"Hoho, would you look at this, our kingdom has only two remaining cultivators and we are both at the late stage, while your side still has three grand perfection stage fighters" Bai Zisheng observed calmly. "It seems like we are on track to lose again, are we not?"
His opponent didn't reply, focusing on the duel. He was already significantly tired after his last match, with numerous minor injuries covering his body. In truth he wasn't even confident in his victory. However, he had no doubt that he would at least be able to significantly weaken this mere late stage Core Formation demonic cultivator before losing.
"May the fourteenth duel of the second round begin, now!" the referee announced.
Immediately, the opposing cultivator, a human sized emerald snake, moved toward Bai Zisheng with fearsome agility, opening its large, terrifying jaws.
"How fast" the latter remarked.
Then, he took out a hundred liters of blood essence at once, and arranged them into a formation, blood orbs filling the battle stage.
"Ah?" the serpent exclaimed, incredulous.
The people present were all shocked: was he really using his trump card at the start!?
"When your enemy is already weak, it's only natural to crush them with all your strength before they can recover, isn't it?"
With these words, he activated a formation killer move:
"Scarlet Dust Misty Rain!"
With a sweep of his foot, he sent a could of dust flying around. Rapidly, the particles of dust were absorbed by the blood orbs and released just as quickly, dyed with a sinister red. Then, as they fell back, they didn't do so with the usual speed of dust falling back down but, instead, they did so with the speed and strength of the Core Formation stage, each grain of dust a terrifying entity able to kill a living being.
The snake tried to contort and glide around to avoid the blood dust, but there was not an inch of the surrounding space that wasn't pierced through by it and so, soon, only a horrifying puddle of meat paste was left of the snake.
"How terrible" Bai Zisheng sighed sincerely. "Had he just chosen to surrender and leave it to the next combatant, he wouldn't have undergone such a tragic fate, how sad"
The surrounding cultivators, including the king of the Xuanhe kingdom, all felt their face contort to varying degrees as they watched him take a napkin out of his storage bag and wipe a tear that had flowed down his cheek. How could someone just kill a peer with such cold, merciless and unhesitating brutality, and then cry for them? Madman, this person was nothing less than a madman!
"The… uhm, the next fighter of Yaoling is Che Lin, of the Eagle tribe" the referee said, affected as well. "Combatants, please stand ready!"
Che Lin flew on stage, observing Bai Zisheng with piercing eyes. The latter, unfazed, watched him prepare to the fight, and sighed:
"I truly hope that unlike the previous unlucky one, you will let yourself be defeated more peacefully, so I won't have to kill you" he said.
The eagle tilted his head to the side:
"Are you not a bit too prompt to speak words about my defeat?" he said. "You may be powerful for your stage, but not to the extent of being unbeatable within your realm. Do not underestimate me, for I won't underestimate you, and will use my full strength to eliminate you, killing you if possible to free both our nations from one more infamous demon"
Bai Zisheng nodded:
"I see, that is a commendable mentality" he said. "Then may the best win"
As the two got ready, the referee declared the beginning of the duel, and the two began to fly around. The eagle, unlike someone like Ye Mu, seemed more like a typical Spirit Beast, investing all his strength into physical abilities: even his wind spells seemed to have not much purpose beyond increasing his speed and mobility. As a result, in addition to the fact that he was one minor stage above Bai Zisheng, the latter quickly became overwhelmed, unable to keep up with such speed.
The demonic cultivator, gliding on a cloud in the same manner as Baotian, barely avoided being decapitated by the eagle's talon, ending with a deep wound on his shoulder.
"I am Che Lin, fastest among the Golden Core cultivators! Just because you have some interesting killer moves, you truly believed you could defeat me without breaking a sweat, did you not? Having eyes but not seeing Mount Tai!"
He kept flying around Bai Zisheng, cutting him in all parts with his talons.
"How mean, why directly going to such accusations" Bai Zisheng said, crossing his arms in front of his face.
Che Lin's talons inflicted a bad cut on his arms, causing a large splatter of blood, and causing the observing Baotian to bite his fingertips, slightly worried for his senior. However, the next moment, the situation was reversed: the blood that had spattered from Bai Zisheng's arms turned into a rope, binding the eagle's talons with one of his wings and greatly reducing his mobility.
"Curse it!" the latter exclaimed, using a spell to turn his feathers into sharp blades that cut the blood binds, freeing him.
However, it was already too late, as Bai Zisheng had already prepared his killer move in the meantime:
"It's a trick I got from my junior" he said. "When you have a good killer move, don't hesitate to bruteforce your way with it!"
Scarlet Dust Misty Rain!
Seeing that his senior had adopted his trick, Baotian couldn't help but frown:
'Did… did I just introduce him to the notion of spamming ultimate moves?' he wondered.
However, unlike the snake, Che Lin surprisingly managed to escape the killer move. He was significantly injured, and seemed to have over three quarters of his plumage missing, but he was still in a good enough shape to fight.
"Ah… curse you, filthy human demon! If it was not for my secret move, Feather Liberation Escape, I would have died as well right now!"
"It is, in fact, the case" Bai Zisheng confirmed, before looking around at his feet.
Numerous feathers were sitting on the ground around him, nearly in a perfect circle.
"You're not the only one ready to abandon flesh to shatter the bones" Che Lin said, smirking with his beak. "Activate, Obsidian Zephyr Net!"
The feathers around Bai Zisheng darkened, turning an obsidian-like color, and stood on their sharp ends. At the same time, the latter froze, seemingly unable to move.
Seeing this, Baotian frowned. Not only because he was wary, but because a particular thought came to his mind:
'Wait a minute… at the Core Formation stage, it's possible to use wind techniques to immobilize enemies, huh' he thought, his eyes narrowing into two slits as he realized something.
However, realizing how serious the situation was for his ally, he decided to put it aside for now and focus back on the fight.
'It seems that this Che Lin used his artifact' he thought. 'Not good'
While the rules limited the amount and level of the pills and artifacts usable by contestants, to make sure the emphasis was put on the contestants' skills. However, a single artifact of equal or inferior level to the user was still authorized, and it seemed that the one that the eagle cultivator chose allowed him to immobilize his opponent.
"It's over for you!" the eagle cultivator exclaimed, using his own killer move. "Celestial Fallen Piquet!"
Using a complex combination of spells, he flew up and then down, his speed reaching well into the Nascent Soul stage for an instant. Bai Zisheng's body didn't have the slightest chance, and promptly exploded on impact, creating a splatter on blood, bones and flesh crumbs…
"That was truly impressive, fellow cultivator Che Lin"
… which then evaporated into a blood mist.
"Uh?" the eagle said, incredulous as he lowered his eyes.
A blood spear had pierced through his back, coming out of his sternum. Behind him, holding the end of the spear, was Bai Zisheng!
"A blood clone" he explained casually.
"You… bastard… just kill me already!"
The eagle cultivator seemed to have already accepted his death, but Bai Zisheng simply shook his head:
"Why would I do such a thing? Your core is nearly shattered, and will be unusable for the next few days, so you are not a threat anymore. The rules don't allow me to loot your possession, so there is no benefit in killing you either" he said. "I don't have any feud with you so, in such a situation, why would I wish to harm you any further?"
Under the shocked eyes of the present cultivators, he dispelled the blood spear, and gently carried Che Lin outside of the arena, walking out with him:
"I sustained quite a few injuries during this fight" he said. "Along with it, after using a blood clone and two formation killer moves, I don't have that much spiritual energy left in me, so I believe it is better for me to withdraw as well"
He carefully laid the eagle down on the side of Yaoling's Spirit Beasts, and returned to the side of the Xuanhe kingdom, sitting beside the other Core Formation cultivators. Seeing his performance had undoubtedly made Baotian realize how lackluster his own performance was.
'Not only did he take out two enemies, but my intuition tells me that even then, he didn't use nearly all of his abilities'
Assuming he reached the late stage right now, and had to fight such opponents reported to the Qi Building level, would he be able to end up with such a result, if the opponents weren't someone like Ye Mu? Likely, yes. But doing so while hiding part of his strength? It was very unlikely.
'Ahh… well, let's put it aside for now'
He would have all the time to think about this among other things once the round was over. Right now, the last match was about to begin.
"And now, the final match of the second round" the referee announced, as the two Core Formation cultivators went on stage. "Li Ka of the turtle tribe against Liu Zhenyun of the Liu clan!"
As the fight was about to begin, Baotian saw a large figure landing beside him, startling him.
"Senior Ye Mu, you nearly gave me a heart attack!" Baotian exclaimed, frowning.
The large grey fox, laughing, gave an insincere apology:
"I'm sorry, fellow Zhang, I didn't mean to scare you" he said. "I simply wished to ask whether I could watch the fight with you, if it does not bother you"
Baotian didn't think about it much and simply agreed. And so, as the old fox took place beside him, Zhenyun's match began.