"This is madness," Lin Mei whispered, watching Ke Yin and Chen Wu face each other across the training ground. "Chen Wu has never lost to anyone below the sixth stage."

"Brother Ke Yin will win!" Liu Chen declared, though his fingers were white-knuckled where they gripped Rocky's stone leg. The giant made a low, worried rumble.

"Careful Rocky," Wei Ting called out gently. "Those pillars are quite expensive to replace."

Rocky shifted slightly, accidentally crushing a decorative stone anyway. Liu Chen winced.

Wei Lin turned to his father. "I hope you stop this before it gets too far."

"Getting cold feet about your friend's capabilities?" Wei Guang asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's not like you, little brother."

Wei Ye smiled, his eyes never leaving the two combatants. "Chen Wu understands restraint. Don't worry, your friend will be fine." He glanced at his younger son. "Though I notice you didn't deny your older brother’s comment. Having doubts?"

"It's not that I don't believe in Ke Yin," Wei Lin replied carefully. "But fighting above your cultivation realm isn't an easy task. Chen Wu has broken talents before."

"Nineteen, to be exact," Wei Guang supplied helpfully. "Though most recovered... eventually."

Wei Ting shot her eldest son a sharp look. "That's not helping, dear."

"Someone who cultivates the World Tree Sutra isn't simple," Wei Ye mused, ignoring the exchange. "They're either insane, arrogant, or special." His lips curved slightly. "And your friend doesn't seem to be the first two."

"You think he'll win then?" Wei Lin asked.

Wei Ye laughed. "I said he's special. The boy has potential, but that's all it is right now – potential. It wouldn't surprise me if he does better than Chen Wu's previous opponents, but to actually win?" He shook his head. "No, I don't think he can."

Wei Lin studied Ke Yin's confident demeanor, remembering how his friend never acted without certainty. He turned back to his father. "Want to make it interesting?"

Wei Ye's eyebrows rose. "Oh? Now you believe in your friend?"

"One thousand spirit stones," Wei Lin said firmly, ignoring his father's tone.

"Stop this nonsense, both of you," Wei Ting interjected. "This isn't some common gambling hall."

"It's not gambling, Mother," Wei Lin replied, his eyes serious as he watched Ke Yin. "I know who he is. He's my brother, and I believe in him."

Wei Guang burst out laughing. "He's got you there, Father. You're always saying we should trust our judgment in investments."

Wei Ye chuckled. "Using my own spirit stones to bet against me? And my own teachings too?" He shook his head in amusement. "Fine. One thousand spirit stones."

"Brother Ke Yin better not lose," Liu Chen muttered. "That's enough spirit stones to feed Rocky for a month!"

Rocky made another concerned rumble, his stone eyes fixed on the two combatants.

"Qi manipulation has already begun," Wei Guang observed quietly. "Look at the way the air is distorting around them."

He was right – though neither fighter had physically moved, the spiritual pressure in the training ground was building to suffocating levels.

***

"Master," Azure's voice echoed in my mind as I kept my eyes on Chen Wu, "his current stats are:

Qi Condensation Stage 5

Soul Essence: 750/750

Spiritual Essence: 810/810

Physical Essence: 920/920"

I didn't respond immediately, considering the numbers.

With my Skybound cultivation and rune enhancements, I could reach Stage 5 levels myself, and the gap wasn't insurmountable.

But there was a catch – while the Fundamental Rune let me use the red sun's energy until my miniature sun was drained, I had no such luxury with the blue sun's power. Without an equivalent rune, I could only maintain it for about a minute before it faded.

Which meant if I wanted to avoid the Wei family thinking I was some kind of demonic cultivator, I needed to end this fight within sixty seconds of activating the blue sun's energy.

Doable, but risky.

"What's the plan, Master?"

I smiled slightly. "Chen Wu's an instructor. His martial arts are likely better than mine – might as well get a feel for his level before we go all out."

Without warning, I shot forward. My first strike was a probing jab aimed at his head, testing his defense. Chen Wu deflected it with minimal movement, his hand redirecting my force like water flowing around a stone.

I followed with a combination – three quick strikes aimed at different heights. High, low, middle. Chen Wu blocked each one, his movements efficient. No wasted energy, no flashy techniques. Just solid fundamentals backed by years of experience.

He countered with a straight punch that I barely managed to slip past, the displacement of air telling me how much force had been behind it. I tried to capitalize on the opening, but his defense was like trying to punch through a mountain.

We exchanged a rapid series of blows, our movements becoming faster and more complex. Each impact sent shockwaves through the training ground, the stone tiles beneath our feet cracking under the pressure of our qi-enhanced strikes.

The protective formations along the walls flickered with each clash, struggling to contain the raw energy we were releasing.

I noticed he really did favor his left foot when initiating attacks, just as Wei Lin had said. More importantly, there was that slight overextension on his third strike in combination attacks.

I waited for it, timing my counter perfectly. As his third punch extended just a fraction too far, I slipped inside his guard and landed a clean hit to his ribs. The impact felt like striking solid stone. The ground beneath Chen Wu's feet cratered slightly, spider-web cracks spreading outward from the point of impact.

Chen Wu's eyes widened slightly – probably surprised I'd spotted the weakness so quickly. He adapted immediately, varying his combinations to mask the pattern.

Our exchange continued, becoming more intense with each passing moment. Fists and feet moved in practiced patterns, each of us probing for weaknesses while defending our own. I managed to land a few more solid hits by exploiting his tendencies, but it was like trying to chip away at a boulder with a chisel.

Meanwhile, his counterattacks were becoming more precise. A punch grazed my shoulder, the impact sending jolts of pain through my arm. A kick caught me in the side, and only a hasty application of qi prevented it from cracking ribs.

After what felt like an eternity but was probably only a few minutes, I disengaged, jumping back to create space. Despite the hits I'd taken, I couldn't help but smile.

This was exactly what I'd wanted – practical combat experience against a superior martial artist. The kind of experience you couldn't get from training or reading manuals.

"Round two?" I asked casually, rolling my shoulders.

Chen Wu raised an eyebrow but said nothing, settling back into his stance.

I engaged him again, but this time with a plan.

We traded another series of strikes, but I was waiting for the right moment. There – as he threw a devasting straight punch that probably would have ended the battle right there had it landed, I let the vine I'd been hiding in my sleeve unfurl, wrapping around his extended arm.

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His eyes widened in surprise, and I seized the opportunity.

Channeling qi into my fist, I struck with Phantom Strike, catching him clean in the chest.

The impact sent him skidding backward, a thin line of blood appearing at the corner of his mouth. He wiped it away, actually smiling. "You might not be as strong as me, but you're crafty."

Chen Wu’s expression turned serious as earth-attributed qi began pouring into his body. A brownish aura surrounded him, making him look even more like a mountain given human form.

"Master," Azure reported, "his Physical Essence just reached 1000 – equivalent to the 6th Stage of Qi Condensation."

"Guess we'll have to get serious too," I replied mentally. "Can you find any weaknesses in that earthly aura of his?"

I barely finished the thought before my instincts screamed at me to move. I jumped to my left side just as a massive hand of stone erupted from the ground behind me, its fingers closing on empty air where I'd been standing.

Right – twenty-meter range for his earth control. Need to stay outside that.

Chen Wu clapped his hands together, and the ground in front of him shifted. Stone and earth rose up, forming what looked like a miniature fortress tower about chest-high. As I watched, holes appeared in its surface – like arrow slits in a castle wall.

"Oh, that's not good," I muttered just before earth spears began shooting from the openings.

The first volley was easy enough to dodge, darting between the earth spears as they thudded into the ground behind me. But Chen Wu quickly established a pattern of fire, launching volleys in overlapping arcs that left fewer and fewer safe spaces to move.

When I couldn't dodge, I weaved the vines into dense walls of plant matter. The earth spears struck with thunderous impacts, spraying fragments of shattered vegetation as they tore through the outer layers. But the layered defense held, each vine sacrificing itself to absorb the kinetic force until the spears finally lost momentum and fell to the ground.

Two spears came at me from different angles, but instead of blocking or dodging, I had vines shoot up from the ground, their tips splitting into finger-like tendrils that caught the spears mid-flight.

The impact made the vines strain and bend, their fibers creaking under the stress, but they held firm. With a thought, I redirected their momentum, sending them hurtling back at Chen Wu,

He blocked them easily, his earth-reinforced arms swatting the spears aside with enough force to embed them deep into the ground. But that split second of defense, that brief moment where his attention shifted to the immediate threat, gave me the opening I needed.

A third, thicker vine shot forward, wrapping around the turret's base and began to constrict, creating a grinding sound as it crushed the stone and earth until the entire structure crumbled into rubble.

"I've faced many cultivators at the 4th stage," Chen Wu said approvingly, "but none have caused me this much trouble."

My eyes widened as he suddenly shot forward like a boulder launched from a catapult. This wasn't in Wei Lin's intelligence – Chen Wu was supposed to wait until his opponents were tired before going aggressive.

His fist streaked toward my face with devastating force. At that moment, my eyes flashed brilliant blue, and for just an instant, there might have been a hint of red hidden beneath the overwhelming azure radiance.

The world seemed to slow as I activated Blink Step, vanishing just before the strike could connect. I reappeared at his side as Azure highlighted a slight fluctuation in his earth aura – a weakness.

I only had sixty seconds. It was time to end this.

I activated the Titan's Crest, feeling my Physical Essence spike by a hundred points. The air around my fist began to warp and the ground beneath my feet shattered as I launched forward. Combined with another Phantom Strike, I slammed my fist into the opening in his left side.

The impact released a thunderous boom that sent birds scattering from trees hundreds of meters away. A visible shockwave of qi rippled outward, causing the protective formations to flare brilliant gold as they strained to contain it.

Chen Wu's earthly aura shattered like glass, fragments of golden-brown energy dissolving into the air as his body was launched high into the sky.

But I wasn't done.

I quickly activated the Vine Whip rune on the back of my palm, causing the three vines hidden in my sleeve to shoot forward. The first wrapped around Chen Wu's torso while the other two ensnared his arms, binding them to his sides. His eyes widened in surprise as the vines tightened their grip, thorny protrusions digging into his earth-reinforced skin.

Even as he fell, Chen Wu's body erupted with earth qi, the brown energy swirling around him like a sandstorm as he tried to break free. The vines creaked and strained against the onslaught of power, their fibers beginning to splinter, but they held just long enough. That was all I needed.

"Boom," I whispered.

The explosive seeds I'd hidden in the vines detonated with a thunderous crack. For a heartbeat, there was absolute silence as the initial shockwave sucked all the air away. Then the real explosion hit.

A sphere of pure destructive force erupted from where Chen Wu hung suspended, the competing energies of his earth qi and my wood qi creating violent reactions where they met. His earthly aura cracked like a shattering mirror, golden-brown fragments dissolving into nothing as the blast overwhelmed his already weakened defenses.

The explosion slammed him downward with devastating force. He crashed into the training ground like a meteor, the impact cratering the reinforced stone tiles.

A cloud of dust and debris billowed outward, forcing everyone to shield their eyes. Through the chaos, I could see the protective formations along the walls flaring to life to contain the remnants of the blast.

When the dust began to settle, Chen Wu lay in the center of the crater. His robes were now torn and scorched, revealing angry red burns and dark bruises across his exposed skin. The earth qi that had made him seem immovable was completely gone, leaving him looking surprisingly human as he struggled to push himself up on trembling arms.

I didn't give him the chance to recover. I Blink Stepped to stand before him, looking down at his struggling form.

"It's over," I said quietly. "Give up."

Chen Wu looked up at me with wide eyes, and to my surprise, he shook his head and smiled. "You win." He coughed, spitting out a mouthful of blood, but the smile never left his face.

I extended my hand, helping him to his feet. He swayed slightly but managed to stand, looking at me with newfound respect.

"I don't suppose," he said with a slight grimace, wiping blood from his chin with the back of his hand, "you'd be willing to tell me when exactly you planted those explosive seeds?"

I couldn't help but grin. "Now where would the fun be in that?"

The protective formations around the training ground slowly powered down, signifying the end of the battle.

I had won.