“Who is this Zao Ning you speak of?” the noble standing beside Yu Yan says with a posh voice. Yu Yan ignores the noble boy.

“What are you doing here Zao Ning?” Yu Yan says in a cold and condescending voice. She is still at peak 5th Mortal Realm and as she tries to investigate Zao Ning, the girl can sense nothing.

Zao Ning has been hiding his cultivation for now since he is weak from losing all of his Lightning Ki.

“None of your business.” Zao says with a voice even colder voice than Yu Yan. Yu Yan’s eyebrows furrows and she begins to grit her teeth. Yu Yan can’t understand it, but for some reason the genius of Xi’an feels a lot of hatred when Zao Ning is brought up.

“Since we are in the same sect and I am ranked higher than you, I have a right to know what you are doing.”

“What kind of stupid and backwards way of thinking is that? You can go with your boyfriend and fuck off.” Zao says while pointing at the noble boy at Yu Yan’s side.

“Hey! Take that back or regret it!” The boy yells while giving Zao an intense death stare. Zao laughs at this as the boy looks to be the same age as him.

“He isn’t my boyfriend first of all!” Yu Yan yells loudly and the noble boy beside her goes from staring angrily at Zao to looking depressed and defeated. It clicks in Zao’s head and he realizes.

“Second of all, after the attack on your estate, you should stay in Grand Elder Chi’s estate before you get attacked again! In fact, I would take you back myself!” Yu Yan says with confidence. Yu Yan believes that Zao is on date with the woman he is holding hands with and wishes to ruin the mood.

“Ohhh… How do you plan to do that exactly?” Zao asks with an aura of arrogance radiating from him. Yu Yan laughs and looks at the noble boy beside her.

“Little Brother Ling We, will you please support me while I deal with this nuisance. After that, we can come back and talk about what you wanted to talk about.” Yu Yan says to the noble boy beside her. The boy’s name seems to be Ling We and he looks at Zao Ning with pure hatred.

Zao Ning’s appearance ruined the mood for the date Ling We had planned to take Yu Yan on and she even announced that the two weren’t dating. This meant that Ling We probably had no chance to ask Yu Yan to be his companion since she basically denounced that happening in public.

‘You bastard!’ Ling We yells inside of his head when staring at Zao Ning. Zao Ning laughs and then looks to Wei Ning.

“Mother, let me take care of these two and then I’ll find us a way in.” Zao says with utter confidence in his tone. Wei Ning simply smiles at her son’s words and steps to the side, out of the way of the battle.

Everyone that was in line to enter The Crystal Palace has dispersed as battles between disciples isn’t uncommon but for someone to challenge a well known prodigy with such confidence means the fight will be fierce.

As the people begin to disperse, a weird feeling washes over Zao’s body and he nearly begins to sweat.

Looking for the source, Zao’s azure eyes land on the body of Ling We and Zao finally realizes what is going on.

What a strange and… weak bloodline. This boy is trying to use his bloodline to pressure me. Blasphemy!

Zao’s stares Ling We in the eyes and realizes the pressure of his own bloodline. The second the aura of Zao’s bloodline hit Ling We, the boy’s body shakes violently and he falls down to one knee.

Yu Yan looks over to the boy that was trying to court her and a worried expression spreads over her face.

“Little Brother Ling We! What is the matter!” Yu Yan yells. She was confident in being able to defeat Zao Ning since she hasn’t actually seen him fight and still thinks his cultivation is at the 4th Mortal Realm, and also since she has the backup of Ling We.

Ling We is the first born son of a new and extremely powerful noble. Ling We even has a bloodline that can trace back to a monster at the Earth Realm. This is extremely rare for someone in the Mortal Realm.

(If you don’t remember, the Realms go Mortal, Spirit, Earth, Cloud, King, Void, Star, Fiend, Never, and finally Immortal.)

“His bloodline! *vomit intensifies* IT’S SO STRONG! IT’S OVER THE EARTH REALM!” Ling We yells loudly.

“EARTH REALM?!” Yu Yan yells in surprise. Yu Yan’s body begins to sweat lightly since she doesn’t even have confidence fighting someone the same level as herself who has a bloodline at that is at the Earth Realm, let alone above that.

‘At least he isn’t in the same Realm as me.’ Yu Yan says to herself to try and calm her nerves. Ling we was simply at the 4th Mortal Realm so even if he is unable to fight, which Yu Yan hopes isn’t true, Yu Yan can still stand her ground in a fight with Zao Ning.

At least, she thinks she can.

“Well, since you have no signs of leaving me alone, I’ll just have to beat you here instead of the sect tournament. It’s time to duel!” Zao yells at the top of his lungs!

SHUUAAAAA~!

Darkness ki begins to flood into Zao’s body and he becomes ethereal. Yu Yan is startled as she heard that Zao was a Lightning Ki cultivator and dual element cultivator’s were rare under the Spirit Realm.

Zao Ning’s shadow form rushes at Yu Yan and in response, the Water Ki floating around becomes dense. Yu Yan’s body is surrounded by a curtain of rumbling water that threatens to rip anyone into shreds if they dare to tread through it.

Zao’s shadow simply snickers at this and quickly slips through the curtain of Water Ki surrounding Yu Yan. Yu Yan’s heart drops to the bottom of her chest since her main source of defense was ignore just like that.

The curtain is in a circular shape around Yu Yan, with there only being water on the edges of the circle. As for the middle of it, there is no Water Ki at all and is just empty space for Yu Yan to maneuver in.

Now that Zao Ning has passed the initial curtain of water, there is nothing Yu Yan can use to protect herself unless she uses an attack.

Being within the curtain of water, Zao’s shadow form doesn’t hesitate and doesn’t stop its rush straight towards Yu Yan. The girl prodigy panics for a second but quickly calms herself down.

With her somewhat calming herself down, Yu Yan prepares to attack Zao Ning.

Spears made of water appear in the air and point directly at Zao Ning’s shadow. The shadow doesn’t stop down though and actually completely ignores the spears made of water pointing at it.

Yu Yan grits her teeth and sends the several spears at Zao’s shadow, expecting to see a torrent of blood come from the shadow’s body, but Yu Yan realizes her first mistake when the spears simply pass through the shadow’s body.

‘He has an ability to leave his physical form?!’ Yu Yan yells in her head. A headache forms in the girl’s head as people who can get rid of their physical form are guaranteed to be a tough enemy to face. The azure eyes seem to look at Yu Yan in pity for how weak she is and this causes Yu Yan to nearly vomit blood.

“YOU DARE LOOK DOWN ON ME ZAO NING? A 4TH MORTAL REALM?!” Yu Yan yells in madness. The genius of Xi’an has never lost a fight to someone at her Realm or lower and refuses to lose to someone at the 4th Mortal Realm.

A look of realization appears on Zao’s face as he remembers that he never revealed his true cultivation level.

Soon, a blast of profound and thick aura comes from within the shadow, causing Yu Yan’s face to turn a pale white.

“5-5-5-5th Mortal Realm?” Ling We mumbles as he is amazed by Zao Ning’s ability to ignore defenses and attacks alike. Thinking back to how Ling We even thought about taking Zao Ning on, Ling We’s face turns pale white as well. Currently, the pressure Zao Ning is sending onto Ling We is so intense that Ling We can’t even move, all he can do is watch.

This is because Ling We has a bloodline, and Zao can use his much more powerful and profound bloodline to suppress Ling We. It is like using the roar of a tiger to subdue the meow of a kitten.

Since Yu Yan doesn’t have a bloodline, Zao can’t quite use the power of a beast to subdue her. Human’s blood when untainted is hard to subdue, but it doesn’t give them any other powers other than that.

If one’s human blood is tainted by the blood of another beast or race, that human can take the former powers of that being. Some of those powers can change the human’s destiny. This means bloodline’s have extreme advantages and serious disadvantages.

Enough exposition now, back to the horribly one sided battle.

Yu Yan is stunned by the fact that Zao Ning has reached the 5th Mortal Realm yet looks so young.

One must remember that Yu Yan is 14, yet looks like she is 20. That must mean that Zao is extremely young since he looks like a 12 year old even though he is at the 5th Mortal Realm.

“You’re a monster!” Yu Yan yells as Zao Ning is 10 feet away from her and not slowing down. A smiles flashes from the shadow. The shadow then dissipates completely and the actual Zao Ning emerges from within it.

Sword in hand, Zao gets into stance and gets ready to send a horizontal slash directly at Yu Yan. Yu Yan is too stunned by the profound control Zao has over Ki.

Silver flashes through the air, yet it stops as Zao reaches Yu Yan’s neck.

Sweat rolls down Yu Yan’s face as the cold touch of the sword is rubbing against her neck.

“So, what were you saying?” Zao asks arrogantly. Yu Yan grits her teeth and her face is a dark shade of red from embarrassment. Yu Yan has never lost like this before and losing to whom she thinks is her rival cuts deep on the girl.

Zao shakes his head and retracts his sword.

“Weakling…” Zao says aloud while looking Yu Yan with disdain. Yu Yan’s eyes turn bloodshot at this comment but all she can do is keep her mouth shut. This is so she won’t lose any more face.

“Oh, and by the way. Thanks for the Crystal Pass.” Zao says smugly while throwing a pocket dimension ring back at Yu Yan.

“When did you-?!”

“You have a lot to learn before our next match. Train hard and last more than one move next time.”

Leaving with his reward, a crystal tear that has the words ‘Crystal Pass’ on it, Zao returns to his mother.

“Good job son! You’ve gotten really strong lately!”

“Thank you mother. You’d be surprised though, I’m a lot stronger than this.”

Zao thinks about the fact that he didn’t really even need to use the special ability in his sword or even use his Lightning Ki.

Are people in the Mortal Realm really this weak? Zao thinks to himself while showing the doorkeeper the crystal tear and gaining access to the most famous restaurant in Xi’an. Yu Yan has already stormed away with Ling We in tow.

She had lost the fight in one hit and even lost one of her most expensive items. Sure, Ling We had a Crystal Pass as well but by now, neither of them were in the mood for eating. Both want to train to be able to catch up to Zao Ning.