"Junior Brother Lin."
"I watched your first two matches."
On the third-round arena.
Chen Xuanfeng showed no contempt just because Lin Yuan was merely at the Earth Immortal Peak.
On the contrary.
The moment he stepped onto the stage, he gripped the long saber at his waist.
"The Blackstone Dao Body has powerful defenses."
"And equally sharp senses."
"If I still treat you like an ordinary Earth Immortal."
"I'd be offering my face to your sword."
Lin Yuan smiled at that.
"Senior Brother is a wise man."
"So I won't waste time probing."
Chen Xuanfeng slowly drew his saber.
A surge of mana far stronger than that of Lin Yuan's first two opponents burst forth.
Heavenly Immortal Peak!
Even the air above the arena seemed to grow heavier.
"My first strike."
"I'll be serious."
"Junior Brother, receive it."
Boom!
The saber struck.
There were no grand celestial phenomena.
Only an incomparably swift streak of black saber light.
Lin Yuan's Innate Spiritual Perception caught its trajectory at once.
But just as his body prepared to evade.
His heart sank.
Too fast.
Seeing it.
Did not necessarily mean he could completely avoid it.
The Thick Earth Sword instantly rose before him.
Clang!
A piercing explosion rang out.
For the first time, Lin Yuan was blasted backward head-on.
His feet scraped two marks several dozen feet long across the arena.
His right hand gripping the sword went slightly numb.
But Chen Xuanfeng had already closed in again.
Second strike!
Lin Yuan twisted aside and avoided most of it.
Yet his shoulder was still grazed by the saber aura.
Sshk!
His Daoist robe tore open.
A faint bloody mark appeared on his skin.
The surroundings of the viewing stands instantly fell much quieter.
"His defenses have finally been breached."
"Chen Xuanfeng is on a completely different level from the first two."
"He is at the Heavenly Immortal Peak, after all."
"It's already outrageous that Lin Yuan made it this far."
Even several fellow disciples whose confidence in Lin Yuan had just soared nodded unconsciously.
The gap in realm was right there.
Crossing a minor realm was nothing unusual.
Crossing a major realm was already extremely difficult.
Now, Lin Yuan was effectively crossing the entirety of the Heavenly Immortal realm to face a cultivator on the verge of breaking through to True Immortal head-on.
If he could still win easily.
Then everyone else might as well stop cultivating.
They could go home and raise fish instead.
"Junior Brother."
Chen Xuanfeng did not continue his pursuit.
"You can admit defeat."
Lin Yuan lowered his head and glanced at his shoulder.
The bloody mark was not deep.
The Blackstone Dao Body truly was powerful.
But against a genuinely high-quality attack from a Heavenly Immortal Peak cultivator, it was impossible to emerge entirely unscathed.
He raised his head.
"Senior Brother."
"I'd like to try again."
Chen Xuanfeng frowned.
"If we continue, I can't guarantee you'll remain unhurt."
"It's fine."
Lin Yuan tightened his grip on the Thick Earth Sword.
"I suddenly realized just now..."
"Your saber is rather suited to tempering people."
Chen Xuanfeng had yet to understand.
When Lin Yuan had already charged forward on his own initiative.
The two collided again.
Saber and sword roared!
This time, Lin Yuan had clearly changed his fighting style.
He no longer relied solely on the Blackstone Dao Body to endure attacks head-on.
His Innate Spiritual Perception was pushed to its limit.
He dodged whenever he could.
When he could not dodge, he used the Thick Earth Sword to redirect the force.
And when he truly could not redirect it, he took it with his body.
Chen Xuanfeng's saber techniques were fast.
And his attacks were heavy.
Yet Lin Yuan was like an unyielding stone that grew increasingly familiar with the rhythm of the hammer blows.
After the first strike, he retreated a hundred feet.
By the fifth strike, only seventy feet.
The tenth strike.
Fifty feet.
By the twentieth strike.
The Thick Earth Sword in Lin Yuan's hand could actually intercept the most comfortable point of Chen Xuanfeng's exertion half a step before the saber descended.
The more Chen Xuanfeng fought, the more something felt wrong.
"You..."
"Are you using me to practice your swordsmanship?"
Lin Yuan took a step back and shook his numb wrist.
"Senior Brother has sharp eyes."
"..."
Chen Xuanfeng's face darkened.
An uproar also rose from below the stage.
"Good heavens."
"He's really using a Heavenly Immortal Peak cultivator to train?"
"Junior Brother Lin has some nerve."
"No, look at his sword!"
Someone suddenly cried out.
Lin Yuan's sword momentum was changing.
When he had first taken the stage.
His Thick Earth Sword Technique could only be described as steady.
Relying on the Blackstone Dao Body and its inherent compatibility with the Thick Earth Sword, he had forcefully made every strike heavy.
But now, it had gained a touch of delicacy.
Every time Chen Xuanfeng swung his saber.
He forced a flaw in Lin Yuan's sword technique into view.
And once those flaws were caught by Innate Spiritual Perception, Lin Yuan swiftly adjusted them.
After several dozen exchanges.
It was as though Lin Yuan had brought all three months of his secluded deductions onto a real battlefield and gone through them again.
More importantly.
Under the pressure.
The mana within him, which had been stuck at the Earth Immortal Peak, began to stir.
Lin Yuan noticed it as well.
The Heavenly Immortal realm was--
Getting closer and closer.
"Again!"
He laughed and charged forward of his own accord.
This time, Chen Xuanfeng was truly somewhat angered.
"Fine!"
"Since Junior Brother wishes to use me to break through."
"Then I'll grant you that wish!"
Boom!
The long saber shot into the sky.
A phantom of a black ferocious tiger actually emerged behind Chen Xuanfeng.
This was his true trump-card divine ability.
The expressions of the surrounding disciples changed slightly.
On the high platform.
Jin Ling also sat up a little straighter.
She did not stop him.
If Lin Yuan had no confidence in taking this strike, he would naturally admit defeat.
Cultivators could be cautious.
But they could not hide behind others forever.
Black Tiger Swallows the Mountain!
The saber light descended.
Lin Yuan's Innate Spiritual Perception issued frantic warnings.
He knew perfectly well.
He could not simply rely on his body to withstand this strike.
Otherwise, even the Blackstone Dao Body would be injured.
Since that was the case--
Then break through!
All the mana within his body poured into the Thick Earth Sword.
The earth power beneath the arena was wildly drawn forth by the Blackstone Dao Body.
Before Lin Yuan's eyes, all the sword-fighting experience from the previous three matches flashed past at once.
The sword edge rose.
And the bottleneck that had always stood between the Earth Immortal and Heavenly Immortal realms was struck head-on by the surging mana within him at that very instant.
Crack!
It was as if something had shattered.
The next moment.
The immortal spiritual energy around them suddenly surged toward Lin Yuan as if it had gone out of control!
The pure spiritual essence of heaven and earth entered his body.
The turbid aura of the earth veins sank.
The mana within Lin Yuan began to undergo a frenzied transformation.
Heavenly Immortal!
"He broke through?!"
Cries of alarm erupted all around.
Chen Xuanfeng's pupils constricted sharply as well.
But he could no longer withdraw this strike.
Lin Yuan smiled instead.
Perfect timing!
"Open!"
The Thick Earth Sword slashed out, colliding head-on with the Black Tiger Saber's radiance.
Boom—!
The two forces exploded against each other.
For the first time, great ripples spread across the arena's protective formation.
Countless people squinted instinctively.
When the spiritual light faded.
Chen Xuanfeng was still standing where he was.
Only, the long saber in his hand had broken into two pieces.
Lin Yuan had retreated to the edge of the arena.
The sleeve on his right arm had completely exploded.
Blood streamed from the web between his thumb and forefinger.
But he had not fallen.
The aura of an Early Heavenly Immortal slowly stabilized around his body.
Chen Xuanfeng looked at the broken saber in his hand.
Then at Lin Yuan.
After a moment of silence.
He suddenly laughed.
"This round."
"I lost."
Lin Yuan froze slightly.
"Senior Brother can still fight."
"The saber's already broken."
Chen Xuanfeng tossed aside half of the saber.
"Keep fighting, and use my fists to smash against a rock like you?"
"My brain isn't broken."
Laughter immediately rang out all around.
Lin Yuan could not help laughing as well.
As he walked off the arena.
He could clearly feel that the gazes falling upon him had completely changed.
Three matches.
He had fought opponents above his level consecutively.
In the final match, he had even used a Heavenly Immortal Peak opponent's hand to break through on the spot.
Such a performance.
Could no longer be summed up with merely "some talent."
And on the high platform.
A gaze that had scarcely drawn any notice finally settled upon Lin Yuan in earnest.
Daoist Tongtian had appeared at the deepest part of the high platform at some point.
He had not alerted any ordinary disciples.
But Duobao and Jin Ling had already risen and bowed.
"Teacher."
Tongtian waved a hand.
His gaze remained fixed below.
"That little fellow who just broke through."
"Is he the Lin Yuan you mentioned some days ago?"
Jin Ling nodded.
"That's him."
Tongtian offered no comment.
He merely cast an interested glance at the Thick Earth Sword in Lin Yuan's hand.
At this moment.
The match list for the next round had already appeared.
Lin Yuan looked up.
When he saw his name, the excitement born from his breakthrough quickly cooled.
His next opponent.
Early True Immortal.
Before you continue