Tianyi's eyes hovered on Lei Jingye for a moment. Through his mastery of the Law of Lightning, he could detect the lightning aura coating Lie Jingye's body. 'He mastered at least half the concepts forming the Law of Lightning.'
He blinked when Lei Jingye suddenly looked up and looked around. 'Did he sense my stare?'
Tianyi didn't stop looking at Lei Jingye but just put more effort into concealing it. A minute later, Lei Jingye frowned but gave up looking for the source.
"What's wrong?" Tianyi asked Daoyi, who had pulled his sleeves. She motioned with her eyes towards a spot near Lei Jingye, and Tianyi's eyes widened. "Another Daoyi?"
Standing next to Lei Jingye was an exact copy of Jiang Daoyi. Well, to be exact, an exact copy in physical features. Compared to the Daoyi he knew, the Daoyi next to Lei Jingye appeared far more soft and demure.
"Seeing another you is quite interesting, but she feels a bit different. Do you think it would be another me or Xi Longyi that is in this world?" Tianyi asked. Personally, he felt that it was more likely that Xi Longyi and not another him that existed.
Daoyi slapped his arm. "No, I'm not talking about that. I can feel a fragment of the Spectral Rising Jewel."
"On your other self?"
"No, Lei Jingye," Daoyi said.
Tianyi instantly conceived a plotline. Originally, Daoyi was supposed to elope with Lei Jingye when he went to the Xi Dynasty. From there, Lei Jingye would gain the Xu Clan's soul inheritance, making him a triple path cultivator.
Lei Jingye would aid Daoyi and exterminate the Xu Clan's enemies and gain the Spectral Rising Jewel. Coupled with the divine artifact found near the Lei Clan, he would have two divine artifacts!
'Too bad he met me.' Tianyi thought. "What about it?"
"Is there a way to take it without anyone realizing?" Daoyi asked.
"You want to steal from yourself?" Tianyi asked. "Well, not that I don't want to make Lei Jingye miserable, but he hasn't offended me in this timeline, yet."
Daoyi rolled her eyes. "She's not me. I can sense that her soul is different. Also, I already asked around, and it doesn't seem like Xi Ri became a disciple in this timeline. I hypothesize that this timeline doesn't have reincarnators."
"Is that so," Tianyi said. "Still, I can't just arbitrarily take it. If my guess is right, then he should currently have two divine artifacts, but if I take them, it will make things difficult for the Buzhou Immortal Sect. Plus, on the surface, I specialize in spatial laws, and the first suspect would be me."
"More importantly, I don't want to steal without reason. If he offended me, I would have fewer scruples, but I have morals," Tianyi said.
"Alright," Daoyi said.
However, Tianyi wasn't done. "Hey, since this place has the Spectral Rising Jewel, does it mean that the other materials are also around, like the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus?"
Daoyi stopped. She shook her head. "I don't know."
"It'll be good to check it out. If it hasn't bloomed yet, we'll take it first, hehe," Tianyi said. "Before that, I want to refine a new artifact."
Tianyi didn't speak anymore as the competition began. As expected, the Buzhou Immortal Sect dominated the early stages. That is not to say that they won with numbers, as each sect had the same number of quotas. No, they dominated with quality.
Still, this contrast only made those not from the Buzhou Immortal Sect stand out.
First among them was Lei Jingye, who defeated his opponents with one strike each. Then there was San Jiuling. He was among the top disciples, but Tianyi noticed that he only seemed to have one lifebound artifact instead of nine.
'Is Xi Longyi not here?' Tianyi thought. He waited and waited, but he didn't see Xi Longyi anywhere. 'Did he not join, or was he cut by Mother like in my vision? Unless Lei Jingye already slew him?'
Unknown to Tianyi, Lei Jingye was also searching for Xi Longyi's figure, but upon not seeing him, snorted and focused on his next match. 'Xi Longyi, you may have dodged me this time, but you won't always be lucky in the future!'
Tianyi just lightly glanced at most of the battles. He enjoyed the ups and downs of each match but quickly grew bored of it. Most of the disciples barely understood a fragment of a concept and couldn't reach his eyes at all.
Lei Jingye was different, but Tianyi had already mastered the Law of Lightning, so observing Lei Jingye brought no benefit to him.
It only turned interesting during the semi-finals when Xia Yushan faced off against San Jiuling in the semi-finals. Tianyi frowned as he watched the battle. Compared to his timeline's Xia Yushan, this Xia Yushan was weaker.
The amount of comprehension was the same, but the quality of the qi was inferior. Although the two Xia Yushan's comprehension was about the same, don't forget that this Xia Yushan had around a hundred more years to cultivate. Not to mention his Xia Yushan had already become an immortal and didn't stay at the Transcending Mortality.
Although it took some effort, Xia Yushan defeated San Jiuling. Compared to this, the next match didn't excite people much except Tianyi.
"I never expected a mere venerable from the Five Elements Sect could make it so far."
"So what if he got lucky? He reached the end of his luck the moment he was matched against Senior Sister Su."
"You're still calling her Senior Sister Su? You should call her Lady Su. Not even Eldest Senior Brother can compare to her."
"I agree that Senior Sister Su is good, but saying that she is stronger than Eldest Senior Brother Xia is too much."
"Heh, what do you know? If Lady Su didn't vacate the position, then how can Senior Brother Xia have the title of the eldest senior brother?"
"Shh, enough, the battle is about to start."
On the arena stood two figures. One was naturally Lei Jingye wearing dark blue robes. The other was a beautiful woman wearing sky-blue robes with a silk masking hiding the lower half of her face.
Lei Jingye found himself entranced by Su Wanyu's eyes as if they were black holes. She narrowed her eyes and cupped her fist. "Buzhou Immortal Sect Disciple Su Wanyu, please advise."
Her words broke Lei Jingye out of his daze. He gave a light but charming smile and cupped his hands too. "Five Element Sect Disciple Lei Jingye, likewise."
Su Wanyu didn't waste any words and immediately attacked. Ever since her incident with Lovespot, she hated men looking at her like that. A ladle filled with crystal clear water appeared in her hand.
With a swipe, the crystal clear water shot out towards Lei Jingye in the form of numerous droplets. Lei Jingye, naturally, wasn't willing to stand there and take the attack. In a flash, literally, he appeared on the other end of the arena, causing the droplets to drill holes into the arena.
"You can't hurt me, and I don't like hurting women. I advise you to give up."
Su Wanyu's eyes grew colder upon hearing Lie Jingye's words, and the frequency of her attack increased.
Lei Jingye sighed and unsheathed his sword. He slashed out and sliced her droplet bullets, but upon contact, he discovered that the force behind them actually pushed him back a few steps.
Taking advantage of his surprise, Su Wanyu increased her attack, but Lei Jingye's figure disappeared. The next moment, Su Wanyu stopped her attack, and a ball of electricity struck the right of where she once stood.
"Thunderclap Cannon. If you had been struck, you would have been blasted away," Lei Jingye said calmly.
Su Wanyu's face darkened. With her free hand, she formed a hand seal. In mere moments, a mist began to cover the arena, and the sources were the water droplets she had launched earlier.
"It is still too soon to see who is going to win," she said.
Not long after, sounds of water and lightning clashing could be heard. Sparks of electricity appeared with increasing frequency, but aside from that, most disciples and even some true immortals could not detect what was going on.
Finally, a gigantic pillar of lightning shot out of the mist to the sky. Simultaneously, the lightning scattered the mist and revealed two figures entwined together.
Lei Jingye was holding Su Wanyu's waist, who was leaning back. Su Wanyu's silk mask had fallen, revealing a nasty scar on her otherwise perfect skin.
Su Wanyu quickly used her sleeve and hid her scar, and shame filled her eyes. Her eyes started to redden as water droplets gathered at the corner.
"Beautiful."
Su Wanyu's eyes widened, and she turned to stare at Lei Jingye. "What did you say?"
Lei Jingye seemed to have realized what position the two were in and quickly released Su Wanyu, and the two distanced themselves. He scratched his head and averted his gaze. "I said you are beautiful."
In his seat, Tianyi felt his lips twitch. 'Sure enough, he has the life of a protagonist. Lovespot harmed Su Wanyu, causing her to look at the world with jaded eyes and hate men. But one word nearly instantly dispersed all that resentment, psh.'
"Womanizer," Daoyi quietly said beside Tianyi.
Su Wanyu voluntarily gave up, saying that she was inferior to Lei Jingye in skill, shocking the onlookers and raising the honor of the Five Element Sect.
Most of the Buzhou Immortal Sect disciples had dark expressions on their faces. Previously, it was them who crossed realms to fight those stronger. When had it been reversed? In addition, they also knew that even if Xia Yushan won, it would not diminish Lei Jingye's accomplishments since he had a lower realm.
Tianyi watched the match with great interest. The Law of Metal and the Law of Lightning were intricately linked. The most predominant link was the Concept of Magnetism. So, both Lei Jingye and Xia Yushan did not have a clear advantage over the other, and it would come down to how quick-witted either of them was and how much more they comprehended.
However, this was not the reason Tianyi paid close attention. From Xia Yushan's techniques, he could detect concepts under the Law of Metal that he had not mastered. Even if he used the five-phase connection to convert the metal qi into another of the five elemental qi, it could not hide its foundation.
Still, there was no spark of intimacy like in the previous match. If there were, Tianyi might have raised an eyebrow. In the end, after one last gamble, Lei Jingye won. He was on his last legs, but it was a win nonetheless.
The Five Element Sect and other members of the Anti-Heaven Alliance all cheered. Even some of the vassal sect disciples, like the Leakless Sect and Jade Cauldron Sect, cheered. In contrast, the Buzhou Immortal Sect disciples were deathly silent, and each one had an expression like they had swallowed a fly.
Tianyi turned towards the Buzhou Immortal Sect elders next to them. To his surprise, he only saw calmness in their eyes. Not even Sect Master Xia had an ugly expression. At most, he had pity, pity that his disciple lost. All of them acted as if it was nothing that a disciple of the Five Element Sect won the champion spot.
He sighed. Recalling all the secrets he had been privy to, Tianyi shrugged. It was true that it didn't matter if a disciple of the Buzhou Immortal Sect didn't win. All of the Huang Realm would belong to them soon, anyway.
Instead, Tianyi turned his head and stared at Lei Jingye, who was given his prize, an immortal artifact. Only the Buzhou Immortal Sect could be so spendthrift to give an immortal artifact to a mortal cultivator when most true immortals struggled to acquire one.
His eyes sharpened, and he opened his third eye to see a golden light descend on Lei Jingye. The color didn't match the light of karmic merit, and it was far too faint.
'That is...luck?' Previously, Tianyi had thought the Concept of Luck was only a portion of the Law of Probability, much like the Concept of Wealth, but now, why did it seem that the Law of Luck existed?
Tianyi had the confidence to say that the Law of Luck did not exist, but what was happening could not be explained by the Concept of Luck. 'Luck is just overcoming probability, but this luck is different. It's like an invisible hand aiding the holder. Invisible hand? Heavenly Dao?'
Tianyi stared at the sky, trying to peer into the secrets. Unfortunately, he saw nothing. After the match was over, all forces left, and Tianyi returned to the Honored Lotus Palace.
He still hadn't figured out what that strange phenomenon was, but for now, he had other important things to do, like refining his new immortal artifact.
