Mei Kongxu's appearance as a smile flashed across her face could only be called breathtaking, the men close enough to the stage to get a good look sucking in an involuntary breath. Li Yang was standing right in front of her and had to bear the brunt of her radiance, but even so, his expression didn't change, remaining cocky as the corners of his lips turned up into a slightly teasing arc.

"Oh? If I remember correctly, the bet was to see who could defeat more people, not who could defeat the other. I've won one and you've won one, we're still even. But it's nice to hear that your wish is a date with me, you should have just been honest from the start if that was your goal. But I understand you, I've heard that being tsundere is supposedly quite popular right now, there's no shame in copying it."

Mei Kongxu's faint smile immediately vanished as Li Yang chuckled and teased her, the budding nice atmosphere that their battle created vanishing along with her smile. Li Yang grinned snarkily while looking at Mei Kongxu's dumbfounded and even somewhat exasperated expression, he placed his hands behind his head and turned around, sauntering over to the seating area again.

"Would you look at that, Fairy Sister Kongxu can actually put on a cute expression like that too and become Goddess Kongxu. But you agreed to the bet so there's no going back on it, even if you act cute like that."

Li Yang continued to chuckle as he returned to his seat and slumped down, leaning back into his seat while crossing his legs. Mei Kongxu remained dumbfounded for a bit longer, gazing dumbly at Li Yang. You could actually act shamelessly like that even after admitting your own loss?

But she quickly gathered herself and let out a very soft huff of air, her expression returning to its usual disinterested state. She too returned to the seating area and sat down in her seat next to Li Yang, a short silence reigning over the entire arena after the two stepped down from the stage.

This was not a turn of event that anyone had expected, the number of people who had any expectations towards Li Yang during this year's sparring matches could be counted on one hand. The rest had all expected that he would just make a fool of himself and have his cockiness rubbed in his face. But he had stepped up without anyone prompting him, and he had shown exactly where that cockiness came from, shown exactly how deeply he had hidden just to make fun of all of them.

People were a bit apprehensive towards entering the stage after Li Yang's display, it wasn't like defeating people two small realms above you was an easy thing to do. But the sparring matches had to continue, so there was eventually someone who went up and started up the challenges again.

Li Yang and Mei Kongxu sat in their seats and observed the matches as they played out, Li Yang occasionally shouting out something to the participant from the Deepsea King sect to embarrass them. At other times he would tease Mei Kongxu to see if he could get a rise out of her, but she maintained her disinterested expression most of the time, only casting fleeting glances at Li Yang.

Their seating area was a bit isolated to give them a bit of privacy, and it was thanks to this that she was the only who noticed that his eyes contained a very faint trace of seriousness. His eyes would be either on her or the match, but she felt that his gaze wasn't focused on them at all, even when it landed on her did it only roam and focus for a short second. At the start, it was her eyes that had been distant but now it was his turn to look distant, a faint pondering light occasionally flashing past his pupils.

And then, after six other matches had taken place since his loss against Mei Kongxu, his eyes flashed with the light of understanding. He waited for the ongoing sparring match to finish and then stood up, all trace of seriousness vanishing from his eyes as he smirked at Mei Kongxu and gestured towards the stage with his chin.

She raised an eyebrow in slight surprise and got up from her seat, following Li Yang down to the stage. The two entered the stage once more and took up their positions at a proper distance, Li Yang hopping slightly while shaking his limbs.

"Alright, Fairy Sister, you gave me quite the vicious beating earlier so I hope you won't mind if I give you a quick spanking as payback. Take care, it'll happen really fast."

Li Yang's feet touched the ground just as he ended his warning, his body shooting forward at full speed. His speed was the same as previously so Mei Kongxu's eyes showed a slight bit of interest in exactly what suddenly gave him the confidence that he could win.

Li Yang instantly reached Mei Kongxu's front and dove down while sweeping out with his leg to knock her feet out from underneath her. But Mei Kongxu simply raised her foot the moment he dove down and then stomped down just as his leg was beneath her, as if she had predicted his move.

But just as her right foot made contact with his leg, it actually slid unnaturally to the right. Mei Kongxu's eyes instantly shot open but it was already too late, her right leg slid to the right and then rose up as if Li Yang had kicked it out from underneath her. Her entire body followed the leg and started suddenly spinning in the air as if she was doing cartwheels while stuck in place.

Li Yang sprung up from the ground while still carrying his smirk, stretching his arm towards the helplessly spinning Mei Kongxu. But she wasn't completely defenceless, she used her own law of twisting to resist the spinning of her body, twisting the air around her to neutralize the spinning. But the moment she managed to neutralize her spinning, her body actually started to spin in the opposite direction at an even faster pace.

Li Yang looked as if he had expected this turn of events, his hand placing itself in the path of Mei Kongxu's buttocks. She spun right into it, Li Yang bending his wrist to deliver a sharp slap to her rump, the crisp sound practically music to his ears as a satisfied grin appeared on his face.

"Yup, I really do feel better after getting some revenge. Well, my instincts tell me that things are about to go really south, but I still think I'm gonna call it worth."

Li Yang felt a sharp pain in his hand just as he finished his words, the skin all over his hand getting pinched as it felt like even his blood and bones were starting to twist. The pain spread up his entire arm and then to the rest of his body, his feet losing contact with the ground as he was flung backwards while spinning uncontrollably.

He reversed his own gravity to make himself as light as possible, even twisting it in a circular manner to halt his uncontrollable spinning. But Mei Kongxu had unleashed so much force that he couldn't fully halt himself and he ended up crashing into the small stone wall that separated the stage from the first row of the seating area.

His body made a few cracks in the wall before he slid down to the ground, jumping up with a slight grimace while shaking his limbs to dispel the remaining ache. His gaze landed on Mei Kongxu, who had finally managed to stop herself from spinning and had returned to the ground, a faint blush that Li Yang had to admit was adorable covering her cheeks. But while the blush occupied a bit of his attention, most of his focus lingered on the thing he could see behind her.

He swore that he could see the faintest mirage of a small star hanging above her and a bit to the right, blinking in and out of existence as if it was a trick of his eyes. Mei Kongxu sucked in a deep breath, the blinking star vanishing as she turned her gaze onto Li Yang, a faint bit of admiration appearing in her disinterested and slightly embarrassed eyes.

"You copied me? You created a circular pattern of both reversed and increased gravity to force my body to spin, and the moment I used my own law of twisting to negate this field, you simply reversed its direction. I did not expect that, not at all, that's clever, really clever. Now I'm even more interested in see..."

Her eyes flashed with a bit of brightness as she spread her legs in a battle-ready stance, but Li Yang actually cut off her words by raising his hand as if he was telling her to wait.

"Ah, no need to bother, I surrender. I got my revenge, and it felt quite sweet and firm if I might add, so there's no need to continue fighting. We'll call the bet your win, I get the feeling you'll just challenge me every chance you get and keep beating me down, and I don't think my extremely fragile pride can handle that. It's a shame, but I fear that I must comply with your request and take you out on a date. Really, what a shame that I couldn't make you comply with my request for a date."

This time it wasn't just Mei Kongxu, the entire stadium felt like cursing Li Yang by calling him shameless. There wasn't an ounce of seriousness on his body as he spoke, he clearly didn't care one whit about getting beaten down and just wanted to irk Mei Kongxu.

And as he looked at her slightly cramped expression that looked as if she was unsatisfied that she didn't get to keep going, he knew that he had succeeded. He stopped shaking his limbs and brushed off the dust on his body, giving Mei Kongxu an overly exaggerated bow while stretching out his hand.

"Now then, Fairy Sister Kongxu, please allow this adonis to escort you around as promised. Of course, if you would like to return the spank I gave you then you are free to come whenever, I just fear that my buttocks won't feel even half as good as yours."

The spectators once again felt like cursing Li Yang's shamelessness, Mei Kongxu sucking in a breath and heavily rolling her eyes. Her expression returned to normal as she did her best to ignore Li Yang's teasing, calmly walking over to him and using her hand to gesture for him to take the lead.