The whole crowd was cheering for Wentian, but he did not seem to care much. As far as he was concerned, defeating Kong Jie meant nothing, he was aiming for the top so if there were no miscalculations on his part, he knew that at some point he would either have to fight Cao Bai or Kong Feng. Wentian knew that he was probably not a match for any of the two with his current strength, but his competitive nature and his cultivator’s spirit would never let him step away from a challenge like this.

He was taught by Tianshen that a cultivator’s spirit should be indomitable, that is what separated a great cultivator from a regular one. As a cultivator, you should be able to live your life how you want, with no regrets. You should be able to face any adversity or even death itself if necessary.

Wentian ignored the loud cheers, sat cross-legged in the middle of the stage and closed his eyes to cultivate.

Kong Zhi landed next to his son who was now being treated for his injuries. He looked at his unconscious and now deformed face and frowned. He knew it would be hard to reverse the heavy damage inflicted on his face. Half of it looked scorched and the other half beaten to a pulp.

He pulled out a pill and fed it to Kong Jie hastily, suddenly a pleasant green aura surrounded Kong Jie.

Kong Zhi turned to the healers and said with a grim face ‘’take him to the infirmary, you better do your best to fix him unless you all want to die’’

The healers all gulped from fear, bowed to Kong Zhi, then took Kong Jie away.

Kong Zhi took one last glance at Wentian, then looked at Kong Feng as if he was saying ‘’you know what to do’’. Kong Feng nodded at his father without saying a word, then proceeded to beating everyone on his stage. It was not even a challenge for him, soon only him and one more disciple were left on the stage.

Cao Chen announced the stage one battle to be also over.

On the 10th stage there were only 3 people standing at the moment, the muscular 10th core disciple, Bingyue and another youth who looked to be in a pretty bad shape after all the fighting. He looked at both of his opponents and sighed, he knew he did not stand a chance against either of them.

One was the 10th core disciple and the other girl could release a Qi so cold that could make you freeze to the bone. The disciple just bowed down to both and said ‘’I know I’m not a match for you two, so I concede’’. He then proceeded to jump down from the stage, and this was how the 10th stage battle was concluded.

On the other stages, nothing eventful was happening. The results were according to everyone’s expectations, the core disciples either made quick work of their opponents or just did nothing because nobody was brave enough to attack them.

After one more hour of fighting, slowly there were only twenty people left standing on each stage. At this moment Cao Chen stood up again ‘’we will now move to the next stage of the competition. At this point I would like to let the ones that were not core disciples until now know that you will have a two hour rest and then you will have the right to challenge any core disciple you want to directly enter the top ten if you want. But if you don’t want to then you will have to abandon the competition now and enter the top twenty. An exception to this is Qiu Wentian who already defeated one of the top ten’’ said Cao Chen.

Most of the challengers felt discouraged, but they were still happy for entering top twenty. That would put them in the top ten strongest people of the inner sect.

Tianshen also thought that this was unfair but he knew better than anyone how the world of cultivation worked. Only the strong survive, there is no room for weaklings at the top. Plus the sect still had to give the core disciples some advantages in the competition, this is what it meant to be a core disciple. You gain status and you are treated better compared to others.

Bingyue did not know who to challenge, in her eyes all these core disciples looked intimidating. And her ambitions of entering the top ten were not as big as Wentian’s, not to mention she was still eleven years old so she had plenty of time to prove herself in the future. An eleven year old girl at the 5th Core Formation realm was unheard of in the Azure province.

After two hours of rest, Bingyue made the choice to challenge the muscular 10th core disciple which was the most logical choice to her.

‘’Now is anyone willing to challenge a core disciple and secure their place in the top ten?’’ asked Cao Chen.

Bingyue cupped her fists towards the Chief ‘’I will be challenging the 10th core disciple sect Chief’’.

No one else from the challengers dared to fight any of the core disciples so they all settled to the top twenty.

Cao Chen smiled at her, he expected nothing less from Tianshen’s friends. Which made him even happier because now he knew that his daughter associating with Tianshen would make her progress a lot.

‘’Okay then, everyone else move away from the stages’’ said Cao Chen.

Everyone moved away, then Cao Chen lifted up the dragon-shaped jade pendant again and the ten stages became one again. In the middle of the stage Bingyue was now facing the 10th core disciple.

‘’My name is Tao Wen, little girl you should have settled on top twenty. This is not a playground for kids like you. I may be the 10th ranked core disciple but if you think I’m weak then you underestimated me too much’’ said the muscular guy confidently while staring down at Bingyue, he looked like a giant compared to her.

Bingyue just cupped her fists to him and said ‘’let’s have a fair fight’’.

‘’Let the battle begin!’’ said Cao Chen.

Tao Wen immediately released his soul power and dashed towards Bingyue. It is important to mention that this Tao Wen did not use any kind of weapons. He looked like a brute giant that only used his body as a weapon.

Tao Wen formed his hand into a huge fist and punched towards Bingyue while shouting ‘’Desolation fist!’’.

A fist formed from soul power condensed in front of him and was now moving towards Bingyue.

Bingyue also released some soul power and condensed her ice sword. She then slashed at the incoming fist.

‘’Clang’’ the sword collided with the fist. But just when the crowd thought that the clash would last a bit more, the fist was suddenly cut into two and disappeared into thin air.

‘’Do you still believe that I made the wrong choice in choosing you to battle?’’ said Bingyue while smiling confidently.

Tianshen and Wentian laughed at the same time, they were thinking the same thing. ‘’Since when did this shy girl learn to talk trash?’’

‘’Don’t get too cocky kid, I was just testing your power’’ said Tao Wen.

He then released even more soul power ‘’Iron body!’’

The soul power then surrounded his whole body and formed a visible thick aura around him.

He then charged at Bingyue and soon was a meter away from her. He then punched, she tried to meet the punch with her sword but she underestimated the punch.

With another ‘’clang’’ sound, fist and sword collided, but this time Bingyue was sent flying 10 meters away. She landed on her back but did not receive much damage since she defended correctly with her sword.

‘’Little girl, I don’t like bullying kids, you should surrender while you can’’ said Tao Wen.

He was acting righteous but there was an obvious arrogance to his tone.

Bingyue could feel his arrogance and that made her lose confidence, the Qi and soul power around her was becoming chaotic and unstable. During the time she spent with Tianshen and Wentian, she did not do much fighting but she always learned from watching them. Especially Tianshen, she wanted to be courageous and fearless like him, and someday protect her friends instead of them protecting her.

She really wasn’t all that innocent and shy like people thought she was, with Wentian and Tianshen she was normal and outgoing, many times even trying to tease them, but she had a problem with crowds which made her lose confidence and concentration many times.

She then remembered the same words that Tianshen told to Wentian that day. ‘’A cultivator’s spirit should be indomitable’’.

She may be a young girl barely in her teens and she did go through rough time as an orphan, but as a cultivator, through Tianshen’s words, she realized that she has to put all of those feelings aside. A sudden realization hit her ‘’what does it matter what others think of me or how they look at me? As long as I have those two with me, everything else should not matter. From now on, I will also set high goals like Wentian and do my best in everything, that is the least I can do to repay Tianshen’s kindness to me’’.

She stood up and smiled. Her Qi was now fluctuating even more chaotically than before.

Tao Wen looked at her and laughed loudly ‘’HAHAHA, girl did that one punch made you lose your mind or something? What are you smiling about? You Qi is so chaotic you probably can’t even fight properly like that’’

Tianshen who was watching from the platform smiled ‘’looks like my little Bingyue has grown yet again, this battle is over now’’

At this moment the necklace that Bingyue was wearing on her neck suddenly shattered into pieces and her Qi and soul power both progressed by a realm. She just had a breakthrough in the middle of a battle because of enlightenment. Her Qi then stabilized.

It’s important to mention that simple enlightenment can also lead to cultivation breakthroughs, enlightenment does not necessarily have to be the realization of something deeply profound. Especially at Bingyue’s age, enlightenment can come by the realization and understanding of simple things.

When people felt her cultivation they were astonished. Tao Wen no longer had an arrogant smile on his face, instead it was replaced by a frown.

‘’6th Core Formation realm? Tianshen, how old is this girl again?’’ Asked Cao Chen with a stunned face.

‘’She’s eleven years old Chief’’ said Tianshen with a smile.

When the other elders that were listening heard what Tianshen said they were fully stupefied.

‘’eleven years old and at the 6th Core Formation? This is unheard of in the history of the Azure province, even the sect ancestor reached the 6th Core formation realm at twelve according to the records’’ commented another elder.

‘’Indeed, a peerless genius, I will take her as a personal disciple’’ said another elder

‘’She does not need a master’’ said Tianshen looking at the elder with a serious expression.

‘’Indeed, she has Tianshen to guide her on the way of cultivation, we old fogeys should stick to taking care of the sect and teaching everyone in the best way possible’’ said another elder with a smile.

At this moment Bingyue was looking at Tao Wen with a confident smile.

‘’I should thank you brother Tao Wen, without fighting you, I may have not reached this point. But unfortunately I have to move on in this competition because there are certain people I don’t want to disappoint, so I can’t thank you right now. Maybe I’ll repay you someday’’

She then materialized her Ice Sword again, but this time she used her soul power and condensed it around the sword like Tao Wen did around his body. She was learning while fighting. Since Tao Wen used his soul power to strengthen his body and defeat her sword, she would strengthen her sword.

Tao Wen saw the thick icy aura formed around the sword and frowned, he now knew that that sword could pierce him.

Bingyue released more soul power and ice Qi and the area around her started to rapidly freeze. She did not use any fancy moves or techniques, she just charged at Tao Wen. He knew that the sword could probably pierce him now but he still had his pride so he chose to take it head on with his hands.

‘’IRON BODY!!’’ He shouted while releasing his Qi and Soul power to the maximum.

But just as he was preparing to meet the sword, he heard Bingyue mumble ‘’Divine Ice God stage two, Frost slash’’ suddenly the area within a hundred meter radius around Bingyue froze, the chilling cold made Tao Wen scared, he suddenly felt like he could not breathe as the cold air made him feel a burning sensation every time he took a breath.

Then he felt a sense of impending doom, it was not killing intent, but something told him that if he didn’t dodge, he was about to die. But he could not move as his feet were frozen solid to the ground. The sword was just a second away from piercing him when he shouted ‘’I CONCEADE!!!’’

The sword then stopped millimeters from his throat and all the cold Qi and Soul power disappeared.

‘’There, that wasn’t so hard was it?’’ asked Bingyue while smiling at him in a childish way.

That smile terrified Tao Wen for some reason, the fact that this little girl in front of him looked so innocent now but just seconds ago she was ready to cut his head off made a chill run down his spine.

Cao Bai that was looking from the sidelines frowned, gave Wentian a look and then looked up a Tianshen sitting on the platform. ‘’Is this Devil trying to create a team of monsters or something?’’

Tianshen caught her looking at him and waved at her with a mischievous smirk on his face.

She ‘’hmphed’’ and turned her head away while blushing a bit.

Tianshen really enjoyed teasing this girl.

‘’The battle is over, Xia Bingyue will advance to the top ten’’ Cao Chen announced to the crowd.

People started cheering loudly for Bingyue, she walked off the stage and stood next to Wentian while smiling at him.

Wentian patted her head ‘’at this rate you will soon be stronger than me, I have to cultivate even harder’’ he said in a cheerful way.

‘’Don’t joke around Wentian, my Ice Qi is the complete opposite of you Fire Qi, so I felt the Qi fluctuations when we were cultivating back on the lonely peak, you big liar, you think you can hide things from me just because I’m younger?’’ said Bingyue with pouted lips, she looked very cute when she was getting mad.

Wentian smiled while rubbing the back of his head ‘’guilty, looks like I was found out, that means Tianshen probably knows too’’

‘’Of course, you really think we can hide anything from him?’’ She smiled while they both looked up at Tianshen. He was also looking down at them and smiling in a proud way.

Everything until now was within his calculations, there was just one thing that did not sit right with him. He then turned his look to the 3rd rank core disciple Jin Ju. Tianshen already knew that this guy was hiding something and it was something dangerous, but he could not figure out what for now.