Whoosh!
Lin Xiao flashed into the battle platform behind him, letting the spiritual form strike the platform barrier. Murong Dian’s attack hit empty air, erupting in rolling shockwaves.
Murong Dian had expected this, which was why he had not immediately unleashed his main spirit, avoiding needless waste.
At once, his body surged forward, flying towards the platform where Lin Xiao stood.
Yet he did not charge straight in. Instead, he circled around it, reaching the front position to strike from there.
Lin Xiao, however, did not move forward. He shot upwards, breaking through the platform barrier, and deployed Sacred Hand Covering the Sky.
A peerless tri-coloured energy hand, vast and surging with devouring, incinerating, and thunderous power, pressed down towards Murong Dian.
Feeling the pressure of that hand, like the grasp of a martial saint, Murong Dian frowned. He directly summoned his book-like main spirit, now almost seventy percent materialised, and slammed it into the oncoming energy hand.
Boom!
A thunderous roar, like lightning from the ninth heaven, echoed out. Oceanic shockwaves exploded, sending heaven-shaking ripples in all directions.
Most of the force and fluctuations instantly surged towards Lin Xiao.
The distance was too close. Lin Xiao, retreating downwards, had only half entered the barrier when the energy flipped him outwards.
Blood spurted uncontrollably from his mouth. His body was hurled into another platform, crashing hard onto its surface.
“Mu Haoran is injured!”
“I told you he had no chance to use explosive pills. This match, Mu Haoran is finally going to lose.”
“As long as Murong Dian denies him the opportunity, he has no way to turn it around, unless he blows himself up too for mutual destruction. And whether he even has any explosive pills left is questionable.”
…
The crowd cried out in shock.
“Too strong,” Lin Xiao muttered from the other platform, unable to hold back his sigh.
Even though his spiritual power had reached the very edge of sixth-grade advanced, just a hair away from seventh-grade initial, giving him strength enough to overwhelm most seventh-grade intermediate controllers, he still could not match a true seventh-grade advanced expert, not even with his spiritual energy techniques.
“It seems I have no choice but to play my final card.” Helpless, Lin Xiao took out five explosive spirit pills and swallowed them all in one go.
These were the five he had refined from six portions of materials long ago. One portion had been ruined, the second nearly so, but he had persevered and succeeded in producing five. Otherwise, they might not have worked at all.
As the pills entered his stomach, spiritual power coursed through his meridians, beginning to refine them. Terrifying medicinal force flowed along those channels and flooded into his mind.
After the ferocious power had circulated fully, spiritual power in Lin Xiao’s mind began to climb rapidly.
In moments, all the violent medicinal force had poured into his mind.
A powerful, inexplicable aura radiated from around his head, filling the surroundings.
Lin Xiao felt a sudden lightness. Endless spiritual power surged forth in his mind. His entire combat strength soared, far beyond anything he had known before.
Clearly, the five explosive spirit pills had forcibly raised his spiritual power to seventh-grade initial realm.
In that instant, Lin Xiao felt as though he had undergone a complete transformation. A mere stir of spiritual power seemed capable of shaking heaven and earth, of sweeping away every opponent.
With a mighty shout, he shot skywards. Spiritual power surged out. A pure spiritual-power palm imprint erupted from his brow, pushing aside the lingering shockwaves and slapping horizontally towards Murong Dian.
“Hm?”
Murong Dian, who had held back rather than pressing the attack and now stood in another part of the void, frowned at the sight of the massive palm imprint bearing down on him.
He had blasted away Mu Haoran’s spiritual energy strike. Logically, without explosive pills, the opponent should have been forced to surrender or slowly fall into defeat.
Yet now the man unleashed an even stronger spiritual form.
This form was far more powerful than the previous tri-attribute spiritual energy attack.
Feeling immense pressure at once, Murong Dian hurriedly summoned his main spirit again.
A huge book-like spiritual form condensed and smashed into the oncoming palm imprint.
Boom!
When the two forces collided, the mighty book-like main spirit shattered, turning into torrential shockwaves that surged outwards. The palm imprint, driving those shockwaves before it, continued straight towards Murong Dian.
Murong Dian reacted with lightning speed, raising a spiritual power defence.
Yet the defence crumbled easily. Great force still struck his body.
He spat blood and was sent flying backwards.
“What?”
“How is this possible? How has Mu Haoran’s spiritual power become so strong?”
“He swallowed pills. His strength exploded. He must have taken explosive spirit pills!”
“What? He actually refined explosive spirit pills too? Pills of that grade are extremely difficult to produce. The formula is rare, the cost enormous, yet he still had this method?”
“Explosive spirit pills can at most push him to seventh-grade initial spiritual power. Yet with seventh-grade initial power alone, without even using spiritual energy, he injured Murong Dian?”
“Does that mean Mu Haoran is going to reach the finals?”
“He injured Murong Dian without spiritual energy. If he uses it, Murong Dian definitely cannot withstand it. This match truly belongs to Mu Haoran.”
“This fellow has far too many hidden cards.”
…
The crowd erupted in repeated exclamations. Those who bore grudges against Lin Xiao looked even darker.
“Hmph. Advancing means nothing. Forcibly raising cultivation with explosive spirit pills will take a heavy toll on him, and the effect will not last long. When he faces Lu Mohanh and the others, his fate will be even worse,” those with enmity towards Lin Xiao thought bitterly.
Murong Dian steadied himself in the void. His injuries were not too severe, and Lin Xiao had not pursued him.
Wiping blood from his mouth, he stared at Lin Xiao in astonishment and asked, “How has your spiritual power become so powerful?”
Others had seen Lin Xiao take the pills, but Murong Dian, on the far side of the shockwaves, had not witnessed it, hence his surprise.
“I took explosive spirit pills,” Lin Xiao answered frankly.
Murong Dian’s expression immediately soured. “If I had known earlier, there would have been no need to fight. I forfeit.”
He turned and flew back towards the No. 1 battle platform.
“I didn’t want to either. It completely wasted five of my explosive spirit pills,” Lin Xiao said, even more helpless.
If he had announced it beforehand, would the man have believed him?
Even if he had declared he would use explosive spirit pills without first showing his strength, Murong Dian would hardly have forfeited before the match began.
Lin Xiao’s heart ached at the loss.
Now at seventh-grade initial spiritual power, his strength was immense. He felt confident enough to fight even Lu Mohanh or Duanmu Gaoming.
Yet he had been forced to use it against Murong Dian.
If Murong Dian were an enemy, killing him in one strike would at least have been satisfying. But he was not.
Using explosive spirit pills here was truly a waste.
This had been his very last trump card, yet he had been compelled to play it.
Murong Dian shook his head helplessly too. He was willing to let the younger man win gracefully, but without fighting at all, he could not have accepted it. Thus, things had to unfold this way.
Some outcomes occur even when everyone knows the result in advance.
“Mu Haoran advances. Now Yan Huashu and Murong Dian compete for fifth place,” the referee announced again.
“I forfeit,” Yan Huashu declared at once.
Fifth place was decided because it carried huge rewards: one chance to refine destructive spiritual energy.
Yet Murong Dian’s strength was far below even Mu Haoran’s energy palm. The gap was obvious.
Fighting Murong Dian again would change nothing. Better to surrender directly.
“Fifth place in the continental spiritual controller grand competition: Murong Dian,” the referee declared immediately.
Then the referee’s gaze turned to Ximen Haoyue.
Every round began with Ximen Haoyue’s words.
The finals could only be hosted by him.
There was usually rest time before the finals. It was now evening, the sky nearing darkness. As expected, the ultimate matches of the competition should have been held tomorrow.
“The sky is not yet fully dark. None of the finalists have suffered any damage. The finals begin at once,” Ximen Haoyue suddenly declared.
