Silence descended upon the crowd once again.

It was a silence that was as still as death.

The slightest breath became deafening and almost piercing to the ear.

Everything had happened too quickly.

Mr He was dumbstruck. He was still caught in a daze. He had not caught how Liu Qing had pulled off a counterattack in the nick of time, turned the tables on Luo Heng and driven him out of the arena. According to the rules, one was defeated when he or she fell off the arena.

Liu Chuandao was equally stupefied. He shot to his feet and stared unblinkingly at Liu Qing. The solemn look on his face transformed gradually as a smile appeared on his face. He burst out into laughter without any warning.

The disciples in the audience were gaping. They could fit an entire chicken egg in their open mouths. It took them a long while to recover from their shock.

Luo Heng...had been defeated.

He had not gone down in a fight. But he had been driven off the arena. That was more humiliating than being defeated by Liu Qing's attacks.

He had been invincible a moment ago. He had been crowing with triumph.

But now, he had lost.

Luo Heng got to his feet and stared stupidly at Liu Qing, who was still standing in the arena.

He was still replaying the final move that Liu Qing had made.

Had he...lost?

He couldn't believe it. He had lost!

He couldn't accept his defeat. His face flushed instantly.

The scene of Liu Qing unleashing her last move played in his head. The speed at which she had moved had been incredible. Her speed wasn't the only thing that caught his attention. He had a feeling that that move had been designed to defeat him.

This...was simply incredible.

"That move..." Luo Heng thought for a long moment before he finally pulled his mind back to the present. He was still disgruntled, but he was a lot calmer than he had been a moment ago.

He stared at Liu Qing, then murmured. "Who taught you that move?"

Luo Heng didn't believe that Liu Qing was capable of coming up with such a move on her own.

She had been pretending from the start. She had set a trap for him and lured him right into it. She had fought the way that Luo Heng had expected her to fight.

But she had been concealing her true abilities all along.

She had the nerve to conceal the true extent of her capabilities in a fight with him.

"Who taught you that?" Luo Heng repeated his question. Liu Qing kept quiet. She turned and looked at the dazed Mr He.

She couldn't be bothered to tell him.

She had lost all respect for Luo Heng the moment that he had decided to treat her with condescension.

"Liu Qing has won," Mr He took a deep breath before announcing the outcome of the match.

Everything had happened too quickly. The fight had unfolded in an unexpected manner. They didn't know how to respond to what had happened.

Even Mr He was still caught in the final moments of the fight. That final move...

...must have been something that Jiang Ning had taught Liu Qing.

The speedy interchange between defense and offense was something that not even he could have come up with.

The final offensive step, especially,

held potential for an infinite number

of moves. Liu Qing had not mastered the move yet, but Mr He could discern the incredible power that could be unleashed. It had the potential to become a fatal blow.

Unleashed when least expected, it would take one's opponent down. However, you could only use it once against the same opponent.

If you didn't win the fight the first time you unleashed this unexpected move, you would not have another chance to use it again. Your opponent would kill you without mercy!

Liu Qing had won.

This was an outcome that no one had unexpected.

"I didn't expect Third Miss to show such a great improvement, Chief Liu," someone said with a laugh.. "I understand now why Chief Liu has been so confident of her chances all along. She is indeed impressive."

"Thank you." Liu Chuandao did not comment further.

He was equally stunned. In fact, he was dumbstruck.

But when he thought about how this might be connected to Jiang Ning, a man from outside the mountain, suddenly everything could be explained away easily. © 2024.

Liu Chuandao eyed Jiang Ning. He had not reacted to Liu Qing's victory. It was as if nothing special had just happened.

An uproar finally rose in the crowd when Liu Qing walked away from the arena and made her way back to her seat. "That's impossible! Am I seeing things?"

"It's real. This is real. She sent Senior Luo rolling off the arena. That's unbelievable!"