Death... and me

However, something surprising happened right after.

*Spurt!*

Luval vomited another mouthful of blood before his eyes turned white...

*Thud!*

Soon after, his body fell on the ground as the blood from his abdominal wound gushed out nonstop. Luval had passed out!

"Winner, Rean Larks from Lukimira Sect!"

Rean didn't even wait for the judge to finish his words, though. The moment the word winner came out, his body burst out with Divine Soul Power. 

Everyone then looked closely at that. Rean was seriously injured by the saber of his first Saint Realm opponent. However, it wasn't near as terrible as his actual injuries at this moment. Not to mention the accumulation of all his other injuries.

Well, they were underestimating the power of Light Element way too much.

'Life Style, Second Form, Instant Recovery!'

What was a deep wound? What was blood loss? As long as Rean wasn't dead, all of that meant nothing if he had Divine Soul Power for his use! In front of everyone's eyes, Rean's injuries closed at high speeds once again. His active cells quickly generated more and more blood cells to replenish the lost ones as well. As for the nutrients necessary for that, obviously, it was the Divine Soul Power that Rean hadn't used during the entire battle.

Sure, Rean took longer to heal himself this time, but it was still a full recovery! Other than the bloodstains and ragged clothes, Rean was ready to battle once more. That only contributed to making everyone else think how unfair Rean's healing abilities were, though.

Luval's sect members quickly hopped on the arena to try and stop his bleeding. However, the wounds Rean inflicted were much worse than they thought. It would be something if Luval was awake and could use his own Divine Energy to stop the critical areas from worsening. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

The elder on the arena didn't do anything, though. It was against the rules to help anyone in the competition, even if that someone had already lost. Everyone who entered the battle-related contests knew that from the very start. It could also be said to be one of the reasons why the best Divine Veins were rewarded for their winners.

It was then that Rean got close to Luval, much to his sect members' displeasure. "Are you here to cause a problem for him? He already lost, you know?"

Rean shook his head as he said in response, "Don't be ridiculous! I don't take delight in beating up a defeated opponent. Now, step aside. If this continues on for a few more minutes, he will be dead for sure."

Luval's sect mates were taken aback, but they knew Rean was right. Without much choice, they could only step away. However, the thing that caught their and everyone's attention was something else. 'Can he heal others the same way as himself?'

The answer came a moment later.

'Life Style, Second Form, Instant Recovery!'

Once again, everyone could see the injuries closing up at high speeds. Of course, it was also easy to see that the speed they recovered paled in comparison to when Rean used it on himself. It showed that Rean's healing skill wasn't as good on others as it was on himself. In any case, it was still heaven-defying enough.

Three minutes...that's how long Rean took to close all of Luval's injuries and replenish the blood he had lost. 

*Cough, cough...*

Luval suddenly coughed a bit more blood as his eyes opened. It wasn't that he was still injured. Instead, that blood was accumulated waste that he was spilling out. Luval was puzzled at first as he looked around. "Wh-what happened?"

"Senior Luval!"

Luval's sect members immediately got close once again while Rean distanced himself. Rean began to make his way out while telling Luval, "Next time, try not to push yourself so hard. There might not be another me to bring you back from the half-dead world."

Luval was puzzled for a moment when finally, one of his sect members used a Divine Sense Message to explain everything. Only then did he understand that he had lost the battle and that he was supposed to be dead if not for Rean. What shocked Luval even more was how his body felt extremely light. Even before he came to the assembly, he didn't feel this nimble.

"This..."

Luval then looked at Rean in the distance and asked in a shout, "Wait! Why did you do that? You only spent your Divine Energy without any merit to be taken."

Rean stopped for a moment and looked back as he replied, "Isn't that obvious? We had a lot of fun today. It would leave a bitter taste in my mouth if our battle suddenly ended up with one of us dead. I'm pretty sure you would feel the same."

Luval was taken aback after hearing that. If he said that he wasn't trying to kill Rean, that would be a lie. If he didn't go all out, he wouldn't have dragged that battle for so long and almost won. However, it wasn't a lie that he also enjoyed fighting to the limit of his body's strength against Rean. "I owe you one." Luval refrained from saying that Rean's healing process also helped increase his own strength somehow. That's because Rean also cleaned all the impurities in his body while he healed him.

Rean nodded with a smile after that. "Let's have some tea another time. Hahaha!"

And just like that, the last battle of this round was finally over. Only 16 participants remained. There was one more surprising thing, though. Other than Rean, there was still one cultivator that wasn't in the Saint Realm. The only difference was that the guy really reached his position by sheer luck, having mostly caught seriously injured opponents up to this point.

As everyone waited for the thirty minutes of rest to be over, the people outside had their own thoughts for the next round. It turns out that Rean's opponent was considered one of the favorites to take the title of winner for the physical one-on-one battles. It's just that Rean was now another one of those.. Now that Luval was out, few of the remaining cultivators had a real chance against him.