Chapter 543 – Surrender

　　Yin Nian felt that this person was not as weak and small as what he looked on the outside, so he became interested. The two of them fought like this for a while. Yin Nian naturally did not want to lose. He never thought that he would lose to anyone there. Nobody, not even someone from the Divine Clans, was his match.

　　However, Gu Ning had maintained a slight advantage over him ever since the fight started.

　　This made Yin Nian feel uncomfortable.

　　Yin Nian made a hand seal, his ten fingers flying, dazzled. The invisible line pulled out from his fingers trembled, and it also sent the message of attack to the puppet blocking in front of Yin Nian.

　　The puppet’s aura changed dramatically in an instant.

　　It no longer stumbled even when it walked, but it became similar to a real person who didn’t need to be controlled, with facial features appearing on its face, although vague, they still existed.

　　The puppet arts had always been ingenious. Those who didn’t dabble in it wouldn’t even be able to touch the puppets.

　　Yin Nian unexpectedly let the puppet’s left hand, which was originally empty, hold an extra dagger. When Gu Ning was fighting with its right hand, he had the left dagger attack him unpreparedly.

　　Gu Ning’s sleeve was slashed by the dagger, and a little blood sprayed out. A flash of astonishment flashed in his eyes, and he immediately became solemn.

　　Yin Nian took a few steps back, tilted his head, and looked at Gu Ning. He raised his eyebrows and said, “Your name is Gu Ning, right? You can’t beat me, so why don’t we just forget it? There’s a pretty big gap between our abilities. It’s meaningless to fight anymore.”

　　Gu Ning shook his head, did not care about his broken arm, but said faintly, “Again.”

　　Yin Nian was a little helpless and said, “Fine, it seems that you won’t be convinced unless you’re beaten down.”

　　On the stand, Yan Tianhen looked at the two people who had already gone through 18 moves and said, “At most, after 10 moves, Gu Ning will lose.”

　　Gu Ning’s age was almost the same as Yin Nian’s, but his cultivation was far less than Yin Nian’s. After all, he just started to cultivate immortality after he was taken in by the Gu family. Yin Nian was obviously the kind of proud son who possessed cultivation ever since he was in his mother’s womb, not to mention that Yin Nian was the young palace master of Reincarnation Palace, and his master was the god of slaughter, Demonic Spectre Venerable.

　　Yin Nian’s puppet arts was one of the best that Yan Tianhen had ever seen in his life. It wasn’t about how gorgeous the moves were, but the fact that under the control of Yin Nian, the puppet moved almost exactly like a real person, especially the flexibility. Coupled with Yin Nian’s combat experience, the one person and one puppet had seamless coordination.

　　Gu Ning was still young, a little weaker than Yin Nian.

　　In the eighth move, Yin Nian’s puppet completely suppressed Gu Ning’s sword.

　　In the ninth move, the dagger in the puppet’s left hand had slashed towards Gu Ning’s neck.

　　The outcome had been decided.

　　However, at this moment, Gu Ning’s whole body suddenly hardened, and he rushed towards the dagger that was already on his neck. Yin Nian was taken aback, and his pupils suddenly shrank.

　　He didn’t want to kill anyone on this competition stage, but this person came to die by himself. Yin Nian had already used his fastest speed to withdraw the dagger, but it was still too late.

　　With a puff, Gu Ning cut off the puppet’s head with a sword, and there was a penetrating wound on his body — not on the neck, but on the abdomen. As for why the knife didn’t cut his neck, even Yin Nian couldn’t figure it out.

　　Gu Ning vomited blood, but curled his lips and smiled. His appearance had a somewhat startlingly coquettish feeling. “You lose.”

　　Gu Ning covered his abdominal wound and said, “You’ll yield.”

　　Yin Nian’s face changed. He just wanted to swear, but it seemed that he saw something. He was stunned for a moment, then took a deep breath and said, “Damn, fine. I can’t afford to fight with a lunatic like you.”

　　Yin Nian said to the referee, “I admit defeat.”

　　Gu Ning let out a sigh of relief. His body tilted and he almost knelt on the ground.

　　Yan Tianhen frowned and asked, “Was his technique just now the Gu family’s ultimate technique?”

　　Gu Ruyu’s voice was a little cold, and said, “Sacrificing oneself for a cause, he transferred the wound on his neck to his abdomen.”

　　Qi Feiqing yelled and said, “That’s pretty worth it. If his neck had been slashed, it would’ve undoubtedly led to death, but that’s not necessarily the case if his stomach was stabbed.”

　　Gu Ruyu stood up suddenly and said, “You don’t know a thing.”

　　Qi Feiqing, “…”

　　He saw that Gu Ruyu had passed the crowd and forcibly jumped onto the stage.

　　Qi Feifeng asked, “Why did he scold me?

　　Yan Tianhen sighed and said, “If you sacrifice yourself for a cause, the abdominal trauma is ten times as much as the neck injury should have been. He should now have a bowl-large opening in his abdomen.”

　　When Qi Feiqing thought about the scene, he couldn’t help being frightened. He sucked in a cold breath, rubbed his arms, and said, “I’m scared to death.”

　　Gu Ruyu took Gu Ning down from the stage to find a place to heal him. It was probably to teach a lesson to this boy who didn’t treasure his own life. He didn’t let Yan Tianhen and Qi Feiqing follow.

　　So Yan Tianhen continued to sit there and watch the next game.

　　Soon, it was Shen Qinghe, the follower of Yan Chenxiao.

　　Shen Qinghe’s swordsmanship was very elegant, like a shadow, and soon had beaten his opponent to the ground.

　　Qi Feiqing shook his fan and said, “Shen Qinghe’s swordsmanship can be ranked in the top ten among those who competed today.”

　　Yan Tianhen shook his head and said, “You are wrong. His swordsmanship should be the strongest among these people. Even Ruyu is not his opponent.”

　　Qi Feiqing’s fan stopped shaking and said in astonishment, “What did you say?”

　　Yan Tianhen said, “I once saw him fight with one of the Thirteen Temple Guards. Within 50 moves, he didn’t lose.”

　　The Thirteen Temple Guards were the secret guards of East Land’s Xuan sovereign. They were also the sharpest swords in his hand. It was said that any one of the Thirteen Temple Guards was enough to fight against a whole army.

　　Qi Feiqing squeezed the fan tightly and said, “He is King Zhang’s person.”

　　Yan Tianhen said, “It’s not quite right for you to say that. If you look at it carefully, he should be Yan Huanyu’s person.”

　　On this side of the competition platform were all candidates from this year, and those sitting on the other side were all students who had already enrolled in the academy. Yan Tianhen saw Yan Huanyu wearing the robes of North Courtyard’s Dao Division from a distance, expressionlessly watching this competition that would end soon.

　　Yan Huanyu obviously also saw Yan Tianhen.

　　However, he just took a look at Yan Tianhen, and then moved his eyes elsewhere.

　　Eight years ago, Yan Tianhen had seen Yan Huanyu, but Yan Huanyu gave him the feeling that no one entered his gaze.

　　In other words, he looked down upon Yan Tianhen.

　　Although even until now, Yan Tianhen still did not know what part of him Yan Huanyu looked down upon.

　　Of course, Yan Tianhen also didn’t care.

　　Yan Huanyu’s status in the North Courtyard was extraordinary. He was known as the Light of Cold Silence.

　　He had been here for seven years, and in the second year, he had already entered Sword God Hall. He was an inner hall disciple, and his master was the Light Sword Saint, who was one of the Six Saints of Sword God Hall.

　　Among the other five Sword Saints, there were two who went into secluded cultivation all year round, one who went out looking for opportunities all year round, one who was old-fashioned and was currently presiding over the affairs of the Sword God Hall, and one who was missing and whose name was unknown. Everyone only knew that Sword God Hall did indeed have this person’s position, but that was all they knew.

　　Although Huarong Sword Immortal was elected as the Hall Master of Sword God Hall, he was definitely inferior to the other six Sword Saints in terms of strength. However, his position of the Hall Master of Sword God Hall was unilaterally voted for by all the six Sword Saints.

　　No one knew what happened between these Sword Saints and Huarong Sword Immortal.

　　The six saint-level figures actually elected a person one level lower than them to be the Hall Master.

　　However, the election of Hall Master of Sword God Hall had never been related to outsiders, so even if someone doubted it, they absolutely dared not question it. Even if any doubts were raised, Sword God Hall would never listen to these people.

　　All in all, being able to be accepted as a disciple by the Light Sword Saint showed that Yan Huanyu’s talent was extraordinary and transcendent.

　　It was normal for such a genius to look down on Yan Tianhen.

　　Yan Tianhen retracted his thoughts and continued to watch the next assessment.

　　Among the candidates of each generation, there would always be disciples who could cause a sensation and become inner disciples in the next few years. This year was no exception. In addition to Shen Qinghe, there were also several disciples from the aristocratic families who had received considerable attention, including the bird clans of the West Lands.

　　The beauty of the bird clan transcended race. They seemed to be born dancers. Even when fighting, they had the beauty of combining hardness and softness, as if they were dancing.

　　Among them, the most prominent one was the twin brothers and sisters of the crane clan–He Fanjing and He Yiyi.

　　After the competition, Yan Tianhen returned to the dormitory and heard several disciples say, “The beauty of the bird clans is indeed worthy of their name. That figure and appearance are truly unique.”

　　Innate features of their race, I can’t compare, can’t compare.

　　“What’s so good about this? I heard that a few decades ago, when West Phoenix Monarch Feng Jingyu came for the assessment, he was called peerless and magnificent, and he was so dazzling that people would not dare to look directly at him like the sun.”

　　“In this world, there is only one phoenix — the West Phoenix Monarch. He is the head of a hundred bird clans and innately respected as their god. Naturally, I and other mortals cannot compare and can only look up to him.”

　　It was a pity.

　　It was a pity that phoenixes no longer existed in these people’s memories.

　　Yan Tianhen couldn’t help but wonder where Feng Jingyu and Ling Chigu were now.

　　Yan Tianhen was stopped in the street before he left the competition venue.

　　Yan Tianhen took a closer look, and it turned out that it was Yan Chenxiao who had just competed with others today and won a complete victory.

　　Yan Chenxiao was full of provocative expressions, blocking Yan Tianhen’s body, and said, “Coward, have you forgotten the bet with me?”

　　Yan Tianhen said, “Originally, if I entered the Dao Division, I would naturally still have the bet with you, but now this Prince doesn’t plan to continue to cultivate the sword path. Now that I have chosen the Alchemy Division, I naturally don’t have to compete with you anymore.”

　　Yan Chenxiao was very upset, and said, “Could it be that you didn’t dare choose the Dao Division because you are too ashamed to be beaten to death by me?”

　　Alchemy was merely a supplementary path after all. Nobody in the Yan family had chosen the alchemy path for many years.

　　If you want to control the Nine Lands, you still have to rely on a sword.

　　Yan Tianhen smiled indifferently. “Just treat it as though I’m afraid of being killed by you. I’m so scared ah.”

　　When Yan Chenxiao heard this, his face suddenly became dark. “Don’t be so ambiguous. Do you dare or not?”

　　Yan Tianhen was a little speechless. “Why do you have to pester me to death? If I didn’t know any better, I would think you are secretly in love with me. Be honest, do you have a crush on me? You want to have something to do with me?”

　　Yan Chenxiao’s Dao attainments were obviously not enough. It seemed that he had never seen such a shameless and narcissistic person as Yan Tianhen in his life. His whole person became stunned. He stared at the smiling Yan Tianhen in amazement and disbelief.

　　“What kind of daydream are you spewing?” Yan Chenxiao looked like a snake with its tail trampled on. He leaped and said, “You’re full of stinking bullshit, like this Prince will ever take a fancy to you? I might as well get a rope and hang myself on it.”

　　“Xiaoxiao.” A low voice came from behind Yan Chenxiao’s body. The man’s cold face was a little unhappy and said, “I haven’t seen you for several years. That’s how you talk now?”

　　When Yan Chenxiao heard this voice, he froze there on the spot.

　　It’s over, the man behind me is my Dage, the one I fear the most.

　　Yan Chenxiao immediately changed his expression and turned to Yan Huanyu, looking very timid. “Dage, he provoked me first, he was the first to talk nonsense.”