Chapter 220 | The Hidden Genius(Bonus - )

Chapter 220: 220 | The Hidden Genius(Bonus Chapter)

As the Black-Sun support disciples scrambled to haul Zhao Lie’s unconscious broken body, an eerie quiet hung over the Heavenly Colosseum.

Up in the Black-Sun Sect’s Terrace, Elder Mo slowly sank back into his seat. Across from him in the Crimson Nimbus Sect Terrace, Elder Liu and Elder Bai rested their seats with calm indifference as if nothing had happened.

When Lin Tian returned, Fang Yu and Chen Hao looked at him with undisguised reverence.

"Both knees and his saber-arm..." Fang Yu muttered under his breath, shaking his head in awe. "Even if Elder Mo pours half of the Black-Sun Sect’s pill treasury down, he’ll never hold a heavy blade again."

Elder Bai glanced briefly at Lin Tian’s clean right hand resting on his knee.

"Zhao Lie’s saber was not ordinary wepon" Elder Bai said quietly, her voice pitched so only Lin Tian and Elder Liu could hear.

Lin Tian turned his head slightly to meet her cool, analytical gaze.

"The outer shell was forged in the Black-Sun furnaces," Lin Tian replied in the same low tone, "but someone welded a core of corrupted blood-iron down the center seam."

Sitting on the other side of Elder Bai, Elder Liu’s dark brows drew together sharply. "corrupted blood-iron? Inside an official tournament weapon?"

"Keep watching," Lin Tian said calmly, looking back toward the arena pit. "If Zhao Lie was carrying one, Mo Yan won’t be clean either."

Down on the four stage, the remaining matches of the Top Thirty-Two and the subsequent Top Sixteen moved forward at a relentless pace through the late morning.

In the eleventh match, Chen Hao the second-ranked senior disciple of the Sky-Pillar Sword Sect.

Remembering Elder Liu’s strict morning order, Chen Hao tested his opponent’s rapid sword Qi for nine exchanges; the instant his defensive barrier cracked on the tenth strike, Chen Hao decisively leaped backward across the white boundary line before the sword tip could reach his shoulder, conceding cleanly without suffering a scratch.

By midday, the field of thirty-two had been whittled down to the final eight.

When the afternoon sun hung high above the nine dragon pillars of Sky-Pillar City, the bronze war-bell tolled once more as the Quarter-Finals began on Stage One and Stage Two.

Lin Tian fought in the very first quarter-final match on Stage One against the leading disciple of the Wind-Ridge Sect, an agile Peak Level 9 Foundation swordsman famous for his illusory wind footwork.

The match lasted less than three breaths.

The moment the Wind-Ridge disciple split into seven wind-afterimages around the ring, Lin Tian’s Insight Eye locked straight onto his real body. Taking a single shadow-step, Lin Tian tapped the side of the cloth-wrapped Profound Void-Yang Blade against the man’s armour—sending him flying out of the ring with the wind knocked cleanly out of his lungs, securing the first spot in tomorrow’s Semi-Finals without spilling a drop of blood.

Hardly had Lin Tian returned to the Crimson Nimbus Terrace when the announcement boomed across the colosseum for the second quarter-final match.

"Stage One, Quarter-Final match Two! Su Ling of Frost-Moon Valley, versus Jian Wuchen of the Sky-Pillar Sword Sect!"

A tremendous wave of noise rolled across the spectators.

Su Ling drifted down onto the eastern side of Stage One, her frost-wrapped longsword held calmly in her left hand.

From the highest central Terrace—the grand Viewing Terrace of the host Sky-Pillar Sword Sect—the 24 year old youth in plain white robes rose to his feet.

Jian Wuchen walked down the long stone staircase step by step, carrying a narrow, ironwood scabbard at his waist.

Yet as his feet touched the floor of Stage One, the noisy chatter across all twelve upper sect pavilions stopped dead.

"Wait... look at the spiritual pressure around his!"

"That isn’t Foundation Establishment!"

In the Crimson Nimbus Terrace, Gao Chen’s pupils contracted sharply. "Core Formation?! How can a Core Formation cultivator step into the junior representative ring?"

"The twelve-sect charter only restricts participants to a bone age under twenty-five," Elder Bai said, her calm eyes narrowing as she observed the white-robed youth below. "Jian Wuchen turns twenty-five this winter. The Sky-Pillar Sword Sect kept him in secluded meditation for the past year—it seems he condensed his Golden Core just before the tournament opened."

On Stage One, facing Su Ling from twenty paces away, Jian Wuchen cupped his fists politely.

"Junior Sister Su," Jian Wuchen said, his voice clear and devoid of arrogance. "Your Extreme Frost Sword is the finest among the Peak Foundation generation. If I hold back my realm, it would be an insult to Frost-Moon Valley."

He placed his right thumb against the guard of his sword and pushed the blade out by a single inch.

SHIIIIING—!

A towering pillar of pure, silver-white Early Core Formation sword pressure erupted into the sky above Stage One!

The floor Jian Wuchen’s feet hummed in resonance as hundreds of invisible threads of sharp sword intent wove together, turning the air across the entire sixty-foot platform heavy and razor-sharp.

Across from him, Su Ling’s pale-blue robes whipped violently against her slender frame.

Instead of retreating in fear, her cold, clear eyes lit up with excitement.

"Then show me the sword of the Core Formation Realm, Senior Brother Jian!"

Clang!

Su Ling drew her frost-wrapped longsword in a single luminous arc.

A tide of Extreme Frost-Yin burst from her Dantian, turning the eastern half of Stage One into a domain of glittering blue ice Crystals. Stepping forward on blooming lotuses of frost, she unleashed seven overlapping waves of freezing sword light—Seven-Moon Glacial Curtain—aiming to freeze the air itself and slow Jian Wuchen’s draw!

Even across a full major realm gap, the sheer purity of her Frost-Yin forced several elders in the upper pavilion to nod in admiration.

On the western side of the stage, Jian Wuchen finally drew his narrow silver sword from its ironwood sheath.

"Sky-Pillar First Sword—Cloud Sever."

A single, blinding line of silver Core Qi swept horizontally across the ring.

CRACK—SHATTER!

One after another, all seven curtains of blue glacial ice split cleanly down the middle and dissolved into sparkling mist under the overwhelming density of Core Formation essence!

Su Ling blocked the residual wave of silver sword wind with her cross-guard, she retreat backward twelve steps across the frosted floor until her heel stopped half a foot inside the boundary line. A faint trace of crimson blood appeared at the corner of her pale lip from the vibration of the clash, and the frost runes along her scabbard dimmed.

Jian Wuchen held his silver blade level in the center of the ring, halting the second surge of his sword intent before it could cross the ten-pace mark.

For two quiet breaths, Su Ling looked at the steady silver sword tip, then calmly slid her frost blade back into its sheath.

"Across the gate of Core Formation, a single sword really is another world," Su Ling said evenly, stepping backward across the white boundary line on her own. "I concede."

Thunderous applause erupted from the host city stands as Jian Wuchen sheathed his sword and bowed respectfully toward her.

Before walking down toward the Frost-Moon Terrace, however, Su Ling paused at the foot of the stairs and looked up toward the Crimson Nimbus terrace.

Her cold eyes met Lin Tian’s calm golden gaze across the open air.

Now that she had experienced the crushing spiritual Qi of Jian Wuchen’s Early Core Formation, a shocking realization struck her mind: the hidden, scorching strength she had sensed inside Lin Tian’s strike yesterday did not feel a single shred lighter than Jian Wuchen’s Golden Core!

Before she could linger on that thought, the announcement of the third quarter-final match on Stage Two:

"Gao Chen of the Crimson Nimbus Sect, versus Mo Yan of the Black-Sun Sect!"

Instantly, the atmosphere in the Crimson Nimbus terrace tightened once more.

"Be careful, Senior Brother Gao!" Fang Yu called out as Gao Chen leaped down onto Stage Two.

On Stage Two, Mo Yan walked into the ring with a dark, murderous glare. The humiliation of being slapped backward on the street by Lin Tian yesterday, followed by watching Zhao Lie get crippled, had driven Mo Yan’s temper to the edge of madness.

Just before the referee’s hand fell, Mo Yan’s back teeth ground down hard on a dark-red pill hidden beneath his tongue—a forbidden Blood-Boiling Pill refined by Elder Mo.

"Begin!"

BOOM!

Mo Yan’s Peak Level 9 Foundation aura spiked violently, turning a thick, murky scarlet that smelled faintly of burnt blood!

Gao Chen reacted with extreme caution, deploying his defensive Crimson Cloud Sword Wheel right at the edge of the boundary line while retreating step by step. For eight exchanges, Gao Chen parried Mo Yan’s furious strikes without allowing himself to be cornered.

Seeing that Gao Chen was already preparing to leap out of bounds on the ninth move just like Fang Yu and Chen Hao had done earlier, Mo Yan’s bloodshot eyes flashed with savage malice.

"You think I’ll let you walk off this stage whole?!"

Mo Yan poured his pill-boosted blood-qi straight into his heavy crimson saber—and through Lin Tian’s Insight Eye from the upper terrace, the exact same hidden core of Corrupted Blood-Iron flared dark-red inside Mo Yan’s weapon!

"Black-Sun Blood Cleave!"

A ten-foot crescent of scorching blood-flame tore straight through Gao Chen’s defensive sword wheel, shattering his longsword in mid-air just as Gao Chen kicked off the edge of the granite slab to jump out of the ring!

SPLASH!

Because Gao Chen was already mid-leap across the boundary line, the saber crescent missed his legs and Dantian—but the razor-sharp tip raked deeply from his left collarbone down across his chest, sending a bright spray of blood across the white boundary stone as Gao Chen crashed onto the outer walkway!

"Senior Brother Gao!" Fang Yu and Chen Hao rushed down the steps at once, while Instructor Qing leaped from the supervision bench, her hand already pressing a blood-sealing talisman against Gao Chen’s bleeding chest before Mo Yan could take another step toward the edge.

On Stage Two, Mo Yan licked a drop of Gao Chen’s blood off the flat of his crimson saber—while another thin thread of dark-red essence quietly seeped from the tip of his blade into the hairline seam of the stage floor.

When the final quarter-final match concluded ten minutes later with a victory for the Iron-Peak Sect’s first-ranked disciple, the black monolith in the center of the colosseum lit up with the pairings for tomorrow’s Semi-Finals:

Semi-Final One: Lin Tian (Crimson Nimbus Sect) vs. Mo Yan (Black-Sun Sect).

Semi-Final Two: Jian Wuchen (Sky-Pillar Sword Sect) vs. Tie Shan (Iron-Peak Sect).

Standing on the bloodstained floor of Stage Two, Mo Yan looked up at the stone pillar, then turned toward the Crimson Nimbus pavilion and pointed the bloodied tip of his saber straight at Lin Tian.