Chapter 113: A Vicious Heart and Killing Intent Burn on the Arena

After the ice ball shattered, countless shards of ice instantly enveloped Qin Haoxuan. The surrounding temperature plummeted, and in less than five breaths, he was frozen solid within a massive block of ice.

“Let’s see you act arrogant now!” A vicious light flashed in Yan Dong’s eyes. If the Hall Master hadn’t said to spare your life, and if Zhang Kuang hadn’t threatened me, I would have slaughtered you long ago and offered your head to Li Jing as a grand gift.

Yan Dong gasped for breath. That last spiritual art had consumed a huge amount of energy! This wasn’t a fight against some new, worthless disciple; it felt more like a duel with another Twelfth-Leaf cultivator! He was exhausted.

Down below, Li Jing shook his head with a look of regret. He had thought Qin Haoxuan might have some astonishing techniques or trump cards, but he turned out to be so fragile, frozen after just a few exchanges. What a bore.

Zhang Kuang merely stared coldly at the frozen figure on the stage, as if nothing else in the world mattered.

Xu Yu took a step, ready to rush the stage, but her senior sister held her back firmly. The rules of the Taichu Sect! Not even a Purple Seed could defy them! The arena was the arena.

Crack… crackle…

Faint sounds came from the huge block of ice holding Qin Haoxuan. Tiny cracks began to web across its surface, growing wider and longer. In just two breaths, the ice block exploded with a loud bang!

As the ice shattered and shards flew through the air, Qin Haoxuan, who had been trapped inside, let out a deep, turbid breath. He shook the remaining ice from his body and raised his right hand. The surrounding spiritual energy rapidly condensed into a hand-blade sharp enough to sever a falling hair. He then shot forward like a cheetah chasing its prey, straight for Yan Dong.

Drained of energy and having just relaxed his guard, Yan Dong jumped in alarm. He hastily tried to mobilize his spiritual energy for another art, his mind reeling in confusion. What is going on? How many life-saving talismans did the Nature Hall’s master give him? How else could he have broken through the ice?

His physique, forged through countless beatings, the practice of the Dao Heart Seed Demon Art, and the full-force “cultivation” from Master Guyun, had reached a level of toughness that surprised even Qin Haoxuan himself!

In the instant Yan Dong hesitated, Qin Haoxuan was upon him. Yan Dong looked up to see a face twisted with fury and murder, and a hand-blade glowing with killing intent stabbing toward his abdomen.

If that strike landed, he would be severely injured, if not killed. Panicked, Yan Dong stumbled backward and quickly activated a Heavenly Circle Spiritual Talisman. A yellow curtain of light materialized in front of him, and Qin Haoxuan’s hand-blade struck it, unable to advance another inch.

The difference in cultivation level was laid bare in that single moment.

Victory and defeat could be decided in an instant.

Qin Haoxuan knew the gap between them; this was his only chance! He pivoted on his left ankle, his right leg stomping hard against the ground. The counterforce sent his body spinning like a top, whipping him around the side of the light curtain.

A perfect Heavenly Circle Talisman would have formed a dome, but Yan Dong’s was more like a wall. Qin Haoxuan’s spinning advance bypassed it completely, and he once again appeared right in front of him.

He had already raised his broken left arm, and it was the point of his elbow that met Yan Dong’s face!

CRACK!

Yan Dong simultaneously heard the sound of impact and felt as if his face had been slammed with a cast-iron skillet. The searing pain blurred his vision, and his nose caved in at an unnatural angle. The snap of his breaking nasal bone followed a moment later.

The agony made him want to scream, but Qin Haoxuan’s blood-soaked right hand shot up like a serpent from below, clamping around his throat. Then, his injured left elbow swept horizontally across his chin.

CRACK! Yan Dong heard the sound of his own jaw shattering…

Though he was a cultivator, he was still made of flesh and blood. Qin Haoxuan’s flurry of blows, each powerful enough to punch a hole through a steel plate, was too much for Yan Dong to bear. Dazed and dizzy, he was completely powerless to fight back, despite his reserves of spiritual energy.

This was nothing more than a street brawl! Pinned to the ground by Qin Haoxuan, Yan Dong was reminded of his childhood fights before he became a cultivator. It was just like this moment.

Pain! The relentless punches were so agonizing that Yan Dong had no time for reminiscence. He struggled to break free, only to discover that in a contest of pure physical strength, he was no match for his opponent!

How was this possible? While cultivators weren’t known for their physical might, their bodies were tempered by spiritual energy and naturally grew stronger! A Sixth-Leaf cultivator should be as fragile as a chicken before a Twelfth-Leaf tiger.

But what the crowd saw now was a barnyard chicken viciously mauling a giant dragon…

Having beaten Yan Dong senseless, Qin Haoxuan stopped aiming for his temples and started working on his face. In just a few punches, he knocked out a mouthful of teeth and swelled his face up like a steamed bun.

Yan Dong wanted to shout his surrender, but with a mouth full of broken teeth and blood, he couldn’t make a sound. Qin Haoxuan ignored the pleading in his eyes and, with two more heavy punches, blackened and swelled both of his eyes shut.

One punch after another, Qin Haoxuan’s assault was utterly savage. Blood splattered everywhere, and the force of the impacts began to crack the surface of the arena floor.

Thud… Thud… Thud…

Every time Yan Dong’s head lifted from the ground, Qin Haoxuan’s fist would slam it back down. The powerful impacts of his skull against the floor boomed like a war drum.

The area fell into a deathly silence, a stark contrast to the cheers and shouts coming from the neighboring arenas.

A Twelfth-Leaf cultivator was being so brutally beaten by a new disciple who hadn’t even grown a sprout. No one would have believed it if they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes.

As the heart-wrenching pain continued, Yan Dong knew that if this went on, the moment he lost consciousness would be the moment he died. He managed to lift his left hand, trying to reach for the spiritual talisman Master Guyun had given him. But Qin Haoxuan caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. He shot up and stomped down hard with his right foot. The sound of bones crunching echoed from Yan Dong’s left hand.

“This is the interest I’m collecting for Senior Brother Pu,” Qin Haoxuan said coldly, as if he were trampling an animal, not injuring a person. The memory of Pu Hanzhong covered in sword wounds fueled the fire of hatred in his chest. “And this kick is what I owe you!”

With that, he delivered a vicious kick to Yan Dong’s abdomen. A muffled pop was heard from within, the sound of an organ rupturing.

Yan Dong was sent rolling like a ball. He tried to scream, but his face was too swollen and his mouth too full of broken teeth. All he could manage was a choked gurgle, like a pig being slaughtered.

However, the kick gave him an opening. With his left hand crushed, Yan Dong used his right to pull the green jade talisman from his robes. Gathering the last dregs of spiritual energy from his dantian, he poured it into the talisman, activating it.

Just as Qin Haoxuan lunged forward again, the talisman in Yan Dong’s hand exploded. A massive burst of spiritual energy erupted, launching Qin Haoxuan’s body thirty meters into the air.

The tables had turned in an instant. Yan Dong managed to push himself into a sitting position, the sharp pain all over his body giving him the feeling of having narrowly escaped death.

The green jade talisman Master Guyun had given him specifically for Qin Haoxuan was one he had made himself. He had modified a powerful spiritual art, removing its offensive capabilities. It was only meant to push an opponent a dozen meters away. Guyun had envisioned Yan Dong using it to gently push Qin Haoxuan off the large stage without causing serious injury. He never imagined it would launch him thirty meters into the sky.

Even a Tenth-Leaf cultivator falling from that height onto the iron-hard stage would be severely injured, if not killed, let alone a disciple who hadn’t even grown a leaf.

Qin Haoxuan’s body hung in the air for a moment before plummeting straight down. If he landed squarely, he would be crippled, if not dead. A glint of light shone from Yan Dong’s eyes, which were swollen into thin slits. He had long since forgotten Master Guyun’s warning; all he hoped for now was for Qin Haoxuan to be smashed to death.

“Senior Sister Luo, do something!” Xu Yu cried, grabbing Luo Jinhua’s hand in desperation. Luo Jinhua was also tense. If Qin Haoxuan died, it would be a huge blow to Xu Yu’s state of mind and could even affect her cultivation progress. But there was nothing she could do. If she rushed the stage, not only would she have to get past the supervising disciple, but the arena itself was enchanted to attack any third party who interfered during a duel. Ten Luo Jinhuas wouldn’t be enough to survive the formation’s wrath.

THUD!

Qin Haoxuan hit the ground, sending up a cloud of dust. There was no splatter of blood and gore, but he lay perfectly still.

“Aigh!” Several of the disciples who had come to support Qin Haoxuan sighed in unison. In the end, Yan Dong was a Twelfth-Leaf cultivator; he wasn’t so easily defeated. It seemed they would have to tend to their own spirit fields from now on.

The dull thud of Qin Haoxuan hitting the ground was like a clap of thunder in Xu Yu’s ears. Her face went deathly pale. She stood frozen, tears streaming down her face like pearls from a broken string.

Luo Jinhua saw her expression and thought to herself, This is bad…

Behind Xu Yu, Murong Chao’s eyes were filled with a complex mix of emotions. He hoped that Qin Haoxuan, who had helped him so much, would get up, but he also hoped he would never get up again. Then there would be no one to compete with him for Xu Yu’s affection. But Qin Haoxuan had always been so good to him.

Killing intent erupted from Zhang Kuang’s eyes. He looked at Yan Dong as if he were a dead man. He had warned him repeatedly that Qin Haoxuan’s life was his to take, yet he had gone and gotten him killed. Unforgivable.

Zhang Yang’s eyes, however, gleamed with pleasure. After being so triumphant for so long, Qin Haoxuan was finally finished. A fall from that height had surely killed him.

Li Jing, for his part, let out a fake sigh and walked over to Xu Yu, preparing to offer a few words of comfort and, in the process, pull her into his faction.

As each of them was lost in their own thoughts, the person who everyone believed to be a corpse… moved.