When the morning bell rang for the third time, I stepped over the arena's stone stairs.
The "Qi Qi Rune" talismanic markings carved last night had long since faded, and the lingering warmth at my fingertips was gone. Yet that thread of origin connected to her still pulsed faintly in my palm, like a spark buried in flesh and blood. I glanced down at the dust on my Cloud-Treading Boots, then brushed my sleeve—an idle gesture, though I was actually using that instant of closed eyes to suppress the Pseudo-Primordial Body within me to its utmost limit. My meridians became dry wells, my Spiritual Power stagnant water; even the Heaven-Slaying Origin sank into utter silence.
On the high platform, Ji Hantian stood with a folding fan in hand. His Purple-Gold Python Robe snapped in the wind. His gaze swept over me, and his lips curved. "Trash like you deserves to step onto the stage?"
I looked up and smiled. "Standing that high, Cousin—are you afraid it'll hurt when you fall?"
A few people beneath the stage chuckled, only to stifle it at once. His expression shifted slightly as he tapped his palm with the folded fan. "You know the rules—lots determine your opponent, and life or death is irrelevant."
As his words fell, a bronze tray rose, and the lot sticks spun.
My opponent was Ye Qingwan.
She walked onto the arena from the other side, still wearing her moon-white dress. She carried her medicine pestle at an angle, and the wooden hairpin in her hair remained as plain as ever. But I could tell her breathing was half a beat slower than usual—the sign of her Blood Phoenix Body being suppressed. She did not look at me. She merely stood three zhang away, her fingers curling slightly.
I knew she was waiting.
Deep underground, Calamity Qi began to stir. The faintest tremor traveled from the soles of my feet up my spine. The killing formation had entered its pre-ignition phase; it only lacked a fuse.
I stood with my hands at my sides, my gaze falling on her sleeve.
That Jade Slip was still there, hidden close to her body, untouched.
Ji Hantian suddenly raised a hand, his voice ringing clear. "On this grand occasion, let blood be sacrificed to the heavens! Everyone, look—"
He flipped his palm, and a streak of blood-red light shot skyward, piercing straight through the clouds!
In an instant, all eight directions trembled. The bricks at the arena's four corners cracked apart, dark-red patterns spreading like a spiderweb. Crimson light seeped from the fissures, carrying the stench of fresh blood. The sky abruptly turned scarlet, as though the entire firmament had been steeped in blood.
It was done.
The Twin Blood Seal had activated.
Almost in that same breath, I sensed the change in her—her left shoulder meridians spasmed, her bloodline was forcibly drawn away, and her life essence began to leak. But just as those blood threads were about to burrow into her skin, her five fingers suddenly clenched!
Crack!
The Jade Slip shattered with a sound so soft, yet it was like a bolt of thunder striking the heart of the killing formation.
A pale golden barrier burst from her palm, wrapping around her body in rippling waves. The light was not dazzling, but it carried a heavy pressure, as if some ancient law were whispering. Then the Phoenix Mark between her brows flashed. Scarlet flames surged out, condensing into two phantom wings that circled her body.
The blood threads touched the flames and burned to ash in an instant.
Two layers of protection, inside and out, held firm. She stood amid light and fire, her breath slightly unsteady, yet she did not retreat a single step.
"He didn't lie to me... I really can hold on." Her voice was so low it was nearly inaudible.
But I heard it.
On the high platform, Ji Hantian abruptly rose to his feet, shock and fury flashing through his eyes. "How is that possible?! How could she have been prepared?!"
He could not believe it.
Of course he could not. They had schemed for three years, laid the formation for seven days, even calculated every turn of the Earth Meridian. How could they have imagined that a Young Master with ruined bones would see through the killing intent in advance?
Still less could he have imagined that the power hidden within my Heaven-Slaying Origin had long since resonated with her bloodline.
I remained where I was, outwardly calm. Yet the origin within me was already boiling, flowing upstream along that thread of pain and pointing directly toward the Formation Eye at the southeastern corner—the main channel of the blood seal.
"The red light has risen!" Ji Hantian roared. "You are already sacrifices! Struggle is useless!"
His hands formed seals as demonic qi poured from his left arm. A phantom with six arms flickered into view, driving the formation to operate faster. The red patterns on the ground swelled wildly, and more blood threads burst from the earth, lunging at Ye Qingwan like venomous serpents.
She gritted her teeth and held on. The barrier trembled, and the flames weakened.
Now.
I moved.
There was no buildup, no ripple of Spiritual Power. I merely drew the wooden sword at my side—one Afu had stuffed into my hands the day before yesterday. It was crude and blunt, even its tassel worn into fuzz.
The sword tip touched the ground.
The Pseudo-Primordial Body surged open in an instant! Pale golden patterns raced from my ankles to my arms, my meridians rushing like roaring rivers as the Heaven-Slaying Origin awakened with a thunderous boom!
I leapt into the air, the wooden sword cutting an arc of light as it stabbed straight into the crack between the southeastern floor tiles—the core node marked in last night's Jade Slip.
The sword fell.
The entire killing formation shuddered violently!
The red light twisted, swaying madly like a guttering candle in the wind. A muffled rumble rose from underground, as though something were collapsing. The main blood-seal vein buried deep in the Earth Meridian began to flow backward the instant the wooden sword touched it!
Ji Hantian's pupils shrank sharply. "Impossible! That formation core was cast from Thousand-Year Yin Iron!"
I hovered in midair, the wooden sword buried deep in the crack. Golden light spread from its blade and grew madly along the fissures. That was not Spiritual Power. It was the first true backlash of the Heaven-Slaying Origin after devouring the Remnant Dao, Calamity Qi, and Battle Intent Fragments.
"Cousin's formation was laid quite well." My voice was cold, like an icy blade scraping over stone. "What a pity—its foundation uses my Remnant Dao."
As the words fell, the wooden sword erupted in blinding golden light!
Boom—!
The Formation Eye exploded! Bricks and stones flew everywhere, crimson radiance scattered, and the formation patterns in all eight directions shattered inch by inch. A backlash surged through the Earth Meridian and slammed into the high platform. Ji Hantian staggered backward, the folding fan in his hand snapping with a crack as half of it fell to the ground.
He stared at me, as though he were seeing me clearly for the first time.
Not the useless cousin he could trample at will.
But... someone capable of breaking his killing formation with a single sword strike.
Before the dust settled, I landed back on the arena, my wooden sword angled toward the ground. Dust clung to my robe, but the faint red scar on my left cheek burned softly—the Heaven-Slaying Origin was violently shaking from the successful destruction of the formation, and the next thread was gathering.
Ye Qingwan drew in her phoenix flames, the scarlet tips of her hair quietly fading back to black. She came to stand half a step behind me, still clutching the medicine pestle in her hand. Her voice was soft. "What's next? You say."
I did not answer. I only watched the disheveled figure at the edge of the high platform.
Ji Hantian stood beside the broken railing, his lips trembling as though he wanted to say something but could not make a sound. In the shadows behind him, a blood mark slowly emerged, winding like a snake as it crawled from his sleeve toward his neck—the sign of Blood Crystal backlash.
I knew Mo Xuan's Human Puppet had yet to make a move.
Blood Butcher's nine Blood Flood Dragons had yet to appear.
Yan Jiuxiao was in the secret chamber of the City Lord's Manor, staring at that half-burned secret letter.
Qingming's Jade Gourd still hung from the tip of an ancient tree, its wine fragrance not yet dispersed.
But at this moment, all I wanted was to watch him.
Watch this man who had personally destroyed my Dao bones lose every last thing he relied upon, bit by bit, before my eyes.
I raised my hand and lightly turned the wooden sword.
Its tip pointed directly at the cracked floor tile beneath his feet.
"This game of chess," I said, "you lost the first move."
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