Her serene blue eyes blinked, taking a long time to recover.
The figure of the smiling youth on the center of the stage, waving to the audience, grew brighter in An Lingran’s gaze.
She had never seen such a sunny and handsome young man.
Her chest felt a little itchy, and she wanted to walk up, give her Junior Brother’s face a good pinch, and then comfort him with praise.
Beyond that, the thing that shocked An Lingran the most was that He Qiu had effortlessly secured his first victory!
This strongly contradicted her expectations.
When He Qiu faced Wang Mang, who was at Spirit Realm Second Level, An Lingran vaguely thought He Qiu could win the match, but she believed the two would have to go through a long, drawn-out struggle before He Qiu could barely win by willpower…
Yet reality was that He Qiu won easily, without even bothering to bring a sword.
So now An Lingran was rather confused.
She felt the scene before her wasn’t real, because when she had sparred with her Junior Brother a few days ago, she had clearly sensed that He Qiu’s Sword Qi was very weak and light, nothing like the relaxed confidence he showed today.
Could it be that in just two days’ time, he had made such a breakthrough?
That was impossible, unless He Qiu had truly comprehended at least three-tenths of the essence of the Fine Snow Sword Manual to temper his body’s speed to this extent.
And He Qiu only had a Wasted Spirit Vein, so obviously this assumption was absurd…
Alternatively, perhaps the good-for-nothing had always been an act put on by her Junior Brother?
Was he deliberately hiding some kind of real strength?
‘Hmm, the latter hypothesis is more credible.’
After thinking it over, An Lingran temporarily made that judgment.
Although she didn’t understand why He Qiu would hide his strength, the fact was that He Qiu had completely overpowered Wang Mang at Spirit Realm Second Level.
He was at least at Spirit Realm Second Level himself, possibly higher.
On the other side, Nangong Qiongxiao’s violet eyes widened slightly as she stared at He Qiu in the center of the arena, unable to snap out of it for a long time.
Wasted Spirit Vein? Connection hire? Those rumors now seemed utterly ironic.
Thinking of this, Nangong Qiongxiao couldn’t help but develop a strong interest in this Junior Disciple named He Qiu.
After all, the Primordial Saintess had been showing him such special care these past few days—it must be because of this.
This He Qiu had great secrets on him! And those secrets were enough to make An Lingran actively humble herself and get close to him, even to the point of performing a sword dance in public for her Junior Brother…
Who knew what scheming Elder An Daosheng, the mastermind behind everything, was plotting recently?
The more she thought about it, the more intrigued she became.
Nangong Qiongxiao’s beautiful eyes faintly glimmered, her gaze on He Qiu growing even more intense.
“The second match is about to begin!”
—
As the crowd in the audience was still reeling from the shock, the referee had already announced the next round.
“Second match: Inner Gate He Qiu, Spirit Realm First Level, Sword Cultivator, Void Spirit Vein… versus Outer Gate Zhou Hang, Spirit Realm Fourth Level, Sword Cultivator, Thunder Spirit Meridian!”
This time, Zhou Hang’s name appeared.
Under everyone’s watchful gaze, a stern-faced young master stepped onto the stage step by step.
A black-green sword hung at his waist.
He walked imposingly, with a confident smile, as glorious as if he were accepting an award.
“He Qiu, we meet again!”
Standing opposite He Qiu, Zhou Hang revealed a fierce look, his eyes filled with murderous intent.
Every time he recalled the ambush in the small grove yesterday, Zhou Hang’s anger rose uncontrollably.
The reason he hadn’t taken revenge privately was that he had been looking forward to today’s Martial Arts Tournament.
Though he didn’t know how He Qiu had hidden his strength to defeat Wang Mang, that didn’t affect Zhou Hang’s desire for revenge.
After all, in his eyes, Wang Mang was nothing but trash.
Trash defeating trash—what did that have to do with Zhou Hang at Spirit Realm Fourth Level?
Today, he, Zhou Hang, was going to defeat Inner Gate Junior Disciple He Qiu fair and square! Then he would step on He Qiu’s face, leaving a line of footprints belonging to Zhou Hang, making the latter utterly humiliated on this stage, kneel down and apologize, and cry for mercy!
Thinking of this, the corners of Zhou Hang’s mouth curled up unnaturally.
He couldn’t wait to use lightning to torment the white-robed youth before him.
“Uh, why are you laughing like a villain right off the bat… Have we met before?”
He Qiu looked at Zhou Hang, who was secretly laughing to himself, with a disgusted expression, as if looking at a crazy person.
’Besides, we don’t even know each other. Why is Zhou Hang saying ‘we meet again’?’
“Playing dumb, huh? You little brat! At death’s door, and you start pretending to be crazy, right?”
Zhou Hang let out a disdainful snort.
He was already convinced that He Qiu was a smiling, black-bellied, despicable fellow.
So in this situation, it didn’t surprise him at all that the latter would play dumb and deny everything.
After all, who would foolishly admit to an ambush to their face? Unless He Qiu was arrogant enough to confront Zhou Hang head-on.
“No matter what, you’re dead today, kid!”
“Honestly, you look just like a villain when you smile…”
“Keep it up, keep playing dumb. I’ll make you kneel and beg for mercy in no time! Just wait for this young master!”
“There it is again, the classic villain line…”
“You—are you insulting me again?”
“Ah, the classic scene of a villain getting furious…”
“Goddammit! You little punk is asking for a beating!”
Unable to stand He Qiu’s innocent, fair face any longer, Zhou Hang drew his lightning sword and charged forward to strike.
He had truly never seen such a shameless person!
Ambushing someone with dirty tricks and then denying it afterward—fine, but now before the fight, he was dishing out insults about Zhou Hang’s appearance?
Although He Qiu hadn’t used a single curse word or shown any obvious malice, to Zhou Hang, every move he made was infuriating and maddening.
He felt that face of He Qiu’s was simply too contemptible!
’Nobody stop me—today I have to tear that pretty face of his apart!’