Chapter 156: Three Consecutive Wins

It was not that Liang Yan was particularly vicious, but rather that he had been harboring a belly full of fire. Yue Chen, completely lacking in situational awareness, had chosen this exact moment to provoke him, so he had only himself to blame for courting disaster.

At that moment, a voice suddenly echoed from outside the arena, "Isn't your Fragrance Sect a bit too overbearing? By acting like this, are you trying to drive him to a dead end?"

Liang Yan turned his head to look and saw that the speaker was also a man in a white robe, though he was somewhat advanced in age, with a few strands of gray hair at his temples.

He vaguely recalled from his memory that this man was also a disciple of the Returning Mountain Sect, but since his cultivation had already reached the ninth layer of Qi Refining, he naturally would not step into the arena to contend for the Spirit-Refining Pill.

Just as Liang Yan was about to reply, another voice chimed in first, preempting him:

"Heh, during the sparring tournament, practitioners of all sects and factions measure their own capabilities. Fists and feet have no eyes; how can anyone guarantee that others won't get hurt?"

The speaker was none other than Nangong Xiaomei, and her words were an implicit dig at Yue Chen for overestimating his own abilities.

"You!"

The white-robed man glared with furious eyes, but under the watchful gaze of the crowd, it was inconvenient for him to throw a tantrum, so he could only swallow this bitter resentment back down.

Liang Yan found the remark immensely gratifying and thought to himself secretly:

"I never expected that Nangong Xiaomei, usually so poised and graceful, has such a sharp tongue when it comes to tearing people down."

With a soft smile, he ignored the surrounding chatter, leaped out of the combat arena, and returned to the crowd to close his eyes and calm his mind.

"In the seventh match, the winner is Hao Chou of the Fragrance Sect!"

"For the next match, contestant number fifteen, Miss Mingyue of the Water Reflection Pavilion, versus..."

The matches below continued as usual. After all, the first round consisted of as many as sixteen bouts, and Liang Yan's upset victory was merely a minor interlude.

After a series of intense exchanges with attacks and counterattacks, the tournament finally determined sixteen victors. Some of these sixteen had won with ease, while others had undergone grueling clashes, leaving their internal spiritual power nearly depleted.

However, the tournament organizers had no intention of allowing anyone a rest, directly announcing the start of the second round.

The second round comprised eight matches, and Liang Yan took the stage fourth.

His opponent was a middle-aged man wearing a bamboo conical hat, who maintained a remarkably courteous demeanor. Cupping his fists toward Liang Yan, he said:

"Fellow Daoist Hao, please draw your sword!"

Liang Yan solemnly returned the courtesy, yet replied aloud, "No need!"

Before the word "need" had even left his lips, Liang Yan flashed forward with the speed of lightning. His right hand blazed with a brilliant golden light as he hurled a punch straight toward the bamboo-hatted man's face.

The man had long since witnessed the might of Liang Yan's attacks, so how dare he allow that punch to connect solidly? He immediately formed hand seals, causing the ground right in front of him to churn violently and instantly raise a solid wall of earth out of thin air.

"Bang!"

Liang Yan's punch pierced directly through the earthen wall, yet behind the debris, the figure of the bamboo-hatted man was nowhere to be seen.

At that very instant, the ground beneath Liang Yan's feet suddenly began to spin rapidly like a whirlpool, dragging both of his legs downward as if attempting to suck him into an endless quagmire.

"Interesting."

Liang Yan did not rush to break free. Instead, he closed his eyes slightly, internal golden light circulating within him, and directly executed the "Dozing Posture" from the Chaotic Arts.

This posture had once been pointed out by Xue Kuang, and its true name was actually "Bodhi Bright Mirror." Once deployed, one's mind became like a mirror, and the ten-directional space transformed into a Buddha's dojo, where nothing was unknown and nothing unperceived.

Yet, from the perspective of onlookers, Liang Yan currently appeared entirely helpless.

"Li Douyuan truly lives up to his reputation as a master of Earth-attribute spells, excelling most at the concepts of 'entanglement' and 'attrition.' His earth-escape techniques are even more unfathomable. I suppose when this Hao Chou runs into him, he won't be able to unleash much of his brute strength and can only consider himself unlucky."

Seeing Liang Yan standing motionless with his eyes closed, the spectators outside assumed he was preparing to admit defeat and resumed their discussions.

"Indeed. Body refiners might have some advantages in the early stages, but the higher the realm, the more profound divine abilities and spells become, making the disadvantages of body refiners all the more glaring."

However, just as the crowd outside chattered noisily, Liang Yan suddenly snapped his eyes open. The golden light within him flashed repeatedly, and he forcefully yanked his right foot right out of the muddy vortex.

Glancing out of the corner of his eye toward a spot on his right, he smiled and said, "Fellow Daoist Li, this is what is known as 'drawing the enemy into the urn'!"

The moment Liang Yan's voice fell, his right foot slammed fiercely onto a patch of empty ground nearby.

Amidst the shattering of earth and stone, a miserable cry echoed from underground.

Following that, a figure was sent flying backward, tumbling through the air before finally crashing heavily to the ground.

It was none other than Li Douyuan, who had vanished earlier, now wearing his bamboo hat, looking listless with a conspicuous footprint stamped across his chest.

With a bitter smile, he cupped his fists toward Liang Yan and said, "Many thanks to Fellow Daoist Hao for showing mercy!"

By this point, everyone present understood that Li Douyuan's movements had long since been seen through by Liang Yan. The reason Liang Yan had endured in silence was simply to wait for him to launch the initiative, perfectly fulfilling his declaration of "drawing the enemy into the urn"!

"Heh, fists and feet have no eyes; I hope Fellow Daoist Li will forgive any offense!" Liang Yan also cupped his fists in return.

He was naturally of the disposition that if someone wronged him by an inch, he would return it by a foot. Yet Li Douyuan harbored no genuine malice toward him, so he had held back a portion of his strength when striking, inflicting nothing more than superficial injuries.

Li Douyuan naturally recognized that Liang Yan had held back. Knowing full well that the gap in their strength was too vast, he could only smile bitterly and concede defeat, stepping down from the stage.

"In the fourth match, Hao Chou of the Fragrance Sect is the victor!"

By now, everyone outside the arena had discarded any lingering contempt toward him. If the first victory could be attributed to luck, resolving two consecutive opponents with such thunderous methods left no doubt about this man's true strength.

Returning to the lower platform, Liang Yan was about to exchange a few words with Nangong Xiaomei, who was about to take the stage, when a sudden surge of alertness made him turn his head to look behind him.

There stood a man clad in tight blue martial attire, his arms crossed over a long saber, glaring at him with an air of absolute arrogance. It was none other than Li Huan of the Blood Saber Gate.

Catching Liang Yan turning around, their gazes locked. Li Huan immediately wore a grim, freezing smile and made a throat-slitting gesture toward Liang Yan.

"Interesting, you want to kill me?" Liang Yan sneered inwardly.

Although the tournament strictly forbade intentionally murdering opponents, combat between cultivators was fraught with peril, and the situation in the arena could shift in the blink of an eye. Even the Foundation Establishment seniors seated on the high platform dared not guarantee they would always be in time to intervene and save a life.

"I never expected this Li Huan to be so narrow-minded, holding grudges over the smallest slights, and actually harboring the intent to kill me! Hmph, since that is the case, on the competition stage, Liang will not show any mercy either!" Liang Yan thought to himself.

While he was deep in thought, the matches in the arena proceeded one after another. The second round consisted of eight bouts, which were concluded before long.

Eight victors had now been decided, and the Foundation Establishment masters such as Chu Shi still showed no intention of resting, immediately announcing the start of the third round.

As luck would have it, Liang Yan's opponent in this third round was an elderly man in his fifties. Having fallen into a bitter struggle during his previous match, he had exhausted an excessive amount of spiritual power and had recovered less than twenty percent of it by this point.

Seeing that his opponent was none other than the "Hao Chou" who routinely kicked people off the stage in just two or three moves, the old man decisively forfeited and conceded defeat.

Thus, on the very first day of the tournament, Liang Yan secured three straight victories and successfully advanced to the final four.