Unseal and Leave the City! Return to Nuoding City!

Duke's rhythm visibly slowed by half a beat.

Unlike Bas, he did not force himself to hold on. The moment he noticed his speed beginning to drop, he did not hesitate. He cleanly retreated three steps, raised his right hand toward the referee, and signaled. "I concede."

Lan Tian sheathed his blade and stood still, giving him a nod.

As Duke turned and walked off the stage, he said over his shoulder, "Your reactions are too fast. My speed-based style is at a natural disadvantage against someone like you who specializes in prediction. If there's a team battle next time, ask me to join you."

Lan Tian paused slightly, then smiled. "Sure."

Three consecutive victories, clean and decisive.

This time, the spectator stands truly erupted.

Some people shouted, "Healing-type War God!" Others rushed down to shake Lan Tian's hand. At the edge of the arena, several people argued with their companions until their faces turned red, clearly debating whether Lan Tian even counted as a proper healing-type Soul Master.

Xiao Ling came jogging over from the tunnel, her face flushed red with excitement. "Doctor Lan! The prize money for three consecutive wins is doubled! Including the audience tips, this match earned more than the first two combined—a total of fifty-eight Gold Soul Coins! You earned more in one day than many of our Great Soul Arena contestants make in a month!"

Lan Tian accepted the money pouch and put it away. Glancing toward the stands, he said, "That's about enough for today. If I keep fighting, my Soul Power won't hold up."

Xiao Ling hurriedly nodded and handed him a folded slip of paper. "After today's three matches, you've made a name for yourself at Heaven Dou City's Great Soul Arena. The treatment you receive will be different whenever you come to register in the future. This has your contestant number and match record on it. Keep it safe. Next time, you can just give them your number."

"Thanks."

Lan Tian took the slip, glanced over it, casually put it into his storage ring, then turned and walked through the passageway out of the Great Soul Arena.

The streets outside were still crowded. The city gates remained sealed, but the mood throughout the streets and alleys was more relaxed than it had been that morning. Some people had set up stalls by the roadside selling hot wine and cooked food, and the locked-down city had instead taken on a peculiar liveliness.

He found a noodle shop, sat down, ordered a bowl of hot soup noodles, and ate slowly as he sorted through the day's events in his mind.

After three Soul Battles, his greatest gain had not actually been the hundred-odd Gold Soul Coins in prize money, but the accumulation of real combat experience.

Fighting different Soul Masters was an entirely different experience from fighting Soul Beasts. Human adaptability and tactical awareness far surpassed those of Soul Beasts.

The growth those three battles had brought him today was far greater than fighting ten-year Soul Beasts in the Soul Hunting Forest for an entire month.

He lowered his head and finished the last mouthful of noodles, wiped his mouth, then looked up at Heaven Dou City's gray, hazy dusk.

The city had not yet reopened, but it could not remain sealed for long.

He planned to return to the inn for some sleep first, then see how things stood tomorrow.

Early the next morning, Lan Tian was awakened by the commotion in the inn's lobby downstairs.

He rolled over and sat up, threw on his outer robe, and pushed open the window to look down. There were far more pedestrians on the streets than yesterday.

Several vendors were setting up stalls by the roadside. As the lids were lifted from steaming bamboo baskets of buns, white vapor billowed into the air.

People carrying bundles hurried toward the city gates, their faces filled with urgency and relief.

In the inn lobby, several guests were gathered around the counter talking to the innkeeper. They were not quiet, and their voices could be heard clearly even through the floor.

Lan Tian quickly washed up and went downstairs. He ordered a bowl of porridge and two buns at the counter, eating as he listened to the discussions beside him.

"...Did you hear? It was settled last night. The one in the Eastern Palace is completely finished. His confidants were all taken overnight—those who could be arrested were arrested, and those who had to die were killed. The blood at the city gates still hadn't even been washed away this morning."

"Goodness, they were blood brothers... And he just struck without hesitation."

"The imperial family has no room for sentiment. Did you expect them to care about brotherhood? The loser's family wasn't spared either. Someone passed through the eastern alley this morning and saw several carriages covered in black cloth taking people away."

"At least the lockdown is over. Ordinary folk like us can finally leave the city. These past few days, I've been on edge every day, terrified that soldiers would burst in at midnight and arrest me as an accomplice."

The innkeeper took up the conversation as he wiped down the counter. "Exactly. But now that the dust has settled, the winner has gained the right to speak. Heaven Dou City should be peaceful for quite a while. Once someone wins a power struggle, they won't be in a rush to start another one. Things have to stay quiet for some time."

Lan Tian stuffed the last bite of bun into his mouth, already having made up his mind.

Heaven Dou City was nice—prosperous and lively, with plenty of opportunities—but the center of such a power vortex was not somewhere he should stay for long.

A two-ring Soul Grandmaster would not even make a ripple in a place like this. If the city gates were sealed again one day, he could not guarantee that he would emerge intact every time.

Nuoding City was his territory.

His status as chief physician, his connections within the city guard, the protection of the City Lord's Mansion, and that little courtyard filled with Blue Silver Grass.

That was where he could cultivate in peace and steadily build his strength.

After returning to his room and packing his luggage, he took stock of the items in his storage ring.

Four pieces of two-to-three-thousand-year Whale Rubber lay neatly in a corner of the ring. The unusual seed was kept separately in a small oilcloth pouch. The ring itself rested on his left index finger, and after using it to store and retrieve items all day, he had already grown accustomed to it.

He put his medicine chest and dry provisions into the ring, replaced his backpack with a light shoulder bag, then went downstairs to settle the room charge and strode toward the city gates.

Just as everyone had said, the city gates had indeed been reopened.

Most of the gate guards had been withdrawn. Only a few checkpoints remained for routine inspections. Pedestrians filed out in orderly lines. Though the inspections were somewhat stricter than usual, passage was open again.

Lan Tian left the city with the crowd and stepped onto the broad official road outside. He turned back for one last look at Heaven Dou City's towering walls.

The grayish-brown walls glowed faint gold beneath the morning sunlight. The banners atop them still snapped sharply in the wind, and everything looked no different from three days ago.

But Lan Tian knew that those walls had just witnessed a bloody purge. Some people who had slept soundly in their mansions last night had become corpses wrapped in black cloth and hauled out of the city by morning.

He withdrew his gaze, no longer looking back, and turned to stride south along the official road.

Traveling by fast horse, his journey back was much quicker than his journey there.

With the storage ring in hand, his burden was nearly nonexistent.

Even so, the return trip took more than three days.

Along the way, he rested for a night in a small roadside town. By the following afternoon, he could see Nuoding City's familiar low walls in the distance.

Only a few people were passing in and out of the city gate, while the city guards lounged lazily against the base of the wall, basking in the sun.

One of them had sharp eyes. The moment he spotted Lan Tian from afar, he straightened up and called out, "Doctor Lan is back!"

Lan Tian walked over and greeted him. The guard chuckled and said, "Everyone in the city's been talking about you while you were gone. Grant even came by the day before yesterday to ask whether you'd returned."