Reaching the platform, Aotian's sword landed with perfection, just a hair's breadth from the ground, and he simply stepped forward, getting off it as it flew back into his pouch.
His opponent arrived seconds later, a young man who didn't seem much older than Aotian's current body, and immediately observed him with caution.
In truth, the young man had set out first, but still saw Aotian overtake him and arrive before he did, which made it clear this wasn't an ordinary opponent.
Of course, he might've been overthinking it, considering he hadn't used his full speed when overtaken, but combined with the fact that Aotian appeared to be the dao companion of that extremely powerful female disciple who fought earlier, he didn't dare underestimate him.
"Disciple Long Aotian/Gao Lin greets Elder Zhen." The two cupped their fists and greeted the elder almost simultaneously.
"Hum..." Yang Shi smiled gently at them and nodded as they both returned to a standing posture. "You two are very good. Since this is the first match for all the disciples, by consensus, we elders are explaining the rules in each round. The next ones will be more direct, so listen carefully because they won't be repeated."
Putting away the warm smile, he looked at them seriously, though there was still a hint of care in his tone.
"Yes, elder," the two replied earnestly.
Aotian might be disrespectful to his avatars and act cold to save time if he wanted — since nothing would happen to him anyway, being rude to himself — but he didn't want the disciples to see that. They might end up imitating it, thinking it was okay... and of course, he wouldn't allow others to disrespect him, whether it was his main body or his avatars.
"Very well, basic rules: don't hold back. You are absolutely safe under our supervision. Do not break the rules Elder Zheng Tao explained earlier, such as using pills, talismans, and such. Doing so will disqualify you from the entire competition, and additional punishments may apply. Finally, a word of advice: defeat is the mother of learning. Don't be discouraged if you lose. Become more determined and strive to improve."
He explained briefly and kindly, with both nodding in agreement.
Aotian's nod was more casual, while Gao Lin's was more solemn.
"That's all. Prepare yourselves."
As the two stepped back, taking their positions and facing each other, the elder saw everything was in order and gave the order:
"Let the match begin!"
Gan Lin formed hand seals, and green runes covered his body. Wasting no time, he cast a Founder-Tier spell, causing roots to emerge from the ground — something only possible because the platform was prepared for such techniques — and, like a giant devouring hedge, they surged toward Aotian.
But Aotian simply observed calmly.
Then, he extended the index and middle fingers of his right hand, imitating a sword, and with complex patterns guiding spiritual energy through his roots, he generated a new type of energy: sword intent prototype; and with it, he coated his fingers.
Raising his hand above his head, he slashed downward with his fingers as if swinging a real sword, simply and with an indifferent expression.
Even so, the strike made the watching disciples widen their eyes once more.
As the fingers swept through the air, the silver-coated fingers created a light arc that surged forward like a flash of light.
Though it appeared simple and fragile before the lush wall of roots, the silver arc sliced through it like a hot knife through butter, cutting through everything effortlessly and heading straight for the disciple, who watched wide-eyed.
From a spiritual energy perspective, he saw everything happening but was powerless to react.
The extremely fast energy gave him no time to think before hitting him directly, shattering his rune armor in moments.
In Gan Lin's pupils, one could see the despair of someone watching death approach inevitably. He didn't even have time to forfeit or scream.
But just as the armor broke, the massive platform lit up beneath his feet with various formations activating, as if detecting a disciple in danger, and at that instant a golden energy shield enveloped his body, protecting him from the sword intent.
Elder Yang Shi appeared next to Gan Lin at the same time and waved his hand, using a discreet Founder-Tier spell to shatter the silver energy with apparent ease.
From the disciples' point of view, he had simply waved his hand and broke the terrifying arc of light into pieces with a bit of spiritual energy.
But in truth, that simplicity was all the work of a spell.
The spell was simple: it condensed energy and compressed it, making it denser and heavier. From there, it generated high force, allowing even a basic strike to carry the power of a Founder-Tier spell.
It wasn't very effective in direct combat, since condensing energy beyond what spiritual roots could withstand could damage them, in addition to being slow and consuming a lot for little return.
But the biggest issue was that the resulting energy was too crude and hard to manipulate, making it unsuitable for reinforcing other spells that required precise and complex control over spiritual energy.
Still, with synthesis, most of those problems were resolved, except for the most fundamental one: the difficulty in manipulating such crude energy with roots that weren't prepared for that energy level. But that wasn't the spell's fault — it was the nature of spiritual energy and the cultivator's roots.
Even so, the spell allowed for attacks equivalent to other synthesized Founder-Tier spells in a discreet manner, making it excellent for bluffing in front of disciples.
As for the strike from Aotian's main body, it was a simple and brute application of the sword intent prototype — something that only a very talented Golden Core cultivator could achieve, except for sword physiques, who could reach full intent at this stage.
This meant that using the sword intent prototype so crudely wasn't much different from using a basic Core-Tier spell, which easily surpassed the synthesized Refiner-Tier spells the disciples used, which at best matched the top Founder-Tier spells.
Moreover, now that Aotian had reached Foundation Establishment, he could display a bit of the real sword intent he had copied, with the help of his avatars' minds. But he was already using a sledgehammer to kill a fly in this battle, so there was no need to bring out a jet fighter for the same job.
"Disciple Long has won this match."
Elder Yang announced, though it seemed his words hadn't reached Gan Lin, who remained frozen in place.
Approaching Gan Lin, who was still stunned beside the elder after being saved from what looked like certain death, Aotian gave him two pats on the shoulder, lightly waking him up.
"Don't be like that, you just had the bad luck of drawing me as your opponent. You're not weak at all, and there are still 8 more matches, which means you still have chances. Do your best."
Aotian spoke and smiled at him simply, then clasped his fists and bid farewell to Elder Yang before departing on his flying sword, his hair and robes whipping in the wind.
Gan Lin took a moment to process what had happened until the elder called out to him.
"Boy, he's right. If you give up now and stop trying because of one crushing and humiliating defeat, the gap between you two will only grow. But if you rise up now, from the very start, and never stop fighting, then in the end, no matter what happens, you'll at least be proud of yourself."
Elder Yang Shi spoke with wisdom, hands behind his back and eyes turned to the sky, as if recalling his youth with some melancholy for the time that had passed.
As for Gan Lin, he cast a bitter glance at the elder.
'Elder Yang, could you not say "crushing and humiliating defeat"? I hadn't even thought of the word humiliating, but now that you said it, I won't be able to get it out of my head…'
"Thank you, Elder Yang, for your wise words and advice."
Despite wanting to cry, Gan Lin forced a smile uglier than tears, clasped his fists, bowed and thanked him before picking up his sword and flying away under Yang Shi's confused gaze.
'Huh? My words of wisdom and enlightenment might still need improvement…'
Aotian thought, mentally scratching his chin.
…
Returning to Rihai, he was met with an amused and helpless look from her.
'You really don't know what it means to hold back, do you? Using sword intent like that… look at the disciples, they're still staring in confusion, unable to understand what you did.'
She sent a voice transmission to Aotian, half-exasperated.
Aotian turned and saw that most of the disciples were staring at him as if they'd just seen a rare beast. Confusion and doubt were written all over their faces.
Even Xiao Ling, their recent friend and an inner disciple, was watching him stunned… and another inner disciple, Cang Song, had already hidden among the outer disciples and didn't even dare look in his direction.
As for the little girl Lin Xiaoxue, she was staring at him with sparkling eyes, and he knew a flood of questions from the curious girl was probably awaiting him in the future.
Aotian scratched his chin with a serious and thoughtful look.
"Did I overdo it?"
He muttered, but since the scene was completely silent due to the shock — and everyone there was a cultivator — there was no doubt his words reached them.
'You still doubt it?!' the disciples all thought in unison, their eyes twitching.
Rihai covered her smile with her hand, amused at the sight.
She knew he'd done it on purpose just to provoke them, and the vision of thousands of people staring in disbelief at Aotian, who stood there scratching his chin with a pensive expression, was truly something to behold.
As for poor Gan Lin, who had just flown nearby, when he heard those words he nearly fell off his flying sword face-first into the ground.