“Is this all?”

Feng Shi scoffed while gracefully evading a small dragon made from blue electrical energy. For most of the outer sect disciples, it was an astonishing feat of agility. They could see that this opponent called Dai Rong was no slouch.

The attacks were quick and deadly. Each time those dragon heads chomped down a loud booming sound of thunder riverbed through the whole large field. This only showed how strong Feng Shi actually was as he was managing and doing it with little effort.

“Senior brother Feng Shi was this strong?”

“No wonder sister Meng Meixiu and brother Xuan Fen never challenged him to an open fight…”

To everyone here, it felt that this senior brother of theirs was far above what a Martial Master should be, even more, experienced elders that were at the late stage of that realm would fall before him.

“Submit junior, you have no way of winning!”

A ferocious palm strike that was thrown by Dai Rong was quickly kicked to the side. Feng Shi kick carried his own Qi and caused the dragon made from electricity to quickly dissipate.

“Submit? This fight has only begun!”

Dai Rong replied while using his other palm. The dragon on it combined with it as he fired off a somewhat cone-shaped electrical attack at Feng Shi.

The weapon of choice for this senior brother looked to be a battle umbrella. The moment the palm strike descended in his direction this umbrella was opened up. It started glowing with white light, the palm strike was quickly absorbed into this umbrella that was spinning around.

“I’ll return this to you!”

This peculiar weapon continued to spin until it formed a torrent of white energy. It looked like a blade storm that was bathed in electricity. Dai Rong retreated, his feet shuffled on the stage as he left many lightning charges after images.

The electrically charged storm didn’t stop, it connected with each after image and started getting bigger. It looked to be absorbing all of the electrical energy from those after images and only getting more powerful.

Dai Rong found himself at the edge of the battle stage. He had no way to run, if he was removed from this stage he would be disqualified. Thus the only thing he could do was to turn around and take the hit.

Everyone looked in horror at the giant cyclone that was composed of sharp wind blades and electricity connected with Dai Rong’s body. The young man moved his forearms above his head as he turtled up.

“Senior Feng Shi so brutal…”

“That junior had it coming, how dare he talk like he was senior brother’s equal!”

The peanut gallery commented as Dai Rong’s body vanished behind the white storm energy. They didn’t think that he would be able to survive this unscathed.

Feng Shi’s umbrella stopped spinning around and he pulled it back. The young man gave out a sigh while turning around. He looked to his old spot where he was sitting and the girls smiled at him. It seemed that the battle was over and he could return to his original place.

“I must apologize to everyone, I seemed to have lost my temper.”

“Senior brother is so humble!”

“Yes, senior Shi did nothing wrong!”

The young disciples cheered while the young master smirked slightly. Before he could make his way back though, he heard a voice call out from behind him.

“Where do you think you are going, this isn’t over yet.”

Dai Rong’s voice was heard by everyone. After the storm was cleared his injured body appeared before everyone. The upper part of his robe had been cut up into tiny fragments. His body looked like it was put through a shredder.

“How can he still be standing…”

“So many cuts…”

To everyone standing here, it seemed that the young man was holding onto his dear life with willpower alone. Feng Shi just started with an empty look in his eyes and quickly laughed.

“It’s not over? You can barely stand. This Feng Shi commends you on your bravery and willpower but you should know when to give up. There is no shame in losing to me.”

The young lord smiled while speaking and everyone here nodded. It was clear who had won this battle and if it continued then Dai Rong would shorten his cultivation life. Unless a person surrendered the fight would continue, not even the elders would stop it.

“Shame in losing? Who is losing, I just need a moment…”

The people laughed while Feng Shi shook his head in disapproval.

“Even if I gave you a year, you would not be able to best me... ?”

Feng Shi trailed off at the end of the sentence as he felt something strange happening. Soon after, the people could see a certain glow surrounding Dai Rong’s whole body.

“What is he doing…”

“His cultivation… it’s getting stronger?”

Dai Rong’s muscles started twitching and contracting. His long dark hair started floating up while electricity continued to gather in a small area around his already glowing body.

“If this isn’t enough for me to win, then I just need to go further… further beyond!”

“How is this possible… is he really advancing his realm in the middle of the match? Is he crazy!”

Someone from the audience shouted while Dai Rong’s body continued to go through some kind of change. Feng Shi was stunned by this turn of events, unable to comprehend what his opponent was doing.

Going through a small realm during a fight and while being injured was unwise. This was something that only someone that has prepared accordingly should attempt. Otherwise, they risked failing and crippling themselves for the future. For everyone here, it looked like the young man would just ruin his future and fall.

“Alas he was a fool, such is youth. Let us hope he won’t suffer cultivation deviation”

Elder Jingyi commented while other elders looked down to the stage the number one and two prospects were fighting. It didn’t seem like anyone here would go and stop the change. It was far more dangerous to go in, the young man’s chances of bursting through the realm would go down if any elder attempted to move in.

“Elder Jingyi… look... “

“What? Impossible!”

Everyone expected him to fail but instead of his body bursting with more blood it seemed that the wounds were subsiding. His muscles got larger and his figure filled up while his aura increased in power.

Soon a giant thunder strike was heard by everyone here. Dai Rong’s body crackled with thunderous electrical might and it looked that he had achieved the breakthrough that he had hoped for.

“How could this be… Martial Master… middle stage? Just like that?”

Elder Jingyi rubbed his chin while looking down at the young man. He started examining him from head to toe with his spiritual sense and he could feel the powerful golden crystal palace hidden within this youth. When he compared it to the young man this Dai Rong was facing, it was like comparing a grand castle to an old moldy shack.

“Unfathomable…”

….

‘Did you take a good look?’

Zhang Dong chuckled to himself as he faked a breakthrough in the middle of the fight. He had decided that this would be a better way to show off his might. If he beat someone that was at the late stage while being still at the early stage it would look somewhat fishy. Like this, he would look like a genius but he would still be grounded in reality.

His strength was already over the Martial Master level. The young man that he was fighting was talented but not that much more than your average sect prodigy. It was time to play it up for the crowd, he struck a nice pose and pointed out with his finger.

“Surrender now and I will be lenient!”

He could see Feng Shi’s forehead vein becoming very prominent at this moment. It was clear that this young man was just acting the good senior brother part. In reality, he would probably tear him limb from limb if there was no one looking.

“I have been too easy on you junior, if you don’t want to listen to reason I must show you the truth with my fists! So what if you achieved the middle stage, you are still below this senior!”

“I don’t need to be at the late stage to defeat the likes of you!”

Zhang Dong taunted the young man. He could see Feng Shi’s eyes going bloodshot from rage, it was clear that he was not used to such behavior from his peers.

Feng Shi was the first one to charge forward along with that strange umbrella weapon of his. At the end, there was a spike that would probably be able to pierce through anything it touched.

Regretfully Zhang Dong was done playing around and he would give the audience a nice show. It was the exact reverse of the start of this battle. This time around Dai Rong was dodging everything with no effort while Feng Shi charged at him like a mad bull.

“How could this be…”

“I have never seen such a display of agility, can he predict all of those movements?”

People had noticed that Zhang Dong was evading almost too well. This could be attributed to either ability or experience. Being that the young man was still a realm below Feng Shi, most attributed it to ability.

“That junior must have an innate talent for prediction!”

“Guh”

A palm landed on Feng Shi’s chest and he flew back a couple of meters. The umbrella was used as a crutch as he stood up with shaky hands. During the exchange, Zhang Dong had used a counterattack at a perfect moment.

“I told you, surrender now!”

“Y-you…”

Feng Shi’s face contorted to look like that of a devil. He was clearly not enjoying this fight, no one that was similar in age had ever been able to compete with him at an equal footing. Unable to cope with his emotions he turned into a madman.

Zhang Dong found himself deflecting and evading all kinds of electrical attacks and techniques. The longer this fight lasted the angried the young master he was fighting was acting.

‘Time to end this…’

With a well-placed kick to that umbrella weapon, he managed to disarm his opponent. The weapon landed outside the ring which meant that Feng Shi would need to fight without it.

“You dare?”

“Ha ha, yes indeed, but do you dare?”

Feng Shi looked a bit confused at the answer and another clash between the two occurred. This time Zhang Dong was sure to ram his palm in the young master’s solar plexus. With some Qi added to it, Feng Shi turned into an electrified puppet that soon flopped on the cold ground.

“W-winner… Dai Rong!”

He held his fist up in the air as if he owned the place. It was clear that he was showboating but everyone here knew it, he had skills to back it up.

“I am number one!”

‘This should be enough… I know you are drooling up there, come down and let us get this over with…’

Zhang Dong looked up to where Elder Jingyi was sitting. He clasped his hands in a proper manner before getting down from the ring. Now he just needed to wait and his path towards the inner sect should open up.