Chu Yunfei retreated to the waiting area, sat cross-legged, and closed his eyes, circulating the Boundless Scripture to heal his internal injuries.
The organs injured by the impact to his back gradually recovered under the nourishing warmth of his spiritual power.
The third group's match began and ended while he regulated his breathing.
He did not open his eyes to watch, but Xiaoxiao Dragon's low voice relayed everything happening on the platform to him through his sea of consciousness.
"The third group's winner is a woman at the fourth level of the Spirit Martial Realm. Her swordsmanship is extremely fierce. Neither opponent lasted ten moves against her."
Something stirred in Chu Yunfei's mind.
Fourth level of the Spirit Martial Realm, fierce swordsmanship, two opponents dispatched within ten moves.
"It's Yan Guining."
"You know her?"
"We met once."
An inscrutable little snort came from Xiaoxiao Dragon within his sea of consciousness.
Chu Yunfei offered no further explanation. He continued regulating his breathing for roughly half an incense stick's time, straightening out the chaotic spiritual power inside him until his condition had recovered to nearly its peak.
The presiding elder's voice rang out above the martial arena.
"All three group matches have concluded. The three contestants for the final round have been determined."
"Xu Changqing, Chu Yunfei, and Yan Guining."
The instant those three names were announced, the gazes of several thousand people converged once more.
"Lots will determine the order of combat in the final round. After resting for one incense stick's time, the winner of the first match will face the third contestant in the final showdown. The ultimate winner will receive the Giant Que Sword."
The presiding elder took out three lots. With a pull of spiritual power, he sent them flying toward the three contestants.
Chu Yunfei caught his lot and glanced at the writing on it.
Number one.
He then looked across at Yan Guining, who had caught her own lot.
Number two.
In other words, the first match would be Chu Yunfei against Yan Guining.
As word spread, the reaction below the platform was almost unanimously mocking.
"Chu Yunfei against Yan Guining? Does this even need to be fought?"
"Senior Sister Yan is at the Fourth Level of Spirit Martial, and her swordsmanship ranks among the inner sect's top three. Chu Yunfei is only at the ninth level of Qi Condensation. No matter how bizarre his movement technique is, he can't possibly withstand her."
"Reaching the final round was already heaven-sent luck for him. Liu Jie cleared Ling Feng out of his way, letting him reap the benefits. Now that he's up against Senior Sister Yan, surely his luck has run out."
"I bet it'll end with one strike."
In the honored guests' seats, Nangong Wuhen leaned back in his chair, tapping the armrest intermittently with a playful smile on his lips.
"Yan Guining, Fourth Level of Spirit Martial. I'm afraid Chu Yunfei really has reached the end this time."
Sitting beside him, Situ Shuang'er watched the platform with an impassive expression. "It's already surprising enough that he made it this far."
On the platform.
Chu Yunfei and Yan Guining faced each other from ten paces apart.
Yan Guining's face was cold as frost, her phoenix eyes brimming with chilling intent.
The pale blue tassel on her sword swayed gently in the wind. Her hand already rested on the hilt, her knuckles white.
"Shameless scoundrel."
She forced the words out one by one through clenched teeth, each laden with undisguised hatred.
Chu Yunfei sighed helplessly.
Clearly, Yan Guining still had not let go of the accident at the pool on Emerald Cloud Peak.
While practicing the Divine Movement Art in the rear mountains, he had failed to control his speed and accidentally blundered into the pool where she was bathing.
It truly had been an accident, but from Yan Guining's perspective, a man appearing while she was bathing was an unforgivable offense, whatever his reasons.
"Senior Sister, last time really was a misunderstanding." Chu Yunfei tried to make his voice sound as sincere as possible.
Yan Guining did not respond.
She drew her sword.
A clear, cold gleam flowed from its sheath like water, stirring a ring of spiritual-power ripples visible to the naked eye.
The aura of the Fourth Level of the Spirit Martial Realm burst forth without reservation. Her spiritual power was countless times purer than Ling Feng's, like a bottomless pool fed by a cold spring, icy and unending.
"Save your explanations for your next life."
Chu Yunfei sighed, his brow furrowing slightly.
She really wanted to kill him.
The presiding elder glanced at the two of them and raised his right hand.
"First match of the final round, begin."
The next second.
Yan Guining moved.
She was even faster than Ling Feng.
Her figure became a pale blue afterimage, her sword taking an unconventional line as she thrust toward Chu Yunfei's left shoulder.
The angle of this strike was exceptionally tricky. Rather than thrusting straight from the front, it cut in from an inconceivable slant, its tip tracing an arc around Chu Yunfei's frontal defenses.
Chu Yunfei drove the Divine Movement Art to its limit and shifted sideways, barely avoiding the sword tip.
But Yan Guining's follow-up arrived immediately. Her sword twisted and turned, tracing an exquisitely smooth arc through the air. The second strike flowed seamlessly from the end of the first, pursuing his retreat like a shadow clinging to its owner.
This was Yan Guining's swordsmanship.
Chu Yunfei had already experienced it on Emerald Cloud Peak. Her sword did not follow a path of broad, sweeping attacks. Instead, she countered speed with speed and finesse with finesse. Every strike flowed endlessly like water, the end of one becoming the beginning of the next, each link interlocking until her opponent could find no opening to catch their breath.
Clang!
The Abyss-Devouring Sword blocked the second strike. The instant the two blades collided, tremendous force far beyond what the ninth level of Qi Condensation could withstand surged along his blade.
Chu Yunfei's arm went numb, the web of his hand throbbed faintly, and the impact drove him back three steps.
The next strike arrived just as he regained his footing. Unbroken sword light enveloped him, pale blue radiance weaving intersecting arcs through the air like waves churning in a storm, one rising before another could settle.
Chu Yunfei retreated steadily, utterly unable to retaliate. The gap in their cultivation was there, after all.
The ninth level of Qi Condensation against the Fourth Level of Spirit Martial—a full major realm and four minor levels apart.
Even the Divine Movement Art's advantage in speed was greatly diminished before Yan Guining's more agile, unpredictable movement technique. Every dodge was perilously close; the slightest mistake would see him swallowed by sword light.
Boos filled the area below the platform.
"See? What did I tell you? They're not even on the same level."
"Senior Sister Yan isn't even using her full strength, and she's pinning him down effortlessly."
"He wants to compete with Senior Brother Xu for the Giant Que Sword? He should take a look at his own ability first."
Forced back to the halfway point of the platform, Chu Yunfei struggled to defend himself while thinking furiously.
He had no chance of winning a head-on clash with Yan Guining.
The gulf in cultivation could not be bridged by skill. Although his Heaven-Severing Slash was an earth-grade martial technique, he could not even find an opportunity to unleash it under the overwhelming suppression of her spiritual power.
But he did not need to win.
What he needed was to make Yan Guining lose.
The residual force of the twelfth strike drove Chu Yunfei back five steps, his heels scraping a trail of sparks across the platform.
The instant he steadied himself, the circulation of spiritual power inside him suddenly changed.
The Boundless Creation Scripture's spiritual power no longer concentrated in the meridians of his limbs to provide speed and strength. Instead, it spread outward and steamed upward.
Scorching spiritual power rose from around him like invisible waves of heat, giving off faint sizzling sounds as it met the moisture in the air.
Thick white mist spread from beneath his feet.
Extremely fast.
In just two or three breaths, a heavy layer of mist shrouded the entire platform.
The white mist roiled and surged, reducing visibility to less than ten feet. The spectators below suddenly found that they could see nothing.
"What's happening?"
"Mist! Mist suddenly appeared on the platform."
"Is this a martial technique? When did Chu Yunfei learn something like this?"
"The runic restrictions aren't reacting, so it isn't outside interference. His own spiritual power caused it."
The platform's protective runes indeed showed no reaction, because this was not a martial technique at all, merely the physical phenomenon produced when the most basic release of spiritual power met moisture in the air.
Any cultivator capable of fine control over spiritual power could do it. The problem was that very few would think to create mist this way during a platform match.
Because it was pointless.
It could only obscure vision, not block divine sense.
Within the mist.
Yan Guining stopped and spread her spiritual sense outward. But Chu Yunfei's spiritual-power fluctuations mingled with the thick mist, disrupting her perception. She could only roughly tell that he was about five paces ahead of her; his precise location remained vague.
"Petty tricks."
"You think hiding will help?"
She swung her sword, and a streak of sword light tore a gap through the mist before her.
But within a single breath, fresh mist filled the opening, surging like a living thing.
Chu Yunfei's voice came from the mist.
Its direction was uncertain, seemingly to the left, then seemingly to the right.
"Senior Sister, I really didn't mean it. I was practicing my movement technique in the rear mountains that day and lost control of my speed. I had no idea anyone was there."
Yan Guining bit her lower lip.
The scene from that day flashed through her mind, instantly leaving her unbearably embarrassed.
"Shut up."
With a low shout, she slashed three streaks of sword light toward the voice.
The three pale blue streaks tore through the mist and whistled away, striking empty ground and blasting up shattered stone.
Chu Yunfei's voice sounded from another direction, seemingly closer.
"Senior Sister, calm down and think about it. If I'd really done it on purpose, would I have been stupid enough to speak and alert you? The moment I realized something was wrong, I tried to run. You were the one who attacked first and chased after me to kill me."
His words were not without reason.
Yan Guining's blade faltered slightly.
But she quickly suppressed that trace of wavering.
So what if it made sense? You saw what you saw. Whether you meant to or not, that fact couldn't change.
Yan Guining's voice turned ice-cold. "Concede, or I won't hold back."
"I won't concede."
This time, Chu Yunfei's voice came from directly ahead, close-only two or three paces away.
Yan Guining's gaze chilled. Just as she was about to channel her spiritual power, suddenly-
A figure appeared in the mist.
But something was wrong with that figure. Chu Yunfei's outer robe was gone.
More precisely, all the clothing on his upper body had vanished. His bare torso was exposed amid the mist.
Lean but clearly defined muscles flickered in and out of view through the white haze.
Yan Guining's head buzzed.
"You... what are you doing?" Her voice abruptly changed pitch, its coldness turning to panic.
Chu Yunfei stood there with an innocent expression.
"Senior Sister, I didn't want this either. Those strikes of yours shredded my clothes just now. If you won't concede, there's nothing I can do. I'm a man, so it doesn't matter to me, but you're a woman. If word gets out..."
"Stop talking."
A flush spread over Yan Guining's cheeks at a visible speed, reaching all the way to her ears.
She instinctively turned her head aside to avoid looking at Chu Yunfei's torso, but her peripheral vision still inevitably caught that expanse of bare skin.
There were several scars on it, left from his earlier fights with Ling Feng and Liu Jie.
The blood had already dried into dark red marks.
"You..."
Yan Guining could no longer hold her sword steady, not because she was exhausted, but because her mind was in turmoil. A half-naked man stood two paces in front of her, and she was a...
Too close.
She could clearly see the lines of every wound on that skin.
"I concede. I concede."
Yan Guining practically blurted it out.
Then she turned away, covered her cheek with her left hand, and carried her sword in her right as she hurried toward the edge of the platform. Each step was faster than the last, until she was almost jogging.
Her ears were scarlet.
The mist on the platform began dissipating the instant she turned.
The white haze receded like a tide, gradually restoring the spectators' view.
Covering her cheek with one hand, Yan Guining hurried off the platform.
Meanwhile, Chu Yunfei stood in its center, his expression calm, having put his outer robe back on at some point.
The entire arena fell silent.
Then an even more deafening uproar erupted.
"What happened?"
"Senior Sister Yan conceded?"
"Chu Yunfei won again?"
"The mist cleared, and all we saw was Senior Sister Yan leaving with her hand over her face. What exactly happened?"
"What did Chu Yunfei do to Senior Sister Yan?"
No one could answer those questions. The mist had obscured their view, and those outside had seen nothing. They had only seen the outcome: Yan Guining voluntarily conceded and left the platform blushing.
The presiding elder remained silent for two breaths, then announced in a complicated tone, "First match of the final round, the winner is Chu Yunfei."