“Oh? Little Lei Xiuyuan has become a personal disciple already?”
A slightly flippant male voice suddenly sounded from behind. Li Fei and the other two were startled and hurriedly turned around. They saw Hu Jiaping, who was supposed to be teaching at the academy, floating in mid-air with his arms crossed and a smile on his face. Three steps behind him, a slender woman completely veiled in black gauze stood on a black treasure sword. The wind blew her black gauze, making it flutter continuously, and many disciples around couldn’t help but look at her.
Deng Xiguang and Su Wan immediately recognized him as the legendary former genius, Hu Jiaping, and respectfully bowed: “Greetings, Senior Brother Hu.”
Hu Jiaping didn’t act like a senior brother at all, casually waving his hand, and then patting Li Fei’s head: “You’ve grown taller, little girl.”
Li Fei looked at him with surprise and delight, then glanced at the black-veiled woman behind him, and immediately smiled: “Senior Brother, you brought Sister Amu back too? Have you finished being a teacher?”
“I have to participate in the Dharma Duel, otherwise I wouldn’t have come back,” Hu Jiaping shrugged. “I’ll leave again after it’s over.”
So he came back specifically for the Dharma Duel? Then why did he bring the black-veiled woman? Can these two not be apart even for a moment?
Li Fei was originally focused on watching Lei Xiuyuan’s match, but with their arrival, she couldn’t help but keep looking back at them. Hu Jiaping finally tapped her on the head with his knuckle: “What are you looking around for? Your Xiuyuan is about to win, aren’t you going to watch?”
He was still as outspoken as ever. Li Fei glared at him and quickly lowered her head. Indeed, she saw the golden mist from the Golden Water Dragon’s mouth completely shatter the earth wall. She suddenly realized that during the trial in the East Sea last time, that mirage beast must have also been cut into pieces by this immortal technique.
Gu Wensheng had nowhere to hide. Seeing that ball of light mist rushing towards him as fast as lightning, he could only tightly close his eyes. The next moment, nothing happened. He suddenly opened his eyes and saw Lei Xiuyuan holding a golden light sword in his hand, pointing at a spot three inches in front of his chest. The young man smiled slightly, saluted with his sword, and said leisurely: “Senior Brother Gu, thank you for your guidance.”
Impressive! He was convinced and immediately cupped his hands in admiration: “Junior Brother Lei has excellent skills and immortal techniques!”
Hu Jiaping snorted: “This person doesn’t know how to duel at all. Little Lei Xiuyuan has much more experience in dueling than him. It would be strange if he didn’t win.”
Li Fei’s brows immediately furrowed: “Can’t you just admit that Xiuyuan is indeed strong?”
Hu Jiaping held back a laugh: “Mm, ‘your Xiuyuan’ is indeed strong. Satisfied?”
Every time Li Fei talked to him, she felt like getting angry from being teased. Suddenly, her shoulder was lightly pulled. Lei Xiuyuan had returned. He didn’t act much like a junior brother towards Hu Jiaping either, just nodding and perfunctorily calling out: “Senior Brother.”
“Still so impolite.” Hu Jiapin
g was a bit at a loss with him. “You’ve become a personal disciple, why don’t you cultivate properly instead of coming to participate in this Dharma Duel?”
This conversation became lengthy. Deng Xiguang, to get closer to this legendary genius senior brother, volunteered to explain the series of love and hate between Qin Yangling, Le Cailing, and them. Hu Jiaping listened while sneering: “So it’s Qin Yangling. This guy’s persistence is quite something.”
“Has Senior Brother dueled with him before?” Seeing him speak so confidently, Li Fei couldn’t help but ask.
“We dueled once ten years ago. He was so annoying that I eventually took him down with a tickling technique,” Hu Jiapin said proudly. “That’s ranked fifth in my top ten most brilliant duels in life.”
Top ten most brilliant duels in life… Li Fei couldn’t help but smile. Just as she was about to ask more about Qin Yangling, she suddenly felt Lei Xiuyuan holding her hand. She turned her head and saw his relaxed expression, so she smiled and said: “Not tired at all?”
Lei Xiuyuan tilted his head and thought for a moment: “A little tired.”
Li Fei was stunned for a moment. Huh? Shouldn’t he have said very calmly and proudly that he wasn’t tired at all? What’s with “a little tired”?
Lei Xiuyuan held back a smile, suddenly pulling out the glass bead string pinned behind her ear and putting it in his bosom. He said softly: “Give me a token, and I won’t be tired anymore.”
Li Fei raised her hand and patted his shoulder, the long hair by her ear falling to her chest. Fortunately, Senior Sister Zhao Min hadn’t arrived yet, otherwise, if she saw a strand of hair loose, she would scold her.
Lei Xiuyuan tucked that strand of long hair behind her ear and said calmly: “Don’t worry.”
Li Fei sighed. She thought she had hidden her worries well. No matter what, Qin Yangling had been here for decades and was about to break through the fourth bottleneck. He was also very unscrupulous. Losing wasn’t a big deal, but it would be terrible if he used some method to humiliate them.
“If I win, what reward will you give me?” Lei Xiuyuan whispered in her ear.
Li Fei felt both amused and flustered: “What do you want?”
He deliberately pretended to be deep in thought. Li Fei laughed and patted him again. Suddenly, a woman behind them coughed heavily twice. She quickly turned around and saw Senior Sister Zhao Min standing not far away, looking at her with a half-smile. Li Fei embarrassedly put her hands behind her back and ran over, laughing dryly: “Senior Sister, you’re here.”
“Your hair is loose.” Zhao Min quickly braided the loose strand of hair for her, while saying calmly: “There are many people here, don’t get too carried away.”
Li Fei immediately felt her head burning up. Zhao Min saw her face turning pitifully red and couldn’t help but laugh: “Little girl, your skin is so thin.” Just then, an elder in the arena called her name: “Zhao Min, Qin Yangling.”
Zhao Min raised her eyebrows, somewhat surprised: “Oh, dueling with him?”
Li Fei instinctively grabbed her sleeve, urgently saying: “Senior Sister, you…”
Zhao Min patted her hand reassuringly and smiled: “It’s alright. I’m afraid I might not be able to beat him, but I won’t be utterly defeated either. Don’t worry.”
She floated down to the arena on a cloud. The person opposite her was indeed Qin Yangling. His personal disciple robe had changed to a regular disciple robe, but he still looked imposing and handsome. However, the look in his eyes was gloomy, no longer as composed and friendly as before. Without a word, he cupped his hands towards Zhao Min. The next moment, his long sleeve swept out, and countless huge ice mirrors fell onto the arena, densely packed, one circle within another. Bone-chilling cold immediately spread out.
Countless disciples around couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. This move was also one of Elder Zheng Xu’s famous immortal techniques, called the Yin-Yang Calamity Mirror. Anyone reflected in an ice mirror, if they didn’t go around to the back of the mirror, would be frozen within three breaths, unable to break free no matter how strong they were. Among restraining techniques, the Yin-Yang Calamity Mirror was considered top-tier. For this expelled personal disciple to have mastered the Yin-Yang Calamity Mirror to such a degree was extremely impressive.
Elder Zheng Xu, watching from afar, let out a long sigh, feeling very bitter. What he had valued was precisely this kind of talent in Qin Yangling. With his single water spirit root, he could bring out the full power of the Yin-Yang Calamity Mirror. What a pity, what a pity. He secretly regretted expelling him from the Cloudy Sea, only hoping that this punishment would make him mend his ways and focus solely on cultivation from now on.
Zhao Min’s expression became serious. She naturally knew the power of the Yin-Yang Calamity Mirror. Immediately, her body was enveloped in a sea of fire, and a hurricane rose from the ground. The fire borrowed the wind’s force, and in an instant, the entire arena was engulfed in fierce flames. The wind blades and sea of fire gradually cut and melted those huge ice mirrors. Fire lotuses bloomed one after another at the four corners of the arena, with thousands of fire tongues lashing out wildly, forcing Qin Yangling out from behind the ice mirrors.
Thunder rumbled, followed by thousands of lightning bolts striking down, the scene shocking and earth-shaking. The surrounding disciples once again cried out in surprise. They saw thick smoke rolling on the arena, with lightning and fire surging endlessly. Zhao Min cast a spring rain technique, and the drizzling spring rain washed away all the smoke and dust. On the arena, the countless Yin-Yang Calamity Mirrors had long since shattered all over the ground, and Qin Yangling lay face down, seemingly lifeless.
Zhao Min had already recognized it as an illusion. Suddenly feeling the wind move above her head, she immediately raised several earth walls. Her vision blurred, and the illusion was lifted. She was horrified to find herself somehow in the center of dense circles of ice mirrors. Qin Yangling descended on a cloud not far behind her, leisurely sitting on the ground.
“Junior Sister Zhao Min, aren’t you going to run?” he asked softly.
Run? With so many Yin-Yang Calamity Mirrors already reflecting her, where could she run? Zhao Min’s face turned pale, and she simply stood still. The next moment, her feet were suddenly frozen in a layer of clear ice. The ice gradually spread, freezing up to her waist before finally stopping.
Zhao Min felt as if the ice could absorb one’s strength. Once frozen, she couldn’t use even a bit of her strength, not even her immortal techniques. The bone-chilling cold invaded her body, and her lips quickly turned blue-white, her whole body beginning to shiver.
“Senior Brother Qin, I admit def—”
She was about to bow and admit defeat when Qin Yangling suddenly interrupted her: “Junior Sister Zhao Min, be quiet.”
Suddenly, the ice engulfed her entire body. The cold within the ice was unusually bone-chilling as if it was trying to penetrate her eight extraordinary meridians. Zhao Min couldn’t help but shudder.
“The match is over,” the judging elder immediately made the ruling, while frowning at Qin Yangling. He could have avoided completely freezing this female disciple, but he had to do this. The cold poison must be flowing through her eight extraordinary meridians now, and it would take a great deal of effort to heal. Although this person’s immortal techniques were exquisite, his character seemed questionable.
The ice shattered inch by inch. Zhao Min, completely drained of strength, couldn’t help but collapse. The cold in her eight extraordinary meridians was rampant, and even with protective immortal techniques, she was still frozen to the point where her face was pale and her whole body was shaking.
Li Fei, who had been watching from above and could no longer contain herself, rushed down and embraced her, immediately setting up a healing net. She turned back to glare fiercely at Qin Yangling. He smiled at her and said calmly: “It’s just a matter of inferior skills. Practice for a few more decades.”
Li Fei didn’t deign to say a word to him. Zhao Min in her arms suddenly fainted, her skin gradually becoming ice-cold, like ice.
“The cold poison is rampant in her body. The healing net is useless. She needs more sophisticated healing techniques,” the judging elder said, then threw out a talisman paper. Instantly, a blood-red fire dragon roared and soared into the sky. As soon as the signal was given, two elders came forward to check Zhao Min’s condition. Seeing that the cold poison in her body was very severe, they couldn’t help but change color slightly. Immortal techniques are unpredictable, and injuries in duels are inevitable, but such rampant cold poison was rarely seen. The disciple who did this was too much.
Li Fei watched as Senior Sister Zhao Min was carried away by two elders for treatment in the back. She didn’t care about etiquette anymore and hurriedly followed them.
Qin Yangling watched her retreating figure, then suddenly looked up at Lei Xiuyuan in the distance. Amidst the commotion, he pointed at Li Fei, then at Lei Xiuyuan, and flew away on a cloud with a cold smile.