Chapter 3413

Ye Liuyun said generously, “You don’t have to return it. It’s yours! I snatched this from some bandits when I was out, and I took quite a few of them. I kept some for myself, so just take it and use it!”

He also wanted Liao Yaotian to become a little stronger, so that he would not be too weak in future battles and constantly need Ye Liuyun to protect him.

“Damn! Then I owe you a huge favor now! I’ll remember this kindness. If you ever need anything, don’t stand on ceremony with me. Your business is my business!” Liao Yaotian immediately expressed his gratitude to Ye Liuyun as well.

As for the others, after Ye Liuyun, Liao Yaotian, and Chen Mo discussed it through voice transmission, they decided not to let them take the field. They were too weak; going up would only get them beaten, and being injured would delay their future battles.

Ye Liuyun assigned the matches: “Brother Tian will fight two rounds, Chen Mo will fight four, and I’ll handle the rest!”

“Are you sure you can hold out through that many fights? Otherwise, I can fight two more rounds.” Chen Mo was worried that Ye Liuyun would not be able to endure it.

“It’s fine. I can manage. Besides, we may not have to fight all the way to the end. If we defeat half of them, that already counts as our victory.”

Ye Liuyun had estimated that Chen Mo would not be able to persevere through so many rounds, but he felt too embarrassed to say so outright.

He also gave Chen Mo a fourth-grade Void-ranked battle saber they had seized, in case his opponent used a treasure as well.

Chen Mo thanked Ye Liuyun as well and accepted the saber. He used a saber himself, so he was extremely fond of this treasure.

However, he was rather introverted and not as eloquent as Liao Yaotian. Even though he was grateful, he was not good at expressing it; he merely flushed with excitement until his entire face was bright red.

Xiao Han also realized that they were arranging the matchups and guessed that the storage rings Ye Liuyun had given them must contain something useful for battle.

He was very pleased to see that these subordinates got along well. As for this team, this competition was merely the beginning of drawing them closer and observing their performance. They still had a long time ahead of them to grow accustomed to working together.

“Commander Xiao, can the competition begin?” one of the junior commanders asked Xiao Han confidently.

“Begin!” Xiao Han agreed. There was no difference between starting sooner or later, and he had no reason to delay.

As soon as Xiao Han finished speaking, the strongest soldier on the opposing side leaped out and challenged them.

“They sent someone this strong right away. Do these guys want one man to take on all of us?” Liao Yaotian complained to Ye Liuyun and Chen Mo through voice transmission.

This man was one of the three experts on the opposing side. He was at the peak of the first level of the Taixu Realm and would probably break through to the second level before long.

Ye Liuyun also took the initiative to step forward and ascend the arena.

The opposing soldier was much bulkier than Ye Liuyun and was probably the physically strongest of their three top experts.

For Ye Liuyun to defeat him without killing him would truly be a tough battle.

The opposing soldier had assumed that Chen Mo would be fighting him. When Ye Liuyun stepped onto the arena, he was momentarily stunned, but then he said to Ye Liuyun, “My punches pack quite a bit of force. Can your body take it?”

He was also worried about injuring Ye Liuyun too seriously and giving Xiao Han an excuse to punish him afterward. Both sides knew they could not use too much force, since they would all be brothers in the same team in the future. The struggles among the commanders had little to do with the soldiers themselves.

Ye Liuyun smiled and cupped his fists toward him. “Brother, feel free to make your move!”

“All right, then! Take this!” Seeing how unconcerned Ye Liuyun looked, the soldier relaxed and immediately punched toward him.

The moment he threw the punch, Ye Liuyun could tell that it contained only true essence, while the force of heaven and earth within it was very weak. His level was about the same as in their previous battle.

This put him much more at ease. He immediately flicked out a palm strike, stirring up a bit of the momentum of heaven and earth, and met the soldier’s punch head-on.

With a thunderous boom, Ye Liuyun’s momentum of heaven and earth collided with the force of the soldier’s punch and was actually dispersed. However, the soldier had also nearly exhausted his strength. He immediately withdrew his hand and sent another punch crashing forward with his other fist.

This time, he channeled more true essence, clearly having held back earlier and merely tested Ye Liuyun’s strength.

He had not dared to unleash his full strength all at once, fearing that Ye Liuyun had recklessly come onto the arena and would be killed by a single blow. Now that he saw Ye Liuyun’s strength was respectable, he felt reassured and began to fight in earnest.

Seeing that his opponent had held back, Ye Liuyun was even less willing to strike a killing blow. Thus, he did not use his saber either. He threw out a punch as well, infusing it with his Buddha-Demon power and black-and-gold divine essence, once again stirring up a wisp of the momentum of heaven and earth as it shot toward the soldier.

His Golden Eyes could see how much true essence the soldier had channeled, so he used just enough divine essence and the force of heaven and earth to knock the soldier back without injuring him.

He still had many battles ahead of him and could not keep wasting himself against this man, so he had to win as quickly as possible in order to conserve his strength for the next battle.

The soldier sensed the force behind Ye Liuyun’s punch and immediately felt somewhat worried, but his own punch had already been thrown, so he could only brace himself and take it head-on.

With another booming crash, the soldier was knocked back three steps.

“This guy’s physical body really is strong!” Ye Liuyun had originally thought he would knock him back six or seven steps, but he had not expected the man’s physical strength to be so formidable.

He had also underestimated how well the people here had adapted to the pressure of the Taixu World. Their degree of adaptation differed from his, and he still had not figured out the extent of their adaptation.

He was now worried that the soldier would refuse to concede and continue fighting him. If that happened, he would have to expend his divine essence once more, which would make the battles ahead troublesome.

Unexpectedly, after the soldier stood there dazed for a moment, he showed no intention of attacking again. Instead, he cupped his fists toward Ye Liuyun and admitted defeat.

“I lost! Thank you for holding back. My name is Qiang Shi.”

It seemed that the soldier had also realized Ye Liuyun had not used his full strength and did not want to foolishly continue exhausting himself against him.

“You let me win. Ye Liuyun!” Ye Liuyun also cupped his fists and introduced himself.

“It’s over already? I thought you two would be fighting for half the day!” After Ye Liuyun stepped down from the arena, Liao Yaotian was still somewhat dissatisfied.

“Yeah. He probably saw that I was holding back and didn’t want to keep wasting his strength against me,” Ye Liuyun explained.

Xiao Han’s eyes were shining at this moment as well. He knew how strong Ye Liuyun’s force of heaven and earth had been before. He had not expected that, after letting Ye Liuyun leave for just a few days, his force of heaven and earth would already be enough to fight a soldier at the peak of the first level.

“His improvement is far too fast!” he praised Ye Liuyun’s rate of progress inwardly.

The opposing side did not send out any of its top experts next, but instead sent other soldiers to issue challenges. Liao Yaotian, Chen Mo, and Ye Liuyun took turns fighting, each battling two rounds while maintaining a perfect winning record.

Once Liao Yaotian had completed his assignment, he immediately ran off to the side to rest. In the two rounds he had just fought, he had narrowly beaten one opponent with the power of his divine soul, while in the other, he had won by directly slicing through his opponent’s weapon with his own. Both victories had relied on rather clever tricks. But for him, that already counted as giving his all; the fights had truly left him extremely tense.