Chapter 220: Should I just Give Up?

Chapter 219

"What the hell...?" A guy nearly tripped over his own seat... or rather, he nearly fell flat from the seat he was sitting on... because of what was happening on the battle stage below, where the entire arena had been separated from the audience by a massive red barrier shielding the crowd from the destructive aftermath of the battle.

Yet despite that... the hairs on almost everyone’s body stood on end as though they were suddenly standing in the presence of a terrifying and immensely powerful beast capable of devouring them in a single breath.

The strange thing was that there was clearly no such beast anywhere near them; this sensation wasn’t caused by an actual creature, but by the two warriors fighting below. The battle between Liyu and Shi Tian had reached a level where even the aftershocks of their confrontation were beginning to affect the atmosphere surrounding the arena.

As the battle progressed, the air became increasingly oppressive, and the pressure continued to grow. Every collision between the two monsters sent waves of energy through the battlefield, and although the barrier prevented the destructive force from reaching the audience directly, it couldn’t completely stop the sensation of overwhelming power that leaked outward.

The mundane people in the audience were the first to feel the effects as their faces gradually paled, their breathing became heavier, some felt their chests tighten as though an invisible weight had been placed upon them, and others swallowed nervously, their bodies instinctively reacting to a danger their minds couldn’t even properly identify.

The cultivators among the crowd fared much better since their bodies were stronger, their cultivation gave them greater resistance, and their tolerance toward oppressive auras was naturally far higher than that of ordinary people.

But even they were shocked, even they were utterly astonished, because the aura leaking from the battlefield was simply too terrifying. They were far away from the two combatants, with a massive distance separating them from the battlefield, and that wasn’t even the only protection since the referee’s barrier was still shielding them from the battle’s destructive aftermath.

Yet even with all of that... they could still feel the oppressive force, their skin prickled, their hairs stood on end, and their hearts instinctively tightened. It was enough to make them understand just how monstrous the two people fighting below truly were: these two weren’t merely powerful, but absolute monsters when it came to combat ability.

There was no doubt about that. They were totally and utterly powerful, and anyone who had eyes could see it.

Elder Ting noticed that several people in the audience were beginning to have difficulty breathing, but his expression remained calm as he simply raised a finger and snapped it. Snap! A subtle ripple spread outward, and the massive red barrier surrounding the battlefield suddenly strengthened.

The reinforcement was almost instantaneous, the oppressive aftershock leaking from the battle was completely suppressed, and the suffocating pressure vanished without a trace. The people who had been struggling for breath immediately felt the weight disappear from their chests, and one after another, they took deep breaths.

"Haa..." "Haa..." They inhaled greedily, startled by how normal the air suddenly felt again.

The audience seats quickly returned to normal, yet their gazes didn’t change, not even slightly. Every single pair of eyes remained fixed on the battlefield below... the ruined stage, the shattered ground, and the two figures still fighting in the middle of it all... making the audience suck in another series of cold breaths.

"Those two are truly something else..." No battle since the beginning of the tournament had ever managed to make the entire audience feel so many emotions simultaneously: shock, intrigue, fear, awe, excitement, anticipation, and countless other emotions that were impossible to properly put into words.

Everyone was completely absorbed, nobody wanted to look away, and nobody wanted to miss even a second of the battle. The confrontation was unreal and extremely blood-pumping, the blood of the spectators seeming to rush through their veins as they watched the two young warriors fight at a level that should have been impossible for their cultivation.

They wanted to know... they needed to know... who would emerge victorious, who would become the winner of the tournament, and they couldn’t wait to find out. "This..." Someone swallowed hard. "This is truly what you would call a final match."

Because, put simply... it looked like a final, a real final battle, a battle worthy of being the last confrontation of the tournament.

It wasn’t only the audience that had been completely startled and absorbed by the battle, as the disqualified candidates from the three great clans were equally captivated. At the Shi Clan’s section, Shi Meng, Shi Lan, and Shi Yuan stared toward the distant battlefield, but unlike before... there was something new in their eyes: hope.

A thin, fragile strand of hope had appeared within their minds. Seeing just how powerful Liyu had become after everything he had displayed, they were beginning to feel something they had never dared to seriously consider before... perhaps Liyu might actually be able to defeat Shi Tian.

It was still extremely uncertain, and if they were sincere with themselves, they knew that Shi Tian had yet to run out of moves, since the terrifying devil still had many cards hidden beneath that calm and emotionless exterior.

But this was the first time... the first time ever... they had seen someone who could actually match Shi Tian, someone who could force him to fight seriously, someone who could push him into a battle where victory was no longer something that could be taken for granted.

It felt like a dream, a miracle, something completely surreal. But they welcomed it more than anything, because right now, Liyu could very well be their only straw of hope, their only chance.

As long as Liyu won... they would be safe. That was all that mattered to them: their freedom, their lives, their future. Everything depended on the outcome of the battle taking place before their eyes.

At the Guan Clan’s section, Guan Xueyi and the other three simply stared blankly at the scene before them with complicated expressions filling their eyes, though among all those emotions, one stood above the rest: shock.

They were genuinely shocked. Those two had gone so far ahead of them that comparing themselves to either one of them felt like nothing short of an insult. Their speed, their skills, their techniques, their control, and their battle instincts were beyond norms, beyond powerful... they were monsters walking among ordinary cultivators.

"How did those two become so strong?" Guan Xueyi questioned herself in a quiet voice, her words barely escaping her lips almost as if she had already lost her voice. And who knew? Maybe she really had. Who could blame her?

What she was seeing right now looked like a dream... no, it was beyond a dream, feeling almost surreal. How could someone below the Core Stage unleash attacks that threatened to decimate the entire place and shred everything apart?

The battlefield below had long since stopped looking like something that should be possible for cultivators of their level. The wind howled violently, lightning crackled and exploded across the ruined stage, blazing infernos surged through the air, and terrifying waves of power collided repeatedly, each clash producing an aftershock powerful enough to make even those watching from a distance feel their hearts tremble.

Guan Xueyi swallowed hard, knowing that if she were to face either of the two people fighting right now, she was more than certain she wouldn’t be able to last even a single round before being defeated... perhaps she wouldn’t even survive a single exchange.

That was just how enormous the gap between them had become. It was frightening, absurd, and, in a strange way, awe-inspiring. It makes me wonder... can Brother Hao be at their level?

Guan Xueyi’s brows furrowed slightly. Or is he below them? She had no answer; sincerely, she had no idea anymore.

Before this battle, if someone had asked her who would win between Haoran and either of these two, she might have confidently said Haoran or even said that he would win with negligible difficulty.

But after seeing the sight before her... she couldn’t afford to make such an assumption anymore, because the battle happening before her had completely shattered the standards she once used to judge strength.

So, in the end, Guan Xueyi kept quiet and simply stared, since there was nothing else she could do.

At the Li camp, all four people looked at the scene before them with shaking eyes and trembling lips, their expressions filled with disbelief as none of them could properly comprehend what they were witnessing.

"When... when did Brother Yu become so powerful?" Li Xie asked in a small voice carrying genuine confusion.

Yes, he had seen the ridiculous feats Li Yu had managed to accomplish ever since he stepped into the tournament, and even then, all those ridiculous feats Li Yu had performed had been enough to repeatedly steal Li Xie’s and Li Jie’s breaths away.

They had watched him handle opponents he shouldn’t have had any business dealing with, watched him take down warriors who should have been far beyond his capabilities, and watched him repeatedly accomplish things that made absolutely no sense.

Every single one of those feats had made Li Yu appear abnormal, freakish, almost monstrous.

But now... all those ridiculous achievements couldn’t even hold a candle to what Li Yu was currently doing... not even close.

He was going toe-to-toe with a fully powered and serious Shi Tian. Shi Tian... the monster of the Shi Clan, the existence that had overwhelmed almost everyone who had stood before him... was being fought by Li Yu.

Not running, not desperately trying to survive, but fighting and going against him head-on. The distance between the two warriors was enormous, yet even from this far away, the aftershocks of their attacks alone were enough to threaten them.

"Just ridiculous..." Li Xie muttered, the words escaping him unconsciously as the aftershock of the battle made them feel the terrifying power contained within every collision.

They had only been spared from suffering the full pressure because of the arrays the referee had established around all the camps to protect them from external forces, arrays that were silently absorbing and suppressing the majority of the terrifying pressure spreading outward from the battlefield.

But even with the protection of those arrays, they could still feel something, still sense the frightening aftermath; if those arrays weren’t shielding them right now, they would undoubtedly be oppressed and suppressed beneath the force of the battle’s aftershocks.

Just the leftovers. Just the residual power created from their clashes. That alone was enough to oppress them, to make them feel fear, to make them realize just how enormous the gap between themselves and those two monsters truly was.

It was depressing, awe-inspiring, shocking, and almost impossible to believe.

Li Feng stared blankly at the battle before him, where the scene at a glance looked like a battle between supremely powerful beings.

The crackling of fierce lightning, the howling of the wind, the rushing waves of inferno, the thunderous explosions, and the rapid-fire blasts tearing through the air all intertwined and weaved together, forming an endless tapestry of destruction that continued raging without the slightest sign of stopping.

Every few moments, another explosion would erupt, another collision would shake the ruined battlefield, and another wave of power would spread outward; every single time it happened, Li Feng’s heart would tighten.

Just looking at the battle from this distance was enough to send chills down his spine and make his back soak with cold sweat, leaving him to only imagine how terrifying those two monsters were while standing directly in front of each other.

Li Feng remained staring forward with an expression that was calm... almost unnaturally calm... yet beneath that calm expression, his thoughts were anything but peaceful.

He tried to think, tried to understand, tried to find something to say to himself, but... he didn’t even know what he was supposed to be thinking anymore. What was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to feel?

He felt deeply depressed, unsettled, and hurt, with many other emotions churning within him that he couldn’t properly name. The only thing he knew for certain was that he felt pressured... a pressure that had nothing to do with the terrifying aura coming from the battlefield, but came from somewhere much deeper, from within himself.

After all... in a little over a month, he had been left behind. Totally and utterly left behind by Li Yu.

A little over a month ago, Li Feng had been the one at the higher cultivation level as a powerful young master of the Li Clan, the proud heir, the person everyone believed had the potential to carry the Li Clan into the future.

And Li Yu? Li Yu had been nothing but a weakling who couldn’t even cultivate, a disgrace, a person who could only stand beneath him and watch... at least, that was what Li Feng had believed.

But in just a little over a month... everything had changed, and their roles had been completely reversed.

In terms of cultivation level, yes, Li Feng was still higher, but cultivation level alone no longer meant anything when it came to comparing the two of them.

In terms of actual capabilities... Li Yu was far greater than him by a great deal, an enormous, almost ridiculous amount. Just the fact that Li Feng knew that if he were to face the current Li Yu, he wouldn’t survive even a single move from him said more than enough about the gap between their powers.

One move. That was all. He might not even survive that. He had been completely left behind.

A joyless chuckle escaped Li Feng’s lips as his eyes remained fixed on the battle, remembering what he had been thinking only a few minutes ago.

Back then, he had still been struggling to come to terms with the fact that he had been left behind, thinking Li Yu had already surpassed him by a ridiculous amount and thinking about how difficult it would be to close that gap.

But now... he realized that he had been dreaming, completely underestimating just how enormous the distance between them had become.

It wasn’t a few tens of meters, a few hundred meters, or even a few thousand meters; no, the distance wasn’t something that could be measured in meters anymore.

Li Yu had surpassed him by miles... several miles, perhaps even more... and the most painful part was that Li Feng could no longer see the end of that distance.

He didn’t know how far Li Yu would continue to advance, how much stronger Li Yu could become, or whether the gap between them would continue growing until it became something he could never cross.

Li Feng’s fingers slowly tightened, his gaze remaining fixed on the terrifying battle unfolding before him. Can I ever even catch up to him again...?

His heart tightened as a question emerged quietly within the depths of his mind, a question he had never imagined asking himself before. Or... He hesitated, his lips trembled almost imperceptibly.

Should I just give up?