Ye Tian once again sat on the second-highest floor of the coliseum. However, he couldn't bring himself to focus on the matches. Instead, he focused on formulating a plan. One that would be a countermeasure to whatever happens next. Fortunately, he knew the perfect place to find assistance.

Ye Tian rubbed his spatial ring with a headache. He didn't feel so good always relying on help, even though they were friends.

Ji Xuan watched the competition with a pale face. Ye Tian had told her that no one would believe her, yet she still tried to share the information with the other sects. The result was apparent on her face. She received a fierce rebuke for her rash assumptions that could harm diplomatic relations between the sects and City Lord Deng.

Elders of the other sects were also not looking well. The Auskier sect was especially uncomfortable as even Elder Hao—someone Ye Tian had never seen not smile—watched the matches with a dim expression. Whether it was by the news or Elder Kun chastising Ji Xuan, neither must've been comfortable.

Only the Dark Wind elder could still nap comfortably in his chair.

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Lu Ning prepared to fight before his opponent who wore a robe decorated with blooming flowers in the spring. His clothes weren't made up of patterns but rather each flower was handmade with visible effort.

Most of Lu Ning's opponents were these noble scions who had the resources to outmatch commoners. He could finally see why there was a fake and real Soaring Heroes competition. Those scions likely showered in gold and drowned their enemies in gold too.

Lu Ning was a sect disciple with powerful sect abilities and resources. Still, the past opponents were not a joke. Those rich kids threw stacks of spirit stones to receive cultivation techniques that were of higher quality than even the sect's main cultivation art, Rising Phoenix Arts.

When the starting bell rang out, the illusory formation created a forest.

Once they found each other, Lu Ning pointed his sword towards the noble scion.

The first blow would be the finishing blow.

Rainstorm Sword Arts: Hurricane

Hundreds of water droplets formed and spun around the scion who looked around in panic. He was trapped in a single move.

The water droplets rotated around the scion and closed in. Traces of a flood dragon was formed within the rain droplets. A flood dragon had entangled the scion like a python, and it threatened to choke him.

With only seconds left, the scion used all the abilities he had to escape. Colorful lights flashed through the blurry curtain of the hurricane, but nothing worked.

The hurricane finally closed in. Water droplets ripped apart his clothes and left long gashes on his arms.

Outside of the hurricane, blood spurted out every once in a while. Lu Ning looked on with surprise as the scion had survived longer than he expected.

Lu Ning stopped the hurricane to prevent any further injuries. He was speechless when he saw the quicksilver chest plate worn by the scion. The expensive metal was only used on a chest plate piece.

The scion surrendered. Although there were no scratches on the quicksilver chest plate, the flesh on his limbs was left with gashes that formed countless, steep valleys into his body.

Lu Ning heaved a sigh of relief. He wasn't into fatally wounding his enemies.

As he walked off the stage, Lu Ning felt uncomfortable from someone's gaze. He looked around, but the coliseum was full of people cheering at his victory.

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Zhang Qiang watched Lu Ning beat his opponent. It was only natural that the fight would finish so quickly. Lu Ning was the best at everything after all.

After the Flood Dragon Cultivation Technique was given to Lu Ning, his Rainstorm Sword Art was boosted to a higher level. It was rare for cultivation techniques to be complementary towards abilities, but it had happened to Lu Ning.

His luck was immeasurable.

Zhang Qiang lamented his own fate, but he suddenly shuddered as he came across a thought.

'Was it all intentional by Master? If it is, then what about me?'

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He enviously looked at Lu Ning walking off the stage with pride. How was Zhang Qiang lazy? Lu Ning had always thought that, but he had never known the effort that Zhang Qiang had put in to keep up.

Zhang Qiang had always cultivated night and day, sleeping for an hour or two. Then, he would take a walk with Lu Ning who always lectured him on effort. Zhang Qiang smiles were not because he would indulge in fun, but lament towards his own fate.

Whether or not Zhang Qiang's efforts mattered, everything would come soon come into fruition.

Zhang Qiang looked at Lu Ning who was walking off the stage.

'I will surpass you.'

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Ijilner was annoyed. His arena was actually a desert with sand dunes everywhere. Not only was the temperature already causing a layer of sweat to form but he also felt annoyed towards the sand that got into his shoes. Who would fight in a desert with zero inhabitants in a hundred-mile circumference? Couldn't the formation produce a more realistic situation, like a forest or plains?

He looked around for a direction to move in before seeing someone. A woman in phoenix robes stood at the top of a sand dune to Ijilner's right.

He smiled. The two had spawned near each other. Now he could finish the fight quickly, and the sand in his shoes would also disappear.

He moved towards the woman. But he confusedly stopped as he felt that his opponent was angry towards him for some reason. Ijilner looked at her face before coming to a realization, "So you're that girl who was with Rose."

"Correct."

"You two are friends?"

"Correct."

"You want revenge?"

Lu Lan was growing impatient, "Cut the crap. Let's fight."

Ijilner grinned, "Your master must've paid quite the price to arrange this. It would be a shame if you were to lose."

He barely finished before he ducked to avoid Lu Lan's blade. She released one hand and reached out towards Ijilner.

A blinding light flashed before his eyes, and he was engulfed in fire.

Lu Lan tried to back off from her own attack, but Ijilner emerged to chase after Lu Lan. His X-shaped boomerang was already in his hand.

He held the handle in the center and slammed the giant weapon into Lu Lan. Her blade was the obstacle that stopped Ijilner's cold, metal weapon from slicing her.

Lu Lan had already lost her momentum as Ijilner repeatedly hammered his weapon into her. Lu Lan's blade seemed to teleport to defend every spot that Ijilner aimed for. Her eyes watched the boomerang touch her blade.

'97 times, 98 times, 99 times...'

Lu Lan counted in her head.

Ijilner knew his normal attacks weren't working. Just as he tried an ability, his weapon suddenly exploded.

Shards of metal scattered out, and Ijilner blocked his face with his arm. He could feel pricking pain from all over his body.

Once the rain had passed, he confusedly ripped out a piece of metal from his skin. Odd runes were almost completely faded, but he recognized the runes.

After he was defeated by Rose years ago, Ijilner had meticulously studied the Rising Phoenix sect's methods. The runes in front of him were the Rising Phoenix Arts - Rune. It was the same one that Rose had used yesterday, but Lu Lan hadn't moved her hands to use the ability.

Ijilner frowned. He knew the ability well, more than most of the Rising Phoenix disciples. That was definitely Rising Phoenix Arts - Rune.

Lu Lan focused on Ijilner for any tiny detail which could be a hint for Ijilner's next move. The two had separated from fighting after the explosion of metal. She couldn't follow up with another attack since she could not control the target of the inanimate metal.

But her abilities weren't only limited to close range.

Lu Lan threw out a bird made of fire that flew towards Ijilner.

Ijilner noticed and tensed up. He knew Firebird well. As long as he dodged, the bird would miss its target.

'A mere projectile that took on a fancy shape'

Ijilner thought as he walked out of the way. With such distance between the two, Ijilner wondered why Lu Lan would even try such a move.

He soon got his answer as the firebird turned its trajectory towards Ijilner who froze in response. He thought he had completely understood the Rising Phoenix Arts, yet here was something he didn't know.

Ijilner habitually lifted his hands only to realize that his weapon was already gone. He was bare naked in front of this attack.

He turned around and fled. 

The crowd in the coliseum booed towards Ijilner's decision. To them, this was going to be another game of cat and mouse that would last for a very long time until one of the two was exhausted.

Ijilner had never felt this humiliation for such a long time. He was the strongest, yet he was being forced to run in front of tens of thousands of people. There was no choice. He had never learned any defensive abilities. Who needed one when they had a giant boomerang that could be used as a shield?

Lu Lan chased after Ijilner, although she was much slower since she was trying to do two different things at the same time. There were no advanced weapon systems, thus Firebird's homing was manually controlled by Lu Lan. However, Firebird was faster than Ijilner, and it soon caught up to him.

As Ijilner ran over a sand dune, Lu Lan let the Firebird go. Even though she could no longer see Ijilner, Firebird was only a foot or two behind him.

He couldn't dodge at such a range. A mushroom cloud of flames erupted on the other side of the sand dune.

Lu Lan walked to the peak of the sand dune, expecting to see a burning Ijilner trying to put out the fire. However, there was nothing except for a hole that was several yards in diameter.

She looked around.

There were more sand dunes in the distance. They weren't too far from each other.

'Did he activate some life-saving ability to distance himself?'

For a moment, Lu Lan could feel the same dread that Ijilner felt towards the desert environment. She silently cursed at the person who had decided this battle environment before continuing to chase Ijilner.

A hand suddenly erupted from the sand. It grabbed onto Lu Lan's thigh and pulled her down. She sunk halfway into the sand while Ijilner exploded out from below.

Particles of sand flew everywhere and covered Lu Lan's vision. She closed her eyes to prevent the sand from falling in, but her hands were not idle as she stabbed her sword through the curtain of sand.

Shnk!

Lu Lan felt her blade slide into flesh, but she also felt an iron grip latch onto her neck.

Ijilner tightened his grip, "I won."

As the curtain of sand fell, Lu Lan opened her eyes to fight her blade into Ijilner's chest. He had grabbed the sword with his hand and shifted it away from his heart at the last second. With a ruthless decision, Ijilner had decided to trade wound for wound.

The illusory environment faded away, and medics rushed onto the stage.

Lu Lan glared at Ijilner, "You bastard."

"Your resolve to win was weak. Had you taken the chance to launch an attack when my weapon exploded then you would've caught me off guard. Haha, victory was only a few embedded metal shards away."

"As for me, I'm willing to do anything to win," Ijilner chuckled as he was put in a stretcher and carried away.