C27 Weaving fire

Just like that, the grand and magnificent Empyrean Terminus Martial Arts Tournament began, with City Lord's Mansion and the three great families at war with each other.

Hong Ling was calmly sipping his tea in the stands. He was not worried at all about the competition, even if it was Zhou Kuang who was behind the Zhou Family Patriarch, with his strength at the perfect stage of the Essence Refinement into Qi, he would not mind it too much.

As he swept his eyes over the three great clans, the youth quickly retracted his gaze from everyone's strength.

"Three of them are at the perfection-stage of the Essence Refinement into Qi and three at the late stage of the Essence Refinement into Qi. Of the remaining twenty-four people, there are nine of them who are in the middle stages of the Essence Refinement into Qi and fifteen of them are in the early stages of the Essence Refinement into Qi. "

Hong Ling's eyes congealed. He never thought that the people the three great families would send out this time would actually be this strong, and thus, the City Lord's Mansion side only had four people in the early stages of the Essence Refinement into Qi, three in the middle stages of the Essence Refinement into Qi, two in the late stage of Essence Refinement into Qi, and one at the great perfection of the Essence Refinement into Qi. If they were to fight against the three great families, they would definitely suffer.

He was currently looking at the people from the three great families in a daze, and the four deacons who were presiding over the conference had already left the stage, as they walked towards the center of the battle stage together.

"The Martial Competition is about to begin. All cultivators participating, please come and draw your lots!"

Following everyone entering the battle stage, Hong Ling took out a bamboo lot from the chest. He drew number nine, he didn't know who drew number nine, but he hoped that the other party wasn't too strong, and would be able to reveal his trump card ahead of time.

Everyone sat down once again. Following the rumbling of the war drums, the four deacons stood in four directions, preparing to make a decision.

"Number 1, enter!"

Lian Chengyu's maid, Zhihuo, expressionlessly stood up, and slowly walked to the battle stage. Her opponent was a late stage Essence Refinement into Qi cultivator from the Zhou Family.

"Interesting. A mere lowly maid dares to come to this gathering of geniuses. Little miss, your cultivation must have been obtained in exchange to please your master!"

That disciple of the Zhou family was extremely arrogant, and his words were extremely insulting without the slightest bit of respect.

Zhihuo also did not answer, she was Lian Chengyu's servant, and had served Lian Chengyu for a lifetime. Serving Lian Cheng's family, she naturally did not care about the gossip of outsiders, but, just because she did not speak, did not mean that Lian Chengyu could not speak.

"Zhihuo, do not hold back, cripple this Zhou Family trash!"

Lian Chengyu said without any trace of politeness. Even though Zhihuo was his maid, being friends with him since he was young, their relationship was naturally not something that outsiders could easily surmise.

"Alright, I understand!" Zhihuo nodded, she did not have to worry about what others thought, but she would definitely not go against Lian Chengyu's words.

Zhihuo was loyal to Lian Cheng throughout his life, loyal to jade and sincere to himself.

When the Zhou family's cultivator saw that she was not paying attention to him, unexpectedly still having the mood to chat with Lian Chengyu, a trace of killing intent flashed past his eyes. He was originally a lustful person, but upon seeing such a beauty, his heart started to itch unbearably, unfortunately, he did not know that Zhihuo was Lian Chengyu's trump card.

Dang! The gong was knocked and the match officially began.

Even before he turned twenty, he had already raised his cultivation to the late stage of Essence Refinement into Qi, enough to look down upon most of his peers.

As for Zhihuo's perfect Essence Refinement into Qi cultivation, hmph, just a mere maid, even if it was a level higher than him, in the end it was just a lowly maid, how strong could she be!

As the only late stage Essence Refinement into Qi cultivator of the Zhou Family, he naturally had the right to be arrogant. For a descendant of a clan like him, jumping levels to challenge someone was not a difficult matter at all.

His foot stepped on top of the battle stage firmly. The Authentic Qi shook and his entire person shot out explosively, the battle blade in his hand congealing a layer of frost.

"Iron Horse Ice River, it's actually the middle grade Profound Rank cultivation technique that the Zhou Family is so proud of — — Iron Horse Ice River!"

The spectators naturally had sharp eyes, being able to see the cultivation technique this cultivator cultivated with a single glance.

"Could this boy be the number two seed of the Zhou Family, second only to Zhou Kuang, Zhou Hao?!"

"It's him. Besides Zhou Kuang, he's the only one amongst the Zhou Clan disciples that has managed to cultivate the Iron Horse Ice River!"

Everyone in the audience was whispering to each other, and the Patriarchs of the three great families were praising each other.

"Brother Zhou, I didn't think that your Zhou Family would produce such an extraordinary junior. This nephew Zhou Hao actually managed to cultivate 'Iron Horse Ice River' at such a young age. I'm afraid that he will become a famous character in the future!"

The clan head of the Zhou clan stroked his beard, his face full of pride.

"No, no, that boy Zhou Hao, compared to the two geniuses in his family, he still has some shortcomings." No, no, that boy Zhou Hao, compared to the geniuses in his family, he still has some shortcomings.

The three of them were flattering each other, but a change had already happened on their battle stage.

Zhihuo was dressed in a red dress, upon seeing Zhou Hao rushing towards her, the engraved long sword in her hand suddenly condensed into a blazing Sword Qi, with a step, she rushed towards Zhou Hao's attack without dodging, like a moth to a flame, resolutely and decisively.

"Is this girl crazy? She actually dared to contend against the" Iron Horse Ice River "which the Zhou Family used to shake their Tianhuang City!"

Everyone cried out in alarm and turned their faces away, unable to bear to look anymore. Everyone knew that the < Iron Horse Ice River > was a middle rank Profound Rank cultivation technique. For a small maid, even if she had some talent, it was impossible for her to cultivate to a level that could compete with her.

I've long disliked Lian Chengyu, and coincidentally took advantage of his maid to attack me today. I'll let him know, the three great families of my Tianhuang City are not to be trifled with!

Zhou Hao activated the long blade in his hand, he unleashed a strike from the air, an ice cold blade light instantly struck down towards Zhihuo.

Zhihuo raised his head and looked at the descending blade light, a look of disdain flashing past his eyes. The longsword in her hand hummed, and a brilliant fiery streak streaked across the sky.

Boom!! The deafening sounds of swords clashing came from the battle stage. Zhihuo gracefully landed on top of the battle stage and looked at the miserable Zhou Hao in the distance with eyes filled with disdain.

"Bitch, how dare you hurt me!"

Zhou Hao stood on top of the battle stage, and more than half of his clothes had been torn off. The blood in his body was roiling, and he never would have thought that a mere maid would be so bold as to dare to heavily injure him.

Zhihuo looked at him expressionlessly. The long sword in her hand trembled, and the originally dim sword aura of flames burned fiercely once again. With a tap of her feet, the long sword in her hand ignited into streaks of fire in the air.

"Fire Lotus!" The young girl's tone was ice-cold. Man and sword became one as they flashed forward once again.

Zhou Hao stood on the stage and looked at Zhihuo who was surrounded by countless petals. For the first time, he felt a chill.

Just a casual blow from a girl just now had severely injured him. At this moment, she was using such a gorgeous martial skill.

He immediately gritted his teeth and endured the pain as he activated the Authentic Qi in his body. Streams of cold Authentic Qi quickly formed in front of him, turning into a blizzard.

He stood in the midst of the snowstorm and the blade in his hand trembled. Gathering all the snowstorms together, he formed a tyrannical stream of air, which looked somewhat weak at first, but as Zhou Hao's Authentic Qi continued to pour in, the airstorm instantly grew into a raging blizzard.

"Hmph, I don't care if you call upon the fire lotus or not, eat my Berserk Blade of Snow Wind!"

He waved his blade and followed the blade's trajectory. Unexpectedly, he did not dodge nor evade as he faced the incoming flaming tornado and shot forward.

With a honglong sound, white, scalding water vapor permeated all over her battle stage. A slim figure slowly walked out from the water mist.

"In this battle, City Lord's Mansion Zhihuo wins!"

A deacon announced expressionlessly. He was originally the representative chosen by the Zhou family, so naturally, he had an ugly expression on his face.

Zhihuo bowed, without turning his head, he walked behind Lian Chengyu and stood there quietly.

Lian Chengyu looked at her blushing face, and then picked a grape from the fruit plate and stuffed it into her mouth. Zhihuo did not reply, he lightly chewed and smiled at Lian Chengyu.

The water vapor in the arena finally dispersed, revealing Zhou Hao, who was lying on the stone floor like a dead dog. Black smoke was emitting from his entire body, and it was unknown how many of his bones had been broken.

The Zhou Family Patriarch instantly rushed onto the battle stage, his hand resting on Zhou Hao's body. After a long while, he looked sinisterly at Zhihuo who was standing behind Lian Chengyu, and shouted while gritting his teeth.

"That little slut, how could she be so cruel and merciless? She even crippled Zhou Hao's cultivation!"

The spectators were in an uproar, looking at the ruined Zhou Hao being supported down the stage, and then looking at the innocent looking Zhihuo, they sighed.

This Zhou Hao, had scolded Zhihuo, calling her a bitch, but in the end, he had turned into a cripple and lost his life. However, how many people would sympathize with such a person?

The world of cultivators was originally like this, cruel, bloody, unpredictable, no one could be sure if they could win forever, Zhihuo could not, Lian Chengyu could not, Hong Ling could not either.

All they could do was live a good life, become stronger, and adapt themselves to the world.

"Get on stage two!"

The voices of the four deacons sounded out. They were from the Four Major families who came from the Tianhuang City, so they naturally would not stop the Martial Competition just because of a small matter.

From the Zhang Family seats, a cultivator with great perfection in Essence Refinement into Qi walked out. From the seats of the tens of thousands of families, a youth at the early stage of Essence Refinement into Qi walked out.

With a dang sound, the gong once again rang. The Zhang Family's perfect Essence Refinement into Qi cultivator did not move, and the young man from the Wan Family immediately bowed, admitting defeat in front of everyone.

Lian Chengyu frowned, he did not expect the three families to be so shameless, to the point that they were not even willing to put up a front, the weak one directly admitted defeat, and did not hesitate at all.

"I never thought that the three great families would be so shameless. It seems like they want to conserve their strength to the greatest extent so that they can fight for the final spot!"

Hong Ling sat in the spectator's stand, watching the furious scene on the battle stage, a trace of anger flashed past his eyes. He was also one of the cultivators participating in the competition this time, so the actions of the three great families had already crossed his bottom line.

In front of their own interests, no one liked others to win through disgraceful means, even if they had to take advantage of the rules.