“Yes, Wending Peak and the Martial Arena have always been open,” Fu Qing said, then confirmed with the Blue-Clothed Cultivator. “It was like that five years ago. No change now, right?”
The Blue-Clothed Cultivator: “…No change, but to bring in outsiders, you need a token from the main peak.”
Fu Qing pulled out a token and showed it to him.
The Blue-Clothed Cultivator: “…Please proceed.”
.
The Martial Arena buzzed with voices. When Lian Yunzhi and the others arrived, they caught a Mid Soul Transformation cultivator striking another Mid Soul Transformation cultivator off the stage with a single sword strike. Thunderous cheers erupted from the crowd.
“Chief Disciple!!!”
“Eldest Senior Brother Ling Tian—”
Thus, Lian Yunzhi immediately recognized the victorious Soul Transformation cultivator as the one with the Myriad Absorption Spiritual Root.
His gaze locked straight onto him.
Ling Tian seemed to be facing a rotation of challengers; the next opponent had already taken the stage.
This cultivator was at Peak Soul Transformation, just one step from advancing to Void Refining. As soon as he appeared, the Martial Arena shook, the field abruptly expanded several times over, and the barrier’s glow shifted downward, visibly thinning the spiritual energy within.
“The Martial Arena is actually a Magic Artifact,” Fu Qing leaned in to explain. “It interacts with the barrier, adjusting the field’s spiritual qi based on the combatants’ cultivations and suppressing spellcasting to a degree. The new challenger’s cultivation is too high; without suppression, he could easily destroy the entire Wending Peak.”
Lian Yunzhi nodded.
The match had begun by then.
This was a style of combat Lian Yunzhi had never witnessed. They used no Magic Artifacts or talismans, only swords and spells—spells Lian Yunzhi had never even heard of. For a long stretch, the entire Martial Arena was shrouded in light, obscuring everything inside, yet the whole Wending Peak trembled.
When the light finally faded, both combatants soared into the air. Ling Tian’s sword grazed the Peak Soul Transformation cultivator’s neck, trapping him against the barrier above.
The match ended.
The crowd below boiled over, cheers piercing the clouds.
“Ling Tian—”
“Chief Disciple!!!”
Everyone shouted his name. Everyone applauded him.
The victor stood casually atop the high platform, dressed in opulent finery with an extraordinary bearing. Though he wore few accessories, each was a priceless treasure. Even the sword tassel dangling from his Spirit Sword brimmed with spiritual qi thousands of times denser than the Spirit Marrow Condensing Pearl Lian Yunzhi had once obtained.
His gaze swept disdainfully over the crowd below, yet no one caught his eye. Amid the adoration and cheers, his expression remained unmoved—tinged even with boredom.
As if all the halos, all the cheers, all the glory were only natural.
“—Who else dares challenge Eldest Senior Brother Ling Tian?!”
A round-faced young cultivator jumped onto the platform and shouted, grinning at Ling Tian beside him as if declaring no one else would dare.
“—I will.”
A white-robed cultivator leaped onto the platform. The scene fell abruptly silent.
Laughter then exploded through the crowd.
“A mere Early Soul Transformation dares challenge our Chief Disciple?!”
“Look at his robes—dug from a grave? A style from tens of thousands of years ago!”
“And made of mortal satin—”
“Hahahaha!”
Fang Tianxin hurriedly grabbed Fu Qing’s arm in panic. “A Qing, do you think Yunzhi can win? Isn’t he injured? Why did he go up?!”
Fu Qing gripped his hand reassuringly. “It’s fine, it’s fine. The Martial Arena doesn’t allow fatal injuries. The Chief Disciple will stop at the right moment.”
Ling Tian fixed his gaze on Lian Yunzhi and asked, “How old are you now?”
Lian Yunzhi looked up and smiled. “Twenty-eight.”
He felt no guilt at all. Though he had lived over ten thousand years, as a human, he truly was only twenty-eight.
The crowd below fell utterly silent.
The Chief Disciple possessed the rare Myriad Absorption Spiritual Root, a genius among geniuses, yet even he had broken through to Soul Transformation at twenty-nine and was now thirty-four.
Lian Yunzhi drew his sword and pointed it at him. “Everyone calls you a genius, but I find you utterly mediocre. Do you dare spar with me?!”
Arrogant!
Ling Tian flicked his sleeve, sending the round-faced cultivator off the platform. The barrier reactivated, and he said gravely, “Begin.”
.
The Mid Soul Transformation Chief Disciple was indeed extraordinary, but he faced Lian Yunzhi, who had even toppled the immortal artifact Pure Bottle.
The barrier activated, thinning the spiritual qi in the Martial Arena, yet Lian Yunzhi’s body surged with boundless power boiling to break free.
Spells flew, light filled the arena, but every attack was blocked by mysteriously appearing vines.
Mere vines—flames erupted within the barrier, yet the vines shuttled fearlessly through the blaze, piercing his back even more sharply—
The Soul Transformation genius fell in defeat.
The white mist dispersed.
The crowd saw the once lofty Chief Disciple covered in bloodstains, disheveled and filthy, bound and thrown to the ground. A plain, almost laughably ordinary Long Sword rested at his heart.
Lian Yunzhi looked down at him expressionlessly.
So this was Heaven’s favored child with the same Myriad Absorption Spiritual Root but a different fate? This was the peerless genius renowned throughout the Upper Immortal Realm?
“Nothing impressive.”
![Doting on the Pitiful Little Villain [Quick Transmigration]](https://i0.wp.com/dobynovels.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/qk.png?resize=151,215 "Doting on the Pitiful Little Villain [Quick Transmigration]")
