Ye Tehzu let out a powerful technique from the get go.

As soon as he was within fighting range, Cold Smoke mist darts shot out towards the two girls. Wrapped around each incapacitating snake was a light purple bolt of condensed lightning.

Hearing the technique being unleashed, Xing Jing turned around rapidly.

For the event that was the Cross Branch Arena, she naturally had prepared against Cold Smoke. It was the most basic attack from the Cloud Arts taught at the Cloud-Formation Pavilion after all.

But Ye Tehzu's version was much different from what she had prepared against.

The bizarre electrified attacks shot straight at her. She wanted to evade but the pain in her thigh from Mei Yunei's Piercing Heavens forbade any swift movement like before.

Despite her injury, Xing Jing managed to avoid most of the snakes but three of them.

She fell to the ground, tethering on the verge of unconsciousness as the purple lightning entered her body, her muscles altering between numbing pain from the Cloud Arts first form and devastating electricity.

Blood was gushing out of her gritted teeth as she held onto her fighting will.

"You're going to regret forcing me to hold Fu Xue in my arms," Ye Tehzu mumbled right before condensing more Shinsoo for a second attack, "Blast Arrow!"

"Ocean Piercing Thread!"

At the same time as Ye Tehzu, Mei Yunei unleashed a technique of her own.

Due to Xing Jing having to force herself to deal with the boy's previous barrage of attacks, she had unwantedly let go of Ocean Needle, allowing Mei Yunei to get back her blade and her control over it.

Mei Yunei had swiftly cut through the remaining Cold Smoke snakes, those that were targeted at her and not at Xing Jing.

Now that the latter was on the floor, her priority was stopping Ye Tezhu. She was clear on the danger that Xing Jing represented but she also knew that her arsenal of techniques was not adapted to fighting multiple opponents at the same time.

Unlike Ye Tehzu who she knew had a lot of long range techniques.

And one of them was Blast Arrow.

From Ye Tehzu's right hand, a parchment talisman burst into flames, birthing a large bolt of purple lightning in the shape of an arrow, at the same time as Ocean Needle started to extend like a wire.

"Turning a needle into a thread... This attack is very dangerous" Ye Tehzu could feel the powerful fluctuations coming from the blade in Mei Yunei's hand.

The latter's eyes burned with a cunning flame, as if she already knew her attack had connected perfectly without having fully unleashed it yet.

Without feeling the condensed Shinsoo that wrapped the needle blade, Xing Jing was much more focused on the bright arrow shooting out from Ye Tehzu's side. She knew it was a large area attack, which could only mean one thing.

The boy was aiming between her and Mei Yunei, hoping to finish them both with one burst of lightning.

As she was getting up, forcefully enduring the pain of lightning in her body, there was only one option remaining in Xing Jing's mind. She had to go towards him in order to evade his Blast Arrow.

Mei Yunei breathed out calmly. Xing Jing was pushing herself off the ground and started running towards her opponent. The purple Blast Arrow was flying towards them both.

Mei Yunei blinked, her heart and dantian calm like the summer sea. All of it didn't matter.

She was the fastest in the Star-Sword Pavilion. In comparison to her Ocean Piercing Thread, her opponents attacks were slower than turtles while she herself was flying like a sparrow overhead.

When Mei Yunei opened her eyes, time had slowed down considerably. In exchange for a large portion of her Shinsoo, she had the ability to enhance her technique's speed, giving her a few seconds more.

Ocean Needle's blade shot forward, its speed surpassing that of a third step Liquid Realm practitioner by far.

The wire-like weapon went straight towards the purple arrow, piercing it along its length, its accuracy terrifying. Continuing to push forward, Mei Yunei's Ocean Piercing Thread turned sharply, directed at Ye Tehzu.

In the fraction of a second, the boy's arms were both pierced by the wire.

"One more second. Just one!" Mei Yunei concentrated harder, forcing the wire-like blade to undertake another sharp turn, this time revolving around Ye Tehzu to pierce his side.

She had calculated the path of her thread so that the tip was now in direct line with Xing Jing. If she could push past her limits a bit more, Mei Yunei could even take out the girl with insane body strength.

Her grip still tight around Ocean Needle's carved handle, Mei Yunei ignored the progressive blur taking over her vision.

The tip of her attack was only a few centimeters away from Xing Jing's abdomen.

Sending even more Shinsoo from her hand into her weapon, Mei Yunei emptied her dantian. Without a sound, the black needle tip went through Xing Jing without encountering much resistance.

Mei Yunei didn't even see the end of the wire come out of her opponent. Her vision had turned dark and her consciousness was drifting away.

"Heh, I couldn't even accurately target the right organs. But I'm still the fastest..."

From Mei Yunei's reality defying point of view, three seconds had passed but on the outside of her pseudo-domain, it was only a blink.

She went from standing up calmly with a sword in her hand to falling unconscious in the briefest of times, all the while unnoticed by both her opponents.

The first reaction from Ocean Piercing Thread came from the Blast Arrow which had been touched first. The insanely condensed Shinsoo from Mei Yunei's attack had gone through its middle, forcefully destroying the long range technique.

A rain of purple lightning exploded from the arrow in all directions.

But neither Ye Tehzu nor Xing Jing cared. In one instant, indescribable pain arose in them as blood and Shinsoo both spurted out of different parts of their bodies.

They had not even realized what had happened yet, but holes were in their bodies.

Ye Tehzu's last thoughts were that his heart had been missed by only a few centimeters.

Xing Jing who had just endured Ye Tehzu's Cold Smoke Lightning at point blank range was even worse than him. Her organs were already burnt and mangled from the inside when Ocean Piercing Thread took her out.

She didn't realize she was already unconscious.

In the time it takes to blink, all three fighters went from attacking to losing consciousness with heavy injuries. Such was Mei Yunei's reality defying pseudo-domain, Ocean Piercing Thread.

"Breaker, could you-"

"Sure, the girl is yours. Please take good care of her" Master Breaker already knew what the woman in charge of the Shinsoo-Medicine Pavilion wanted.

Patriarch Sen calmly stroked his beard as the crowd went wild behind the rows of Elders, "How unexpected. A three-way tie. That girl from the Star-Sword branch sure took them by surprise."

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Rising from his seat, his voice carried over the entire Underground Arena.

"All three Pavilions will now send their next fighters."

The whispers among the crowd revealed that almost nobody had understood what had really happened in the arena. Mei Yunei's strike was simply too strange and unpredictable.

"Big Sister Xing lost?!"

"Mei Yunei fell down just like that... Did she use some kind of special suicidal technique?"

The excitation of watching their peers fight was at an apex. Some disciples were in the midst of realizing the difference there was between them and the chosen fighters, the top of their respective pavilions.

Some other disciples were highly motivated or inspired by the high level of techniques displayed.

In any case, everybody was watching intently, not wanting to blink in case they missed even the slightest move that could decide the issue of a fight.

After the surprise of Ocean Piercing Thread, all three pavilions suddenly lost one fighter. At this point, the Light-Breaker branch and the Cloud-Formation branch both were down to their sixth and last fighters while the Star-Sword Pavilion held the advantage.

The only hope of winning for the other Pavilions was to beat, in succession, Mua Lin and Bai Fulong.

Not many people had ever seen the latter fight, but almost everybody had heard about his instant victory over Mua Jin who was still in recovery since then.

Mua Lin, on the other hand, was a well known figure, both for her pretty looks, her flower related techniques and the fact that she had been second on the ranking for the Star-Sword Pavilion until Sui Lin took her place.

Taking her down would already be quite a feat, and who could hope to do so but the Cloud-Formation Pavilion's last fighter, ranked second.

Chu Erlong was walking towards the center of the arena, looking at Mua Lin and Sei Shian in the distance.

"How could we have messed up so bad?!" she felt enraged, "It's already my turn but Shin Sumi still hasn't shown her face."

Gauging her opponents from afar, Chu Erlong bit her lower lip. She was proud and lofty but she knew how to evaluate her own strength accurately. Whenever she bragged about her capabilities, it was more often than not because she knew herself to be superior.

"Mua Lin is trouble, but Sei Shian... doesn't seem like much, and yet I've been warned about him. I have to be careful this time around."

Sei Shian walked with his eyes closed. He looked in his late teen years and had long black hair freely flowing down his shoulders, contrasting with his light blue daoist robes.

With his hands tucked in his sleeves, he didn't look anything like the other members of the Light-Breaker Pavilion, being slimmer than even Li Wei.

To be one of the best practitioners in the Light-Breaker branch without having the same imposing build as the others, one could naturally expect him to have some sort of special technique.

All three fighters, Mua Lin, Chu Erlong and Sei Shian were simply walking. It seemed at first that none of them were willing to take the first opportunity to attack.

Since the beginning of the Cross Branch Arena it was the first time all three fighters entered the fight at the same time. Depending on the timing of their attack, being the first to step forward could either turn into a large advantage or a grave mistake.

It was Mua Lin who gained speed first. Her sword, Despairing Blossom, was already in her hand as she ran straight towards Chu Erlong.

Mua Lin powered up her sword by pouring Shinsoo into it. She didn't need to use a fancy technique for her first attack but she still needed an attack strong enough to force the girl from the Cloud-Formation Pavilion to be in a defensive position.

Such was the style of the Star-Sword Pavillion. A highly offensive style. To send a barrage of attacks with a lot of power.

The Star-Sword Pavilion teachings never focused too much on defensive stances. With the absolute techniques of their weapons, they aimed to overpower any defense and to defend with attacks.

The Cloud-Formation Pavilion had a different approach, more versatile. Spirit formations formed an array of techniques that covered a large capability in terms of range and power.

Lastly, the Light-Breaker Pavilion was on the opposite of the scale. Due to the nature of physical body cultivation, the innate properties of the Light-Breaker branch turned the disciples into heavy shields capable of deflecting a lot of attacks. Their body strength was above anyone else's, making them experts of close range combat and ensuring victory if their opponent was disarmed.

Faced with Mua Lin's rapidly approaching attack, Chu Erlong stopped in her tracks. She knew she had to keep her as far away as possible.

Slapping her bag of holding, Chu Erlong produced a couple of flying swords adorned with old paper talismans. She sent them flying in succession towards Mua Lin before starting an incantation with her hands, manipulating Shinsoo at high speeds.

Mua Lin snorted. She could see the talismans on the flying swords. Obviously they were not simple low grade weapons. Holding the Shinsoo condensed in Despairing Blossom, she swiped at the incoming weapons with her sword.

As soon as the tip of her sword hit the flying weapons, the parchments burst into heavy explosions, sending a cloud of fire in all directions.

Still a few steps away from the other two, Sei Shian opened his eyes, the two explosions of fire reflecting on his pupils and the teeth uncovered by a slight smile.

Mua Lin on the other hand wasn't smiling.

"A magical explosion. Its range isn't strong enough to hit but it is large enough to block my divine sense by displacing the Shinsoo in the air. This was never intended to hit me, she's using the explosions as a shield" Mua Lin immediately understood. The next instant she hit the ground with her foot, turning sharply into another direction rather than straight ahead.

In the exact place she had stood in before, a dozen of cloud snakes pierced the wall of fire with insane speed. Had Mua Lin not evaded quickly as soon as she understood the goal of the exploding parchemins, she would have been hit dead on by the Cloud Arts first form, Cold Smoke.

The cunning and unpredictable Chu Erlong, matching power and impeccable strategies. She had rightfully earned her place as number two of the Cloud-Formation Pavilion.

Standing there, lit by her ongoing flames, she looked like a goddess of some sort as she prepared her next step. Mua Lin might have avoided her Cold Smoke, but she was now much closer to Sei Shian than to her.

"In a three-way fight, I must avoid being surrounded at all costs" she thought, "It would be optimal if they spent some time exchanging blows between them, leaving me enough time for Peerless Skies."

Nevertheless Chu Erlong's calculating mind was not the type to bet on a chance occurrence. Peerless Skies needed time to be unleashed and Mua Lin would never let that happen.

As Mua Lin slid to the side to avoid Cold Smoke, she found herself drawn closer to Sei Shian who had accelerated at the same time.

Gritting her teeth, Mua Lin could feel the Shinsoo being manipulated by the young man.

Despairing Blossom slashed towards him from the side as his two palms were pushed forward.

"Chu Erlong's explosions are nothing compared to mine" Sei Shian mumbled.

Despairing Blossom's cutting strength was at it peak, enhanced by Mua Lin's Shinsoo, when it hit one of Sei Shian's hands. His palm suddenly burst forth a dense explosion, shattering all of Despairing Blossom's might and shoving it away.

Completely taken by surprise by the man's technique, Mua Lin's wrist became numb as she held her sword in front of her. Sei Shian had only used one hand and the other one was coming for her.

"Exploding Palm!"

Sei Shian's other hand exploded, pushing Mua Lin back a few steps even though she wasn't directly injured by it.

"This is Sei Shian's body cultivation technique. No wonder he doesn't have the same build as the other from his Pavilion. All of his Shinsoo is concentrated on his skin instead of his muscles and he has the ability to detonate it at will..."

Chu Erlong thought deeply but quickly. Now that she knew more about the mysterious fighter, she had to reevaluate her plan of action.

"This is the worst match-up I could have gotten" she felt a bit depressed, "and yet, I think I'm going to have a lot of fun today! Let's see how big of an explosion you can make at once, Sei Shian."

Cupping her hands together, Chu Erlong breathed a bit of Shinsoo into an ethereal ball forming out of thin air.

"Burning Moon!"

The spherical spirit formation floated rapidly out of her hand towards Sei Shian.

Still calm and composed, Sei Shian's limbs were moving as freely as water, each contact with Mua Lin's blade bringing forth intense Shinsoo explosions.

From his fighting style, it was clear that Sei Shian wasn't on par with Xing Jing when it came to martial arts but he was definitely an expert nonetheless. For Mua Lin who didn't have the velocity and swiftness of Mei Yunei, attacking and defending at the same time was becoming more and more difficult.

The petite girl dressed in pink robes glanced over to Chu Erlong. She had seen her prepare her Burning Moon. Without knowing what the specific technique was, she hoped that it would at least change the rhythm of the fight.

In a quick change of pace, Mua Lin bolted for Chu Erlong right as the Burning Moon sped the opposite way. With no changes to the black ethereal Shinsoo ball's direction, she accurately deducted its target to be Sei Shian.

The young man had reacted a bit too late to Mua Lin's quick diversion to notice Chu Erlong's discrete technique.

Gritting his teeth and using all the speed and flexibility he could muster, Sei Shian still let out a kick towards Mua Lin's back leg.

His shin exploded against Mua Lin's, her leg caught in the blast, forcing her to the ground in a painful rolling manner.

Forcing herself to her feet without losing more momentum, Mua Lin held Despairing Blossom over her head, its tip shining with golden yellow light.

At the same time, both Cleaving Meteor and Burning Moon reached the last step of their preparative states.

Chu Erlong's technique collapsed on itself and black light spikes pierced the air all around it. Sei Shian crossed both his arms releasing his most intense explosion so far to counter the deadly looking burning black spikes.

A few meters away from him, Despairing Blossom was descending rapidly on Chu Erlong. Cleaving Meteor was not as fast as Piercing Heavens but it had the advantage of a higher range of effect, unleashing the cleaving might for up to five meters instead of being limited by the weapon's length.

Chu Erlong slapped her bag of holding to produce a protective formation, activating it on her left side, the side targeted by the yellow light.

Mua Lin was using all her strength in this simple strike that, in theory, was nearly impossible to miss and yet she suddenly lost her balance, the energy in her leg having been drained away by Sei Shian's desperate attack on her shin.

Closing one eye with pain, Mua Lin twisted her finger at the last second, trying to compensate for her lack of balance as Cleaving Meteor was cutting the air in two.

It was a very miniscule and sudden change, but one that had not escaped Chu Erlong's eyes, at the peak of her concentration in battle.

"The blade is off target! It is not my left side that needs protecting but there is no time... I will have to use 'that'!"

Chu Erlong's sixteen Shinsoo Passageways suddenly opened at the same time, bringing out a flow of Shinsoo ten times more intense than before.

"Black Cloud Sun!"