Li Yan sat cross-legged in his cultivation room. The Foundation Establishment competition had ended after four days. In five days, it would be the Qi Condensation competition. These five days served as a time for the Qi Condensation disciples who had observed the competition to summarize and learn, and also for the injured Foundation Establishment cultivators to recover.
As Li Yan recalled the matches of the Foundation Establishment masters he had watched over the past few days, he couldn't help but sigh with emotion. No wonder each battle stage was fifty li long. Even with the protective light shields around each stage, the battles within were earth-shattering. The shields were struck until they flashed wildly with blue light, and the stages had to be repaired multiple times a day for the competition to continue.
In this competition, he had witnessed the ferocity and restraint of his Sixth Senior Sister. When attacking, this cold and beautiful senior sister preferred to use the methods of a body refining cultivator, engaging in face-to-face close combat. Often, after just a few exchanges, she would beat her opponent into unconsciousness. More cunning cultivators, however, would often deliberately create a distance of over ten li upon entering the battle stage to launch long-range immortal art attacks. Gong Chenying would then either stop or set up a formation while on the move. This revealed another side of his senior sister to Li Yan. The formations she laid were ever-changing, often causing her opponents to unknowingly walk into them while moving. Later, she was drawn against Chu Weili from Four Symbols Peak. The two fought formation against formation, breaking formations with formations, a truly spectacular battle. In the end, Chu Weili won by a slight margin due to his superior formation skills. This was also under the condition that Gong Chenying did not use any other immortal arts; otherwise, the outcome would have been hard to say. In that battle, Gong Chenying had made it clear she only wanted to decide the winner through formation arts.
However, Gong Chenying was not drawn against Wang Tian, which made her gaze toward him grow increasingly hostile. After all, in this competition, each person only fought five matches in a round. The competition ended once the top forty-nine were decided, and there was no further contest for ranking among them. This dissatisfied many disciples, but the sect clearly did not want its personnel to be damaged before the secret realm harvest a few months later. After all, a battle for rankings would only be more intense.
What also surprised Li Yan was Zhao Min. She had adopted the same fighting style as Gong Chenying, equally fierce in close-quarters combat. He never would have thought that a graceful and elegant-looking young woman could be so violent. Similarly, she would rapidly close the distance upon entering the stage, followed by a stormy barrage of attacks. Those unfamiliar with her were easily deceived by her beautiful and seemingly frail appearance. If someone was far away from her, Zhao Min would release two strange types of Gu-insects. One was skilled at concealing its aura, silently approaching the opponent before delivering a fatal blow. It seemed she didn't have many of these Gu-insects; Li Yan only saw her release three or four, each with the aura of the eighth or ninth layer of Qi Condensation. Their attacks were also exceptionally swift, often targeting the face, neck, and exposed arms. A single bite could be fatal. But fortunately, Zhao Min had perfect control. As soon as this type of Gu-insect touched the opponent's skin, she would stop the attack, merely looking at the opponent coldly. The opponent, seeing the Gu-insect attached to their face, neck, or arm, would be drenched in sweat and admit defeat directly.
The other type of Gu-insect was skilled at forming formations and attacking in swarms. They loved to gnaw on flesh and blood, burrowing into the body to eat from the inside out. These Gu-insects only had an aura of about the fifth layer of Qi Condensation, but their numbers were vast, a dense swarm that covered the sky and made one's heart turn cold just looking at them. Li Yan only saw Zhao Min release them once, and she kept them at a distance from her opponent, merely encircling them. It was clear that she couldn't control such a large number of Gu-insects with perfect ease.
Both of them entered the top forty-nine. Second Senior Brother Wei Chituo passed through all his matches until the final round, where he met Gan Shi from Four Symbols Peak. The battle was extremely intense. Both were at the perfected late-stage of Foundation Establishment, and they were evenly matched. In the end, Gan Shi used his body as a formation, activating a small formation that trapped Wei Chituo. After half an hour, Wei Chituo was unable to break free and had to admit defeat, but he still entered the top forty-nine.
Yun Chunqu, however, met Li Changting at the very beginning and was defeated in the first match. This made his face even more gloomy. After all, Li Changting was the Eldest Senior Sister of Never-Parting Peak, just one step away from the Pseudo-Core Realm, and possessed breathtaking Gu-insect control skills. Yun Chunqu's loss was not unjust. In the subsequent matches, he met disciples from other peaks. With his mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation, he lost another match and drew three. In the end, he also made it into the top forty-nine, but his ranking was likely near the bottom.
Li Changting, on the other hand, passed through with ease. Even when she met Gan Shi from Four Symbols Peak, who was known for his formation arts, he had a headache dealing with her sky-covering insect cloud. With his current magical power, he couldn't lay a formation covering dozens of li. Even if he trapped Li Changting within a formation, he would still have to face that boundless insect cloud, because Li Changting had spread a large cloud of insects in all four corners as soon as she entered the stage. Li Yan witnessed the powerful Divine Sense and extensive knowledge of Gu-insects of this Eldest Senior Sister of Never-Parting Peak.
Miao Wangqing was eliminated in the second round after losing three consecutive matches.
Wen Xinliang, however, fought his way to the fifth round with his early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation but was still eliminated. The impression he left on Li Yan was one of sinister ruthlessness. His use of poison had reached a certain level of mastery, and he could use various opportunities to silently deliver a fatal blow to his opponents. But due to his realm, he consecutively met several late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators. The difference in realm was too great, and despite his resourcefulness, he was ultimately defeated.
He was still quite accomplished. In his match against the first late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, he used the Wind Blade Art to secretly conceal the "Latent Scutellaria Poison." The opponent easily dodged his wind blades, but the space the wind blades passed through was filled with the scent of the poison. The man carelessly inhaled a breath and was knocked to the ground moments later, a case of a master capsizing in a calm sea. Seeing this, the remaining late-stage Foundation Establishment masters took note of him. When they were drawn against him later, they gave him no chance to turn the tables, and he was eliminated after a few losses.
But Wen Xinliang had another battle before that, which brought great satisfaction to the members of Little Bamboo Peak. In the fourth round, he was drawn against Zuo Shengyan of Spirit Insect Peak, the Dao Companion of Wang Tian. Li Yan had previously suffered a Divine Sense attack from Wang Tian just for looking at her, nearly putting him in bed for several days. In the fourth round, Zuo Shengyan had consecutively met two strong opponents, one at late-stage Foundation Establishment and one at the peak of mid-stage Foundation Establishment. What frustrated her was that one of these two was the formation expert Chu Weixiong, and the other was also a mid-stage expert from Spirit Insect Peak. She had been relying on her Black Wood Scorpion, which was like having an extra powerful combatant, and had progressed smoothly. But in the first match of the fifth round, she encountered Chu Weixiong. As soon as she entered the stage, she was trapped in his formation. She and her Black Wood Scorpion attacked for a long time but couldn't get out, so she had to admit defeat. In the subsequent match, she met a senior brother from the same Spirit Insect Peak. They were familiar with each other, but his spirit beast was one minor realm higher than hers, and its innate ability happened to counter her spirit beast. In the end, Zuo Shengyan was defeated. By the third match of the fifth round, Zuo Shengyan was full of frustration. Seeing Wen Xinliang, an early-stage Foundation Establishment opponent, she couldn't help but want to vent all her frustration from her consecutive losses on him. She was a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, plus a powerful demonic beast at the eighth layer of Qi Condensation; it should have been a crushing victory no matter what. But she was careless. Wen Xinliang, of course, knew the gap between them and also knew the potency of the Black Wood Scorpion's poison. As soon as he entered the stage, he pulled away and constantly engaged in a running battle, preventing Zuo Shengyan's repeated attempts to encircle him. This made her fair face turn pale with anger, and the two scorpion tattoos on her exposed white belly trembled as if they were about to leap off her body. She never expected this Wen Xinliang to be so slippery and difficult to fight. Time passed bit by bit. Zuo Shengyan had always been somewhat arrogant, and after failing to take down an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator for so long, she became impatient. Wen Xinliang seized the opportunity. When her Black Wood Scorpion sprayed its poison at close range again, he bizarrely released a powder of "Two-Headed Fly" that spread a thin layer on the ground. It was so thin that it matched the stone patterns on the stage and was hard to notice. The Black Wood Scorpion, being a demonic beast, seemed to sense something. Before it could hiss a warning, Zuo Shengyan stepped into the area. By the time she felt something was wrong, she had no time to take out an antidote and collapsed to the ground, the world spinning. Without its master's support, the Black Wood Scorpion was only at the Qi Condensation realm. If it had also been at the Foundation Establishment realm, it alone would have been difficult for Wen Xinliang to handle. After a few rounds, it was subdued by Wen Xinliang.
When Zuo Shengyan woke up and learned of the situation, her heart filled with rage and hatred for Wen Xinliang. It turned out that she was already scantily clad, and when she fell, due to the powerful effect of the "Two-Headed Fly," her limbs convulsed and she involuntarily spread them open. Many places that shouldn't have been exposed were revealed in all their fair, delicate glory. Fortunately, the supervising elder discovered it early, waved her out, and gave her an antidote. When Wang Tian found out about this, he was overcome with fury, glaring viciously at the people of Little Bamboo Peak from time to time. But he was never drawn against anyone from Little Bamboo Peak, so he vented his anger on his other opponents, making them miserable.
Zuo Shengyan was also eliminated in this battle. This also made the others on Little Bamboo Peak look at Wen Xinliang with a mix of malicious glee and disapproval. The disapproval, naturally, came from the three female cultivators. Wen Xinliang was so scared that he quickly explained that he had been pushed into a corner and had only thought of using a poison that was hard for the opponent to detect and had a strong effect, without considering the consequences. But no matter how he explained, Miao Wangqing and Gong Chenying just looked at him coldly, not believing him. The female martial nephew behind them didn't dare to show it, but her eyes also revealed fear, as if this Fifth Martial Uncle was a psychologically twisted person.
In contrast to these three female cultivators, the other male cultivators had strange expressions on their faces.
Lin Daqiao was eliminated in the first round of the competition. He only fought four matches. He won the second match against a cultivator from Four Symbols Peak who had also just reached Foundation Establishment not long ago, but lost the other three. This made him sigh with emotion; his strength was indeed too weak.
And so, only Wei Chituo, Yun Chunqu, and Gong Chenying from Little Bamboo Peak entered the top forty-nine. The others were all eliminated. Furthermore, both Wen Xinliang and Lin Daqiao were injured. Wen Xinliang had angered a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator in the fifth round, who then dealt him a heavy blow, injuring his internal organs. Fortunately, for a cultivator, such injuries were only painful at the time and healed quickly. Lin Daqiao was poisoned. The thin man became a "fat" man. He only returned to normal after taking the antidote for four days. He spent those four days groaning in a low voice, unable to sleep all night.
In these past few days, apart from paying attention to the matches of his senior brothers and sisters from Little Bamboo Peak, Li Yan spent more time memorizing everyone's attack characteristics, their skills in using immortal arts, and so on. He had benefited greatly in these four days, gaining a new understanding of formations, the way of poison, the types of demonic beasts, and their innate skills. This kind of Foundation Establishment competition, according to Lin Daqiao, was something that subordinate immortal sects might not see once in decades. The Foundation Establishment cultivators in subordinate immortal sects were all elders of their sects and would not easily make a move. If they did, it would likely be a matter of life and death. This was the profound foundation of a major sect. Low-level disciples had the opportunity to observe the matches of masters to accumulate experience and broaden their horizons, while the masters used the competition to hone their own skills and make them more practical.
Li Yan closed his eyes, carefully thinking about what he had seen and heard these past few days, refining the methods and techniques he could now use.
He had to hurry. He had almost no practical combat experience, and there was too much he needed to know. For a moment, his mind was a mess of a thousand threads. And at this moment, the white light of the token at his waist flashed. Li Yan frowned. He didn't want any distractions at this time. The competition was in five days, and time was tight. But he still submerged his Divine Sense into the token, and the next moment, his expression froze.
It was a message from Li Wuyi. He said he had already arranged five days of intensive training for Li Yan, which would be his senior brothers and sisters taking turns to "feed him moves." Li Yan was stunned. He knew how precious this kind of treatment was. Normally, only when a master was happy, or with their closest direct disciples, would someone "feed them moves" and give guidance, and even then, it was only an occasional thing. For him to have seven people take turns to "feed him moves" was extremely rare. If the disciples of other peaks knew about this, they would be green with envy.
Five days passed in the blink of an eye, but Li Yan learned what it meant for a day to feel like a year. For every person who "fed him moves," in the early stage, they would let him attack freely and then give him feedback. Later, they would suppress their cultivation to be equal to Li Yan's and begin to spar. That was when Li Yan's hellish life began. No matter how much they suppressed their cultivation, they were still Foundation Establishment cultivators. Their insight and understanding of immortal arts were not something he could compare to.
He never would have imagined that his gentle and courteous Eldest Senior Brother could be so vicious. Now, whenever Li Yan saw Li Wuyi, he felt he was a hypocrite. Fourth Senior Sister shed her delicate image and let Li Yan know that even a Foundation Establishment cultivator who was not skilled in combat was still a Foundation Establishment cultivator, beating him until he was black and blue. Third Senior Brother's ghostly attacks greatly damaged Li Yan's mind, making him feel like he was going crazy. Second Senior Brother's stormy attacks beat Li Yan until he couldn't tell north from south, his face bruised and swollen. Sixth Senior Sister's formations made Li Yan see endless illusions, losing his sense of self. When he saw Gong Chenying again, it was as if all his thoughts were being seen through. Even Lin Daqiao showed Li Yan the difference between a newly established Foundation and Qi Condensation, a mix of indiscriminate immortal arts and poison techniques that left Li Yan unable to defend himself.
For five days, Li Yan was in a daze, but he persisted. One senior brother stepped down, a senior sister stepped up. He stood there, his movements just stiff. A senior sister stepped down, another senior brother stepped up. He still stood there, just with a bruised and swollen face…
However, Li Yan's performance shocked them even more. When they verified with each other in private, they found that Li Yan didn't just show some strange performance when they were "feeding him moves." No matter what kind of deadly poison Li Yan was afflicted with, before they could release the antidote, his symptoms would begin to resolve on their own. After a period of time, he would slowly return to normal. Although this process was very slow, he was recovering on his own. Moreover, for any deadly poison that had been used on him, the next time it was used, its effect would be at least a notch weaker. In other words, his antibodies were strengthening.
To deal with them, Li Yan also had to give it his all each time. Thus, they all discovered that Li Yan's actual realm was the late stage of the seventh layer of Qi Condensation. This kind of hidden strength was very common in the cultivation world. This only surprised them that they couldn't see through it. But no one went to ask Li Yan how he hid it. Perhaps it was related to his Fragmented Poison Body. But what amazed them was Li Yan's profound magical power, which was at least equivalent to the early stage of the ninth layer of Qi Condensation. They could, of course, see that this was not due to his hidden realm, but purely the condensation of his magical power.
They truly felt that they couldn't see through this little junior brother of theirs.