No hope for eternal life

At dawn the next day, all fifty groups of monks had competed, and then it was time for the loser group's fifty-man challenge.

Perhaps because of Mu Changsheng's violent performance during the competition with Qin Xuan, no one chose to challenge Mu Changsheng this time.

At dusk, the challenge came to an end, and what followed was the second round of two-on-two duels to determine the top 25. This round also had five arenas and five groups of competitions were carried out simultaneously.

"The first group: Bai Xuanyu vs. Wang Yuanlong, the second group..."

"Here it comes." Mu Changsheng's eyes lit up. This was exactly the strong duel he had been expecting. Bai Xuanyu and Wang Yuanlong had always performed very well before. Now that the two of them were fighting, it was very likely that all their cards would be revealed. This was a good opportunity to observe the full strength of these two.

Bai Xuanyu and Wang Yuanlong were on the stage when the referee gave the order: "The competition begins."

Wang Yuanlong was the first to attack. His weapons were two swords and he was best at close combat. At this time, his figure moved continuously, obviously trying to get close to Bai Xuanyu.

"Go." Bai Xuanyu waved the folding fan in his hand, and several wind blades formed instantly and attacked Wang Yuanlong. The folding fan in his hand was not only a decoration, but also his weapon. Mu Changsheng had seen this in the previous competition.

Upon seeing this, Wang Yuanlong vigorously swung the two swords in his hands, slashing out several sword auras that entangled with Bai Xuanyu's wind blade, offsetting and dissipating them. This shows that the two of them have similar cultivation bases, and it would be difficult to defeat the opponent with magic alone.

However, Bai Xuanyu on the stage seemed to have not given up, and continued to use the folding fan in his hand to swing out wind blades to attack, and also used his body skills to keep the distance, making it difficult for Wang Yuanlong to get close to him for a while.

In response to this, Wang Yuanlong responded calmly. He kept swinging his sword to dispel the attacking wind blades while constantly closing the distance between him and Bai Xuanyu.

The range of the arena is actually only about a hundred feet in radius, which is not suitable for escaping by physical skills. The reason for designing it this way is also because we don't want the competition in the arena to become a race, which would waste time and make the competition less entertaining.

Therefore, even though Bai Xuanyu had tried his best to dodge, his escape space was still being compressed, and the distance between him and Wang Yuanlong was getting closer and closer.

"It's over." Wang Yuanlong shouted, leaped up, and his double swords were invincible. He cut through all the wind blades that blocked him and slashed straight towards Bai Xuanyu from top to bottom.

Seeing this, Bai Xuanyu did not have any intention of dodging or defending. Instead, he suddenly closed the folding fan in his hand and whispered, "Get up."

In an instant, Wang Yuanlong, who had jumped high up to chop with his sword, was suddenly frozen in the air.

The next moment, Wang Yuanlong, holding two swords, flew backwards as if he was bounced away by something.

What appeared in front of the spectators was a green light shield that covered half of the arena. Wang Yuanlong was in the light shield at the moment, as if trapped in a cage. He was just bounced away because his two swords hit the light shield.

"Is this a formation?" Mu Xun asked Xiang Mu Changsheng uncertainly. The reason for his uncertainty was that in his concept, the arrangement of a formation required the cooperation and combination of various spiritual objects, just like one must first prepare the talisman liquid when refining a talisman. And apart from waving the fan, Bai Xuanyu did not make any extra movements.

"It's the formation." Mu Changsheng nodded with certainty, and then said with amazement: "This is a very clever way to set up a formation. Just like I told you before that high-level talisman masters can draw talismans out of thin air without the help of talisman pens, talisman liquid, talisman paper, etc., high-level formation masters can also set up formations out of thin air."

"He is only in the Foundation Establishment Stage and is no more than 25 years old. Could it be that he has achieved such a high level of attainment in formation?" Mu Xun asked in disbelief.

"It is indeed unlikely. I think it has something to do with the folding fan in his hand. That spiritual weapon is very special, perhaps it was tailor-made for him. With the help of that folding fan, he can form a formation out of thin air. And the wind blades emitted by his continuous waving of the fan should be his way of setting up the formation." Mu Changsheng analyzed carefully.

Mu Changsheng was able to make this judgment because he thought of the Efeng Pen that Yang Wuque lent him. With the help of that Pen, he was able to make talismans with no problems and almost no bottlenecks. Mu Changsheng felt that Bai Xuanyu's folding fan and his Efeng Pen should have similar functions.

"I see." Mu Xun suddenly realized something, and then curled his lips and said: "This really feels like cheating."

The rules of the competition allow for no restrictions on the spiritual weapons that cultivators can use, except for defensive spiritual weapons and spiritual armor. The reason for this is that the magic power of cultivators who have established their foundation is limited, so even if they have high-level attacking spiritual weapons, they cannot activate them. Generally, they can only use third-grade spiritual weapons at most. Any higher grade would be a burden and would not be able to exert their power.

Therefore, in Mu Xun's opinion, Bai Xuanyu's folding fan had taken advantage of a loophole in the competition rules.

"How can there be absolute fairness?" Mu Changsheng shook his head and said, not agreeing with Mu Xun's opinion. He agreed more with County Lord Gao Xuan's opinion and said to Mu Xun: "If it is a real life-and-death fight, it is not surprising to use some despicable and vulgar means. In comparison, our competition rules are already countless times friendlier."

Mu Xun looked at Mu Changsheng strangely, as if he was meeting Mu Changsheng for the first time. He found that Mu Changsheng always had so many truths, but he finally nodded in agreement and said, "Mr. Yang often said that reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles. Perhaps this is the meaning of traveling ten thousand miles."

"That's the truth." Mu Changsheng echoed, while continuing to stare at Bai Xuanyu on the stage.

Back to the point, on the ring, when Wang Yuanlong realized that he was trapped, he began to frantically try his best to break the formation. However, when he finally broke through that layer of formation, he found that there was another layer of formation waiting for him outside of it.

Obviously, Bai Xuanyu was not idle when Wang Yuanlong broke the formation. He had been setting up the formation. Without Wang Yuanlong's interference, he had set up three layers of formations in succession.

"I give up." Wang Yuanlong said bitterly. When competing with a formation cultivator, the most taboo thing is to be trapped by the opponent's formation, because the time consumed in breaking the formation is often enough for the opponent to set up another formation. This cycle will repeat over and over again, with formations layered on top of each other, endlessly, and it will be easy to kill cultivators of the same level.

Wang Yuanlong had already broken the formation at the fastest speed in the first place, so when he saw the second formation, he knew that he had no hope of winning, so he decisively chose to admit defeat and save his strength for the final challenge.

"Bai Xuanyu wins." The referee announced immediately.

"Snap." Bai Xuanyu closed the folding fan again, clasped his fists towards Wang Yuanlong and said: "Thank you for letting me win." He knew that he could win so easily because of his hidden trump card and unexpected moves.

"Your Excellency's formation skills are amazing. I am not as skilled as you." Wang Yuanlong was quite cool and generous and admitted his defeat.

On the high platform, County Lord Gao Xuan was also amazed by Bai Xuanyu's performance. She couldn't help but be overjoyed and said to the county lieutenant beside her: "It seems that there are many good seedlings this year. It depends on whether anyone can make it to the palace examination."

"If they can get good rankings in the palace examination, Your Excellency will definitely be rewarded by the higher-ups." The county lieutenant said with a flattering smile.

"It would be good if one or two can make it to the palace examination. How can we expect any ranking." Gao Xuan shook his head. According to past rules, it would be difficult for one person in ten county examinations to make it to the palace examination. Even from his perspective, those who could make it to the palace examination were all like little monsters. Except for their low realm, everything else was high.

Afterwards, the competitions in the other four arenas also ended one after another, and the next round of five groups of competitions was about to begin.

"The first group: Mu Changsheng vs. Han Tao, the second group: Mu Xun vs. Song Zhilan..."

"Come on." Mu Changsheng encouraged Mu Xun. His luck was pretty good. His opponent Han Tao was not well-known. If nothing unexpected happened, he would be able to defeat him easily. However, Mu Xun's opponent Song Zhi was obviously a dark horse. No one knew what tricks Song Zhi had yet to use.

"You should be careful too." Mu Xun reminded Mu Changsheng.

Afterwards, Mu Changsheng and Mu Xun took the stage respectively.