Cultivation Kill

Many vendors weaved in and out of the crowd.

If others notice them, they take out strange foods from their pockets and sell them; if no one notices them, they take the opportunity to steal spirit stones.

A pair of thief's hands reached out towards Shen Zige.

Shen Zige had already taken note; he would wait until the other party's thief got closer before making his move.

"Snapped--"

A man walked over and slapped the thief's hands away.

It was Shi Yuan who was waiting in the square.

"You're a bit late. I've already finished my matches," Shi Yuan said, taking out the Great Yuan Sect's entry token to show Shen Zige.

"It's so fast."

Shen Zige praised.

“It’s not difficult at all,” Shi Yuan said. “I pretend to be evenly matched with my opponent, and win by a narrow margin every time. Then someone will immediately jump out and challenge me.”

"You're so insidious!" Shen Zige said. "I'm not happy that you didn't win the Oscar for Best Actor."

“Shen Zige, you also need to go to the arena and fight three matches,” Shi Yuan said. “Don’t appear too strong. After all, Foundation Establishment Pills are monopolized by famous sects outside, and they are hard to buy even with spirit stones. In the Bamboo Kingdom, the Star Realm Company’s Foundation Establishment Pills require a lot of mission points to exchange for, and they do not accept spirit stones.”

Shen Zige thought to herself that she could establish her foundation without the Foundation Establishment Pill, but she could stock up on such hard-to-buy pills, just in case.

Shen Zige walked towards a less crowded arena. On the arena stood a bald man at the ninth level of the Spirit Condensation Realm. The bald man had just defeated his opponent with a fierce attack, and for a moment no one dared to challenge him. After waiting for a long time without anyone challenging him, most of the audience dispersed.

"The people below are all a bunch of trash. Nobody dares to challenge me?" the bald man taunted the crowd.

There are very few rogue cultivators at the late stage of Spirit Condensation; most are at the early or mid-stages. The few at the late stage don't want to fight, so they can only let the bald man rant on the arena.

"If no one comes, I'll wait for an hour." The bald man sat cross-legged on the arena, closing his eyes to rest.

According to the rules, if someone stands on the ring and no one challenges them for two hours, they are considered to have successfully defended their title.

The remaining spectators scattered in a panic, as other arenas were still occupied with battles, and no one wanted to wait an hour in vain.

Shen Zige walked against the flow of the crowd and arrived at the edge of the arena. He then went to the steps and walked step by step toward the arena.

"Hey, someone's walking onto the ring!"

A sharp-eyed spectator shouted, and everyone who was leaving immediately stopped and looked back.

"Someone actually stepped onto the ring!" someone shouted, emphasizing the word "stepped onto."

The normal way to enter the ring is to jump up, so Shen Zige walking up the steps seems abnormal!

The bald man on the stage sensed Shen Zige's presence and hurriedly opened his eyes and stood up.

"Perfect Spirit Condensation?"

The bald man's eyes were serious. Even if he had a secret technique to accelerate the absorption of spiritual energy and increase the duration of combat, he couldn't guarantee that his opponent wouldn't use such a technique. He hoped that his opponent was someone who only knew how to cultivate in seclusion and wasn't good at fighting, so that he would still have a chance to win.

"Attack! Charge!"

A group of new audience members gathered on stage, all urging Shen Zige on.

As if influenced by the audience, Shen Zige struck a pose as if casting a spell, then shouted "Ice Arrow!" and pointed forward.

The bald man was startled. He didn't expect Shen Zige to cast a spell directly without saying any polite words like "please give me your guidance." He hurriedly summoned a golden shield to block in front of him.

Five seconds later, no spells flew in, and the golden shield disappeared into the air.

Shen Zige's spellcasting failed!

The audience burst into laughter. They rarely saw a cultivator fail to cast a spell in the arena, and they thought it was because Shen Zige was too nervous.

"The guy on the other side is a complete idiot who only knows how to cultivate his skills but rarely actually fights!" the bald man concluded.

His confidence surged, and he used the unique light and shadow clone technique of the Wu Kingdom to summon an image exactly like himself, and then rushed towards Shen Zige along with the image.

Shen Zige scanned the area with his divine sense and immediately knew which was the real body and which was the shadow clone.

This light and shadow clone spell can only confuse cultivators whose spiritual power is the same as or lower than that of the caster.

Shen Zige couldn't reveal his strength too much, otherwise no one would challenge him. So he took out his guiding sword and rushed towards the bald man's illusory clone.

Weapons can be used on the arena, but they cannot be magical weapons or higher.

The bald man smiled, maintaining his distance from the light and shadow clone, intending to strike the moment Shen Zige's attack failed. Moreover, at such close range, no one could avoid his mobile spellcasting sneak attack!

"Bald guy, take this!"

Shen Zige slashed at the bald man's illusory clone with her sword.

At this moment——

The bald man conjured an ice arrow spell, aiming it directly at Shen Zige's back.

"call out!"

The ice arrow traced a silvery-white path through the air.

The bald man wore a victor's smile, believing that even if Shen Zige had spiritual power protecting her, she would be half-dead. Once her strength was reduced, she would be at his mercy!

"Bang—"

Unexpectedly, Shen Zige lost his balance due to the excessive force of his rapier and fell to the ground. The ice arrow flew past him less than two fingers above his head!

The bald man was greatly disappointed. What a coincidence that Shen Zige had managed to dodge his ice arrow!

He took out a long sword from his storage bag and attacked while Shen Zige was on the ground. He was confident in his swordsmanship. Before becoming a cultivator, he was the leader of the martial arts world in southern Wu Kingdom, nicknamed the Overlord Blade.

The longsword traced a mysterious trajectory, transforming into three intersecting blade lights in the air, slashing towards the back of Shen Zige's neck.

Shen Zige rolled to the right, landing just in front of a flash of light, the blade slicing past...

Many spectators covered their eyes in the crowd below the ring, because sometimes the fights were so intense that people would die in the ring.

The blade flashed across Shen Zige's body, but Shen Zige was completely unharmed.

"It turns out that some of the three sword strikes were real, while others were feints. This young man just happened to encounter a feint!" an audience member explained. "He was incredibly lucky!"

"I can't tell the difference between what's real and what's fake," another audience member said. "What's your name? Are you from a martial arts family?"

"My name is Shi Yuan, and I have also studied martial arts."

The bald man thought Shen Zige was lucky and continued to rush forward. Suddenly, he felt a chill in his stomach. Shen Zige's guiding sword, which was standing on the ground, broke through his spiritual energy protection and pierced his stomach!

"What happened? The sword wasn't here just now!" the bald man asked, puzzled.

"When that boy rolled over, he accidentally flung his sword away. Unexpectedly, the sword came to rest right where the bald man was charging forward, and the bald man ran right into it. What bad luck!" many viewers exclaimed.

"This bald man was unlucky. The angle of the sunlight just now overlapped with the sword, making the sword seem like a beam of light, so he didn't notice and was stabbed!" Another clever viewer analyzed why the bald man didn't dodge.

The bald man immediately gathered all his spiritual power to resist the continued penetration of the guiding sword.

"Fire magic!"

Shen Zige stood up and shouted.

The bald man was shocked. He was currently using all his spiritual power to resist the guiding sword, and he had no extra spiritual power to defend against Shen Zige's fire attack. He could only slide to the side to avoid it.

On that side was the edge of the arena, where a golden shield slammed heavily into the bald man's back, sending him flying and knocking him off the stage!

"Oops, mistake! I'm not very good at spells, I called out 'Fire Spell' instead of 'Golden Shield'!" Shen Zige apologized. "I didn't expect my randomly thrown Golden Shield to actually hit someone! Did everyone see that? My spell went astray, but the bald man charged straight at my shield!"

The audience nodded in agreement. If the bald man hadn't dodged randomly, the golden shield would have just passed him by without hitting him or knocking him off the stage.

"I didn't expect to win my first match! Luck!" Shen Zige scratched her head, looking innocent. "Um, is there anyone else in the audience who wants to fight me?"

The bald male cultivator used his spiritual power to stop the bleeding, got up from the ground, and left without saying a word or looking back.

He was so ashamed. He could accept losing, but he didn't want to lose so humiliatingly!