"What?!" exclaimed Asuka. He could hardly believe his eyes.
The Daoist he had crippled was now standing on the stage again, completely unscathed. The energy of the demon blade should have damaged his foundation, rendering him useless. Let alone fighting, even standing and walking should have been impossible.
Yet now, he is back, fully healed? And that Azure Soft Sword, it has returned to its original form?
A shadow passed through Asuka’s heart. In the Jiepeng resting hall, the other Jiepeng warriors, including the old Sword Saint Oniba Henzō, were equally stunned.
Could Great Xia be harboring some hidden master?
"Don't worry." Fujisai Jirō stood up and said, "Great Xia must have someone with a secondary awakened Earth level healing ability. But such abilities consume an immense amount of energy, there’s no way they can keep healing everyone indefinitely."
"That must be it," Maeda Daisen agreed.
The Jiepeng warriors in the resting hall gradually regained their composure. However, in the passageway, the sword-bearing slave Takano Kumagawa had a different reaction. His eyes gleamed with excitement.
"Interesting. The Great Xia exchange delegation must have had contact with Chongque City. The demon blade infused with Outer Space energy isn’t something just anyone can counter... Heh, they’ve finally shown their hand," Takano Kumagawa murmured to himself, his lips curling into a sinister smile.
In the arena, Asuka unsheathed his demon blade once again. A dark red mist surged outward. The thick, ominous, malevolent aura spread like a flood of fresh blood, instantly covering half the arena.
Against this eerie backdrop, Asuka, gripping his blade, looked like a Demon God standing atop a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. A suffocating pressure filled the venue.
From the spectator seats, Wang Fei, Miss Fan and the others felt a terrifying sense of impending doom wash over them.
Asuka made no effort to conceal the energy of the demon blade. In the past, its mere presence would have been enough to crush Daoist Sanjue entirely. But now, that was impossible.
Daoist Sanjue stood like an immovable mountain. He lightly circulated his true qi and infused it into the Azure Soft Sword.
A vast azure light erupted. When it met the crimson mist, the latter evaporated like snow meeting boiling water. It was dispelled in an instant.
Daoist Sanjue stood bathed in divine light. His body slowly levitated off the ground. The Azure Soft Sword shone with a dazzling brilliance, radiating a pure and sacred energy.
At that moment, Asuka felt as though he had been thrown into boiling lava. The energy of the demon blade was instantly neutralized.
The demon blade wailed. It trembled violently and struggled in Asuka’s grasp as it tried to escape.
Asuka was shocked beyond belief. A massive wave of terror crashed over him. He could only grip the hilt of his sword with all his might. The violently trembling demon blade suddenly emitted a series of sharp cracking sounds. A single black crack appeared on its surface.
How... how is this possible? Panic surged through Asuka’s heart like a raging storm.
Daoist Sanjue remained silent. He simply raised his sword and struck downward.
A flash of azure light cut through the air.
Asuka summoned the last remnants of his strength and courage and barely managed to lift his blade in an attempt to block the attack.
For a moment, everything fell silent. Daoist Sanjue landed gracefully. He sheathed his sword.
"Not even worth a strike," said Sanjue.
Without looking back, he turned and walked off the stage. A stunned uproar erupted around the arena.
Is the battle... over?
Just as the thought flashed through everyone's mind, a crisp ding echoed in the air. The once unstoppable demon blade had split in half. The front half of the blade tumbled to the ground, ringing softly as it landed. In that same instant, the subtle vibration of air and energy rippled outward to reach Asuka himself.
Asuka split apart. His body separated perfectly down the middle, each half falling to the ground like shattered pieces of a broken doll. He was dead. His blade was destroyed. His life was gone. Victory and defeat had been decided. Life and death had been sealed.
Silence swept across the arena for a moment, before a deafening uproar erupted. Many of Jiepeng’s prominent figures leaped to their feet, shouting angrily, their voices overlapping in a chaotic uproar. They pointed toward the stage, their faces filled with outrage.
In the Jiepeng resting hall, the Sword Sect disciples exploded in panic, as if someone had dumped a pot of boiling water onto an anthill.
"This was supposed to be a friendly exchange, and he murdered someone?!"
"That wasn't a duel, it was an assassination!"
Maeda Daisen, Fujisai Jirō, and the others shouted in fury, their faces twisted with disbelief.
Yet, the old Sword Saint, Oniba Henzō, remained motionless. His eyes were closed. His face held neither grief nor rage as he sat as still as stone.
The disciples around him were seething with emotion.
On the other side, Tōan Ritsu watched the scene unfold, his expression dark and heavy. For the first time, there was a flicker of worry deep within his smoky-lined eyes.
He had always looked down on these Sword Sect warriors. To him, they were nothing but a bunch of weaklings, rotting away in their past glory, sleeping on a bed of old, fading achievements.
Tōan Ritsu firmly believed that the new superhuman faction would replace the Sword Sect without question. But now, he wasn’t so sure anymore. Although Asuka had lost the duel, the strength he had displayed using the demon blade had left Tōan Ritsu and the other Jiepeng superhumans shaken.
Could it be that the Sword Sect still has hidden aces up its sleeve?
The scene became increasingly chaotic. Jiepeng’s loud protests put the judges in a difficult position. With a death occurring on stage, the higher-ups from both delegations were immediately alerted, prompting an emergency discussion.
Meanwhile, back in Great Xia’s resting hall, Daoist Sanjue was greeted like a hero. The cheers and applause were so loud that they almost shook the ceiling. But Daoist Sanjue remained silent.
Without a word, he walked straight to Li Xiaofei.
"Daoist—" Before Li Xiaofei could finish his sentence—
Daoist Sanjue dropped to his knees before him.
"From this day forward," he said solemnly, "I humbly request to follow you, Leader. Whether it is leading your horse, assisting you with your boots, or serving your tea, I will do so willingly and with all my heart."
His expression was serious and unwavering. Li Xiaofei gently raised a hand, lifting him with a soft, invisible force.
He said, "Daoist, you don’t have to do this—"
Daoist Sanjue knelt again and said with a firm voice, "If the leader does not accept me, I will not stand. I will kneel here until I die."
The entire room was stunned.
Zhao Guoqiang dropped to his knees beside Daoist Sanjue.
"Leader, take me in too!" Old Zhao grinned and said, "I’m convinced, you’re a god!"
The saying ‘A rough man like Zhang Fei still has a keen eye’ applied perfectly here. Old Zhao had long since realized that their leader was no ordinary person. He was no different from a true immortal from legend. And if he could follow an immortal, wouldn’t he one day become one too?
Li Xiaofei couldn’t help but laugh. When he saw that the two of them wouldn’t budge, he finally said, "I am now the leader of Great Xia’s Dragon Group. If you wish to follow me, then join the Dragon Group. This way, you can also serve the nation."
The two immediately agreed without a second of hesitation. Standing nearby, Zhang Hongjing was both stunned and thrilled. She knew well that Daoist Sanjue and Zhao Guoqiang were among the strongest fighters that the government could contact.
The authorities had tried countless times to recruit them into Dragon Group, but both had always declined. The new era was approaching, and many independent cultivators and warriors were making their own plans. Most of them were reluctant to work under official organizations.
Yet now, with just one sentence, Li Xiaofei had convinced both of them to join without any conditions whatsoever. At this rate, the Dragon Group was going to thrive like never before.
At that moment, the head referee of Great Xia's panel, Li Hongbing, entered the resting hall. His expression was serious as he got straight to the point.
"Everyone, we have an issue. Due to the death of Asuka, the Jiepeng exchange delegation has made a new request. We referees cannot decide on this alone, so we need your input."
He took a deep breath before continuing.
"Jiepeng is requesting that the remaining exchange matches be changed to unrestricted death battles. They want to sign a life-and-death contract, where victory is only achieved through killing one’s opponent. What do you all think?"