The rapid improvement in strength delighted Ling Xiao. However, when he returned to the exit of the building to check the situation, the look of joy on his face completely disappeared.
"Damn Great Strength Divine Ape, it seems dead set on playing this waiting game with him and refuses to leave no matter what."
Ling Xiao hesitated for a moment but eventually gave up the idea of breaking out.
An eighth-level pinnacle Monster Beast was undoubtedly akin to the strength of a Martial Pulse Ninth Level master. With his capabilities, it was impossible to break out.
The only outcome of forcing his way through would be death!
"Sigh, do I have no choice but to give up on participating in the finals?"
Ling Xiao was truly unwilling. With the improvement of his strength to its current state, he was fully confident that he could win first place in the finals.
He simply didn’t believe that Ling Feifan could be stronger than him!
But reality forced him to compromise.
Life is of the utmost importance; without it, there’s no need to think about anything else.
Left with no choice, he returned to the Cold Pond once more and simply continued to train.
After all, he had to consolidate his current strength while he had the time.
In the following time, he still maintained his training in the "Snow Lotus Qi Technique" and "Nine Revolutions Golden Body Technique".
Although the speed of improvement had slowed down a lot, it was still much faster than the usual training pace.
To tell the truth, if it weren’t for the finals being only one day away, he really wished he could stay here a bit longer.
On the last day, Ling Xiao nearly practiced for one shichen before checking the situation outside.
Even though he knew the Great Strength Divine Ape was unlikely to make way for him, he still harbored some hope in his heart.
Just like that, a day passed, and it was the day of the finals, but the Great Strength Divine Ape still stood guard at the exit with no intention of leaving.
Facing this situation, Ling Xiao was extremely helpless.
After a day of consolidating his training, although he had not achieved a breakthrough in the two top-level Martial Arts Techniques, there was an obvious improvement in both.
Besides, the gold cells within his body had increased from five to six.
The pace had clearly slowed down from before.
However, even with just one extra cell, it was still an additional one hundred jin of strength, which would be of great help in battle.
Moreover, with the continuous tempering of his body by the Cold-Pond Golden Fluid, he discovered that even his bones had turned golden yellow. Although his blood was still red, it was now clearly more vigorous than before.
He had always been bullied and had some underlying injuries in his body. Now, with the help of the Cold-Pond Golden Fluid, they had all been cleared away.
He had gained strength.
All he needed now was merely an opportunity to prove himself.
He didn’t want to continue waiting endlessly, so he transferred the remaining Cold-Pond Golden Fluid into his Mountain and River World’s village and also transplanted all the Golden Snow Lotus there.
By then, there were five farmers in his village, each with their own duty, helping each other, and everything was well-organized.
After finishing these tasks, he began looking inside the building, hoping to find another exit.
In Tianfeng City, at the Ling Family Ancestral Residence.
The arena for the annual grand finals was starting to be arranged. A large number of disciples gathered here, as the day off was granted by the clan, allowing everyone to set aside their work and watch the competition.
After all, such a competition was also very beneficial for these disciples.
As the start time for the finals drew nearer, the more than one hundred genius disciples participating in the finals had arrived at the venue one after another.
Ling Yun, ranked second in the Genius Hall;
Ling Shuang, ranked third in the Genius Hall;
Ling Zhan, ranked fourth in the Genius Hall;
And Ling Yihang, Ling Yixue, and other Elite Hall disciples who had made it into the finals.
But until the last moment before the competition began, there were still two people who hadn’t arrived.
One was Ling Feifan, ranked first in the Genius Hall.
The other was Ling Xiao, a lower-ranked disciple.
This situation made many people feel strange.
However, the person most talked about was still Ling Feifan.
As for Ling Xiao, only a few people were more concerned.
"The competition is about to start, why hasn’t Ling Xiao arrived yet? Could he have forgotten about the competition?"
Ling Yixue was probably the one who cared about Ling Xiao the most among all the people.
Although there wasn’t much interaction between the two, some friends really don’t need to be in touch too much.
After the elimination round ended, Ling Yixue could say she was quite shaken, so she trained even harder.
Now she has also successfully advanced to a Martial Vein Quadruple Layer martial artist.
But she knew very well that there were many experts in the finals, and her goal was modest; it was enough for her to stay in the Genius Hall.
The one hundred and ten disciples participating were seated according to their ranking, with the top ten of the Genius Hall in the first row.
Those ten people, except for the absent Ling Feifan, the rest, at the very least, were at the Martial Vein fourth level peak realm.
The top four ranked were even at the Martial Pulse Fifth Level of cultivation.
The most terrifying was Ling Yihang, who had been stimulated more than Ling Yixue during the elimination round, but he was not the type to give up easily.
Who knows what kind of intense training he had undergone or what fortuitous encounter he had found, but he managed to advance from the early stages of the Martial Vein Quadruple Layer to the peak level in just seven short days.
Though his cultivation level was not as high as the top four in the Genius Hall, he was stronger than the rest.
And there was a strange gleam in his eyes, his look towards Ling Yun and others even radiated strong confidence.
"The final is about to begin, why haven’t the number one of the Genius Hall, Ling Feifan, and the champion of the elimination round, Ling Xiao, arrived yet?"
"Yeah, there’s less than a quarter of an hour left, once the time is missed, they won’t be able to participate in the competition!"
"Such a pity, I really wanted to see how far that dark horse could go."
The lower-ranked disciples basically regarded Ling Xiao as their hero, so they paid special attention to him.
Up to this moment, Ling Xiao still hadn’t appeared, which really made them anxious.
Not only that, but even the referees who had personally witnessed Ling Xiao become the champion of the elimination round were anxious about his absence.
"The kid has good talent, if he could come to the competition, he could at least make it into the top ten, what on earth happened?"
The one talking to himself was none other than the chief referee from the previous elimination round.
And in today’s finals, he was still a referee, but the chief referee was the Clan Leader of the Ling Clan, Ling Xiaotian.
"Heh, it looks like those Black Scarf Thieves have succeeded, it wasn’t a waste of all the gold I spent to hire them!"
Ling Shisan, sitting in the guest seats, revealed a sinister gleam in his eyes.
He believed his hiring of assassins to kill Ling Xiao had succeeded due to Ling Xiao’s absence.
However, the fact that the Black Scarf Thieves didn’t come to collect the rest of their reward made him feel a bit uneasy.
Could it be possible they perished together?
If that was the case, it would be best, as it would save him a lot of money.
Inside a dragon-shaped ancient building in the Fulong Mountain Range,
Ling Xiao was seizing the last chance to find a way out of this place.
By his calculations, there was less than a quarter of an hour left until the start of the final.
Yet he was blocked within this building by that hateful Great Strength Divine Ape and couldn’t get out.
Despite this, he was still unwilling to give up the last chance, even if it was only one in ten thousand, he had to try.
Such firmness was part of his character.
It could also be said that he wasn’t willing to give up until all hope was lost.
But his achievements today were inseparable from this spirit of never giving up until all hope was lost.
After all, one can’t just give up after facing a little setback, that would be too useless.