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Chapter 621: Chapter 627: Fourth Grade
"Hiss!"
A sudden intake of breath came from below the stage, followed by someone saying, "Was that an instant kill?"
"It looks like we made a mistake in choosing to challenge her, seems like we’ve kicked an iron plate."
"Hmph!" Someone scoffed coldly, "I think her strength is nothing special, it’s entirely because the challenger was too weak, which made her look impressive."
Qinglian, upon hearing this, felt as if she’d been struck by lightning. Her pride, which had always been unshaken, was completely shattered. She couldn’t believe that one day she would hear such an evaluation.
"This fellow Daoist, please step down from the stage! It’s time for the next challenger." The judge reminded.
The dazed Qinglian instantly snapped back to reality, her eyes full of unwillingness as she looked at Li Zhixuan’s indifferent expression. Because of Li Zhixuan’s action, it was undoubtedly confirmed that defeating her was very easy, so easy that there was no need to rest before welcoming the next challenger!
If she could, she would’ve torn Li Zhixuan to pieces. But this was in the City of Thousand Swords! This was a Sword Dao competition that was being watched by Nascent Soul Sword Cultivators and even Divine Transformation ancestors!
Qinglian didn’t dare to make any excessive moves, lest she bring trouble to her sect and become a sinner. So she could only silently leave the stage.
Li Zhixuan didn’t bother wasting a glance on Qinglian. This time, she didn’t choose her challenger at random, but specifically pointed out the male cultivator who had mocked her.
"Since you think my strength is nothing special, then let’s see how strong you are." Li Zhixuan said calmly, "I hope you can withstand this strike of mine!"
"Just don’t beg for mercy later." The male cultivator was still talking tough.
In reality, he was terrified. His earlier remarks were just an attempt to show off and seize an opportunity to take back his Sword Command and choose another lord of the ring.
But who could’ve predicted that before he could make a move, Li Zhixuan called him out.
Not wanting to lose face, even though he knew he was no match, he had to grit his teeth and step onto the stage. Otherwise, how could he continue to mix in this circle?
"The competition begins!"
The judge had barely finished speaking, and his voice hadn’t even completely faded away when Li Zhixuan, holding her Spirit Sword, charged forward.
It was the coldness at his neck again that brought him back to his senses.
On closer inspection, he realized that Li Zhixuan was already in front of him, the Spirit Sword resting on his shoulder.
There were no fancy, colorful moves—only neat and sharp killing techniques!
If defeating Qinglian could still be explained by her weak strength, then instantly killing another cultivator of the same realm left no one daring to underestimate Li Zhixuan again.
Only some stubborn cultivators—who were very confident in their own abilities, or were planning to take advantage of a weakened opponent—remained in front of Li Zhixuan. The other cultivators had already taken back their Sword Commands, planning to challenge another lord of the ring.
Li Zhixuan, seeing that there were only a few Sword Commands hanging in front of several arenas, couldn’t help but frown. She wasn’t facing any difficulty, but there were too few people!
She felt that even if she defeated all of them, she might not be able to rank in the top fifty and advance to the next round.
"Judge, I have a question that needs to be answered."
"Please ask."
"As a lord of the ring, if no one challenges me and I can’t challenge anyone else, resulting in very low points for me, how will this situation be handled?" Li Zhixuan inquired.
The judge explained, "Fellow Daoist, you need not worry. If such a situation really occurs, you will advance directly."
Such cases had also appeared in previous years, so the Ten Thousand Swords Sect had long since devised a plan for this.
"Understood."
Li Zhixuan nodded and continued to select her next opponent, still showing no intention of resting to recover!
One challenger after another took to the stage, and the one who lasted the longest managed no more than a mere quarter of an hour, but ultimately no one was able to change the outcome of defeat.
In the end, there were no Sword Commands left in front of her!
The cultivators had all been conquered by Li Zhixuan’s powerful strength. Those with inferior abilities dared not challenge her anymore, and those with slightly better strength also feared they couldn’t win, unwilling to lose a point in vain.
All of this was noticed by Qinglian.
Ever since her loss, her morale seemed to scatter, as if she had given up on this round of competition, doing nothing but staring at Li Zhixuan’s arena.
"If you’re not convinced, start cultivating seriously from now on, and someday you will surpass her. Why sit here wallowing in self-pity?"
One of the elders couldn’t stand it any longer and reprimanded, "Look at the state of yourself now!"
"Yes, even though she’s just a Loose Cultivator, her journey will likely end here, but you’re different, you have a better future ahead of you."
Indeed, they had wanted to take this opportunity to shatter Qinglian’s pride and arrogance, but it now seemed they might have overdone it, almost ruining her completely!
"Don’t worry, in the next round of competition, Feng Lou and Jing Ming will avenge you."
Among the disciples they brought this time, there were two who had received the Golden Sword Order—these two were them!
And these two were the most powerful among the Sword Sect’s current generation of disciples!
They believed that as long as they took action, Li Zhixuan would be defeated as well.
Meanwhile, Li Zhixuan, who was recuperating her Mana, had no idea that someone was plotting against her, but if their methods were open and aboveboard, she truly had no fear!
—
Wanxian Island.
"It should be a successful evolution." Li Zhirui could clearly sense the change in Da Qing’s aura. Although he had always believed they would succeed, the lack of any signs had inevitably caused him to worry.
It wasn’t until several hours later, when Da Qing transmitted a message telling him that its bloodline had successfully advanced to the fourth rank, that Li Zhirui finally let go of his concerns.
However, since it had just evolved successfully, Da Qing needed some time to recover and did not leave its closed-door cultivation.
As for Xiaoqing, its evolution had not stopped yet.
It was currently just integrating that Spiritual Object to further improve its bloodline, but it hadn’t yet taken the Phoenix Blood Grass.
Perhaps because it had already endured severe pain once, when it came time to experience it again, Xiaoqing suddenly felt it was not so bad, and the process was much calmer than before.
Once the Phoenix Blood Grass was completely integrated, a strand of bloodline shimmering with a green Divine Light appeared within Xiaoqing.
This was the signature ability of the Qing Luan, part of the Phoenix clan and known for mastering the wind!
Furthermore, Xiaoqing was extremely fortunate—the Phoenix Blood Grass had indeed pushed it into the fifth rank, albeit just barely crossing the threshold. Yet, this single step saved it a hundred years of time!
Around half a month later, Da Qing adapted to its new bloodline, emerged from its quiet room to meet with Li Zhirui, and after a discussion, went back into seclusion.
This time, its closed-door cultivation was aimed at breaking through to the fourth stage!
As Li Zhirui’s Contracted Spirit Beast, with him having broken through to the Nascent Soul stage, Da Qing faced no real bottleneck. The only thing left was to complete the step of Transforming the Golden Core into a Nascent Soul, and it could achieve the breakthrough.
