No matter how everyone analyses it, it’s clear that Gu Dong’s elimination is a foregone conclusion.
There’s only one question on everyone’s mind:
Who was behind it?
“Dong’er… Dong’er has been eliminated?”
The head of the Gu family suddenly stood up, his eyes wide with shock as he stared at the centre of the square. His voice had turned sharp.
His previous plans had been so well-laid, his expectations so high. He was certain that Gu Dong had a chance to break into the top ten. He had hoped that Gu Dong would catch the attention of the Eternal Realm experts during the Ten Thousand Flowers Tournament. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Gu family to rise to greatness!
But with Gu Dong’s elimination, all his beautiful visions came crashing down in an instant!
At this moment, he felt dizzy, as if the sky had darkened and the earth had collapsed beneath him.
The rest of the Gu family was equally stunned when they saw Gu Dong and Gu Liuyue being eliminated…
“Quick! Go and bring the two young masters back!” A Gu family elder immediately ordered the disciples.
“Yes, yes, yes!”
Several Gu family disciples responded and hurried towards the centre of the square.
Ahead.
“Gu Dong from the Gu family has been eliminated?” Emperor Xingwu was also surprised when he saw this.
“Father, Gu Dong is supposed to be one of the more outstanding participants. It’s strange that he was eliminated in this round, especially since both Gu Dong and Gu Liuyue were eliminated at the same time,” Prince Wuyi said.
“I don’t know who did it. If it were someone with similar strength to Gu Dong, it wouldn’t be possible. It must have been someone far stronger, perhaps one of the top five on the leaderboard,” Emperor Xingwu said before taking a sip of wine. To him, everything was just a show.
After all, the battles inside the tournament weren’t projected, so no one knew exactly what had happened.
“Father, maybe it was Lin Yun. He’s an old enemy of the Gu family. Others wouldn’t have a reason to target the Gu family in this round,” Princess Jin Yaor said.
“Lin Yun?”
Emperor Xingwu shook his head with a smile. “Impossible. With his own strength, he’s no match for Gu Dong, let alone capable of defeating him.”
If it weren’t for Princess Jin Yaor mentioning Lin Yun’s name again, Emperor Xingwu wouldn’t have paid any attention to him.
“Your Majesty, you and your princess keep mentioning the name ‘Lin Yun.’ Is there something special about him? I took a look at his ranking, and it’s not particularly impressive,” a robed Eternal Realm expert said.
“The lad has some talent, but his own strength is far from being worthy of my attention. At best, he’s top 100 material,” Emperor Xingwu said dismissively.
The Eternal Realm experts nodded in understanding.
Below.
Gu Dong and Gu Liuyue had already been brought back to the Gu family.
“Dong’er, what on earth happened?!” The head of the Gu family almost roared the question, his face already dark with fury.
How could he not be angry? Gu Dong had been eliminated in the preliminary round!
Gu Dong shielded himself from the surroundings and lowered his voice. “Father, it was… Lin Yun.”
After all, this was a disgraceful matter, especially since it was Lin Yun, an old enemy of the Gu family, who had defeated him. Of course, this couldn’t be made public, or it would be extremely humiliating!
When the head of the Gu family heard the name ‘Lin Yun,’ his hands trembled, and the wine cup he was holding fell to the ground with a crash, shattering into pieces. The fine wine spilled everywhere.
“What? It was… him?!” The head of the Gu family’s eyes widened as a storm of emotions raged within him.
In his eyes, after Lin Yun lost the ability to summon his battle pet, his own strength should have been limited to defeating second-level Great Ascension Realm opponents at best. How could he possibly defeat Gu Dong?
Moreover, Lin Yun hadn’t risen to the top of the Ten Thousand Flowers leaderboard, so he wasn’t particularly noticeable.
“Father, this kid… his methods are far beyond our expectations! We… we severely underestimated his own strength!” Gu Dong said through gritted teeth.
The head of the Gu family’s face was now filled with rage, and his fists were clenched so tightly that they made cracking sounds.
His son, Gu Yu, had been killed by Lin Yun. The Mind Tower had been stolen by Lin Yun. And now, in this Ten Thousand Flowers Tournament, Gu Dong had been eliminated by Lin Yun…
How could he not be furious?
“Don’t worry, his days are numbered! His days are numbered!!!” The head of the Gu family’s eyes burned with endless anger, and his hands trembled uncontrollably.
At the Heavenly Sword Sect’s location.
“Gu Dong from the Gu family has been eliminated? That’s quite unexpected. I wonder who did it,” Elder Meigu said with a sigh.
“I also didn’t expect that both of the Gu family’s seeded participants would be eliminated in this round,” the sect master said with a sigh.
Even they couldn’t have imagined that it was Lin Yun who had done it!
The sect master soon turned his attention back to the Ten Thousand Flowers leaderboard.
“Lin Yun’s ranking is still dropping. His points haven’t changed for a while now. I wonder if he’s run into some trouble,” the sect master said, his eyes filled with concern.
…
Inside the barrier space.
After dealing with Gu Dong and the others, Lin Yun flew into the air and transformed into a streak of light, heading towards the spectators in the canyon.
There weren’t many spectators, only about a dozen, and their cultivation levels weren’t particularly high.
These spectators were extremely nervous when they saw Lin Yun approaching, fearing that he might eliminate them as well. They had just witnessed Lin Yun’s formidable strength and knew full well that he had the capability to do so.
When Lin Yun landed in front of them, he spoke with a polite smile.
“Everyone, as a favour to me, Lin Yun, please don’t spread word of the battle that just took place. How about it?”
During the fight with Gu Dong, Lin Yun had used almost all of his techniques except for the ‘Heaven-Shaking Hand,’ including the Saint-level divine sense technique ‘Illusory Art of the Azure Clouds’ and the ‘Divine Power, Tenth Layer.’ These were techniques Lin Yun had originally planned to keep hidden until the later stages of the tournament, to be revealed only at critical moments.
Techniques like the Illusory Art of the Azure Clouds, once used publicly, would lose their effectiveness if opponents with strong divine sense were prepared for them.
During the fight with Gu Dong, the technique had only trapped him for a brief moment. After all, Gu Dong’s divine sense was at the False God level, ninth layer, not far behind Lin Yun’s.
But that brief moment had given Lin Yun the opportunity to strike. If Gu Dong had known about this technique in advance and prepared for it, he could have broken free from the illusion almost instantly, making it much harder for Lin Yun to severely injure him in one move.
Therefore, Lin Yun needed these spectators to keep what they had seen a secret, to prevent his techniques from being exposed. If word got out, future opponents would be prepared, making it much harder for him to use these techniques effectively.
“We agree! We agree!”
Faced with the powerful Lin Yun, the spectators could only nod repeatedly.
They knew that Lin Yun could easily kill them to silence them. With their strength, a single illusion technique from Lin Yun would be enough to render them helpless, leaving them to die within the illusion.
However, Lin Yun didn’t do that.
“Good. Swear on your souls not to spread word of this. After you swear, I’ll give each of you 20,000 spirit crystals as a reward for your silence,” Lin Yun said.
“Yes! Yes!”
The dozen or so people quickly agreed and immediately made their vows.
Once the vows were complete, Lin Yun waved his hand and took out the spirit crystals, giving each person 20,000. For these people, keeping the secret came at no cost, and they even gained spirit crystals for it.
After completing this, Lin Yun left the area and returned to Mo Qing and Zhi Jin.
—
