The officiator's sleeve snapped like a whip.
"Begin!"
Ye Lingxiao vanished.
No warning or gathering of Qi… just vicious speed.
In an instant, the Blaze Star Sword screamed across the arena as a molten arc of spiritual energy aimed to separate Li Qingmu's head from his shoulders before the echo of the command died.
Ten thousand gasps fused into one.
Li Qingmu didn't move or blink.
His hands were still rested on the head of his sheathed sword as he blinked with half-lidded eyes like a lazy man dozing under a peach tree.
Ye Lingxiao's teeth flashed in a triumphant snarl.
"Found you, trash—"
And then water was simply… there.
Clear, crystalline water gushed from nothing to spiral around Li Qingmu in ribbons thick as pythons.
The blazing sword met the water and hissed like a dragon plunged into the deep sea.
Steam exploded outward, yet the blade slowed until it stopped an inch from Li Qingmu's throat.
The smug smile on Li Qingmu's face never wavered.
"Tch!"
Ye Lingxiao ripped his sword free and flashed backward twenty zhang.
There was pure disbelief on his face.
"Since when does cultivation trash have a water spiritual root this strong?!"
The water curtain swirled once then vanished into motes of azure light.
Li Qingmu said nothing. He just looked bored.
Eastern dais.
A worried Zhen Rou clutched her sister's sleeve so hard the silk threatened to tear.
"Sister Mei! Did you see it? Did you?!"
Zhen Mei's fan hung forgotten in her lap.
"…Just barely…"
Her voice came out thin.
"Ye Lingxiao's strike was slow enough to read. But that water… the conjuring speed was Nascent Soul. Maybe even faster. I haven't struggled this hard to follow a fight since I was in Foundation Establishment myself."
Fang Yuluo's vulture eyes narrowed.
"The most terrifying part isn't the speed."
Both sisters whipped toward him.
He stroked his chin.
"That blaze should have boiled the water into nothing before it even formed. It didn't."
Zhen Rou's small mouth fell open.
Zhen Mei's too.
They blurted at the same time.
"That's true!"
Zhen Mei's elegant brows drew together.
"I've never seen such a simple-looking defensive water art hold back starfire of that level…"
Fang Yuluo gave a low, amused chuckle.
"Because it wasn't a defensive art. That was just raw spiritual root pressure… like a dragon flicking its tail. He didn't even cast a technique."
The two sisters went silent.
This realization is like being bathed in cold water.
On the platform, Ye Lingxiao's face was red-hot.
"You… piss me off."
His voice shook with something close to madness.
"You had an opening big enough to kill me a hundred times over and you let it slip, how dare you still stand there like you're above me?!"
He bared his teeth.
"Get angry! Scream! Look like you're about to die or lose hope! Anything! Otherwise it's an insult to me, the young master of the Ye Clan!"
Li Qingmu listened in silence with a tilted head tilted.
This is the very picture of a patient husband indulging a toddler's tantrum!
Ye Lingxiao threw his head back and laughed.
A deep laugh that came from the back of his throat.
"Or maybe you're so foolishly weak you didn't even notice that little lapse in defense! Fine. Then there's no saving you. Die, small fry."
He raised the Blaze Star Sword with one hand.
The other flashed through nine hand seals so fast they blurred into a single golden wheel of light.
"Seven Star Sword Art • Starfall Execution!"
The arena groaned.
Golden chains tethering the floating platform to the sky rattled like temple bells in a typhoon. A miniature constellation ignited above Ye Lingxiao's head as seven blazing stars orbited a miniature sun. Each star was a monstrous sword intent sharp enough to split mountains!
Disciples screamed in excitement and terror.
"That's the forbidden move!"
"The one Ye ancestor used to kill three Nascent Soul devils in the Northern Campaign!"
"Even Earth Core elders can't block it head-on!"
"The Blaze Star Sword is a Core Formation treasure, but when it channels Starfall Execution it can unleash one full-powered strike at early Nascent Soul level! That peasant is surely dead!"
Patriarch Ye's eyes shone with pride.
He stroked his beard and muttered.
"Hmph… destroy him."
High in her pavilion, Song Yan set her teacup down without a sound.
Ye Lingxiao roared.
The constellation collapsed into his blade.
"THIS IS THE END!"
He became a golden comet.
The sword fell.
Heaven and earth lost their color.
A pillar of blinding starfire thick as a palace hall swallowed Li Qingmu whole.
The shockwave ripped outward.
BWOOOOOM!
It shredded clouds as it threatened to fling weaker disciples into the abyss.
Song Yan rose like a crimson phoenix as her elegant sword light flashed.
Ten other Nascent Soul elders shot out beside her with their palms slammed together as layer after layer of golden barriers bloomed like lotus petals to catch the spiritual storm just in time.
Outer disciples below shrieked in awe.
"Fairy Song Yan is so beautiful when she's serious!"
"Marry me, Grand Elder!"
"Do you seek death!? No man deserves her!"
She ignored them all and helped maintain the golden barriers with beautiful cold-looking eyes.
Zhen Rou's face was bloodless.
Zhen Mei opened her mouth.
She is ready to say I told you so… but she closed it and simply laid a hand on her junior sister's back.
『Junior sister doesn't deserve to be married to such a weak and shameless man…』
To her, Ye Lingxiao is the better choice!
Fang Yuluo nodded approvingly.
"That was a Nascent Soul strike. The peasant—"
The dust began to settle.
A single figure still stood upright with robes white as snow and not a thread out of place.
The burning Blaze Star Sword had a thumb-sized chip in its perfect edge.
Ye Lingxiao was shaking so hard the sword treasure wavered in his grip.
If not for shame, he would pee himself.
Li Qingmu looked down at the tiny notch, then at the shaking young master.
He shook his head and sighed disappointedly.
You would think a family member had died.
But what died is really his expectations.
"You really should stop narrating your attacks before they land. All that hype for something this… worthless. It's ruining my mood."
He lifted one hand and gently slapped the sword aside like swatting a mosquito.
Clang.
The sound was soft.
But the humiliation was deafening!
Ye Lingxiao stumbled back.
"Impossible… impossible!"
His voice cracked.
"You're Foundation Establishment! How?!"
The entire sect shouted the same thing as well.
Only Li Qingmu knew.
The Heavenly Immortal Water Robes fluttering on his body could withstand ten attacks up to the Grandmaster Realm without a scratch.
Only a King Realm expert could touch him!
Ye Lingxiao's mind finally shattered.
He fumbled at his spatial ring and a six-colored jade shield the size of a door bloomed in front of him as it spun with powerful rainbow runes.
Zhen Rou suddenly leapt to her feet as she adorably pumped a tiny fist the air.
"HUSBAND IS THE BEST!!!"
Zhen Mei's composure cracked like porcelain.
"He… he didn't even block."
Her hands were shaking feverishly.
"He ate a Nascent Soul level attack raw… what kind of defensive treasure is that?!"
This man is not only handsome but powerful.
To think she used to tell teachers he was her pet back at the Imperial Academy.
This is something to regret.
Western dais.
Patriarch Ye's beard trembled with rage.
And in the eastern dais… Patriarch Zhen's teacup slipped from his fingers.
"When did my son-in-law become so…"
He didn't even notice his teacup had shattered.
Nor did he notice he called Qingmu his son-in-law.
The entire sect is starting to feel regretful!
Li Qingmu lifted two fingers to do a one hand seal.
"That little shield won't save you."
Ye Lingxiao shrieked.
"Shut your mouth! This Six-Revolutions Heavenly Reflection Shield can redirect any attack up to the Nascent Soul level that enters its domain! Come! Try if you—"
Li Qingmu smiled gently.
"Who said anything about entering its domain?"
He flicked his fingers.
A glowing blue water spiritual seal manifested on top of his fingertips.
On Ye Lingxiao's right shoulder, the exact spot Li Qingmu had patted earlier like an indulgent uncle, an identical water spiritual seal appeared.
Ye Lingxiao's trembling eyes widened until the whites showed all around.
"No— NO! NO! NOOOOO—"
Too late.
His entire right arm ballooned with compressed spiritual water that could pulverize villages.
The skin stretched painfully as delicate veins burst.
POP!
Blood and water exploded outward in a mist.
The blast devoured half his torso as his ribs flashed white for one gruesome instant before his entire body was blasted aside by the exploding force.
Ye Lingxiao screamed at what remained of his body twitching on the stone.
Silence.
Absolute, suffocating silence.
Then the arena detonated.
"WHAT—!?"
"The young master's entire arm is gone!"
"What the hell just happened? Everything happened so incredibly fast!"
Patriarch Ye rose from his throne like a blood-soaked demon as a swirling sphere of deathly spiritual energy crackled between the palms of his hands.
"LI QINGMU—!! YOU DARE MAIM MY SEED?!"
Li Qingmu turned, wiped an imaginary speck of dust from his sleeve, and smiled at the raging King Realm ancestor as if greeting an old friend.
"Old man Ye, I… it was a mistake?"
He chuckled nervously.
[Ding! You have brutally humbled the son of Patriarch Ye and incurred his anger!]
[You must escape death for more rewards!]
To Li Qingmu, this is the end of the road.
"Ah, I'm finished, aren't I?"