(Due to recent internships, updates may be delayed. The daily six thousand word update will resume once my condition improves.)
...
Yan Yu's body, bathed in Chen Changkong's sword intent, displayed several minute cracks. His robes were instantly soaked in blood.
Yet, even so, he did not release the Dao Sword in his hand. With the sword tip pointing to the sky, dark golden sword energy formed a wall, blocking Chen Changkong's advance.
At this moment, time ran out.
Chen Changkong could not cross that wall, and thus could not stand on the high wall of the Jade Pool. Consequently, he was eliminated.
"The battle has concluded."
"First Jade Pool, no conqueror."
"Second Jade Pool, conqueror Xu Mu."
"Third Jade Pool, conqueror Xuanyuan Shennian."
"Fourth Jade Pool, conqueror Nangong Huaitian. All others are eliminated!"
As a thunderous voice boomed from the sky, an aged judge announced the results of this round. In the immortal realm, Chen Changkong, who had arrived late and stood on the first Jade Pool, turned ashen-faced upon hearing this, for he had ultimately been a step too late.
The old monk's words were clear, sentence by sentence: the first Jade Pool had no conqueror.
He, Chen Changkong, bearing the name of the Young Sword Saint and possessing the divine sword Gan Jiang, had failed to even enter the top four of the Ten Thousand Races Assembly.
"I will kill you!"
Chen Changkong's facial muscles twitched violently. He could no longer control the darkness in his eyes. Gripping his sword, he leaped from the Jade Pool, charging towards Yan Yu, whom he had severely wounded on the ground.
On the other side, atop the high wall of the second Jade Pool, Xu Mu, who had been prepared, drew the Demon Bow and fired an arrow towards Chen Changkong's inevitable path.
"—Swish."
"—Dong!"
Chen Changkong, his expression frenzied, unleashed all his sword energy to obliterate the arrow of Dao, then forcibly pushed through the stray Dao energies circulating in space, charging towards Yan Yu. His speed was incredible; in a flash, the distance between them was less than twenty meters.
"This is bad!"
Xu Mu's face changed. His physical body erupted with all its strength, and he charged towards Yan Yu like a cannonball, his face etched with anxiety.
He had anticipated that Chen Changkong, after being eliminated, would attack Yan Yu in a fit of rage, but he hadn't expected him to be so consumed by hatred that he would risk the destruction of his physique and the backlash from the arrow of Dao just to kill Yan Yu.
And this oversight of his might very well cost Yan Yu his life, as the latter was now incapable of resisting, his Dao source depleted and his body riddled with wounds, unable to fight any longer.
As soon as Chen Changkong landed, Yan Yu would surely die.
But in the next second, his rapidly descending body was stopped by a thick, sacred barrier of light.
Then, the light barrier erupted with exceptionally gentle yet scorching rays, bringing Chen Changkong out of the Jade Pool immortal realm.
"Watch your identity. You've been eliminated. If you want to fight, make a challenge later!"
A middle-aged judge, his face stern, spoke to Chen Changkong. He was none other than the patriarch of the Zhongtian Li clan, who had previously clashed with Yan Yu. It was he who had just saved Yan Yu.
As the light dispersed, Chen Changkong lowered the arm shielding his eyes and looked around, discovering thousands upon thousands of eyes gazing at him with amusement or other varied intentions.
This made him deeply uncomfortable.
Chen Changkong's face was grim. He stood rooted to the spot, one hand gripping his sword, lost in thought.
At this moment, the middle-aged Sword Saint from the Chen clan sighed, stepped forward, and spoke calmly, "Changkong, come back."
"Underestimating the enemy and carelessness, your sword heart wavering, these are the fundamental reasons for your elimination. You are penalized to cleanse your sword at the ancestral Sword Pool for three months to reflect properly."
Upon hearing that he was to cleanse his sword at the Sword Pool, a flicker of humiliation flashed across Chen Changkong's face, and he remained rooted to the spot.
Seeing this, the Chen clan's Sword Saint's eyes sharpened, and a towering sword intent spread out, stirring up vast clouds. Countless cultivators from the surrounding hundred races retreated in alarm, bracing themselves, unaware of what was happening.
Targeted by this sword intent, Chen Changkong's face turned deathly pale. He knelt on the cloud, clutching his abdomen, as a sword intent coursed through his body, causing excruciating pain that nearly made him faint.
"Without a heart of repentance, you are penalized to cleanse your sword at the Sword Pool for three years."
The middle-aged Sword Saint said this, using a sword intent to pull Chen Changkong over. The Gan Jiang sword could not escape either; it was directly seized by him.
The sword spirit of the Gan Jiang sword, sensing the Sword Saint's gaze, began to tremble and manifest, nervously exclaiming, "He pursued me first! I did not incite him, please, esteemed Sword Saint, investigate thoroughly!"
The middle-aged Sword Saint stared at the sword spirit for a long time, then threw the Gan Jiang sword onto Chen Changkong. Afterward, he sheathed his sword and departed the clouds, leaving behind one last sentence:
"Good quality. From today onwards, you belong to my son."
The sword spirit of Gan Jiang did not dare to resist, immediately kneeling on the ground and forming a contract with Chen Changkong. The latter, in the process, fell into a coma, clearly tortured by the sword intent.
"Alas," the elder of the Chen clan sighed lightly upon seeing this, stepping forward to carry Chen Changkong onto a flying boat, preparing to lead his group away.
"Ten Thousand Races Assembly, esteemed participants, please continue. We of the Chen clan will not be accompanying you further."
With that, the elder piloted the flying boat, taking all the cultivators of the Chen clan away, flying out of the clouds and disappearing, leaving the stunned crowd behind.
An elder with a withered face gargled, scratching his head in disbelief, and asked the person beside him, "They're... just leaving like that? How will the ranking rewards for the Ten Thousand Races Assembly be calculated?"
The person beside him shook his head and sighed, "The Chen clan is different from other great clans. All cultivators in the clan are sword cultivators, and they possess the ancestral Sword Pool and Sword Tomb. It is likely they do not care for those trivial rewards."
"Furthermore, did you not notice earlier? While the Sword Saint seemed to be punishing Chen Changkong, he was actually helping Chen Changkong clear the residual chaotic sword qi within his body. In the end, the Chen clan's hasty departure might have been due to embarrassment."
The elder couldn't help but shake his head in lament, "Alas, we are all among the hundred races, yet the top ten positions that other great clans fight for centuries to attain are, in the eyes of the Chen clan, a source of shame. It is truly lamentable."
"However, I don't find this strange at all. After all, it's not just Chen Changkong. Previously, major contenders for the supreme positions, Zhou Jie and Zuo Mingqiu, were all eliminated. Now, with Chen Changkong and Yan Yu both eliminated, only three spots remain in the top four."
Another person nodded in agreement and suddenly asked with curiosity, "That's right, three spots remain in the top four. What will happen in the subsequent matches? Will one person have to fight two rounds?"
The elder clicked his tongue and shook his head, refuting, "Fighting two rounds is unlikely. The probability of one person receiving a bye and advancing directly to the finals is greater, I suspect."
"..."
The conversation between the two reached the ears of others in the clouds, and everyone began to wonder how the subsequent match schedule would be arranged, as such a situation had never occurred in previous Ten Thousand Races Assemblies.
The five judges exchanged glances and conferred for a moment. Shortly thereafter, they reached a consensus. The monk from the Western Heavens chanted a Buddhist invocation and, with a smile like that of Maitreya Buddha, declared, "The next round of matches will be determined by random selection. As there are three participants, a head-to-head match is impossible, so one person will receive a bye and advance directly to the finals."
"Now, I shall draw the participants for the next round."
The old monk waved his hand, and golden light coalesced into a turntable in the air. The turntable displayed three names: Xu Mu, Xuanyuan Shennian, and Nangong Huaitian.
"It begins."
With a gentle push of the old monk's fingertip, the turntable began to spin, its pointer sweeping across the names of Xu Mu and the other two. The people of the hundred races held their breath, eager to know who would fight and who would receive a bye.
After all, a bye meant direct advancement to the finals, a significant advantage that would greatly influence the outcome. Therefore, even though all three were top-tier geniuses, none would wish for themselves to fight.
Soon, under the gaze of countless eyes, the pointer of the turntable slowly came to a halt.
In the Jade Pool immortal realm, Xu Mu sighed helplessly upon seeing the result.
"What bad luck," he muttered, his expression one of resignation, for the turntable had selected himself to participate in the next round.
"Next, I will select Xu Mu's opponent."
The old monk said this, then waved away Xu Mu's name, changing the odds to fifty percent. He spun the turntable again.
—Swish.
The turntable's pointer continuously swept across the names of Nangong Huaitian and Xuanyuan Shennian, making everyone incredibly tense. Nangong Mao Guan even subconsciously clenched his fists, not wanting Nangong to face Xu Mu.
There were two reasons for this. The first was, naturally, the hope that Nangong would receive a bye, thus gaining a significant advantage. The second was that Xu Mu's strength was simply too formidable; neither he nor the Xuanyuan clan could guarantee victory.
A few cultivators from the Xuanyuan clan were seated in their designated area, their expressions serious and focused on the turntable in the air.
Evidently, even the Xuanyuan clan, renowned for possessing inheritances from previous supreme beings and dominating Shenzhou Sacred City, did not want Xuanyuan Shennian to face Xu Mu.
This scene was witnessed by Prince Zhou Yuan of the Great Zhou Dynasty, who chuckled lightly and remarked, "Xuanyuan Shennian, who styles herself Empress and claims a royal bloodline more noble than that of my Zhou family, is also starting to fear now."
Beside Zhou Yuan, Yuan Pu, the Grand Tutor of the Great Zhou Dynasty, calmly replied, "With Xu Mu's strength, indeed, no one would have a chance of winning against him, including Zuo Mingqiu."
Zhou Yuan chuckled and inquired, "Does that include me?"
Yuan Pu calmly stated, "Of course, it does not include the Third Prince. If he were to face you, he would undoubtedly lose."
Zhou Yuan smiled and said, "One should not speak too definitively. I estimate that it would be a fifty-fifty chance between him and me, possibly even sixty-forty."
"However, who can truly know before the fight?"
Yuan Pu remained silent.
Zhou Yuan continued to smile, watching the turntable in the space. He was curious to see who would fight whom. He wondered if the remaining two, by unleashing their hidden strengths, could force Xu Mu to reveal his trump cards, thus providing him with a grand spectacle.
As time slowly passed, the turntable in the space slowed down. Finally, as the pointer slowly moved past Xuanyuan Shennian and landed on Nangong Huaitian's name, then continued to move even more slowly, the elders of the Xuanyuan clan, including Xuanyuan Shennian herself in the Jade Pool immortal realm, all breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Nangong Mao Guan's face, however, turned pale. He dared not imagine what Nangong Huaitian would face upon returning to the clan if their young lady lost this match.
In the Jade Pool immortal realm, Nangong Huaitian's eyes flashed with a hint of melancholy as she saw the pointer's movement. But immediately after, Nangong's exquisitely beautiful face bloomed with a smile like that of pear blossoms in the rain.
"I will not go easy on you just because you helped me before. The trump card I prepared for Xuanyuan Shennian will have to be used on you. Be careful."
Xu Mu looked at Nangong, at that beautiful yet slightly haggard face, her white dress swaying like a small flower in the wind. His heart throbbed violently, and he fell into silence.
Seeing this, Nangong also spoke no further, quietly awaiting the judge's announcement of the result of this round.
But at this very moment, a twist occurred.
The turntable's pointer, after pointing at Nangong Huaitian's name, continued to move slowly, as if an unseen force was propelling it forward. It inched its way towards the boundary of Nangong Huaitian's name.
"A turn of events!"
At this, a cultivator exclaimed. The cultivators from various clans, who had thought the outcome was decided, suddenly became tense again.
They gazed at the turntable in the sky, watching it shift and turn bit by bit. The direction of the pointer gradually moved away from Nangong Huaitian's name area. Its speed was so slow that it was almost imperceptible, but it truly had not stopped completely.
Since it had not stopped, the pointer eventually moved past Nangong Huaitian's name.
Those who noticed this, and who admired Nangong Huaitian, breathed a sigh of relief. The elders of the Xuanyuan clan, however, began to grow restless.
But they soon realized the turntable had stopped.
And at this moment, the pointer had just left Nangong Huaitian's name and had not yet touched the area containing the four characters "Xuanyuan Shennian."
It was stuck in the middle.
Nangong was stunned, Xuanyuan was stunned, the world was stunned. Even Xu Mu's jaw nearly dropped to the ground.
Because they knew that the most unlikely scenario had occurred.
This round, Xu Mu's opponent was not Nangong Huaitian, nor Xuanyuan Shennian, nor even himself. It was the air.
How could a person fight the air?
Xu Mu clicked his tongue and shrugged helplessly.
"I was wondering who was lucky enough to get a bye."
"Turns out, it's me."
...