength was only at the sixth level of the Profound Spirit Realm, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief and laughed comfortably: "Hehe, this Ling Jie is obviously just here to train for the next qualifying battle. I'm sure to win this one."
“It’s better to be careful. The strength of the disciples of Tianjian Villa cannot be judged solely by the strength of their profound energy.” Mu Xiongyan, who also made it into the top 32, said in a low voice.
"Haha! Don't worry, big brother. If I can't even beat a kid at the sixth level of the Profound Spirit Realm, I might as well stab myself to death... I'm going!"
Mu Xiongyi shouted and jumped onto the sword arena. He swung his strong right arm and swung out a nine-foot-long bronze spear, pointing it directly at Ling Jie: "Mu Xiongyi of the Thunder Fire Fort of Saibei Heavenly Spear, please teach me!"
"Okay, okay." Ling Jie did not show any nervousness in front of a strong enemy. He replied with a playful smile, and then slowly took out his weapon - the Broken Sky Sword. This sword was a high-level earth-profound weapon, which he had just conquered on the sword platform last month. Although it could not be compared with the extremely rare Sky-profound Sword, it was definitely the best among the earth-profound swords, and its power was extremely amazing.
"Elder Ling, we can begin now." Ling Jie said.
“Okay!” Ling Wu Gou nodded: “Ling Jie, a disciple of Tianjian Villa, versus Mu Xiongyi of Tianqiang Leihuo Fort. The match begins!”
Mu Xiongyi was the first to attack, without any accumulation of strength, he thrust out with a spear. With the whistling sound of the air, the tip of the spear was like a venomous snake spitting out its tongue, and it went straight to Ling Jie's throat. Ling Jie narrowed his eyes, thrust out the Sky-breaking Sword, and faced the spear head-on. There was only a crackling sound of profound force colliding, and the sword shadow and the spear light collided dozens of times in just a few breaths, and the deafening sound was like thunder and lightning.
The sword was like a ferocious tiger, the spear was like a poisonous dragon, and the fight between the dragon and the tiger became more and more intense. In a blink of an eye, there had been hundreds of collisions. In the stalemate, it seemed that no one could do anything to the other.
"This Ling Jie is truly amazing. He was able to hold his own against an opponent two levels higher than him for such a long time without losing the upper hand." Cang Yue could not help but admire him.
Yun Che shifted his gaze away from the sword-discussing arena and said firmly, “Senior Sister, you got it wrong. I should say that Mu Xiongyi is amazing. He was able to withstand so many sword strikes from Ling Jie. However, the key is that Ling Jie let him win, otherwise he would have been defeated long ago.”
"Ah?" Cangyue blinked her beautiful eyes, her face full of surprise.
Yun Che and Ling Jie had fought before, although it was only three brief sword fights, but it was enough for him to roughly understand Ling Jie's true strength. He said slowly: "The swords of Tianjian Villa are strong in 'sword intent', rather than simply 'sword momentum' driven by profound strength. Now Ling Jie is only using sword momentum to be on par with Mu Xiongyi, who is two levels higher than him in profound strength... If Ling Jie uses all his sword intent, Mu Xiongyi will be defeated quickly."
Yun Che’s words soon came true. After hundreds of collisions between sword and spear, Ling Jie seemed to have lost his patience. As his eyes changed slightly, the shadow of the sword he swung suddenly became erratic. In the end, the shadow of the sword almost disappeared completely, and only a few erratic tiny afterimages could be vaguely captured.
Such a change would only surprise outsiders, but Mu Xiongyi, who was facing Ling Jie, felt as if his opponent had suddenly changed. He swung his gun with all his strength, and the gunshots whistled. But when they collided with Ling Jie's sword, there was no deafening sound of collision, but only a slight "ding" sound. Then the power he poured into the gun disappeared without warning, and the empty feeling made him extremely uncomfortable. The most surprising thing was that his eyes could no longer catch the existence of Ling Jie's sword shadow, and even the whistling sound of the sword had completely disappeared, as if the sword in Ling Jie's hand had mysteriously disappeared.
Although Mu Xiongyi was shocked, he remained calm and ignored Ling Jie's sword shadow. He released all of his reserved mysterious energy and the power of his spear became fierce again. The nine-foot-long spear was like an angry dragon, winding and flying with great momentum.
But to his surprise, under the several times stronger force of his gun, Ling Jie was not forced to retreat. He just raised his wrist slightly, and the Broken Sky Sword was like a bending spirit snake, piercing through the surging storm of power, through the layers of gun shadows, and piercing Mu Xiongyi directly.
Chi…Chi…
Mu Xiongyi's mysterious defense was easily torn apart. As the severe pain came, two wounds deep enough to see the bone appeared on his chest... and Mu Xiongyi didn't even notice when Ling Jie's sword was approaching his chest.
Mu Xiongyi was greatly shocked and roared, sweeping across the enemy with his spear, forcing Ling Jie far away. He also leaped back high, put all his strength into his right arm, and threw it forward suddenly. The spear immediately turned into a lightning-fast meteor, flying towards Ling Jie with terrifying space ripples.
"It is... it is the unique skill of the Sky Spear Thunder Fire Fortress... the Sky Spear!"
Even at a distance of several dozen feet, people could clearly feel the amazing power of this shot. If hit by this shot, even if one was at the peak of the Profound Spirit Realm, it was estimated that half of one's life would be lost.
Ling Jie retreated quickly, but did not try to dodge. Instead, amid the exclamations of countless people, he pointed his sword at the flying spear...
Ding!!
There was no loud collision sound. When the Broken Sky Sword collided with the spear, there was only a buzzing sound so small that it was almost inaudible.
"What a great 'sticky' trick!" Ling Yuefeng nodded in admiration, a rare look of satisfaction on his face.
"Xiao Jie is not only much more talented than me, but also has considerable courage. When I was Xiao Jie's age, I would never dare to do this." Ling Yun also said with a smile.
The surging sword intent surged up like a flood, firmly absorbing the spear carrying violent mysterious power. Then, the Broken Sky Sword led the spear to draw a huge arc in front of Ling Jie. The tip of this "Spear of the Sky" suddenly turned around and flew towards the stunned Mu Xiongyi.
BANG!!!
The sword-fighting arena was covered in rubble, and the long spear was nailed firmly under Mu Xiongyi's feet. The entire spear body was completely submerged under the arena, leaving a crack several feet long.
Mu Xiongyi took two steps back and sat down on the ground, sweat pouring down his forehead. If the previous shot had been fired a little further forward, there would have been a transparent hole on his body.
"I... I give up." Mu Xiongyi had lost all his will to fight. His chest heaved as he spoke tremblingly.
"Hehe, thank you for letting me." Ling Jie put away his sword and said proudly.
"Ling Jie from Tianjian Villa wins and advances to tomorrow's 16th place match!"
Many people were surprised by this result, but even more people took it for granted. Yun Che held his chin with his hand and muttered to himself in a low voice: "They are all from the four major sects, and they have the same profound strength level, but the difference in strength is so huge... It's worthy of being the Heavenly Sword Villa."
He was talking about Xiao Nan from Xiao Sect and Ling Jie from Tianjian Villa. Both of them were at the sixth level of the Profound Spirit Realm, but the difference in their strength was very large.
The 32nd round continued, and in one morning, the first group's competition was completed. In the afternoon, the second group's competition began. Relatively speaking, the second group's competition was much more intense and exciting than the first group's, because the overall strength of the second group was far superior to that of the first group.
By the evening, the thirty-two battles were all over. The sixteen who would enter tomorrow's elimination rounds were all decided. Among the four major sects, except for Xiao Nan who was defeated by Yun Che, the other eleven people all entered the top sixteen, accounting for two-thirds of the top sixteen.
The schedule for tomorrow's sixteen matches was also displayed on the black stone in the center of the sword-fighting arena after the competition.
Yun Che's opponent tomorrow, like Ling Jie's opponent today, is Mu Xiongyan, the Heavenly Spear Thunder Fire Fortress from the northern frontier.
"You've seen today's match. Mu Xiongyan's expertise is completely different from Mu Xiongyi's. Mu Xiongyi practices 'Heavenly Spear', while Mu Xiongyan practices 'Thunder Fire'. Thunder Fire is much more difficult to practice than Heavenly Spear, but its power is far greater than Heavenly Spear. In the ranking match, you can use any weapon, including firearms! Mu Xiongyan, who is equipped with Thunder Fire, has dozens of different firearms hidden on his body, which appear in an endless stream and are hard to guard against... Be sure to be careful tomorrow!"
In today's match, Yun Che won again, which undoubtedly made Qin Wushang overjoyed. But seeing that tomorrow's opponent was Mu Xiongyan, he couldn't help but worry... Compared to Mu Xiongyan, he hoped that the opponent would be someone from the four major sects. Because Mu Xiongyan's attack method was too terrible, if he was not careful, he would end up crippled. If it really came to that, this star that brought dazzling light to Cangfeng Xuanfu would also dim.
"Don't worry, Lord Qin, I won't get hurt that easily. Besides," he said with a twinkle in his eyes and a smile, "Tomorrow, I will still win for you to see!"
“Haha, good!” Qin Wushang laughed. Before Yun Che had even played a single match, he realized once again that he had underestimated Yun Che. Now, he no longer thought that Yun Che was destined to stop here, but was full of hope and expectation to see how far he could go…whether he could still make it to the quarterfinals…or even, tear apart the “monopoly” of the four major sects that had lasted for hundreds of years and enter the semifinals with a brilliance that shocked the world!
After the match, when the four people from Cangfeng Xuanfu returned to the courtyard, there were already three people waiting for them in the courtyard. To be more precise, they were waiting for Yun Che alone.
Among the three, one was middle-aged and imposing, and the other two young men had been seen in today’s competition. One was Mu Xiongyi who was defeated by Ling Jie, and the other was Mu Xiongyan who defeated his opponent and entered tomorrow’s top 16 match, and would also be Yun Che’s opponent tomorrow.
Seeing Yun Che, the middle-aged man walked over with big strides and said to Yun Che, “I am Mu Tianbei, the current fort master of Tianqiang Leihuo Fort. I am sorry to bother you because I have something important to discuss with you, nephew Yun.”
Mu Tianbei had a rough appearance, and his demeanor was filled with deep pride. After all, in the northern area, the Sky Spear Thunder Fire Fort was the absolute overlord. As the lord of the fort, he could do anything there. In the entire Blue Wind Empire, the Sky Spear Thunder Fire Fort was second only to the four major sects in terms of its reputation.
He came up and asked Yun Che directly. He didn't even look at Qin Wushang beside him, or even Princess Cang Yue. He was so arrogant that he was lawless. Qin Wushang frowned, but didn't say anything. Yun Che stepped forward and said, "So you are the famous Lord of Mubao. I wonder what Lord Mubao wants to discuss with me?"
“It’s very simple,” Mu Tianbei looked directly at Yun Che, “I’ve watched my nephew Yun’s performance in the ranking matches these days, and I’m impressed. My nephew Yun has such talent and strength that even the disciples of the four major sects can’t compare to him. Staying in a mere Cangfeng Xuanfu is simply burying a pearl. How about joining my Tianqiang Leihuo Fort?”
As soon as these words came out, Qin Wushang, no matter how well-mannered he was, couldn't help but get furious. Poaching is fine, but this Mu Tianbei actually poached in front of him, in front of Princess Cangyue, and did not hide his contempt for Cangfeng Xuanfu. He didn't take Cangfeng Xuanfu and the royal family seriously at all. It was simply too much.
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