Chong Lou was wildly domineering in battle, but in everyday life he was quite mild-mannered. Especially when he was with friends and family, he was humble and courteous, so Lian Yue and the others accepted him easily. Ling Tian got along even better with him. Though they had only just met, they were already like old friends.
After a night of revelry, Chong Lou settled down at the Yang Stage. Besides improving his compatibility with the newly acquired Immortal Artifact, the Zen staff, he often sparred with Ling Tian and the others. His fighting style and techniques were quite distinctive, and the exchanges benefited both sides greatly. Huzi was happiest of all these days. Not only was he cultivating the Buddhist Golden Body under Chong Lou's guidance, but he was also learning combat techniques from him. His strength was improving by leaps and bounds.
During the day, Ling Tian and the others continued to defend their arenas, while Chong Lou had no plans to take the stage. Even Long Xing and Xing Zhan were nowhere to be seen outside the Tai Chi Arena. Clearly, they were confident in themselves and planned to challenge the arenas only at the last moment.
Time drifted by, and another year or two passed. Now, barely a month remained before the arena-defense phase ended.
The Arena Masters changed again and again, and by the end, every one of them was quite powerful. Huzi, whose cultivation was only at the Integrated Body Middle Stage, was nearly at the bottom. If he hadn't previously tempered his heart and greatly increased his strength under Chong Lou's guidance, he might have lost his Arena Master position too. Even so, he had accumulated seventy or eighty defeats, and he wasn't far from the limit of a hundred.
Some of the