“Did anyone of you manage to determine which Taoist school he’s from?” Leng Shuangrong asked casually as she observed the damaged arena. Her tone was flat as usual.

It sounded like thunder to the other Headmasters and elders though. She never concerned herself with the matters of the younger ones, and she did not ask much about them, aside from matters pertaining to Leng Yueyan.

“What is so unique about that person that she has to pay so much attention to him?” was the main question in their minds, followed by, “What mysterious Taoist school of thought is he from, that even Leng Shuangrong doesn’t know about?” She was one of the two experts at Voiding Realm level in the world, and aside from the unique character at Mount Kunlun, no one else was comparable to her.

Now, however, even she was pertubed by the Taoist skills that Wang Bugui, the recreational practitioner, had learned. So much so that she made the rare move of consulting the other sects. Everyone began discussing among themselves, but no matter how hard their racked their brains or searched ancient texts, they could find no record of any Taoist school of thought which taught its disciples such skills.

After all, the alarming amount of blood vigor and spiritual force he displayed earlier on was something only disciples of the Palace of the Human Emperors could do.

That said, its disciples usually attacked mainly with their Innate Prana Power and used their spiritual force and blood vigor as secondary back up sources. Wang Bugui had used the opposite earlier on. He attacked chiefly with his blood vigor, followed by spiritual force, and he did not use his Innate Prana Power at all. This pertubed them, and even many elders who could be considered as experienced people shook their heads in amazement.

Doubt flashed in Leng Shuangrong’s beautiful eyes, and her exquisite eyebrows arched slightly. Her elegant face gradually became blank, as if she was reminiscing about the past. She quickly shook her head and stopped thinking about it. All around her were people who were still discussing about which Taoist school of thought Wang Bugui came from. Even the three great Buddhist monks did not know what it was.

The next battle had began while they were still deep in debate. It ended as quickly as it had started, as the combatants were Lyu Hao and Jin Zhan from the Crazy Saber Sect. They fought boldly and vigorously, and they had made a deal before the fight that neither of them would retreat. It was going to be an all out battle.

“Brother Lyu, let’s go head on. Shall we not retreat or dodge, let’s make it simple and direct!” Jin Zhan laughed callously as he placed a huge saber on his shoulder.

“That’s exactly what I wished for. I humbly beg for your advice, Brother Jin!” Lyu Hao laughed as he lifted his double-bladed halberd.

Both of them gave out a huge cry as the bell rang, and the titanic battle began. They kept to their word, and neither of them dodged the other’s blows. They used ferocious attacks as defense and kept meeting their opponent’s blows head on. Sparks flew as the halberd and large saber collided, and the sounds of metal clanging against metal kept ringing out. The immense battle rage from the combatants tore the clouds apart, and each of their attacks carried immense spiritual force. Their battle caused the entire arena to tremble.

The two muscular beasts exchanged blows for more than 100 times, and each attack was made at maximum force. Eventually, Lyu Hao leaped into the air and unleashed the final move of his Overpowering Halberd Technique, known as the Heaven Devouring and Earth Shattering Blow. It crashed down upon Jin Zhan with overwhelming force. The huge saber in his hand cried out, and cracks appeared in the ground beneath his feet. In the end, he could not absorb the full force of the blow and was knocked flying backward.

Jin Zhan landed outside of the arena but got up quickly. He shook his head and patted his chest before breaking out into loud laughter. “Haha, you’re indeed powerful, Brother Lyu! I concede defeat! Let’s go a few more rounds when we have the time and have a chat over drinks later!”

“Sure! As long as you’re willing, Brother Jin, I’ll accompany you anytime!” Lyu Hao laughed loudly as well, before lifting his huge halberd onto his shoulders. He then turned to leave the arena.

There was a commotion among the spectators as they reminisced about the battle. It seemed to have been the shortest, and each attack made by the combatants were ferocious and vicious. Neither of them dodged, and they used their skills in Tao to block their opponent’s blows. It was truly terrifying to witness their battle. After speaking admirably about them for a while, the next battle was ready to begin. The first person to step up caused the faces of many practitioners to turn dark – it was Yu Wude.

This person had tricked two entire generations of practitioners and obtained all of their precious artifacts. This was even more infuriating then Wang Bugui pretending to be a mild sheep, but Wang Bugui did not bother himself with their hateful looks. He walked up to the middle of the arena and laughed loudly. “Whoever my opponent is, why don’t you come up quickly to get defeated!”

A practitioner known as Gu Xun walked up with a dark look on his face. He was a genius of the Dancing Ink Sect, and even though it was not extremely famous, it was also a sect of mid-level ranking. Gu Xun felt that enraged at having been looked down upon.

“Gu Xun, is it? I’ll give you two options. One, admit defeat now and prevent yourself from suffering. Two, let me teach you a lesson and be utterly defeated. I shall let you choose!” Yu Wude said as he placed his hands behind his back.

“Why is the fatty acting a little strange?” Zhao Changge asked, a little pertubed.

“While you were fighting Leng Yueyan, he went to chat with the disciples of the Palace of Hundred Flowers. Shangguan Yiyi told him that she likes strong heroes, so our beloved brother wants to create an image of himself as a great hero in her mind. That’s the reason why he’s trying to change his character,” Wang Bugui explained. Even though the disciples of the Palace of Hundred Flowers were very far away from them, his six senses were extraordinarily powerful, and naturally he overheard them.

“Oh, so that’s why. Say, I can’t get used to this new him,” Zhao Changge said as he laughed softly.

The bell rang again, and their attention returned to the arena. With a swing of his arm, Yu Wude released seven small platforms and began conjuring with quick movements of his hands, causing beams of magical energy shot out from the platforms. Gu Xun took out a metal judge’s brush with a black shaft and white bristles and drew out a spiritual beast, using spiritual force in the air as his ink, to help him disarm his opponent’s formation.

“Mediocre magic!”

Yu Wude grunted and waved his arms again. Bright light glowed from the seven platforms and seven beams of power, each of a different color, shot out from them, before flying rapidly toward his opponent. Gu Xun began retreating as he saw the energy beams coming toward him. He drew out dozens of black spears to block the attack. The beams smashed into the spears, and all of them turned into spiritual force and dissipated into the surrounding.

Yu Wude summoned a few talismans and used his finger to dab at them quickly. He then made a seal with his hands, and talismanic words appeared in the sky. “Divine Fire of Heavenly Thunder!” he shouted.

In an instant, huge ominous clouds appeared in the skies, and bolt after bolt of lightning came hurtling down from the within. The spiritual aura in the surrounding gathered and formed flame petals. They then transformed into beams of divine fire and shot toward his opponent. Gu Xun drew out a black dragon to deal with the lightning, before drawing out a sea of ink to quench the vast amount of divine fire. He then turned around and leaped into the air before drawing out various magical artifacts and beginning to counter attack.

Yu Wude drew out an ancient sword which was inscribed with profound looking talismanic words. He wielded the sword and faced the artifacts alone.

He cut three swords of ink into two before twisting the ancient sword and launching a back hand slash to shatter an ink hammer that was about to hit him in the back into dust. He then hurriedly retracted his sword and slashed ferociously at the space in front of him, cutting through dozens of huge ink halberds. They transformed into spiritual energy and dissipated into the air.

In this way, he darted in and out of the weapons of ink and destroyed hundreds of them with his sword. None of them could harm him, and his sword strokes opened and closed in an orderly fashion at the right time. He did not seem to focus on the form or power of his strokes and they were as fluid as water itself. This was the essence of the School of Diplomacy’s ethos about remaining natural.

The spectators felt that he looked a little cool as they watched him move. Once he stopped himself from behaving mischievously, he actually looked very serious.

“Hey, this immoral fatty seems a little cool now,” Wang Bugui said as he stroked his chin. Both Lyu Hao and him looked at Yu Wude move freely in and out of his opponent’s attacks admirably.

They realized that his cheekiness had disappeared the moment he put in all of his effort into something and treated it seriously. Even though he was still fat, his cuteness had been upgraded into an aura of elegance and dashing.

“This can’t be true, how can he possibly be so serious!” Shangguan Yiyi exclaimed softly as she looked at Yu Wude. Her image of the good for nothing fatty had been shattered, and it was replaced with that of a cool young master.

Gu Xun used everything he had and exchanged hundreds of blows with his opponent. He discovered that he was no match for Yu Wude. His opponent had been moving freely within the sea of weapons he had created and destroying them with ease. He did not seem to be using any sword technique at all, but was simply hacking and slashing at the artifacts. Even so, the simple strikes kept him completely unharmed.

“It’s time to end this now. Lie down and become the stepping stone toward my goal of winning Ms. Shangguan’s heart!” Yu Wude shouted as he leaped into the air with sword in hand. He waved his hand dozens of times, summoning a huge formation on the ground. It turned out that he had been darting and waving his sword around just to carve out this huge formation on the ground.

“This…this is the Weaving Freely in Times of Chaos Formation, one of the three great divine formations from ancient historical times that Senior Gui Guzi deciphered?!”

“You should be right. Even though its an incomplete formation, it still looks terrifying!”

A few elders exclaimed in alarm. They had not expected that Yu Wude would be able to create such an extraordinary formation at such a young age. Even though it was incomplete, Gu Xun would definitely be unable to withstand its might.

“People who probe can change their character to suit the situation and move on with the times. What is probing? It’s the art of roaming the world and moving fluidly. Probing – the Weaving Freely in Times of Chaos Formation!”

Yu Wude soared into the skies and chanted. Countless magic formations circled around him, and he looked like a deity. He pointed downward with his sword, and the huge ancient formation gave off a dazzling golden glow.

Gu Xun roared angrily and unleashed all of his Tao powers. He drew a scenic landscape of a mountain and a river to defend himself, but it was not enough to withstand the onslaught of the ancient formation and was instantly swallowed whole.

“Boom!”

A huge sound rang out, and a giant gold beam of light shot up into the skies, vanishing into the horizon. An immense force began to spread, and the piercing gold light that it gave off caused many spectators to tear up, but they could not shut their eyes. Everything became peaceful again after a long while, after the dust had settled. Everyone noticed that the poor arena had been disfigured again, and Gu Xun was lying prone on the ground.

“I haven’t used even half of the power of this incomplete formation, yet you’ve already lost. This is the power of the School of Diplomacy!” Yu Wude shouted at his opponent before turning to leave in a cool fashion. It made Gu Xun so mad that he fainted.

He disappeared, leaving only his back view seared into the minds of the practitioners that he cheated previously. They began discussing among themselves and lamented that he lacked morals, but his strength was genius level and far beyond their reach.

“Did he just use Gui Guzi’s Formation Breaking Sword?” the Headmaster of the Unfettered Sect asked as he waved his foldable fan lightly.

“Indeed he did. I didn’t expect that the sword has recognized him. Seems like he’s the type of talent that emerges once every few generations, like Gui Guzi himself!” Tong Yixing replied, nodding.

“Haha, this is really a Great Age. Everything that’s going to happen in this era will turn the era of late arts upside down. This will go down in the annals of history, I guess!” the mistress of the Palace of Hundred Flowers said as she laughed softly, her laughter full of seductive charm.

The important figures in the palace began discussing about something. After they were done, the battle to determine the final eight contestants was concluded.

Leng Yueyan then appeared and gave the eight survivors medicine to refine their primordial spirit. Everyone bowed to her and returned back to their respective divine peaks to rest.