Defeat Li Wei Again!

"I'll go!"

In previous years' Inner Disciple battles, those ranked lower always challenged first. But now, one person let out a loud roar, drawing slight surprise from the crowd.

"Li Wei, are you sure you want to fight first?"

Li Xuanji frowned and asked. To everyone's surprise, the first to speak was Li Wei, who had previously suffered consecutive defeats at the hands of Li Xuan and Li Ye! He looked much recovered now. Clearly, during that brief interval, he had taken some rather expensive healing medicine.

Because of his consecutive losses, Li Wei had fallen from seventh among the Inner Disciples to ninth!

"Sixth Elder, don't worry. Minor injuries like these don't require much rest."

Hearing his arrogance, Li Xuanji shook his head without saying much and simply nodded. "According to the rules, you may only challenge those ranked above you."

Battles between Inner Disciples were originally an annual occasion for everyone to fight for a higher rank, so they could only challenge those above them.

At this point, Li Wei could only challenge the eight people ahead of him.

After sweeping his gaze across them, Li Wei's face turned livid. He could not help thinking, The first through sixth are all at the eighth level of the Spirit Martial Realm. Even at my peak, my chances of beating them wouldn't reach thirty percent. Challenging them would be a waste of an opportunity and might even worsen my injuries.

The seventh level of the Spirit Martial Realm was known as the Martial Master realm, but there was still quite a gap between it and the eighth level's Grandmaster realm. Li Wei wisely gave up on challenging the first six. After all, he had originally been the strongest among the Inner Disciples beneath the Grandmaster realm. It was a sensible choice.

He then looked at Li Xuan, ranked seventh, and felt somewhat uneasy. This man is the Third Elder's son, and his strength is unfathomable. Though he lost before due to underestimating his opponent, my odds of winning another fight are still less than fifty percent. Not suitable.

In the end, he fixed his gaze on Li Ye, temporarily ranked eighth, and intense fighting spirit immediately radiated from him.

"Sixth Elder, I choose to challenge Li Ye!"

Not many people found this result surprising. Of the top eight, the first six were all Grandmaster-level powerhouses, while the seventh was the unfathomable Li Xuan. Only Li Ye, ranked eighth, possessed merely peak Spirit Martial Tier Four cultivation, making him extraordinarily conspicuous among the Inner Disciples.

"Are you certain?" Li Xuanji glanced at Li Ye. Seeing that the latter remained calm without any anger, he secretly nodded. This kid awakened a little late, but he does have some of Second Brother's bearing from back then.

"I'm certain!"

Li Wei knew his chances of successfully challenging the others were not high. Only against Li Ye did he still feel unconvinced by his previous defeat!

At the crucial moment of that last battle, I lost focus and was defeated. I refuse to believe he still has some demonic trick that can affect my mind! Against him, I have at least an eighty or ninety percent chance of winning!

Clearly, the mental impact Li Ye had unleashed with Blood Eyes was an exceptionally rare move on the Cloud Soaring Continent, and Li Wei had mistaken it for some demonic art.

Having been named as the challenger, Li Ye leaped directly onto the arena.

"Li Ye, I underestimated you earlier. And that little trick of yours—don't think the same trick will work twice. If you admit defeat now, you can still preserve some strength for the battles ahead."

Li Ye shook his head. To him, Li Wei's confidence was nothing more than self-importance.

Though he had a major weakness in terms of realm, Vampires seemed to possess an innate and exceptional affinity with the power of Blood Soul. The Blood Soul power of peak Spirit Martial Tier Four was equivalent to that of an ordinary person at peak Spirit Martial Tier Six. Combined with speed that ranked among the best even at the seventh level of the Spirit Martial Realm, he was confident that he would not lose to Li Wei even without using Blood Eyes to launch an illusory mental attack.

"Enough nonsense. Make your move!"

Seeing that Li Ye remained unmoved, Li Wei's eyes filled with anger. In his view, he had already given Li Ye more than enough face and had even considered his well-being. Unfortunately, he did not know Li Ye's true circumstances. Otherwise, he would never have thought this way.

"Since that's the case, don't blame me for showing no mercy!"

As soon as he spoke, Li Wei instantly swayed back and forth where he stood. Three or four afterimages appeared, making it impossible to tell where his true body was.

"Li Wei is quite a decent prospect within the clan. Phantom Step is considered rather difficult to cultivate among High-Grade Yellow-Tier Movement Techniques. I didn't expect him to train it to this level. If I'm not mistaken, he has already reached the Minor Success stage."

Several elders saw Li Wei's performance and nodded with smiles.

Li Ye also focused his attention. Phantom Step, a High-Grade Yellow-Tier Movement Technique. Rumor has it that once cultivated to the extreme, it can create twelve clones during battle, making it impossible to distinguish real from fake.

At that moment, his pupils had already turned blood-red, and the copying and reading effect unfolded once more. Yet Phantom Step was also Yellow Tier High-Grade, and Movement Techniques were inherently harder to learn than ordinary Combat Techniques. It was clearly not so easy for Li Ye to copy it.

Then Li Wei launched his offensive. His three or four clones seemed just like his true body, sweeping up countless kicks.

Relying on his speed, Li Ye barely dodged them one by one without counterattacking, continuing instead to secretly learn Li Wei's Phantom Step.

"Just a little more!"

To outsiders, Li Ye was being completely suppressed, disappointing many who had hoped to see another miracle. Even Li Huangran on the viewing platform looked somewhat disappointed before sneering repeatedly.

"Looks like I overestimated this kid. After all, he isn't his father. I actually thought he would be like his father. Li Huangran, Li Huangran, when did you become so timid and fearful?"

After ten moves, Li Ye felt that the space available for him to maneuver was shrinking. The unceasing effect of Gale Legs had already emerged, putting him under enormous pressure.

Finally, Li Ye's entire body shuddered, and the corners of his mouth curled upward.

"So that's how it is! Phantom Step is actually like this!"

He had finally copied Li Wei's Phantom Step. It had taken more than twice as long as copying Gale Legs and Frost Fist, but he was extremely satisfied with the result and did not think it was unworthy in the slightest!

"This Phantom Step is definitely not as simple as an ordinary High-Grade Yellow-Tier Movement Technique. It should be an incomplete manual or simplified version of some Mystic Tier movement combat technique!"

Phantom Step used unpredictable footwork and positioning to confuse an opponent's vision. Generally, Combat Techniques and Movement Techniques were divided into five levels of mastery: Beginner, Minor Success, Major Success, Proficiency, and Perfection. At Beginner level, one could create a single clone. At Minor Success, four clones. At Major Success, six clones. At Proficiency, nine clones. At Perfection, twelve clones.

Li Wei could produce three or four clones, enough to show that he had reached the Minor Success stage. That was already an impressive achievement. After all, High-Grade Yellow-Tier Movement Techniques demanded more than Combat Techniques. Even some Grandmasters at the eighth level of the Spirit Martial Realm could at most cultivate them to Major Success.

But after secretly learning it, Li Ye discovered that twelve clones were not the limit. There was an even deeper level to pursue. Yet Phantom Step had clearly been deliberately altered, making it feel somewhat discordant to him.

Looks like I'll need to find an opportunity to look at the secret manual for Phantom Step!

Every Inner Disciple had one opportunity to enter the Martial Arts Pavilion, so Li Ye was in no hurry.

To avoid causing too great a sensation, Li Ye did not immediately display Phantom Step. Though he could now barely create one clone, doing so would inevitably make Li Huangran and the others feel even greater killing intent toward him. Thus, he restrained himself from using it at once.

With a Vampire's naturally agile physique, even at the Beginner level of Phantom Step, I might be able to create around three clones, close to the Minor Success stage.

Although he did not use Phantom Step, Li Ye's speed abruptly increased by thirty percent. Li Wei's movements, which had previously appeared dazzling and bewildering in his eyes, also began to become clear.

"Storm of Gale!"

Unable to win after fighting for so long, Li Wei grew somewhat anxious. Ignoring his previous injuries, he began a fierce assault.

"Frost Fist!"

Having experienced this move before, Li Ye dealt with it smoothly. He could now use Frost Fist proficiently. By the usual classification, he had reached the Beginner stage in Frost Fist. But facing Li Wei's Gale Legs, which had reached at least Minor Success, the frost shattered at once. Yet Li Ye's true killing move followed close behind.

"Storm of Gale!"

"What?!"

Li Wei was dumbfounded. It was the same move. Though it still looked somewhat raw, Li Ye was clearly using his own move against him!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Three consecutive kicks. Though Li Wei dodged most of them as best he could, he was still struck by all three. One kick landed right on his old wound, and his throat immediately sweetened as he spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Li Ye wins!"

There was no doubt that Li Ye had won this battle.

"Useless trash!" A cold snort sounded, heard by only a few people. Li Ye was one of them.

Perhaps no one knew that a Vampire's five senses were far more abnormal than those of ordinary people. Li Huangran's cold snort could not be hidden from Li Ye's ears at all.

Li Wei's defeat made many Inner Disciples who had been eager to challenge Li Ye begin to beat a retreat.

"Just where did this freak Li Ye come from? He's clearly only at peak Spirit Martial Tier Four, yet he's this formidable. Not only has he learned the two High-Grade Yellow-Tier Combat Techniques, Frost Fist and Gale Legs, he has now defeated Li Wei, who was once ranked seventh among the Inner Disciples, twice. He doesn't look easy to provoke."

"Could this kid be deliberately hiding his true strength? Maybe, like Li Yu, his true realm isn't peak Spirit Martial Tier Four at all, but the seventh level of the Spirit Martial Realm?"

Some people guessed as much. Li Ye's realm was simply too conspicuous! Only that explanation made sense.

Even Li Huangran furrowed his brows tightly, wondering whether Li Ye had concealed his true realm.

It was not just him. Including Li Xian Nian, everyone refused to believe that Li Ye was only at peak Spirit Martial Tier Four! If that were true, they might as well buy a block of tofu and bash themselves to death with it!

Next, Li Yijian, originally the number one Outer Disciple, defeated his opponent in fewer than ten strikes and became the twelfth Inner Disciple. Li Yu, who had concealed his cultivation before, successfully challenged an Inner Disciple ranked one place above him and rose to twentieth. Even Li Datou defeated someone, advancing from twenty-sixth to twenty-fourth.

"I challenge the seventh Inner Disciple, Li Xuan!" At last, it was Li Ye's turn. The moment he spoke, the entire scene fell silent.