Chapter 1021

As the waves washed away the sand, the mana storms on the twelve dueling platforms became increasingly turbulent, and truly strong individuals began to take the stage. Both on and off the platforms, many people hid their heads and covered their faces, clearly unwilling to reveal their true identities, but once they took the stage, they were truly formidable.

The disciples of the Sword Palace watched, gradually falling silent, their expressions becoming increasingly solemn.

At this moment, the eight huge spectator stands suddenly moved backward again, the range of one dueling platform in the arena expanded accordingly by a factor of two, and the mana storm surged straight into the sky!

Inside this automatically expanding dueling platform, a ten-zhang ancient giant stood in the center, holding an axe in one hand and a shield in the other, engaged in a fierce battle with someone. Fighting against him was a puppet that looked as if it were made entirely of steel.

This puppet had mechanical wings on its back, one hand transformed into a thick cannon muzzle, the giant cannon possessing infinite power, while the other hand was a rotary machine gun, its firepower fierce and leaving no blind spots. Two beehives stood on its shoulders, continuously spraying out swarms of fire-breathing bees that would explode upon hitting the giant.

This steel puppet was simply a mobile artillery platform; later on, it even sprayed fire from its feet, rising into mid-air, looking down from a position of superiority, desperately pouring fire streams onto the ancient giant. The ancient giant could only shrink behind its shield, being bombed until it had no power to fight back at all!

After a full pillar of incense of such wild bombing, the ancient giant finally could not hold on, its tower shield shattered, and it was subsequently blasted off the platform by a cannon shot, losing this round.

The level of this battle was extremely high, and even Master Yu Jing, who was watching the battle, looked solemn.

This type of firepower output method was unique; one look and it was clear it was a cultivator cultivated by Qingming itself. But how many years had Qingming been established? Had even the cultivators cultivated from scratch become this ferocious? Just how many such cultivators were there, and how much of Qingming's strength was still hidden?

The steel puppet won this round and was extremely happy. Its giant cannon pointed to the sky, firing a shot that turned into huge fireworks, covering the entire venue and adding a touch of splendor to the assembly. Subsequently, in front of thousands of spectators, it changed through several forms in succession, with some changes in color, appearance, and details—some white, some red, some black, some silver.

Finally, the steel puppet struck a pose, and then its mask opened, revealing a young, handsome, and dashing face.

This face was Xu Wenwu and yet not Xu Wenwu; the eyes were larger than the original, the face smaller, the nose more prominent, and the skin smooth and snow-white—it was entirely the face of a young man in his prime.

Seeing the steel puppet's ferocious firepower and its strength clearly a cut above the other dueling platforms, many cultivators wisely chose other dueling platforms, leaving the steel puppet where it was.

Just when the cultivators thought they had succeeded, two cultivators suddenly took the stage one after another, specifically challenging the steel puppet. The two had mediocre manifestations and were incredibly weak; once they took the stage, they were kicked off the platform by the steel puppet one by one.

The crowd was still laughing at those two fellows for overestimating their own strength, but seeing the steel puppet disappear and a cultivator wrapped entirely in a dharma robe, revealing not a shred of their true face, fly off the dueling platform, the cultivators realized that this fellow had won three consecutive matches!

This was possible too?

In an instant, a new world opened up before the cultivators' eyes. Immediately, cultivators began to collude in private, quoting prices everywhere, preparing to sell their two opportunities for a good price. But most people still wanted to seriously fight for a reputation.

Seemingly stimulated by the steel puppet, the progress of the battles on the dueling platforms clearly accelerated, and many strange and ferocious manifestations began to appear; the competition had begun to enter the second half.

On one dueling platform, a boundless sea of blood suddenly appeared, and in the sea was an isolated island, on which sat a black-robed cultivator. The sea of blood was calm and waveless, without even a ripple, which was exceptionally strange.

There were cultivators who didn't believe in evil who took the stage to challenge, but as soon as they flew into the range of the sea of blood, they suddenly lost their ability to float, fell into the sea, and then sank to the bottom. A moment later, they floated to the surface, having already lost consciousness. The cultivator on the isolated island waved a hand and sent the unconscious cultivator off the dueling platform.

After the Qingming working cultivators inspected them, they found that the unconscious cultivators had only suffered great loss of vital energy and unclear spiritual sense, with no danger to their lives, so they did not intervene.

In the blink of an eye, three cultivators challenged in succession; some were good at flying, some were good at sword control, and some had manifestations of deep-sea pythons, but as soon as they entered the sea of blood, they sank to the bottom, without exception.

This cultivator had won three consecutive matches but had no intention of leaving the stage at all, continuing to wait for others to challenge. The cultivators were not stupid; seeing three cultivators with not-weak strength fold inside without even probing the bottom of the sea of blood, who would still be willing to come and die?

Thus, the cultivators went to other dueling platforms to seek opportunities, and they saw on a dueling platform nearby, a cluster of huge immortal plants like banana trees suddenly appear, directly swinging their leaves to slap away the cultivator who had originally occupied this platform.

This banana plant could not see a clear trunk; it looked more like a giant grass several zhang high, oily and thick, and the edges of the leaves were scorched black, as if they had been roasted by fire.

Compared to the sea of blood, the giant grass seemed easier to bully, so a sword cultivator jumped onto the dueling platform, his manifestation being a violent ape holding a huge machete!

The violent ape had just rushed to the side of the giant grass, intending to cut it off at the roots, when it saw a black flower suddenly bloom between the grass leaves, from which a slender, long, and shiny black hand reached out, grabbed the violent ape by the top of its head, swung it up, and smashed it fiercely on the platform. Amidst the muffled thumping sounds, the entire dueling platform was shaking!

In the blink of an eye, the violent ape disappeared, and the cultivator who had taken the stage to challenge was already unconscious.

The cultivators watching the battle off the stage shuddered on the spot, not expecting a blade of grass to be so violent and extremely insidious, with a grass spirit hidden inside. If one encountered this for the first time, one would definitely suffer a great loss.

The giant grass with scorched black flowers was also not to be trifled with, so the cultivators set their sights on a mediocre-looking cultivator. Then, when someone took the stage to challenge, that cultivator released dozens of flying swords in one breath, directly piercing the opponent.

This sword cultivator named Han Li was also not to be trifled with...

On another dueling platform further away, a faint black mist was floating; what kind of thing was this again? Many cultivators were confused and took the stage to probe, but as soon as they entered the black mist, they disappeared, and in the blink of an eye, they flew out of the black mist, unconscious.

Some fellows with powerful spiritual sense tried to peek through the black mist, but the spiritual sense they sent in also sank into the sea, never to be recovered. After suffering a muffled loss, they were horrified and never dared to approach the black mist again.

Just like this, in the blink of an eye, the dueling platforms were full of formidable cultivators, and every battle was a fierce fight. At this time, buying winning matches had lost its meaning; no matter how many winning matches one bought, one had to knock down a dueling platform and persist on it until the end to have the qualification to duel with the immortal manifestation candidates.

Many cultivators who were waiting for a price to sell were full of regret at this time, but it was too late.