Volume 1, Chapter 396 – A Brutal Beating

Gao Linyuan looked at Shi Lan and slowly frowned. The woman before him made no effort to conceal her aura; her cultivation was only at the Myriad Phenomena Realm. Yet for some reason, he found her somewhat impossible to read.

The higher one’s cultivation, the keener one’s instinctive perceptions became. He had sensed a trace of dangerous qi.

To him, that felt absurd for no reason at all. A martial artist of the Myriad Phenomena Realm was like roadside weeds in his eyes. With a single lift of his hand, he could crush a whole patch of them to death.

“Who are you?”

That warning in his heart made Gao Linyuan unable to hold back the question.

“Shi Lan.”

As her voice fell, a jet-black war halberd appeared in Shi Lan’s hand, and a heavy aura of slaughter burst forth.

Boom!

The surface of the arena exploded apart in an instant. Holding the war halberd, Shi Lan stepped into the air and rose up. Snow-bright cold light flared along the pitch-black halberd blade, wrapped in blazing true qi, like a river of stars crashing down in a flash.

Her pale golden battle armor shone brilliantly, treasure light flowing across it as it pushed her essence, qi, and spirit to their peak. The fierce fluctuations of her blood and qi were like those of an ancient ferocious beast, almost condensing into the legendary blood-and-qi divine veil.

Gao Linyuan’s pupils contracted sharply. Alarm bells rang wildly in his heart, and he did not dare meet the blow head-on. With a thought, he released his Nascent Soul golden body and retreated explosively.

Buzz!

The Nascent Soul golden body that Bu Bingyan had been utterly unable to damage proved as brittle as a sheet of paper beneath the halberd blade. Its surface was torn open instantly. Had he not retreated in time, he would nearly have been split apart and slain on the spot.

The heavenly prodigies watching from all around felt their hearts leap into their throats, their faces filled with shock.

“Shi Lan is only ranked twenty-seventh on the Heavenly Prodigy Record. I never thought she’d be this strong!”

“Maybe the Heavenly Prodigy Record judged her wrong. A situation like this is far too rare.”

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“That war halberd is no ordinary weapon. Its murderous might is too great. Who knows how much blood of powerful beings it has drunk?” Some sharp-eyed spectators had noticed the extraordinary nature of the war halberd in Shi Lan’s hand.

On the high platform, Li Jingzhou’s expression did not change, but his hand had already clenched into a fist. Catching sight of Chu Hanzhou’s calm face from the corner of his eye, he ground his teeth inwardly.

Chu Hanzhou!

Below the arena, the middle-aged man acting as bookmaker for the wager stared fixedly at the battle, his brows tightly furrowed.

…

Wooo—

The flute’s piercing notes rang through the nine heavens. With a soul-breaking melody, Gao Linyuan sent layer after layer of ripples through the void.

Shi Lan’s steps suddenly halted. Intense agony surged from her organs straight to the crown of her head. It felt as if her whole body were being flayed alive in an instant, and before her eyes appeared an illusory scene of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

As the flute sounded, Gao Linyuan relaxed slightly. Just as he was about to recall his Nascent Soul golden body, Shi Lan’s halted foot suddenly came down.

Whoosh—

Blazing flames wrapped around a ferocious halberd shadow as it swept across the air, roaring and burning, with faint phoenix cries echoing through it.

Shi Lan’s eyes had turned a blood-red color, becoming vertical pupils with flames faintly dancing within them. The searing pain clawing at her nerves had not affected her in the slightest.

Gao Linyuan’s expression changed drastically. Putting away the jade flute, he moved his thoughts in haste, and a suit of jet-black armor appeared in midair. It split into dozens of pieces and assembled itself over his body, completely encasing him and leaving only his cold eyes exposed.

Clang! Clang!

The sound of metal striking metal rang out unceasingly. The halberd shadow fell onto the armor and left behind glaring white marks. The tremendous force carried with it struck Gao Linyuan back again and again.

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After a few breaths, Shi Lan withdrew her halberd and stood still, her high ponytail swaying in the wind as her brows drew together slightly.

To be able to block the edge of the Scarlet Crow War Halberd, that had to be at least a suit of Emperor-level armor.

She could not bring out the Scarlet Crow War Halberd’s full power. With that suit of armor in play, she could do nothing to Gao Linyuan.

If it really ended in a draw…

Would her wager count as a loss or a win?

That was 1.6 billion spirit crystals, an enormous fortune.

…

Chu Hanzhou unconsciously straightened his back and looked toward Li Jingzhou in the seat of honor.

“I never thought the Spirit King would actually give Gao Linyuan the Demon-Exterminating Armor. You’re quite willing to spend.”

“The feeling is mutual.”

Li Jingzhou smiled faintly. In his view, the war halberd in Shi Lan’s hand must also have been bestowed by Chu Hanzhou.

Chu Hanzhou shook his head slightly and did not bother explaining. Lightly stroking the teacup in his hand, he fell into thought.

The fact that Shi Lan held an emperor weapon had not surprised him too much. Rumors had long circulated that she had obtained the Dao legacy of a Sovereign.

That was her own opportunity, so Chu Hanzhou naturally had no designs on it. But Li Jingzhou giving the Demon-Exterminating Armor to Gao Linyuan truly had come as a surprise.

What exactly did that mean?

Standing behind Gao Linyuan was a Human Emperor who had long roamed the outer starry sky. From the look of things now, there was clearly a connection between those two that ordinary people knew nothing about.

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…

“Relying on external objects is not my wish.”

Wrapped within the armor, Gao Linyuan cast a somewhat wary glance at the halberd in Shi Lan’s hand and spoke slowly:

“You don’t use the halberd, and I’ll put away the armor. How about a fair fight?”

The slight crease between Shi Lan’s brows slowly smoothed out. A trace of a smile curved at the corner of her lips as she withdrew the Scarlet Crow War Halberd into her sea of consciousness.

“All right.”

…

“Gao Linyuan is only giving up a protective treasure, but Shi Lan’s halberd is a weapon meant for direct battle. The two aren’t equal at all!”

“She could at least have fought to a draw before, but now…”

“Shi Lan’s cultivation is far too low. She’s almost a whole major realm behind him. Giving up the halberd now is the same as cutting off one of her own arms.”

Sighs rose from all around. People kept lamenting what a pity it was, all thinking that Shi Lan’s decision was far too unwise.

The bookmaker running the pool suppressed the urge to leap to his feet and cheer, his eyes shining with excitement.

The corner of Li Jingzhou’s mouth lifted slightly as he once more stole a glance at Chu Hanzhou.

Chu Hanzhou remained as calm as ever, leaning lightly against the back of his chair with his eyes half narrowed, as if he did not care in the slightest about the battle on the arena.

…

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After putting away the halberd, Shi Lan did not waste a single word. Her blood and qi surged straight into the heavens, her palms wrapped in a faint golden glow as she lunged at Gao Linyuan to kill.

Rip!

Black cracks split open through the void. Her pale golden battle armor shone with dazzling brilliance, as if golden flames were burning upon it.

Gao Linyuan had no time to manifest his Nascent Soul golden body, but he did not mind. Forming a hand seal, he condensed Dao patterns in his palm and sent them howling upward.

Boom!

A thunderous explosion rang out. Gao Linyuan’s condensed Dao seal was punched through in an instant, and his whole body flew backward as blood burst from his mouth.

Empowered by multiple physiques, the terrifying brute force hidden within Shi Lan’s flesh was enough to make every martial artist below the Heaven-Man Realm shudder. It was far beyond Gao Linyuan’s expectations.

Shi Lan did not hold back in the slightest. She followed right after him and suddenly drove a straight kick out.

Crack!

A crisp sound of breaking bone exploded through the air. Gao Linyuan’s chest visibly caved in at once, and he was sent flying straight out of the arena, slamming into the light screen that enclosed the surroundings.

For a great cultivator of the Nascent Soul Realm, however, injuries like that were still far from enough to make him lose the ability to fight.

Blood splashed through the air. Shi Lan’s gaze was cold, her hair whipping wildly in the wind. Blood stained her pale golden battle armor, making it even more resplendent. She threw another punch, golden light soaring into the sky, while faint Buddhist chants seemed to drift through the void.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The phantom of a Chan Buddhist Vajra flickered into view behind Shi Lan, pinning Gao Linyuan tightly against the formation’s light screen so that he could not move.

Everyone around wore blank expressions. No one had imagined that the number one heavenly prodigy of the Vast Land of Shenzhou, the former top ranker of the Heavenly Prodigy Record, would be pinned against a formation screen and brutally beaten in public.