“You all…” Hui Ling was getting agitated. She already tried to make use of her master’s reputation, yet these people did not even care to show some respect and insisted on snatching the flag from her. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. These people did not know what was good for them – they were as irritating as their sect master whose surname was Shen. “You don’t want to negotiate politely. I want to see exactly how skilful you are.”

　　As she spoke, she waved her hand and a huge red silk appeared in her hands. It was a top-grade immortal weapon. There was rich immortal Qi all around the weapon, and it was littered with remnants of sorcery. With a light flick, the red silk caught on to the edge of Feng Ying’s sword. Hui Ling flicked it away, leaving even the immortal sword in his hands in shambles.

　　“Feng Ying!” Qi Chengyu was shocked. She quickly flew to support him.

　　Hui Ling tutted, her expression full of contempt as she said, “Pfft! You want to fight me with this kind of cultivation level…”

　　Before she could finish speaking, she heard a crack beside her. She turned to look and felt something brush past her. The next moment, there was a loud crash. The ground beneath her feet was splitting apart and huge, deep cracks appeared.

　　Hui Ling quickly retreated several steps. It was only then that she could see clearly. There were eight muscular girls surrounding her. The ground looked like that because one of them punched it. Even the sleeves on the robes Hui Ling was wearing had been torn so that only the top halves remained.

　　Hui Ling’s expression changed. She looked at the people surrounding her in fear. How did they all change in appearance? “You all… What kind of sorcery are you all using?” Even the top-grade robes that her master had given her could not withstand the blow.

　　“If fellow immortal does not hand the flag over, we will send you out of this realm.” The girls did not bother to answer Hui Ling’s question. They started to charge forward.

　　Hui Ling began to panic. She flew into the air to avoid their blows and began to regulate the immortal Qi in her body. The red silk suddenly grew bigger, as if it came alive. It flew toward the girls and around them.

　　“Be careful, that silk has the Thousand Lightning Array!” Feng Ying exclaimed.

　　But it was too late. The eight girls who rushed up to fight Hui Ling was already being hounded by the red silk.

　　Hui Ling laughed mirthlessly. “Pfft! You have all become so ugly, yet you’re still a wreck!” She flicked her wrist once more and a thousand flashes of lightning appeared from the end of the red silk. The lightning bolts charged toward the eight girls. Seeing as they were defenceless, Hui Ling sniggered. “I just wanted to obtain one flag, but you were being unreasonable. I’ll keep the remaining nine flags now, then!”

　　When she finished speaking, the girls’ expressions darkened. Is this woman crazy?

　　“Everyone…” Qi Chengyu sounded anxious. She was going to run forward, but was stopped by one of the disciples.

　　“Junior Sister Qi, you’re not a body cultivator. Don’t come over.”

　　Qi Chengyu stopped herself. Hui Ling was already looking at that disciple in confusion.

　　A first disciple: “Senior Sister, what should we do?”

　　A second: “Senior Sister Hong said before, Sect Master instructed us not to get violent with female cultivators for no good reason!”

　　A third: “Unless we have no choice.”

　　A fourth: “Is this counted as having no choice?”

　　A fifth: “This is a competition. We cannot afford to lose. We need to fight for the sake of our sect’s glory. It’s… counted, right?”

　　A sixth: “Well then…”

　　A seventh: “Let’s move!”

　　An eighth: “Finish her off!”

　　The immortal Qi around the eight disciples suddenly exploded. There were cracks and crashes. They caught the red silk that was trapping them and broke it into pieces, scattering its pieces onto the ground.

　　On the viewing platform, three suspicious gazes were focused on Shen Ying.

　　“You said that!”

　　“Huh? Did… I?”

　　“…”

　　The situation in the crystal had taken a turn for the worse. Hui Ling had initially looked set to win, but now she looked on in disbelief at the useless and broken immortal weapon of hers. How… how could this be? That was a top-grade immortal weapon. Even Golden Immortals could not break it, much less Earth Immortals…

　　Before she could react, she felt a tug on her arm. The disciple closest to her had picked up a piece of the red silk and pulled it. Hui Ling did not release the red silk in time, and she fell forward.

　　A fist was coming straight at her face. It was then that Hui Ling tasted fear. She paled and began to panic and shout.

　　There was a crash, and the defensive weapon around her was activated. The fist stopped just three inches away from her face. She closely avoided this blow, but what looked like a huge spider web appeared around her. They were cracks – signs that the array around her was breaking down.

　　She looked on as the disciple prepared to punch her again. This time, the blow would really hit her. Hui Ling panicked even more. There was no more innocence or contempt in her expression – only pure fear. She shouted and waved her hands frantically, attempting to run away. Any sorcery she knew was forgotten. Anything she did would be useless against that fist headed right for her face.

　　“No… No, please! Help! Save me…”

　　The disciple did not intend to hurt her from the beginning. The disciple changed the direction of her hand and reached for the array flag around Hui Ling’s waist. Suddenly, Hui Ling’s body emitted a bright white beam of light, which became bigger and bigger.

　　The disciple felt a strange force sweeping past her. Her heart fell, and then she was thrown aside. Even the other disciples who were standing behind her fell over when the bright light swept past them. One by one, they vomited blood.

　　“Eh?”

　　Shen Ying, who had been munching on a fruit, suddenly paused and turned toward the crystal.

　　“What’s going on?” Lonemoon was staring blankly at the crystal as well. What exactly was that beam of light?

　　“Could it be… some special sorcery?” Xun Shu guessed. It was not unexpected for the Celestial Emperor’s disciples to carry with them immortal weapons that would protect them from coming to any harm.

　　“…” Lonemoon frowned.

　　Shit! Was it a fair competition if they were allowed to bring so many weapons? It was obvious they were competing with their backgrounds as well. If he had known earlier, he would have distributed more weapons to the disciples.

　　The situation in the crystal once again took an unexpected turn. All of Invincible Sect’s disciples had fallen, and it looked like they were injured as well. It was at that exact moment that the competition ended. All of the disciples that participated were sent out of the mystic realm.

　　“Master…” Yi Qing turned to face Shen Ying.

　　“Yes, I saw it.”

　　“…”

　　——————

　　The competition ended after one afternoon. The top ten from each group was quickly decided. On average, there were one or two immortals from each country who made it to the top ten for the Stygian Immortal and Mystic Immortal groups alike. As for the Earth Immortal and the Golden Immortal groups… things were a bit more complicated.

　　The Golden Immortal group’s name list was not too bad. There were four names on it that belonged to Invincible Sect – that was almost half. That’s right, in the last few minutes, Yu Hong and her group managed to steal one more array flag.

　　Things were much more extreme for the Earth Immortal group. Apart from Hui Ling, everybody else was from Invincible Sect. It was practically a massacre. When the name list came out, the various emperors did not know how to react. The body cultivators belonged to the Invincible Sect. It really was a perverted sect full of sword immortals – even their disciples were so freaky.

　　Lonemoon expressed some disappointment at this result. “Ah, two of our sect members did not make it!”

　　The emperors: “…”

　　They only brought 15 people, of which 13 made it to the finals. What more does he want!

　　(#‵′)凸

　　Not long after the competition ended, the finals began. This was no different from the competitions that took place in the lower realm. In pairs, the immortals prepared for battle.

　　Chen Ge gave some instructions to the immortal official beside him, then kept the crystals in front of him. After a few moments, the stone gates that led to the mystic realms below the viewing platform were removed. In their place, four broad stages appeared. Isolation arrays were set up around each stage.

　　The finals were also conducted in groups. Compared to the initial competition, the finals were much simpler. A maximum of two battles were needed to determine the top three immortals.

　　Lonemoon was betting all on the Earth Immortal group. The more he watched, the darker his expression got. Hui Ling was looking extremely different from the way she did back in the mystic realm, when she was panicking for her life. In the two battles that took place the body cultivator disciples from Invincible Sect lost to her in the final few moments of the battle .

　　Lonemoon had absolute confidence in the disciples from his sect. It was likely that Golden Immortals were not their match, much less Earth Immortals. Yet, it was incredible the way things were panning out. Hui Ling was a mere Earth Immortal. Although it was obvious that she exerted a lot of effort in the beginning of the battle, she would always just manage to turn her defeat into a victory at the final moment to defeat the body cultivator.

　　What’s more, she had won at everything from beginning to end. It felt almost like they were imagining Hui Ling’s poor performance back at the mystic realm.

　　“She’s actually… so capable.” Did she hide her skills on purpose at the start?

　　“Because it was not her there during the battle,” Yi Qing suddenly said.

　　“Huh? What does that mean?”