CHAPTER 62

Zhu Yingyi

"Thus, I declare this match: Jia Siwen of Bingyan Island wins!" Seeing the little monk Daxi lying motionless on the ground, barely breathing and on the verge of death, while the cold-eyed perpetrator seemed intent on delivering a final blow, the arbiter, a bearded Daoist, hurriedly stepped between them at the center of the stage. He offered Jia Siwen a gentle smile while discreetly signaling for the critically injured contestant to be carried off the stage immediately.

"Ouch, that pretty boy is way too ruthless!"

"Exactly! A true K!llng Star! He's no empty reputation! I bet on him winning from the start!"

"How could the little monk from Tianyin Temple be so easily defeated?"

"Yeah, yeah, a one-hit knockout is just too embarrassing..."

After the arbiter's announcement, it was as if a forbidden door had been opened, and the audience below erupted into murmurs and discussions.

"Ahahahaha, all you trash, remember this! It's not that he was too weak, it's that I'm just too strong! Hahaha..." With sharp ears catching the whispers from all directions, Jia Siwen initially disdained to explain himself. However, his gaze swept over Su Yan, who was shamelessly exchanging flirtatious glances and int!mate gestures with Tong Tong, and his eyes turned cold. He declared loudly enough for the entire arena to hear:

"Amitabha." Contrary to everyone's expectations, the Tianyin Temple contingent showed no signs of outrage. Instead, they chanted in unison once more, as if offering prayers for the severely injured Daxi.

"Ah, young people are so impulsive. That's not good, you know~" Master Yuangui examined Daxi's condition and found he was merely knocked unconscious with a broken arm bone, nothing life-threatening. Glancing at the arrogant Jia Siwen, he shook his head with a light chuckle, his eyes filled with boundless pity, as if the defeated one were not his own junior.

'Such arrogance! Pride is one of the seven deadly sins! Would it k!ll you to be a little humble?'

When her senior brother displayed confidence, it came across as graceful and carefree. But when this psycho did it, it was nothing but reckless arrogance!

After mentally tearing down the boastful Jia Siwen, Tong Tong finally managed to ease some of the sudden tension that had welled up inside her.

Yes, unfortunately, the next match was hers. So she had no choice but to engage in this kind of mental self-soothing to calm her nerves, which had been rattled by Jia Siwen's intimidation. For someone like her, written as "emotional" but read as "cowardly," she couldn't handle scares at all!

"Thank you to both contestants for their thrilling duel! Next up, we have a showdown between two young ladies! Isn't everyone looking forward to it?" The arbiter stroked his beard, his expression serious but his voice brimming with enthusiasm.

'Hey hey! Old man, you've dropped your dignity! Don't use that creepy tone in public! You're embarrassing the organizers!'

Tong Tong screamed internally, then turned to glance at her beautiful master seated regally in the center of the Chonghua faction's formation. She swallowed back the urge to spit bl0od: Though her master still maintained an ethereal, graceful fairy-like demeanor, the gleam of amusement in her eyes was way too obvious! Is this really how you treat your own disciple, Master? So tired of feeling unloved...

"First, let us welcome the young master of the Qianyu Sect, Zhu Yingyi, to the stage!" As the arbiter's enthusiastic introduction concluded, a fair-skinned, scantily clad young girl gracefully stepped onto the competition platform. Despite her delicate, doll-like face, she wore an expression that seemed to say, "You all owe me five million," creating an unexpectedly adorable contrast.

"Go, young master!"

"Young master will surely win!"

"Young master, your underwear fell off..." Amid the cheers, a sultry, low voice whispered softly.

"Ahem..." Zhu Yingyi, who had been walking solemnly onto the stage, stumbled at the remark. She immediately puffed out her cheeks and turned to glare at the tall, elegant maid in her sect's bronze-colored formation, shouting, "Stop nagging!"

With a pout, Xue'er patted the water-green peacock-embroidered bellyband she had just picked up and tucked it into her Qiankun pouch.

After a brief, eerie silence, the audience erupted into even louder cheers, their excitement now several times greater than before. Among the noise, there were also mocking and jeering sounds, causing the girl on stage to flush, not out of shyness, but anger.

"Who gave you the nerve to laugh at me, huh?" She pulled a black whip from her barely covered chest, cracking it loudly as her dark gaze swept over the laughing crowd. No one dared meet her eyes.

Wow! This little girl has quite the temper!

"Hehe... Now, let us welcome the representative of this year's host, the Chonghua Sword Sect, the seventh disciple of the Qiuye Peak, Tong Tong!" The arbiter chuckled awkwardly and continued the introduction as if nothing had happened.

Under the weight of various stares, Tong Tong absentmindedly tugged at the corner of her mouth and slowly made her way toward the stage.

Her body felt like a radar alarm system. The murderous glare from the side was undoubtedly from that perv3rt, Jia Siwen. But what about the ambiguous, complicated gazes from the left and right behind her?

As for the young master of the Qianyu Sect in front of her, her glare was intense enough to suggest she wanted to "v!olate and k!ll, then v!olate and k!ll again." However, the gentle gaze from directly behind her was the most comforting, that position belonged to her senior brother, Su Yan.

Hmm... Feeling Su Yan's silent support made it easier to ignore all the other hostile stares. It couldn't get any better than this.

'Little miss of the Qianyu Sect, let me see what you've got!'

Her eyes sparkled, and she was ready to give it her all.

Taking a deep breath, Tong Tong pushed off with her toes, intending to land gracefully on the stage like a startled swan or a soaring dragon. She expected a wave of amazed applause, with even her opponent bowing in admiration...

However, this was merely Tong Tong's fantasy. In reality, due to a miscalculation and excessive force, she lost her balance upon landing and fell to the ground in an utterly humiliating manner, her forehead landing squarely on the foot of Zhu Yingyi, who had stepped onto the stage just moments before.

"Thud!" The sound of bone meeting bone echoed.

"Ouch!" Tong Tong let out a pained cry.

"Ah!" A high-pitched scream came from the innocent victim, Zhu Yingyi, perfectly illustrating Newton's third law of motion.

"Hahaha!" The audience erupted into uproarious laughter.

"..." Both Su Yan and the maid Xue'er simultaneously covered their foreheads with their hands, shielding their eyes.

Having avoided the terrifying fate of having her skull shattered and brains splattered, and instead turning decay into magic and disadvantage into advantage by hitting her opponent, Tong Tong received a yellow card warning from the arbiter: "Contestant Tong Tong, no sneak attacks before my command! Please follow the competition rules! This is only a verbal warning; next time you will be directly disqualified!" The arbiter uncle spoke sternly, stroking his long beard with his right hand while his left hand, hidden behind his back, swiftly withdrew to block Zhu Yingyi's suddenly striking soft whip.

"Contestant Zhu Yingyi! I've already said it! No sneak attacks! How can you ignore the rules and knowingly break them? Your actions are causing me great distress! You..." After reprimanding Tong Tong, the arbiter began earnestly lecturing again, trying to guide the "rebellious and misguided" young master of the Qianyu Sect back onto the right path.

The incessant nagging caused Zhu Yingyi's face to turn completely black. Due to his status, she had to suppress her double rage, at being laughed at by the crowd and toyed with by Tong Tong, and listen to the lecture with a blank face. Half an hour later, after Ye Zhiqiu finally couldn't help but cough a reminder, the match was finally allowed to proceed.

Rubbing her still-reddened forehead, Tong Tong shook her head, dizzy from the arbiter's invincible rambling, and her gaze met a resentful little face, delicate nose, cherry lips, and curved eyelashes, looking like a harmless little girl, making it hard for anyone to be harsh.

"Little sister, how old are you?" Estimating her to be at most eleven or twelve, just a carefree elementary school student in modern times, yet in this cultivation world, she was already the young master of a major sect. Recalling how most heirs of great families had unhappy childhoods... Tong Tong felt genuine sympathy for her.

Rolling her eyes, Zhu Yingyi's little face was full of disdain: "You ignorant, vulgar little girl, who are you calling 'little sister'? I am already three hundred and fifteen years old!"

"Wh-what? Three... three hundred... You're even older than my grandmother's grandmother!" Tong Tong was stunned.

So, whether it's "respecting the elderly" or "cherishing the young," as someone upholding noble virtues, she shouldn't be rough with her!

"How dare you speak like that, you brat? I haven't even settled the matter of the Abyssal Secret Realm with you yet!" Zhu Yingyi stamped her foot angrily, her little finger almost poking Tong Tong's eye. "After finally fighting my way to the gates of hell, just one step away from the Hall of Judgment, you teleported me back to the Hundred Ghosts Cave! All that effort was wasted! Besides apologizing with your death, what else do you have to say?"

"Uh..." Tong Tong was at a loss for words. Faced with the little loli's aggressive questioning, even if she had reasons, it was hard to argue.

"Prepare to die!" Clearly, the other party had no intention of listening to her explanation anyway. Following the barrage of accusations came a storm-like attack, clearly long-prepared.

Reflexively summoning Biling to block, Tong Tong realized this was a premeditated ambush, using verbal confrontation to numb her nerves, then striking when she let her guard down. If not for the strong reflexes honed these past days under Su Yan's comprehensive, no-dead-zone simulation training with a group of little white-robed disciples, she would have long fallen victim to that soft whip!

"Let's talk this out, please, aaaaaah!" As expected, the first match unfolded in a frenzy of frantic dodging and chasing, much to the delight of the audience below. After their initial impatience, the spectators found themselves thoroughly entertained, even if it wasn't a two-sided interaction, watching Zhu Yingyi single-handedly torment Tong Tong like a cat chasing a mouse had its own unique flavor.

But for Tong Tong, who was struggling to keep up on stage, it was far from a pleasant experience.

'At such a young age, you're already this violent? Old man from the Qianyu Sect, your education is a complete failure, isn't it?'

'It's not like we have some irreconcilable bl0od feud, how can I handle such wildness from a young lady like you?'

As Tong Tong frantically dodged and twisted under the relentless pursuit of the black serpent whip, a sudden sense of danger flashed through her mind. The green glow of Biling flickered in her hand, filling her thoughts with the word "danger."

Instinctively, she tilted her head slightly to the side, barely registering her own movement. A cool breeze brushed past her cheek, and a strand of hair from her temple snapped clean off, drifting softly to the ground. The shock sent a cold sweat down her spine, if she hadn't dodged just now, half her head would have been sliced off!

'D@mn! Aren't you being a bit too brutal, girl!'

Still trembling with fear, Tong Tong glared angrily at Zhu Yingyi, only to see her coiling the whip with a sinister smile, looking regretful. "Tsk, you're lucky this time. Next time, you won't be so fortunate!"

Perched on Zhu Yingyi's fair, glowing right shoulder was a small, pure black creature with a strange appearance. Its jade-green eyes stared unblinkingly at Tong Tong, sending shivers down her spine.

The creature had monkey-like ears, a snake-like neck, and a fox-like tail, a bizarre sight Tong Tong had never seen before. If not for the eerie, sinister gleam in its eyes, it could almost be called "adorable."

So that last attack came from this little thing!

"Referee, she's cheating! She's using a demon beast! I protest!" Tong Tong cried out, like a child desperately tattling to a teacher for protection.

"Contract demon beasts are not prohibited. Protest denied!" the bearded Daoist replied calmly.

"What?! That's not fair!" Tong Tong widened her eyes in disbelief.

Zhu Yingyi sneered, twirling her whip leisurely. "My Qianyu Sect is renowned for taming beasts. What's the big deal? Just as your Chonghua Sect merges with swords, we share life and death with our contract spirit beasts, forming a dual entity." As soon as she finished speaking, as if to mock Tong Tong, the black creature narrowed its jade-green eyes into slits, shook its fox-like tail, and vanished into thin air!

Invisibility? Right, back in the Hundred Ghost Cave, it was because of this little thing's stealth skill that evaded Senior Brother's senses! So that means... right!

"Come out, Cookie!" After narrowly dodging another sneak attack from the black creature with Biling's flickering warning, Tong Tong shouted, summoning Cookie from her beast-taming pouch.

'You have your tricks, and I have mine! So you can use a demon beast? Well, I have one too! Don't look down on me! My demon beast will scare you to death!'

'Hmph! Hmph... Huh?'

A small cat-like creature with a white base and black stripes blinked in confusion at the suddenly changed surroundings. Its pink tongue instinctively licked the crumbs off its paw, and its golden round eyes showed a hint of bewilderment: "Meow?"

The audience below, who had been predicting and anticipating the match, suddenly felt as though something had shattered with a resounding crash.

Could this dimwit, who seemed to have nothing in its head except food and was completely devoid of any imposing aura, really be the legendary auspicious beast, Zouyu?

Tong Tong covered her face, deeply ashamed to be its master...

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