Chapter 193: Surprises

Chapter 193

Back at the Ray Arena...

The thunderous cheering of the crowd continued for a long while before it finally began to quiet down, the deafening chants gradually fading and being replaced by waves of murmurs, excited whispers, heated discussions, and endless speculation as the audience desperately tried to understand exactly what had transpired during the final moments of that match.

What most people in the crowd had witnessed was simple enough... or at least, it appeared simple from their perspective... as they had seen Liyu unleash a thunderous roar filled with terrifying power, followed in the very next instant by his figure practically vanishing rather than simply moving quickly.

And what happened after that was a blinding explosion of red and white light, with the crimson-red light completely engulfing the white light that had erupted from Guan Haoran before.... BOOOOOOM!... a deafening explosion erupted across the entire arena.

The sound had been so loud that it almost seemed capable of shattering the eardrums of everyone present, and that was despite the fact that the arena’s barrier had suppressed the sound and shockwave considerably; if the barrier hadn’t been deployed in time, the resulting sound alone would probably have been enough to leave most of the mundane spectators bleeding from their ears.

The audience still remembered that terrifying moment... the red light, the white light, the overwhelming pressure... and then, when that crimson light finally faded and the battlefield became visible once more, the scene before them had been so unbelievable that many people had struggled to accept what their own eyes were showing them.

Yet there was no mistake, no room for misunderstanding: Liyu had won, and Guan Haoran had lost. That was the undeniable reality.

And now that the battle was over, the audience naturally descended into speculation, with some people arguing about the final exchange while others tried to analyze exactly what kind of attack Liyu had used.

Some were even trying to claim that if Liyu had fought slightly more efficiently throughout the battle, perhaps he wouldn’t have been pushed to such an extreme, and there were a few people who boldly argued that if Liyu hadn’t used certain advantages at the very end, Haoran might have been the one standing.

But Liyu’s supporters weren’t buying any of that, not even remotely, immediately arguing back that the fact Liyu had been beaten down repeatedly by Guan Haoran was something everyone had clearly witnessed.

There had been a point where practically the entire audience had believed that Liyu had already lost... battered, broken, thrown into pillars, his bones shattered repeatedly, his body drenched in blood, and having reached a point where even the system itself had advised him to quit.

And yet... he had still stood back up again, and again, and again, until at the very end he had somehow overturned the entire situation. That single fact was enough to silence many of the people who wanted to dismiss his victory.

The arena became filled with chattering, bantering, and arguing as the excitement surrounding the match had yet to completely disappear, with countless people still attempting to reconstruct the final moments of the battle in their minds.

But there was another group of people who weren’t interested in analyzing the battle at all, because they were interested in their money... more specifically, the people who had bet on Guan Haoran.

Their expressions were miserable; some were sitting there with blank faces, unable to accept what had happened, some were cursing their terrible luck, and a few were straight-up crying.

After all, Guan Haoran had been more than close to actually defeating Liyu, having practically crushed him and reached a point where Liyu seemed completely helpless before him, meaning anyone who watched that battle could understand why so many people had bet on Haoran. And yet, despite all of that... he had still lost at the final moment.

"It’s totally unfair!"

"It’s not fair at all!"

"How could this happen?!"

Some of the bettors cried out in frustration.

Meanwhile, those who had bet on Liyu were grinning from ear to ear, unable to care less about fairness because all they cared about was the fact that their money had multiplied, their winnings would soon be coming, and that was more than enough reason for them to celebrate.

While the crowd remained immersed in their discussions, Liyu himself sat down on the stage, his body finally beginning to relax after everything that had happened, and slowly opened his system panel because there was something he wanted to check: the Berserker state.

That transformation had been far more powerful than he had anticipated, and without it, there was absolutely no doubt in his mind that he would have lost, since Liyu wasn’t even sure what else he could have done against that final version of Guan Haoran who had practically been like the final boss of an action game.... the kind of absurdly difficult final boss that made you question whether the developer had intentionally designed it to be beaten.

If Berserker hadn’t activated, Liyu genuinely didn’t know what his next move would have been, and he might have been forced to admit defeat.

But now that the battle was over, he wanted to know whether activating Berserker had left behind any lingering effects, since the skill had never activated before and had finally triggered under circumstances that were practically impossible to reproduce, leaving no telling whether something had changed because of it. Liyu opened his system tab, and the moment he did... his expression changed.

"Huh?" His eyes widened slightly, because there were far more system notifications waiting for him than he had expected... so many that the entire system panel seemed almost flooded with them, likely because the system had deliberately withheld them during the battle to avoid distracting him or overwhelming his mind while he was fighting such a difficult battle.

Liyu slowly began reading through them, and the moment he saw the first batch, his gaze flashed with shock... real shock. The first system notification read:

Ding!

Your Reflection has slain a Qi Gathering beast... Horned Eagle.

You have gained half of the EXP: 0.5 EXP.

You have gained Essence Points from the kill: 10 Essence Points.

Liyu’s eyebrows lifted slightly as another notification immediately followed:

Ding!

Your Reflection has slain a Qi Refining beast... Three-Spiked Gorilla.

You have gained half of the EXP: 1 EXP.

You have gained Essence Points from the kill: 50 Essence Points.

Another one appeared:

Ding!

Your Reflection has slain a Body Refinement-level beast... Spined Rabbit.

You have gained half of the EXP: 0.02 EXP.

You have gained Essence Points from the kill: 2 Essence Points.

Liyu stared at the notifications for several seconds, and then another appeared, and another, and another, just keeping coming in a practically endless first batch of system notifications about different beasts, different cultivation levels, different kills, different amounts of EXP, and different amounts of Essence Points.

Yet the basic message remained the same: his reflections were killing beasts, and he was receiving a share of the rewards.

Liyu didn’t have the time to read through every single notification, so he quickly began skimming through them, but as he skimmed, his expression gradually became more and more strange because there were simply too many... far too many... making the number of beasts his reflections must have killed staggering.

No, staggering wasn’t even enough to describe it; it was downright ridiculous. The endless stream of notifications continued scrolling past his vision, and although the exact beasts and rewards differed slightly, the general information remained the same: his reflections had killed them, he had received a portion of their EXP, and he had received Essence Points from their deaths as well.

Liyu’s mouth twitched. "This is too much..."

He continued scrolling as the notifications just kept going... hundreds, perhaps thousands, until he couldn’t even be bothered to count anymore.

His reflections had apparently gone completely wild in the Beast Forest, with the original sitting here fighting for his life in the tournament while his reflections had apparently been busy massacring beasts in the forest, and somehow... he was benefiting from both sides.

Liyu continued skimming through the notifications until he finally reached the very end of the seemingly endless list, stopped, and settled his gaze on the final notification:

Total EXP gathered: 750.

Total Essence Points gathered: 150,000 Essence Points.

Liyu’s expression froze, and for several seconds he didn’t move, simply staring at the numbers... 750 EXP and 150,000 Essence Points.

Liyu blinked, his eyes widening in pure disbelief as he stared at the system panel before him. So many Essence Points, so much EXP... what the hell?!

Liyu’s body visibly flinched as he struggled to come to terms with what he was seeing because the numbers were simply too ridiculous, and even after staring at them for several seconds, his mind still refused to completely accept them.

Then, just as he was trying to process everything, another thought suddenly flashed across his mind: Wait... his breathing abruptly caught in his throat. With over 700 EXP... wouldn’t that mean...

Liyu’s body trembled as excitement, shock, and disbelief surged through him all at once, making his heart pound heavily against his chest until he couldn’t hold himself back anymore.

With a rapidly beating heart, Liyu immediately switched over to his own status panel:

Status:

Name: Liyu

Cultivation Realm: Qi Gathering Realm... Stage One

Level: 3

Liyu didn’t even bother reading any further because his gaze had already locked onto that single line: Level: 3. He stared at it, blinked, and stared again. Level: 3. Wait... he had leveled up?

Yeah, he definitely had to have leveled up, after all, because his reflections had just helped him gather more than 700 EXP; and even though he only received a portion of the EXP from their kills, the amount was still more than enough to push him forward.

Liyu’s breathing became slightly quicker as he immediately checked the system messages that had appeared after the seemingly endless notifications, quickly searching through them until he found the message he had been looking for, making his heart race as he read it:

Ding!

Congratulations, Host, for reaching Level 3.

Liyu’s eyes flashed as another notification immediately followed:

Ding!

Restoration Pill has been received.

Liyu’s eyebrows lifted, and then another one came:

Ding!

You have received one free spin on the Primordial Wheel of Destiny.

Liyu’s expression changed slightly, a short line of system words remaining displayed before another notification appeared:

Ding!

Congratulations, Host, for breaking through to Level 3.

You can now create your new clones.

Would you like to begin clone creation?

Yes / No

Liyu stared blankly at the notification for several seconds without moving, and then... his lips slowly curled upward, spreading a grin across his face that looked almost ridiculous... a wild grin that made it seem as though he were a child who had suddenly been handed a ticket granting him access to an endless world filled with every toy imaginable.

That was how overwhelming his happiness was; it wasn’t merely joy, it was boundless. To think that leveling up would come this easily!

Liyu shook his head, a small smile still lingering on his face as he realized that here he had been thinking it would take him quite a while before he could reach Level 3, having only reached Level 2 a few days ago, and now... he was already Level 3.

The truly freakish part of his innate ability... the ridiculous advantage his clones provided him.... was only beginning to reveal itself, and the implications were terrifying. His clones didn’t merely give him additional combat power; they could cultivate, they could fight, they could hunt, and whatever they gained, he could benefit from as well.

The more clones he created, the more ridiculous this advantage would become, and Liyu couldn’t help but feel excited just thinking about it.

His gaze eventually shifted toward the Primordial Wheel of Destiny, where he had gained another free spin, causing his fingers for a brief moment to almost instinctively move toward it before he stopped.

"No." Liyu immediately swiped the panel away, knowing that thing was a two-way freak that could give him something ridiculously powerful or something completely useless, and he wasn’t going to take that risk while he was still in the middle of a tournament.

He could spin it later after the tournament was over, but right now? Nah, not happening; he wasn’t going to gamble with something like that when there was still another battle waiting for him.

The clone creation could wait as well, since he would need to finish the tournament first before he created another clone, especially considering he would be getting four clones this time. Just thinking about it made Liyu’s entire body tingle with anticipation.

Four! He really wanted to begin the clone creation right here and right now to see what kind of absurd, overpowered clones he would obtain this time around... what kind of abilities they would possess, what kind of strange specialties they would have, and what kind of monsters would emerge from his next round of clone creation.

The anticipation alone was enough to make his heart itch, and he really, really wanted to do it.

But Liyu forcibly reined himself in.

His clones and his system were his biggest secrets, and there was absolutely no way he could allow the outside world to learn about them; if people discovered the existence of his system, or if they learned that he could create reflections that could cultivate independently and share their gains with him, then things would become extremely troublesome... no, not merely troublesome, but bad, very bad.

Liyu sighed deeply, knowing he had to restrain his excitement because there would be plenty of time for that later. Once the tournament ended, he could finally create his new clones and see exactly what kind of monsters he would get, but for now, he had to focus.

His gaze shifted once more, this time toward the Restoration Pill he had received from leveling up, making a smile immediately appear on his face as he couldn’t help but feel extremely happy about this particular reward.

The Restoration Pill he had previously possessed was the very thing that had allowed his plan against Guan Haoran to work, because without that Restoration Pill restoring him to full health and subsequently canceling the Berserker state, things would have definitely gotten out of hand.

There was no doubt about it: the moment Berserker had been activated, Liyu had entered an extremely dangerous state, and if he hadn’t had the Restoration Pill ready, he might have genuinely lost control of the situation.

That alone made the Restoration Pill one of the most valuable consumables he currently possessed, and now... he had another one, another ace, another trump card.

Liyu’s smile deepened. "Leveling really is the best thing to do..." His gaze became slightly brighter. "I should reward those three. They did a really good job this time."

The thought of his reflections made Liyu’s lips curl upward, knowing they had truly delivered; without them, he wouldn’t have gained all this EXP, wouldn’t have accumulated this ridiculous amount of Essence Points, and certainly wouldn’t have reached Level 3 so quickly.

Liyu then shifted his attention toward the final reward... perhaps the most important reward in his current situation, the one that could help him greatly with securing victory in the tournament... and landed his gaze on the Essence Points. And when he saw the number displayed there... even Liyu couldn’t help but stare: 150,000 Essence Points.

The number looked almost ridiculous, and Liyu stared at it for several seconds before his lips slowly curled upward, forming a grin across his face. "One hundred and fifty thousand..." His eyes gleamed. "I guess it’s time for me to do some shopping, then."

With that, Liyu opened the Shop tab, his eyes shining with anticipation as he prepared to see exactly what kind of good things he could purchase with his newly acquired fortune, after all... he had just become rich, very, very rich.