"This village is our senior sister Baili's hometown, you can't touch it!" Xue Qianxue said urgently.
"Can your senior sister Baili represent the entire True Martial Sacred Ground?" Elder Xianyun snorted coldly.
"Our Senior Sister Baili is the niece of the Sixth Grand Elder of the True Martial Sacred Ground, and she has inherited the legacy of the Grand Empress Hongtian. She is very likely to become this generation’s saintess. What do you think?" Xue Qianxue replied, gaining a bit of confidence.
"So True Martial Sacred Ground wants to get involved in this?" Elder Xianyun frowned slightly and glanced at Xue Qianxue.
She had heard of the heir to Empress Hongtian's legacy, but hadn’t expected this incident to be connected to the True Martial Sacred Ground.
With a flick of her finger, Elder Xianyun released a surge of spiritforce. Xue Qianxue suddenly felt her entire body become immobilized, completely unable to move.
“I’ll take you back to True Martial Sacred Ground to demand justice,” Elder Xianyun said calmly. “As for the rest of you, guard this village. Without my order, no one leaves.”
She then brought Xue Qianxue, along with Elder Fanyun and several others, onto the Blue Luan and departed for the True Martial Sacred Ground.
Meanwhile, at Sacred Spring Sect, the inner court competition was in full swing.
The strongest contender was undoubtedly Luo Yifeng, son of sect leader Luo Changhe.
Not only was his cultivation realm far beyond his peers, but he had also mastered his father’s famous signature technique, “One Sword, Long River.”
This was a meridian technique created by Luo Changhe himself. Much of his present prestige had been earned through this technique, and so he had named it after himself.
To Xu Zimo, however, the inner court competition felt boring. After watching for a while, he began to doze off on the side.
Before long, he was awoken by a particularly loud burst of shouting.
The names Luo Yifeng and Mo Lei echoed from the crowd.
“Is this the final match?” Xu Zimo yawned and looked toward Luang.
“Yeah, it’s been dull all day. Finally something interesting,” Luang replied with a grin.
“Want to make a bet, Brother Lu?” Xu Zimo asked.
“What kind of bet?” Luang asked, intrigued.
“Guess who wins between them,” Xu Zimo smiled. “If I win, you give me a Level-Six formation disc. If you win, I’ll give you a drop of Ancient Wind Blood.”
“Deal! I pick Luo Yifeng. Don’t try to steal my pick!” Luang said excitedly.
“No problem. I’ll take Mo Lei,” Xu Zimo said with a smile.
The Ancient Wind Blood had been taken from Nie Xingqing’s storage ring. It wasn’t particularly precious, but it was rare.
As for the Level-Six formation disc, its power was equivalent to an attack from an Imperial Meridian Realm cultivator.
Generally, for a Formation Master to engage in combat, they had to first condense a formation seal and place it at a designated location, a process that was slow and prone to error, making Formation Masters weak in direct combat.
To solve this, Formation Masters invented formation discs, which allowed them to store formation seals in advance and activate them instantly during battle.
Although Luang was now at the Paragon Meridian Realm and had been a Level-Five Formation Master for some time, his success rate at making Level-Six formation discs was still well below ten percent.
To be considered a genuine Level-Six Formation Master, one needed a success rate of 90%.
Watching Luang smugly think he’d struck a great deal, Xu Zimo smiled faintly.
If his memory served him right, though most details of this competition had faded, he distinctly remembered one thing:
Luo Yifeng would suffer an upset defeat, losing to an unknown inner court disciple.
On the martial stage, Luo Yifeng appeared dressed in white, sword at his waist, and stepped up amid a thunderous roar of applause.
When Mo Lei walked up, he received only a few scattered cheers, followed by loud boos.
“Luo Yifeng, I want to bear your children!” a chubby girl in the crowd screamed at the top of her lungs, nearly overpowering all the other cheers.
Luo Yifeng had been basking in the admiration, but his expression instantly crumbled upon hearing that.
He silently lowered his head, drew his sword, and pointed it at the dark-clothed youth opposite him.
Mo Lei stood quietly, absorbing the thunderous noise. Though it wasn’t for him, he had waited a long time for this moment.
All his years of hard work would bloom now, by defeating the boy every one else had pinned their hopes on.
Luo Yifeng locked eyes with Mo Lei. He didn’t take the youth seriously.
With a sword slash, a blinding sword light flashed through the air, he just wanted to end this meaningless fight quickly.
Mo Lei snorted, and a thunderous tiger’s roar echoed across the stage.
A massive astral tiger, glowing with blue and yellow light, manifested beside him, its shadow concentrated around his fist.
With a roar, Mo Lei shattered the sword light with a single punch.
“What technique is that?” the surrounding disciples muttered in surprise.
Then another strange sound rang out.
This time, in addition to the tiger, a dark green turtle phantom appeared, shielding Mo Lei.
Tiger for attack, turtle for defense.
Mo Lei unleashed his full power, his fists and kicks surged with explosive force, and he began to overwhelm Luo Yifeng.
“This technique seems familiar… I’ve seen it somewhere,” Luang muttered.
Then, glancing at Xu Zimo’s confident smile, realization dawned on him. His face changed.
“No wonder you wanted to bet, you knew all along!”
He felt duped. Until now, Mo Lei had kept a low profile and never revealed any impressive pulse techniques. Of course Luang had written him off.
“The True Fool Sage,” Xu Zimo replied with a smile.
At that moment, Luang’s mind clicked.
Beast-Fist Style, created by the True Fool Sage, his signature meridian technique.
Luang came from True Fool City, a place named in honor of the True Fool Sage, who had once saved it.
The people there knew his legend by heart and took pride in it.
The True Fool Sage lived a remarkable life.
As a child, he was abandoned by his family because of his ugliness and was raised in the forest by a leopard.
Growing up among beasts, he studied their habits and movements and eventually developed the Beast-Fist Style from his observations.