Chapter 209: Ninety-Six

Wushuang lost, but not to Su Che’s Soul-Seizing Technique—rather…
To be precise, the Soul-Seizing Technique didn’t hit Wushuang at all; by the time the blue light flashed, she had already vanished.
“Did she hide inside the Four Seas Pearl again?”
Su Che knew well that, due to the strong restraint of the Bronze Gourd, Wushuang couldn’t retrieve the Four Seas Pearl into her body. Yet, the Bronze Gourd didn’t impose any restraint or suppression on her personally, which meant she could hide inside the Four Seas Pearl instead.
Consequently, once she disappeared, the Four Seas Pearl lost its master as a support and lost all fighting power, allowing it to be quickly absorbed by the Bronze Gourd.
If the Four Seas Pearl fell into the gourd, it would be completely refined by the inner Earth Fire. Even though the Earth Fire wasn’t extremely powerful, if it couldn’t refine it in one day, it surely could in a hundred.
Inside the spiritual treasure’s space, Wushuang and her life treasure would be utterly defenseless, forced to endure slow torment from the fire, with an inevitably tragic outcome.
Unless Su Che decided to spare her, or some Yuan Ying ancestor intervened in time.
As the Four Seas Pearl was about to be sucked into the Bronze Gourd, the nearest ancestor, Mu Ye, waved his hand, freezing the Pearl in place so it couldn’t be absorbed anymore.
Once an Yuan Ying ancestor intervened, even if Lao Hei controlled a top-tier spiritual treasure, he was no match at all.
“Su Che wins!”
Elder Mu Ye announced immediately.
Su Che sighed secretly and swiftly stored the Immortal Prison Team and the Bronze Gourd away.
Wushuang reappeared immediately, putting the Four Seas Pearl back on her forehead, and bowed slightly at Su Che: “Senior Su, I lost.”
“Too polite,” Su Che replied with a bow, thinking to himself, “Though Wushuang lost, she lost wisely—very wisely!”
In fact, as soon as Su Che used his Soul-Seizing Technique, Wushuang’s defeat was already certain, because the Four Seas Pearl, which protected her core spirit, was suppressed and could no longer protect her.
But even how one loses matters.
Wushuang had two choices in defeat: either her core spirit would be shaken, causing her to lose control of the Four Seas Pearl, allowing it to be absorbed by the Bronze Gourd; or…

On the contrary, if one fails after using the Four Seas Pearl, it means they have risked their own life as well, destined to share fate with their life-saving treasure. In such a case, they will surely receive help from some Yuan Ying master, and the Four Seas Pearl will not be lost. Of course, this tactic only works in the Hundred Battles Arena; in normal life-or-death struggles, Wushuang can only give up the Four Seas Pearl to save his life. Different situations require different approaches—Wushuang’s choice of how to lose is truly rational and clever. Though defeated, he suffers no losses. “Xuan Ce Wushuang also lost?!” There was uproar in the stands, and at least four of the seven Golden Core disciples who hadn’t yet entered the arena looked grave. “If Wushuang lost, then I’m even less his match…” Usually, these Golden Core disciples pretended not to acknowledge each other’s strength, but inwardly they were aware of one another’s abilities. Xuan Ce Wushuang might not be number one, but he was certainly in the top three. As for who was number one, no one knew—after all, no one had ever had the chance to fight to the death; a few occasional spars didn’t count. Next, Su Che rested for three full hours before starting the 94th match. Betting odds outside the arena surged again, but the situation had changed greatly—more and more people were backing Su Che… Because Su Che had revealed too many of his cards, and perhaps even more remained hidden! Only Su Che understood that in the match against Wushuang earlier, he had used almost all his tactics, leaving only the Prison Demon Art and self-destructive treasures. If he had any other cards, they were ones he himself wasn’t aware of. For the 94th match, no one volunteered, so Su Che chose someone to fight—Wu Ze from Tianwu Peak. Wu Ze had a Fire-type Heavenly Spirit Root, so he naturally specialized in fire-based techniques. Along with Fu Wenfei from Tianlu Peak, Wu Ze was the second luckiest person. That’s because the bronze gourd in Su Che’s hands was extremely effective against fire-based techniques… To put it simply, even if Su Che stood still and just pointed the gourd at Wu Ze, all of Wu Ze’s fire-based arts and spells would become nourishment for the Spirit Treasure Gourd. Moreover, Wu Ze didn’t have any advanced treasures to protect his soul, making him vulnerable to the Soul Capturing Art. Thus, Su Che won this match very easily. Immediately after that came the 95th match—Su Che chose Nan Xin from Tianhua Peak, who was also one of the “easiest opponents” he had anticipated.

Nan Xin possessed a Wind-type mutated spiritual root and was renowned for her intricate movement skills and bizarre powers. To others, she might be an extremely tough opponent. Yet, no matter how fast her movements were, they couldn’t outpace the Soul-Grabbing Light. Lacking any soul-controlling talismans, she was captured by Su Che several times, forcing her to stay in place. Coupled with her weak Wind-type defense, she was pushed off the arena by Su Che’s heavy punches.

After resting that night, she returned on the fifth day to defend her spot. Su Che had thought that the remaining five Golden Core cultivators would refuse to step onto the arena voluntarily and would need to be summoned one by one. However, in the first match of the day, someone stepped forward willingly.

The 96th match: Jin Chong from Tianjian Peak!

Once on the arena, Jin Chong’s deep, resonant voice, like heavy metal, rang out: “I originally planned to defeat you right in the first match, but after learning about the Taiyi Gate incident, I showed you some mercy, allowing you to reach this point.”

Su Che knew well that her intention to defeat her right away was out of revenge for her revealing a truth about Jin Chong’s true gender that day…

“Then thank you, senior brother.” Today, Su Che couldn’t bring up that matter in front of everyone again, so she referred to her as a senior brother.

“No need to thank me. I’ll defeat you today, and I’ll come for you again in the future. Don’t worry.” A golden glint flashed in her pupils, and her tone, combined with her unique voice, felt like thousands of knives cutting through everyone’s auditory nerves.

“Jin Chong!”

At that moment, the ceremony elder was still on the arena and immediately warned, “Be careful with your words. Don’t say anything unrelated to the match, or you’ll be penalized for violating the rules.”

Anyone could tell that Jin Chong’s previous remark carried a threatening tone, though it wasn’t obvious.

Su Che simply smiled faintly without responding, but she wasn’t underestimating her at all. After all, Jin Chong was one of the three most difficult opponents, and the least information was available about her. All that was known was that she had a Gold-type Heavenly Spiritual Root, specialized in swordsmanship, and her chronological age was only 46—making her the youngest among the nine true disciples of the Golden Core cultivation. Her future prospects were the most promising, but due to her proud and reclusive personality, she was unlikely to hold any important positions managing the sect, even if she reached the Yuan Ying stage in the future. Thus, she was also the least likely of the true disciples to become the sect leader.

“Any further words?” The ceremony elder stepped forward, ready to announce the start of the match…

“Yes!”

Jin Chong glared at him coldly, seemingly reproaching the ceremony elder for meddling.

The ceremony elder muttered silently for a moment before retreating.

There’s no way around it. Within the sect, the status of a true disciple with a lower rank is already unusual, not to mention that he is a true disciple at the Golden Core stage—someone with the greatest potential to advance to the Yuan Ying stage in the future. It’s not wise to offend him!
Jin Chong asked Su Che, “Dare you bet with me?”
“I won’t bet,” Su Che replied bluntly.
“No courage?” Jin Chong pressed aggressively.
“Lazy,” Su Che replied in a similarly infuriating manner.
Jin Chong flew into anger and turned to the Elder in Charge, saying, “Let’s start!”
The Elder in Charge was also a person with a strong personality. Annoyed by Jin Chong, he was even too lazy to step forward and simply waved his hand, saying, “Then let’s begin.” With that, he turned and left.
The five Yuan Ying ancestors remained silent. Although the sect rules were strict, they were still quite humane in certain aspects, granting its members great freedom of speech and action. Rules were not shackles but were only used to restrain those who broke them…
Match No. 96 begins!
Prison Demon!
The hidden card of Prison Demon, which had never been used before, was actually deployed by Su Che right from the start.
This was because since Jin Chong had the confidence to step onto the stage voluntarily, she must not fear her ultimate trump card—Soul Seizing. Perhaps she possessed a soul-subduing artifact like Wushuang, or her own abilities allowed her to ignore such powers…
When dealing with a true disciple at the Golden Core stage, every means must be used to gain the upper hand. Thus, Su Che used the unexpected power of Prison Demon.
Jin Chong, at a critical moment of transforming her form, raised one hand to the sky, her body straight as a razor-sharp flying sword.
Whoosh!
A large character for “prison” appeared above her head, and an unusual binding force immediately struck…
“What kind of power is this?”
The spectators below were amazed. Su Che indeed had another power—her words to Wushuang the day before were not entirely lies.
The power of Prison Demon had been fully unleashed. Normally, it should have trapped Jin Chong’s vital energy and Golden Core right there, unless she possessed strength at the mid-Golden Core stage or above.
Or unless she had some special artifact that allowed her to attack independently.
However, neither of these two scenarios happened as Su Che had anticipated. Jin Chong, transformed into a sword, paused briefly before soaring upward and, with a swift motion, tearing the prison character to shreds.
“How is this possible…”
Before Su Che could fully express her shock, Jin Chong abruptly changed direction and dove downward from the sky like an unstoppable, peerless sword.
Undoubtedly, the power of this strike must be terrifying. Su Che instinctively realized that even if she used all her defensive abilities, she would still not be able to withstand its impact.

Moreover, the most powerful defensive artifact, the Dragon Soul Scale, was already severely damaged and still in a slow process of recovery. The situation was urgent; without hesitation, Su Che immediately activated the bronze treasure gourd he had been holding, releasing the top-tier spiritual artifact inside that functioned as a self-destructive weapon. Whoosh! A conical-shaped top-tier spiritual artifact shot out and collided with the incoming golden projectile. This golden projectile was even more terrifying than expected; just from the first encounter, it forced Su Che to use two cards he had not revealed before. First, the Prison Demon Technique failed miserably. So, could the self-destructive attack of the top-tier spiritual artifact work?