"BOOM——!!"
After the violent explosion, the entire arena seemed to have experienced an earthquake. Smoke and debris swirled through the air, obscuring everyone's vision.
The entire venue fell deathly silent, thousands of eyes fixed on that chaos.
As a bleak autumn wind swept through, the dust gradually dispersed, revealing the extremely brutal scene within.
Lin Ze's expensive, gold-threaded brocade robes had been completely scorched and torn apart. Covered in blood and utterly lifeless, he lay in a crater blasted into the stone. His body resembled a rag doll, completely unconscious, his fate uncertain.
The once-impenetrable Rank 2 Golden Bell barrier on his body had also completely dimmed.
Though this Golden Bell Gu was top-grade and had been enhanced with secret techniques by the Storage Hall Elder—allowing a Rank 1 Gu Master to barely activate it for protection—once a Gu Master's Primeval Essence was exhausted, even the finest passive defense became water without a source.
A pity: the Gu was excellent, but the person was no apex killer.
"Quick! Save him!"
The medical Gu Masters who had been standing ready outside the arena cried out in alarm, rushing onto the stage as if facing a great enemy. Various healing Gu worms brimming with vitality were poured onto Lin Ze without restraint.
Meanwhile, a dozen steps away from Lin Ze, Lin Yan still stood.
But he no longer possessed his earlier arrogance and invincibility. He gasped for breath in great heaving gulps, each breath accompanied by threads of blood seeping from the corners of his mouth—clearly suffering from extremely severe internal injuries.
Even more shocking were his external wounds. From his right shoulder extending down to his chest ran a horrifying gash deep enough to expose bone, carved open by the unstoppable edge of the Metal Rend Gu. Blood flowed wildly down his muscular frame.
Moreover, his eyes had been severely burned from witnessing the Rosy Clouds Gu's explosion at close range. They were now tightly shut, two shocking streams of bloody tears running down his face.
Lin Yan didn't even have the strength to raise his hand or deliver his usual bold proclamations. His legs trembled slightly; he was relying entirely on that mad, demonic willpower in his bones, gritting his teeth to barely maintain his standing posture.
But in the end, he was the one left standing.
"The... the seventh match, Lin Yan of the Punishment Hall wins!"
The elder serving as referee glanced at the brutal scene, his voice carrying a hint of hoarseness as he announced the result.
"Hiss——!"
A collective sharp intake of breath swept through the audience below.
The spectators' scalps tingled at this mutual-destruction-level brutality, marveling at Lin Yan's ferocity—to actually endure such a blinding, heart-piercing desperate attack with only a Rank 1 body.
But in the premium viewing area outside the arena, Lin Mu's eyes narrowed slightly, his gaze extremely profound.
"Something's off."
Lin Mu watched Lin Ze being carried off, then looked at Lin Yan standing in place receiving emergency treatment.
He thought to himself, "A Rank 1 Gu Master's mortal flesh, even for a Strength Path cultivator, should have had their heart pierced taking a direct lethal strike from an extreme offensive Gu like the Metal Rend Gu. How is he still standing?"
Using the residual vision from his Eagle Eye Gu, Lin Mu keenly caught a detail.
At the edges of Lin Yan's bone-deep wound, there lingered an extremely subtle Primeval Essence fluctuation that was rapidly dissipating—the aura of a more substantial defensive measure.
"A defensive Gu sealed within his body by some elder?"
Lin Mu's understanding elevated in this moment. He mentally re-tagged these major clan disciples with a new label: "plenty of hidden cards."
"Never underestimate these young masters. Lin Ze had the Rank 2 Golden Bell and Rosy Clouds Gu; Lin Feng has a one-time Rank 3 killing move as backup; Lin Yan, as the Punishment Hall Grand Elder's grandson, naturally has life-saving trump cards from the Punishment Hall too."
"If I ever become their enemy in the future, unless I have absolute certainty of crushing them along with their hidden cards, I must never strike to kill rashly—otherwise, I'll only invite backlash upon myself."
Victory had been decided on the arena, but the silent confrontation on the high platform had only just begun.
The Punishment Hall Grand Elder and the Storage Hall Elder sat in their elevated positions. Far from feeling any joy at their disciples' spectacular performances, their expressions were shifting between light and dark, ugly to the extreme.
This kind of mutually destructive, high-intensity internal conflict had essentially wasted half their bargaining chips. Lin Ze was severely injured and eliminated; Lin Yan had won, but with those injuries, how far could he go in the upcoming ranking matches?
The elders from other halls kept their eyes downcast and remained silent, not daring to discuss openly. After all, this cruel clash between seeded contestants should never have occurred in the first round of the top thirty-two.
However, just as the atmosphere reached its most oppressive point—
"Clap! Clap! Clap!"
Patriarch Lin Cang, the Rank 4 expert seated in the position of honor, suddenly began applauding with a hearty laugh.
"Excellent! What a splendid counterattack from the brink! What magnificent courage in the face of adversity!"
Lin Cang called out praise loudly, his face full of gratification and admiration, his resonant voice carrying throughout the venue. "Our clan's disciples are truly brave and resourceful, their fighting spirit undiminished! Tempering themselves between life and death like this—how could our Black Blood Stockade not prosper in the future?!"
Seated below him, Supreme Elder Lin Zhen stroked his beard with a smile, chiming in: "The Patriarch speaks truly. Jade must be carved to become a vessel. Only through real blood and fire can one shoulder the clan's great burden."
The two sang in perfect harmony, looking as close as two legs in the same pair of trousers.
Listening to these high-sounding empty words, several powerful elders exchanged glances, their eyes filled with deep helplessness and frustration.
This was the cruel political reality.
Before, Patriarch Lin Cang had only been at Rank 3 Peak. Though his combat power was first, the various halls could still use their hidden cards, resources, and united resistance to maintain balance, barely preserving their share of power within the clan.
But now, times had changed.
Lin Cang had successfully broken through to Rank 4, completing his ascension. Combined with Lin Zhen, a Rank 3 Peak absolute loyalist serving as his aide, this suppression through major realm difference stood before all the elders like an insurmountable chasm!
In the Gu world, combat power was the ultimate source of all authority.
The elders were no fools. They instantly understood in tacit agreement: this so-called "random drawing" was nothing but the Patriarch's cruel test and weakening of them.
Using methods that followed the rules, openly crippling your subordinates—and you not only cannot resist, you must hold your nose and applaud.
"From now on, this Black Blood Stockade will probably become completely the Patriarch's one-man show."
Each elder silently raised their teacup, swallowing that bitter tea.
...
After experiencing such a heart-stopping, flesh-and-blood seeded confrontation, the subsequent matches in the round of thirty-two advancing to sixteen, though still fairly intense with various Gu worms appearing one after another, seemed rather bland to an audience whose threshold had already been raised.
No more upsets occurred. Powerful inner disciples steadily eliminated those collateral members who had advanced through luck, and the tournament's progress became tedious and predictable.
Lin Mu leaned against a bluestone pillar at the edge of the venue, watching the mediocre fighters pecking at each other on stage with waning interest.
"Too slow, too many openings, and their Primeval Essence usage is an utter mess..."
He critiqued casually in his mind. After all, his own progress during this period had been nothing short of miraculous—whether in Primeval Essence quality or killing technique depth, he had far exceeded the normal parameters of Rank 1. Watching this minor scuffling naturally felt uninteresting.
Just as Lin Mu was growing drowsy, preparing to close his eyes and rest while waiting for the day's matches to end—
"Ninth match!"
The referee's loud cry instantly pulled the audience's flagging attention back to its peak.
"Lin Feng versus... Inner Disciple Lin Tao!"
Hearing this name, Lin Mu's half-closed eyes slowly opened, a sharp glint flashing in their depths before vanishing.
He straightened up, watching with keen interest as an upright figure emerged from the preparation area—clad in snow-white robes like a banished immortal, gracefully floating onto the arena.
"The number one seed..."
A faint, enigmatic smile curved at the corner of Lin Mu's mouth as he murmured softly:
"Long time no see, my dear 'Young Master Feng.'"