Chapter 776: Tit-for-tat

After waiting for some time, the sun hung in the east and shone on the battle arena. Saint Xihua, the Great Zhou Sacred King, the Sky Saint, the Glass Saint, and the other Saints sat high up, looking at the crowd. At that moment, the elder hosting the Nine State Forum stood at the east edge of the battle arena and announced, “The top 100 from the Nine State Forum, enter the arena.” As his voice landed, the top 100 cultivators from the Nine States forum stepped forward onto the battle arena. Beside Ye Futian, Hua Jieyu looked at him and stood up.

“Don’t feel pressured, the ranking is unimportant,” Ye Futian smiled and reminded her.

“Okay.” Hua Jieyu nodded softly and replied, then turned around and walked off. Although Ye Futian had claimed that the ranking was not important, she knew that it was definitely important. If the Barren State’s disciples did not obtain a good ranking, the already ostracized Barren State would be even more underestimated by others and be unable to gain respect. As such, the four of them would do their best to obtain a good ranking in the battle.

Ye Futian looked at their figures and felt a sense of pensiveness. He had a bitter smile as he shook his head, what were these fellows thinking? The Nine States’ top 100 stood on the enormous battle arena. At that moment, the battle arena appeared extremely spacious.

Immediately, the viewing gallery fell silent. Everyone looked towards the battle arena, anticipating the start of the final battle.

“In the Nine State Forum top 100 battle, the rules are simple. Challenge someone, the victor stays, the loser is eliminated. There is no order, anyone who wishes to challenge, step forward and point at the person you wish to challenge. If you win, you will enter the top 50,” the elder announced the rules of the final battle.

They were simple. There was no lot-drawing among the top 100, as it would cause some of the strongest cultivators to battle prematurely. For example, what if the two strongest people in the Nine State Forum were made to battle because of the lots they drew? Under this type of unrestrained challenge rules, if the strongest two people willingly fought each other, they would accept the unavoidable.

Generally, this kind of scenario would not happen. These people would try their best to avoid those who were too strong and leave their toughest opponents last. Of course, this was unfair too. There were people who would be targeted by the strongest elites. However, since this was a battle, there could not be absolute fairness. Nobody would care about fairness anyways. The world only looked at the results.

In the battle of the top 100, winning one battle would allow someone to enter the top 50.

“Begin,” the elder announced. As his voice landed, a solemn atmosphere shrouded the battle arena. The Nine State Forum’s most elite confrontation had begun.

An invisible wind blew on the forum’s battle arena. When the elder announced the start, nobody stepped forward and it was exceptionally silent. According to the rules, it was time to challenge the weakest. However, among those who managed to enter the top 100, there were no weaklings. Apart from some of the most elite, it was not easy for them to determine who was strong or weak, so it was not easy to pick an opponent.

At that moment, a figure stepped forward.

The person was from the Eastern State’s Great Zhou Sacred Dynasty, and he had an arrogant look in his eyes. The robe with golden phoenix patterns embroidered on it swayed in the wind. The mark of the Great Zhou Sacred Dynasty was also embroidered on his robe.

Zhou You. Countless gazes froze as the people in the viewing gallery looked at the figure that had walked out.

Zhou You was the strongest cultivator from the Great Zhou Sacred Dynasty in this Nine State Forum. He had an extremely high position in the Sovereign Family’s younger generation. In the past three days, it was established that he was a figure who had the ability to enter the top ten, and there were even people who wondered if Zhou You could be crowned as the winner of the Nine State Forum.

One could imagine how strong Zhou You was. The Eastern State was the host of this time’s Nine State Forum and more attention would be placed on the Xihua Sacred Mountain and Great Zhou Sacred Dynasty’s younger generation, so there would be certain bias towards the guessing of the rankings. Even so, if Zhou You was not strong enough, there would not even be such a conjecture.

His opponent is really unlucky, many people thought to themselves. Even in the battle arena, many people were nervous. It was hard to be confident when facing Zhou You. If they were challenged, the likelihood of being eliminated was too high. They could only hope that Zhou You would not challenge them.

Of course, there were also a few people who were extremely confident in their abilities and did not mind. To them, the first battle was merely a course of events.

Zhou You’s gaze looked around the crowd and finally stopped in one direction. Everyone immediately turned towards his gaze and the seven people there stood out. Each of them had their own place in the Barren State’s direction.

“Since your Life Spirit is also a phoenix, I’ll challenge you,” Zhou You said. Evidently, he was saying that to Phoenix.

Many people did not expect that the first person that Zhou You challenged would be a girl. She was the Barren State’s Holy Zhi Palace’s disciple, Phoenix. The other people from the Barren State all looked at Zhou You. Could it be that the people from the Barren State stood out? Why did they always like to target the people from the Barren State?

Ye Futian also had a perplexed expression. Could it be that the Great Zhou Sacred Dynasty disliked him? First Zhou Ziyi, now it seemed like the Great Zhou Sacred King had something against him. Now, the strongest person from the Great Zhou Sacred Dynasty, Zhou You, was the first one to step out, and the person he was challenging was from the Barren State.

Phoenix was likely in danger. However, this was uncontrollable and unavoidable.

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Phoenix appeared very calm. She stepped forward and stood opposite Zhou You.

“The Great Zhou Sacred Dynasty’s Zhou You.”

“The Holy Zhi Palace’s Phoenix.”

As they finished, flames lit up around both their bodies. The flames around Zhou You’s body were golden phoenix flames and were extremely overbearing. The flames around Phoenix’s body were milder, but also had a terrifying aura and had a faint inextinguishable feeling. Their flames clashed in the air, making two giant phoenix shadows appear in the skies.

The golden phoenix flames on Zhou You’s body seemed capable of incinerating all forces in existence and started to devour Phoenix’s flames, converting it into his own flames. This caused the golden phoenix shadow to become even larger and suppress Phoenix’s flames.

The huge phoenix flapped its wings and they turned into golden phoenix blades, slashing down towards Phoenix. A giant crimson sycamore tree appeared behind Phoenix amidst the crashing sounds of the blades. The ancient sycamore’s leaves spread rapidly towards the slashing blades in the air and were continually sliced apart. The flames raged on but were eventually smothered, unable to escape the grasp of the sycamore.

Hum. Zhou You’s body turned into a flash of golden lightning and reached unbelievable speeds. He tore through the air and descended, his palm stretched out. In an instant, the surrounding phoenix flames seemed to have been siphoned by him. He then fired it from his palm towards the area where Phoenix was. Feeling the terrifying destructive power, the sycamore engulfed the surrounding area and Phoenix hid within it. At the same time, countless vines rushed towards Zhou You.

“Cut,” Zhou You said in a cold voice. The golden phoenix slashed down and severed all the vines. At the same time, the energy fired from his hand turned into a seething flame dimension, gradually melting the giant sycamore.

The sycamore also turned golden as a decaying aura appeared around it. Zhou You raised his hand and stepped forward, the phoenix shadow flying into the air and diving down. With a slash, the sycamore rapidly exploded and turned into countless golden wisps. The destructive figure rushed into it with overbearing force.

Phoenix’s figure appeared within his sights, and the sycamore’s vines continued to rush towards the opponent’s body. A golden light flashed across Zhou You’s eyes as he maintained his dive downwards.

Thud. The Golden Phoenix figure tore through the air towards Phoenix. Phoenix did not dodge, and the phoenix figure shot right through her. Phoenix spat out a mouthful of blood and her expression was pale, but the sycamore entangled Zhou You at the same time.

Zhou You frowned. Phoenix did not dodge intentionally?

“Are you courting death?” Zhou You looked at the beautiful lady in front of him and asked without much tenderness. The golden light glowed as it promptly destroyed the sycamore on his body. He waved his palm again and the Golden Phoenix continued to rush into Phoenix’s body, causing her to glide backward, blood spewing from her mouth.

Zhou You wanted to continue attacking, but at that moment, he frowned. There was a wisp of undying flame burning within his body and causing havoc in his bloodstream. A strong force flowed within his blood, attempting to remove it. However, he felt the resilience of the flame. Every wisp appeared to be like a tiny phoenix, nibbling away at his body slowly, causing him to reveal a pained expression.

“Undying Flames.” Zhou You’s expression was grim as he raised his head and looked at Phoenix. He saw her wiping away the blood from her mouth, looking at him. She said, “I concede.” After saying that, she dragged her injured body back to the Barren State’s seats.

“Are you alright?” Ye Futian looked at Phoenix with worry. Why was this woman going so far?

“I’m fine,” Phoenix replied, ate a pill, and sat down cross-legged. When Ye Futian saw this, he was slightly relieved. Phoenix’s self-regeneration ability was very strong, so he would not have to worry. However, she was really obstinate, injuring Zhou You at the expense of getting injured.

At that moment, Zhou You had also returned to his position but was also sitting on the ground. He bathed in golden flames, evidently still trying to neutralize the force in his body and was suffering.

In the first battle, the Great Zhou Sacred Dynasty’s Zhou You had won. The Barren State finally had one more person eliminated. However, this battle also gave people a deep impression of Phoenix. She had injured Zhou You and made him pay the price even though she was eliminated.

The Barren State’s participants were really resilient.

Now, there were only six Barren State disciples left.

The crowd had not collected their thoughts before another person walked out, causing them to all stare.

The person who had stepped out was the Barren State’s Xu Que.

“It is rude to not reciprocate, I’ll challenge you then.” Xu Que’s finger pointed in the Eastern State’s direction as he spoke. He had pointed at a person beside Zhou You, a descendant of the Great Zhou Sacred Dynasty!