It took five days for the preliminary rounds to end. More than half of those who had signed up to participate had been eliminated. A handful of people had died during the preliminary rounds, but there had been less than Wu Jian was expecting. Given how dangerous everyone seemed, he had anticipated several dozen people dying rather than a mere handful.

Wu Jian and Huǒ Shuchang were among those who passed the preliminary rounds, and while no one was surprised about Huǒ Shuchang’s advancement, many people had expressed shock when Wu Jian continued on. This was all due to his weaker cultivation base. He was only at the Anima Realm, a whole realm below everyone else taking part in this tournament. How could someone who was so much weaker advance? It was unfathomable to many, including the announcer.

Wu Jian and Huǒ Shuchang arrived inside the waiting room on the sixth day of the tournament to find a much emptier room. There were only about two hundred people left. Of those two hundred, only the top fifty would be allowed to enter the White Tiger Sect ruins. Even though there were less people, the tension in the air was far more palpable.

Several people stared at Wu Jian when he entered. It felt like they were glaring holes through him. He wondered if they were angry that someone with a weaker cultivation base had made it this for, or maybe they were eyeing him because they thought he was easy prey. Few participants had seen how he fought since they were all forced to remain in the waiting room. If they thought he was easy pickings, he would just have to prove them wrong.

Shā Ying Yue was there as always, and just like usual, everyone was giving her a wide berth. People seemed deathly afraid of this woman. Wu Jian hadn’t seen her battle yet, but he had heard about how vicious she was. No one was able to figure out what sort of techniques she used, but more than half the deaths in this tournament had been caused by her.

Lin Liang arrived several minutes after the last participant. He looked at all the members present. Wu Jian thought his eyes lingered on him several seconds longer than everyone else, but perhaps he just felt self-conscious. Everyone was already expecting him to lose in the first battle of the real tournament.

“Congratulations to everyone who has made it past the preliminary matches. The structure of your matches will be changing. You will now be participating in a series of one-on-one matches. The rules shall remain the same as they were during the preliminaries, however. I want everyone to look at this bracket. We have randomly chosen who will be fighting who. Those who win will move up the bracket. That’s all I have to say. Good luck.”

A pair of guards pinned the bracket to a wall. Everyone looked at the bracket to see who they would be fighting first. Wu Jian and Huǒ Shuchang pushed their way through the crowd so they could see the bracket as well.

“Looks like… I’m fighting someone called Wang Dong first,” Wu Jian murmured. “Who is that?”

“Don’t know.” Huǒ Shuchang shrugged. “I’m fighting someone called Lang Delan.”

“Hah! Looks like this is my lucky day. I’ll be fighting a brat who still reeks of his mother’s milk,” said a loud, obnoxious voice. Wu Jian turned to find a tall man with bulging muscles and an hammer strapped to his back grinning at him. “You’re pretty unlucky, aren’t you? Having to fight me in the first round just proves it. I’m quite famous around these parts for my strength and cultivation. You might as well give up now.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“What the hell are you just staring for? Oooh, I get it. You’re scared speechless, ain’t ya? Don’t worry, brat. I’ll be sure to go easy on you. I wouldn’t want anyone thinking I was the type of man who bullies those weaker than myself.”

Wu Jian hadn’t said a single word since this man began pontificating and instead had opted to stare at the man, who’s response was to continue talking. He blathered on and on about how he was going to win, how Wu Jian stood no chance against him, but that it was okay because he would go easy on Wu Jian.

All Wu Jian had to say was, “Wang Dong really is a fitting name for you. That bald head of yours is kinda shaped like a dick.”

Wang Dong’s face turned cherry red as several other participants guffawed.

“You know, I can kinda see it! His head does look like a cock!”

“Kinda gross to think about, but now that it’s been said, I can see it.”

“I feel like I’ve been emotionally scarred by this knowledge.”

“Hey, I think Wang Dong should change his name to Dickhead!”

Every insulting comment hurled his way caused Wang Dong’s face to turn a deeper shade of red, until it looked like all the blood in his body had rushed to his head. Veins throbbed on his forehead as he glared daggers at Wu Jian. If looks could kill, he would have been perforated a dozen times over by this point.

“Brat, I was going to show mercy on you during the tournament, but I’ve changed my mind. Rude children like you need to be punished. I am going to make you regret mocking me. I will teach you why insulting your betters is no different than courting death.”

Wu Jian shrugged like he didn’t care. “You’re welcome to try, I guess.”

Wang Dong glared at him for a moment longer before turning around and stomping off. People continued to hurl insults at the man, but Wu Jian was no longer paying attention. He had done what he wanted. Pissing that man off would surely make him fight that much harder, which would serve as good training for Wu Jian. He hoped that by fighting someone doing their best to kill him, he would finally break through his bottleneck.

Several other people battled before he did, but Wu Jian’s turn eventually came.

“Good luck,” Huǒ Shuchang said.

“Thanks.”

Wu Jian and the still angry Wang Dong left the waiting room and entered the arena, which had been changed since the preliminaries. It no longer featured four stages but one instead. The stage was much bigger than the previous four. Wu Jian took note of this since it gave him more room to maneuver but also closed several avenues of victory for him. It would be much harder to trick people into getting close to the edge so he could knock them out.

“I hope you’re ready to die, brat,” declared Wang Dong the moment they stepped into the arena. He removed the hammer from his back. It looked like nothing more than a massive block of stone attached to a handle, but Wu Jian could sense the chi flowing through it, so it must have been a low-ranking spirit weapon.

“I’m afraid I can’t die here. I still have too much to live for,” said Wu Jian as he slid his feet across the ground and entered a combat stance.

“The battle hasn’t even started yet, and these two are already trading barbs! Seems Wang Dong loathes Jian Wu with a passion. Who do you think is going to win? Had this been before the preliminaries, my bets would have gone to Wang Dong, but now that I’ve seen how Jian Wu fights, I feel like it could go either way!” declared the announcer.

Wang Dong seemed to get angry at the announcer’s words, which implied he might lose to Wu Jian.

The referee looked at the two, then raised his hand. “It seems both participants are ready. On the count of three, two, one… fight!”

“RRAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHH!”

Wang Dong swung his hammer down the moment the battle began, releasing a powerful shockwave that nearly knocked the poor ref to the ground. The man was fortunate his cultivation was higher than the participants. Wu Jian heard the referees were all at the peak of the Asura Realm, which would have made them incredibly powerful figures in the Shang Kingdom.

Unlike the ref, who could weather such a storm, Wu Jian had no choice but to jump into the air to avoid it.

“Do you think jumping will let you avoid my attacks?! Take this!”

Wang Dong swung his hammer skyward and a powerful burst of chi was launched from the weapon. It looked like an extension of the hammer itself. The chi blast soared toward Wu Jian, who narrowed his eyes as he focused chi into his hand, which he shaped like a knife. He swung his hand down just as the chi projectile reached him, slicing straight through the attack.

“Unbelievable! Jian Wu just cut right through that chi attack with his bare hands! I have never seen anything like this, folks! I wonder just what kind of cultivation method this man uses! Whatever it is, it must be incredibly profound!”

Wu Jian landed back on the ground, but all this meant was Wang Dong would have an easier time attacking him. The man had already started running the moment he saw his attack get cut in half. He reached Wu Jian moments after he landed and swung his hammer horizontally as though to sweep Wu Jian aside.

Wu Jian could have used Nihility to simply let the weapon pass through him, but he decided not to. He set his feet in a wide stance, bent his knees, and extended his hands. The hammer crashed into him with all the force of a typhoon. Yet Wu Jian only took a single step back. The veins in his arms, neck, and shoulders bulged as he prevented the hammer from moving.

“This is impossible!” Wang Dong shouted.

He swung his hammer again, and Wu Jian once more blocked it with his bare hands. A shockwave erupted between them. Wu Jian should have been swept off his feet, but all he did was take a single step back.

His opponent’s eyes bulged.

“I don’t!” Swing. “Understand this!” Swing. “How can you!” Another swing. “Be so powerful?!”

It made no difference no matter how many times Wang Dong swung his hammer. The result was always the same.

Wu Jian’s cultivation method allowed him to manipulate space, but that wasn’t the only trick up his arsenal. Long before he ever began cultivating, Wu Jian had trained his body, breaking through all his physical limits and becoming one of the strongest people within the Body Forging Realm. While Chi could be used to enhance a person’s strength, Wu Jian’s body was naturally strong enough to withstand a physical attack even from someone at the Asura Realm.

Had Wu Jian still been at the Body Forging Realm, or even the Hunger Realm, he probably would have lost this contest of strength.

But he was at the Anima Realm.

While people with a higher cultivation were often stronger than someone with a lower cultivation, that wasn’t always the case. The strength of a cultivator’s body, the quality of their chi, and the cultivation method they used all played a role in a person’s strength.

Wu Jian was a whole realm below Wang Dong, but his body was stronger, his chi was of higher quality, and his cultivation method was better.

Simply put, he was stronger than this man.

Wang Dong roared as he brought his hammer down on Wu Jian’s head, but it was stopped when Wu Jian raised his hands. He bent his arms and knees to absorb some of the impact. Yet he did not move aside from that. He wasn’t crushed, wasn’t even injured.

“Why… can’t I… crush you!!!” Wang Dong roared in anger as the veins along his arms, legs, neck, and chest bulged like all the blood was flowing through them at an abnormal rate.

“It’s because you’re weak,” Wu Jian declared seconds before punching the hammer. It was the first attack he had unleashed in this battle. He put as much strength into this punch as he could, and the end result was the hammer being blown away. He clicked his tongue when he saw that he hadn’t destroyed it.

That’s a spirit weapon for you…

Wang Dong was knocked off balance. The hammer was high above his head, and as he struggled to bring it back down, Wu Jian rushed forward and planted his foot into the man’s gut. The attack was so fast. Wu Jian put all his strength and momentum into this attack. Wang Dong dropped the hammer, doubled over, and spewed blood and bile from his mouth as he was lifted off the ground.

Wu Jian left the man where he was, coughing and retching as he tried to recover. He walked over to the hammer and picked it up. It was quite heavy. He judged it to weigh at least one ton. He walked over to Wang Dong, who was still recovering, lifted the hammer, and swung it down upon his head.

A loud shockwave erupted and the ground cracked underneath Wang Dong’s face as he was squashed between his hammer and the arena floor. His body twitched several times before eventually slumping to the ground. Wu Jian waited for a moment, then lifted the hammer to look at his opponent.

“I’m a bit surprised your head wasn’t crushed like a grape. You must be quite sturdy,” he said to the obviously unconscious man. He looked back at the referee. “You gonna call it?”

“Uh… the winner of this is Jian Wu!” The referee announced.

The crowd went wild. Even the announcer was screaming his head off.

“Unbelievable! This is just unbelievable! Never in my life have I seen someone at the Anima Realm defeat an opponent a whole realm higher, but Jian Wu did just that! And so easily too! Perhaps we have a legend in the making! I suppose only time will tell!”