A Wild Youth Deserves No Sanity, My Fate Is My Own and Not Up to the Heavens

The disciple in question was Chen Ke, whose strength was at the perfection of the Mystic Martial Realm, making him quite prominent among the younger generation of disciples in Azure Cloud Palace.

One could see that he was dressed in light cyan disciple robes, with sharp, handsome facial features, worthy of being called a talented and dashing young man.

It was only a pity that he had followed a bad master.

That was right, Chen Ke was Lu Shenxing's only personal disciple.

In the original work, Xiao Rui's cultivation had progressed far too quickly, rising like a sudden meteor whose dazzling highlights in the elimination tournament had blinded everyone.

This had aroused greed in Lu Shenxing, who concluded that Xiao Rui must have encountered a great fortuitous encounter.

Therefore, he instructed Chen Ke to deal a malicious blow to Xiao Rui in the subsequent matches.

However, how could the Son of Destiny be so easily plotted against?

Not to mention that Xiao Rui had Elder Sword as a powerful backer, his own trump cards for saving his life were countless.

A mere trivial plot was easily resolved.

Instead, Chen Ke was heavily injured by Xiao Rui and never recovered thereafter.

Because of this, Lu Shenxing was locked away in the back mountain by Fu Hanqiu to face confinement for ten years.

This man Chen Ke was not entirely innocent, but he was mainly led astray by Lu Shenxing.

Of course, Xia Wantang was hardly going to meddle and stand up for Chen Ke.

After all, paths were chosen by oneself; since Chen Ke chose to accept Lu Shenxing's demands, he had to bear the consequences of his own choices.

Just like the original host, who had been forced against her will to become the Saintess of Azure Cloud Palace, yet was still killed by the palace lord with a single sword strike.

Seeing Xia Wantang staring intently in one direction, Ye Xing could not help saying:

Junior Sister is looking at what again? Xiao Rui is standing over in another place.

Xia Wantang:... You really are picking a fight with Xiao Rui, aren't you.

Withdrawing her gaze, she shook her head and said:

"It is nothing. The selection tournament is about to begin, Senior Brother. Focus on watching the match."

There were now only twenty disciples left on the arena. Zhao Zhixuan stood on her flying sword suspended above the void and announced:

"Congratulations to all the outstanding disciples who have advanced. Those who did not advance should not be discouraged; redouble your efforts, strive to improve, and aim to qualify in the next inner sect grand competition."

"Next, we enter the second stage—the selection tournament."

"The twenty disciples will draw lots to duel in pairs, and the final two remaining will advance to the top four."

Disciples who entered the selection tournament would all receive many resource rewards, but only those who reached the final four could obtain the rewards personally prepared by the Palace Lord of Azure Cloud Palace.

Therefore, as long as one advanced, regardless of the ranking, there were at least rewards, so no one had made the trip in vain.

This caused many disciples who had no intention of contending for the top four positions to breathe sighs of relief.

Their average cultivation was merely at the late Mystic Martial Realm; how could they possibly compete with the heavyweights at the peak of the Mystic Martial Realm?

Securing the advancement reward was already an excellent outcome.

Naturally, they would not retreat without a fight, as that would be too humiliating.

Even if they were just putting on a show, they had to put up a dying struggle; otherwise, it would be the face of their master that was lost.

Xiao Rui's opponent drawn in the first round was an ordinary inner sect disciple, rather than a personal disciple of several elders.

This disciple was named Qiao Wentao, with his cultivation at the late Mystic Martial Realm. Relying on exquisite sword art and a conservative, turtle-shell survival strategy, he had made it into the top twenty.

His own goal had merely been to advance, so after drawing Xiao Rui, not only did he not feel depressed, but he wore a look of pleasant surprise instead:

Hooray! I can get eliminated and knock off early!

The two had barely exchanged two moves when Qiao Wentao was knocked to the ground by Xiao Rui. He immediately said to the referee:

"I concede, I concede. Senior Brother Xiao is too strong, I cannot win!"

The crowd:...

Seeing this, Xia Wantang could not help bursting into a laugh:

"This Qiao Wentao is quite interesting."

Ye Xing also chuckled and said:

"I estimate that before the battle for the top four, no one will be able to stop Xiao Rui."

Just now, although Qiao Wentao and Xiao Rui had only exchanged two moves, those two simple moves revealed the profound principles within.

What Xiao Rui used was merely the Heaven Grade Ninth Tier outer sect technique, the Azure Cloud Sword Art.

What Qiao Wentao used was the inner sect disciples' Azure Edge Sword Art, which was of the Immortal Grade First Tier.

Although there was only a single tier difference, it spanned a major grade; both the intensity of the sword qi and the might of the sword moves were far greater in the latter.

However, Xiao Rui had pushed the Azure Cloud Sword Art to display extraordinary might, his sword qi being more than twice as thick as the Azure Edge Sword Art used by Qiao Wentao!

As the saying went, the great Dao was the simplest. As long as one's strength was solid enough, even using the most basic moves would enable one to unleash formidable might.

Seeing this, a flash of sharp light crossed Lu Shenxing's eyes:

According to the drawing results, in the next match, Xiao Rui would run into Chen Ke.

This kind of sparring aimed at mutual learning, and for the sake of fairness, magical treasures such as formations, pills, and talismans were not permitted.

Just now, he had secretly slipped a Profound Heaven Sealing Spirit Talisman to Chen Ke, inside of which was stored a strand of power from a cultivator at the early Profound Heaven Realm.

In Lu Shenxing's view, no matter how strong Xiao Rui was, he was ultimately only at the peak of the Mystic Martial Realm; using the power of the early Profound Heaven Realm to deal with him was more than enough.

Moreover, if the disparity in strength with Chen Ke was too great, it would be all too easily seen through.

One could say that as long as Xiao Rui did not detect anything fishy, Chen Ke could definitely muddle through.

According to Lu Shenxing's prediction, by then Xiao Rui would be directly severely injured and unconscious, making it utterly impossible for him to discover the problem.

Right as he was pondering, the second round of duels began, and it was precisely Xiao Rui versus Chen Ke.

Xia Wantang stared fixedly at the arena below, unwilling to miss a single fraction of a moment:

How can the plot where the counter-attacking protagonist is plotted against during a match and then executes a counter-kill not be considered a classic?

"Junior Brother Xiao, enlighten me!"

Chen Ke was older than Xiao Rui and also of a higher seniority. Being aloof and arrogant by nature, he was naturally unwilling to call Xiao Rui senior brother.

This opening line was a preemptive strike to cow his opponent.

Xiao Rui took it in stride, directly pulling out his own sword and crook-beckoning with a finger, signaling Chen Ke to begin the match.

Such disdain made Chen Ke even more displeased, and he directly catalyzed his arts to initiate combat.

He possessed a single Gold Spirit Root, and metal was the sharpest of attributes, capable of cutting through iron like mud. When executing moves, the sword wind was as sharp as substance.

The Martial God Peak lineage practiced the Martial God Heart Method as their internal cultivation technique. Combined with the Azure Edge Sword Art, it allowed their sword moves to bare their sharp edges, with sword qi shooting like a rainbow and slashing through the firmament.

One could see hundreds of thick, golden sword winds instantly appearing in the void, surrounding Xiao Rui in a spherical formation and attacking him at lightning speed.

However, the scene Chen Ke had imagined did not appear.

Xiao Rui catalyzed lightning arts with the speed of a thunderclap that gave no time to cover one's ears, and a pillar of purple light rose from the top of his head.

Thunderlight flashed abruptly, directly scattering the golden sword winds.

Following that, he switched from defense to offense, his sword moves shifting like the wind and swift as thunder.

Facing the pressure of the peak Mystic Martial Realm, Chen Ke retreated step by step, unable to control his body from falling backward.

With great difficulty, he steadied his posture, his eyes filled with gloom:

Why is it that he steadily worked hard and cultivated diligently for many years, yet his cultivation showed no signs of growth, while he watched junior brothers and junior sisters surpass him from behind? He felt extremely vexed.

Especially this Xiao Rui in front of him.

Clearly just the lowest of the low miscellaneous-chore disciples in Azure Cloud Palace, yet he had soared straight up by relying on a fortuitous encounter, and his cultivation was even above his own.

He truly felt unconvinced, and truly felt unwilling.

The flower of malice sprouted in his heart, and Chen Ke's gaze locked dead onto Xiao Rui:

Since you insist on blocking me and defeating me, then don't blame me for being ruthless. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for being too arrogant!

Thinking thus, a spirit talisman appeared in his left hand held behind his back.

Next, his fingertips stirred, and the power within the spirit talisman obscurely slipped into his palm, the talisman also turning into dust and disappearing without a trace.

At this moment, Xiao Rui was just swinging his sword close.

A sharp glint flashed in Chen Ke's eyes, and he immediately blocked in front of himself with his left hand. A powerful wave of golden spiritual energy rapidly dispersed from his palm, transforming into a huge golden sword.

"Not good! This brat used a Profound Heaven Sealing Spirit Talisman, hurry and dodge!"

Elder Sword's voice immediately rang out in Xiao Rui's mind.

Hearing this, his gaze turned icy, and instead of dodging, he met the attack head-on:

"Elder Sword, this junior has long wanted to test what my limits are."

"So what if it's a Profound Heaven Sealing Spirit Talisman? A wild youth deserves no sanity, my fate is my own and not up to the heavens!"

Finished speaking, a huge purple sword flashing with thunderlight also condensed within his palm.

Elder Sword:...

"Fine, whatever makes you happy."

Right at that moment, the two giant swords had already collided fiercely together—