Yu Hao rushed back to the Li Clan Estate. Aside from being the butler to the Clan Head, he’s also the second-most powerful person in the clan; tied with the First Elder Li Shen.

So, when the boy pointed out that the lack of Elders on the Murong Clan’s side, he instantly chose to dash back home for fear of their attack. Not all disciples had left for the stadium neither did all the servants.

They had no need to. Some of them knew the outcome, others had no interest in this stuff or maybe for some other reason, they didn’t go.

Yu Hao obviously knew what the Murong Clan did to Li Chyou; sufficed to say he wasn’t happy about it. If he hadn’t known what they were like before, this gave him a harsh wake-up call.

Nearing his 40s, yet he still underestimated the Murong Clan’s ruthlessness. If the boy hadn’t pointed this out, the Li Clan might’ve just suffered irreparable losses today.

“Haah~” he sighed. In his late 40s yet a nine-year-old boy does a better job than him. He increased his speed.

Suddenly, he heard something piercing the air behind him. Instinctively, he dodged to the left.

A knife landed where he was running. The knife was buried all the way to base in the soil and the hilt had left a small crack on the ground.

“Yu Hao, where are you going?” a voice that sounded like gravel getting sanded rang out.

“If it isn’t Sixth Elder Murong!” Yu Hao politely greeted.

“Well, I’m flattered that you know me,” he bowed in an exaggerated manner.

“Of course, that distinct voice of yours is very recognizable!” Yu Hao complimented him. He even enunciated the word ‘distinct’.

But for some reason, the Sixth Elder Murong Shu did not think so. It was as if Yu Hao’s were…insulting.

“Yu Hao, your balls seem to have grown,” Murong Shu spoke with narrowed eyes.

“Haha!” Yu Hao laughed heartily. However, the next moment, his jovial face was gone and he stared at the other party with a threatening glare, “Not as much as the Murong Clan’s since you had the gall to drug our Eldest Young Miss![1]”

“It’s her fault for getting drugged,” he said indifferently.

“If that’s the case-” Yu Hao put power in his legs, “-then it’s your own fault for dying!” He pounced at Murong Shu in a flash. In his hands were Kunais(Ichachas)[2].

Murong Shu got his saber out from his space ring and hurriedly pulled it up to block. With the sound of metal scraping against one another, the two came in contact. As the defending party, Murong Shu took 3 steps back.

“You and your fucking rope darts!” he grumbled.

“Don’t worry-” Yu Hao let the kunai in his hands go which then dangled from the chains bound around his forearms, “-I’ll kill you quickly.”

“Come on then!” with a roar Murong Shu advanced once again as did Yu Hao. Murong Shu raised his saber; the Qi from his body poured out and congregated into his saber.

“『Descending Magma Chop』” he shouted out and brought his saber right down Yu Hao’s head.

Yu Hao stopped his forward momentum and sidestepped. Meanwhile, the saber came down and impacted the ground. There was a long cut on the brick path. Most of the civilians had already gone to the arena and those that hadn’t had already evacuated during this brief exchange.

Murong Shu quickly snapped his head towards Yu Hao who had a throwing knife in his head. The former quickly raised his saber to guard when he saw the latter cock back to throw the knife at him. But in the next moment, Yu Hao abruptly turned around and threw the knife in the complete opposite direction with full force.

The knife made a whistling sound as it pierced through the air. “Motherfucker!” Murong Shu screamed in frustration. Of course, he understood what Yu Hao had just done.

Now, that the Elders guarding the Li Clan Estate will be alerted, trying to attack them would be suicide. It took Murong Shu less than half a second to process all this. He instantly got a flare from his space ring and proceeded to aim it upwards.

But how could Yu Hao let him do that? With a kick, he launched one of his rope darts at him.

Murong Shu in a panic rolled to the side. As he raised his saber, Yu Hao’s fist suddenly struck the blunt of his saber.

“Hey, why so aggressive?” Murong Shu teased, showing no signs of being flustered. He backed off and created some distance in between them.

“Less talk, more fight!” Yu Hao spoke concisely and pulled his kunai up to his hands. Yu Hao’s Qi spurned and the surrounding seemed to get colder.

“Can’t let you do that!” Murong Shu charged at him with his saber.

“Hey, now!” Yu Hao spoke and with every breath, came out white mist. Frost started to form on his kunai. “The fight’s just beginning, y’know?”

“This won’t be good,” Murong Shu sighed helplessly. Yu Hao threw a rope dart at him with great speed. Murong Shu knew he couldn’t let any part of it graze his body so he chose to block it with his saber.

The rope dart impacted his saber and bounced back with a metallic ring! Murong Shu then sped towards Yu Hao and swiped at him with his saber glowing red.

“『Flowing Magma Slash』”, with a shout, his burning saber came into contact with Yu Hao’s now frosted kunai. Yu Hao had to use both of his kunai to block the heavy saber. It was now a contest of strength.

Murong Shu pressed Yu Hao with his saber, their Qi opposing one another. The former looked up at the latter’s face wanting to see his despairing face. But all he could see was Yu Hao smiling at him.

“You-!” Murong Shu looked at him with shock. Alarm bells started to ring in his mind. But before he could back off, Yu Hao spat at his eyes.

“What the fuck, you stupid bastard!” Murong Shu backed off. Of course, he could feel the slimy sensation on his eyes and skin, it disgusted him to no end.

“As expected, it’s only viable on the lowest levels,” Yu Hao shook his head.

Murong Shu wiped his eyes with his sleeves and saw something green in them. He looked at Yu Hao with red in his eyes, “Motherfucker, why are you spitting green?”

“Oh, I guess this works like that as well!” Yu Hao was pleasantly surprised to see Murong Shu angry.

“I’ll kill you!” Murong Shu screamed like crazy and charged at Yu Hao.

“Oh my!” The latter raised his kunai to block when the both of them heard another whistling in the air.

Before Murong Shu could react, an arrow pierced through his brows. His momentum stopped instantly, he could only see the arrow in between his eyes before he dropped to the ground back first.

“Phew!” Yu Hao sighed in relief. He turned around and bowed, “Thanks for the help-” he looked up slightly and smiled, “-Elder Wanyu!”

“Shut it!” Li Wanyu walked towards him with her bow in hand. She looked at him with cold eyes and reprimanded, “What the fuck were you thinking when you tried to fight him?”

“I-” Yu Hao tried to argue but was silenced by her glare.

“You’ve only been in the second stage of the Tendon Transformation realm for 3 months as opposed to him-” she pointed at Murong Shu’s corpse, “-who’s been in that realm for a year now. You really have guts!”

“I was just stalling for time,” Yu Hao said meekly.

“Oh?” she raised her eyebrow, “You needed to use Ice Qi to stall for time?”

“Putting up a convincing act, I suppose?”

“Don’t do things that harm you,” she shook her head. “How’s your body?”

“Don’t worry,” he smiled, “I didn’t use much. It’ll take a week for my meridians to thaw out.”

“Don’t make me an early widow, Hao’er,” Li Wanyu looked at him with pleading eyes.

“Don’t worry, Wanyu,” Yu Hao smiled. “I’ll die someday but not to these Murong bastards!”

“Let’s go!” Li Wanyu beckoned and turned around before walking away. After a few steps, she turned around and hit her head as though she remembered something, “Oh, take his head with us and take this!” She tossed something at him.

“Already done!” Yu Hao said as held Yu Hao’s severed head in one hand and the arrow she used in the other. He kept Murong Shu’s head which had a hole in its head in his Space Ring and grabbed what she tossed. It was the knife he had thrown. He put it back into his Space Ring.

“Do you want this back?” he raised the arrow.

“Nope!” she said dismissively. “Keep it with you!”

“Fine!” he stored the arrow in his space ring and Murong Shu’s space ring on his person.

“I’m done!” he speed-walked to her side.

“Let’s go home,” she linked arms with him and rested her head on his shoulder. They walked arm in arm back to their home.

Meanwhile, back at the arena, the matches between the competitors in the eight groups had ended.

Li Chyou had ended up being the first in her group, which really didn’t surprise the boy. The distribution of contestants in the groups was very balanced despite it being random with Wang Meimei being in Group-1, Li Chyou being in Group-2, Murong Fang being in Group-5 whilst the remaining groups had no one well known.

Although that was the case, Group-4 actually had a black horse in it. Shi Jian, a commoner was first in the group. He’s called a dark horse because despite being in the 4th stage of Blood Condensation, he managed to win against an opponent in the 5th stage of the same realm.

Though the Li Clan did not feel as that threatened against this commoner, the boy thought that Shi Jian looked a bit relaxed in all his matches. Even against an opponent on a higher stage than him, he didn’t look pressured.

As he pondered about these things, Wu Yu came back to the arena to continue his work as emcee, “Ladies and Gentlemen, you have just had the pleasure of viewing the blood-boiling fights between these young talents of our Huangye Town[3]! Now that the winners have been decided from among the eight groups, they will fight each other in a tournament-style!”

He spoke with so much enthusiasm that the boy could swear that sparkles were coming out of his eyes, “Now, we invite Big Sis Cheng Hua to both explain the rules and draw lots for us!”

The same disciple of the Jade Lotus Sect came onto the arena with a big smile, infatuating most of the males once more.

Damn, the Jade Lotus Sect really has a knack for fan service! The boy cursed in his heart.

Cheng Hua spoke in a way that captivated the audience and explained the rules before drawing lots. Contestants will fight in a one-on-one match and the winner will move up to fight the winner of another bracket. The first set of matches is called the Quarter-Finals, the second set is the Semi-Finals and the last fight is the Finals. Whoever wins the Finals is the overall winner of the tournament. Then there are fights among the losers for the position of runner-up and third place.

As Cheng Hua drew the lots, the match-ups were revealed. It was an interesting one, to say the least.

Liu Li vs. Wang Meimei

Ah Bao vs. Long Sha

Li Chyou vs. Murong Fang

Shi Jian vs. Li Jian

The boy sucked in a cold breath of air. This was like having the final showdown in the first episode. He looked up at where the Elders from the three sects were seated.

The three from the Seven Aquamarine Lotus Sect consisted of three old men with white hair and white beards. From afar, they looked like triplets. The three from the Smoke Lotus Sect consisted of an old man with balding hair and a goatee, an elderly woman with grey hair mixed with black and wrinkles left by time on her age, and a middle-aged man with a pencil mustache and narrow eyes.

The three from the Jade Lotus Sect…actually what the hell? The boy looked on with wide eyes. All of them were beauties of different types. The cute type, the ice-cold type, and the mature type; this was the only way the boy could describe them without going into the details or sighing heavily. They did have some wrinkles but he was sure if he were to tell them that, he’d be granted a swift death.

Once again as he was pondering all this, he heard Wu Yu’s coming from the stage, “The one-on-one matches are now underway!” He looked at where the competitors were, “May the contestants for the first match please come up to the stage?!”

As soon as spoke, a tanned boy with black hair and almond eyes jumped up to the stage! This was Liu Li, a small-time merchant’s boy. He had light armor on his body and a mace in his hand.

On the other side, Wang Meimei lazily walked up on the stage. Her fiery-red hair which was tied up in a ponytail flowed in the wind. Over her cyan dress, she wore magenta armor. She attracted everyone’s attention. How beautiful! Everyone’s eyes lit up. The Wang clan started cheering loudly as though someone had set a fire under their asses.

Liu Li cupped his fists, “I have long since heard of your beauty, Miss Wang!”

“Thank you,” Wang Meimei said politely, “but I can’t say the same for you.”

He looked at her dumbly before speaking matter-of-factly, “Well, that’s because I’m not a girl!”

Wang Meimei looked at Liu Li in silence for a while before nodding her head and saying, “You indeed don’t look like a girl.”

Just what is this conversation? Wu Yu felt speechless, so much so, that he forgot to do his job.

Cheng Hua who was beside him elbowed him in the ribs. “Oi, the fuck are you sitting there for? Do your job!”

“Right, right,” Wu Yu shook his head. He spoke again to the audience, “The contestants are ready!”

He looked at each of them once before raising his arm. “Fight!” he yelled and lowered his arm which marked the start of their fight!