Lin Tian's low, blood-weeping roar seemed to still linger over Courtyard A.
When the morning sun of the second day completely rose, the atmosphere at the Azure Cloud Sect's outer court martial arena had already been hyped to an unprecedented boiling point.
This was the climax of the Outer Court Grand Tournament held every few years—The Grand Finals.
The area around the arena was a sea of people, so packed that not even a fly could squeeze in.
Various magical artifacts floated in mid-air, and reporters wearing badges from major media outlets had long since set up their Image-Capturing Stones, aiming an array of telephoto and wide-angle lenses straight at the center of the stage.
DONG—!
Following a resonant and distant bell chime, the presiding elder walked onto the high platform with a solemn expression and waved his large sleeve.
"Outer Court Grand Tournament Finals. Lin Tian versus Shen Qiu! Match—Begin!"
As soon as his voice fell, the atmosphere on the stage instantly dropped to the freezing point. However, the states displayed by the two competitors were worlds apart.
After being polished by Mo Fan's "remote harassment" and the media's relentless bombardment over the past few days, Shen Qiu's mindset had actually settled down.
In her eyes, today's finals were just a normal spar between fellow disciples.
Her obsession with the so-called "Grand Champion" title wasn't that deep; she merely wanted to systematically verify her peerless whip techniques.
The purple-black soft whip in her hand drooped slightly. Her expression was as cold as frost, preparing to execute a few simple probing attacks first, just like usual.
However.
Standing opposite her, Lin Tian was like a mad bull completely enraged by a red cloth.
In those bloodshot eyes burned the humiliation of being ignored by the paparazzi, the fury of being stripped of his front-page headlines, and an extreme jealousy toward this "clout queen" before him!
"Today, I will prove to the entire sect who the true number one is!"
Lin Tian absolutely did not care about holding back in a friendly spar between disciples. Without even a word of greeting, his hands formed spell seals frantically.
SHING—!
The extremely high-grade magical longsword on his back flew out of its sheath.
His opening move was his ultimate, bottom-of-the-box killer technique—the Azure Cloud Sword Art move, "Meteor Chasing the Moon"!
In an instant, sharp, silk-like sword Qi poured out like a violent storm. Lin Tian's entire body turned into a white afterimage.
Accompanied by a piercing shriek that tore the air, he adopted an extremely brutal posture, instantly forcing Shen Qiu—who had originally prepared to probe—into an extremely passive defensive blind spot.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Shen Qiu's expression changed slightly. She could only hastily wave her long whip, deploying a defensive net of purple whip shadows in front of her.
But Lin Tian in his enraged state truly deserved his title as the number one seed. In terms of raw power, he even faintly suppressed Shen Qiu.
The two were originally at a 60-40 split in strength.
But now that Lin Tian was holding nothing back, making every move fatal, completely disregarding fellow disciple camaraderie, and entirely ignorant of how to show tenderness to a beauty...
Within the dense net of sword Qi, although Shen Qiu dodged everywhere relying on her exquisite movement techniques, she was still in constant peril.
Riiip—
Several sharp bursts of sword Qi broke through the blockade of whip shadows, ruthlessly tearing Shen Qiu's tight purple-black martial suit.
The sound of ripping fabric was exceptionally clear on the arena stage.
Several cuts were sliced open on Shen Qiu's shoulders, arms, and calves, revealing flashes of fair, delicate skin. And on that white skin, fine, crimson streaks of blood gradually surfaced.
On that face that was usually high-and-mighty, cold, and unapproachable, a tiny sword scratch appeared, and a single drop of fresh blood slowly dripped down her smooth chin.
This posture, rather than making her look wretched, instead added a sense of poignant, shattered beauty.
But in the eyes of the spectators below the stage, this was simply an unconscionable atrocity!
"Hiss—!"
Below the stage, especially those fanatical male fans, everyone sucked in a breath of cold air. Hearts pounding in fear, they didn't even dare to breathe loudly.
"Holy shit! Is this Lin Tian crazy?!"
"He's striking Senior Sister Shen this heavily? What if he fails to pull his punch and ruins Senior Sister Shen's peerlessly beautiful face?!"
"He's simply a beast! Does he not understand the concept of holding back?!"
The direction of public opinion in this moment, like a burst dam, tilted madly toward sympathizing with the beauty.
No one cared how exquisite and peerless Lin Tian's sword techniques were; everyone only saw a brutal sword cultivator ruthlessly destroying a flower.
Meanwhile, the battle on the stage had entered the most tragic dogfight.
After being suppressed and even injured, the competitive drive of the "pure battle maniac" deep within Shen Qiu's bones was thoroughly ignited.
"You court death!"
The ice queen was finally enraged. She abandoned her previous defensive posture.
She actually risked taking two bursts of sword Qi brushing past her ribs to force her way forward. The long whip in her hand turned into a venomous snake, utilizing its range advantage to land a SMACK, leaving a bone-deep, bloody whip mark on Lin Tian's chest!
Trading injuries for injuries!
The two laid all their cards on the table, fighting until the sky went dark and the sun and moon lost their light.
Sword Qi and whip shadows intertwined, plowing terrifying trenches into the marble arena.
Ultimately, in this completely unreserved, high-intensity bombardment, both of their spiritual energy reserves completely bottomed out.
Having lost their protective spiritual energy and spell support, this duel between high-tier outer court disciples degenerated into the most primitive, most tragic pure physical brawl and stamina war.
At this time, a male cultivator's natural advantage in physical attributes revealed itself.
In a messy, muddy close-quarters grapple, Lin Tian gritted his teeth. Relying on his more abundant stamina reserves, he forcefully tanked a weak whip kick from Shen Qiu and abruptly closed the distance.
BANG!
He landed a heavy punch viciously on Shen Qiu's shoulder, knocking the completely exhausted ice queen back several steps.
Shen Qiu's legs gave out, and she half-knelt at the edge of the arena, gasping heavily for air, completely lacking the strength to even grip her whip.
As for Lin Tian, he dragged his heavy steps forward and steadily placed his blood-stained magical longsword at her throat.
The victor was decided.
The referee deacon quickly walked onto the stage, raising his right hand high, his voice spreading throughout the venue:
"The Grand Champion of this Outer Court Tournament—Lin Tian!"
"Huff... huff..."
The moment he won the match, Lin Tian rested his longsword on the ground, panting heavily, blood mixed with sweat dripping down his cheeks.
But the corner of his mouth rose crazily, revealing a relieved, extremely arrogant smile.
He won! He finally proved himself!
Lin Tian turned around abruptly, facing the tens of thousands of spectators below the stage.
He opened his arms and even closed his eyes, preparing to welcome the imagined landslide of cheers, the overwhelming shower of flowers, and the baptism of camera flashes from countless media.
"Come! Praise me! Hand over the headlines!" he roared frantically in his heart.
One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.
The air was surprisingly quiet.
There was no landslide of noise, no deafening cheers. Welcoming him was only the dry host on the stage, and a desolation like the autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.
"What's going on?"
The maniacal laughter on Lin Tian's face froze. He abruptly opened his eyes and turned his head to look.
He saw that the crowd below the stage had completely gone crazy.
But they weren't rushing toward him, the newly crowned Grand Champion.
Instead, like a tidal wave, they surged frantically toward the other side of the arena—toward the physically exhausted, half-kneeling, clothes-torn, blood-on-the-lips, "Battle-Damaged Edition" Shen Qiu!
"Quick, quick, quick! Zoom the camera in! Miss Shen's battle-damaged makeup is absolutely stunning!"
"Such a pitiable sight! This shattered aesthetic! Tomorrow's cover of Gossip Weekly absolutely belongs to her!"
The camera flashes of the reporters' Image-Capturing Stones crackled non-stop, all frantically capturing Shen Qiu's stubborn yet weak, peerlessly beautiful posture, wishing they could shove their lenses right into her face.
As for him, the Grand Champion holding up a sword and striking a cool pose?
Completely ignored!
What added ultimate insult to injury—truly murdering his heart—were the discussions from the crowd that almost made Lin Tian vomit blood:
"This Lin Tian is truly not a man! To strike a fellow junior sister so heavily? He won the match but lost his character!"
"Exactly, exactly! What's the use of having empty martial prowess? In my opinion, he's not even as good as that servant named Lu Xiaoqi!"
"That's right! Although Xiaoqi is a crude brute who only knows how to build muscle, at least he knows how to care for a person!"
"Previously, when Xiaoqi was being one-sidedly brutally beaten by Senior Sister Shen, he'd rather be beaten until he spat blood and flew out of the arena than bear to touch a single hair on Senior Sister Shen's head!"
"Now that is a true man! Lin Tian is bullshit!"
Hearing these extremely outrageous, stepping-on-one-to-praise-the-other comments, Lin Tian stood rooted to the spot, his entire body trembling.
"I fuck your ancestors..."
Lin Tian roared frantically and hysterically in his heart.
"Did Lu Xiaoqi 'not bear to touch her'?! He was fucking one-sidedly whipped like a dog, alright?!! You bunch of blind simps!!"
Just as Lin Tian stood all alone in the center of the arena, his mindset on the verge of complete despair.
A fat reporter wearing an Azure Cloud Daily badge actually pushed against the flow of the crowd, holding an Image-Capturing Stone, and walked toward him panting heavily.
Hope instantly reignited in Lin Tian's dim eyes!
"I knew it! There are still people in this world who understand swordplay and recognize the goods! The official media of the Azure Cloud Sect still cares about true powerhouses! The front-page headline is still mine!"
Lin Tian was wild with joy internally.
He hurriedly straightened his spine, which had been hunched from exhaustion, used his sleeve to extremely elegantly wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, endured the soreness and fatigue all over his body, and held his sword with one hand behind his back...
Preparing to once again strike that perfect pose of an "aloof and peerless swordsman."
However, before Lin Tian could completely display his most handsome forty-five-degree side profile...
That fat reporter merely perfunctorily raised the Image-Capturing Stone. Without even focusing, he casually snapped a picture with a click.
Then, the reporter didn't even spare Lin Tian another glance.
He turned his head and immediately squeezed toward the crowded area around Shen Qiu, muttering loudly and extremely impatiently:
"Alright, alright, one picture of the Grand Champion to fulfill the procedural requirement is enough! Make way! Everyone make way for me!"
"Hurry up, I need to take a few more close-ups of Miss Shen's battle damage. Our newspaper's sales tomorrow depend entirely on her!"
BOOM—
The moment he heard this sentence.
Lin Tian only felt a massive buzz in his brain, as if ten thousand enraged barbaric bulls had stampeded through his sea of consciousness.
Extreme grievance, anger, unwillingness, and all the resentment piled up at the bottom of his heart for this entire week, at this moment, was like a detonated powder keg, exploding instantly!
His sword cultivator Dao Heart, which already had some cracks, was completely shattered.
PFFT—!
The Qi and blood in Lin Tian's chest surged violently, unable to be suppressed any longer.
With a blegh, a mouthful of scalding hot fresh blood sprayed out like a fountain, shooting a full three feet high!
In the final second before his body lost control and his consciousness plunged into boundless darkness, his eyes didn't see the truths of the Great Dao, nor did they see his master's teachings.
He only saw that crude face wearing a tattered servant uniform, carrying a coarse cloth stick, shouting "I like you" on the arena stage.
That was the instigator of all this sin and tragedy.
Lin Tian fell heavily backward onto the arena stage, face to the sky.
Using the last ounce of strength in his entire body, he let out a sorrowful wail of extreme misery that would make listeners weep:
"Lu Xiaoqi..."
"You fucking... WILL DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH!!!"