On Bai Yuexin's side, irritation was clearly written across her face.
Tang Ruoxuan kept retreating in light steps, his folding fan snapping open and shut as streams of thin, crescent-shaped blades shot out in waves, each one faintly coated with poison. They came from all angles, fast, tricky, and deliberately annoying rather than lethal.
"Hahaha, it seems you are a close-range fighter," Tang Ruoxuan laughed from over twenty paces away, lazily waving his fan. "A terrible match for someone like me."
More fan blades whistled through the air, slicing toward Bai Yuexin from the front, sides, and even above, forcing her to constantly adjust her footing.
Bai Yuexin's eyes narrowed.
This rat was not strong in direct combat, but he was slippery, relying on distance, poison, and harassment to wear opponents down. With their cultivation suppressed, he was clearly trying to drag the fight into a prolonged exchange.
She exhaled slowly.
"Ice Veil Arts," she muttered.
The temperature around her dropped instantly.
A pale mist burst forth from beneath her feet and spread outward like a silent tide, swallowing the arena floor in a layer of cold fog. In just a few breaths, both Bai Yuexin and Tang Ruoxuan were enveloped in a dense frost-laced haze that distorted sight and dulled sound.
Tang Ruoxuan's smile faltered slightly.
He flicked his sleeve and released a surge of Essence Qi to disperse the mist.
But the fog only trembled and remained.
"…Hmm, a concealment technique," thought Tang Ruoxuan as he scanned the dense frost mist around him.
His vision was dulled, his senses slightly distorted. Even the flow of Essence Qi in the air felt sluggish, as if the fog itself was interfering with perception.
Now this was getting troublesome.
He hadn't expected her to possess such a technique. Concealment combined with cold qi… this was not something ordinary first-rate sect disciples usually displayed.
"So the ancient sect disciples really are different…" he muttered under his breath, tightening his grip on the fan. "Even their utility techniques are this refined."
The mist shifted.
A faint chill brushed the back of his neck.
"Why don't you laugh now?"
Bai Yuexin's voice suddenly sounded right behind him.
Tang Ruoxuan's pupils shrank.
There was no sword in her hand this time. Instead, her palm was coated in dense frost Qi, the cold so concentrated that thin ice crystals formed along her fingers and wrist.
He reacted instantly, twisting his body and snapping his fan backward to block.
But his reaction was a fraction too slow.
"Sealing Frost Strike."
Her palm struck his chest directly.
The moment it landed, a burst of freezing qi exploded outward. A layer of frost spread across his robes and into his meridians like a creeping tide, locking his breath for a split second.
Tang Ruoxuan was blasted backwards, his feet skidding violently across the arena floor as cracks formed beneath him from the impact. A mouthful of blood sprayed from his lips as he was pushed several meters away before he barely managed to stabilize himself.
He coughed, clutching his chest, and felt a terrifying cold spreading inward from the point of impact.
"…Cough—!"
The frost Qi didn't just injure him.
It was sealing.
His circulation of Essence Qi slowed, and even his arm holding the fan felt stiff, as if invisible ice was forming inside his meridians.
Within the mist, Bai Yuexin stepped forward slowly, her figure half-hidden by the frost veil, the lotus-shaped frost aura behind her rotating quietly.
"You rely too much on distance," she said coldly. "And tricks."
"And that strike has the ability to disrupt the flow of Essence Qi temporarily. My Essence Qi is different—you should be feeling that by now," said Bai Yuexin, her voice calm, but laced with killing intent.
"But you also underestimated me," Tang Ruoxuan replied, slowly opening his folded fan.
The ribs of the fan spread out with a soft snap. Along the thin edges of the hidden blades, a faint dark-red sheen glimmered under the arena light.
Bai Yuexin's gaze instantly sharpened.
She lowered her eyes slightly and looked at her palm.
There, near the base of her hand, was a shallow cut she hadn't even noticed during the exchange.
A thin line of blood had already formed.
"Now you've been injected with Essence-Eroding Poison," Tang Ruoxuan said with a smug smile, gently waving his fan as if the battle was already decided.
"You should know what that means. It doesn't kill immediately."
He took a slow step back, keeping distance like a cautious rat.
"It seeps into the meridians… interferes with Essence Qi circulation… and gradually disrupts technique control."
Bai Yuexin silently circulated her Essence Qi.
For a brief moment—
There was resistance.
A slight delay in the flow through her palm and forearm, as if something sticky was clinging to her meridians.
Her frost qi flickered once before stabilizing.
Tang Ruoxuan caught that tiny fluctuation and laughed.
"Feeling it already, aren't you?"
He flicked the fan, and several thin blade shadows formed around him again.
"The more you use your Qi, the faster the poison spreads. Your own techniques will become your burden."
Bai Yuexin stared at the small cut on her hand for a second.
Then frost gathered silently over the wound, sealing it in a thin layer of ice.
Her expression did not change.
"Poison hidden in a fan," she said flatly. "Petty."
Tang Ruoxuan's smile widened.
"Call it whatever you want. In real combat, only the winner is right."
"Ummm… about the winner part?"
A calm voice suddenly came from right behind him.
"I have something to say."
Tang Ruoxuan's pupils shrank.
A hand tapped lightly on his shoulder.
Close.
Too close.
He turned his head in shock—only to see Lin Chen already standing behind him, close enough to feel his breath.
"When did—"
The sentence never finished.
A fist smashed straight into his jaw.
Crack.
His head snapped sideways as saliva and blood sprayed out of his mouth, his body lifted half off the ground from the sheer force. Before he could even regain balance, Lin Chen grabbed his wrist mid-air, locking his arm in place.
"Poison? Tricks? Distance?" Lin Chen said flatly.
Then he yanked him down.
Boom.
Tang Ruoxuan's back slammed violently into the platform, the impact echoing across the arena. The air was forced out of his lungs in a choked gasp.
He tried to circulate Essence Qi.
Too slow.
Lin Chen's foot rose and came down mercilessly.
Bang.
The heel smashed straight into his face, driving his head into the stone. The platform cracked slightly under the impact.
Tang Ruoxuan's fan slipped from his hand.
Lin Chen didn't stop.
Each stomp was heavy, direct, and completely devoid of elegance—pure brutal suppression.
Blood splattered across the ground as Tang Ruoxuan's vision spun, his body twitching weakly before going completely limp.
He lost consciousness.
The arena fell a little quieter on that side.
Bai Yuexin walked over, stopping a few steps away from Lin Chen and glancing at the unconscious Tang Ruoxuan, whose face was now swollen and barely recognizable.
"…Was that really necessary?" she asked, tone calm but edged.
Lin Chen didn't even look down at the guy.
"My master told me to beat this guy," he said casually, rolling his shoulder once. "And I didn't like his face either."
Bai Yuexin gave him a strange look, but didn't comment further.
"Are you alright? That poison seems to be spreading."
"It's minor," Bai Yuexin replied calmly, taking a pill from her ring and placing it into her mouth without the slightest hint of concern.
A faint medicinal fragrance spread.
The wound closed almost immediately, the dark discoloration fading as the poison was expelled along with a thin wisp of black vapor.
Lin Chen's eyes widened a little.
"Wow… that was fast. Can I get some?"
Bai Yuexin glanced at him sideways.
"I already gave them to you."
Lin Chen blinked, then suddenly remembered the pills she had thrown at him earlier.
Heavenly Dew Pills.
"…Oh."
So that thing was that good?
He subconsciously touched his storage ring. For a sect-exclusive pill to neutralize toxins and heal injuries that quickly, it was definitely not cheap.
Then Bai Yuexin shifted her gaze toward the center of the arena.
"So what should we do now?" she asked.
Lin Chen followed her line of sight.
Chen Hao was standing not far away, his expression clearly more complicated than before. The calm superiority he had when he first arrived was gone, replaced by visible confusion.
He had clearly not expected Li Zhen to be beaten unconscious and Tang Ruoxuan to be stomped into the ground like that.
Originally, his plan had been obvious.
Let others exhaust themselves… then clean up.
But the situation didn't go the way he imagined.
"Ahem."
Chen Hao straightened his robes and spoke with a gentle smile.
"Fellow disciple," he said, looking at Lin Chen, "as the chief disciple of the same sect, why don't you assist me in clearing this final trial?"
His tone was polite.
But the meaning was not.
Anyone with a brain could hear it—he wasn't asking for cooperation.
He was asking Lin Chen to yield.
To "help" him pass.
In other words, step down and let the chief disciple take the spotlight.
Before Lin Chen could even reply, Bai Yuexin's voice cut in sharply.
"Why should he?"
She stepped half a pace forward, her gaze cold.
"If you want to pass that badly, why don't you beat him yourself?"
Lin Chen blinked in surprise and glanced at her.
…Why was she suddenly so defensive?
The way she spoke just now felt strangely familiar, almost like a wife instinctively defending her husband after he had been looked down upon.
She even helped him during the fight earlier without hesitation.
Chen Hao's smile stiffened slightly.
"I think," he said slowly, "outsiders should not meddle in my sect's internal affairs."
Bai Yuexin snorted without restraint.
"What a load of nonsense."
Chen Hao's smile twitched slightly, but he quickly recovered, as if nothing had happened.
"Junior Brother," he continued smoothly, completely bypassing Bai Yuexin as though she hadn't spoken at all, "you must understand the bigger picture. We are from the same sect. In a place like an inheritance trial, internal unity is far more important than personal gains."
His tone sounded righteous.
Almost reasonable.
"As the chief disciple, it is my responsibility to secure the best outcome for the sect," he added, placing one hand behind his back. "If you assist me now, the sect will naturally remember your contribution. Resources, status, protection—none of these will be lacking in the future."
Lin Chen stared at him silently.
Ah.
So that was the angle.
Sweet words outside, command hidden inside.
"You are talented, but still a direct disciple with low cultivation. The path ahead is long," he said with a faint sigh. "If you make the right choice today, it will benefit you for years. Opposing the sect's future leader over a mere trial is… unwise."
Lin Chen scratched his cheek.
"…So let me summarize," he said casually. "You want me to 'help' you pass. Which basically means I step aside and you take the inheritance."
Chen Hao smiled faintly.
"I prefer to call it proper hierarchy."
Bai Yuexin spoke.
"I call it shameless."
Chen Hao's expression stiffened for a fraction of a second.
"Senior Brother," Lin Chen said, "you're overthinking it."
A faint smile appeared on his lips.
"This is a combat trial."
He raised his sword slightly.
"If you want to pass…"
His gaze sharpened just a little.
"Then fight. Don't negotiate."
*****
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