A Higher Realm Guarantees Victory?

"Junior Brother Lin."

"I watched your first two matches."

On the third-round arena.

Chen Xuanfeng did not show the slightest contempt just because Lin Yuan was only 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 formidable defense."

"Your senses are equally sharp."

"If I still treat you as an ordinary Earth Immortal."

"I'd be slapping my own face onto your sword."

Lin Yuan smiled at that.

"Senior Brother is a sensible man."

"So I won't probe you."

Chen Xuanfeng slowly drew his saber.

A surge of mana far stronger than that of Lin Yuan's previous two opponents burst forth.

Heavenly Immortal Peak!

Even the air atop the arena seemed to grow several degrees heavier.

"My first strike."

"I'll be serious from the start."

"Junior Brother, take this."

Boom!

The saber struck.

There were no heavens-filling visions.

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 dodge.

His heart sank.

Too fast.

Seeing it.

Did not necessarily mean he could evade it completely.

The Thick Earth Sword instantly rose across his chest.

Clang!

A piercing explosion rang out.

For the first time, Lin Yuan was blasted backward head-on.

His feet scraped two trails several dozen feet long across the arena.

His right hand, which gripped the sword, went slightly numb.

Yet Chen Xuanfeng was already pressing in again.

Second strike!

Lin Yuan twisted aside and avoided most of it.

But his shoulder was still grazed by the saber aura.

Ssshh!

His Daoist robe split apart.

A faint streak of blood appeared on his skin.

The stands fell much quieter in an instant.

"His defense has finally been broken."

"Chen Xuanfeng isn't on the same level as those first two."

"After all, he's at the Heavenly Immortal Peak."

"It's already outrageous that Lin Yuan made it this far."

Even several fellow disciples whose confidence in Lin Yuan had soared moments ago unconsciously nodded.

The difference in realms was right there.

Crossing one minor realm was nothing unusual.

Crossing a major realm was already exceedingly difficult.

Now, Lin Yuan was effectively crossing the entire 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 the others might as well stop cultivating.

They should go home and raise fish instead.

"Junior Brother."

Chen Xuanfeng did not continue his pursuit.

"You can concede."

Lin Yuan lowered his gaze toward his shoulder.

The bloodstain was not deep.

The Blackstone Dao Body truly was powerful.

But against a genuine high-quality attack from a Heavenly Immortal Peak cultivator, it was impossible to remain completely unscathed.

He raised his head.

"Senior Brother."

"I want to try again."

Chen Xuanfeng frowned.

"If this continues, I can't guarantee you'll emerge without a scratch."

"It's fine."

Lin Yuan tightened his grip on the Thick Earth Sword.

"I suddenly realized just now..."

"Your saber is rather suited for tempering people."

Chen Xuanfeng had yet to understand.

When Lin Yuan had already charged forward on his own initiative.

The two clashed 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 take 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 deflect the force.

And when he truly could not deflect it, he used his body to take the blow.

Chen Xuanfeng's saber techniques were swift.

And his strikes were heavy.

Yet Lin Yuan was like a stubborn rock becoming increasingly familiar with the rhythm of the hammer blows.

After the first strike, he retreated thirty feet.

After the fifth strike, he retreated only twenty-one feet.

By the tenth strike.

Fifteen feet.

By the twentieth strike.

The Thick Earth Sword in Lin Yuan's hand could actually intercept Chen Xuanfeng's blade half a step before it fell, catching it at the most comfortable point for exerting force.

The more Chen Xuanfeng fought, the more something felt wrong.

"You..."

"Are you using me to practice your swordsmanship?"

Lin Yuan stepped back and shook out 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?"

"This Junior Brother Lin has quite some nerve."

"No, look at his sword!"

Someone suddenly cried out.

Lin Yuan's sword momentum was changing.

When he had first entered the arena.

His Thick Earth Sword Technique could only be described as steady.

Relying on the Blackstone Dao Body and the Thick Earth Sword's innate compatibility, he had forcibly made every slash heavy.

But now, there was an added delicacy to it.

Every time Chen Xuanfeng swung his saber.

He forced out a flaw in Lin Yuan's sword technique.

And after those flaws were caught by his Innate Spiritual Perception, Lin Yuan swiftly adjusted them.

After several dozen exchanges.

It was as though Lin Yuan had taken all the closed-door deductions of the past three months and run through them again upon a real battlefield.

More importantly.

Under the pressure.

The mana within him, which had been stuck at the Earth Immortal Peak, began to stir restlessly.

Lin Yuan sensed it himself as well.

He was getting closer and closer to the Heavenly Immortal realm—

"Again!"

He laughed loudly and charged forward.

This time, Chen Xuanfeng was truly somewhat angered.

"Fine!"

"Since Junior Brother wishes to use me to break through."

"Then I'll grant your wish!"

Boom!

The long saber shot toward the heavens.

Behind Chen Xuanfeng, the phantom of a black ferocious tiger unexpectedly emerged.

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 straighter.

She did not stop him.

If Lin Yuan was not confident he could handle this strike, he would naturally concede.

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 screamed warnings.

He knew very clearly.

He could not simply rely on his body to take this strike head-on.

Otherwise, even the Blackstone Dao Body would be injured.

Since that was the case—

Then break through!

All the mana within him poured into the Thick Earth Sword.

The earth force beneath the arena was madly drawn in by the Blackstone Dao Body.

Before Lin Yuan's eyes, every bit of sword experience from the previous three matches flashed past at once.

His sword edge rose.

The bottleneck that had always lain between Earth Immortal and Heavenly Immortal was struck head-on in that instant by the surging mana within him.

Crack!

It was as if something had shattered.

The next second.

The immortal spiritual energy around them suddenly surged toward Lin Yuan as if it had gone out of control!

The clear spirit of heaven and earth entered his body.

The turbid qi of the earth veins sank.

The magical power within Lin Yuan began to transform wildly.

Heavenly Immortal!

"He broke through?!"

Cries of shock erupted all around.

Chen Xuanfeng's pupils contracted sharply as well.

But he could no longer withdraw this strike.

Instead, Lin Yuan smiled.

It had come at just the right time!

"Open!"

The Thick Earth Sword crashed head-on into the Black Tiger Saber's radiance.

Rumble—!

The two forces exploded against each other.

For the first time, vast ripples spread across the arena's protective formation.

Countless people instinctively narrowed their eyes.

When the spiritual light dispersed.

Chen Xuanfeng was still standing where he was.

Only, the long saber in his hand had snapped into two pieces.

Lin Yuan had been forced back to the edge of the arena.

The sleeve on his right arm had been completely blown apart.

Blood streamed from the web between his thumb and forefinger.

Yet 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 he looked at Lin Yuan.

After a moment of silence.

He suddenly laughed.

"This match."

"I lost."

Lin Yuan froze slightly.

"Senior Brother can still fight."

"My saber's already broken."

Chen Xuanfeng tossed aside the half of his 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 down from the arena.

He could clearly feel that the gazes falling upon him had become completely different.

Three matches.

He had challenged opponents above his level three times in a row.

In the final match, he had even used the hand of a Heavenly Immortal Peak opponent to break through on the spot.

Such a performance.

Could no longer be summed up with merely "a little talent."

And atop the high platform.

A gaze that had carried little presence until now truly settled upon Lin Yuan for the first time.

At some unknown point, Tongtian Daoist had appeared in the deepest part of the high platform.

Without alerting any ordinary disciples.

Duobao and Jin Ling had already risen to bow.

"Master."

Tongtian waved a hand.

His gaze remained fixed below.

"That little fellow who just broke through."

"Is that the Lin Yuan you mentioned some days ago?"

Jin Ling nodded.

"That's him."

Tongtian offered no evaluation.

He merely cast an interested glance at the Thick Earth Sword in Lin Yuan's hand.

At that moment.

The next round's matchup list had already appeared.

Lin Yuan looked up.

When he saw his own name, the excitement born from his breakthrough swiftly cooled.

The next match.

Early True Immortal.