Several minutes passed, and the battlefield descended into chaos as everyone found targets and tried to hurl them off the arena.
Yet at the center of the stage, no one challenged Mu Heng and Shen Yue. Their presence alone deterred others; both stood at the pinnacle of the Transcendent Realm, and no one dared provoke them.
At the arena's edge, the Heretic Blade materialized in Liu Wuxie's hand. He had no reason left to hide his strength. To establish deterrence, he needed blood; only killing would cement his dominance and force others to hesitate.
Even if Li Shan hadn't come, Liu Wuxie would have sought him out personally.
"Throw them off!" Li Shan's allies shouted, charging with weapons drawn.
He Yingwu's knuckles whitened around his longsword. He braced himself, ready to fight to the death. Seven enemies closed in. They weren't the largest group, but they were dangerous enough. For them, eliminating opponents was the only way to secure a spot in the next round.
Tens of thousands of eyes shifted toward Liu Wuxie, eager to see how he would handle Li Shan's team.
Li Shan's group moved with purpose. They wanted to intimidate, to kill Liu Wuxie and He Yingwu, so others would think twice before targeting them. Sword rays slashed through the air, shredding the arena's surface and summoning gales strong enough to blow men away from the stage.
"Trash!" Liu Wuxie sneered, lips curling into a vicious grin. "I spared your lives yesterday, and you thought I wouldn't dare kill you?"
Yesterday, he spared them only to attract the Heavenly Dragon Sect's attention. Now that he had secured his qualification and felt confident that Elder Ding would preside reasonably, he no longer needed to restrain himself.
He swung the Heretic Blade and unleashed the Origin Blade. Though it resembled an ordinary martial technique in the Astral Domain, the aura he released was sharp and bone-chilling.
He didn't look like a Heaven Profound cultivator at all. Even Transcendents paled before such a strike.
"This is bad!" said one of Li Shan's teammates, a seventh-level Transcendent Realm cultivator. He felt the danger first and retreated in a panic as his sword ray shattered into fragments.
Unfortunately, it was already too late for Li Shan. The blade ray descended with an unstoppable momentum.
With a deafening crack, Li Shan's longsword split apart like rotten wood. The Heretic Blade, now at the level of a heaven-spirit artifact, carried a might no ordinary weapon could endure.
Panic seized Li Shan. His face twisted as he tried to flee, but it was far too late. Once Liu Wuxie had decided someone would die, no one could escape.
"Die!" Liu Wuxie roared. He didn't even employ any dao techniques. His mastery of martial techniques alone was enough to cut down these men countless times.
Dao techniques were considered the weakest, mere equals to martial skills. Only mythical arts held offensive power, and only Primal Origin Realm cultivators could comprehend them.
Even Yu Wentai, back on Anlu Star, relied only on ordinary techniques.
Mythical arts were too rare, yet Liu Wuxie had already upgraded the Frost Dao Art into the Frost Mythical Art. The Great Five Elemental Palm and other dao techniques still awaited further upgrades, but it did not matter here.
"Don't kill m—" Li Shan screamed, begging for mercy. Before the complete sentence left his lips, the blade ray cut him apart, bursting his body into fragments of blood and bone.
More people began to fall one after another. Only the seventh-level Transcendent escaped, not because Liu Wuxie spared him out of mercy, but because he no longer wished to draw more attention. He had already achieved his goal.
The sight left the crowd dumbstruck. Liu Wuxie had slain Li Shan, a fifth-level Transcendent Realm cultivator, as easily as grass beneath a sickle. The impact rippled across the battlefield like a shockwave.
Above, the three elders twitched. Elder Ding, who had considered intervening moments earlier, revealed a bitter smile. They had all underestimated Liu Wuxie.
The stench of blood thickened, making many uneasy. Rage and desperation filled the arena. Time was limited, and the weaker cultivators at the fourth and fifth levels of the Transcendent Realm quickly became prime targets.
"That boy isn't ordinary," the southern elder remarked with a faint smile. "For someone at the seventh-level Heaven Profound Realm to kill Transcendents so effortlessly... It's rare indeed." He had seen Liu Wuxie's strike earlier, sharp and indestructible, a force only high-level Transcendents could hope to endure.
"There's a show to watch now," the northern elder said, casting his gaze at Mu Heng and Shen Yue. "The rules exempted them from this assessment, yet they still entered the arena. I suppose they couldn't tolerate Liu Wuxie stealing their limelight."
The two didn't need to take part in the assessment and could have joined the Heavenly Dragon Sect directly. However, they entered the arena, perhaps unwilling to let Liu Wuxie steal their limelight.
"Keep watching," Elder Ding said, anticipation in his eyes. "There will be more surprises."
The massacre spread like wildfire. Other combatants hurled weaker cultivators off the stage in droves, while others leapt down themselves to preserve their lives. Better to return next year than die here. Within minutes, the melee eliminated five thousand, and the battlefield widened into open spaces.
In the center, several powerful teams dominated their ground, and no one challenged them. Instead, the fiercest clashes erupted among ordinary Transcendent cultivators scattered across the field.
No one challenged Mu Heng and Shen Yue; they stood calmly as if spectating the carnage.
"Kill them and throw them off!" shouted several seventh-level Transcendent youths, charging directly at Liu Wuxie and He Yingwu. With most low-level cultivators already gone, the pair stood out too much, drawing all eyes.
A cold smile curved Liu Wuxie's lips. He noticed what others couldn't—those who had been lurking attacked after Mu Heng's subtle signal. The Ghost Eye caught it all.
Clearly, Mu Heng wanted him dead. His dazzling performance had stolen too much of the spotlight. It was no different from a forgotten nobody suddenly surpassing a top scholar. Envy was only natural.
Compared to Mu Heng, Liu Wuxie's cultivation was pitifully low, yet he had stolen all attention.
The sudden attack pressed down heavily on Liu Wuxie and He Yingwu. There was no path of retreat, and they had to face it head-on.
"You stay here," Liu Wuxie said to He Yingwu before charging forward with the Heretic Blade. Even without dao techniques, his raw combat strength was more than enough.
He executed the Seven Dipper Steps to their limit, merging them with the Nine Heavenly Crane Dance and the Divine Dragon Phantom. His speed exploded, overwhelming and unpredictable.
He lunged straight at his enemies. Their expressions darkened. Wasn't he supposed to go on the defensive? However, Liu Wuxie's philosophy was simple: offense as defense.
Blade and fist merged as he struck, his Heretic Blade blazing with killing intent.
"Die!" roared the leader, his longsword exploding in dazzling light. His cultivation was at the seventh-level Transcendent Realm, yet his essence surged as fiercely as someone at the eighth level.
Nearby cultivators scrambled to retreat, unwilling to get caught in the storm. None dared to offend them, knowing their ties to Mu Heng.
"That brat is doomed," the northern elder said coldly. In his eyes, death was nothing unusual.
"Don't be so sure," Elder Ding countered with a calm smile. His confidence puzzled the others. After all, it seemed impossible for someone at the Heaven Profound Realm to overpower someone at the seventh-level Transcendent Realm.
The four swords descended like lightning, sealing all routes of escape. Even eighth-level Transcendents would struggle to break free.
He Yingwu's face turned pale as he watched the encirclement trap Liu Wuxie.
Just then, Liu Wuxie vanished.
Gasps erupted across the arena. He had invoked the Spatial Dao Art, shifting within a half-meter radius—small, but more than enough.
"Where did he go?!" cultivators cried.
A heartbeat later, Liu Wuxie reappeared behind one attacker. The Heretic Blade swung down, cleaving the man clean in two. Blood sprayed across the stage.
The remaining three froze in shock. By the time they regrouped, it was already too late.
Even Mu Heng's eyes narrowed into slits. He hadn't expected Liu Wuxie to break free of such a deadly trap.
"He's a monster," cultivators muttered. Even many high-level Transcendents admitted they couldn't have survived the encirclement.
Liu Wuxie didn't stop. He pressed the attack. He was poor, and this was his chance to seize their interspatial rings to accumulate resources.
Liu Wuxie pressed forward. His fist lashed out and slammed into another's back, sending the man flying in a broken arc before he crashed lifeless onto the ground.
The final two attackers turned and fled in terror.
"You think you can leave? Dream on!" Liu Wuxie roared, darting forward.
"Don't force us!" one shouted desperately. "It will end in mutual destruction!"
"With the two of you?" Liu Wuxie sneered. His blade twisted into a near-impossible angle, and a wisp of frost energy laced the strike. The strike roared with ten times the force of his earlier blows.
In that instant, both men realized that they had made a fatal mistake. Liu Wuxie's combat strength already rivaled high-level Transcendents.