After the farce with Ye Qingxuan, the spectators' opinion of Ying Ming Hao took another sharp turn for the worse. Most considered him an arrogant, conceited scoundrel who had let success go to his head.
Although Ying Ming Hao possessed considerable strength, his behavior was impossible to praise. His virtue simply did not measure up to his position; he looked every inch the evil villain.
Those who had lost to him, meanwhile, were invariably seen as champions of justice.
Of course, Ying Ming Hao did not care in the slightest. He was cultivating immortality, after all. If he still could not do what he wanted, what was the point of becoming an immortal?!
After that, no Heavenly Prodigy dared provoke that harbinger of disaster, Ying Ming Hao, lightly. Nobody wanted to end up like those earlier unfortunates, suspended high atop an enormous spear and reduced to gossip and laughingstock over tea.
Thus, the Heavenly Prodigies turned their attention to other targets and began a new round of contests and clashes.
Against this backdrop, Gu Xinghai naturally became the target of every arrow.
For one thing, he had suffered serious injuries earlier and had yet to recover fully. For another, his relatively gentle temperament made him seem easier to bully.
Many therefore believed they had found their chance to defeat Gu Xinghai. Reality, however, proved them utterly wrong: challengers came one after another.
Gu Xinghai displayed astonishing combat prowess. His injuries had almost healed, and he not only neutralized his opponents' attacks with ease but launched fierce counterattacks, beating them into disarray and sending them fleeing in panic!
Seeing that even Cai Dagui, Qiu Yajing, and the other Heavenly Prodigies could not successfully challenge Gu Xinghai, the rest had no choice but to seek another approach and point their spears