Translated by Yan of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
This scene attracted not only the attention of the audience near the arena, but also of the judging panel, who revealed strange expressions as well. They clearly hadn’t expected two high star experts to have been assigned to the thirty-third arena, and the contestants of the other arenas were happy now.
“There’s going to be a good show!” someone said, rejoicing in other people’s misery. His tone made it sound a bit like he wanted to see the world burn.
“The Black Spider’s white lotus was once Guma Tribe’s holy maiden Zu Ma. I heard there’s resentment between her and You XiaoMo and Ling Xiao. Do you remember the fight at Dong Zhou? This time it’s truly a case of enemies are fated to meet – they actually encountered each other on the first round!”
“I’m really looking forward to it!”
What was widely known as the luckiest thirty-third arena had now become the most unfortunate.
The competitors, who were originally rejoicing on the stage, could only hole up bitterly in the corner of the arena and do their utter best to resist the pressure being exerted by these two people.
Grade six mages were at the very peak of TongTian Continent.
Even though there were so many rainbow level mages attending the Mage Assemblage this time, the amount of grade six mages could be counted on two hands. The probability of two of them appearing on one arena was very slim, and it was the very last arena at that. It could only be said that their luck was truly not bad.
You XiaoMo’s soul force immediately surged up like a flood, whistling as it rushed out towards Zu Ma, nearly swamping half of the stage.
Zu Ma wasn’t weak either. The other half of the stage was filled with her soul force as it roared madly and charged towards You XiaoMo. Their soul forces began to tear at each other, violent cyclones spinning everywhere on the arena. The other mages had to forcefully steady themselves, and the ones who were slightly weaker were caught off guard and ended up sullenly falling off of the stage.
When she saw this, Zu Ma’s eyes grew cold.
Her information said that You XiaoMo’s cultivation base was grade five, and even though she knew that he had obtained the Five Blessing Spirit Eye and his cultivation base was very likely to forge ahead, she hadn’t expected him to actually have advanced in less than a year.
Grade six mage!
Thinking back, she had to suffer countless hardships in order to climb to this level. Not only did she have to upgrade the grade level of her soul, she also needed to cultivate and refine pills. She had to work extremely hard to advance at every level, but then You XiaoMo ended up just casually becoming a grade six mage.
Sure enough, it was infuriating to compare with other people!
“You damn brat, now that you’re here, I’ll show you what ‘there’s no turning back’ means!” Zu Ma said with a dark expression.
At the big competition, they were all aiming for number one. It wasn’t just to get the Grade Water; there was also Shao Yi and Ling Xiao’s promise. If she defeated You XiaoMo in the first round and made him lose his qualifications, Ling Xiao would definitely lose face.
When she thought of this, she put in even more effort.
With a flip of her palm, a white ribbon appeared in her hand. This was her weapon. Even though it wasn’t a whip, it was more nimble than a whip. She flicked it lightly against the ground, and a crack immediately appeared in the surface.
In order to allow the assemblage to proceed smoothly, XiaoYao Institution didn’t use ordinary rock when building the plaza. As long as the attacks or movements weren’t too excessive, the arenas wouldn’t be destroyed too severely.
Zu Ma looked at him with cold eyes, and she instantly swung out the ribbon in her hand. The soft ribbon transformed into the sharp edge of a blade in an instant, hurling itself towards him, stick-straight. It was easy to imagine that the feeling of being hit by this definitely would be hard to bear.
At that moment, a weapon suddenly appeared in You XiaoMo’s hand, blocking the ribbon. When the ribbon hit the weapon, it rebounded off, and it didn’t do the slightest bit of damage.
Zu Ma’s eyes widened slightly as she looked at the weapon in You XiaoMo’s hand, a… shovel.
The shovel wasn’t the golden shovel from last time, but a silver shovel. This time the handle wasn’t made from wood; instead it was composed completely of a type of silver-colored metal.
Its inventor was naturally the Metal Swallowing Beast. It used its failed experience last time to spit out a new one.
Everyone who saw this widened their eyes.
Since ancient times, there had basically never been an expert who used a shovel as a weapon. You XiaoMo was the first person in history to do so, and it could even block Zu Ma’s ribbon, so it didn’t seem like a normal shovel.
Zu Ma stared at the silver shovel in You XiaoMo’s hand with an unreadable expression. She had heard Fang Yang talk about the golden shovel before, but she didn’t know if the silver shovel was as hard as the golden shovel. She simply didn’t believe that this thing could actually block her attack. Just then, it was merely a probing appetizer, nothing more; this was the real main course.
Zu Ma flicked the ribbon in her hand, making it crackle and patter. Just listening from the sound alone was enough to know how much it would hurt to be hit by it. She swung it around for a few times before it suddenly curved numerous times before swiftly coiling itself towards You XiaoMo.
You XiaoMo had a sense of deja vu towards this ribbon. Female mages seemed to favor this kind of weapon more – if it wasn’t a whip, then it was a ribbon. He seemed to have run into a Vermillion Blood Clan woman back then at Dao Xin Academy as well.
This kind of weapon was fairly graceful, but it was truly more flexible and agile. It also didn’t need too large of a movement. He had heard before that if it was a weapon that was transformed, it could be put away inside the body so it could be cultivated warmly inside of the soul. The longer it was stored, the hardness and sharpness of the ribbon would grow better and better.
With Zu Ma’s age, this white ribbon had most likely been stored away for a long time.
However, You XiaoMo knew that this thing had a weakness. This kind of weapon could be considered a hinge linked to the soul. If it was cut off, the soul would also receive some shock.
The ribbon arrived before You XiaoMo very quickly, but right when it was about to hit him, it suddenly swerved to the right before it continued left. It seemed like it wanted to tie him up, but luckily, You XiaoMo reacted quickly enough. He swung his shovel and fiercely swatted it at the ribbon, which was endlessly changing directions.
Clang!
The enormous noise started to buzz in everybody’s ears.
Zu Ma’s emotions wavered for a moment as an unconcealable shock rose in her eyes. She had indeed underestimated this silver shovel. The silver metal was unexpectedly very hard.
If it wasn’t hard, You XiaoMo wouldn’t have brought it out. It had to be known that it was very hard to make the Metal Swallowing Beast spit out something that it had swallowed. The metal was much harder than last time; last time it was in a time of crisis, so it had spit out the solid metal that they dug out over there, because Fang Yang’s strength level wasn’t over two stars.
But this time, the silver shovel was the Metal Swallowing Beast’s prized object. He wouldn’t lightly take it out for no reason.
You XiaoMo followed up with another attack, swinging the shovel in his hand towards Zu Ma like he didn’t want to live anymore. Even though it was very weird to hold a shovel, it was fine as long as it could be used. He didn’t have time to care if other people ridiculed him for it.
However, Zu Ma had heard Fang Yang mention what happened in the cave before, and she knew the reason You XiaoMo could do as he pleased so simply with Fang Yang was because he had caught him off guard, and he had that shovel. She had long since prepared for this, so naturally she wouldn’t become flustered so easily.
Zu Ma’s ribbon immediately shot out, striking You XiaoMo’s shovel. The two of them exchanged blows back and forth, and not even five minutes later they had already exchanged no less than a hundred blows. Each move erupted with a powerful gust of wind, and the strong wind attacked in all directions. The violent cyclones were visible to the naked eye in the air.
As the two of them fought, the others had enough difficulty protecting themselves, let alone getting involved.
As a result, the 33rd arena turned into a two person stage.
Half an hour later, the outcome of the battle wasn’t decided yet. Even though Zu Ma wanted to kill You XiaoMo very much, she hadn’t expected him to be someone so troublesome.
For a long time, they had all paid more attention to Ling Xiao, because Ling Xiao was too outstanding, so everyone’s attention was on him. They had always ignored the young man at his side, and Zu Ma had done so as well. He had become a grade six mage at such a young age. Even though he was truly very amazing, Zu Ma was considering the level of strength beneath the surface level cultivation base.
Don’t think that just because someone had strength, then it would be fine. In reality, because many mages advanced too quickly, they had no way of using strength at the same level of their cultivation base,precisely because their foundation wasn’t stable.
This kind of situation was very common.
In Zu Ma’s mind, You XiaoMo was in that kind of situation, so before the first round of the competition began, she hadn’t paid any attention to You XiaoMo.
When top ten winners appeared in the first arena, and then the second, the third… one after another, the arenas finished the first round of the competition. After that, everyone’s gazes started to gather at the thirty-third arena, which still had thirty people on it.
The six people who had already left the stage weren’t pushed down by other competitors. It was because they couldn’t handle You XiaoMo and Zu Ma’s pressure that they had no choice but to go down. They were highly honored and became the most bitter and shame-faced mages of the whole Mage Assemblage!
As time passed, anger slowly started to leak out of Zu Ma.
You XiaoMo was truly too troublesome; his speed was very advantageous, and he dodged her ribbon every time without delay. Adding on his extremely solid silver shovel in his hand, every time he collided and shook her, she could feel her opponent deliberately exert pressure, as if he was targeting her soul.
Even though Zu Ma believed in herself, after the time grew longer, her soul would suffer blows. If it weren’t for her willpower being steady, she would have most likely lost steam halfway through the fight, which would have really been the end.
When You XiaoMo discovered that Zu Ma’s movements started to carry a bit of irritability, he imperceptibly curved the corners of his lips. This was the result that he wanted.
So what if she had a ribbon that she nurtured with her soul? No matter how sturdy or solid it was, it still had the potential to be attacked. Its biggest weakness was that it was connected to her soul. To think that some people came here so cocky, they were really too stupid!
