Sword qi!
The crowd paused in shock before they shook with awe. This was something that could make one of the big sects in the human realm consider recruiting a person.
Moreover, this was sword qi in the Qi Condensation stage. Though it wasn't unprecedented, it was still rare enough to make one valuable to those big sects.
Baldeen's pupils shrank when he witnessed the sword qi. Had there been anyone in their family's history who wielded this type of qi?
He doubted it.
However, his shock soon turned into a frown. Luan didn't just choose to display more of what he was capable of; no, something must have happened.
Very few heard the sound of Luan's qi colliding with anything. And because his sword qi had destroyed the needle not long after they collided, it was hard to tell.
Moreover, the needle was something that spirit senses found difficult to sense. But only to a certain level.
If there were people who sensed it, they didn't care to say or stand in for Luan. If the needle had hit the young man and he died or became poisoned like Dex, they wouldn't say anything.
Even the referee acted like he didn't notice anything wrong.
Baldeen frowned as he observed the crowd. Their cheers broke through the clouds after Luan's display of sword qi.
To them, it was as though he was showing off.
And to the remaining fighters on the stage, it was like a stark warning that they shouldn't even consider coming for him. And they took it to heart.
To the powerful people watching from their places of rest, Luan became a person to watch… a person to be eliminated, too.
Only two people needed to be eliminated now for the Qi Condensation round to come to an end.
"Belan, did you notice that?" Elder Baldeen transmitted his voice out, but received no reply.
Ignoring the cheers, Luan looked across the crowd once again. He didn't like the fact that someone had dared to conspire against him, not in such an open way.
Alas, he couldn't find anything or anyone amiss.
His heart then settled a bit. At least I was able to achieve something out of it. He thought.
However, if someone were to ask him how he had done it, how he had managed to get past the doubtfulness in his heart, he wouldn't know.
All he could remember doing at that moment before the birth of his sword qi was swinging his cane with everything he had in him. It wasn't intentional, but instinctive.
If Luan had reserved his strength in that strike, he feared that he would have been injured.
Because of this, he was certain that the person who sought to injure him was at a very high cultivation stage.
Unfortunately for him, his sixth sense had a limit to which it could extend. He couldn't cover the entire arena with it.
Why do I hesitate?
Luan's mind went back to the words he had heard right before he formed his sword qi.
Unlike the initial question of whether he had held a sword before, Luan wasn't able to respond to why he hesitated.
What did it mean by hesitate?
More importantly, who had created such a scripture, and if Zhen knew the worth of the scripture, why had he sold it at such a cheap price to Luan?
A scripture that could help one form their sword qi in the Qi Condensation realm… this is something that the entire Human Realm would fight for.
Luan began wondering who Zhen really was.
If only he knew that the scripture wasn't as exaggerated as he thought, although it was a powerful scripture, how much one could comprehend depended on the reader.
Most people would have expended their mental strength during the first bout of questioning. But Luan didn't notice that with every time he asked himself that question, with every answer and doubt that came after, a large part of his mental strength was being drained.
Perhaps due to the nature of his inner strength, it wasn't even noticeable to him.
Soon, two people were eliminated from the stage, bringing this round to an end.
The referee told them to get off the stage, but Luan couldn't help but glare at the man.
"What is it? Do you have a problem with how this round was conducted?" The referee let his aura flow, putting his weight down on Luan.
If he were an ordinary Qi Condensation cultivator, Luan would have been sprawled on the ground the moment the aura of a Golden Core cultivator descended upon him.
But, unfortunately for the referee, the man wasn't. Luan snorted, ignoring the referee, and began walking down the stage.
His disregard and nonchalance towards the actions of the referee filled the crowd with even more zeal as they cheered on.
Many of them burst out laughing, and this filled the referee with shame. "You insolent child, is that how to address a senior?" With a sweep of his hand, the referee sent a palm of qi towards Luan.
However, before it could go anywhere, a stronger palm of qi appeared and grabbed it, squeezing until it burst into particles of qi.
"How dare you so blatantly attack a son of Khan!" Baldeen seethed.
It was as if the episodes of anger he had been suppressing had gone out of control.
An aura far stronger than that of a Golden Core cultivator emerged from the elder, enveloping the entire arena and causing the crowd to shake in silence.
The referee was caught off guard, so terrified that he hiccupped.
"Do you know the consequences of your actions?!" Baldeen's voice seemed to boom, causing the grounds of the arena to quake.
Even Luan, who had been ready to deal with the palm of qi when he noticed it, was surprised to see his grand uncle flare out. Moreover, he was stunned when he felt the aura coming from him.
Has Grand Uncle always been this powerful?!
Well aware that there were many things his family was hiding from him, Luan didn't think that their strengths were part of it. Nonetheless, seeing his grand uncle become protective of him made him smile.
This is the son of Khan I know. Not the one who has been silently enduring suppression.
"Baldeen," Another voice boomed through the void, bringing along an aura that seemed to match Baldeen's own.
It didn't take long for the owner of the voice to appear in the sky. An elder donned in green robes. Next to him were three others.
"Chu Wei," Baldeen muttered, glaring at the people who had just arrived.
Luan looked at man surnamed Chu. He should be from the nobles' Grand Uncle said to be careful of.
"Baldeen Khan, if I had known that your cultivation had made some progress, I would have sent a few congratulatory gifts to you. This isn't a good way to announce your achievements; you're scaring the crowd." Chu Wei spoke softly; however, with every syllable, one could hear an underlying sarcasm and reprimand.
"The Khan family seems to have trained an old monster. Unfortunately, he's just a Qi Condensation stage cultivator." A man wearing brown, next to Chu Wei, spoke up.
That's Lin Jie. Out of everyone here, he's the most vicious. If you have to pick between him and a deadly snake, pick the snake. Baldeen transmitted to both Sully and Luan.
"You said he's a son of Khan, a direct descendant?" Another asked, this time, it was a female who spoke. Dressed in a soft pink gown, giving out a radiance of beauty that attracted the gazes of men… she was known as Fu Jing.
Another person from a noble clan in Donglin.
Baldeen also warned the two young men about her. Don't be deceived by looks. She's nothing but wrinkled skin wearing a façade.
Luan smiled at his elder's words. "Yes, I am a son of Khan." He spoke, turning heads his way.
He had a lot of guts to speak under the pressure of these people. Even Sully couldn't help but admire this level of audacity.
Even the elders from these noble clans were taken aback a bit. They hadn't expected the young man to have the guts to speak in their presence.
Much more, smile as though he were addressing his peers.
"My name is Luan… Luan Khan, the thirteenth son of the great Tailang Khan."
Upon announcing his name, people began to wonder if they had ever heard that name.
Not his father's name… that was quite a famous name, even in the imperial capital city of Darke Empire.
Luan, where had they heard that name from before?
Crane and the outer clan disciples that came to the city with Luan gasped at the revelation of his identity.
"Isn't that the mad son of Khan? The one who went insane at a young age?" Someone from the crowd said out loud.
This person's outburst reminded people of who he was, his infamy.
"The mad son of Khan?" Luan muttered, unsure of whether he liked that name or not.
Internally, a smile touched his spirits.
In a way, they weren't wrong. The boy they remembered was gone, replaced by a mind that had weathered two thousand years of madness…