Noon the next day.
The Tiansang Spirit Palace ushered in its yearly hot event. The champion of the Windcloud Competition was going to be determined today.
Not only were the disciples and elders of the Outer Yard here to watch the match, but even a few Inner Yard disciples who had the time also came to have a look at the battles.
The crowd’s emotions were so high they were about to explode.
The people who’d come early to reserve seats saw the influential figures of the spirit palace in front of them.
To the left were the elders of the Spiritual Affairs Division, Spiritual Medical Division, and Spiritual Military Division…
There were also a few unknown people who rarely showed themselves. They were elders who looked like elders but weren’t really elders…
To the right were the people ranked in the top hundred, top ten, and top five of the Windcloud Scoreboard…
These were all people who had lorded over the arena with unparalleled authority since the very start. They were all now sitting in the spectator seats, obediently waiting for the competition to start.
A female disciple had come to reserve a seat last night. Currently, Zhao Qingteng was sitting to her left and Zhou Tianshen to her right.
She cupped her face and looked around her, then fainted from bliss.
The people around her were so envious that their eyes almost fell out of their sockets.
“Wow, she fainted. Send her for treatment quickly. I’ll take care of her seat for her.”
“My God, who are these people. Senior Du, Senior Ling… They’re all ranked within the top ten of the Windcloud Scoreboard!”
“Quick, look! That’s the Inner Yard’s… Su Qianqian?”
“Where? Where?”
The exclamation immediately attracted everyone’s attention. The Inner Yard’s Su Qianqian was a legendary figure in the Tiansang Spirit Palace.
She was the most powerful genius of the Su family in the Tiansang Prefecture of this era. She broke through to the Innate Stage when she was thirteen, and when she was fourteen she acquired the Innate-stage Sword Will. She wielded one of the twenty-one most famous swords in the continent: the Epitaph of City Snow. She was the personal disciple of the Spiritual Law Division’s Xiao Qixiu…
Any one of these titles would cause an average person to tremble, but someone with all of them was sitting right before their eyes!
Su Qianqian was dressed in white exercise gear, and her snow-colored giant sword was lying horizontally across her thighs. She was swinging her feet from side to side, unfazed by the crowd.
She looked around but ultimately pouted in disappointment, as she didn’t find Brother Little Beast, who she wanted to see.
“How unfortunate we can’t see the senior from the Inner Yard. I heard that she adores Su Qianqian and is always by her side.”
“That’s right, that’s right. Senior Rao is my goddess. Not only does she have an otherworldly appearance and impressive figure, but her abilities are also the cream of the crop. It’s a pity that we cannot witness her splendor. Sigh!”
“Oh, I think I’ve seen the person you’re talking about. She came during the group stages…”
“You must be dreaming. How would Senior Rao have time to come walk around in the Outer Yard? You must have dreamt it!”
“I really saw her!”
“Tsk~”
The crowd huddled together to look at the scene before them, constantly pointing out famous people from the Inner Yard that they recognized and whispering to each other.
To them, this was a rare scene not regularly seen, even during the past year.
It was only because the Outer Yard had a lot of break-out talents this year, with four Innate-stage fighters and Xu Xiaoshou, that many of the people from the Inner Yard had come to watch the match.
“Oh God, it’s Zhang Xinxiong! He’s one of the Inner Yard Thirty-Three, a living boss!”
“Inner Yard Thirty-Three? Oh my, where, where?!”
The crowd hurriedly looked around. They looked in the speaker’s direction and saw a man with an overbearing aura not far away.
Zhang Xinxiong looked 27 to 28 years old and had a full beard. He looked extremely masculine.
He was very tall. He was a head taller than the rest of the crowd, even though he was sitting.
He was dressed simply in a light-colored shirt with a jacket draped over his shoulders.
Even so, under the sunlight, everyone could still see the alarming outline of his muscles hiding underneath his shirt.
“My God, he’s too handsome. He’s a true man!”
“I’m in love, I’m in love!”
This famous person from the Inner Yard didn’t sit in the front row. Instead, he sat near the middle of the spectator seats. Beside him was Liu Zhen, who had been severely injured by Xu Xiaoshou in the past.
Liu Zhen was also a burly man, but he looked like a tiny bird sitting beside Zhang Xinxiong.
“The person who killed Ah Chong, Xu Xiaoshou. Which one is him?” Zhang Xinxiong asked.
“Let me find him…” Liu Zhen respectfully replied. His gaze swept past several of the waiting areas before he finally shook his head. “I don’t think he’s come.”
“Hah, he sure is calm. Is he going to arrive last…”
Zhang Xinxiong laughed lightly. There was no emotion in his voice, but the people around him felt that there was something strange here.
Ah Chong…
That wasn’t a name someone in an ordinary relationship with Wen Chong would call him.
“I heard that Boss Wen knew someone from the Inner Yard. Could that person be Zhang Xinxiong?”
“I think so. If that’s true, isn’t Xu Xiaoshou in trouble? He killed Wen Chong!”
“My God, I seem to have seen Xu Xiaoshou’s doomsday…”
A ripple spread through the crowd after just one sentence. Everyone lowered their voices and discussed the situation.
“You can’t say it like that. Zhang Xinxiong is one of the Inner Yard Thirty-Three. Why would he attack a Spiritual Cultivation Level Eight fighter? Wouldn’t that sully his status?”
“However, being marked isn’t a good feeling!”
“You think too much. Even if Xu Xiaoshou managed to become the champion, he might not be able to enter the Inner Yard because of his cultivation level.”
“Furthermore, he still has to fight Mu Zixi and Senior Mo. Just getting into the top three would be decent.”
“But he has an Innate-stage physical body!”
“So what if he has an Innate-stage physical body? Is there a future in that? You’ve seen an Innate-stage physical body, but have you seen a Master-stage physical body?”
The crowd fell silent.
The level above the Innate Stage was the Master Stage. There was a sliver of hope for a Spiritual Cultivator to reach the level where they could open up sects and schools. As for the physical body…
It was too difficult!
Some might not have even heard of it, much less seen it!
In the panel of judges.
Xiao Qixiu gulped the contents of his cup down and flew into the arena, instantly attracting the crowd’s attention.
“The time has arrived. The semi-finals will start now!”
He activated the array token with his spiritual source, and the screen flickered, then froze. Two names in stark red were printed across the middle of the screen.
“Xu Xiaoshou!”
“Mu Zixi!”
The crowd instantly erupted into exclamations.
The first match of the semi-finals was already a battle between fighters with Innate-stage abilities, which was something everyone was looking forward to.
One of them had broken through to the Innate Stage despite only being in the spirit palace for a year. Her potential was almost as high as Su Qianqian’s.
The other had an Innate-stage physical body and had defeated Zhao Qingteng yesterday, which proved that he had the ability to stand up against Innate-stage fighters!
The doors of the waiting room were opened. Mu Zixi was dressed in pale green. She skipped toward the stage, as if she wasn’t at all worried about the battle that was to come.
Every step she took oozed youthful vitality, and the crowd couldn’t help but like her.
“She sure lives up to her reputation as Junior Mu. An Innate-stage fighter… is always so dependable!”
The crowd looked at the other side. That was Xu Xiaoshou’s waiting area.
Thud!
The doors opened.
Two attendants steeled their nerves and walked out. They spread their arms open to signal that Xu Xiaoshou wasn’t there.
The crowd was dumbfounded.
“Why is it those two people? Where’s Xu Xiaoshou?”
“Oh, my God! Why did that guy disappear again!”
“Why is he always this tardy during important events. It’s already the semi-finals. Can he not make us worry…”
“Hey you, where did Xu Xiaoshou go?”
The two attendants were dazed. “Don’t ask us,” they thought.
They’d arrived at the waiting area early to wait, but the candidate didn’t show.
They sent people to look for him in his yard but only saw many sword marks on the ground and didn’t manage to find him.
Just where did Xu Xiaoshou go?
Xiao Qixiu’s expression darkened. He wanted to scream again.
Suddenly, the sword behind his back trembled. He abruptly turned around and looked at the horizon.
The crowd also noticed this, and all of them raised their heads.
They saw a sword glow coming from far away. It was as if a sword deity had descended upon this world. On the sword was a figure whose robes were swaying in the wind.
That clean, pure demeanor. That otherworldly form…
“Oh God, did I just see a deity?” they thought.
No…
Everyone looked more closely, and their eyes almost fell out of their skulls.
Oh my!
Xu Xiaoshou???