"It seems that I get to go without a fight in this round.",

Yun Fei said to Devanshu.

Lin Dong had been rendered incapable of participation, and the number of participants had become odd. A person each round would get a win by default.

Since it was a round robin competition, each person had to fight every other person once. After the first draw, the next fights were going to be organized systematically.

"There's going to be a highly anticipated match-up right for the first fight."

Said Devanshu, as he looked at the list of the participants for the first fight on the center most platform.

"The young master from Immortal Illusion Sect versus the young miss of Sungon city. This will be an interesting match." Said Yun Fei as he saw He Xianru climbing up the platform.

Unlike when she had faced Ha Ken, she looked much more confident. Facing her was Su Libai, a characteristic smile on his face.

"Daoist Ren, You know Libai the best amongst us. Who do you think will win?" Asked Uncle.

"Young Master Su might seem like a wastrel but he isn't simple. I think he has a higher chance of winning this one."

"Yeah, I've heard that He Xianru hasn't got much battle experience. She only started sparring when Ha Ken became the City lord's disciple.

Rapper, what is your opinion?", Asked Scholar pitching in.

Rapper Daoist turned his face towards them. His black Sunglasses made it hard for them to figure out where exactly his eyes were looking.

He opened his mouth 2-3 times but no words came out. In the end, a single sigh escaped his lips as he turned his face back to the platforms.

"Oi!!, Don't give up so soon. Try to say something."

"Let him be Scholar. Sometimes, it just doesn't flow for him. He'll talk when he can figure something out."

"Young Master Su, Since this is a competition, I can't go easy on you. Let's have a good battle."

With every word from their beloved idol, the excitement of the citizens increased. A lot of people had just come to watch her fight.

They had been a little disappointed when she had given up her first battle. This was why they were especially excited when they heard her.

"Ah well, I was actually hoping that Miss Xianru would go a little easy on me."

Su Libai replied to her jokingly. Not bothering to reply, He Xianru rushed towards him after the signal from the referee.

Stopping just a small distance away from Su Libai, she moved her legs with grace and elusiveness. Her movement created afterimages and made it hard for the audience to focus on her.

With caution, she struck out her sword in a probing slash.

"CLINK!"

Su Libai returned her probe. The smile still lingering on his face. It seemed to all that he wasn't taking the fight seriously.

Right after the clink from their swords, He Xianru's body moved in an almost impossible fashion. With jaw dropping speed, she brought down a serious diagonal slash on Su Libai.

Looking at his smile, she felt a little irritated. His smile had displayed his complete ease. She wanted to see if he would be able to maintain it under this attack.

The Qi filled sword entered into Su Libai's shoulder and exited just right above his hip.

He Xianru didn't receive the feedback she had expected from her sword. It felt like her sword had touched nothing.

Supporting her conjecture, Su Libai stood completely unharmed. Even his robes looked completely untouched.

"That was a dangerous move, I almost got slashed.", He said in a joking tone.

He Xianru knew that this wouldn't be an easy battle. She moved once again. Her speed increased further as she drew farther and closer, looking for an opening to strike.

"Young Miss' skills in Hayashi Forms have increased even further."

"Yeah. She always had the talent, with some hard work her improvement is obvious."

Two city guards talked amongst themselves.

Hayashi Forms was the movement technique He Weiyuan had imparted to his daughter. Nobody knew if he had received it in a relic or created it himself. However, everyone was aware of its formidability.

With this signature technique, He Weiyuan had accomplished many legendary deeds. It was one of the key reasons why he had such a high status amongst the gold core practitioners.

Afterall, not every gold core cultivator had a city to govern and the wealth brought by it. Only the exceptional ones could have access to better resources.

He knew the importance of starting early. This was why he taught his daughter the technique as soon as she started cultivating.

Cheers suddenly erupted from the crowd. Xianru's nimble movements had caught Su Libai off guard. The result? Her sword was buried deep into his stomach.

However, the fight whose outcome was set in the eyes of the spectators, suddenly took a weird turn.

Su Libai simply stepped aside and the sword just remained still. His smile was still intact, with no signs of injury over his body.

"Damn, master, I told you that this Su Libai guy was one of the top contenders. This is definitely the work of his illusory techniques.

He Xianru can't harm him no matter what she does." Devanshu said to Yun Fei.

Yun Fei had his eyes peeled and a small smile on his face as he watched the battle. This was because he was looking forward to his battle with Su Libai.

He wanted to know just what he would be able to do against someone, when his illusions didn't work.

Yun Fei could see everything that had been happening right from the start. At the start, he just couldn't understand how He Xianru could fall for such a third class illusion.

He soon realised that it just looked different in his eyes. According to his understanding, Su Libai was creating a false image of himself. While the false image was visible to everybody, his true body was hidden. Staying at just the right distance, dependent on a surprisingly frail camouflage.

This seemed rather simple. But only the people who could see through his illusions were able to appreciate the genius of this move. He Xianru clearly wasn't one of them.

All her slashes naturally fell on the false image and passed through it. She couldn't injure an illusion after all. Her senses were further thrown into disarray whenever Su Libai parried her sword with his own.

To her, it was like her attacks were completely useless. The opponent could choose when to counter them and when to just let them pass through him.

On the stage, He Xianru was agitated. From the start of the fight, she wasn't even able to scratch her opponent. To someone like He Xianru, who had been spoiled from birth. It was hard to keep her composure when things didn't go her way.

Su Libai's smile and carefree comments weren't helping her mental state either. In this fight she had been reduced to a completely passive state.

She thought of her advantages and the points she could exploit. Finally, she thought she had found a straw that she could grasp at. However, even that was something that completely relied on Su Libai.

Taking advantage of her speed and the elusive Hayashi Forms, she cut into Su Libai and his direct vicinity. She had obviously figured out that the person in front of her was an illusion.

"CLINK!!"

The moment she had been waiting for had arrived. Su Libai had finally parried a slash.

This meant that his body was close. Betting on her conjecture, she increased the speed of her slashes immensely. This level of agility was truly formidable, it wasn't something to underestimate.

"Clink! Clink! Clink!"

Su Libai parried some slashes.

As she slowed down to breathe, she thought,

'I was right, he has to parry when my sword is about to harm his body. If I keep targeting the area near him, he will have to defend. If I can press into that moment, I should be able to harm him. I can do it.'

With renewed confidence. She once again used her superior movement technique to land swift slashes.

"Clink!"

This time, her blows were even more numerous. With speed, they fell at the place she suspected his body to be.

As expected, he had to parry again. Thinking that she could finally deal a blow to him, she tried to increase her speed once more.

But suddenly, He Xianru could feel a sword cutting through air. Trusting her instincts, she dodged backwards with maximum speed.

"You have good instincts."

She could feel her cheek wet from the blood leaking out of the thin cut she was dealt.

The audience was still realising that their idol had been cut and that too on her face. The crowd started booing like mad. They didn't consider that it was a battle, huge groups of people were generally bad at making rational decisions.

This booing however, didn't serve as consolation for He Xianru. It made her feel even more embarrassed for her loss. She was young and was susceptible to things like these.

To her, being cut like this while not even being able to harm her opponent was shameful. Especially so when this had happened directly in front of the whole city, which admired her.

Embarrassment brought agitation and that further spurred irrationality. He Xianru in her anger and irritation, heightened her movements and rushed her attacks. She was desperate to make it even.

Although the pure agility of her moves had increased, the variation had decreased. This made it easier for Su Libai to predict her moves.

This time, she couldn't even force him to parry her sword. Instead, sneaky slashes fell and cut off the arm of her dress.

A sense of despair started setting in, she couldn't sense him at all. She couldn't separate him from the illusion. In the heat of the moment all she could think of… was nothing.

While dodging her rapid attacks, Su Libai had even managed to separate one of her sleeves. However, even with all his ease he still hadn't injured her.

It was like he was playing with her. If it was obvious to the loudly booing crowd, it didn't remain a mystery for He Xianru.

She discarded her sleeve. This had made her feel humiliated, fuelling her anger to new heights. Su Libai still remained unchanged from the beginning of his fight.

His expression remained the same. It was as if the jeering from the crowd or He Xianru's barrage of attacks. Nothing could make him lose composure.

She became even more aggressive. This time, the sheer speed forced Su Libai to block them with his sword. Desperate to cut him, Xianru attacked like madwoman whenever he revealed his position.

Somehow, even while still being involved in the fierce sword exchange. He still had leisure to cut off her remaining sleeve.

"Damn

This guy is nice,

His blows precise.

Drop her robes,

Show them globes."

Just as they heard Rapper Daoist speak. The expressions of Daoist Ren and the gang dropped.

Daoist Ren physically blocked Rapper Daoists mouth because he could see that he still had something left to speak.

"You bastard!! Do you want us to get killed or something? Keep her name out of your fucking mouth."

When nobody came to lynch them, they could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Daoist Ren was glad that the people were still booing Su Libai with all their strength.

If they had the leisure to notice them, he was afraid that even their corpse wouldn't be left intact.

He lashed angrily at Rapper, "Be careful about what you say, You almost got us beaten to death."

Xianru had started swinging wide trying to cover the maximum area. She had lost sight of her own style, her speed was Ill suited for something so imprecise.

She often swung empty and a few choice times even ignored a seemingly tired Libai to swing at empty air.

He had to block a lot of sword strikes. Although she hadn't been able to land even a single blow on him, this made her feel close to achieving something.

She decided to take it up a notch. Putting excessive Qi into her movement technique, He Xianru's inefficiency was awesome. The jeers stopped, they felt something big coming.