“Oftentimes, taking a step back is as necessary as moving forward.”

In the eyes of the elder, every match involving Qai was always filled with surprises.

The truth was, it did not escape their Spiritual Sense that some unknown power intervened so that Qai could free from the illusion technique.

“This disciple Qai seems to have few other secrets still. He’s really deep.”

“But that Zhao Feng was not bad either. Who knew he had a rare eye technique. This generation’s outer disciples seem to be full of crouching tigers and hidden dragons.”

“True, but I still think that Bai Chen will take the first place.”

Bai Chen was the only participant in the great circle of the Qi Condensation stage. And his known abilities were already capable of battling with inner disciples. That was because unexpectedly, upon reaching the great circle, he was already capable of narrowly using Spiritual Sense.

So it was no wonder that many favored him to win it all.

In all of Bai Chen’s matches, he was only using a flying short sword which constantly circled around him to defend any assault. At the same time, he also used the same flying sword to divide it into 10 swords to attack.

Unfortunately, no other opponent was able to make him reveal any other trump card that he may have.

Meanwhile, Ao Xuan also won her match—apparently in a very impressive fashion.

Apparently, the descendants of Ao clan were known to cultivate secret arts making them capable of using lightning techniques and Ao Xuan was no exception.

And during her matches, Ao Xuan had evidently shown her exceptional talent.

Even the elders were impressed by her abilities.

“Three bolts of lightning!? Has she already achieved the mid rank of her technique?”

On the other hand, when Qai finished his match, he immediately went to Ji Wuheng and whispered his intentions in the following matches.

Ji Wuheng, in return, relayed to him Ao Tian’s words and wager.

“Be careful, brother of that Ao Xuan. She will definitely try to waste your cultivation.”

Qai simply nodded and did not feel threatened in any way.

Throughout the battles, he already made some assumptions that no cultivator under Foundation Establishment stage was his match.

There were only 3 disciples left undefeated so they were technically the ones in the position for the top 3 ranks.

And Elder Meng made it clear that the 3 disciples would have to fight twice in order to determine their rankings.

Somehow Qai felt that he had already achieved his intention as a participant in the ranking competition. He had already revealed too much of his abilities and was already satisfied with the results.

“Fellow disciples, I will make one final bet. And that’s the battle between my brother Qai and fairy Xuan.”

Of course, it was Ji Wuheng who made the declaration.

The many disciples who already lost a lot of Spirit Stones had also lost hope of making another gamble. But upon hearing Ji Wuheng’s words they turned their ear to listen.

“Allow me to give you, fellow disciples, a tip that fairy Xuan’s brother, senior Ao Tian had wagered a huge sum in favor of his sister. So what about you guys? Do you dare to make a bet?”

All of sudden, those who lost had the courage to finally get even. So they threw in bets that were enough to gain back their losses.

“Makes sense! There’s no way this scoundrel Qai would get past any of our top 2 disciples. His luck should stop here!”

“Yeah. If senior Ao Tian was confident that fairy Xuan would win, then she must have prepared something that would surprise Qai.”

After a time it took to burn an incense, names of the first match we're finally called—it was between Bai Chen and Ao Xuan.

Surprisingly, it was a much closer match than anyone thought.

It was a brutal but exciting fight. But in the end, Bai Chen just had to use a trump card to finally prevail.

The two were given a time in order to recover their spiritual Qi energy before announcing the following match.

It was between Qai and Bai Chen.

Unfortunately, for some of the spectators, Ji Wuheng was clever enough to stick with the earlier notice of his final bet.

They could only curse how stingy Ji Wuheng was.

That's because they had been had since it appeared that Ji Wuheng deliberately avoided betting against Bai Chen.

And what even made them furious all the more was what happened when Qai went up on the stage.

Right after the official of the match announced for the participants to begin, Qai raised his hand.

“I concede. I admit defeat!”

“What!?”

“What a coward!”

“No wonder Ji Wuheng didn't make a bet. It must be their plan all along.”

Elder Li, who was watching from the platform was surprised. He couldn't help but admire Qai’s actions.

“So you knew when to move forward and when to take a step back.”

Of course, Qai had no idea what the elder had on his thoughts. He just felt satisfied with his current position and did not want to offend more outer disciples than he already did.

Besides, he felt that Bai Chen would feel somewhat indebted to him since he virtually awarded Bai Chen the top place—plus the prizes that came with it.

Bai Chen was a proud individual—but he quite had a good demeanor.

However, Qai’s fight against Ao Xuan was a different matter altogether. There was a grudge he had to settle against the unreasonable and arrogant Ao Tian.

‘Hmmph, let’s see how I defeat your sister. But I should thank you though for sending me free Spirit Stones.’

“Haha, fellow disciple Qai! Although I want to have a match with you, I must thank you for letting me win. Maybe we’ll have our duel some other time. I’ll be rooting for you in the next match.”

Bai Chen’s face was clearly in gratitude as he cupped his hands towards Qai. Thereafter, he stepped off the stage to give way for the next match.

Simultaneously though, Ao Xuan jumped onto the stage and looked so fierce when she landed.

It was as if she was itching to skin Qai alive.

Qai already saw Ao Xuan’s bolts of lightning. At first, he thought that the best strategy was to immediately summoned his Cornelia Sphere Shield to repel the lightning but then he had the crazy idea of testing his body’s strength.

He had long reached the limit of physical training that the knighthood method could offer when he achieved the peak as Gold rank Knight.

It should be noted that the Master rank and beyond were not so much about bodily training.

Thus, if there ever was any way to exceed his current physical strength, he had to find other ways to somehow advance.

And Qai thought that if he could withstand the bolts of lightning, perhaps he could temper his body with them.

So when Ao Xuan stepped on the stage, he did not stand on the defensive. He cupped his hands instead in salute and made a greeting.

There was neither a tone of disrespect nor pride.

“Fellow disciple Ao Xuan, I have seen your lightning abilities. There’s no need to wait for the best chance to cast them, I would like to personally test their mettle.”

“Hihihi, since you so badly want to have a taste of them, then don't blame me if you die.”

Right there and then, Ao Xuan performed a double-handed incantation—and immediately, small-sized dark cloud suddenly formed above Qai.

It twisted like whirlpool before it spewed 3 silver-colored bolts of lightning.

When Qai saw this, he just looked up above and did not anything than open his arms.

The spectators were dumbfounded at Qai’s reaction and could not but slap their face at how stupid he seemed.

‘Hah, if I knew he wanted to die so much, I should have waged more Spirit Stones that much.’

“He’s finished.”

Kgzzzt.

It was the strongest lightning attack Ao Xuan unleashed in the entire tournament. Not even in her battle against Bai Chen did she had the chance to cast such an attack.

Baam. Baam. Baam.

The silver lightning bolts slammed on to Qai in speed almost invisible to the naked eye.