The words used were meant to be kind and admonishing, but the tone was anything but kind; it was pure sarcasm, and even carried a hint of gloating.
And to be honest...
Ji Mofan glanced towards the viewing platform.
Qu Jin remained seated, his gaze sweeping lightly over all the contestants present.
He seemed perfectly fine, but Ji Mofan didn't think he was a very magnanimous person.
The fact that the lottery results turned out this way is 99% likely due to his behind-the-scenes manipulation.
Ji Mofan didn't think much of it. He ignored Fang Xuan, who was having a great time confronting Senior Sister Chaoming, and walked towards his own arena.
The arena for the final match was transformed into a yin-yang symbol.
The teardrop-shaped arena is not a regular shape in the usual sense, so you need to pay attention to your footing during the battle.
Nanxun was already standing there.
He was still holding the cauldron in his hand, its patterns shimmering with a faint aura of spiritual energy.
"Looks like I'm not very lucky." Nan Xun was still wearing that black mask, so his expression was not visible when he spoke. His voice, which had been roughened by sandpaper, was also unreadable. For a moment, Ji Mo Fan didn't know whether he was just sighing or making a sarcastic remark.
"Making it to the final round is already considered very lucky," said Ji Mofan.
Bad luck is like Xu Jingwen's. If he hadn't met himself in the first game, he wouldn't have failed to even make it into the preliminaries.
But there's no way around it; sometimes luck is also a part of ability.
“That’s not what I meant.” Nan Xun smiled.
That was probably laughter, but the tone didn't sound very pleasant, like a leaky bellows.
Ji Mo Fan couldn't help but furrow his brow.
Nan Xun said they had met before, and Ji Mo Fan had even saved his life.
If that was his voice back then, Ji Mofan couldn't possibly have been completely unaware of someone with such distinctive features.
If it wasn't like that back then, what happened later? Or did he intentionally change his voice?
Nan Xun is truly a strange person. He wants to talk to me about all sorts of trivial things to build relationships and connections, but he's also secretive and won't even reveal his face.
I really don't understand whether he wants Ji Mofan to recognize who he is or not.
As a result, Nanxun didn't have time to explain which aspect of bad luck she was referring to.
The bell that heralded the start of the competition rang throughout the sky.
Ji Mofan struck first, his attack landing on Nan Xun's head before the last note of the bell had even faded.
The biting wind whipped up tiny ice crystals in the air, crashing down like a tidal wave.
"bite--!"
Ji Mofan's eardrums hurt from the loud noise.
His hand felt slightly numb, so he had to step back a little.
That's strange. I've never made this kind of noise when my weapons clash with others in previous battles.
Regardless of whether it's swords, spears, halberds, axes, hooks, or forks, at least when fighting, they're all solid weapons.
But this cauldron is hollow.
Ji Mofan could almost clearly feel that after his spiritual energy attack hit the cauldron, a large portion of it was immediately dispersed along the cauldron's curved surface and the various grooves carved on it, leaving Nanxun with a frustratingly small amount of power that was actually needed next.
No wonder he only has the strength of the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm, yet he was able to make it all the way to the top four in this year's monstrous Dao Inquiry Tournament.
All the strange things probably come from his alchemy cauldron.
"Immortal Master Jimo, why have you stopped?" Nanxun swung the enormous pill cauldron around, making it seem as light as paper in his hands.
But after that strike, Ji Mofan simply stepped back, lightly touching the ground with his toes, and quickly retreated to the other end of the arena.
He didn't plan to launch an aggressive attack until he figured out what was so strange about the alchemy cauldron in Nanxun's hands.
The alchemical cauldron would absorb most of the force, so even if he had the ability to withstand the wasteful and relentless smashing of spiritual energy to forcibly suppress the opponent, it would be quite unnecessary.
After his rebirth, his motto was to take shortcuts whenever possible and never waste a single bit of effort.
Moreover, using brute force against Nanxun might not necessarily be effective.
Because he also had other matches during roughly the same time period, Ji Mofan did not observe Nan Xun's battles very carefully.
But one thing is certain: none of the opponents who had fought him before were able to find a way to break the deadlock. They could only rely on their spiritual energy to gamble on a slim chance of winning, despite the enormous losses they had incurred.
No one got the better end of the deal, including the contestants with spiritual power at the late Nascent Soul stage.
Ji Mofan still considers himself to be at the late Nascent Soul stage; he doesn't arrogantly believe that he is truly at the Divine Transformation stage.
Nanxun's strength seems to be stuck at the critical point of advancing from the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm. The difference in spiritual power is one or two realms. Under such circumstances, it is not impossible for her to challenge someone of a higher level if she has a suitable magic weapon.
Ji Mo Fan never dared to underestimate any of his opponents.
But Ji Mofan dodged it, which only fueled Nan Xun's enthusiasm. He swung the cauldron and chased after him, grabbing the copper handles on both sides and slamming it down on Ji Mofan's head like an upside-down latrine.
A puddle of water was flung out of Ji Mofan's Qiankun bag. A piece of paper with a pre-drawn array floated past it, and the water immediately froze into ice, the lines forming the shape of array runes.
Ji Mofan created a small shield above his head, and while the cauldron was blocked, he slipped out through the gap below.
The barrier broke down after resisting for half a second. The intact ice block was smashed into large, flying ice crystals that sparkled in the air, almost like a rare weather phenomenon called diamond snow dust.
Ji Mofan leaped back to the more spacious side of the arena.
With his toes touching the fish's eye, he suddenly felt something was wrong with the sensation under his feet. He abruptly stopped his backward leap and instead adopted a more stable posture.
The wind seems to be picking up?
No... the arena beneath their feet is actually spinning?
Ji Mofan's eyes were wide open.
The fish's eyes are rotating, and the entire yin-yang symbol is rotating along with its other half. The most significant thing isn't that it moves, but that its movement isn't at a constant speed!
The competition schedule of the Dao Asks the Way Conference has remained largely the same for thousands of years, with only occasional minor adjustments due to unforeseen circumstances.
However, there were far too many mistakes at this conference.
This Yin-Yang Fish Arena was also used by Ji Mofan four years ago, but it was definitely not as fancy back then; it was just a completely fixed stone arena.
But now—he extended his divine sense to explore and clearly sensed an array three feet away from his feet.
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