Across from Li Jun stood a beautiful girl dressed in a golden dress, with a phoenix crown on her head; she had the majesty of a powerful Empress who looked down on myriad beings, and the pride of a Heavenly Peacock who cannot bear to be stained by mortal dust.
"This Goddess did not expect to meet you so soon. Very well, this Goddess can finally have her revenge," said the beautiful woman with a voice full of loftiness and aloofness.
"Fang Lijuan!" said Li Jun with deep furrow brows; he knew that there was a hidden rule that none of the Seeded-Players would meet before the Final 30 Rounds, but he actually met one beforehand.
Thinking about Wang Wei's warning before the battle, Li Jun could guess that something shady had taken place. However, he was not afraid.
"Revenge? Since I defeated you once, I can do it a second time." replied Li Jun with a sneer on his face. However, Fang Lijuan just smirked without saying anything, nevertheless, a powerful confidence could be seen radiating from her body.
Meanwhile, Wang Wei--who was talking with Wu Hong--noticed Li Jun's opponent, and like the latter, he came to the conclusion that something odd was going for Fang Lijuan to become Li Jun's opponent right before he could qualify for a spot on the Top 30.
Inside the Emperor Enlightening Academy's booth, all the teachers watched this battle with bated breath. One of them checked the formation to make sure that they had no problem, then he asked: "Headmaster, is it appropriate to use Fang Lijuan as an opponent? After all, Li Jun already defeated her once."
"You do not need to worry," replied Bai Han. "The reason that I chose Fang Lijuan instead of the more powerful Heaven Chosens is to not attract too much attention to ourselves. Additionally, she is not the same as back in the Divine Altar Realm."
Of course Bai Han did not tell the whole truth; he had something else prepared just in case something went wrong, however, the other teachers did not know this. Nevertheless, after seeing the headmaster's confidence, they were relieved.
After all, they've spent so much on this tournament, even risking destroying the Academy's million of years of reputation--well to be precise, the reputation of fairness that they still hold to this day.
…
Back to the fighting arena, both Li Jun and Fang Lijuan prepared for their rematch.
Without hesitation or pausing, Li Jun went on the offensive. Spears started to appear around him. Unlike his battle with the Holy Land genius, there were not only ten spears, but hundreds, thousands even. With unmatched speed, they rushed towards Fang Lijuan, wishing to completely annihilate her.
The sound of the air breaking could be heard as these thousands of spears broke the speed of sound. A powerful explosion kilometers in diameters occurred at their landing spots. Fortunately, powerful arrays manifested in the arena to contain the battle, else the audience would be affected.
Despite the fact that his attack seemed to have worked, Li Jun was not happy as he could tell that something was wrong; everything was too easy. So, he immediately used his Divine Sense to locate Fang Lijuan's location, but he did not find anything.
Suddenly, Li Jun felt a killing intent right next to him, so he immediately ducked to the side. Unfortunately, he was too late and a crystal pierced straight into his body.
Turning his head, he saw Fang Lijuan was calmly standing next to him, and he did not even notice how she got there. Before he got time to think or act, he felt another killing intent and dodged again, but his right leg was still stabbed.
Knowing that the situation was dire for him, Li Jun mobilized all the strength of his Divine Sense to try to sense his opponent's attack, and for a brief moment, he was successful. By pinpointing the killing intent, he was able to deduce the location and timing of the attack.
Meanwhile, Fang Lijuan frowned after noticing this: 'Using the killing intent to determine my next attack? What if the killing intent also becomes invisible?'
Then, a crystal spear penetrated Li Jun's lungs, and he discovered that he could no longer anticipate his opponent's move. So, without hesitation, he activated his Innate Talent.
Countless runes or Origin Patterns appeared all over his body like tattoos, then a large army made of soldiers in red armors appeared in front of him. Without saying anything, they form a formation that encases Li Jun into a dome made of soldiers.
With a wave of his hand, he summoned another group of soldiers. However, as soon as these one appeared, they turned into a river of blood that was swallowed by Li Jun, healing all his injuries.
As for Fang Lijuan, she was calm during the whole situation, not even bothering to stop Li Jun's action. With a random wave of her hand, countless of the summoned soldiers suddenly had their throats cut, blood spewing all over the arena as they died without even knowing the cause.
Li Jun's face became ugly after seeing this; his Growing Innate Talent allowed him to summon soldiers to fight for him, but the number was not unlimited; as a matter of fact, it requires souls as sacrifice. Luckily for him, his talent allowed him to use the soul of the fallen soldiers in the location he was.
For example, he could use the souls of all the people who died in the location of the Emperor Enlightening Academy throughout all of history. Unfortunately for him, his cultivation level did not allow him to control so many souls.
In the Dao Opening Sect's booth, Wang Wei and Wu Hong were watching the battle. "Have you noticed?" she asked.
Wang Wei nodded as he responded: "I cannot believe that she can have such a level of fortunate encounter during the Qi Luck Trial." He paused for a brief moment before continuing: "Damn that Long Aotian. If I knew he had something like that, I would have personally hunted him down."
"Who's Long Aotian?" asked Wu Hong in confusion.
"A very lucky Son of Destiny. Well, I guess given his terrible ending, he is not so lucky after all."
Wu Hong nodded, but did not ask any further question; she did not care for such a little and insignificant character.
Meanwhile, in the battle, Li Jun's condition was not so good. A lot of his soldiers were lying dead on the floor, and his body was full of injuries. His summoning could not keep up with Fang Lijuan's mysterious attack. Additionally, he was still trying to discover what method she used.
Only by constantly swallowing the blood of his fallen soldiers that he was able to keep this battle going on.
Suddenly, an idea came to Li Jun's mind; he looked at Fang Lijuan before saying: "You have possession of one of the 12 Ancestral Talismans; it should be the Invisible Talisman."
"Oh, this Goddess is surprised that you figured it out so quickly. You are correct, this Goddess was fortunate enough to acquire one the 12 Ancestral Talismans."
Li Jun secretly sighed on how lucky she was. The only reason he could figure it out so quickly was because he too was interested in these Talismans--especially the War Talisman--so he did his research.
According to his knowledge, the 12 Ancestral Talismans were created by the Talisman Ancestor back in the Ancient Emperor Era. Although the Talisman Ancestor or Fuyuan Emperor was not the most powerful amongst the other Ancestors--Formation, Pill, etc.--he had the greatest impact. After proving the Dao, the Talisman Ancestor created 12 extremely powerful talismans that were essentially a prototype of an entire Dao, scattered them throughout the world in hopes that destined people can find them and complete them, turning them from prototypes into perfect Daos.
Throughout the history of the Myriad Emperor World, anyone who acquired one of the Ancestral Talismans and managed to unleash their true powers had a great impact on the world, with many even becoming Great Emperors themselves.
By this current Era, only a few of the talismans were still not found, including the Invisible Talisman in Fang Lijuan's hand, and the War Talisman that Li Jun was after.
The Invisible Talisman was famous because of the words that the Talisman Ancestor said after creating it. According to her, the highest level of this talisman can allow a cultivator to reach a state of being "unknown to death, nor known to life."
All these thoughts only took less than a milliseconds to flash across Li Jun's mind, then he asked: "Even if you acquire the Invisible Talisman, you should not be this powerful."
Fang Lijuan smiled coldly as she answered: "That's because this Goddess managed to comprehend the Dao in the talisman, absorb it into my bloodline to break the shackles of the ancestors. Now, with this Goddess having her own Dao, it is possible for me to bear the Heaven Will.
"Additionally, this Goddess is perfectly aware of the fact that you are trying to stall for time, but it will not change anything."