Li Luoci had already stepped onto the arena.
Yue Wen had suffered not the slightest injury in his fight with Li Bing. He had not even needed to bring out the Green Bamboo Dragonbone Fan.
His previous opponent, Li Ding, had at least detonated a lion's head and splattered Yue Wen with minced flesh. By comparison, he had done somewhat better than Li Bing...
Across from him, the radiant, white-robed Li Luoci walked forward, watching Yue Wen with large, glistening eyes full of wariness. Too many Immortal Sect Heavenly Prodigies had already suffered at this Northern Sky Independent Cultivator's hands. None of them would underestimate Yue Wen now.
Yue Wen still wore an inscrutable smile. As the match began, he nodded slightly. "No offense."
Li Luoci nodded too, though it was unclear whether she was responding politely or acknowledging that Yue Wen had indeed offended her before.
But none of that mattered. The match at hand came first. She immediately entered a state of selflessness, bringing out a longsword that blazed with golden light.
Within the dazzling sword radiance she summoned, the faint image of a graceful, slender golden lotus could be glimpsed.
The Imperial Qi Soaring Lotus!
Though it was merely the luminous image of a spirit plant, it carried a magnificent aura of kingly authority that made anyone who looked upon it feel an urge to bow in worship.
Legend had it that several eras of spiritual qi ago, there had been an ancient Immortal Dynasty. Its emperor had found no path to ascension, so he used the kingly qi of his entire dynasty to nurture a spirit plant Immortal Seed, intending to consume it once it matured and ascend in a single breakthrough.
Yet the instant the Immortal Seed matured, it vanished amid a sky full of