A narrow defeat

That was a Foundation Establishment Late Stage spell! How did he break free? Ma Xingye was horrified, then immediately felt ashamed.

As a cultivator at the seventh level of Foundation Establishment, he had actually been shoved off balance by a boy with no cultivation whatsoever.

What was more, he was the young sect master of the Blue Maple Sect, born a cut above everyone else!

Ma Xingye steadied himself and pointed his sword at Xiao Feng from afar, pouring every last drop of true essence out of his body.

Two enormous stone hands rose beside Ma Xingye, and a stone puppet nearly ten meters tall emerged from beneath the ground.

Standing atop the stone puppet's head, Ma Xingye felt the true essence drained from his body. His eyes blazed with fury as he looked at Xiao Feng.

His hands flew through spell gestures. He pointed a spell seal at Xiao Feng and shouted, "Stone General, heed my command! Strike!"

The stone puppet beneath Ma Xingye raised both hands high. A long-handled stone axe appeared in its grip, and it hacked savagely at Xiao Feng, who had just escaped the stone hands.

"Break!" Having just escaped the stone hands' restraint, Xiao Feng stood up again. His muscles rippled irregularly, and his surging blood made him feel as though his entire body brimmed with inexhaustible strength!

Watching the enormous axe cleave toward him, Xiao Feng roared and raised his fist to meet it head-on.

The two forces collided violently, making the earth tremble.

Dust churned across the arena, obscuring everything within.

When the dust cleared, Xiao Feng stood motionless. Blood seeped from all 360 major acupoints across his body, leaving him looking like a blood-soaked gourd.

The enormous stone puppet was nowhere to be seen. Only a heap of broken stone and yellow sand remained.

Ma Xingye sat slumped on the ground, his eyes full of terror as he stared at Xiao Feng.

Just where did this man come from? The stone puppet I summoned had the strength of the Core Formation Realm!

It had been his strongest trump card.

A Core Formation Realm stone puppet had actually been smashed to pieces with a single punch by this brat with no cultivation!

Participants were permitted to use talismans and magic artifacts in the competition.

Wealth and external resources were part of one's strength, too.

It sounded terribly unfair, but that was how the mundane world worked as well.

For the young sect master of the Blue Maple Sect to enter the arena and fight in person was already fair enough.

A monster!

He's a monster!

Under Ma Xingye's terrified gaze, Xiao Feng moved, advancing toward him step by step with a tread as heavy as a mountain.

Xiao Feng moved very slowly, as though every step demanded enormous effort.

But to Ma Xingye, the blood-drenched Xiao Feng looked more like a vicious ghost that had crawled out of the underworld!

He was steadily approaching to reap Ma Xingye's life!

"Stay away from me!" Ma Xingye frantically drove the scant true essence remaining in his dantian, swinging his sword wildly.

Several streaks of sword qi struck Xiao Feng, but they only made him sway slightly and opened a few more wounds on his body. They did not stop him from advancing toward Ma Xingye.

Everyone held their breath as they watched Xiao Feng in the arena. Their initial contempt for the boy had gradually become astonishment, then finally the admiration they felt now.

They had witnessed a boy without any cultivation fight in this arena, determined to defeat his opponent even at the cost of his life!

No one would mock that stubborn resolve to stand his ground with his very life!

Xiao Feng's body began to sway, and his steps grew unsteady. His vision blurred, and only his formidable willpower kept him from collapsing.

Opposite him, Ma Xingye sat on the ground, utterly spent, without even the strength to raise his hand. Forcing himself to summon a Core Formation Realm stone puppet had already placed an enormous burden on him. Then, in his panic, he had fired sword qi wildly at Xiao Feng, exhausting all his true qi.

Once the true qi in a cultivator's dantian ran dry, he would become rigid, unable to move a muscle.

All Xiao Feng had to do was reach Ma Xingye and bring down his fist, and the outer sect's greatest genius would fall to him.

Xiao Feng finally reached Ma Xingye and slowly raised his fist. Though the punch was feeble, it still whistled through the air toward Ma Xingye's reasonably handsome face.

I'm going to lose! Watching the fist draw closer, Ma Xingye cast a hopeful glance toward the drum tower.

Suddenly, a ripple in the air shot from the drum tower toward Xiao Feng, too fast for any of the outer disciples present to see clearly.

Already a bolt at the end of its flight, Xiao Feng was suddenly hurled backward by an uncanny impact, then lost consciousness completely.

An uproar broke out beyond the arena. No one had expected yet another reversal!

The tension left Ma Xingye's face, and he collapsed on the ground.

All those gifts I paid him in tribute weren't wasted after all, nor was the lavish gift I went out of my way to deliver a few days ago.

Whatever happened along the way, I won in the end!

Just then, Steward Sun's voice rang out from the bell tower:

"The winner, Ma Xingye!"

That ripple in the air had moved far too quickly for these outer disciples to make out.

The spectators outside the arena had only seen Xiao Feng suddenly topple sideways just as his fist was about to strike Ma Xingye. He never rose again.

The outcome was settled. Xiao Feng had suffered a narrow defeat!

"What a shame, what a real shame! Just a little more, and he would've won!"

"Exactly. In the end, he still couldn't get over that mountain-Senior Brother Ma at the seventh level of Foundation Establishment, could he?"

"Junior Brother Xiao definitely has the strength to make the top ten. What a shame he lost to Senior Brother Ma here. His luck was just terrible!"

"Sometimes luck is part of strength, too. I could tell at a glance that Junior Brother Xiao has a limitless future!"

"Weren't you saying yesterday that he was an ant trying to shake a tree, with no idea of his own limits?"

"I didn't! Don't make things up! That wasn't me!"

A noisy chorus of discussion rose all around, filled with regret, amazement, and admiration.

Ma Xingye had clearly won, yet everyone's attention was on Xiao Feng, who had remained silent for five years only to astonish everyone with his first cry.

Up in the drum tower, Ouyang watched the unconscious Xiao Feng below, his face expressionless.

"Senior Brother Ouyang, you won the wager! What a wonderful match. Thanks to you, that bright pearl didn't end up cast into darkness. Please take these four top-grade spirit stones as my thanks!" Beaming, Steward Sun took out a small cloth pouch, walked over to Ouyang, and spoke with a smile.

That ripple in the air had been Steward Sun striking Xiao Feng with wind spell arts.

Ouyang kept watching Xiao Feng below and raised his hand without turning his head.

Smack!

A slap rang out across Steward Sun's face.

Ouyang turned around with a look of feigned surprise. "Oh dear, Steward Sun! I was so engrossed in watching that I didn't notice you beside me."

The slap left the smiling Steward Sun somewhat dazed. He put away his smile and said lightly, "It's fine, it's fine. I was too presumptuous."

But his tone suddenly flattened. Looking at Ouyang with a trace of mockery, Steward Sun said, "There's no need to be angry, Senior Brother Ouyang. Everyone has their place. Take what just happened, for instance. When I was in the Qi Refining realm, I could never have slapped someone in the Core Formation Realm."

Steward Sun was insinuating that Ouyang, despite being only in the Qi Refining realm, could act so arrogantly solely because he was an inner disciple. What difference was there between Ouyang and Ma Xingye, then?

With an utterly sincere expression, Ouyang said, "You're right, Steward Sun. I suppose your mastery of that principle is precisely why you're still hanging around the outer sect at over three hundred years old?"