Chapter 268

Bang!

In the magnificent main hall, an exquisite wine glass was fiercely thrown to the ground and shattered into pieces.

There was already more than one shattered wine glass on the ground.

"This one doesn't come, that one doesn't come, damn it, they look down on people too much!"

A tall, balding man with a slightly aged appearance angrily slapped the table.

He was Yuwen Donghao, who had invited Li Fei and Wang Fengqing to attend the 'Peerless Heaven's Pride Banquet'.

Yuwen Donghao was an eighth-year student at Tianqu University; he hadn't graduated not because he couldn't, but because staying at Tianqu University allowed him to obtain more resources.

After all, his father was the Vice Principal of Tianqu University.

Yuwen Donghao was 25 years old this year, just meeting the qualifications to participate in this Martial Arts Exchange Tournament.

He had broken through to the Dao Foundation stage at 24, while 《Discussion on Heaven's Pride》 wrote that 'those who break through to the Dao Foundation stage before 23 can be called peerless Heaven's Pride'.

So his name was not listed on the 'peerless Heaven's Pride' list, which made Yuwen Donghao very unhappy:

Damn it, I was just one year late, how am I not a peerless Heaven's Pride?!

So on the night of September 14th, after all participants had arrived at Tianqu University, Yuwen Donghao prepared to hold a 'Peerless Heaven's Pride Banquet' and invited those eight peerless Heaven's Pride to attend.

Tonight, he booked the most famous restaurant in the provincial capital of Cang Province, 'Cangyun Tower', and found newspaper reporters in advance.

He wanted the world to know that he, Yuwen Donghao, was also a peerless Heaven's Pride!

As a result, he invited eight people, and not a single one came...

"Brother Donghao, then we'll leave first."

The lackey who came to report the news said cautiously, then ran away.

"Liaoxin, Gan Jingcheng, Li Fei..."

Yuwen Donghao recited these people's names one by one, gritting his teeth, "You all just wait for me!"

"Yuwen Donghao!"

A thunderous voice suddenly rang out in the main hall.

Yuwen Donghao's body trembled. He looked up and saw a middle-aged man who was also tall, obviously balding, and looked 70% like him, walking in with a face full of anger.

It was the Vice Principal of Tianqu University, Yuwen Donghao's father, the Martial Arts Grandmaster Yuwen Xinzhang.

"What are you doing here?"

Yuwen Donghao looked at his old man with a face full of displeasure.

"Who told you to run out and embarrass yourself?"

Yuwen Xinzhang questioned him unceremoniously.

"How did I embarrass myself?"

Yuwen Donghao was stepped on his sore spot and immediately jumped up from his seat.

"You still dare to talk back?!"

Yuwen Xinzhang waved his hand, and a divine ability smashed towards his son.

Looking at this opening move, it was obviously quite practiced.

"Ah..."

"Yuwen Xinzhang..."

"You old..."

Yuwen Donghao's screams could be heard from Cangyun Tower from time to time.

The newspaper reporters who had been found by Yuwen Donghao in advance tonight were also persuaded to leave by people from Tianqu University, and each of them was stuffed with a large red envelope.

So, the 'Peerless Heaven's Pride Banquet' tonight, which was like a farce, ultimately did not make the newspapers, but there were rumors circulating that Yuwen Donghao not only failed to invite anyone but was also severely beaten by his father...

September 15th, 7:00 AM.

The playground of Tianqu University was already crowded with people.

This playground was where the upcoming Martial Arts Exchange Tournament would be held, so it had been specially renovated.

A circle of stepped stands was built around the playground, and six circular pillars were erected on the edge of the circular playground, enclosing the entire playground within them.

Eight square arenas were built on the playground, each 50m x 50m.

These arenas were for the preliminary round.

Because of the momentum built up in the early stages, many people were paying attention to this Martial Arts Exchange Tournament, and many people wanted to come to the scene to watch.

So Tianqu University sold a portion of 'tickets' to the public, and the ticket prices were expensive.

The schedule for this Martial Arts Exchange Tournament would last for ten days; just by selling tickets, Tianqu University and the Shangqing Sect, as the organizers, could make a fortune!

This was one of the benefits of being an organizer.

At 7:50 AM, the stands, which could accommodate a full 30,000 people, were already completely full.

Cameras had been set up in advance, and the television station's live broadcast equipment had also been set up.

The Inspector of Cang Province, the Chief of the Zhige Department, the Chief Inspector of the Inspectorate Department, the Chief of the Supervisory Department... and other fifth-rank cabinet officials arrived at the scene one after another!

In addition, there was a group of sitting officials, all of whom were big shots in various departments.

On this occasion today, imperial court officials didn't even have the qualifications to receive an invitation!

Exactly 8:00 AM.

The Principal of Tianqu University, Grandmaster Qi Zhou, and the True Person Xuan Chen of the Shangqing Sect stood up from the main stand together.

"This poor Daoist is Xuan Chen of the Shangqing Sect, welcoming everyone..."

True Person Xuan Chen of the Shangqing Sect gave the opening remarks first, followed by a speech by the Principal of Tianqu University, Qi Zhou:

"... Seventeen years ago, His Majesty created twelve universities to gather all the talents in the world! Now, the elites of the young generation from all universities are gathered here!"

Grandmaster Qi Zhou did not activate his force, but his voice clearly spread throughout the entire venue:

"For hundreds of years, the Buddhist and Daoist families have been the elites of the martial arts world; now, the elite disciples of the three Daoist sects and Pudu Temple are also gathered here."

"This tournament can be said to be a gathering of talents from the world; may all Heaven's Pride show their style!"

Qi Zhou concluded with a short and powerful sentence, announcing the official start of this Martial Arts Exchange Tournament.

First was the preliminary round stage.

Thirteen universities, the three Daoist sects, and Pudu Temple, in addition to the 9 people who had already reached the Dao Foundation stage, could also select 27 people to enter the main tournament directly.

Together, they occupied 36 main tournament spots.

The thirteen universities could send a total of 130 people to participate.

The organizer, the Shangqing Sect, had 40 spots, while the Daluo Sect and Yuhua Sect each had 30 spots.

Pudu Temple also obtained 30 spots.

So there were a total of 260 participants; excluding the 36 who had already entered the main tournament, the remaining 224 would participate in the preliminary round.

The preliminary round would last for three days, and the 224 people would compete for the remaining 28 main tournament spots within three days.

These people were already elites, and the lowest cultivation was a Force-Refining martial artist at the mid-stage of Qi Transformation.

For more than two hundred Force-Refining martial artists to select the strongest twenty-eight within three days, one could see the intensity of the competition!

Even if one could really stand out in the preliminary round, it was hard to avoid being injured.

After fighting hard for three days, even if the force could be restored, the mental state might not necessarily be restored.

And the main tournament would start immediately after the preliminary round, with no rest time at all.

Truth be told, this tournament format was not fair to the participants in the preliminary round.

But this was reality.

Fortunately, Li Fei no longer needed to accept such a reality, and he had no interest in staying at the scene to watch the preliminary round, planning to return to his room to continue his cultivation.

"You go back; I want to stay and watch carefully."

Li Tianyu said to Li Fei.

Li Fei had the qualifications to ignore these Force-Refining martial artists at the Qi Transformation stage, but Li Tianyu did not yet have such qualifications.

Although she had already obtained a spot in the main tournament, it didn't mean her strength was necessarily stronger than these participants in the preliminary round.

She wanted to observe the bouts of these people more and learn from them.

"Okay."

Li Fei nodded, stood up, and left the stands.

He specifically took a detour and walked towards the area where the Daluo Sect group was located.

The sudden dream last night made him realize that he might really have been involved in some event.

It was just a pity that although he used the Mengyan Sect's spell to disrupt the dream in the end, he only obtained a little more information, and then the dream shattered.

Early this morning, Li Fei inquired about who the leader of the Daluo Sect was this time—True Person Qingxia of Luoxia Peak.

This was also the only True Person from the Daluo Sect that Li Fei had come into contact with face-to-face.

He had never entered that dream again after leaving Daluo Peak, until he suddenly entered the dream again last night.

There was True Person Qingxia on Daluo Peak, and there was also True Person Qingxia near Li Fei's residence last night.

If this dream was really man-made, then this True Person Qingxia was the biggest suspect!

So Li Fei intentionally walked towards the area where the Daluo Sect group was located at this time; he wanted to see if that True Person Qingxia would have any special reaction to him.

"Senior Brother, look."

In the stands, a handsome young Daoist priest nudged the Senior Brother beside him, "It seems to be Li Fei."

The Senior Brother beside him had an ordinary appearance, but his eyebrows and eyes were like a drawn sword, giving people a feeling of sharpness.

The Senior Brother raised his eyebrows, looked at Li Fei who was walking towards them, and sized him up:

"It's a pity he's still too young. He is your opponent; if you meet him, you must defeat him."

"Ah?"

The handsome Junior Brother showed a look of embarrassment, "But he's the First in History, he feels so powerful..."

"So what if he's the First in History? He has only incorporated two types of implants. You carry the peerless inheritance of our Daluo Sect, what are you afraid of?"

The Senior Brother looked at him with a look of disappointment.

These two, one with the Daoist name Ning Chuan and the other with the Daoist name Ning Xing, were both peerless Heaven's Pride written about in 《Discussion on Heaven's Pride》.

Senior Brother Ning Chuan, stepped into the Dao Foundation stage at 21, is 24 this year, and has already incorporated four types of implants.

Junior Brother Ning Xing, stepped into the Dao Foundation stage at 23, is 24 this year, and has already incorporated two implants.

Being both peerless Heaven's Pride, the personalities of these two were completely different.

"He seems to be coming for us?"

Ning Xing said nervously in a low voice.

"Oh."

Ning Chuan adjusted his expression.

Just when he had prepared his wording, he saw Li Fei just glance at them, and then his gaze moved away.

"Senior Brother, he doesn't seem to know us."

Ning Xing said in a low voice, feeling relieved.

Seeing this, Ning Chuan also immediately shifted his gaze and stopped looking at Li Fei.

If you don't look at me, I won't look at you either.

"My sword will make him remember me."

He said so.

At the same time, Li Fei's gaze fell on True Person Qingxia in the stands.

The other party was talking to an old friend and did not notice Li Fei.

It wasn't until Li Fei was about to leave this area that True Person Qingxia turned his head and glanced at Li Fei's back, then continued talking to his old friend with a smile on his face.

"Junior Uncle, is that person Li Fei?"

"Yes."

In another area of the stands, where the Shangqing Sect was located, True Person Xuan Chen returned from the main stand.

Sitting beside him was a man with a bushy beard.

The man was clearly very young, but because of this bushy beard, he looked a bit old.

His name was Gan Jingcheng, a lay disciple of the Shangqing Sect.

The Shangqing Sect was different from the other two sects; its disciples were divided into Dao-lineage disciples and lay disciples.

Lay disciples came from the outside world, while Dao-lineage disciples came from several families that had inherited the Shangqing Sect for hundreds of years.

The Shangqing Sect was composed of several families from the beginning.

The disputes between Dao-lineage disciples and lay disciples had always existed, and they had become increasingly intense over the years.

The Daluo Sect had been trying to win over several surnames of the Shangqing Sect to help them suppress the lay disciple lineage.

So the fact that the Shangqing Sect suddenly jumped out to publicly oppose the Daluo Sect this time was actually a victory for the lay disciples.

Gan Jingcheng was a leader among the young generation of the Shangqing Sect's lay disciple lineage and carried the hopes of many people.

"First in History, it's truly enviable."

Gan Jingcheng looked at Li Fei's back and sighed.

True Person Xuan Chen glanced at him: "You have your own path, why envy others?"

"Junior Uncle is right."

Gan Jingcheng said seriously.

"Your opponent this time is not him, but that one from Pudu Temple."

Xuan Chen continued.

Among the eight peerless Heaven's Pride mentioned in 《Discussion on Heaven's Pride》, only Gan Jingcheng of the Shangqing Sect and Ming Qi of Pudu Temple had incorporated five types of implants.

Being both peerless Heaven's Pride, and with similar inheritances, there was a simple and crude way to judge the level of combat power:

Whoever has more implants is stronger!

So this time, the Shangqing Sect wanted to win the championship and regarded that Buddhist son from Pudu Temple as their biggest competitor.

"However, if you can meet Li Fei in the main tournament, that wouldn't be bad either."

Xuan Chen said.

Gan Jingcheng understood what his Junior Uncle meant.

Whoever could publicly defeat this 'First in History' would be able to 'seize' the other party's fame to a certain extent!

"That would indeed be quite interesting."

Gan Jingcheng laughed.

For the next three days, Li Fei almost never left his room, spending most of his time cultivating inside.

During these few days, he did not enter the dream again when cultivating the 'Green Wood Facing Heaven' meditation method.

He incorporated 【Flame Core】 on September 11th, and by September 18th, in just one week, he had already cultivated 【Flame Core】 to the Body-Breaking stage!

In the room, Li Fei raised his right hand, palm facing up, and a ball of bright flame was generated out of thin air in his palm.

This was the extraordinary ability of 【Flame Core】—Flame Control.

Li Fei could consume the power of the implant to generate flames himself, or he could control natural flames from the outside world.

At the current stage, the 'Flame Control' at the Body-Breaking stage alone didn't improve his combat power much; what truly had a significant improvement was the enhancement of his physique and the extraordinary abilities of 【Steel Armor】 and 【Ghost Foot】 brought about by the growth of 【Flame Core】.

The enhancement of his physique increased Li Fei's number of blood souls again, and the total number of blood souls became 356!

After the total number of blood souls exceeded 350, Li Fei obtained another opportunity to strengthen a blood soul technique.

He had previously strengthened 【Blood Spring】 and 【Blood Rage】, and the remaining choices were 【Blood Evil】 and 【Blood Might】.

Strengthening 【Blood Evil】 would increase the existence time and the number of blood evil spirits generated.

Strengthening 【Blood Might】 would turn this move from a single-target attack into a group attack.

After pondering for a moment, Li Fei finally decided to strengthen 【Blood Evil】.

As the opponents he faced became stronger and stronger, the role 【Blood Might】 could play became smaller and smaller.

Powerhouses who had cultivated Dao Force were almost difficult to be influenced in their heart and mind by pure spells.

So 【Blood Might】 turning from single-target to group-target, for Li Fei, at most increased his ability to 'clear soldiers'.

He didn't need this ability for the time being.

As for 【Blood Evil】, it required consuming the blood evil spirits converted from 20 blood souls at once to fuse with Jin Gang Force to become Primordial Dark Jin Gang Force.

And the blood evil spirits converted from 20 blood souls could only exist for about ten minutes without consumption.

If he could increase the existence time of the evil spirits and increase the number of evil spirits generated, Li Fei could save a large amount of blood souls when using Primordial Dark Jin Gang Force.

After completing the strengthening, the display of 【Blood Evil】 also changed to 【Blood Evil】 (Strong).

Early the next morning, Li Fei walked out of the room and walked towards the playground.

Today, the main tournament of the Martial Arts Exchange Tournament had begun!

PS: A bit stuck on writing, can only update once today, will make up for it tomorrow.

(End of chapter)