The second round followed a structured one-on-one elimination format.

  Twenty participants remained from the preliminary. Each disciple was granted two lives; a first loss did not eliminate them, but a second loss meant immediate removal from the competition.

  Matches were conducted in rounds. After each cycle of duels, those who had accumulated two losses were eliminated. The remaining participants were reshuffled and paired again. This continued until only ten disciples remained.

  The moment the field narrowed to ten, those remaining were officially recognized as the Top Ten of the tournament. From there, the format did not change. The same two-loss rule continued until the ranking was decided.

  Rankings were determined purely by overall record. The fewer the losses and the more the wins, the higher the placement. If two competitors held similar records, their head-to-head result decided their standing.

  Simply put, Ning needed to keep winning. One loss would not eliminate him, but if he did lose, he would have to win the next match to stay ahead.

  And that was exactly what he did.

  Ning fought two consecutive battles, one against a Fourth Stage opponent, and another against a Fifth Stage cultivator.

  Both matches were straightforward and uneventful. The kind of fights that, in a novel, would be summarized in a single passing sentence.

  But the next match was different.

  “Next, Jin Su versus Ji Ning.”

  The formation barrier rose slowly, humming with restrained power.

  Across from Ning stood Jin Su, second-ranked among the newcomers. She rested her hand lightly on the hilt of her curved blade, posture relaxed but eyes burning with anticipation. At her side, the gray wolf prowled in a tight circle, claws clicking against stone, shoulders rolling with coiled violence.

  The beast was large, larger than most mid-stage Qi Condensation spirit beasts. Its fur was thick and iron-gray, streaked faintly with darker patterns that shimmered when qi circulated beneath the surface. Its golden eyes never blinked.

  Jin Su grinned, eyes bright with anticipation.

  “I’ve been looking forward to this,” she said, almost cheerfully. “Your matches have been one of the heartiest yet. I can’t say mine have been nearly as satisfying.”

  She rolled her shoulders once, loose and eager, like someone about to stretch before a pleasant workout rather than a serious fight.

  “So yes,” she added, tightening her grip on her sword, “I’ve been waiting for this. Our battle is going to be legendary.”

  Beside her, the wolf let out a low, rumbling growl, golden eyes fixed on Ning.

  Ning exhaled quietly.

  “Well,” he replied evenly, “let’s both do our best.”

  His tone was polite, neutral, but inwardly, he couldn’t help sighing. Why were there so many battle junkies in this tournament?

  The presiding elder raised his sleeve.

  A brief pause.

  Then it fell.

  “Begin.”

  Ning moved first. His fingers formed a seal. Cold qi surged.

  [Hidden Ice Mist.]

  His go-to move in the tournament.

  The frost-white fog erupted, dense and immediate, swallowing the stone platform in a single breath. Frost spread across the ground like creeping veins. Visibility collapsed.

  Within the mist, Ning retreated, bow already in hand. Turtle Breathing suppressed his aura to a whisper. Shadow Steps carried him lightly along the perimeter, his feet barely brushing against stone.

  Then, a deep inhale echoed through the fog.

  The wolf.

  Its chest expanded unnaturally. Its nose lifted, then as if it sensed something, it sprinted.

  Not blindly. Directly toward Ning.

  Ning grasped the change in the mist and instantly loosed his first arrow.

  Thwip!

  The wolf twisted mid-stride, paws skidding sideways with explosive agility. The arrow tore across its flank, drawing a thin red line, but failed to pierce deeply.

  It didn't slow.

  Jin Su's voice rang through the fog. "Did you think Hei Ya hunts just by sight? You are underestimating my family's beast-taming methods."

  She lunged forward, blade flashing. A crescent of compressed wind tore through the mist in the direction the arrow had come from.

  Ning shifted. The blade struck empty air.

  Second arrow. Lower. Aimed at the wolf's foreleg.

  The wolf leapt. The shaft grazed its shoulder, fur scattering, blood blooming, but again shallow.

  "Still scratching?" Jin Su laughed. "You'll have to do more than that!"

  She slashed again, this time diagonally upward, carving a channel through frost. Her sword style was aggressive and direct, every swing backed by full-body momentum.

  Ning kept moving. He never stayed in one place for more than a heartbeat. Constant motion was the only way to maintain the initiative.

  Third arrow. This one struck cleaner, embedding along the wolf's ribs.

  The beast snarled, golden eyes flashing in the fog.

  Still, it ran.

  Fourth.

  The wolf juked sharply left, then right, forcing Ning to adjust mid-release. The arrow clipped its hind leg but failed to disable.

  This wolf is absurdly fast… and agile.”

  Ning had done his research.

  The gray wolf was the primary tamed beast of the Jin Family. Through generations of careful breeding and cultivation, the family had refined the bloodline, producing exceptional specimens whose foundations far surpassed most wild counterparts.

  And according to the information Ning had gathered, this particular wolf was the cream of the crop.

  It closed the distance in a blur. Claws tore through frost as it lunged.

  Ning dropped backward, rolling as jaws snapped shut inches from his shoulder.

  The wolf landed heavily, muscles coiling for a second strike.

  Jin Su followed instantly. Her sword descended.

  Clang!

  Spear met steel. Ning abandoned the bow. The impact rang sharply through the mist.

  Jin Su pressed immediately, her blade flowing from one cut into the next. Her style was aggressive. Unlike other beast tamers who liked to command the beasts, she was likely to personally fight.

  "You're quiet," she said between strikes. "Nervous?"

  Ning deflected. Twisted. Redirected force through his spine.

  Ning didn't say anything. Instead, he focused harder.

  "Oh, you don't like to talk while fighting, huh?" Jin Su spoke.

  The wolf circled behind him.

  He felt it. His spatial awareness prickled. He shifted his stance half a breath before claws tore past where his calf had been.

  [Scorching Purge]

  A thin line of crimson flame ignited from the spearhead. Just a concentrated stream of compressed fire qi, no wider than a wrist, shooting forward like a lance.

  The heat was intense, but focused. It struck the wolf’s shoulder directly. The beast recoiled with a low snarl as fur singed and smoke rose from a small, blackened patch.

  Scorching Purge was not Fireball.

  Fireball was wide and aggressive, a blossoming sphere of flame that detonated outward. Its strength lay in area denial and battlefield control.

  Scorching Purge, however, was narrower. More precise. Its destructive range was limited to a single target, but the advantage was penetration. It compressed fire qi into a tightly bound stream, allowing deeper burn and stronger impact against a specific point.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “You’ll have to do better than that to defeat us,” Jin Su shouted, her expression getting only brighter as the fight went on.

  Truly, that's why battle junkies were hard to beat. When pushed back, their fighting spirit only got stronger.

  Jin Su didn’t wait for the wolf to recover.

  Her blade whistled forward, wind qi spiraling around its edge. Every strike carried the weight of her entire body, hips driving, shoulders following, momentum relentless.

  She fought like a battering ram.

  Ning met her first slash.

  Clang!

  The impact rattled his grip. Before the vibration faded, her second strike was already descending. She did not allow space. Did not allow breath.

  And from the other side, Hei Ya surged in again.

  Burned, bleeding, yet utterly unbroken.

  Its coordination with Jin Su was seamless. When she pressed high, the wolf attacked low. When she drove straight, the beast flanked.

  Double pressure.

  Ning’s vision sharpened.

  His Pure Eyes traced trajectories, blade angle, paw placement, and muscle tension. He read the rhythm and adjusted by fractions of a breath.

  But even perfect calculation could not eliminate strain.

  Jin Su suddenly changed tempo.

  Instead of another broad slash, she stepped in close and drew a tight diagonal cut across Ning’s guard. The wolf lunged at the same instant from the opposite flank.

  Too tight to fully evade.

  Steel bit shallowly across Ning’s upper arm.

  Claws tore across his side a heartbeat later.

  Pain flared hot and sharp as the blood darkened his sleeve.

  But Ning had no time to pay attention to the wound.

  He redirected Jin Su’s blade with a twisting parry, letting the force slide along his spear shaft instead of meeting it head-on.

  She smiled when she saw the blood.

  “Got you.”

  Hei Ya circled again, though its breathing was no longer perfectly steady. The scorched shoulder slowed it by the slightest fraction, but only the most careful observer would notice.

  Jin Su thrust forward, wind qi condensing at the tip of her blade like a drilling spike.

  Ning parried again, spear sliding along her steel.

  At the same time, the wolf lunged from his blind side.

  Ning pivoted sharply and snapped two fingers backward without turning.

  [Golden Finger]

  A compressed burst of qi shot from his fingertips like a bullet.

  It struck Hei Ya squarely in the forehead.

  The wolf staggered mid-leap, stunned for a single breath as the focused impact rattled its senses.

  Not enough to injure, but it was enough to disrupt the rhythm.

  Ning used that single disrupted beat to disengage, sliding back across frost-slick stone and plunging into the mist once again.

  “Haha! Still want to play hide-and-seek?” she called out. “You can’t escape now. Hei Ya marked you, you’re bleeding.”

  She wasn’t wrong.

  The shallow cut along Ning’s arm had begun to drip steadily, the scent of blood faint but unmistakable to a hunting beast.

  Ning did not reply.

  Instead, he began to chant.

  Until now, every spell he had cast had formed within a breath or two, quick, efficient, disruptive. They had interfered, created openings, forced repositioning.

  But none had been decisive.

  The reason was simple.

  Most of those techniques were originally meant for farming and field control. Their destructive power was limited. Ning’s use of them in combat was clever, ingenious, even, but their raw lethality simply wasn’t high.

  That didn’t mean he lacked stronger options.

  It only meant he had been waiting.

  “I’ve got you!” Jin Su shouted.

  With Ning’s blood in the air, tracking him was trivial. Hei Ya surged forward again, nose low, body coiled for the kill. Jin Su followed without hesitation, blade already gathering wind qi for a finishing thrust.

  They closed the distance rapidly.

  This time, Ning did not retreat.

  His hands moved.

  Qi surged.

  [Fireball.]

  A dense sphere of crimson fire formed between his palms, pulsing violently as heat spiraled outward. Frost evaporated in an instant. The air warped.

  He thrust forward.

  The fireball shot ahead and detonated directly in the path of both Jin Su and Hei Ya.

  Boom!

  Flame erupted outward in a violent blossom, swallowing both figures whole.

  The explosion roared across the platform. Steam burst upward as ice flash-melted. The shockwave rippled through the stone, forcing debris and frost into the air.

  Hei Ya was the one who sensed the attack first. It instantly jumped backward, it's large body quickly shielding the girl.

  “Wai-”

  Jin Su managed only a single syllable before Hei Ya threw itself in front of her.

  Flame engulfed the wolf’s side, roaring across its fur. The heat was intense enough to blister exposed stone, turning frost to steam in an instant.

  A pained snarl tore through the inferno.

  The wolf slammed into the ground, sliding across scorched stone with Jin Su partially shielded beneath its massive frame.

  Smoke billowed upward.

  For a brief moment, both figures vanished within the haze.

  “Damn…”

  Ning narrowed his eyes. The attack hadn’t felt decisive. He clutched his bleeding arm and ribs, steadying his breath.

  If this were a story, smoke after a major attack almost always meant one thing: it hadn’t worked.

  A cliché, perhaps. But rarely wrong.

  As expected, when the flames thinned, Hei Ya was still standing.

  Its fur was scorched black along one flank. The skin beneath was raw and reddened, patches of flesh visibly burned. Its breathing was heavier now, chest rising and falling with effort.

  But it had not fallen.

  Behind it, Jin Su emerged, shielded by its body. She bore only minor burns along her arm and shoulder.

  She clicked her tongue once.

  “That had some bite.”

  Hei Ya growled low in its throat. A faint metallic sheen rippled beneath its damaged hide.

  Body of Steel.

  The wolf’s bloodline ability, and the entire reason it had endured this long.

  Its flesh condensed, skin tightening like tempered metal. Pain dulled. Defense surged.

  Combined with Jin Su’s offensive prowess, far beyond that of an ordinary beast tamer, the two were clearly groomed with care.

  Heirs. They were forged not just with talent, but with intention.

  Jin Su's eyes gleamed. "This has been fun," she said honestly. "But let's finish it properly."

  Tempest and Wild.

  Their clan's Earth-grade combination.

  The wolf would launch first like a fired projectile, breaking guard, while she followed with a wind-amplified execution strike.

  Ning felt the pressure condense.

  He did not retreat.

  The wolf exploded forward. This was a sure defeat move, especially given Ning's extremely poor condition right now.

  But, suddenly, mid-leap, its foreleg locked. Its body convulsed violently.

  Instead of tearing through Ning,

  It crashed. Hard.

  The stone fractured under its weight.

  The wolf tried to rise. Its hind legs trembled uncontrollably. Then refused to move.

  Paralyzed.

  Jin Su froze. "Hei Ya?"

  The wolf's golden eyes burned with confusion and fury, but its muscles no longer obeyed.

  "Hmm?!"

  Jin Su's rhythm shattered. The Earth-grade combination required the wolf's momentum.

  Without it, she stood alone.

  Ning moved. Shadow Steps closed the distance instantly, as the spear moved straight and true.

  Jin Su reacted on instinct, raising her blade and forcing wind to surge around her edge.

  Clang!

  Their weapons collided.

  She attempted to gather wind again, but panic disrupted her circulation. The shock of her companion's paralysis broke her focus.

  Ning pressed.

  First thrust, she blocked.

  Second, he angled off-line and struck her wrist. Her sword trembled.

  Third, he stepped inside her guard. Force flowed from heel to spine to shoulder.

  The spear shaft slammed into her ribs.

  Air exploded from her lungs.

  She staggered.

  He followed without hesitation.

  A final controlled thrust.

  The spear tip stopped at her throat.

  Silence fell over the arena.

  Behind her, the wolf lay rigid but conscious, breathing shallowly.

  Jin Su stared at the spear. Then at Ning.

  She looked at the thin, shallow wounds covering its body.

  "…Poison."

  Her voice lost its brightness.

  "All of them?"

  Ning exhaled softly.

  It took long enough.

  "This wolf… truly is extraordinary," he thought. Any lesser beast would have collapsed far sooner.

  The elder's voice echoed calmly. "Winner, Ji Ning."

  Hearing this, Jin Su exhaled. Then laughed softly, though it lacked its earlier brightness.

  “Hey… poison isn’t fair,” she said, half-sulking. “I thought we were going to have a straightforward battle."

  Her tone was sour. She had expected a fierce, head-on clash, not a slow collapse from hidden toxin. Watching their ultimate momentum unravel like this left a bitter taste.

  “That's just strategy. Moreover, a straightforward battle?” Ning’s lips twitched faintly. “You were fighting two against one.”

  From the beginning, he had known he had no chance in a direct confrontation. Even if he exhausted every technique and pushed himself to his absolute limit, the likely outcome would have been being toyed with before being decisively overwhelmed.

  Facing such an overwhelming opponent, Ning naturally had to bring out his own advantages.

  Poison. His go-to move when hunting beasts.

  Fortunately, as per his expectations, Jin Su was a battle junkie and wanted to play with him more; if she had used her ult at the beginning, he would not have a single chance.

  “But I’m a beast tamer,” Jin Su shot back, rolling her eyes. “That’s fair, right?”

  “Well,” Ning replied calmly, “I’m a spiritual farmer. It’s only natural that I use the plants I grow.”

  “Ugh. That’s not fun,” she protested. Then her brows furrowed. “And even if you are a spiritual farmer, Hei Ya’s Body of Steel has resistance to poison. How did you even affect him? And what kind of spiritual farmer fights as fiercely as you do?”

  As if a dam had broken, Jin Su began speaking rapidly, voicing every bit of her frustration at once.

  Ning only sighed.

  “You do know I hold a certified Spiritual Farmer credential, right? I can cultivate high-grade plants. Naturally, they can affect Hei Ya.”

  “Spiritual Farmer certificate?” Jin Su tilted her head, clearly confused. It was obvious she hadn’t gathered detailed information before this match.

  “Anyway,” Ning continued, producing a small bud and holding it out, “here’s the antidote. The toxin is paralytic in nature. It won’t cause lasting harm, but it’s better not to leave him poisoned for long.”

  Jin Su looked at the bud in his hand, the very thing responsible for her defeat.

  For a brief second, annoyance flickered across her face.

  But when she noticed Hei Ya’s breathing growing sluggish, irritation vanished. Without another word, she took the antidote and carefully administered it to the wolf.

  Her hand rested gently on its head as she waited for its breathing to stabilize. Competitive spirit aside, Hei Ya came first.

  After a moment, she exhaled.

  “Fine. Fine.” Jin Su waved her hand dismissively. “A win’s a win. Strategy counts.”

  She stepped closer and extended her hand without hesitation.

  “But next time, no poison.”

  Ning accepted her hand.

  “I’ll try.”

  ...

  When Ning returned to his courtyard, the noise of the arena felt very far away.

  He closed the door quietly and sat down on the cool stone floor. The moment his breathing steadied, he felt it clearly;

  The looseness.

  The bottleneck that had bound him was no longer rigid. It had not disappeared, but it had thinned, like ice slowly worn down by running water.

  The battle had done something.

  Every circulation of qi during the match, every forced burst under pressure, every strain placed upon his meridians, none of it had been wasted. The excess spiritual energy from the Dragon Qi Grass, which had once felt swollen and unruly, now flowed more harmoniously within him.

  The Pure Qi Sutra rotated in steady, disciplined cycles. Spiritual energy no longer clashed chaotically inside his meridians. Instead, it meshed smoothly, like gears that had finally aligned.

  “As expected… fighting truly helps.”

  In the midst of battle, spirit and body converge under intense pressure. When survival is at stake, inefficiencies are burned away. Qi becomes refined not through comfort, but through necessity.

  Ning had felt the bottleneck loosen during his fight with Jin Su. Her relentless, two-pronged assault had forced him to push beyond his limits, drawing out potential he could not access during quiet cultivation.

  As for why he hadn’t broken through during the battle?

  The reason was simple.

  It was dangerous.

  Unless one were a fated protagonist blessed by heaven, attempting a breakthrough mid-combat could destabilize the foundation. A single misstep during that vulnerable moment could lead not to advancement, but regression.

  Moreover, no enemy would politely wait while their opponent ascended, right?

  Ning closed his eyes and began circulating the Pure Qi Sutra deliberately.

  Once.

  Twice.

  Ten times.

  Spiritual energy gathered within his dantian, compressing slightly with each cycle. He did not rush. Impatience caused fractures; fractures led to deviation.

  He guided the refined qi toward the thinning barrier.

  It resisted.

  He pressed steadily.

  Pressure mounted. His meridians trembled, not from instability, but from expansion. The qi within him was denser than before, heavier, more cohesive. It pressed against the invisible boundary separating the Fifth and Sixth Stages of Qi Condensation.

  He could feel the difference.

  Before, the wall had seemed solid and immovable.

  Now, it felt brittle.

  Another circulation.

  Another compression.

  The spiritual energy folded inward again, condensing into a tighter, weightier mass.

  Then, a subtle shift.

  The barrier dissolved like mist under morning sunlight.

  Qi surged through his meridians, smooth, full, and unimpeded. The flow deepened. His spiritual pressure rose perceptibly.

  Ning opened his eyes slowly.

  Finally, the Sixth Stage of Qi Condensation.

  ...

  Thanks for reading~