"Jinshu, Senior Sister really can't bear to part with you."
Dai Yuzhu puffed out her cheeks, the movement rounding her youthful face as she shuffled closer to Chen Jinshu. She leaned her head against her shoulder, her posture slumping as if she were carrying a heavy weight.
"Seventh Senior Sister, this matter can't be changed." Chen Jinshu patted her back gently, the fabric of Dai Yuzhu's robes soft beneath her hand.
Dai Yuzhu's eyes welled with tears that threatened to spill over. It hadn't been easy to finally have a Junior Sister younger than herself in the sect, and they hadn't even spent many years together before facing the prospect of a ten-year separation.
"That's enough, Yuzhu. Junior Sister is going to resolve her heart demon. It's good for her cultivation."
Bu Yuanxiang looked calm, standing with her hands clasped before her, though her slightly lowered gaze lingered on Chen Jinshu's face with a quiet intensity.
Time in cultivation passed without mercy, slipping through one's fingers like sand. Ten years could vanish in the blink of an eye when one was focused on the Dao. Yet in ten years, many things would no longer be the same. The world beyond the sect gates was unpredictable. Whether this journey would be good or bad, no one could say for certain.
The other Senior Brothers didn't say anything overly sentimental, keeping their farewells brief and grounded, but they gave Chen Jinshu quite a few valuable items to pack into her storage pouch.
Especially Fourth Senior Brother Huai Jingyi, who gifted her a complete fourth-tier formation set, the wooden case hummed with latent spiritual power. It's said to be a life-saving treasure his grandfather had given him years ago.
Chen Jinshu saw the weight of the gift clearly and found herself unable to voice any refusal, seeing the earnestness in his eyes.
They talked late into the night, the candle flickering between them, before finally parting to their respective rooms.
…
The next day, the sky was lightly clear, a pale blue canopy stretching over the peaks.
The bronze arena was shrouded in crimson-gold formations that shimmered with a rhythmic light, and spectators crowded all around like a rising tide. Cultivators from many sects gathered once more for the final arena battle, their voices creating a constant, low drone of anticipation.
From her Senior Brothers and Sisters, Chen Jinshu learned that the Xuanming Sect hadn't achieved particularly outstanding results this time around.
In the Foundation Establishment matches, they had fallen far behind the Yuqing Sect, with only five people entering the final rounds. Two of those had advanced through narrow victories that had left them exhausted, and progressing further would only grow more difficult as the competition thinned.
She had already fully recovered, her internal state stable and her meridians clear.
Most of the credit went to the Genesis Alchemy Furnace, which provided her with refined spiritual energy and repaired her hidden injuries while she slept.
She now felt no different from someone completely unharmed, her spirit vibrant.
Wu Nian Zhēnrén, on the other hand, wasn't doing so well. Though he still made it into the finals through sheer tenacity, his face was pale and drawn, clearly having expended great effort to overcome the backlash from the previous day.
"Junior Sister, we have confirmed it. Your opponent this time is Feng Qi Zhēnrén of the Scarlet Flame Sect."
"The Scarlet Flame Sect?"
"So it really is that sect. Looks like you can finally repay the grudge from when the Feng clan maliciously raised prices back then."
Chen Jinshu recalled how, at the trading fair, members of the Feng clan had relied on their Phoenix-clan item to inflate prices, forcing her to pay an extra segment of Purple Thunder Bamboo.
That segment had nearly been worth a third-tier spirit treasure, a debt she hadn't forgotten.
"It's said Feng Qi Zhēnrén has mastered a formation that specifically counters sound cultivators. Junior Sister, you must be careful," Zheng Shaosi reminded her softly, his brow furrowing.
"Thank you for the warning, Senior Brother. I doubt Feng Qi Zhēnrén will be more troublesome than Wu Nian Zhēnrén."
In the blink of an eye, a stick of incense (around thirty minutes) burned away.
"Xuanming Sect's Luan Que Zhēnrén versus Scarlet Flame Sect's Feng Qi Zhēnrén!"
With a shout from a Sacred Sword Sect elder, the red-robed female cultivator on the opposite side sneered and flicked her sleeve. Nine crimson-flame gold rings spun into the air, and scorching waves of heat rushed forward across the jade.
"Chen Daoyou, your little sound tricks can't break my Lihuo Heaven Scorching Formation!"
Chen Jinshu didn't expect her opponent to be this impatient, opening with a full-powered move right away.
Clearly, the other side understood that if she was given room to act and set her melody, the odds wouldn't favor her.
Seeing that Chen Jinshu remained expressionless, Feng Qi Zhēnrén grew embarrassed and angry, feeling looked down upon by the younger cultivator. She formed seals rapidly with her hands. The nine gold rings suddenly expanded, transforming into nine blazing suns suspended in the air above the platform.
The arena instantly turned into a furnace, the temperature soaring. The azure jade tiles sizzled under the intense heat, showing signs of melting.
"Rise!"
Chen Jinshu remained calm despite the waves of fire. She tapped the ground with her toe, and the Yin Mountain Sparrow let out a long, piercing cry as it appeared. Its blue wings whipped up a sudden gale to temporarily block the sea of fire.
Seizing the moment, she plucked the strings of the Lüqi Zither. Breaking the Formation Melody turned into thirty-six sound blades that slashed toward the gold rings in a coordinated strike.
The fiery rings rotated and interlocked with a metallic hiss. The sound blades vanished like mud oxen entering the sea, absorbed by the heat.
"This formation specifically counters sound cultivators!" Scarlet Flame Sect disciples below burst into laughter, their voices mocking.
It was as if victory was already in hand for their sect.
"You little girl from the Xuanming Sect, you won a few rounds by luck and now you think you know the heavens. Your pathetic tricks are nothing before my Feng clan's Li Fire. If you know what is good for you, surrender now. Otherwise you will be burned to ash and embarrass your master, who just entered the Nascent Soul stage."
Her voice was sharp, malice splashing like boiling oil, drawing loud laughter from the Scarlet Flame Sect side.
Chen Jinshu's gaze darkened, her eyes narrowing into cold slits. She hated it most when someone dragged her master into things, and in such a frivolous, disrespectful way. Her fingers brushed lightly over the dormant Lüqi Zither at her waist. Her voice carried a cold killing intent that seemed to drop the temperature of the air.
"Feng clan Lihuo? I hope it isn't all show."
As soon as she finished speaking, her wrist snapped with practiced precision. The dragonbone blood whip at her waist tore through the air with a piercing shriek, lunging straight for Feng Qi Zhēnrén's face.
Feng Qi Zhēnrén's smile froze on her lips. She clearly hadn't expected Chen Jinshu to strike first, and with such ferocity.
"Arrogant!"
She shouted sharply, her face twisting. Crimson light exploded from her palms as a solidified red fire dragon roared out, scales and claws fierce, charging to meet the whip shadow.
Intent on establishing dominance, she opened with the Feng clan's secret art, Li Fire Manifestation Technique. The violent fire spirit power dyed half the arena red, warping the air until the light was distorted.
Boom!
Thunder and fire collided in the center of the platform, the deafening blast shaking the arena's protective restrictions.
Violet-gold thunder serpents and the crimson flame dragon clashed and tore at each other, creating sparks that showered the jade.
Within the raging energy storm, Chen Jinshu stood firm like bamboo in the wind, her robes snapping around her.
Feng Qi Zhēnrén, by contrast, was sent reeling by the shockwave, stumbling back half a step as her feet skidded. The color drained from her face, disbelief flashing in her eyes for the first time since the match began.
"How could this girl's spiritual power be so overwhelming and dense?"
"Impossible!"
Shame and fury surged together in her chest. Feng Qi Zhēnrén formed seals frantically as a fire phoenix several zhang tall erupted behind her, divine and awe-inspiring as it cried to the sky.
The searing heat swept the arena again, more intense than before. Even Golden Core cultivators watching from afar felt their skin burn from the radiant energy.
This was the Feng clan's trump card, the True Phoenix Scorching Heaven Seal.
"Burn!"
Her face twisted as she thrust both hands forward, pushing all her power into the technique.
The fire phoenix spread its wings, carrying a world-destroying aura as it crashed down toward Chen Jinshu.
The heat surged like a tsunami, threatening to swallow her whole and reduce her to cinders.
Chen Jinshu's eyes flared sharply with a green light.
In the next instant, she charged straight into the overwhelming fire like a phantom, her speed blurring her form. The dragonbone blood whip in her hand split into countless afterimages, each wrapped in condensed strands of green spiritual power. The whip shadows interwove in a dizzying pattern, rapidly forming a massive green vine net in the air before her.
"Vine Blood-Drinking Calamity, Thousand Threads Bind!"
The fire phoenix slammed into the green vine net with the force of a falling mountain.
The expected destruction didn't come.
The seemingly flexible vine net possessed terrifying toughness and devouring power. Countless hair-thin vines pierced deep into the phoenix's spiritual body like parasites.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle!
The vines burned fiercely, turning black, but the phoenix visibly dimmed and shrank as its energy was leeched away.
Streams of pure fire spirit power flowed back along the vines, greedily swallowed by the blood whip and fed back into Chen Jinshu's body. Bathed in shifting green and red light, her aura climbed steadily, her strength growing as the phoenix weakened.
"Evil art. Monster technique!" Feng Qi Zhēnrén cried out in horror, her voice cracking as she desperately poured in spiritual power to break free.
"Trying to run? Too late."
Chen Jinshu's lips curved slightly into a cold smile. She had never expected the Feng clan's treasured art to nourish her fire spirit root like this.
It seemed most of the baleful energy had been purified by the calamity whip before it reached her.
The green vines only tightened further around the struggling bird, their devouring force growing stronger with every second.
She shouted clearly, her voice cutting through the roar of the flames.
"Xiao Yin!"
The beast-taming bracelet on her wrist erupted with blue-red light.
A clear, triumphant cry rang through the clouds above the arena.
Xiao Yin revealed its true form, three-zhang-wide blue wings blotting out the sky, crimson flames flowing along its tail feathers. The ancient pressure of the divine beast Azure Luan descended in full, making the spectators tremble.
Its sharp eyes locked onto the weakened fire phoenix, a gaze of innate superiority and disdain for the artificial construct.
With a powerful flap of its wings, a blue-red burning wind tornado roared out, smashing into the vine-bound, energy-depleted phoenix.
Puff!
The once-glorious fire phoenix wailed and disintegrated under the Azure Luan's flames, scattering into harmless sparks across the sky.
Feng Qi Zhēnrén suffered a massive backlash. She spat out a mouthful of blood as her core technique shattered, her spirit taking a heavy blow that left her reeling.
Whoosh!
Chen Jinshu flashed forward like a ghost, appearing before the weakened Feng Qi Zhēnrén in the blink of an eye, her eyes cold and terrifying.
"This whip is for that forced 'gift' at the trading fair!"
The whip tore through the air and lashed down with the force of a thunderbolt.
Crack!
With a sharp sound, Feng Qi Zhēnrén was sent flying, smashing into the arena's barrier at the edge before sliding down in a heap, her robe in tatters.
A charred whip mark deep enough to expose bone marred her chest, the skin black and weeping. Blood gushed as her body convulsed on the jade, her throat making a wet sound as she was unable to even cry out.
In an instant, the Scarlet Flame Sect's laughter froze, replaced by a terrified, stony pallor.
On the Xuanming Sect side, Shui Huanmeng sat as before, a faint trace of satisfaction at her lips as she watched her disciple.
Zheng Shaosi clenched his fist hard, his knuckles white.
"That felt good!"
Xie Mofeng and the others looked equally exhilarated, their faces bright with victory.
On a high platform opposite, Purple Sword Zhēnrén Leng Yan stood with arms crossed. Her cold gaze swept over the green-clad figure standing tall with the whip in her hand, and she nodded slightly.
"Interesting."
The referee elder suppressed his shock and announced loudly, his voice echoing across the arena.
"Xuanming Sect, Chen Jinshu, victorious. Ranked among the top five of the Golden Core stage."