Following Li Meirong's tremendous display of brutality on her first round, the second opponent reluctantly stepped onto the stage. Wielding a pair steel battle axes, he stood ready to fight. His hands gripped the long wooden shaft of each axe so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

The second opponent was an outer sect disciple from the Sword Bearer's division, who had only recently joined the ranks of inner sect disciples. The newly recruited junior wished to prove his worth by winning a few battles in the prestigious tournament.

Yet, at the moment, the second opponent was having second thoughts about joining this competition. The casual way in which Li Meirong had trampled on her previous competitor without so much as batting an eyelash, had left the second opponent a little rattled.

If one were to look close enough, little beads of perspiration could be seen forming on his brow.

Li Meirong stood calmly and completely at ease, dangling her spiritual blade on the ground in front of her. She looked both fierce and domineering.

The blade's sharp tip let out a screeching noise as she used it to trace patterns on the stage's concrete floor.

With a single indifferent glance in her opponent's direction, she disregarded the agitated opponent and turned to face the tournament's judges instead.

Li Meirong sheathed her blade and looked up, bobbing her head in the judges' direction. They were leisurely sitting atop a nearby tower to spectate the event from high above.

The judges were the grandmasters of each respective division within the sect, with the exclusion of the Bestiary Division's Grandmaster, who had more pressing matters to attend to.

"Distinguished Grandmasters, may I be allowed to battle both of my remaining opponents at the same time? I would like to hasten the process, since my presence is required elsewhere." Li Meirong politely inquired.

The Grandmasters exchanged a few puzzled looks with each other, wondering what could be more important for a cultivator in their sect than to prove his or her worth in this battle tournament.

More so than the other grandmasters present, it was the Sword Bearer's Grandmaster who had narrowed his eyes in disdain at Li Meirong. He, unfortunately, knew this stinky girl all too well. In fact, he had not expected the very same girl who had been nearly throttled to death at her acceptance ceremony, to have the guts show up on the stage, especially with this kind of fearless attitude.

What's more, he had definitely not expected this stinky girl to have cultivated her spiritual powers to the degree that she could easily crush a cultivator at the peak of Foundation Establishment.

It troubled the Grandmaster that he was unable to make an accurate assessment of the level of Li Meirong's powers, which could only mean one out of two possibilities. The first and most reasonable option being that the stinky girl had found a crafty way to conceal her aura.

As for the second option, it was that she was simply stronger than him. It was a thought which was too incomprehensible to be true, since a cultivator couldn't assess another's cultivation level if his opponent had surpassed him in terms of spiritual prowess.

If the second option were to be the case, then that would mean that Li Meirong's spiritual cultivation had surpassed that of a Nascent Soul stage cultivator!

The idea was too ludicrous for the Grandmaster to even consider.

Suffice it to say that the first option definitely made a lot more sense to the Sword Bearer's Grandmaster than the second one. The Elder Grandmaster was a Nascent Soul stage cultivator who had lived for over two thousand years. It would be ridiculous to assume that a recent servant girl in the sect such as Li Meirong had suddenly managed to surpass him with her unpractised cultivation.