Li Shouyi arrived just in time to see Li Zuoshou finish his attack.
His expression changed drastically. He was about to pour in more magical power and rush to the arena to see whether Lin Shuishui was hurt when he saw something that left him dumbfounded.
A dazzling light burst from where Lin Shuishui stood, accompanied by a sharp cry.
"From illusion into reality—True Meaning of Dreams!"
The light instantly enveloped Li Zuoshou as well.
To the spectators, only an instant seemed to pass, but to Li Zuoshou, it felt like ten years.
Once Lin Shuishui's light enveloped him, he felt as though he had entered another world.
In that world, Lin Shuishui seemed to have become an omnipotent god.
No matter how he attacked or resisted—
None of it did any good. Lin Shuishui merely blew a gentle breath, and his body and soul were utterly obliterated.
As a result, all the spectators saw was Li Zuoshou standing motionless in the arena, utterly stupefied.
A light sheen of sweat had appeared on Lin Shuishui's forehead. She turned to the referee. "Referee, did I win?"
The referee was also rather bewildered. He called out to Li Zuoshou, "Li Zuoshou, are you still capable of fighting back?"
No response.
He kept calling for a while longer. When Li Zuoshou showed no reaction whatsoever, he cleared his throat a few times and announced, "Contestant 146, Lin Shuishui, wins."
Li Zuoshou's master was none other than Elder Yan Hai, whose son had had his legs broken by Su Wan'er.
With a wail, he flew into the arena and anxiously shook Li Zuoshou. "Zuoshou, wake up! Don't scare your master!"
Having finished listening to the system notification, Li Shouyi also flew down and landed beside Lin Shuishui.
Once he confirmed that the girl was unhurt, the worry on his face instantly turned into a dark scowl.
"You wretched disciple. Just wait until I deal with you!"
"Huh? Master, I won!"
"It's precisely because you won that I'm going to deal with you."
Lin Shuishui: ??
"Li Shouyi, I challenge you to a duel!"
Yan Hai's face twisted with rage. Unable to wake Li Zuoshou, he took his anger out on Li Zuoshou.
Li Shouyi was already in a foul mood. Seeing this lunatic come after him again, he snapped, "Fine! Come on, a fight to the death!"
"Whoever chickens out is the other man's grandson!"
"I..."
Yan Hai was about to agree on the spot, but then immediately regained his composure!
Seeing that Li Shouyi looked even angrier than he was, he decided that dueling such a boor would be an insult to himself.
So he decided on the spot to complain to the sect leader.
"Sect leader, Li Shouyi's disciple disregarded the bonds between fellow disciples and struck with such brutality. I implore you to punish her!"
"Um, Elder Yan, I can wake Senior Brother Li up. He hasn't suffered any actual harm. I only trapped his soul."
"What did you say?"
Li Shouyi was shocked. Well, well, Lin Shuishui! When did you go behind my back and learn another secret art like this? You can actually pull out your opponent's soul!
Host, do not make such a fuss. Lin Shuishui is a genius with the makings of a Great Sage. Naturally, it is only to be expected that she possesses such abilities.
Fuck your mother's fucking cunt! Am I your master, or are they? So I'm just working for those two, huh?
He might have been fine if the system had kept quiet, but its words only made him angrier. Just who was the protagonist here?
The system fell silent again. No matter how he cursed, it simply played dead and refused to answer.
After cursing for ages without getting a response, Li Shouyi could only leave it a middle finger in his sea of consciousness.
While Li Shouyi was trading curses with the system, Lin Shuishui had already woken Li Zuoshou.
But the sharp, swordlike look in his eyes was now gone. He hid in Yan Hai's arms, sobbing nonstop.
"Li Shouyi, this isn't over!"
After throwing out that threat and shooting him another vicious glare, Yan Hai hurried away with Li Zuoshou in his arms.
In all the Cloud Cliff Sect's years, there had never been a man who was beaten to tears by a woman. Yan Hai could not afford that humiliation.
Li Shouyi raised his middle finger in the direction Yan Hai had gone.
Then he muttered, "Dumbass. Who gives a damn about you?"
After cursing, he glared at Lin Shuishui, then pulled her off the arena.
When they reached Su Wan'er, Li Shouyi asked her with a stony expression, "How did you win?"
Li Shouyi remembered the system mentioning both disciples. Only Lin Shuishui had won, while Su Wan'er hadn't even fought. On what grounds had the system declared his mission a failure?
"Master, I got a bye this round, so I advanced straight to the semifinals."
Fuck.
Li Shouyi viciously cursed the damned system again in his heart.
"Get your asses back to the courtyard! All you ever do is come out here and make a spectacle of yourselves!"
"Huh?"
Su Wan'er gave her senior sister a puzzled look. Lin Shuishui yawned, then waved her hand up and down to signal her to stay calm before whispering in her ear, "Our master saw you win without even stepping into the arena, so he felt a little embarrassed. Junior Sister, you must beat your opponent within an inch of their life next time. That will definitely make Master happy."
Su Wan'er's eyes lit up at those words. She looked at Lin Shuishui with admiration and thought to herself.
As expected of Eldest Senior Sister. She can perfectly understand Master's every glance and gesture.
Seeing her junior sister like this, Lin Shuishui felt deeply gratified.
Junior Sister really is easy to fool.
She believes whatever nonsense I make up.
Lin Shuishui felt helpless too. To preserve her dignity as the senior sister, she couldn't very well tell her junior sister that she had just been scolded by their master too.
Or that she had absolutely no idea why their master was angry!
Walking ahead of them, Li Shouyi had no idea that his eldest disciple had once again begun frantically stabbing him in the back.
At that moment, there was only one thought in his mind: his enemy would come knocking the day after tomorrow. How was he supposed to survive?
Run away?
His enemy had his soul token. There was no way to escape.
Kneel and beg for mercy?
Li Shouyi figured that was unlikely to work. He had stolen the man's wife; his enemy wanted to cut him into a thousand pieces. How could he possibly spare him?
Ah, what a headache!
With that weighing on his mind, Li Shouyi led the damned brats back to his little courtyard.
After he left, the spectators erupted.
"Did you see that? Lin Shuishui actually beat Li Zuoshou!"
"No shit. We're not blind."
"Ugh, you still don't get what I mean. I mean, Lin Shuishui was still a useless good-for-nothing not long ago. How much time has it even been?"
"You mean...?"
"Exactly. Lin Shuishui must have improved this quickly because of Elder Li's guidance. Hey, why are you running?"
"Isn't it obvious? To become his disciple! Didn't you see how many fellow disciples are already heading to Elder Li's residence?"
"Hey, wait for me..."
The spectators all ran off, leaving only the few unlucky souls who had been taking bets.
"Brothers, what are we going to do?"
"A million Spirit Stones! A whole million!"
"Even if we sold all three of us, we wouldn't be worth that much."
The other two merely wept in silence, until one of them suddenly had a flash of inspiration. "Senior Brothers, why don't we run away?"
"Where would we run? The sect has our soul tokens. They could track us to the ends of the earth."
"Then what do we do?"
The oldest-looking of the three gritted his teeth. "Let's go beg Junior Sister Su. We'll return her stake first, then pay off the rest slowly. Junior Sister Su is so easy to talk to. I don't think it should be much of a problem."
The other two exchanged a glance and silently nodded.
Then the three turned into streaks of light and vanished.
Before you continue