604 Third Match Conclusion

[POV: Ding Cai]

The wolf-eared swordsman carried himself with the confidence of someone who had never questioned the outcome of a duel.

Cultivators truly loved their introductions.

Ding Cai indulged him with a faint smile. "Ding Cai. You?"

"Zi Hong."

The warmth vanished from his expression as quickly as it had appeared. His feet settled into a stable stance, his sword angled toward the ground while the air around him grew taut with anticipation.

When Ding Cai had woven an illusion of that archer earlier, she'd taken leaps and bounds in making the fight believable. The deception required little effort, leaving her free to study the man standing before her.

Now she understood him.

His swordsmanship was exceptional, but that alone did not concern her. The true danger rested in the martial aura clinging to every movement he made. It wasn't simply power. It was conviction sharpened over countless battles until every breath naturally produced killing intent.

Ding Cai possessed one of the greatest gifts imaginable. She could imitate almost any ability she witnessed. More frightening still, she could absorb the strengths of others, refine them, and weave those qualities into techniques that suited her even better. It was why she had become such a terrifying opponent despite her youth.

Yet even her talent had limits.

Aura stood beyond imitation.

Martial aura belonged to the spirit as much as the body. It could not simply be copied through observation.

According to the fragments of memory inherited from her master through the Human Soul, those who reached the realm of Martial God stood on nearly equal footing with a Ruler of Laws. In certain circumstances, a Martial God could even surpass one. Victory depended not only upon cultivation, but upon the intensity of one's fighting spirit.

Zi Hong's fighting spirit burned like an untamed wildfire.

The spectral wolves circling him were not techniques. They were manifestations of his indomitable will. Each phantom beast radiated an overwhelming pressure that caused even the surrounding mist to recoil.

"I shall yield the first strike," Zi Hong declared, his voice carrying unmistakable arrogance.

The Human Soul scoffed inside her mind.

"He's looking down on you."

Ding Cai's smile widened.

"Better for me, then."

An opponent who underestimated her rarely realized their mistake before it was too late. She had no intention of matching Zi Hong head-on. If his greatest weapon was his fighting spirit, then she would slowly grind it away until even a Martial God questioned his own resolve.

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[POV: Zi Hong]

Zi Hong's blood surged with excitement.

At last.

He had heard countless stories about the Holy Emperor throughout the years. Whether they praised the man's brilliance or cursed his existence, every tale ended with even taller tales.

In a way, the Holy Emperor's stories were the height of absurdity. Surely, his disciples were monsters too if anything about the story of there master was true.

Zi Hong intended to discover whether those stories had been exaggerated.

However, the woman suddenly disappeared on him. One blink was all it took and the fog swallowed her completely.

Zi Hong frowned.

"What is the meaning of this, Ding Cai?"

His ears twitched. His nose drew in every scent carried by the wind. However, he got nothing. She had vanished so completely that even his heightened senses failed to detect the slightest trace of her.

His lips curled into a sneer.

"Hah. A coward, then."

Golden light flickered across his pupils.

"Immortal Art: Wolf's Smell."

The world changed.

Invisible currents spread through the battlefield as every lingering scent revealed itself before his sharpened perception. Beneath the illusion cloaking the ruins, he finally found a distorted trail.

"So that's your game."

His grin widened.

"How dare you rely on tricks against me?"

His sword swept across the air.

"Wolf of Three Paths!"

A colossal wolf erupted from the slash before dividing into three spectral beasts. They howled as they charged in different directions, tearing through the sea of mist with enough force to split ancient stone and carve deep trenches across the ruined landscape.

The fog exploded apart, walls crumbled, and the earth split open beneath the rampaging aura.

There.

She moved.

Zi Hong vanished.

"Immortal Art: Wolf's Step."

Every Immortal Art he possessed originated from his martial aura rather than conventional cultivation. His techniques reflected the sword, the wolf, and the relentless instincts of a hunter. Countless years of battle had forged them into arts beyond ordinary immortal techniques.

He appeared directly above Ding Cai's retreating silhouette. His sword descended. A gigantic wolf burst from the blade's edge, jaws opened wide enough to devour an entire building. The strike landed. However, he sensed no resistance.

Zi Hong's expression changed.

The woman dissolved like drifting smoke, proving it to be an illusion. Instinct screamed to Zi Hong's ears as steel whispered behind him. He twisted, barely dodging in time, while a sword glided toward his neck with uncanny precision.

Zi Hong intercepted the blade before it reached his throat and metal clashed.

Instead of pressing against his defense, the sword bent away with impossible flexibility before changing direction mid-swing.

A thin crimson line appeared across his thigh. His leg separated cleanly. He retaliated instantly, his sword cutting through everything behind him. Again, he felt nothing against his sword. His severed limb regenerated almost immediately, flesh knitting together as though the wound had never existed.

The fog swallowed the battlefield once more.

"This is useless!" Zi Hong roared. "Come out!"

Silence answered him.

Abruptly, a blade flashed from his left. He blocked, and countered. However, it struck empty air. Another slash came from behind. He spun. However, only mist greeted him. Soon, a shallow cut opened across his shoulder. His wound healed before the blood could fully spill.

The next strike came from above. He countered. Again, nothing. Another cut traced across his forearm. Then one appeared along his ribs. Another across his back. None of the injuries were serious. Every attack landed with surgical restraint before Ding Cai disappeared into the fog again. She never lingered nor exchanged more than a single blow. She struck, vanished, circled, and then struck somewhere else. The battlefield transformed into a hunting ground, except the wolf had somehow become the prey.

Zi Hong's breathing gradually grew heavier from frustration.

Every decisive attack destroyed another illusion.

Every pursuit ended with another shallow wound.

Each successful defense only invited another unseen strike moments later.

His fighting spirit still blazed fiercely, but the steady rhythm of Ding Cai's harassment prevented him from building momentum. Every time he prepared to unleash another overwhelming technique, she denied him a worthy target.

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His sword carved valleys through the ruins.

Ancient walls collapsed beneath his aura.

The fog continuously reformed around the devastation as though mocking every display of strength.

Another sting crossed his cheek. Another along his wrist. Another beneath his shoulder blade. His immortality erased every injury almost instantly. That only made it worse. She was not trying to kill him. She was provoking him.

The realization ignited fresh irritation.

"What even is the point of this?" Zi Hong shouted, glaring into the endless mist. "Fight me!"

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[POV: Ding Cai]

Of course it had a point.

Every exchange had been carefully calculated with the intent to shear at his fighting spirit and focus. So she chipped away at him constantly, denying him satisfying clashes, momentum, and the battle he desired.

The Human Soul spoke calmly within her mind.

"It's time."

Ding Cai gave a slight nod.

"I know."

As if responding to her thoughts, Zi Hong finally exploded.

An earth-shaking howl erupted from his throat as his martial aura surged in every direction. Countless spectral wolves burst outward, tearing through the fog like ravenous beasts. Ancient towers collapsed beneath the pressure while shattered ruins were reduced to dust beneath countless arcs of sword aura.

The battlefield cleared in an instant.

Ding Cai waited.

The moment Zi Hong overextended his stance, she stepped forward.

"Thunderous Flash Step."

The technique had belonged to her senior brother, Yuen Fu. She had only witnessed it once in closed doors, yet her extraordinary talent had already grasped its essence.

Lightning exploded beneath her feet. Blue thunder erupted around her body as she disappeared from sight, reappearing directly within Zi Hong's blind spot before the crack of thunder had even reached him.

She inhaled the azure mist dancing around her.

"Thunderous Divine Smite."

Divine lightning gathered along her blade before splitting into two intersecting arcs of destruction. The twin smiting techniques fused together into a single overwhelming slash that descended upon Zi Hong's exposed flank.

The Human Soul suddenly shouted.

"It's a trap!"

The sword passed cleanly through Zi Hong's body, lacking blood or any resistance. Instead, there was only fading wisps of wolf aura. It was a clone. The air behind Ding Cai's twisted violently as Zi Hong softly declared.

"Immortal Art: Wolf King."

A monstrous killing intent crashed into her back.

Zi Hong emerged from thin air, his face transformed into that of a ferocious wolf. Golden eyes blazed with savage excitement while countless wolves born from his martial aura lunged alongside him, attacking from every conceivable direction.

Ding Cai remained perfectly composed.

"Judgment Severance."

A radiant golden cross materialized between them.

The enormous rift split space itself as divine light flooded the battlefield. Every supernatural force caught within its range immediately weakened before being swallowed by the expanding fracture.

The spectral wolves vanished one after another, their aura dissolving into nothingness, yet Zi Hong continued forward, his face warping into half-wolf and half-man. His martial aura screamed against the suppression as he forced his body through the collapsing storm of spiritual power. The wolf upon his face bared its fangs. His hunger for victory eclipsed reason itself.

Ding Cai quietly raised two fingers.

"Judgment Severance."

A second golden cross descended.

The Zi Hong charging toward her finally realized something was wrong.

The Ding Cai before him smiled. Her body dissolved into countless particles of light. It had never been her. The figure transformed into a radiant Holy Spirit bearing her exact appearance before disappearing entirely.

Ding Cai had created the spirit long before the battle began, nurturing it with quintessence until it possessed enough substance to deceive even Zi Hong's senses.

The two immense crosses intersected around him. One descended from above. The other rose from below. Together they formed an inescapable prison that locked Zi Hong within their divine suppression.

Several kilometers away, atop the broken remains of a towering pagoda, the real Ding Cai slowly exhaled.

The Human Soul had already transformed into a magnificent longbow resting comfortably within her hands. She calmly drew the string. An arrow of brilliant golden light condensed between her fingers.

"Heavenly Punishment."

The surrounding heavens darkened as she infused the arrow with her Immortal Art.

"Godslayer."

The divine projectile radiated an oppressive brilliance capable of extinguishing immortal existence itself.

Ding Cai released the string.

The arrow vanished.

Only a deafening crack echoed across the battlefield.

...

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[POV: Zi Hong]

The instant the second golden cross enclosed him, Zi Hong understood that he had been outplayed.

The golden prison devoured every trace of supernatural power surrounding him. His wolves disappeared one after another, while the martial aura supporting his Immortal Arts rapidly unraveled beneath the overwhelming suppression.

As sudden as it came, he felt his impending death.

A terrifying instinct pierced straight through his soul. His wolf-like ears twitched. Far away. High above the battlefield. A single golden streak descended from the heavens.

It was far too fast.

"So..."

A grin slowly spread across Zi Hong's face.

"So that was your real move."

He tightened his grip upon his sword. His fighting spirit, battered throughout the battle, suddenly surged one final time. The prison of despair shattered beneath his desperate roar.

"WOLF KING!"

Every remaining shred of martial aura erupted outward. The gigantic wolf behind him opened its jaws toward the descending arrow. For a brief moment, heaven and earth stood still.

Finally, the arrow pierced through everything. It tore apart the wolf, shattered his sword aura, and split apart his final defense without slowing in the slightest.

Still, Zi Hong swung anyway. His sword met the golden arrow. The blade exploded into countless fragments. The arrow continued forward. It pierced his forehead before divine light erupted from within his body. Cracks spread across his flesh like shattered porcelain. Golden light leaked from every fracture.

Zi Hong looked toward the distant tower where Ding Cai stood with her bow lowered.

His lips slowly curled upward.

"...Excellent."

Those were his final words.

His body dissolved into countless streams of light. His final layer of immortality unraveled before his eyes, thread by thread, until nothing remained.

The wolf swordsman perished from existence.

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[POV: Lu Tai]

Hidden deep beneath the ruined city, Lu Tai quietly observed the battle through an intricate scrying formation. The spell hovered before him like a mirror of rippling water. Within its surface, Ding Cai stood atop a weathered rooftop, calmly watching the battlefield after Zi Hong's death.

She slowly turned her head, her gaze meeting his.

"Now," she said softly, "one more left."

Her eyes narrowed.

"You are next."

A chill raced down Lu Tai's spine.

"Impossible."

Ding Cai was looking directly at him.

Without hesitation, he severed the scrying spell.

The mirror shattered into drifting motes of spiritual light.

His hiding place had never been chosen at random. Throughout the battle, he had secretly mapped the arena's underground dragon veins, carefully tracing their intersections while planting anchors for instantaneous teleportation.

If the battlefield itself had been constructed for this contest, then every dragon vein within it represented another path to victory.

Remaining here served no purpose anymore.

Space twisted and Lu Tai disappeared.

A heartbeat later he emerged beside one of the largest dragon veins beneath the ruined city. Immense spiritual power flowed beneath his feet. From here he could connect every dragon vein within the arena and borrow their strength simultaneously.

Just as relief began to settle over him, he realized he wasn't alone.

A lone figure stood waiting at the opposite end of the dragon vein. It was Ding Cai. She rested a long sword across one shoulder as though she had arrived long before him.

Lu Tai froze.

"H... how?"

"I guessed."

His expression twitched.

"Hah! So you can see the future, just like one of your master's rumored abilities!"

Ding Cai casually shook her head.

"Don't give me too much credit."

She pointed toward several faint spiritual marks drifting around him.

"I marked your familiars. I studied the routes they used. I followed every dragon vein you prepared. Out of two hundred and sixty-two possible exits, I made an educated guess. In a sense, I suppose that resembles seeing the future."

Lu Tai slowly relaxed. His fingers formed seals. The dragon veins of the entire arena awakened one after another, flooding his body with overwhelming spiritual power. Confidence returned to his eyes.

"Impressive."

An amused smile spread beneath his veil.

"But I'm afraid that I'm not really impressed."

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[POV: Ding Cai]

"That's unfortunate," Ding Cai said. "I was genuinely impressed by your strategy and the effort you put into preparing this battlefield. You analyzed the terrain, mapped every spiritual current, and even prepared escape routes before engaging me."

A faint smile appeared on her lips.

"However, you're still going to lose."

Lu Tai chuckled beneath his veil.

"So confident."

He spread his arms as spiritual light erupted around him.

"You've merely stumbled upon my position. Did you truly believe that made us equals?"

The dragon veins answered his call.

Power surged through the underground network, flooding toward him from every direction like rivers flowing into the sea.

"You may have defeated Zi Hong through clever schemes," Lu Tai continued with open ridicule, "but I am not that muscle-headed fool. Against overwhelming preparation, tricks amount to nothing."

The Human Soul floated from Ding Cai's grasp.

Its blade shimmered with golden radiance before dissolving into countless streams of light that merged into her body. The instant their souls became one, an indescribable tranquility descended upon her being.

Ding Cai slowly raised her hand.

"Human Path..."

Her voice echoed without force, yet every corner of the arena heard it.

"Enlightenment of the Fool."

Nothing exploded. Nothing shook.

Instead, everything simply became ordinary.

The brilliant dragon veins dimmed as though they had never contained spiritual power. Their vibrant currents sputtered once before fading into lifeless stone. The lingering fog that Ding Cai had maintained through quintessence quietly dispersed. The spiritual pressure saturating the battlefield disappeared. Immortal qi vanished. Even the surrounding air felt mundane.

It was as though cultivation itself had ceased to exist.

Human Path: Enlightenment of the Fool did not destroy supernatural power.

It denied its very existence.

Its authority surpassed even Judgment Severance. Where the latter suppressed and severed mystical phenomena, Enlightenment of the Fool reduced them to nothing more than empty concepts.

Lu Tai's confident smile froze.

"What..."

He hurriedly produced several talismans.

"Burn!"

Nothing happened.

The talismans remained ordinary slips of paper. His expression immediately changed. He formed another series of hand seals before chanting three different immortal spells in rapid succession.

Silence answered him.

The spells refused to manifest.

"No..."

His breathing quickened.

"This is impossible!"

He reached toward the dragon veins. However, there was nothing to grasp. The immense spiritual network that had empowered him moments earlier had become nothing more than veins of ordinary stone buried beneath the earth.

Panic flashed across his eyes.

Desperate, Lu Tai invoked his Immortal Arts, attempting to draw upon the Laws themselves. Normally, he could borrow fragments of their authority despite lacking complete mastery.

Now, the Laws barely stirred.

It felt as though an invisible hand had buried them beneath an immeasurable weight. He sensed them only faintly, their existence distant and unreachable.

Had his understanding been deeper, had he stood closer to becoming a true Ruler of Laws, perhaps he could have forced them into motion.

Lu Tai staggered backward.

"W-What kind of ability is this...?"

Ding Cai offered no explanation. She simply walked forward. Each step echoed softly throughout the unnaturally silent arena. Without immortal arts, spiritual power, or dazzling techniques, she merely raised her sword.

Lu Tai instinctively attempted one final spell.

Nothing answered. His eyes widened in horror. The blade flashed, and a single clean stroke severed his neck. His head tumbled onto the cold stone while the rest of his body remained standing for a brief moment before collapsing beside it.

The Human Path quietly faded, allowing the world to remember what it had forgotten.

Spiritual energy flowed once more. The dragon veins awakened again. The Laws resumed their endless circulation throughout heaven and earth. None of it mattered anymore. Lu Tai was dead.

With the deaths of Zi Hong and Lu Tai, the third match reached its conclusion.

The victor of the third match was the Supreme Bearer's side.