Yun Ting: What the heck, how does this even count?

Hong Yun transmitted his voice to the Great Immortal Zhen Yuan, saying, "What a miserable fate for East King Duke. The fortune of the Head of Male Immortals has been scattered quite a bit this time. After this, it'll be hard for anyone to take him seriously anymore."

The Great Immortal Zhen Yuan replied, "Only you, Hong Yun, are honest enough to think so. Hmph, among the male immortals of the Primordial Wilderness, there really aren't many who take that fellow seriously."

Hearing this, Hong Yun couldn't help but suspect he was a simpleton. He looked at Zhen Yuan and muttered, "Zhen Yuan, even though you praised me for being honest, I feel like that last sentence wasn't exactly a compliment. What's going on?"

The Great Immortal Zhen Yuan thought to himself, "Sigh, this Hong Yun is pure naivety. I'll have to keep an eye on him from now on."

Turning to look at Fuxi, who was already reaching out to Taiyi, Fuxi said, "Daoist Taiyi, East King Duke clearly had the upper hand over Zhunti just now. Otherwise, Jieyin wouldn't have stepped in to help. Well, that'll be one Fusang Fruit, if you please."

Taiyi looked at Yun Ting and said, "You opened the betting pool, so you decide. Did East King Duke win just now, or did Zhunti? The fight wasn't finished before all kinds of interference started. It's hard to settle the score..."

Yun Ting thought for a moment and replied, "Well, that's the thing. How do we calculate this..."

Tong Tian looked at his son, who was deep in thought, and said, "Daoist Fuxi, Daoist Taiyi, you two aren't short on a couple of fruits. Consider it a meeting gift for my son. Let's just pretend this bet never happened. After all, they didn't fight fairly to the end, so it's hard to judge..."

Taiyi burst into laughter and said, "Then so be it. East King Duke is still getting stomped on right now, so he can't exactly get up and fight again."

At that moment, the system suddenly issued a task: "Task issued: Trick Zhunti. Strike Zhunti with one slash of Primordial Sword Qi. Reward: Law of the Sword Dao increases by one level."

Yun Ting shouted, "Fine, Zhunti! You can't even fight properly and had Jieyin help you, messing up my betting pool. Take this sword from me!" With that, he held the Primordial Sword, a flash of sword light appeared, and the Law of the Sword Dao drove the Primordial Sword. One slash struck out, already possessing the power of a peak Great Luo.

Zhunti chuckled lightly, his body surging with Seven-Colored Treasure Light to block it, and said, "Nephew-disciple, if you keep this up, I'll have to fight back."

No sooner had he spoken than a haze flickered around Yun Ting. Then, his sword intent surged upward, and the Law of the Sword Dao directly broke through. Sword chimes rang around him. He raised a finger and said, "Martial Uncle Zhunti, I struck you with one sword, and through it, I've broken through in the Law of the Sword Dao. Take this sword—'Sever Bodhi.'" With that, another fierce sword qi slashed toward Zhunti.

Facing Yun Ting's sudden burst of sword qi, Zhunti dared not be careless. The Seven-Colored Treasure Light around him surged as he tried to block Yun Ting's attack. However, Yun Ting's sword qi contained a powerful Law of the Sword Dao, and the force of this strike far exceeded Zhunti's expectations. With a loud "boom," Zhunti was struck by the sword qi, his body involuntarily stumbling back three steps, each step leaving a deep footprint in the ground.

At this, the surrounding Great Powers couldn't stay calm... Hmm, Yun Ting slashed Zhunti twice and broke through in the Law of the Sword Dao. If I gave Zhunti a few hits, would I break through too?

The Great Immortal Zhen Yuan poked Hong Yun and said, "You once gave up your seat to Zhunti. Hitting him a few times wouldn't be a big deal. Want to give it a try? Maybe you'll break through too..."

Hong Yun shook his head and said, "Better not. After all, Yun Ting cultivates the sword dao, while I don't. If I don't break through, I'd just be wasting two strikes on Daoist Zhunti for nothing. That wouldn't be right."

Well, the Good Old Man Hong Yun was naturally like that. But... Taiyi was different. The Golden Crow lineage was inherently a bit hot-tempered (yes, a fiery-tempered Golden Crow was quite reasonable). Watching Yun Ting break through by hitting Zhunti, he decided to give it a try himself.

With that thought, Taiyi started with the Chaos Bell. Duang, duang, duang—three bell rings, and most of the force pressed directly toward Zhunti. Then, raising his hand, he grabbed a blast of True Sun Fire and hurled it.

With this combo, before Zhunti could react, he was sent flying by the Chaos Bell, then surrounded and burned by the True Sun Fire. He was in a far more miserable state than when he fought East King Duke. He cursed, "Daoist Taiyi, what reason do you have for suddenly attacking me?"

Taiyi scratched his head and said, "Yun Ting just broke through by hitting you, so I wanted to try it too. But..." Before he could finish, Taiyi suddenly closed his eyes, and a haze flickered around him.

Seeing this, Zhunti immediately turned into a streak of light and fled, thinking to himself, "Oh hell... this is too much."

Well, Taiyi hadn't broken through by hitting Zhunti. Instead, inside the system space, A Certain Lady had broken through his bottleneck just as he was about to say that hitting Zhunti didn't work.

At this, the assembled Great Powers made their decision: they'd wait and use Zhunti for practice. If they broke through, great. If not, beating up Zhunti was no loss. This guy's popularity wasn't great anyway, so they might as well treat it as a fun sparring session.