Chapter 219 | An Eye for an Eye

Chapter 219: 219 | An Eye for an Eye

BOOM!

The instant the referee’s hand fell, Zhao Lie did not hold back his strength.

Having watched Lin Tian shatter Lei Zhen’s shield yesterday, Zhao Lie had no intention of standing in place to receive a blow. Flame exploded beneath his leg.

In less than half a heartbeat, his figure blurred in a jagged zig-zag, trailing scorching dark-red afterimages across the floor.

"Scorching Bone Saber—Tendon Sever!"

With a ferocious roar, Zhao Lie dropped low as he closed within five feet of Lin Tian.he swung the heavy Crimson-Marrow Saber in a vicious, upward-slashing arc aimed straight across both of Lin Tian legs.

The blade howled like a starving beast, its hidden demonic blood-grooves flaring with a sinister dark-crimson light that stained the air around its edge.

Up in the Black-Sun Pavilion, Mo Yan leaned halfway over the stone rail, his eyes wide with bloodthirsty anticipation as he watched the fight unfold below.

In the center of Stage One, Lin Tian activated his Insight Eye, carefully observing every movement and change in Zhao Lie’s body.

Zhao Lie’s explosive burst step appeared as slow as walking, each movement clearly visible to Lin Tian.

Just as the screaming edge of the saber came near his legs, Lin Tian took a single, silent half-step forward, avoiding the blade by the narrowest margin.

Primordial Yang-Tyrant Body.

Golden Yang blood roared through his limbs like molten iron. Lin Tian lowered his right hand and drove his bare, golden-lit fist directly into the flat of the Crimson-Marrow Saber—striking the exact welded seam of its core!

KCHHHHHK—CLANG!!

A deafening metallic shriek tore across the arena, louder and sharper than thunder!

Zhao Lie’s triumphant grin froze solid on his face.

He felt as though his heavy saber had not struck a human hand, but a ten-thousand-pound mountain of divine gold! The violent shockwave rebounding from Lin Tian’s bare knuckles tore straight through the saber’s hilt, ripping the skin off both of Zhao Lie’s palms in an instant.

Under the crushing physical tyranny of Lin Tian’s fist and the scorching purity of his Qi, the corrupted blood-iron core inside the weapon could not endure the impact for even half a breath.

SNAP—CRACK!

With a shower of dark-red sparks and jagged metal shards, Crimson-Marrow Saber shattered cleanly in two right before thousands pairs of eyes!

The broken upper half of the heavy blade spun through the air and stabbed deep into the floor ten feet away.

As the blade broke open, Lin Tian’s Insight Eye clearly caught a wisp of thick, black-red blood essence leaking from the exposed inner core of the broken metal. Before it could dissipate into the air, that wisp of demonic blood-qi was pulled straight down through the hairline rune seam of Stage One, vanishing beneath the foundation stones of the colosseum!

So the stages really are drinking blood, Lin Tian thought coldly.

Across from him, Zhao Lie stared at the broken hilt in his bleeding hands, his mind going completely blank with terror.

His strongest burst technique and Elder Mo’s treasured saber had been shattered by a single bare fist!

Cold sweat erupted over Zhao Lie’s back. At this range, without a weapon, he knew he was standing in front of a monster in human skin.

All his murderous arrogance vanished in a blink. Throwing the broken hilt away, Zhao Lie kicked off his front foot to scramble backward toward the white boundary line, sucking in a desperate breath to shout the two words that would force the referee to save him.

"I con—!"

The first syllable had barely come out of his mouth when the figure in front of him vanished into a dark blur.

Abyssal Void-Shadow Empress Art.

Lin Tian moved much faster than Zhao Lie’s explosive step had ever dreamed of reaching. Appearing directly inside Zhao Lie’s retreating guard before his back heel even touched the line, Lin Tian raised his left hand and drove the heel of his palm horizontally into the side of Zhao Lie’s open jaw!

KCHHHK—CRACK!

The exact same sickening sound of shattering bone and flying teeth that had echoed on Stage Two yesterday now rang out ten times louder across Stage One!

The second syllable of "concede" was drowned instantly in a mouthful of crushed teeth and bright red blood.

The calculated force of Lin Tian’s palm strike spun Zhao Lie halfway around—not outward toward the safety of the boundary line, but straight downward, slamming him flat onto his back in the dead center of the ring!

At the edge of Stage One, the Sky-Pillar Sword Sect referee instinctively raised his hand half an inch—then stopped cold.

Zhao Lie was still inside the boundary line, and just like Zhou Kai yesterday, not a single valid word of concession had left his mouth!

Lying dazed on the granite slab, choking on his own blood with his shattered jaw hanging crookedly to the left, Zhao Lie looked up through blurred, terrified eyes as a tall dark shadow fell over him.

Lin Tian looked down at him with golden eyes devoid of any human warmth.

"Weren’t you going to break both of my legs?" Lin Tian asked softly, his voice audible only to the bleeding man at his feet.

Zhao Lie’s pupils shrank to pinpoints. He tried to thrash backward with his foot, tried to wave his trembling left hand toward the referee, producing only a wet, muffled gargle from his ruined throat: "Ugggh—mmph!"

Lin Tian raised his right leg.

Without hurry, and without a shred of mercy, he brought his heel straight down onto Zhao Lie’s right kneecap.

CRAAACK!

The iron-hard knee joint of a Peak Level 9 Foundation martial cultivator pulverized against the granite floor like a dry walnut.

"GAAAAHHH—!"

A muffled, agonizing shriek tore through Zhao Lie’s broken jaw as his body convulsed violently against the stone.

Before the echoes of the first crack could fade across the horrified stands, Lin Tian shifted his weight half a step to the left and stomped down onto Zhao Lie’s left kneecap!

CRAAACK!

Both legs now bent at grotesque, shattered angles, completely ruining every meridian channel below his hips.

Up in the Black-Sun Sect’s pavilion, Elder Mo stood up from his chair so violently that his teacup smashed onto the floor.

"Stop the match! Referee, he is already down—stop the match!" Elder Mo roared, his old voice cracking with fury as his Middle Stage Core Formation aura flared across the balcony.

Immediately, in the Crimson Nimbus pavallion, Elder Liu and Elder Bai stood up together. Two Core Formation pressure locked straight onto Elder Mo from across the arena, while Elder Liu’s cold, clear voice rang out over the entire colosseum:

"Sit down, Elder Mo! Both of his feet are inside the ring, and I haven’t heard him say ’I concede’ yet—or did the Black-Sun Sect forget the rules they taught us yesterday?!"

The surrounding pavilions went dead silent. Not a single person moved to intervene.

Down on Stage One, as Zhao Lie reached up blindly with his right arm to clutch at his ruined legs, Lin Tian’s boot came down one final time—crushing the elbow joint of Zhao Lie’s right saber-arm against the slab with a sharp SNAP before sliding his toe beneath Zhao Lie’s ribs and kicking his limp, twitching body thirty feet across the white boundary line!

Thud—roll!

Zhao Lie tumbled down the western steps and landed in a bloody, unconscious heap directly at the feet of the pale-faced Black-Sun support disciples waiting by the lower tunnel.

Only then did the Stage One referee raise his red flag into the silent air.

"Zhao Lie failed to complete a verbal concession prior to leaving the ring. Winner of Match Two—Lin Tian of the Crimson Nimbus Sect!"

In the Crimson Nimbus pavilion, Fang Yu and Chen Hao roared at the top of their lungs, their faces flushed red with fierce vindication as they slammed the stone rail.

Down on the joint supervision bench, Instructor Qing stared at the tall figure standing alone in the center of Stage One.

For the past twenty-four hours, the image of Zhou Kai screaming on the stretcher while Zhao Lie mocked them had burned like a thorn in her chest. Watching Lin Tian walk into that ring, shatter Zhao Lie’s weapon with his bare fist, exhilarating rush of heat straight through her heart.

Her gaze remained locked onto him with a mixture of martial awe and deep, undeniable attachment.

[Target 5 (Instructor Qing) Obsession Level: 50% → 53% (Thrilled by Host’s Ruthless Payback & Protective Dominance)]

In the center of Stage One, Lin Tian did not walk down the stairs right away.

Instead, in front of thousands breathless spectators, he slowly across the arena floor—wiping a smear of Zhao Lie’s blood off his heel.

Then he turned his head and looked straight up at the Black-Sun Sect’s pavallion, locking his calm golden eyes onto the livid, trembling faces of Elder Mo and Mo Yan.

Without saying a single word, Lin Tian spread both hands slightly at his sides and gave a slow, cold tilt of his head—returning Zhao Lie’s mocking gesture down to the last detail before turning his back on them and walking calmly down the steps.