The crowd’s gaze swept toward the back of Xiao Ran to the man who was slowly walking up the square platform.
He was here. He was finally here. The man of miracle, Junior Brother Ye Fan, was finally making an appearance!
The problem was that Xiao Ran had defeated two people consecutively with mortal strength. His talent was obvious, and the victory was his. Even if Ye Fan beat him with the strength of the Foundation Establishment, it would not change the finality of these facts.
Perhaps, he just wanted to vent… This was what the crowd thought.
Ye Fan had joined the Outer Sect 10 years ago. He looked average, and his talent was average as well, but he kept frequently giving them the cold shoulder when he was there. However, his leveling speed had become incredibly fast ever since he’d joined the sect. He had ascended to the Qi Refining stage in a year and was the second person after Lin Yunzi to do that in the Outer Sect in the last 1,000 years.
He had entered the Inner Sect right after that and ascended to the Foundation Establishment in three years. It was said that he was now preparing for the Core Formation.
For 10 years, there had been a lot of myths about him on Zongzhi Mountain. Some people called him a man of destiny, others said that he had an otherworldly gem and that he was a human miracle-maker—that was the line that had spread the most.
“My Junior Brother, Ye Fan, has the Emperor’s Caliber!”
In order to protect a rare young genius, Bo Yunzi had taken special care of him, promising him that he would take him in as a unique disciple if he could form a core. Nonetheless, Ye Fan seemed to prefer Lingzhou Yue, who had defeated Bo Yunzi, and had used this opportunity to recommend himself to Lingzhou Yue when the Cultivation Alliance had enforced the new rules and then…
There was no continuation.
After the incident, Bo Yunzi seemed to have also shut his mouth about taking Ye Fan in as his disciple.
One could imagine how much Ye Fan resented Xiao Ran.
Even though Xiao Ran’s talent deemed him worthy as a Direct Disciple, Ye Fan insisted on a challenge!
The crowd thought that this was sound. Junior Uncle Xiao was prodigious but was dominating and surrounded by beauties. It would be nice for Ye Fan to blunt some of his edges and shine.
It would be a good show!
The spectators held their breaths in concentration. It was as if their heartbeat could be heard thumping in the billowing wind.
On the platform, Xiao Ran turned around to glance at the young man walking over from behind the sword plate.
He was not tall and he looked generally like a passerby. There was, however, a sense of resilient determination in his eyes. In combination with his fluttering clothes, there was quite a grace to him if one scrutinized him.
‘Is this the Emperor’s Caliber of the idol of my past life, Ye Fan?’
‘I hope they only share the same name.’
Xiao Ran thought that the man was not handsome, but it was not like he was ugly. His master’s excuse for rejecting him had been too harsh. It made him rather compassionate toward Ye Fan, not that this was a good sign before their battle.
In terms of battling, Xiao Ran would be fighting against the Foundation Establishment with the strength of a mere mortal. Even with the Heaven-Tier Art of Resonance, it would be impossible to win.
Nonetheless, he was not going to use his DP until the very last minute.
This was not meant to flaunt how good he was, nor did he want to take down his opponent with deception. It was all because DP could buy him healing kits, and he could save himself with that in a life-and-death emergency!
His master was not around. What if he met a Wraith? Especially ever since he had come to the Sword Plain, there had been a nagging sense of foreboding sitting deep inside him…
Whether it was a Wraith or Ye Fan, no matter how strong his enemy was, Xiao Ran could get a healing kit on the brink of death and get things over and done with as long as he had sufficient DP.
Entering the Qi Refining stage in advance could only take Ye Fan down at most. If he met a Wraith, he would not have any more DP left to buy a healing kit.
It was fine. He would take on a Foundation Establishment cultivator with the force of a mortal first and check out the limit of the resonance force.
The strong morning wind grated the sharp edges of the sword plate, producing either shrill or ricocheting howls.
On the opposite side of the sword plate, Ye Fan’s dark-colored clothes fluttered as he stood tall and straight, staring directly at Xiao Ran’s handsome face. He had mixed feelings, but all the words that came to his lips melted into a cupped fist and a low rumble as he said, “No offense, Junior Uncle Xiao.”
Upon saying that, he suddenly lowered himself into a single-leg kneeling position on the ground and clapped a palm over the marble surface.
“Rolling Stone Imprint.”
A round of blue magic stamps expanded instantly, driving the spiritual patterns in the gaps between the rocks and flinging said rocks on the platform above.
Like an encircling wave, it surged toward Xiao Ran.
Taking in the situation, Xiao Ran realized that the spiritual frequency of each piece of marble board was different. It would be too time-consuming to use the force of resonance and it would only hinder his battle timing…
It was apparent that Ye Fan had studied his tactic carefully during the two earlier battles and had picked out a suitable way to respond.
That guy was a genius.
In the blink of an eye, four stone walls were erected tall and came for Xiao Ran like a tide.
Stomping on the ground, he sprang into the air and sped up with each step steadily. Too bad he was still too slow. The walls were merging and closing in.
Usually, an ambush would be certain, for four walls were closing in and leaving a gap in the center.
However, as Xiao Ran listened to the world, he could vaguely make out a strange spiritual energy undulation outside the walls, as though something was being cooked up. If he barged through the wall, it was possible that he would be struck by a more dangerous ambush.
Choosing to take the lower risk, Xiao Ran stepped up and shot for the sky like a rocket!
“He didn’t get tricked?” Ye Fan pursed his lips.
It seemed that Junior Uncle Xiao was much sharper than he had imagined. It seemed almost like he had predicted this.
Ye Fan waited for his prey in the air anyway, manipulating eight flying swords and dropping them to stop Xiao Ran’s route in the sky.
“Rainy Sword Array!”
Xiao Ran grabbed his sword and charged against the metal, going face to face with the sword array as he insisted on not breaking through the walls.
Bracing himself against the spiritual pressure of the Foundation Establishment, he swung his sword against the sword array akin to a splash of rain.
Although he had a single sword, he wielded and waved it in random directions. It caused shrill howling air turbulence that constantly resonated with the violent morning wind, creating small tornadoes one after another.
Although the force was distinctly weaker compared to the sword array of the Foundation Establishment, it was sufficient to slightly offset the Rainy Sword Array…
A momentary deviation was all it needed to carve a way for Xiao Ran.
Treading into the sky, Xiao Ran broke out of the encircling walls and escaped.
Theoretically, what he had done was flawless, but the disparity between him and his enemy was too wide. A powerful punch from Ye Fan welcomed him in the sky.
“Netherking Punch!”
Dark fog swirled around his fist, bellowing like berserk dragons.
Roar!
In the air, Luosheng’s squinted eyes froze, and the smile was wiped from his face. He wanted to stop the battle, but it was already too late. Luosheng had not expected the Foundation Establishment Ye Fan to be so strong.
He wanted to deal a severe blow to Xiao Ran!
Unfazed, Xiao Ran raised his sword to parry the force of the punch. As the two attacks collided, a powerful reverberation was caused.
Bang!
His sword thrumming with resonance, Xiao Ran deflected the force of the punch parallelly, driving it to spread around in waves and crushing the rock walls around him.
Xiao Ran, who had only withstood one-thousandth of the punching power, kept his body straight as he landed directly and securely on the ground.
The punch that was supposed to injure Xiao Ran severely ended up shattering the surrounding stone walls.
The instant they crumbled, nine enormous shadows of greenish-black dragons slowly took form, flew in a spiral, and converged into a black tower.
“Chaotic Nine-Dragon Tower!”
Feeling his vision blacking out, Xiao Ran was thoroughly engulfed by the black tower.
He had reached his limit…
Ye Fan heaved in the air. Never in his wildest dream had he expected to use his ultimate magic spell to tackle someone who was not even in the Qi Refining stage.
Even so, he did not manage to injure an inch of the man’s body.
Only when he depended on a compact strategy that worked closely with this spell was he able to trap the man with the Chaotic Nine-Dragon Tower.
What in the world was Xiao Ran’s background?
Luosheng, who was in the hovering stone seat, had initially wanted to seize Ye Fan for making his advance too overpowering. However, when he saw that Xiao Ran was not the slightest bit injured despite his opponent’s intimidating cultivation method and complete strategy, he instead became the first to clap to encourage the genius.
“Marvelous. This is the divinely-gifted genius Bo Yunzi set eyes on indeed.”
The crowd was silent from shock. They all knew that Junior Uncle Xiao was the one who worked wonders.
Luosheng got up respectfully and cupped his fists before Xiao Ran.
“Junior Brother Xiao… You’ve opened my eyes to a new world.”
As soon as his words rolled off the tip of his tongue, he frowned all of a sudden.
“This…”
Obviously, his eyes were not yet open to the actual new world…
“Huh?”
Ye Fan was astonished as well, similarly noticing the oddity.
Ten breaths earlier, in the ink-dark Chaotic Nine-Dragon Tower, Xiao Ran’s vision had blacked out. However, it seemed like he could see the starry sky—of course, that could be the system interface as well.
Upon glancing around and not seeing any trace of a Wraith, he decisively bought the leveling kit.
“Qi Refining Cultivation Base Upgrade Kit: Costs 100 DP. Do you want to purchase it?”
‘Yes.’
“Congratulations, you’ve ascended to the Qi Refining stage!”
Before Xiao Ran could transcend in body and mind, there was another notification sound.
“Ding! You have obtained the Heaven-Tier Myriad Resonance Mental Cultivation Method. It matches the cultivation base, so you’re automatically upgraded to the Prime Qi Refining Great Perfection!”
What a delightful surprise!
This exceeded the Qi Refining stage. Xiao Ran felt like he was ascending into immortality.
…
Several kilometers under the central mountain, where the cave of the Sect Leader was, Qian Junzi, who was in resting cultivation in the spot where hundreds of thousands of spiritual veins gathered, opened his eyes abruptly.
The Emperor’s Caliber!