Xinzi's eyes narrowed at the green pill, ignoring Rong Suishan who faced him with a rare stoic look.
"Rong Suishan, I don't recall the two of us having enmity that warrants such a pill. Are you sure you want to go that far?" Intrigued by this unforeseen move, Xinzi asked. The monk could understand why Suishan would feel stifled and rebel against his uncle. But the pill hanging in his right hand went far beyond a simple rebellion. If he used that thing against him, Xinzi would have every right to put Suishan to death.
"True. The sect master gave me this pill for Xia Hu, not you. However, I am a man, not a dog, and I've had enough of living as yet another tool on the sect master's list of expendable pawns. Even if the Rong clan must suffer for this, I will use this pill he granted me to ensure Xia Hu's victory and teach Guang Fanghu…a memorable lesson!" The words flowed out with no hesitation, and Xinzi's lips curled up.
"Explain…someone explain this to me." Meanwhile, before anyone else could react to this absurd turn of events, Guang Fanghu rose from his seat and—in a slow, manic fashion—his eyes stretched at the cloud projections.
Several elderly figures appeared on the leaders' stage. Without a word, they knelt at Guang Fanghu's feet and sweat profusely. The Dongli king too kneeled, cursing his ancestors for having to deal with this succession of unfilial relatives.
"Bastards! I asked you to explain to me why Suishan is ganging up with Xia Hu, not to kneel and sweat at my feet!" With no care for face or decorum, Guang Fanghu kicked one of the Rong elders, sending him crashing into the crowd with an eruption of dust and rubble.
"S-sect master, sect master, please restrain your rage." Alarmed, the Dongli King retreated into the kowtowing tactic and kept his forehead pinned on the ground. Unlike the Rong elders, however, he didn't make the mistake of letting silence rile up Guang Fanghu's mood.
"Sect master, at the end of the day, these disciples are only human. Lord Hanxing didn't challenge Xinzi's takeover, enabling him to rob the fourth-layer formation they all competed through effortlessly. Faced with this setback, how could the disciples not question the sect's motives. Xia Hu must have used this opportunity to confuse the disciples and Suishan alongside them! But sect master, you don't have to worry about Xinzi. With his cultivation base and formation mastery, even if he lost the contest, he'd still come out unscathed." The spectators could not hear what the disciples told one another, forcing them to make conjectures based on what they saw.
Shui Jiankang's assessment wasn't far from reality. Alas, he'd misunderstood the problem and struck Guang Fanghu's last nerve. The sect master canted his head to the left, and his eyes went bloodshot.
"Worry about Xinzi? I am worried about Suishan! Shui Jiankang, no matter how badly Suishan offends Xia Hu, with me here, he won't pay for it! But Xinzi doesn't even hesitate to smash Law Enforcement elite disciples into pieces. Do you think he will care about Suishan being my nephew? Now that he controls the formation, if Suishan uses that pill against him…damn! Damn! First it was Haoyang, now it is Suishan! Why are my nephews all so eager to throw their lives away?!"
At first, Guang Fanghu believed that it was Xia Hu and not Xinzi who disposed of the Law Enforcement disciples. Once sect investigations corroborated that, regardless of today's result, no one could save Xia Hu from the death sentence. And if Suishan could abuse him to death mid-contest, all the better.
But Following Xinzi's appearance, his succeeding feats plus the clear animosity Xia Hu showed him convinced Guang Fanghu that, not only had their brotherhood ship sailed, but the current Xinzi didn't seem to have half his past scruples. Automatically, he became the number one suspect. But even if he were guilty…at best they would send him back to the Clear Heart monastery and ask Abbot Qingxin to pass judgment.
Guang Fanghu dared not inflict direct harm upon Qingxin's disciple, and Shui Jiankang didn't understand why. Eminent Monks were powerhouses in their own right, but a late-stage Nascent Soul master such as Guang Fanghu could face them without shame. More importantly, Guang Fanghu had the entire White Immortal sect to rely on—whereas Qingxin aside, the strongest of the Clear Heart monastery were only Core-level Enlightened Monks.
Having interacted with Qingxin frequently, Shui Jiankang couldn't see what deterred his willful and tyrannical cousin to this extent. Not wasting his breath, Guang Fanghu turned to Lord Hanxing, who observed the confrontation with rapt attention.
'Please help me talk to Xinzi. At the end of the day, you set up this formation and should be able to contact him without alerting the public.' With a tiny display of humility, Guang Fanghu lowered his tone and asked for Hanxing's help.
'Why? According to the contest's rules, we can only intervene in case of dantian-destruction or murder. I've seen neither, and can only assume that you will attempt to sabotage the event. Sorry, but unless you can give me a valid reason, it's no. In any case, it's not like the result matters that much to you.'
'You are not human!'
'Is that so? Did you think I didn't know that you gave Suishan a Life Extinguishing Pill? The nerve of you to sneak that heinous drug into my contest, yet still expect me to help you when things go south. I'm curious, when Suishan uses that thing on Xinzi, will our monk sing the Clear Heart mantra before or after ripping Suishan to shreds?' It didn't take a genius to realize that Hanxing took pleasure in Guang Fanghu's misfortune. The sect master despaired, and shifted his helpless eyes back on the projection clouds.
There, a lone Xinzi confronted a gank squad of over 200 disciples united in their hatred of him. Relying on his prime disciple pedigree, Rong Suishan led the disciples, bringing the last doubtful to Xia Hu's side. The support of his former number one enemy boosted Xia Hu's morale, and he regained his cool.
"Xinzi, we have accumulated irreconcilable grievances. Today, if you don't die…I perish! Fellow Daoists…" Raising his right hand, Xia Hu rode his newfound momentum and, while his Yang Doll worked on refining the Yang Sword, the swordmaster summoned a long green sword. Dreadful waves of Spiritual Qi billowed out around the sword, reminding the sect disciples of how far ahead of them Xia Hu's cultivation currently stood.
"Barrage of Sword Talismans!" The order had barely left Xia Hu's lips that the White Immortal sect disciples each summoned white talismans. They rippled with formidable sword qi and, under the disciples' command, morphed into towering energy swords that bolted towards Xinzi. Above, Xia Hu channeled the storm of sword force. Rings of green mist surrounded his blade, and Xia Hu's sword whistled down the air, conjuring a hail of green miniature sword beams that raced down like streams of cosmic debris!
"I see." As far as the eyes could see, sword beams crammed the atmosphere, competing for all open space in their descent upon Xinzi. The sword orbs represented Lord Hanxing's insight, so Xia Hu's move was no different from a fourth-layer offensive formation's bombardment. Xinzi's Burning Hell Maze could resist the blow, but not only would he fall on the defensive, as all sword orbs now lay in Xia Hu's hands, Xinzi—who didn't have formal training in the sword arts—could no longer condense a yang sword.
"That being the case, you leave me no choice but to embrace the villain's role…and ruin you all completely." Xinzi's eyes sparkled with a manic glint, his smile stretched into a broad grin, and he snapped his fingers. Magmatic stone walls rose from the ground, blocking the barrage of sword energy threatening to mince Xinzi into pieces.
At the same time, rumbling noises spread across the virtual world. Stone walls rose, volcanoes broke down, the landscape morphed and the ground shifted as the Burning Hell Maze split and dragged the disciples into isolated blocks through a complete terrestrial upheaval.
The newly formed squadrons of split disciples barely had the time to catch their breath that Xinzi appeared in their maze block and tapped their foreheads. Golden runes flashed across the monk's face. Lilac mist poured out, seeping into the disciples' brains and making their eyes glaze over.
In tandem, the disciples fell on their knees—prostrating themselves at Xinzi's feet. Not sparing them a moment, Xinzi moved on to other maze blocks, dividing and enthralling the scattered disciples while Xia Hu attempted to keep control of the handful he still had on his side.
"Lean on one another, connect through your Spiritual Senses, and retreat as an ordered group to escape the formation's pull." Xia Hu directed his troops, but even he failed to comprehend this sudden turn of events. "I thought Fascination Seals could only confuse their targets' minds—not outright enthrall them! How is he doing this?"
"It must be a decoy. He's not using Fascination Seals. But that is not important. If you don't stop him promptly, he will use these disciples as fuel to blast your Yang Doll into smithereens!"
"Damn!" Xia Hu and his Yang Doll worked in concert, delaying the Yang Sword to challenge Xinzi's formation mastery. Dazzling great swords fell from the sky, aiming for Xinzi who merged with the walls and shifted across the maze blocks at ease. Curving domes of magmatic walls rose in the swords' way—taking the brunt of the damages.
Stray sword force rained down, hacking the limbs of 14 unprepared disciples while leaving several at the brink of death. Xinzi didn't kick them out, subduing them with the same lilac mist before moving on to new targets. The newborn slaves vanished, gathering at the formation's core as Xinzi brought down Xia Hu's makeshift army.
At last, Xinzi appeared in Rong Suishan's maze block, right underneath Xia Hu.
"Xia Hu, accelerate the construction of your Yang Sword, we will take him on!" Rong Suishan said and bolted towards Xinzi. By relying on his cultivation base alone, Rong Suishan knew that he had no chance to resist Xinzi. His subordinate Formation Masters also couldn't showcase their abilities, less they empower the enemy further.
"Rong Suishan, aim for the right arm! Xinzi's right arm is a mutated beast limb! Expose it and he will be disqualified automatically!" Xia Hu said.
"All of you, back off!" Suishan warned his fellow disciples. And with no more hesitation, crushed the green pill in his right hand, making Xinzi chuckle and Guang Fanghu despair. Dark-green smoke blew out of Suishan's clenched fist, infiltrating Suishan's meridians before rushing towards Xinzi and nearby disciples.
Warned beforehand, Suishan's subordinates retreated as far as the maze blocks enabled them to. "AAAAAAARGH!" That wouldn't suffice. The smoke latched upon their hearts and brains, green blood trickled down their orifices, and they fell on their backs—bent in awkward angles.
"Damn!" Rong Suishan cursed the insidious pill, whose range he'd severely underestimated. Meanwhile, dark-green qi filled his meridians, and his cultivation base shot up—going from the peak of Qi Refinement to the early stages of Pulse Condensation! The pill over-drafted Suishan's potential, forcing him into the most accurate version of his future Pulse Condensation self. In that instant, Rong Suishan's aura eclipsed the elite disciples that assaulted Xinzi's temple.
"A Life-Extinguishing Pill? Take the earth's lives as your own. Give up your peers to empower yourself. How did Rong Suishan get his hand on that sinister pill?" Outside, a commotion spread in the audience. Yet Xinzi didn't care for the pill, and with a casual sweep of his sleeve, blew the green smoke out of his way.
Spinning 360, Rong Suishan raked his sword at Xinzi's bandaged right arm. Berserk white sword energy coiled his blade, which dropped faster than most cultivators at that stage could react to. The expected clean slash never came. Rong Suishan's sword cut through empty air, Xinzi's shadow appeared in his dead angle, dazzling blood light soared up, and Xinzi threw a full-force kick at the interior of Rong Suishan's right knee—shattering his balance instantly. Yet the monk didn't relent, and as Suishan's shrill cries thundered, Xinzi's unforgiving fist crashed into his skull!
