Chapter 204: The Anger of the Yuan Ying Ancestor

For this second match, the hundreds of thousands of spectators in the stands were extremely frustrated, as all they could see on the arena was a thick mass of green mist—so dense that even the divine senses of some Golden Core elders could not penetrate it.
Clearly, that green mist was a spatial formation of a special magic artifact, capable of blocking divine senses.
However, it could not stop the powerful divine senses of the Yuan Ying Ancestors.
The five Yuan Ying Ancestors stationed at the five corners of the arena had already determined that the formation used by Ning Lu was a special magic artifact that required enormous effort to develop into a spiritual treasure level. For now, its effectiveness was only equivalent to that of a mid-tier treasure artifact.
The five Yuan Ying Ancestors kept a close eye on the battle in Ning Lu’s garden space, ready to rescue anyone in immediate danger.
When Su Che took out the bronze treasure gourd earlier, the Supreme Patriarch and the others immediately recognized it as an elite spiritual treasure with an artifact spirit. It was precisely because of this artifact spirit that Su Che, despite being only at the Foundation Establishment stage, was already able to control it.
“That kid truly has great fortune—being able to obtain such a spiritual treasure…”
The five ancestors silently marveled, as even they could only control elite spiritual treasures in their daily lives.
The two Dao artifacts of Tianxuan Sect could not be used privately, even by the Supreme Patriarch, unless absolutely necessary…
At that moment, within Ning Lu’s garden space, thousands of branches flew toward Su Che, seemingly leaving no chance of escape.
Su Che had no intention of avoiding them. With a swift motion, he activated an elite earth-type defensive spirit talisman, and the defenses of his elite Dao robe were also activated at full strength, clearly determined to withstand the attack head-on.
At the same time, the mouth of the bronze treasure gourd opened, and flames from the earth’s core surged forth.
“I’ve warned her twice. If this place gets burned down, it’s not my fault.”
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom…
Thousands of branches converged together, so dense that they resembled a curtain covering Su Che.
His outermost earth-type defense shattered instantly. Boom! The flaming branches continued their momentum, rushing through his second layer of defense and violently striking the wall of flames created by his elite Dao robe.
Even though fire overcame wood, the sheer number of branches managed to extinguish the flames. The defensive power of the robe suddenly failed, unable to hold on.
There was still a third layer of defense: the Dragon Soul Scale!
Roar!
A black dragon phantom appeared, instantly shattering all the branches into pieces. Su Che remained calm, as if he had anticipated such an outcome all along.

At this moment, the core fire spewed from the bronze treasure gourd had already begun to wreak havoc in the garden. Fire overcoming wood—this was truly evident. It seemed Su Che had the upper hand, yet the five Yuan Ying ancestors outside all wore expressions of utter horror. Why? Such an exquisite spiritual treasure, yet the flames it emitted were nothing but inferior core fire—this truly enraged the five Yuan Ying ancestors! They were furious, disappointed, and saddened! It was truly pitiful for that treasure! It had been treated unfairly, really unfairly! Especially Second Elder Guang Wu, who also specialized in fire-based cultivation techniques, was so angry that his face turned red and his beard trembled. If his anger were unleashed, the entire competition peak… Of course, Su Che was completely unaware of this. He didn’t even know that the bronze treasure gourd was an exquisite spiritual treasure second only to Dao artifacts. He had mistakenly believed it to be a spiritual treasure still in the process of development, with limited power for now. All day long, he and Lao He would call it “bronze gourd, bronze gourd,” never giving it a more majestic name. Moreover, aside from cultivation, he had been facing hardships lately and hadn’t had time to collect various kinds of true fire from the world. Whatever the reason, the facts remained: with Su Che in possession of this exquisite spiritual treasure, it had indeed been treated very unfairly! Fortunately, the original spirit of the bronze treasure gourd had long disappeared, and the current spirit was one never seen before in the market. Having obtained these core flames, it was already extremely satisfied. To be fair, it couldn’t be blamed entirely on Su Che. After all, he couldn’t just go around asking, “Elder, please take a look—what kind of treasure is this? How should I take care of it?” Such behavior would only lead to his own destruction. It was only because he now fully understood and trusted the sect’s ancestors that he dared to show off on the Battle Arena… Although the core fire didn’t impress the Yuan Ying ancestors, for a cultivator at Su Che’s level, it was still quite powerful. The flames ravaged the garden space, and it seemed the plants were about to be burned to ashes. Only then did Ning Lu realize the severity of the situation. She never expected that the dirty, broken gourd Su Che had brought could spew so much spiritual fire, and moreover, powerful core fire… “Enough, enough! Stop burning! I lose, I lose!”

Ninglu’s voice sounded extremely anxious, but Su Che would never believe her. On the battlefield of a hundred battles, there was no such thing as surrendering. Since the ancestral masters hadn’t stepped in to save her, she had to fight to the end.
Huhuuhu…
The fire grew even fiercer.
“Su Che, if you destroy my garden, I’ll haunt you for life!”
Ninglu’s voice carried a hint of crying: “Do you know how many spirit stones I spent to grow it to this size?”
Su Che remained unmoved.
At this moment, Elder Qingxuan felt some pity and sent a message: “Su Che wins this round. Su Che, stop it.”
Only the five Yuan Ying ancestral masters could send messages on the battlefield. Moreover, Su Che recognized Elder Qingxuan’s voice. With a thought, he sucked in the precious gourd, quickly drawing back all the Earth Core Fire.
Looking at Ninglu’s garden space, it was indeed heavily damaged—nearly half of the plants had been burned, and those that survived were wilted and withered.
Su Che won the second round!
Ninglu silently packed away the cloth-patterned arrays, showing no emotions on the surface. Under the gaze of everyone, as a true disciple, she had to maintain her proper image and demeanor. Even if she lost, she had to do so with as much dignity as possible.
While she stepped down from the battlefield, Su Che silently reflected:
This round was just a light test, but it served as a warning to him. In future battles, if he accidentally fell into the opponent’s spatial arrays and couldn’t detect their whereabouts, his Soul Seizing and Demon Trapping powers would be useless.
“Fortunately, Ninglu’s wood element abilities are countered by my fire element. If it had been a water element array earlier, things would have been much harder,” Su Che thought warily. “From now on, I must prevent anyone from setting up arrays on the battlefield—I have to stop them in advance…”
At this point, Su Che felt a bit grateful toward Ninglu—her appearance was quite timely!
The ceremony elder asked if Su Che needed a rest, but getting a negative reply, the third round began immediately.
In the subsequent battles, it was the true disciples in the Foundation Establishment stage who took turns competing. Many of them were inspired by Ninglu: Yes, finish it quickly so they could stay out of it and simply watch as spectators…
By nightfall, Su Che had won thirty consecutive rounds. During this time, the weaker opponents tended to prolong the fight.

If the opponent was only at the mid-stage of the Foundation Establishment phase and lacked any special abilities, Su Che would fight alone, summoning no spiritual pets, relying solely on his own spells and ordinary magical artifacts to engage in back-and-forth battles. He would continue fighting for at least a hundred rounds before resorting to his ultimate move to win. He did this not to spare the opponent’s face but to hone his own combat skills and awareness—a truly rare opportunity. Many understood that Su Che was treating himself as a sparring partner, but he was content with it; losing after a hundred rounds was not a disgrace. The countless outer sect disciples at the stands enjoyed the spectacle greatly, feeling they had learned a great deal. It was not every day they got to see the true disciples demonstrating their skills so meticulously, and not just one person, but a hundred of them taking turns performing. Thus, every time Su Che was declared the winner, they would cheer loudly—simple reason: the longer Senior Brother Su held out, the more they benefited! At night, the Competition Peak was brightly lit as if it were day. While the audience still wanted more, Su Che decided it was time to rest. After a day of fighting, though without any thrills, one still felt exhausted. Su Che neither pushed himself too hard nor underestimated his opponent; he knew when to rest. Starting at the hour of Hai, over a hundred thousand people on the Competition Peak remained, silently meditating and resting. Even the five Yuan Ying ancestors did the same. Such a unique and spectacular scene could only be seen in a super sect like Tian Xuan Zong. In the center of the competition platform, the sect leader personally created an isolation barrier, allowing Su Che to meditate or sleep as he wished. In the morning, at the hour of Chen, the battles resumed. Another thirty victories in a day. On the third day, still thirty consecutive wins. None of the nine Golden Dan true disciples stepped forward, seemingly allowing Su Che to maintain his record. After all, during the Tai Yi Gate incident, Su Che had saved their lives to some extent. But only they knew the real reason for not competing. On the fourth day, the last female disciple in the late Foundation Establishment phase stepped forward—she had Water-type Heavenly Spirit Roots, which were incompatible with Su Che’s attributes. But this time, she didn’t create a miracle, as Su Che had Xiao Jiao Long and Snake Woman as allies, and the battle ended in less than fifteen minutes. Ninety-first match: Su Che wins! The next, ninety-second match, would be a challenge against a Golden Dan true disciple.

“Could he fail in his first challenge against a Golden Core cultivator, just like the Supreme Master back then, ending in disappointment after 92 attempts?”
In the arena, countless people made such guesses.
After all, aside from the two spiritual beasts, a dragon and a snake, Su Che didn’t show any other special abilities. With just that, it was absolutely impossible for him to defeat a true Golden Core cultivator.
Many people were not optimistic about Su Che, and some small bets outside the arena were also suspended.
Only if Su Che could overcome this challenge would new bets be made.
At this moment, the nine true Golden Core disciples in the audience were quite disappointed, as the previous 91 attempts hadn’t forced Su Che to reveal more of his abilities.
Next, whoever among the nine stepped forward first would truly be the one testing their skills.