Chapter 403: Xiao Ran’s Troubled Situation

After finishing everything in one breath while wearing Xiao Ran’s appearance, Ting Lu immediately returned to the Heavenly Orb and said to Xiao Ran, "There. He has no reason to make trouble for you anymore."

"Is it really that simple?" Xiao Ran suppressed the fear she felt after Ting Lu had taken control of her body just moments ago without anyone noticing. Pretending that nothing had happened, she asked, her mind in complete disarray. She felt that today had been the unluckiest day of her life. There could hardly be a worse day. She still had no idea how to remove the restriction inside her body... It was enough to make her want to die.

While all sorts of chaotic thoughts flashed through Xiao Ran’s mind, League Leader Li, who had been completely shut down by Ting Lu’s words while using Xiao Ran’s body, was still convinced by both his various suspicions and his instincts that Xiao Ran was extremely suspicious. However, he could not find any reason to continue questioning her. If he kept pressing her, the people around him would probably start treating him as an ungrateful person.

He could afford to ignore the father and son of the Yu family and Venerable Fei Hongxue, but he could not ignore his only beloved daughter. Her soul lamp had gone out two days after she left the city. He wanted to avenge his daughter and find out who had killed her. Xiao Ran was clearly the most suspicious person, yet he could not find a reason to continue questioning her.

Seeing that Xiao Ran had finally managed to use her brain for once, Tang Qicen secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He immediately said to League Leader Li, "Since the former leader of the League of Independent Cultivators and his family have disappeared, my Heavenly Void Sect will no longer pursue the matter of the League of Independent Cultivators secretly imprisoning our disciple. I hope you will conduct yourselves properly. If you continue acting recklessly, I will certainly seek justice for the disciples of our sect."

After being blamed in return, League Leader Li knew perfectly well that he had been wronged, but he could not say anything. He could only force a smile and reply, "I did not know that I had done something so excessive. Sect Master Tang, please do not take offense."

"Enough! Today’s matters end here. Disperse!" Seeing that League Leader Li seemed ready to continue talking, while everyone around them had already extended their divine senses and pricked up their ears, clearly preparing to listen to more gossip, Lu Wuchen, the Sect Master of the Holy Sword Sect, immediately announced the dismissal. After two consecutive rounds of competitions and all the incidents that had followed, he was already exhausted and simply wanted everyone to leave. Was it really that easy to resolve?

At this moment, as Xiao Ran followed the crowd out of the competition grounds, she suddenly felt an intense wave of regret. If she had obediently listened to Ting Lu earlier, offered the items in her storage ring as compensation, and then explained everything, would Tushan Shanhe have refrained from placing such a cruel restriction on her?

...

After the competition ended, the next three days passed very quickly. This time, Fu Young could not exploit any loopholes, and no one was fooled, so he could only honestly wait on the challenge arena for an entire day and automatically obtain a place in the third round. The other disciples were not nearly as fortunate. They all went through quite a few hard battles. Rong Yitian, Gou Jin, and Gou Yuheng were even directly eliminated and failed to obtain places in the next round.

Ironically, Cao Xue, who had been unlucky in every possible way and whom no one had favored, went through countless hardships and finally entered the third round of the competition. This third round was still an elimination system. Half of the participants in each of the four competition stages would be eliminated. In other words, under martial combat conditions, twenty five cultivators would be eliminated from each stage, for a total of one hundred Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Spirit Transformation cultivators across the four stages.

Martial combat: no spells, secret technique, or similar methods may be used. The battle relies entirely on one’s own skills and is a form of competition similar to hand-to-hand combat.

The third competition tested the body’s own strength, defense, and combat ability. This was an extremely difficult battle for most spell cultivators, but it was the easiest kind of battle for body cultivators and sword cultivators. In previous Grand Competitions, many spell cultivators had been eliminated at this stage. Of course, there were also some spell cultivators who cultivated both body and magic and managed to pass this hurdle.

Xiao Shou was not worried about this competition at all. Fu Young had consumed demon beast cores for a long time, continuously improving his physical qualities such as stamina, muscular strength, wrist strength, and leg strength. He also possessed the Thunder Force Body Tempering Art. Combining these two things made his physique appear that of a frail spell cultivator, but in reality, the strength of his body could even rival that of top-tier demonic beasts.

Water Qilin was itself a divine beast, with astonishing defensive power thanks to its body covered in scales. Lin Ziyang, Xu Kaiwen, and Mo Yichen were also demonic beasts. The four of them possessed incredible combat power in their true forms, so there was no need to worry about them. Nangong Si’s specialty was formations and talismans, which were useless in this competition. An Yu had also practiced the Thunder Force Body Tempering Art, but she had not cultivated it for very long and had no demonic beast cores to assist her.

Her physical improvement was therefore not very fast. Compared with the high aptitude disciples that the nine great sects devoted considerable resources to cultivating, she would definitely be somewhat weaker even at the Foundation Establishment stage. Therefore, the two most likely to be eliminated this round were Nangong Si and An Yu. Gou Guangyan’s spells were not weak, but no one knew how strong his body was or how good his close combat abilities were, so his victory or defeat was difficult to predict.