Chapter Ninety-Four: The Fiery Bloodline Arena Contest, Part Three

The girl needed only a single glance to awaken an overwhelming sense of vitality and hope. She appeared to be no more than fourteen or fifteen, with bright, crescent-shaped eyes brimming with innocent laughter. Her lovely cheeks held two sweet dimples, her figure was slight, her skin fair as snow, and her slightly upturned lips were parted by a smile, revealing a mouthful of white teeth like shattered jade.

After she stepped onto the platform, her eyes turned lightly once, and that innocent smile took on three parts cleverness and seven parts mischief. Beaming, she walked over to Mopan and said, “Brother Mopan, I know I’m no match for you, but Grandpa insisted on forcing me to come spar with you. I couldn’t refuse, so I had no choice but to bite the bullet. When you make your move later, please go easy on me.”

“Feidai, I know what you’re capable of better than anyone else. Why keep pretending to be pitiful? Come on, let’s begin.” Mopan gave a wry smile and spoke helplessly, but though his words were casual, his plain face had grown a shade more solemn.

Boom! The moment Mopan’s voice fell, the fairy-like Feidai already had a pair of black hammers in her hands. No one knew how she moved, but before Mopan had even finished speaking, the hammers in her grip had already crashed toward his face.

Those hammers were no light weapons; each one was as large as a small millstone. For a sweet, lovely girl like Feidai to wield them made the sight seem utterly mismatched. Of course, that was only the impression of Jimo, Geng Xiao, and Baize. As for the people of the Blazing Descendants Clan, they were no strangers to the green-clad少女 on the platform. Though she looked like an elf, the truth was nothing of the sort.

The girl was born with monstrous strength and fought with savage ferocity. Among the young men and women of her own rank in the Blazing Descendants Clan, no one knew how many had been beaten bloody by her, crying for their fathers and mothers. When that hammer came crashing down, many in the crowd below unconsciously raised a hand to protect their foreheads, as if the blow had landed on them personally.

Leaving aside the feelings of the others, Mopan himself saw the hammer strike from above and a flash of sharp light burst in his eyes. He stepped back half a pace, then swung both hands and punched upward.

Boom!

A fist met a great iron hammer. The two collided, and Mopan was actually forced back several steps. Feidai’s body merely swayed a little before she immediately rushed at him again.

That fierce? Jimo stared in dumbfounded amazement. Baize and Geng Xiao were likewise stunned. It was mainly because Feidai’s appearance was so deceptive, while her style of combat was so brutally direct. For anyone who had never seen such a fighting style before, the visual impact was extraordinary.

Boom, boom, boom!

The two of them kept crashing into each other on the platform. In an instant they had exchanged dozens of blows. The sturdy stage trembled relentlessly under the force of their collisions. Bang! Another head-on clash. Mopan was driven back several more steps, while Feidai was shaken all the way to the edge of the platform. A thin thread of blood slipped from the corner of her lips.

Feidai drew a few breaths, wiped the blood from her mouth, and looked at Mopan in the distance. Her smile did not fade as she said, “Brother Mopan, I really am not your match. If we keep going, I’m afraid you’ll beat me to death, so I surrender.” With that, before Mopan could react, she turned and leaped down from the platform.

Mopan quietly breathed a sigh of relief. This battle had not been easy for him either.

“What an adorable girl.” Having recovered from his shock, Jimo’s eyes kept following Feidai. That girl’s straightforward nature was very much to her liking.

“The Blazing Descendants Clan really is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. Mopan aside—he’s said to be the greatest genius among the clan’s disciples in the Qi Refinement Realm, so however monstrous he is, I can understand that—but I never expected some random fourteen- or fifteen-year-old girl to be this terrifying too. With her strength, I think she could probably crush the ordinary Foundation Establishment disciples in our world with ease,” Geng Xiao exclaimed.

Geng Xiao was cold and proud by nature, and rarely admitted inferiority to others. Even when facing a genius like Jing Shengrui, he had shown no fear or retreat. But the shock brought by Feidai and Mopan’s battle was truly immense. Their fight had no flashy techniques at all; it was a pure contest of strength against strength. It was precisely this most primitive and direct kind of clash that revealed true power.

“I say, could you have a little spirit?” Baize shot him a glare. “That little girl named Feidai is no ordinary person. Didn’t you see the way the spectators looked at her? She’s obviously a genius as monstrous as Mopan.”

Jimo did not join their bickering. Her mind was still on the battle she had just seen, repeatedly imagining: if she herself faced either of those people on the platform, without using weapons and fighting in that brute, head-on style, would she have any confidence of victory?

After Feidai, no one else especially formidable stepped onto the platform. Of the six challengers that followed, almost all were blasted off the stage by Mopan with a single punch. Whether it was because the gap in their strength was too great, or because Mopan did not wish to casually take lives, or for some other reason, in any case, of the ten matches held on the fifth platform that first day, there was not a single death besides Huawu Shu’s.

“Jimo, that opponent Mopan is far too strong. If you plan to challenge someone, you’d best not choose him.” Back at the inn, after speaking of what they had learned from watching the day’s matches, Baize advised Jimo. Though they had always had great confidence in her, after seeing Mopan’s fighting strength, that confidence had somehow diminished a great deal.

“No. Only by defeating the strongest opponent will my participation in this tournament mean anything!” Jimo’s eyes shone brightly, and all the fighting spirit hidden deep within her was fully stirred. Her hands clenched in excitement, for she had discovered that the young man named Mopan cultivated some unknown technique. Whether in bodily toughness or raw strength, he was no weaker than she was. Having finally encountered a same-rank opponent who could match her blow for blow, how could she possibly give him up?

“Little Jimo, when did we ever know you had such a bloodthirsty streak hidden inside you? That guy named Mopan—if I were to suppress my cultivation to the Foundation Establishment stage, I might not even beat him. Are you certain you want to challenge him?” Baize stared at Jimo, startled and full of suspicion.

“That’s right, him. I know he’s strong, but I also need strong opponents to sharpen myself against.” Jimo replied without so much as blinking.

Seeing Baize’s speechless expression, Jimo’s eyes turned slightly and she added, “Big Brother Bai, don’t worry. Even if I can’t beat him, that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll die. Didn’t you see that he won nine straight today without taking a single life? By contrast, the other platforms had death and injury rates as high as half.”

“He took no lives today for two reasons: first, his strength was a clear cut above his opponents; second, all of his opponents were from the Blazing Descendants Clan and thus his own people. Since he had absolute confidence in victory, there was no need to take more lives. But it will be different when you go up. You represent our Ten Directions Great World. How could he possibly let you off easily?” Baize said anxiously.

“Big Brother Bai, do you have so little faith in me?” Jimo’s expression turned serious as she looked at him.

“I…” Baize was momentarily at a loss for words.

“All right. Didn’t you say that the three of us are destined to make our names known throughout the Three Realms? If we retreat just because a strong opponent appears on the platform, how will we ever become famous in the Three Realms? I support Jimo’s choice.” Geng Xiao gave Baize a cold look and spoke up.

“You?” Baize glared at him angrily, but the words of persuasion he had meant to say could no longer be forced out.

“Big Brother Bai, Big Brother Geng, please trust me. I won’t lose. Though he is already a high-level Qi Refinement cultivator at the eleventh stage, and his body refinement is on the same level as mine, I cultivate all five elements simultaneously and am only at the sixth stage of Qi Refinement. At the very least, I can compare with an ordinary cultivator at the tenth stage. Against him, I’m not at any real disadvantage.” Jimo looked at the two of them and offered reassurance.

The night passed without incident. The next morning, after the three of them ate their fill, they headed toward the arena district. They arrived almost exactly on time. When they reached the platforms, Mopan happened to be leaping up onto the stage. On the first day, he had secured the position of platform lord. For the next month, if no one could knock him down, he would remain the lord of Platform Five for the entire month.

If he could hold the platform for a month, the platform lord would receive extremely generous prizes. Though Mopan came from the Mopan Family, one of the ten great families of the Blazing Descendants Clan, he was equally eager for such rewards. Moreover, despite being one of the ten great families, the Mopan Family was among the lowest-ranked of the ten guest clans. Add to that the constant infighting within the family and the large number of disciples, and after all the resources were divided up, very little remained.

Furthermore, although Mopan was only a collateral branch member of the Jimo family, he carried the title of the greatest genius among Qi Refinement disciples. The resources he received still fell short of those given to ordinary direct-line disciples of the Mopan Family. If he could successfully defend the platform for a month this time, then aside from the generous rewards, he would also become one of the Mopan Family’s most core disciples in training. For all these reasons, Mopan was determined to hold on to the title of Platform Five’s lord.

The second day’s matches proceeded very smoothly. The battles on the other four platforms were brutally intense, while on Platform Five Mopan stood like a solitary, flourishing branch in full bloom. In ten matches, he resolved almost all of them with effortless ease. Among the ten challengers, only three managed to withstand two of his blows; the rest were all blasted off the platform by a single punch. Throughout the process, not a single person died.

Because the tournament lasted a full month, Jimo did not hurry to take the platform. She wanted to see where this Mopan’s limits lay. Unfortunately, aside from Huawu Shu and Feidai on the first day, over the next ten consecutive days there were only five people in total who could force Mopan to use three moves, let alone anyone who could make him fight at full strength.