The last battle once again demonstrated the viciousness of Areth who took pleasure in the pain he induced in others. Although Yasha could not hold himself back in the end and although he stormed the stage, he faced no further consequences. There was clearly someone in the dark that helped him out of this situation, just like the first situation — even though Yasha had no idea of that, nor would he care.

Right now, he felt like exploding, the rage that had been quelled by Eleanor was once again burning brightly and stronger than before, making it difficult for him calm down. He had the urge to vent this pent up rage, otherwise this rage would overthrow his reasoning completely and once for all. This was not an outcome he wanted.

Unbeknownst to him, Yasha suddenly saw Arslan standing before him, a bitter smile containing myriads of emotions on his face. It was a mixture of bitterness, apology, rage and helplessness. Seeing Arslan like that, Yasha suppressed the fire inside of him and wanted to console him, but Arslan was already close to Eleanor, carefully operating of what seemed like a healing art.

From his palm, gentle waves of scarlet light periodically spread out. Contrary to his fierce nature while he faced off against Aurelia, this was the complete opposite, something Yasha had not expected to see from Arslan.

Being close to Arslan and Aurelia, Yasha noticed that the scarlet light did not possess the slightest bit of ill intent, it was extremely warm and gentle, carefully wrapping itself around the body.

While the light got stronger with each passing second, Eleanor’s pain gradually fading away. The countless wounds on her body slowly closed and the blood finally stopped flowing. After a few minutes a touch of rosiness returned to her face.

Yasha had no idea what kind of magical art Arslan had utilized just now, but one thing was sure, he had never seen wounds like that healed that fast.

While all of that happened, the judge also recovered from his stupor and cleared his throat, trying to regain his authority, “Ähm, now that everything is cleared up, I call upon all others to leave the stage, as we still have an ongoing tournament at hand.”

Towards the end, the judge had to keep himself from cursing. Why the f*** is there always someone disregarding the rules and jumping on stage like a headless chicken?! And why does it have to be me that has to bear all that bullshit? I thought it would be an honor to host this year’s tournament, but seeing all those old monsters and even youngsters completely disregard me, is extremely grating to the eye.

“For the next battle, I call upon Jiule and Yasha to enter the stage, well, ahem, Yasha can remain on stage, I suppose.”

Not lingering around, Arslan embraced Eleanor and picked her her up from the ground. He then looked at Yasha with gratitude once again and shot off the stage, while Areth continued to have that same old smile on his face, completely unconcerned by everything and strode off the stage.

Carefully looking at his every step, Yasha shot Areth one last glance, one that contained all of his rage and disgust, at Areth, swearing to make him pay the price. This kind of undisguised contempt was unusual and not something the ‘old’ Yasha would have shown. But then again, he already could not be called the same as before…

While he swore this oath, the Asura blood grew agitated once again, seemingly delighted at Yasha’s negative emotions. It seemed to feast on that innermost rage, something the Asura blood knew all too well. The chaotic and bloodthirsty aura on Yasha manifested itself again, although not reaching the same heights it had during his fight against Alice.

All of that happened without Yasha noticing anything. He was completely oblivious to the various changes that were happening to the Asura blood and the influence it had on his body. He only wanted to shred Areth to pieces and make him pay the price for hurting Eleanor that much without a reason.

Meanwhile, Jiule had entered the stage and looked solemnly at Yasha. The moment he stepped on the stage, he could feel an undisguised intent to murder absolute everything and everyone, a kind of rage he had never seen in his life before — not even during all his time on the battlefield. For some reason, he had the notion that it was not directed at himself, which made him breathe a sigh of relief.

He knew that Yasha was weird, as he had already seen him explode once while he nearly killed Alice. In that moment that seemingly harmless guy suddenly looked like he was possessed by the reaper himself, cold and detached from the world, ready to destroy it without batting an eye.

Though covered by hood, Jiule had the impression that he was being eyed by an apex predator, its scarlet eyes directed at the prey in front of him.

Even though Jiule was surprised, he quickly got a hold of himself again and returned to his aloof self, the one that was steeled on the battlefield.

You can continue to act all mighty and mysterious, but in the end you will still fall in front of my blades!

Jiule strongly believed in himself and his path towards the peak of the world. His thoughts reflected his strong conviction to grow stronger and reach the apex! He could be called a frog a the bottom of the well, as he was only in the Energy Tempering Stage and had not seen the world, but such a resolve was the foundation every strong cultivator had to possess, if they wanted to reach greater heights.

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Yasha on the other hand still thought about how he would destroy Areth, completely unfamiliar with the kind of person he currently was. Right now, he was in weird state between consciousness and unconsciousness, a state between sanity and insanity.

The Asura blood was active and was powering up his spiritual energy and power, while also negatively influencing his emotions, but at the same, Yasha felt like he was in control. This time, it seemed like the Asura blood willingly lend its powers to Yasha, not forcefully shoving it into Yasha. It also looked like Yasha wanted to use the power the Asura blood gave him, another reason the side effects were not as severe as the last times and also a reason why he was barely holding onto that last strand of consciousness.

Seeing how Yasha already looked like he was on the cusp of murdering someone, the judge did not hesitate any longer and announced the start of the battle, while hoping that Yasha would keep a grip on himself.

After receiving the signal, Yasha immediately sprinted forward, gathering his energy and momentum while he moved ahead. The Asura blood in his veins burning fiercely, excitedly bringing forth the abnormal strength with no regard to potential self inflicting wounds.

Coated in a combination of scarlet and black, Yasha nearly vanished from sight. What was like an insurmountable mountain in training before the kingdom’s tournament, went off without a hitch now: the first technique of the Way of the Asura, Asura’s Shadow Assault. Yasha did not want to use it actively, it was more like a instinct, powered by the urge to end this battle quickly and to vent his pent up emotions.

Completely flabbergasted by the sudden explosion of strength that already seemed to surpass the limits of the Energy Tempering Stage, Jiule only able to respond once an enormous sword was already directly in front of him, ready to sever his head.

Quickly springing into action, while his rich battle experience and survival instinct kicked in, barely able to parry the incoming attack with the first style of the Demon Condemning Sword-Style, Impaler. Thrusting his swords forward to meet the sword head-on, Jiule felt his arms go numb from the impact of the clashing weapons.

What strength! How is he able to swing around that sword like it weights nothing?!

Genuinely unable to grasp how a human that did not specialize in body cultivation was able to wave around that sword, Jiule had no time think about this.

Yasha continued his relentless assault, constantly using Asura’s Shadow Assault to reposition and strike with even more force than before. In his current state, he did not bother to use other techniques other than the inheritance technique of the Asura Clan the raw power of his blood.

In a matter of seconds, Yasha and Jiule exchanged countless moves, while moving so quickly that only the clashing of their swords could be heard. The longer the fight went on, the more exhilarated Yasha felt. At the start, he only wanted to end the fight to end quickly, but now, he grew accustomed to the power coursing through his veins, while he disregarded the wounds it inflicted on him.

The coat around Yasha’s grew more intense and the scarlet light emitted from his eyes also grew more intense with each passing second, while the power output from the Asura blood also continued to increase. It seemed to answer to Yasha’s call for power and thrill for battle.

The increased pressure made it hard for Jiule to properly channel his techniques and adjust his battle style, which was normally fort in fights against his peers. The longer he fought, the more shocked he got. He realized that he was not only overpowered by the absurd strength of Yasha’s spiritual energy that appeared to not originate out of this world, he was also overpowered by Yasha when it came to battle tactics. The way Yasha moved around and initiated attacks that always hit the weakest points of his techniques and attacks was the real scary part of the fight. Jiule felt like he was completely seen through by Yasha.

But at the same time, Jiule also grew more excited, clearly a lunatic himself. This battle allowed him to see many weaknesses in his attacks and techniques — even in techniques he thought he had already perfected. He felt like sparring against a martial arts master, someone who gained true invincibility on the battlefield.

Although he wished for this to continue for an eternity, Jiule quickly reached his limits. Although he used everything at his disposal and the full arsenal of the Demon Condemning Sword-Style that he had mastered, he was completely destroyed by Yasha and countless wounds already soaked his robes in blood-red. In the end he no choice other than to surrender, as he did not want to accidentally die. He had seen what Yasha had done to Alice.

“I… I give up!” Gasping for air, and completely spend, Jiule directly collapsed. Before he collapsed, he saw Destiny Devourer a few millimeters away from his face. Had he been a bit slower, he would be dead without a doubt. Swallowing that last shock moment, a satisfactory grin was slowly unfolding on his face.

This was wonderful. I think that was the best fight . While those thoughts went through his mind, he looked at Yasha with fervor burning in his eyes. If he could, we go for another round immediately, but alas, he was unable to move even a centimeter. Instead, he coughed out blood countless times, the blood running down the corners of his mouths.

Watching this fight, the crowd was completely stupefied. From beginning to end, the fight only took around three minutes. Never had anyone predicted that Jiule would be completely dominated in any fight in this year’s tournament, and even less that he was completely obliterated by Yasha, a completely unknown figure.

After beating Jiule, Yasha finally regained more of his senses and immediately regretted his actions. From the surface he looked completely fine, but if one looked closely inside of his body, they would be completely startled. Just like always when the Asura blood ran rampant, countless thin cracks appeared on his veins and meridians.

Now, that he snapped out of his berserk state, he could already feel his wounds heal, but it was not enough for a full recovery for the next battle, as the self-inflicted injuries were too severe. Someone else in his shoes would be bedridden for at least a month, but Yasha was still standing and recovering at an absurd speed, one of the few perks of the Asura blood that came without any side effects — at least Yasha could not feel any side effects for now.

Also completely stupefied, the judge did not know what to say anymore. Numb to all the surprises, he announced, “Yasha emerges victorious, while Jiule is eliminated!”

“I will now randomly distribute sticks again! Two sticks are engraved with a one, while one is blank. The one who receives the blank stick receives a pass and directly advances to the final round!”

While speaking, the judge already waved his sleeves one last time to send the sticks flying and sent one each to Levi, Areth and Yasha, the last ones remaining.