Purple Lightning Breaks the Blood Sea

"Hmm?"

Clad in a blood-red robe, Ku Ruo glanced at Qiu Ran as the latter stepped onto the platform, a hint of suspicion flickering in his eyes.

"Why does this man bear such deep hostility toward me?"

"Could it be that aside from the matter of our subordinate sect, we share some other past grievance?"

Ku Ruo searched his memories thoroughly but came up entirely empty.

The territory of the Blood Shadow Sect lay the farthest from Gradual Tiger among the four northwestern sects, and the two of them had never crossed paths before.

It was clearly Gradual Tiger that had dismantled his sect's subordinate branch, allowing Daoyuan Mountain to reap the rewards. Yet, looking at Qiu Ran now, one would think Ku Ruo was the one who had taken an immense, unfair advantage.

Unable to fathom the reason, Ku Ruo stopped wasting his thoughts.

Regardless of what the man was thinking, he simply needed to defeat him.

"Third match of the Perfection stage, begin!"

"Blood Vast Sea!"

"Purple Thunder Tribulation!"

The two activated their Spirit Manifestations simultaneously. Their auras, already at the absolute peak of the twelfth layer of Qi Gathering, swelled wildly once more.

Clang!

Boom!

Boom!

Qiu Ran transformed into a streak of purple lightning. Every time his figure flickered, a deafening thunderclap ripped through the air.

The sheer resonance caused many spectating disciples of lower cultivation to tremble in their souls, forcing them to seal their ears with spiritual power.

Had they not, the overwhelming pressure would have shattered their composure and caused them to faint within moments.

At the same time, Ku Ruo dissolved into a deep crimson blood shadow. While his Spirit Manifestation state lacked the raw lethality of Qiu Ran's, it possessed other subtle, insidious uses.

A purple streak and a red silhouette clashed and tumbled across the Dao Discussion Platform, the relentless detonations of thunder and bursting blood-light ringing out without pause.

"What a fierce battle!"

"Spectacular!"

"My eyes can barely keep up with their movements!"

The low-level disciples exclaimed in awe from time to time, but they could only appreciate the surface spectacle.

The true masters who understood the path of combat were not watching the exchange of blows at all. Instead, they directed their attention to the surface of the platform and the open air above.

As the two traded strikes, lethal techniques were silently brewing in both domains.

Under the influence of Ku Ruo's Spirit Manifestation Image, "Blood Vast Sea," the entire Dao Discussion Platform was gradually dissolving into a boiling pool of blood.

Meanwhile, an exceptionally violent mass of purple thunderclouds had coalesced in the sky.

Everyone understood that the final outcome of this match would be decided by these two gathering forces.

Yang Lingrui strained his eyes to track the combatants, but due to the immense gulf in their cultivation realms, he could discern nothing but blurred afterimages.

Ultimately, he had to rely on Chen Yang's consciousness to perceive what was unfolding on the platform.

"Fortunately, a trace of the Immortal Venerable's divine sense remains with me. Otherwise, I would truly be blind to the brilliance of this tournament," he thought to himself.

Through Chen Yang's awareness, he was able to closely observe many critical exchanges during these matches.

This experience allowed him to make significant strides in both his understanding of the Spirit-Commanding Method and his own combat intuition.

A moment later, the two lethal techniques fully materialized.

"Tribulation Lightning!"

"Blood Corrosion!"

As the purple lightning plummeted toward Ku Ruo, the vast pool of blood across the platform erupted into a boil, swallowing Qiu Ran entirely.

What followed was a pure contest of foundational accumulation.

Whoever succumbed to the opponent's ultimate move first would claim defeat.

Although Ku Ruo had suffered several minor setbacks during the initial close-quarters engagement, his confidence grew noticeably once the techniques clashed.

Thunder arts naturally countered blood arts, yet his signature technique, Blood Corrosion, possessed an incredibly high resistance to lightning.

Standing firmly upon his sea of blood, victory would be his as long as he could endure a few strikes of the purple lightning.

"I have long heard of Daoyuan Mountain's formidable thunder methods. Today, let me taste them for myself!"

The first bolt of purple lightning fell. Ku Ruo manifested a giant blood-red hand, swatting it into dispersion.

The second bolt struck. He countered it directly with a volley of over a dozen condensed blood arrows.

The third bolt descended. This time, he utilized a blood escape technique, sinking into the pool to evade it entirely.

The power of the purple lightning intensified with every strike. From the third bolt onward, Ku Ruo abandoned direct confrontation and focused solely on evasion.

Seeing this, the members of the Blood Shadow Sect aboard the cloud boat smiled broadly.

No matter how exceptional Qiu Ran was, he remained a cultivator at the twelfth layer of Qi Gathering. Could his mastery of the thunder tribulation truly touch the heavens?

Three bolts had passed. At most, he could unleash three more. If Ku Ruo could weather the remaining strikes, the victory could be declared ahead of time.

Crack!

The fourth bolt of purple lightning tore down.

Its velocity and destructive weight far surpassed the previous ones.

Ku Ruo pushed his movement technique to its absolute limit, barely avoiding a direct impact.

Before he could recover, a brilliant purple flash illuminated the arena as the fifth bolt pierced the clouds.

Swoosh-

Ku Ruo failed to clear the area in time. The lightning blasted him out of his blood escape state and grazed his right shoulder, leaving a jagged, deep wound.

"Hiss... That stings!"

Baring his teeth in pain, he scooped a handful of viscous fluid from the blood pool and pressed it against the wound, slightly numbing the burning sensation.

Rumble...

Accompanied by the low, rolling roar of muffled thunder, the sixth bolt of purple lightning began to take shape.

This time, Ku Ruo detected an aura of extreme, fatal danger within the roiling thunderclouds.

He was genuinely astonished that Qiu Ran had managed to refine a sixth bolt of tribulation lightning, and his expression turned deeply solemn.

He knew with absolute certainty that if he failed to dodge this strike, it would not end with a mere flesh wound.

Crack!

The purple tribulation lightning howled downward, its sheer force causing the ambient spiritual currents to churn violently.

"Blood-Robe Dissolution!"

Ku Ruo roared, and his body exploded alongside his blood-red robe, scattering into nothingness.

By expending this life-preserving trump card, he successfully caused the sixth bolt of tribulation lightning to strike empty air.

When his form reassembled a distance away, his face was as pale as winter snow, the light in his eyes heavily dimmed.

"Excellent! He endured it!"

"The first victory is ours!"

The elders of the Blood Shadow Sect stood up from their seats, openly cheering.

Having survived all six bolts of the purple lightning, Ku Ruo was effectively the victor of this round.

On the high spectator platform, Xiao Yize watched the celebratory display of the Blood Shadow Sect and shook his head with a faint, amused smile.

If Qiu Ran's capabilities truly ended at six bolts, how could he have kept Xiao Yize at bay for so many years?

Sure enough, a mere two breaths later, a sudden resonance from above caused Ku Ruo's expression to twist into sheer horror.

"The... the seventh bolt!? How is this possible!?"

The smiles on the faces of the Blood Shadow Sect elders instantly froze.

They had never anticipated that a mere Qi Gathering perfection cultivator could actually manifest a seventh bolt of tribulation lightning.

"No... I will die!"

Ku Ruo's legs went weak, completely disheartened by the terrifying pressure radiating from the sky.

Having just executed the Blood-Robe Dissolution, his reserves were entirely depleted. He lacked the strength to defend against such a strike, let alone flee from it.

In that single moment of psychological collapse, his control over the Blood Corrosion technique faltered, exposing a massive flaw.

Pfft!

A jagged arc of lightning severed the boundaries of the blood prison, and Qiu Ran broke free.

When the spectating disciples caught sight of his current condition, a collective shudder ran through the crowd.

Under the severe erosion of the blood art, the flesh on Qiu Ran's limbs had been entirely stripped away, exposing stark white bones.

Yet, those bones were densely wrapped in crackling purple lightning. As though entirely immune to the agony, he used the lightning to stabilize his skeletal frame, raising a blade of pure lightning as he surged straight toward Ku Ruo's throat.

Slap!

Just before the lightning blade could claim Ku Ruo's life, the supervising cultivator from the Moon-Grasping Sect intervened, neutralizing the strike.

Seeing the lethal blade stopped, Ku Ruo collapsed onto the platform, hyperventilating as the terrifying sensation of escaping death washed over him.

However, as his mind cleared and he replayed the final sequence, he suddenly realized something was amiss.

"You bluffed me! You never had a seventh bolt of tribulation lightning to begin with!"

He glared up and shouted fiercely at Qiu Ran.

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