Xu Xiaoshou saw the girl's hands, which she'd been clenching, immediately extend right after she said this, and massive blasts of pitch-black particles came at him.

"What the hell?" he thought.

​​

Xu Xiaoshou's spiritual energy inside burst right away, deflecting the pitch-black particles, and then he realized something.

"Seeds?" he thought. "There's actually someone weird enough to fight using seeds?"

He was puzzled and looked at the seeds spread all over the floor.

"Wait, hold on.

"Innate… wood elemental?"

He turned his attention to Mu Zixi again and seemed to once again recall that towering ancient tree that had shot a huge watermelon to the field.

"Seeds, ancient tree…"

Xu Xiaoshou's pupils contracted as he came to realize something.

"Precisely."

Mu Zixi seemed to know what he was thinking. She narrowed her eyes and grinned before clapping.

"Little trees, get him!"

Go go go!

Tens of ancient trees shot into the air in the blink of an eye and tried to blast him out of the barrier of the arena.

Pfft!

Blood sprayed in midair.

He felt his lower body shiver. The trees were so forceful they almost broke his spine and killed him on the spot.

"Damn, that was unexpected…" he thought.

He groaned in pain in midair. No one would have expected something like that to happen at the very start.

People usually fought using blades of some sort, yet that little girl used seeds instead.

"Innate-level trees. That impact… d*mn, that's terrifying!"

He managed to somehow get in control of his body while still in the air and scrambled to summon the black sword to get away riding the blade.

However, a thick vine unexpectedly shot into the air and wrapped around him before pulling him down hard.

"Sh**!" he cursed right then and there. That was a weakness of fighting up close: one could be caught in their opponent's combos right away.

Before he could even react, he felt his vision go black.

"What is going on?" he thought.

He was completely confused.

…

Xu Xiaoshou didn't realize what was happening due to being caught in the middle of the action, but the spectators well knew what was going on.

As soon as he was sent flying, a massive array beneath him immediately shifted, making space right in the center.

Then, a thick vine immediately emerged out of a tree and dragged him into that ancient tree's array.

"Everything is going as planned," Mu Zixi thought to herself. She clenched her fists, shaking hard.

A booming rumble was heard as the trunks crashed into each other and twisted into a single entity, leaving only the crown swaying elegantly about.

The arena was silent.

The spectators' eyes twitched as they seemed to clearly hear the sound of Xu Xiaoshou's bones snapping.

"Gosh, the girl is really going overboard."

"Oh heavens, she smiles like an angel, but she sure as h*ll doesn't fight with the mercy of one…"

"Tsk, tsk, I never knew you were like this, Sister Mu… umm, no, Demon Mu!"

The ancient trees were crushed and twisted into a single entity, forming a single super tree formed from over a dozen trees mashed together. Everyone felt that Xu Xiaoshou was doomed and had become sustenance for the tree.

"Hehehe."

Mu Zixi seemed to smile even brighter. She found the tree of incredible thickness very cute.

She then turned around and ran, coming to the edge of the barrier.

"What is she doing?" everyone present thought, puzzled. Even Xiao Qixiu's pupils contracted. He sensed that something terrible was about to happen.

"Heh!"

The girl continued flashing that beaming smile of hers as she clapped her hands. Then she shouted in a cute voice, "Explode!"

The arena was silent for a moment.

Booooom!

A massive mushroom cloud rose into the sky.

The tree exploded, immediately leaving a crater behind in the arena. The explosion was so massive that it even sent Xiao Qixiu, who was caught off guard, flying from the shockwave.

He quickly defended his body with spiritual source and steadied himself as he hovered midair.

Hsssss.

Everyone turned to look at the arena again. The middle-aged man and the audience gasped when they saw what had happened.

The tree that had wrapped around Xu Xiaoshou had been reduced to dust after the explosion, shooting everywhere.

However, the dust had quickly taken root after landing, coalescing into massive amounts of seeds before sprouting.

"Oh man… she really is trying hard to kill whoever she's fighting."

"My gosh, does she need to be that violent? Even if Xu Xiaoshou survives this, will he be able to take the next attack?"

Mu Zixi, who had just finished her explosive art in the ring, frowned slightly.

Knowing that her regular attacks wouldn't be able to defeat someone with an Innate-level physique, she'd really brought her best to the fight.

She'd taken it to such a degree that she'd even feared for her own safety when bringing about that last explosion.

Yet she was still able to sense through the seed that she'd secretly planted into him that the man was still alive.

"He's not dead?" she thought.

"Is this Xu Xiaoshou a cockroach or something?"

She was secretly frustrated, as she was able to sense through that very seed she'd planted that the lifeforce in Xu Xiaoshou's body was still brimming.

"Hmm, maybe I could try that trick next."

The mushroom cloud finally dissipated altogether, and it was thanks to her not daring to get close for the time being that he was actually able to recover for quite a bit through Eternal Vitality.

But still, he was all covered in blood and many of his bones were broken.

That explosion was definitely more effective than what Liu Zhen had done back then. It was fortunate that the explosion hadn't taken place from the inside out, as he wouldn't have been able to even stand after that.

"That innate something is really something…"

First there was Zhao Qingteng's icy sword, and now there was Mu Zixi's ancient trees. Xu Xiaoshou really envied such innate elemental powers, as they were just too powerful.

He thought that if he had such powers, he wouldn't have been restricted to fighting up close and personal.

There were only so many ranged attacks one could do, so he refrained from charging at her right away, choosing to stand his ground instead.

Both of them were at a stalemate, and the audience was getting impatient.

"Is that Xu Xiaoshou really an idiot or something? Why isn't he attacking? Is he like waiting for the trees to sprout again?"

On the surface, both indeed looked like they had stopped moving altogether, yet the seeds spread by that explosion had all landed, covering the entire ring.

One could even say that Mu Zixi had all the advantage of terrain she needed at that moment.

Barrier of the Wood Element.

"Eat this, Xu Xiaoshou!"

Mu Zixi was in no mood to wait for long. She clapped her hands again, and the seeds cracked, sending trees shooting upwards.

Go go go!

Ancient trees shot out from the ground in all directions. It was no longer just a dozen or so trees in the ring. One could easily tell with one glance that there were over one hundred trees in the arena.

Worse still, that number was still growing.

The audience didn't dare to look at what was about to happen next. If another explosion happened, Xu Xiaoshou would definitely lose his limbs, even with an Innate-level physique.

He might even lose his head from the explosion.

"Huh?"

"What's that?"

"Xu Xiaoshou took out a scabbard?"

Everyone turned to look at him, feeling curious.

As the trees kept shooting up to the sky, Xu Xiaoshou moved as if he had eyes all over his body. His body flashed as he zipped in and out between the trees, moving as if he were a monkey.

He actually took out a scabbard after landing on a narrow spot on the ground that wasn't covered in seeds.

"Be careful," he said. The girl gave this warning to him each time she attacked him, so he now saw it fit to return the favor.

As soon as he finished saying this, all the seeds on the ground and the trees which had taken form all began to tremble as if they were running out of control.

He closed his eyes, and right then and there he felt as if he'd returned to the day before.

The garden is vast, and where shall the sword will go?

Mu Zixi opened her eyes wide. She was puzzled as to why she was unable to tell where all the sword will around her was coming from.

"From Xu Xiaoshou's sword?" she thought.

"Or the seeds on the ground?

"Or…

"Me?"

Mu Zixi sensed how ridiculous her thoughts had become, yet she was actually able to sense the sword will rising from above her head.

"Am I actually Xu Xiaoshou's sword?"

The girl shook her head, flapping her pigtails about as she dispelled that ridiculous thought from her mind.