Chapter 63: Martial Arts Tournament 3

Chapter 63: The Martial Arts Tournament (Part 3)

Song Yi felt a jolt through his entire body, and then his eyes gradually grew hazy.

Crack!

It sounded as though something had shattered.

The aura surrounding Song Yi began to surge rapidly, and his aged appearance started to revert to youth.

In a flash.

He transformed from a man of fifty or sixty into someone in his thirties.

Once the clarity returned to Song Yi’s eyes, he dropped to his knees with a thud and said respectfully, "Many thanks to Mr. Xue for this great favor! From this day forth, Song is willing to go through fire and water for Mr. Xue, without a moment's hesitation!"

The reason Song Yi was so emotional was that Xue An’s methods had completely surpassed his imagination.

To effortlessly elevate someone's cultivation realm with a mere casual gesture?

What kind of cultivation level must this require?

If this news were to spread, it would cause an absolute sensation.

One must know that countless people were stuck at the threshold of the carefree realm, and many might never make any progress in their entire lives.

Xue An waved his hand. "Alright, it was merely a trivial effort. I saw that you are not a bad person, so I helped you out along the way. Besides, I don't have the time to look after Lan'er, so you should teach her more!"

"Yes!" Song Yi lowered his head and replied respectfully.

The next day.

The preliminary rounds of the Martial Arts Tournament commenced.

The so-called preliminary rounds required young talents who were not yet ranked on the Heaven's Pride List to go through the qualifiers before they earned the right to challenge those already on the list.

The fighting rings had been set up long ago at the foot of Green Mist Mountain.

Shi Hao, accompanied by his younger sister and several followers, arrived at the edge of the ring. Shi Hao wore a calm expression, filled with utter confidence.

Shi Zhuli was equally confident in her older brother. While she was getting ready by the side of the ring, Xue An arrived with his children, along with Hua Tingting, Tan Xiaoyu, Tan Dong, and the others.

The moment Shi Hao saw Hua Tingting approach, his spirits lifted, and he smiled brightly. "Ms. Hua, Master Tan!"

Hua Tingting maintained a neutral expression and gave a slight nod.

Tan Dong turned to his daughter and said, "This Shi Hao has a steady and powerful aura. It seems he has already stepped into the True Human Realm. For someone so young, that is quite remarkable."

Tan Xiaoyu did not speak; instead, she looked at Xue An.

She wanted to see what Xue An's attitude was.

However, Xue An was busy whispering and chatting with his two daughters.

If anyone had happened to overhear the conversation between this father and his daughters at that moment, they surely would not have known whether to laugh or cry.

"Daddy, what are these people doing? It's so weird!" Xue Xiang said, pointing at the martial artists who were warming up.

Xue An smiled. "They... are warming up!"

"Warming up? Can you eat it?" Xue Nian immediately asked.

Xue An pinched Xue Nian’s little cheek and said with doting amusement, "You, you... all you ever think about is eating."

"Then why do they need to warm up?"

"Because they're going to have a fight later! You always have to warm up before a fight, otherwise it's easy to lose!" Xue An only showed such infinite patience when facing his two daughters.

"Oh!" The two little girls responded, seeming to understand yet not quite grasping it, and then asked, "Daddy, why do they want to fight?"

"Because... they have too much time on their hands, I suppose," Xue An replied indifferently.

The preliminary rounds began.

Due to the massive number of participants, ten matches were conducted simultaneously. The winners advanced, while the losers were eliminated.

Among these martial artists, some possessed genuine high-level skills, but many were merely making up the numbers.

With such a stark contrast in abilities, the matches naturally drew plenty of laughter.

However, the further the tournament progressed, the more earnest and brutal the fights became.

Finally.

It was Shi Hao’s turn to take the stage.

His opponent was a hulking, muscular martial artist specializing in brute strength. Yet Shi Hao remained entirely unconcerned, and with an arrogant, pretentious gesture, he beckoned to his opponent with a finger.

The martial artist was enraged and threw everything he had into the assault from the very start.

Unfortunately, the gap in strength between him and Shi Hao was too vast. Within just a few moves, Shi Hao kicked him flat to the ground.

Down below, Shi Zhuli burst into cheers.

Shi Hao looked over at Hua Tingting with a smug sense of triumph, only to find that Hua Tingting was paying no attention to the ring whatsoever and was instead talking to Xue An.

This caused Shi Hao's expression to darken, and in his irritation, he lashed out with another kick.

With a loud crack, the martial artist had several ribs shattered by Shi Hao’s kick.

This vicious display earned Shi Hao furious glares from many in the audience.

Yet Shi Hao cared not in the least. In his subsequent matches, his attacks grew increasingly ruthless, and he quickly sliced his way through the preliminary rounds.

He won the qualification to challenge the experts on the Heaven's Pride List the next day!

Victorious, Shi Hao looked over into the distance with a smug grin, thinking, *Surely you must be shocked by this now, right?*

However, scanning the area, he could not find Hua Tingting and the others anywhere.

All he could see from afar were the retreating backs of Xue An, Hua Tingting, and the rest!

They... they left?

Shi Hao's expression turned intensely dark.

In the provincial capital, wherever he went, he was always the center of attention and treated like a favored son of the heavens.

Yet upon coming here, no matter how he performed, it seemed he could never outshine that man traveling with children.

Just wait until tomorrow!

Tomorrow, I will slaughter my way onto the Heaven's Pride List!

And then I will deal with you!

I will make you kneel before me right in front of those women! Shi Hao thought with bitter resentment.

Meanwhile, atop a rooftop in the distance, a man and a woman were standing and watching the fighting rings below.

"The new contestants this season have quite formidable strength!" the man said with a smile.

The woman’s pretty face was cold and expressionless. After a moment, she replied frigidly, "None of them are a match for me!"

The man sighed. "I really don't get it. A woman like you should be dressing up and looking gorgeous every day; why do you walk around with a stern face all the time?"

The woman glanced at him. "Say another word of nonsense and see if I don't make the Heaven's Pride List one person short right now."

The man shut his mouth.

Indeed.

Both of them were experts ranked on the Heaven's Pride List.

One was the thirty-seventh-ranked "Blood Scorpion" Leng Yun.

The other was the thirty-eighth-ranked "Smiling Sword" Kong San.

Leng Yun cast her gaze toward Shi Hao in the distant ring.

This man used internal martial arts and had achieved a certain level of mastery; he could be considered a formidable rival.

However, he was not enough to be feared.

Yet, Leng Yun felt an inexplicable sense of oddness, as her intuition warned her of a deep, unsettling unease.

It felt as though a pair of eyes were looking down upon all of them from a supreme height.

This intuition made Leng Yun extremely uncomfortable.

Over the years, to hone herself, she had operated as an assassin in places like the Middle East.

An intuition forged in blood and fire had saved her life numerous times, and it could never be wrong.

Then, who on earth could it be?

In particular, that detached and supreme aura caused Leng Yun to feel terror welling up from the deepest depths of her soul.

Even when facing the top three experts of the Heaven's Pride List, she had never felt such fear.

Kong San spoke up at that moment, "That man, leave him to me tomorrow!"

Leng Yun glanced at him, then took a step forward, leaping directly off the edge of the four-story rooftop.

Kong San looked somewhat awkward and leaped down right after her. "Hey! Do you mistrust me that much? I am an expert ranked thirty-eighth, after all!"

"You're still behind me!"

"It's only by a single rank!"

"That still puts you behind me!"

"Can we talk about something else?"

"...Your rank is thirty-eighth!"