Chapter 157 - The Battle of The Prodigies
“… from the above, I nominate Kuang Re as my choice for today’s champion!” Xuanyuan Cheng concluded.
The rims of An Lin’s eyes had already turned red as he turned to the side in anguish.
My hundred thousand spirit stones, all down the drain!
Could he blame Big Brother Cheng?
He really did do his best to analyze the situation, An Lin could not find it in himself to blame him.
At this moment, the semi-finals kicked off.
First match: Zhang Yan vs Tang Shiyuan.
Second match: Lu Ren vs Kuang Re.
Tang Shiyuan’s white robe complemented her beautiful features perfectly, making her appear as if she was an angel descending from the heavens. In her slim hand was a cloud sword seemingly constructed from wispy cloud and mist, giving it an insubstantial, dream-like quality.
She was most likely the idol for many of the male disciples of the Ten Thousand Spirits Immortal Sect as her appearance evoked thunderous cheers from countless male disciples in the spectator stands.
In comparison, the burly Zhang Yan was far too mundane.
They were both young prodigies of the Ten Thousand Spirits Immortal Sect, so why was there such a huge disparity between them?
An Lin stroked his chin thoughtfully before quickly reaching an answer.
Even the cultivating world… was actually a world where looks mattered greatly!
If you were to swap Zhang Yan’s face for Xuanyuan Cheng’s, then the cheers he would receive would definitely rival those of Tang Shiyuan.
“Let’s go, Tang Shiyuan!” An Lin joined on the raucous cheers.
Xuanyuan Cheng was slightly startled by An Lin’s loud cry and turned to look at him with a peculiar gaze.
An Lin himself was in complete despair. It seemed like all he could do for Tang Shiyuan now was to cheer her on.
One hundred thousand spirit stones… this was not a small amount. As a matter of fact, it was enough to purchase a low-grade immortal pill. As rich as he was, even he would be quite upset if he was to lose such a large sum for nothing.
The battle between Tang Shiyuan and Zhang Yan finally commenced.
The battle immediately reached a climax after commencing. Tang Shiyuan’s mastery of the White Cloud Sword Technique was extremely intricate, her constantly shape-shifting longsword made it extremely difficult for her opponent to defend against. Zhang Yan’s body was enveloped in bright red flames, giving him the appearance of an ancient demonic deity and also imbuing each of his attacks with overwhelming power.
The clash between the two of them caused extremely powerful shockwaves to ripple throughout the venue. Tang Shiyuan’s cloud sword could only make minute scratches on Zhang Yan’s fists, but each of Zhang Yan’s blows contained immense power with which he knocked Tang Shiyuan back again and again.
An Lin was very anxious and continued to yell words of encouragement.
Xuanyuan Cheng had obviously noticed An Lin’s fascination with Tang Shiyuan. “Do you want me to introduce her to you after the match?”
An Lin was slightly taken aback after hearing him. He then realized that Big Brother Cheng seemed to have misunderstood something. “No need, Da Bai is enough for me.”
Da Bai’s body trembled at his words and it silently moved a few paces away from An Lin.
Xuanyuan Cheng was also staring at An Lin with shock in his eyes as if he was getting to know him for the first time.
An Lin: “…”
That was a joke, for God’s sake!
As they were speaking, the battle between Tang Shiyuan and Zhang Yan was also coming to a conclusion.
“Red Lotus Flame Dog!” Zhang Yan roared as a dozen huge red blazing dogs erupted from his fists, charging towards Tang Shiyuan.
“Exquisite Cloud Dance.” Tang Shiyuan opened her cherry lips and a cloud of mist began to rise from her shape-shifting cloud sword, enveloping herself in a patch of mist too.
Whoosh!
She began to move at extremely high speed!
Boom Boom Boom!
The huge flame dogs leaped toward her, but she managed to dodge all of them with her flexible movement techniques, leaving them to explode violently in her wake.
“The battle is decided.” Xuanyuan Cheng smiled lightly.
A misty figure dodged through all of Zhang Yan’s attacks, before instantly arriving by his side, her white cloud sword slashing a huge wound into his body.
Splash!
A fountain of blood burst forth and Zhang Yan retreated a few steps.
But the white mist flashed again, and Tang Shiyuan rested her longsword on Zhang Yan’s neck.
“Nice technique!” Even An Lin could not help but exclaim in admiration.
The Ten Thousand Spirits Immortal Sect was certainly deserving of its title as one of the four super Immortal Sects; the prodigies of its younger generation had just put up a fantastic performance.
“Winner, Tang Shiyuan!” The elder responsible for refereeing the match announced.
His words instantly brought about an eruption of cheers. An Lin also joined in on the cheers from the crowd; Tang Shiyuan’s victory gave him a little bit of hope!
The second match was Lu Ren vs Kuang Re.
Lu Ren was a graceful young man, with the gentle, refined air of a scholar and handsome looks on par with An Lin’s. Kuang Re, on the other hand, wore a lazy expression, but his eyes glared wide upon seeing Lu Ren as a strong battle intent erupted from his body.
Hence, Lu Ren undoubtedly received the cheers of all the female disciples present. As for Kuang Re… there were still a lot of disciples from the same main peak that cheered him on.
Lu Ren wielded a sword as his weapon. The sword itself seemed to be imbued with the power of Taichi. It was able to materialize the same kind of white Qi barriers Xuanyuan Cheng was able to.
It was only a pity that his Cultivation Base was insufficient and as such, he had not yet attained enlightenment in the Dao of Taichi. Thus, the barriers that he constructed only had limited uses.
In contrast, Kuang Re wielded a saber as his weapon and his attacks were peerlessly powerful.
Each of his saber projections was extremely terrifying and he seemed to build as he attacked, with each attack growing stronger than the next…
Thus, the battle quickly transformed into a one-sided beating where Lu Ren was at a decided disadvantage.
In the end, Lu Ren was slashed a few time before laying on the ground and raising his hands in surrender.
Kuang Re stowed away his saber with a disdainful expression as if he did not even get a chance to warm up from that one-sided battle.
As a result, the venue was once again filled with a raucous commotion and the female disciples, in particular, were especially riled up.
“Ah…! Kuang Re, how could you be so cruel!”
“Sob… poor Big Brother Lu Ren, Kuang Re, you’re a bastard!”
“Humph, so what if Kuang Re won, Lu Ren is still my second male idol!”
“Qing, you’re so kind today, looks like my efforts in pursuing you for all these years weren’t in vain. Am I your first male idol?!”
“No, my first male idol is Xuanyuan Cheng.”
“…” A certain male disciple’s heart shattered into a million pieces.
…
Kuang Re picked at his ears lazily in the face of all the commotion before exiting the stage.
An Lin began to ponder after witnessing the match.
Kuang Re won this match very easily, so he most likely had trump cards that he did not even use. In comparison, the Exquisite Cloud Dance was clearly her finishing technique, but could a trump card like this really beat Kuang Re?
He had to admit, the chances of victory were quite slim. This, combined with Xuanyuan Cheng’s prior analysis made An Lin anxious again.
He could not just wait for fate to take its course; he had to do something!
There was still a bit of time before the match commenced, what could he do during this time…
I got it! An Lin’s eyes lit up.
He turned to Xuanyuan Cheng. “Big Brother Cheng, what’s the prize for winning the Inter-Sect Games?”
Xuanyuan Cheng did not think he had any ulterior motives and answered honestly, “The top sixteen all receive spirit stone prizes while the top four will receive an elementary rank spirit tool awarded by the sect.”
An Lin smiled. “So that means the winner of the Inter-Sect Games will receive an elementary rank spirit tool and some spirit stones as their prize? How many spirit stones will they receive?”
Xuanyuan Cheng: “Amongst the top four, first will receive thirty thousand spirit stones, second will receive twenty thousand, and third and fourth will receive ten thousand each.”
“Haha, if that’s the case then I’m gonna go cheer Kuang Re on a bit!” An Lin waved his hand at Xuanyuan Cheng before departing.
Xuanyuan Cheng stared at An Lin’s receding figure in a bit of a daze. “Student An Lin, you certainly have unique taste…”