The Sovereign's Ascension

Yang Lie spit up a mouthful of blood. When Bai Lixuan sheathed his sword, he could sense that the lightning enveloping him had weakened. Otherwise, he wouldn’t even be able to spit up blood.

“Thank you.” Yang Lie coughed as the light in his eyes grew dim. Bai Lixuan completely defeated him without relying on luck. This meant that even if he fought with Bai Lixuan a hundred more times, he would still lose. After all, they were no longer on the same level.

Thinking about it, Yang Lie couldn’t help feeling sorrow. He would never catch up to Bai Lixuan since the latter had the saint physique. This feeling was even worse than the injuries on his body as he probably wouldn’t end up in the top ten. But the path of a cultivator was brutal and it was hard to find an opportunity to catch up to someone.

“I surrender.” Yang Lie said after a long silence. Then, a dragon roar echoed from Bai Lixuan’s body and devoured half of Yang Lie’s profound amber aura. This made Yang Lie’s dragon projection shrink from twenty-one meters to ten. When Yang Lie saw this, his face became even more pale.

Then, Bai Lixuan’s dragon projection grew to nearly thirty meters, reaching the same level as the three kings and Lin Yun.

“Thank you for the battle.” Bai Lixuan cupped his hands together after the dragon projection returned to his body.

“What a powerful confrontation. Bai Lixuan won that beautifully. He definitely has a chance to make it into the top ten.”

“More and more of the seven elites are falling. This is really shocking.”

“Well, Bai Lixuan is on the same level as Lin Yun and Zhu Qingshan. We probably need to observe Fang Hanluo and Yue Weiwei a little more though.”

“There’s too much unknown when it comes to Fang Hanluo. As for Yue Weiwei, I have a feeling that she’s never serious.”

“Hehe. This banquet really delivered. I wonder who will be seeded in the fourth group. After all, Nangong Wanyu and Li Mubai are eyeing Lin Yun’s profound amber aura.” Bai Lixuan’s victory was a brilliant battle that made many people’s blood boil. The group competition was coming to an end, and everyone had about three to four matches left.

The seeded participants so far were Zhao Wuji from the first group, Yan Long’zi from the second group, and Yu Haotian from the third group. This was more or less everyone’s prediction.

Only people like Zhu Qingshan, Bai Lixuan, Jiang Ziye, and Wu Xiaotian were able to pressure the three kings. However, everyone surrendered to preserve their strength. They knew that they shouldn’t reveal their genuine trump cards before entering the top ten. After all, failure might mean dying at the hands of the three kings.

As for the fourth group, the situation wasn’t clear even with Lin Tao’s death. Lin Yun, Nangong Wanyu, and Li Mubai had an equal chance of winning. Although all three of them would have to fight, one of them would get the benefit of going last. Whoever went last would probably win.

The rules of the banquet tried to address the power of luck. Even if someone lost, they would get another chance at the very end to challenge the winner. It didn’t take long for Lin Yun to fight another top-tier genius that was ranked in the twenties.

Lin Yun didn’t waste his time as he executed Thunderbolt Slash, Solar Slash, and Big Bang to suppress his opponent. Now, he only had two more battles, one with Li Mubai and the other with Nangong Wanyu. However, he had no idea who he would run into first.

But luck seemed to be on his side when the judge announced the next battle, “Fourth group, Li Mubai VS Nangong Wanyu!”

The match-up surprised Nangong Wanyu and Li Mubai. It took them a long time to recover after they heard their names. They hoped to run into Lin Yun first, so they smiled bitterly. Who would have thought that they would run into each other before Lin Yun?

“Brother Lin, you’re pretty lucky.” Feng Ye smiled as Pavilion Master Plum and the others let out a breath of relief. After all, the battle between Nangong Wanyu and Li Mubai would benefit Lin Yun.

Lin Yun smiled and remained silent. There was no such thing as luck. With the Azure Dragon Enneaform, Lin Yun proved that he was strong. Of course, he could have kept it a secret to gain an advantage against Nangong Wanyu or Li Mubai.

After all, no one would expect a swordsman’s physique and fist technique to be so powerful. Surely, Nangong Wanyu and Li Mubai had their own means to deal with Lin Yun, so he would watch carefully. After all, he wasn’t so arrogant that he could neglect the battle. Both of them were powerful enemies who were still hiding their trump cards.

Two sword rays flashed as Li Mubai and Nangong Wanyu both created their own phenomenon. This was a sign that they were pushing their complete mastery of xiantian sword intent to the limit. In fact, their sword intent was practically at the quasi-spiritual level.

“It’s been four years since we fought, right?” asked Li Mubai. He lost to Nangong Wanyu four years ago, losing the title as the strongest swordsman in the Ancient Southern Domain. This was how Nangong Wanyu got his reputation as the strongest swordsman. People only cared about who the strongest was, which greatly humiliated Li Mubai.

“Indeed, it was four years ago. Let’s get started. We should have a proper battle,” replied Nangong Wanyu. The sparks between them weren't as strong as everyone had hoped. In fact, they had a pretty good relationship with each other. On top of this, they didn’t think Lin Yun was their equal, so they wouldn’t strain themselves to give Lin Yun an advantage.

The resulting battle between them was gentler than what the crowd expected. It looked like they were sparring instead of fighting for the quota. Although the battle was exciting, it was still somewhat lacking.

“Looks like Nangong Wanyu and Li Mubai are determined to obtain the seeded quota.”

“The two of them are sparing to determine the winner.”

“It’s a pity for Lin Yun. After all, he fought Lin Tao with his life on the line.”

The battle attracted many people’s attention, but it was a shame that the intensity of the battle wasn’t even comparable to the battle between Bai Lixuan and Yang Lie. Lin Yun didn’t worry too much and instead focused intently on the battle.

In his eyes, the battle was extremely exciting since neither of them were holding back. Although they were sparing, they weren’t going easy. Both Nangong Wanyu’s frost sword intent and Li Mubai’s mountain river sword intent broadened his understanding of sword intent.

“They’re powerful. Now I understand what Wu Xiaotian meant when he said that Nangong Wanyu took another path,” muttered Lin Yun. Nangong Wanyu was unable to grasp the spiritual sword intent, so he combined his frost intent and sword intent together to form a new martial intent. It possesses the lethal offensive abilities of sword intent and also contains the frost intent’s attributes.

But it still lacked in comparison to Lin Yun’s spiritual sword intent. Spiritual sword intent was a transformation of his sword intent, like when a butterfly emerged from its cocoon. If xiantian sword intent could reduce a towering tree into dust, then spiritual sword intent could destroy the vitality of the tree without damaging the outside.

This was why Lin Yun’s first opponent felt like he touched death. It wasn’t an illusion since Lin Yun could really kill his opponent if he wanted to.

So unless Nangong Wanyu and Li Mubai’s comprehension of their combined sword intent reached his level, there was no way they could compete with him. After all, their sword intent was nowhere near his.

“Nangong Wanyu is winning.” Lin Yun suddenly said.

“What makes you so certain?” Pavilion Master Plum, Feng Ye, and the rest asked.

“Wait and see.” Lin Yun fell into deep thoughts as he watched the battle. He could sense a crack in Li Mubai’s mountain river sword intent while Nangong Wanyu’s frost sword intent stood strong.

“Interesting. What are his flaws?” Lin Yun held onto his chin as he utilized a small part of his spiritual sword intent. Instantly, he could see what others couldn’t. Li Mubai’s mountain river sword intent was filled with holes and could barely stand against Nangong Wanyu’s sword rays that were like flawless jades.

Then, the flawless jades shattered, causing Nangong Wanyu’s sword aura to suddenly explode. All the spectators could see was a breathtaking sword ray that turned everything else dark.

When they recovered from their shock, they saw Li Mubai retreat with shock in his eyes. When he touched his neck and saw a trace of blood, he felt a chill down his spine and started to tremble. Although they were merely sparring, he would’ve lost his life if Nangong Wanyu used a little more strength.

After the outcome was determined, Lin Yun had blood dripping down from his eyes.

“Lin Yun, what’s wrong with your eyes?” Pavilion Master Plum and the others were shocked when they saw blood dripping down from Lin Yun’s eyes. They were worried it might affect Lin Yun’s performance.