Chapter 364: Chapter 389: Recognition

In the face of Slothless’s speed, Gao Xuehua didn’t even have time to process what happened. By the time she realized what happened, her hand was already outstretched, and she felt a slight stinging sensation on her palm. She glanced toward the right just in time to see Slothless flying off the stage.

When the referee announced the start of the match, Slothless had charged straight at her. Gao Xuehua’s body reacted based on instinct and slapped Slothless on his cheek, sending him flying.

But the biggest question was that Gao Xuehua didn’t do anything special. It was just an average slap. Even if she was a peak body transformation acolyte, it should have been far from enough to injure him, much less send him flying out of the arena.

Gao Xuehua turned her puzzled gaze toward Slothless, who picked himself off the ground and saluted. Aside from the dust, there was nary a scratch on him. “I thought I was a top contender, but I didn’t expect to encounter a crouching tiger, hidden dragon like you in the first round. I am convinced of my defeat.”

Still expressing the same drowsiness, Slothless returned to the Dustveil Sect. Gao Xuehua stayed in the arena with question marks above her head. What the hell happened?

“Disciple Gao, are you okay?”

Facing the true immortal’s question, Gao Xuehua shook her head. “No, I’m fine.”

Afterward, she returned to the Gao Dynasty, still puzzled by her unexpected victory. Upon her return, she was bombarded by her siblings.

“Thirteenth Sister, I really couldn’t tell you were this strong. Not even one of the top geniuses could withstand one slap from you, you hid so deep,” the seventh princess of the Gao Dynasty said.

Gao Xuehua didn’t answer her, and the seventh princess didn’t mind. She was already used to Gao Xuehua’s proud attitude—or rather, the original Gao Xuehua.

“As expected of my daughter. The Gao Dynasty is going to become famous because of you,” the Gao Emperor said.

Gao Xuehua nodded. She glanced at Gao Linyou and saw him with the same proud face. He puffed his chest and opened his mouth. It seemed that he had forgotten the Gao Emperor sealed his ability to speak. She looked away and toward the Dustveil Sect.

There, she saw many of the disciples sporting dark expressions. Slothless’s master was currently sporting a furious glare and scolding his disciple. Strangely, the disciples around the master-disciple pair sported the same wry expression. They didn’t seem to blame Slothless, or rather, they looked resigned.

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“Stupid disciple, why did you throw the match?!” the Dustveil Sect grand elder asked.

“Huh, what are you talking about?” Slothless asked in confusion. “My opponent was much stronger than I thought and defeated me.”

“Who are you trying to trick?! You aren’t even hiding it. Look at your cheek, there isn’t even a red mark!”

“This only shows my opponent’s skill. Despite throwing me off the arena, I was hardly damaged. She’s really powerful,” Slothless said without batting an eye. Seeing his master about to explode in anger, he quickly pushed in some earplugs into his ears and lay on the ground.

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‘Did he purposely throw the match?’ Gao Xuehua thought. Aside from that, she couldn’t think of any reason for winning.

She didn’t have time to think as the next round started. She watched carefully as her next opponent would be one of the two contestants. There was no need to think who would win because one of the two contestants was Ji Fengyin, the Bright Ascension Saintess.

Once the referee announced the start of the match, both sides launched their attacks. However, it was undoubtedly the Bright Ascension Saintess who held the upper hand. With one hand seal, a bright orange flame appeared behind her. It transformed into a phoenix and charged at her foe. Her opponent only had time to unleash one spell before the phoenix engulfed him and sent him off the arena.

What attracted Gao Xuehua’s attention the most was that her opponent had no outward injuries. The only thing that could be considered an injury was the singed clothes and hair. From this, it can be seen that Ji Fengyin possessed a powerful control over her techniques.

Gao Xuehua had a headache now. If Slothless had allowed her a chance to admit defeat, then she wouldn’t have had to face this problem. But because she ‘demonstrated’ her absolute superiority against Slothless, she couldn’t forfeit against Ji Fengyin without attracting questions.

Soon after, the next round began. This round was between two ordinary disciples. Of course ordinary was still subjective. Throw out any of the disciples competing in the tournament into the Trinity Continent, and they would undoubtedly summon forth wind and rain.

The fourth round was one to watch, since it had a genius at the same level as Ji Fengyin, Gui Qianglin. Shockingly, his opponent was actually a real crouching tiger, hidden dragon, unlike Gao Xuehua. Although Gui Qianglin won, he suffered quite a bit of injuries.

It took the whole day to get through the rounds, so everyone retreated to their residence, and the Young Heavens Tournament would resume the next day. During this time, Gao Xuehua recounted all the matches she had seen, especially the ones involving the top geniuses. Even if she forfeited, Gao Xuehua planned to broaden her horizons, so she knew what to aim for.

After seeing all those heated battles, one-sided beatdowns, or tragic double knockouts, Gao Xuehua realized her own deficiencies. Still, she didn’t plan to give up. Just because she couldn’t compare to them now, didn’t mean she wouldn’t in the future.

The next day, Gao Xuehua stepped into the arena. Across from her stood Ji Fengyin. Although the Bright Ascension Saintess didn’t do anything threatening, Gao Xuehua couldn’t help but feel pressure. She didn’t know if it was because of her own cognition of the difference between the two or the actual strength difference, but it didn’t stop the pressure she felt.

“Begin!”

At the referee’s signal, Gao Xuehua didn’t do anything, at least on the surface. Under her sleeve, several needles had already appeared between her fingers.

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Back on Earth before the apocalypse, Gao Xuehua studied to become a doctor. Before she went to medical school, she also learned traditional Chinese medicine. At the time, she only thought about learning them to pass the time, but when the apocalypse came, and orthodox medical procedures could no longer be done, her knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine became the most useful thing. It was what kept her alive for years, although she still died in the end.

Even after rebirth, Gao Xuehua did not stop her study of medicine. She accumulated a good deal of knowledge as Mu Xuehua and planned to use them in her current identity. In fact, she planned to dabble in alchemy once she had the chance.

Gao Xuehua stopped her train of thought and focused back on the battle. She wanted to make some flashy moves and gracefully lose. She didn’t know how many she could deceive with her parlor tricks, but this was the best method she could think of at the moment.

Ji Fengyin had already summoned the fire phoenix, and it was currently charging at her. Gao Xuehua imbued as much qi into the needles as possible and launched them. In her estimation, the sheer impact velocity could compare to missiles of Earth.

After launching the needles, Gao Xuehua planned to dodge, but an extreme heat shrouded her. She felt that if she moved, she would instantly be incinerated. Thus, she could only watch as her needles failed to destroy the fire phoenix and lose the battle.

Only that didn’t happen.

To Gao Xuehua’s bewilderment, her needles punctured the fire phoenix and caused it to collapse and evaporate. Then, the needles continued their way toward Ji Fengyin. Ji Fengyin stayed in the same spot, visibly struggling. It was only when the needles were mere meters away from her that she managed to form a shield of flames to block them. But the flames exploded and the forces launched her off the arena.

Her state was far worse than Slothless. Her hair was unkempt, cuts littered her robes, and blood leaked from her mouth. “I thought Slothless was too useless, but I was wrong. He wasn’t weak, you’re just too strong! The moment you attacked, you also sealed my movements. If I hadn’t broken out, I would have been knocked out. I wholeheartedly admit my defeat!”

Gao Xuehua’s mouth twitched as she watched Ji Fengyin go back. If she wasn’t one of the two people involved, she would have thought the battle went clearly as Ji Fengyin described. It was clearly her who was sealed in place, okay?!

At this point, she basically confirmed two possibilities. One, someone was secretly helping her. Her father was too weak to do it under everyone’s eyes, so it had to be a person with power to cover the heavens. But why would such a person help her?

Thus, Gao Xuehua was inclined to believe the second possibility. Both Ji Fengyin and Slothless purposely lost to her for some bizarre reason she couldn’t understand.

---

“Master, I’m not cut out to be the saintess. I lost to Gao Xuehua so miserably. Please select someone else to take my place,” Ji Fengyin said.

The grand elder of the Bright Ascension Sect glared at Ji Fengyin. “You think you’d still be the saintess if I could find someone better to replace you? Listen to me and stop your foolish action. Your talent for the spiritual path is unmatched. Stop wasting time on the martial path.”

Ji Fengyin ignored the latter half of her master’s words. “What about Ji Muyang? I heard she was deprived of her status for a small mistake. I think she will be very willing to assume the position.”

“What do you know? There have been no cases of a former saint or saintess regaining their status. The Bright Ascension Saintess plays a crucial role in every generation. They must not have any blights on their record,” the Bright Ascension Sect grand elder said.

Actually, it wasn’t impossible for Ji Muyang to regain her status as the Bright Ascension Saintess, but the problem was why she had been deprived of her status in the first place. Hundreds of years ago, Ji Muyang attended the Heavenly Connection Gathering with other scions from the Buzhou Immortal Sect and various other scions, including Xi Tianyi.

Originally, it should have been a good chance to form a connection with Xi Tianyi. However, the loose cultivator, Longwei, that Ji Muyang brought attacked and attempted to kill Xi Tianyi. Of course, there was more to it than that, but the sect deprived Ji Muyang of saintess status to show their stance to the Buzhou Immortal Sect .

Ji Wutong succeeded Ji Muyang as the Bright Ascension Saint, a member of the same clan as her. Unfortunately, during the Demon Extermination Expedition, he died, causing the Bright Ascension Sect to have no saint or saintess for a period of time. Many people suggested restoring Muyang’s status, however the time period was a sensitive time.

The Bright Ascension Sect didn’t dare appoint Ji Muyang as saintess again for fear of sending the wrong signals to the Buzhou Immortal Sect. When the war ended, it was even more impossible. Xi Tianyi had become an immortal emperor, and it was not worth drawing his ire. He may not pursue the matter, but the Bright Ascension Sect didn’t want to take any chances.

Ji Fengyin pursed her lips and muttered. “Everyone is so useless. Why am I the only one with enough concentration of the phoenix bloodline in this generation?”

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Gao Xuehua didn’t know of Ji Fengyin’s motive, but she had a headache. Thanks to the fewer number of contestants left, she had her second battle of the day. Her opponent was Gui Qianglin, but he had much worse luck than her. His second opponent of the tournament was also a hidden genius. Although he won, he didn’t have enough strength to compete against Gao Xuehua, resulting in her automatic victory.

“Ah, that Gao Xuehua sure has good luck.” Gao Xuehua heard someone say. His words oozed jealousy.

“You can only envy her good luck. Although I don’t think it would matter much. You know that Gui Qianglin is at the same level as her two opponents, Daoist Slothless and the Bright Ascension Saintess. If she could easily solve those two, she can probably easily solve Gui Qianglin as well. Gui Qianglin must have known this, otherwise, do you think he’ll voluntarily forfeit?”

“You’re right. I never expected a dark horse like her to appear. Tsk, tsk. Do you think it’s possible that the Gao Dynasty will rise now?”

“Who knows? The ascension of a force never depends on one person, but it’ll definitely help. That Gao Xuehua is from a third-rate force, but all the geniuses she defeated are from first-rate forces. Her rise is inevitable.”

“Hehe, that remains to be seen. There is no lack of people with bad intentions.”

At this, the speaker’s companion fell silent. On the surface, no one dared to assassinate the upcoming disciples of other forces, but who’s to say that it hasn’t happened? There was a reason why the Nihility Sect became one of the most hated forces before it disbanded. Suddenly, he pitied Gao Xuehua.

She was a rare genius who dazzled much brighter than her peers. Unfortunately, she was born in a third-rate force and was destined to face life-threatening hardships.