Chapter 87: Zhu Gaotai and Fei Ling
The spring breeze was like a pair of scissors, snipping the willow branches and warming the passing years. It carried a soft warmth, like an unexpected breeze on a summer day, gently stirring the bamboo blinds and filling one's heart with clarity and ease.
Looking up at the tender bamboo leaves drooping over the courtyard, Li Yan adjusted his deep green robe and walked out of the courtyard.
The day of the Qi Condensation stage tournament had finally arrived.
At the waist of Old Lord Peak, a massive platform had risen, hosting twenty fighting arenas. Given the large number of Qi Condensation disciples participating, the number of arenas had increased accordingly, though each was now reduced in size from fifty li to five li in radius.
Li Yan looked at the thousands of disciples gathered in five designated regions, still feeling it was fewer than the Foundation Establishment tournament. Judging by the Foundation Establishment cultivators standing in front of each peak, many of the true elites hadn't even shown up.
At Little Bamboo Peak's side, neither Fourth Senior Sister, Fifth Senior Brother, nor the three junior disciples had come. Most of the Foundation Establishment cultivators from each peak were those ranked within the top forty-nine. They were here to scout for disciples to join their teams in future life-and-death missions.
Among those Foundation Establishment cultivators, Li Yan spotted Wang Tian and Zuo Shengyan. Zuo Shengyan's gaze toward Little Bamboo Peak carried a clear chill, she hadn't forgotten her humiliation. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't find her greatest enemy, Wen Xinliang.
Across from them, the Boundless Peak region was still obscured. Most likely, Li Changting and Zhao Min had also arrived, both of whom had made it into the top forty-nine in the previous tournament. Just thinking of Zhao Min's tall, elegant figure stirred a ripple in Li Yan's heart for reasons he couldn't explain.
Soon, Core Formation cultivators arrived amidst flowing clouds of rainbow light, just over a dozen of them. After that, the familiar procedure commenced. Yan Longzi gave a brief speech, and then an elder from the sect's Law Enforcement Hall explained the rules before scattering a cloud of small red arrows…
This time, each of the twenty arenas had a Foundation Establishment cultivator acting as referee and monitor.
These twenty were drawn from all the peaks. In order to allow the top forty-nine Foundation Establishment cultivators, those going to the secret realm, to watch the matches in full, none of them served as referees. For example, Li Wuyi was assigned to monitor one specific arena.
Li Yan looked down at his green robe sleeve, beside the small golden bamboo bright red characters read: "Thirty-Three." Overhead in the Thousand-Li Flowing Light Mirror, the blue flows of light began to coalesce into large glowing numbers.
Li Yan didn't see his number displayed yet, so he mentally recalled the people Li Wuyi had warned him to be wary of, hoping to observe their matches before his own.
As the forty lines of names across the twenty crystal panels gradually solidified, light surged across the platform. Dozens of streaks of light in various colors shot toward different arenas.
Li Yan scanned the platforms and eventually locked onto one in particular.
Within the barrier of blue protective light at the edge of one arena, two figures stood facing each other from a hundred zhang apart. Unlike Foundation Establishment duels, Qi Condensation cultivators didn't hover midair miles apart.
They could only rely on flying tools to ascend the arena. Upon entering, both would put away their flight tools. Flying not only consumed spirit stones, but also drained spiritual energy during combat.
On the arena Li Yan focused on, one of the contestants was of average height, with short hair, a determined and rugged face, dark skin, and wielding a pair of strange drumsticks, each about a foot long. He was a disciple of Boundless Peak, named Zhu Gaotai.
Opposite him stood a tall, thin disciple from the Spirit Insect Peak. He had a sinister, gloomy expression, and perched on his right shoulder was a half-human-sized mantis entirely red in color. It constantly tilted its head left and right, its large eyes darting around to glance repeatedly at Zhu Gaotai.
The insect's aura was clearly at the late stage of first rank. Its massive crimson-black scythe-like forearms rubbed against each other, the serrated blades emitting a bone-chilling grinding sound.
Li Yan had chosen to observe this match because Li Wuyi had specifically mentioned both of these individuals.
Zhu Gaotai, late tenth level of Qi Condensation, was said to rank among the top three of Boundless Peak's outer sect. Nearly all of his basic spells had reached great mastery, and their power was formidable.
He specialized in using a poisonous insect known as the Urn Thunder Gu, ranked 630th on the Venomous Beast List. Though only three inches long, it could unleash deafening sonic blasts. Once it latched onto a creature, its limbs would burrow deep into the body. From there, its sonic pulses would travel inside, causing the victim's body to swell like a balloon. Before the swelling even reached a critical point, the victim's internal organs could be shattered into a bloody pulp by the vibrations.
His opponent, the Spirit Insect Peak disciple Fei Ling, was also at tenth level Qi Condensation and specialized in the wood element.
His contracted spiritual beast was the Blood-Bronze Blade Mantis, a fire-attribute vicious beast ranked 637th on the Venomous Beast List. Naturally ferocious, it favored devouring the tendons and veins of living beings.
Its massive forelimbs were scythes lined with reversed serrated barbs, scorching hot to the touch. As they sliced into flesh and blood vessels, the heat would sear them in place, sticking to the tendons. A brutal upward pull could rip the entire network of vessels from the body, causing excruciating pain as though the victim were being unraveled from within. The mantis would then gorge itself on the torn tissue before searching for its next target.
That these two had met in the very first round was unexpected. After surveying all twenty crystal panels, Li Yan focused on this battle.
On the platform, the two stood in silent opposition for a moment. Though no words were spoken, their auras continued to rise sharply, each forcing their spiritual pressure upward.
Just as the auras were reaching a peak, Fei Ling abruptly made his move before the pressure climaxed. With a flicker, his figure vanished from his original spot, a seasoned maneuver clearly indicating a wealth of combat experience, deliberately disrupting the expected rhythm of battle.
A breath later, ghostly afterimages appeared and disappeared across the arena. In mere moments, he had closed the distance to within several zhang of Zhu Gaotai.
Yet Zhu Gaotai remained unmoved, as though he hadn't noticed, continuing to build up his aura, readying a strike infused with wind and thunder.
Fei Ling's silhouette flickered one final time, arriving within ideal striking range, just a few paces away.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh…"
Multiple cyan wind blades, shaped like half-moons, sliced through the air toward Zhu Gaotai aimed at his neck, chest, abdomen, and legs.
Fei Ling had chosen the most common spell, Wind Blade Technique but at this moment, it was undoubtedly the most effective. At this distance, it was the fastest and most direct attack. He had cultivated the technique to perfection, and its spinning blades carried a needle-like sharpness.
At the same time, a sudden ripple disturbed the air to one side. The Blood-Bronze Blade Mantis appeared just a zhang away from Zhu Gaotai's left flank. Even Li Yan hadn't seen how it got there.
With a sharp clang, the creature's massive black-red scythes crossed. From their intersection, a streak of dark red light shot out like an arrow, compressed and launched by the powerful pressure between the blades. The beam moved with lightning speed, aimed straight at Zhu Gaotai's head.
From the looks of it, if that strike hit, not even the body-protecting spiritual energy would guarantee his survival. And right after firing the red beam, the mantis lunged forward like a shadow, slashing down with its blazing, scythe-like forelimbs.
In an instant, Zhu Gaotai was caught between the full-force attacks of two elite cultivators at the peak of the Qi Condensation stage. Just as both attacks were about to land, Zhu Gaotai's previously upright and honest face twisted into an eerie grin and his body suddenly vanished without a trace.
The wind blades slashed through empty air, flying off into the distance, and the dark red beam likewise missed, screeching past at an angle. The mantis reappeared where Zhu Gaotai had stood just a moment earlier, its scythes leaving a trail of shadowy flames as they cleaved through nothing.
At that moment, several zhang away, the ground rippled and a hazy figure shot up from beneath it. As it solidified midair, he tossed his drum mallets upward.
In a flash, the two mallets transformed into enormous drums, each seven or eight zhang tall and twenty zhang wide, descending from the sky and enveloping a broad area of several dozen zhang.
Li Yan's pupils contracted sharply. Spirit treasures, those mallets were actual spirit treasures, a rare sight for someone at the Qi Condensation stage. Their power far exceeded that of the small spiritual sword he carried.
This dramatic scene didn't go unnoticed by the spectators either, many watching this arena showed expressions of awe and envy.
"I didn't know Brother Zhu had spirit treasures on him… That's something none of us heard before."
"I'd heard rumors, but wasn't sure until he brought them out. Word is, a year ago he and several senior brothers discovered a small palace in a remote desert. The Grand Profound Sect had more than ten cultivators there too. The two sides clashed over the treasures inside. Zhu's group lost three men, but the other side lost eight or nine. In the end, both sides got some loot, I'm guessing that pair of mallet spirit treasure came from that battle."
Li Yan was staring intently at the field. Those enormous drum barrels looked tightly sealed, if someone got trapped inside, escape would be extremely difficult.
And now, Fei Ling and the mantis were right in the center of that formation. Escaping dozens of zhang in an instant? Too late.
But then, something even more bizarre happened. Just as the two giant drums enclosed the battlefield, a distortion appeared in the air a li away. Fei Ling and the mantis suddenly appeared there.
Fei Ling's face was pale and his breath uneven, it was clear he'd used some high-cost secret technique to barely escape the attack of Zhu Gaotai's spirit treasure in time.
Zhu Gaotai showed a flicker of surprise, then his expression changed. With a flash, he circled to the side of one of the giant drums. Suddenly, hissing thuds sounded from the ground as several massive vine-like thorns burst out, piercing the spot he'd just stood in.
Had he been even a fraction slower, he would have been struck by those giant thorns. Though the Foundation Establishment overseers wouldn't allow death in the ring, serious injury or defeat would've been inevitable.
But before he could make another move, Zhu Gaotai's expression changed once more. With another flicker, he retreated from that area entirely and reappeared atop one of the giant drums. With a wave, the other drum shrank into a streak of dark light and flew back into his hand, becoming a simple drum mallet again.
He turned his gaze toward the patch of earth he'd just fled. Wisps of faint mist were now beginning to dissipate there. Then, turning to face Fei Ling in the distance, he called out:
"Brother Fei, impressive indeed. I didn't expect you to have cultivated both wind and wood elements to such a degree. The power of wind, unrivaled speed. And the wood, it's already capable of summoning Frost Vine Thorns."
Zhu Gaotai hadn't expected that Fei Ling, in addition to possessing a wood spiritual root typical of the Insect Beast Peak, also carried a rare wind root. Without that, there was no way he could have escaped the coverage of the Heaven-Breaking Drums and reappeared a li away in an instant.
If this had been a battle between Foundation Establishment cultivators, his level of speed would have been even more alarming. And to think that Fei Ling had also planted a trap during his retreat, if Zhu had focused entirely on the escape, he would've walked right into it.
Luckily, Zhu's divine sense had warned him in time. The Frost Vine Thorns was a rare wood-element plant, known not just for its piercing, binding, and entangling abilities, but also for emitting a subtle, easily overlooked poison.
Inhaling it or touching it with bare skin would lead to paralysis and deep unconsciousness in just a few breaths, a natural predatory adaptation of the plant.
"And Brother Zhu, are your own methods any less impressive? Everyone says Boundless Peak cultivators are masters of offensive metal techniques but who knew you also possessed a high quality earth element root?
"Your Earth Movement Technique may not have reached the 'Dust returns to dust, earth returns to earth' level, but once you break through to Foundation Establishment, that level won't be far off. You really should have joined the Four Symbols Peak, your potential there might even surpass what you'll achieve on Boundless Peak."
Fei Ling's complexion remained ashen. His hasty use of wind techniques had exceeded what his current cultivation could support, and now waves of stabbing pain coursed through his physical body.
Meanwhile, Li Yan watched the match in silence, his expression heavy.
If I were the one standing against either of these two... what could I possibly rely on to survive, let alone win?
(Chapter End)