Chapter 48: Fighting with Intelligence

“Qu Yi, there’s no need for you to be proud. Wu Zhuangyi didn’t kill you, and we seven are still here. You still can’t survive.”
On the combat platform, just as Qu Yi stepped out of the transparent barrier, Qiu Guanyi, who had ranked first the day before, sneered and shouted.
The remaining seven were Qiu Guanyi, Tian Chaoyi, Bai Feiyi, Sang Yunyi, Gongye Yi, Jin Ziyi, and Yan Tianyi. In the combat arena, any cultivator from Tianfeng Fort who encountered them would give up immediately—these seven won every fight without even moving.
Qu Yi glanced at Qiu Guanyi, shrugged, then stepped forward in front of the Tianfeng Fort cultivators.
After the first round, there were still eight thousand cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage from Tianfeng Fort. They gathered together, happily welcoming Qu Yi’s return, with cheers of congratulations filling the air.
“Qu Yi, congratulations,” Qing Wugui said first.
“Qu Yi, you and Wu Qing both killed someone! It’s so frustrating! Why didn’t I challenge Gongye Qing to a duel?” Wu Yuan complained.
Qing Wugui had killed Qiu Guiyu, while Qu Yi had killed Wu Zhuangyi. Wu Yuan fought against Gongye Qing, who simply surrendered and survived.
“Alright, let’s prepare for the second round,” Qu Yi said with a calm smile.
Jing from the Divine King Sect, who was acting as the referee, couldn’t hide his joy upon seeing the results of the first round. This sight angered the cultivators from the Eight Realms.
Jing paid no attention to it. Smiling, he stood up and declared, “The first round is over. The second round can begin now.”
With that, Jing flew off the circular platform, which now resembled a disc a hundred meters in size, containing over eight thousand cards.
In a short time, all eight thousand people on the combat platform drew a card. By its color, they determined their opponents for the next round.
“Qu Yi! Qu Yi! Qu Yi!”
At that moment, Sang Yunyi, who had ranked fourth the day before, shouted excitedly, holding up his card, whose color matched Qu Yi’s. It was clear that Sang Yunyi would be paired with Qu Yi in the next round.
“Hmph, my luck isn’t bad either. I got Wu Yuan.”
“Hmph, I got Qing Wugui. I can avenge my brother Qiu Guiyu.”
Almost simultaneously, Yan Tianyi, ranked seventh the day before, and Gongye Yi, ranked fifth, both shouted, their faces filled with cold murderous intent as their gazes locked onto Wu Yuan and Qing Wugui.
Wu Yuan stared at Yan Tianyi, while Qing Wugui stared at Gongye Yi, both brimming with fighting spirit and murderous intent.

Qiu Guanyi, Tian Chaoyi, Bai Feiyi, and Jin Ziyi each drew a cultivator from Tianfeng Fort as their opponent, so naturally, all four showed signs of reluctance. As they looked at their opponents for this round, their eyes were filled with hostility, as if they intended to kill those cultivators from Tianfeng Fort right away.
Zong Jing took back the disk and shouted loudly, “The drawing is complete. You can arrange your next battles yourselves.”
As the host, saying such things was irresponsible. Yet, at that moment, Zong Jing’s words were exactly what the cultivators from the Eight Realms wanted to hear, earning bursts of applause.
“Sang Yunyi, hurry to the center of the battle platform!” cries of excitement came from the cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage across the Eight Realms.
Undoubtedly, the eight great royal families had sent their ten strongest Divine Marshal-stage disciples to this stage for one purpose only: to kill Qu Yi. Thus, the only thing of interest on the battle platform now was the fight between Sang Yunyi and Qu Yi.
Hearing the calls, Sang Yunyi’s expression brightened, and he proudly flew to the center of the battle platform, staring straight at Qu Yi with a defiant look.
“Qu Yi, what are you waiting for? Come here!” Sang Yunyi shouted loudly.
Qiu Guanyi, Tian Chaoyi, Bai Feiyi, Gongye Yi, Jin Ziyi, and Yan Tianyi also stared intently at Qu Yi, clearly pressuring him to step onto the platform right away so that Sang Yunyi could use brutal tactics to crush him instantly.
Qu Yi shook his head and said indifferently, “If you want me to come up, I’ll come up. Who do you think you are? Since you like to show off so much, just stand there on the platform. I need to rest for a while.”
With that, Qu Yi sat down on the battle platform in an ungraceful manner.
“Haha…”
Everyone from Tianfeng Fort burst into laughter, clearly approving of Qu Yi’s choice.
Qiu Guanyi, Tian Chaoyi, Bai Feiyi, Sang Yunyi, Gongye Yi, Jin Ziyi, and Yan Tianyi were all shocked, not expecting Qu Yi to be able to sit down so carefreely under everyone’s gaze without being pressured.
“Qu Yi, you coward!”
“Qu Yi, so you’re afraid too? Then let’s keep you alive a little longer.”
“That’s right, Qu Yi, enjoy your moment of pride. Soon, you’ll be completely destroyed.”
The cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage, seeing Qu Yi’s behavior, became furious and started shouting insults and mocking him.
Qu Yi remained unmoved.
Sang Yunyi cursed him as a bastard before leaving the center of the battle platform reluctantly and sitting down at the edge to rest as well.

At this moment, the 8,000 cultivators at the Divine General stage still on the fighting platform in Tianfeng Fort played another rock-paper-scissors game to decide who would stay and who would leave the platform, thereby determining the outcome of their battle. Soon, 4,000 cultivators from Tianfeng Fort flew off the platform and returned to their seats. The fighting platform fell silent. Wu Yuan flew to the center of the platform, laughing heartily. He stared straight at Yan Tianyi and said, “Yan Tianyi, when your Yan clan chased me in the outer seas, I killed one of your men. Now, fight me—let’s see if you can avenge them or if I’ll kill another member of your clan.” Hearing this, the cultivators from the Fire Departure Divine Realm sitting on their seats grew furious and glared at Wu Yuan. The two Divine Kings of the Fire Departure Divine Realm, Yan Yi and Yan Que, had blazing eyes. If it weren’t for the fact that they were on a void battlefield, they would have rushed to kill Wu Yuan themselves. Naturally, upon hearing Wu Yuan’s words, Yan Tianyi couldn’t sit idly by. He immediately flew to the center of the platform and met Wu Yuan’s gaze. “Since you’re someone close to Qu Yi, killing you will also bring me joy. So, before killing Qu Yi, I’ll kill you first to make him suffer a bit. That seems like a good idea,” Yan Tianyi said coldly, holding up the top-grade innate spiritual treasure, the Tianyu Soul Platform. Wu Yuan smiled faintly, still waving his proud Nine Heavens Staff. Yan Tianyi’s expression tightened, and he immediately raised the Tianyu Soul Platform, shouting, “Tianyu Soul Platform, Soul Capture—activate!” In an instant, the space around the fighting area froze, and a soul force entered Wu Yuan’s soul space to capture his soul and take control of it, turning Wu Yuan into Yan Tianyi’s soul slave. However, Yan Tianyi was immediately surprised to find that although the soul force of the Tianyu Soul Platform detected four soul orbs— the Soul Gold Orb, Soul Green Orb, Soul Blue Orb, and Soul Red Orb—Wu Yuan’s soul seemed not to be within these orbs, as if it had hidden in some imaginary space. This was the terrifying aspect of Wu Yuan’s cultivation path, the Path of Awakening. Although Wu Yuan had fully grasped the Five Elements laws, only four soul orbs had awakened. Thus, his soul could move among these five orbs, and now it had hidden in the unawakened, invisible Soul Yellow Orb. Since the soul force couldn’t deal with Wu Yuan, he only needed to control his Falling Heart Cone to draw quick circles around him, shattering the space around him. “What!”

“How is that possible!”
At this moment, the cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage of the Eight Realms were once again shocked. They all stood up, staring at Wu Yuan on the combat platform.
Earlier, Qu Yi and Qing Wugui had already demonstrated their ability to resist attacks from top-tier innate spiritual treasures. Now, Wu Yuan also showed the same ability, which greatly surprised all the cultivators of the Eight Realms.
As the most powerful magical treasures in the divine realm, top-tier innate spiritual treasures could either attack through space or target the soul. Now, Wu Yuan possessed a mid-tier innate spiritual treasure that could shatter space, yet his soul remained unaffected, allowing him to boldly confront Yan Tianyi.
“How can you be unaffected by the Tianyu Soul Platform?” Yan Tianyi was shocked and stopped activating the attacks of the Tianyu Soul Platform. He asked in confusion.
At that moment, a cold smile appeared on Wu Yuan’s lips.
The Luoxin Cone flew through space as if leaping, appearing right in front of Yan Tianyi with a fierce attack.
“It’s useless. I have the Tianyu Soul Platform, which can freeze space. It would be naive of you to think you can attack me,” Yan Tianyi said coldly, as if he had been prepared.
Sure enough, the Tianyu Soul Platform was activated again, and space in front of Yan Tianyi froze.
“I didn’t expect the Luoxin Cone to kill you on the spot, but…” Wu Yuan sneered coldly again.
Suddenly, the Luoxin Cone, pressed against the frozen space, exploded!
As a mid-tier innate spiritual treasure, once it exploded, the entire space collapsed instantly. All the chaotic energy surged out like a dragon from the abyss, instantly devouring the energy in the space where Yan Tianyi was.
“No…”
Yan Tianyi cried out once before being swallowed by the chaotic energy, disappearing into the spatial chaos.
Originally, Yan Tianyi could have used the Tianyu Soul Platform to resist the explosive force of the Luoxin Cone. But by freezing space with it, he didn’t have time to activate the platform to defend against the chaotic energy when the cone exploded.
Wu Yuan had just over 100 million spiritual entities in his body. If it came to a battle of divine essence, Wu Yuan certainly couldn’t afford to expend too much. So, when he went to the combat platform, he had already planned to let the Luoxin Cone explode. If it didn’t kill Yan Tianyi, he would simply admit defeat.
Unexpectedly, with this sudden attack, Wu Yuan managed to kill Yan Tianyi outright.
“Haha…” Wu Yuan laughed triumphantly. Under the astonished gazes of everyone, he flew straight to Qu Yi’s side, looking proud.
Qu Yi stood up, patted Wu Yuan on the shoulder, and said with a smile, “You know how to fight using your mind now. That’s progress. I like it.”

Even when love has no home, admiration remains.