Chapter 93: Something About the Challenge Tournament Felt Wrong No Matter How You Looked at It

Duan Fei’s sorcery truly did give Xiao Kaitian a slight surprise. It was called sorcery, but in truth it was the use of four-dimensional power.

Take fire control, for example: in essence, it was the use of one facet of four-dimensional power, time, to transcend ordinary perception of time. In an instant, moisture in the air was broken down into hydrogen and oxygen, then set ablaze. With another infusion of four-dimensional power, time itself was compressed, causing the flame’s temperature to soar several times beyond that of an ordinary fire.

The same was true of the thunder-striking art, which used four-dimensional power to create positive and negative electric fields and generate lightning for attack.

But such tricks posed no real threat to Xiao Kaitian. For one thing, their strength was not far apart; for another, Xiao Kaitian could instantly peel away the four-dimensional power within the technique and absorb it. Once deprived of that support, the sorcery naturally failed.

That was precisely why Duan Fei was so shocked. With his understanding of dimensions, he could never have done such a thing.

In his eyes, only martial cultivators at the level of heavenly masters could easily withstand sorcery, but even they could not dissolve it outright the way Xiao Kaitian did.

And the key point was this: he had dissolved it, not broken it.

After Xiao Kaitian absorbed the faint four-dimensional power and let it flow through his body and converge with his divine origin, the ripple of power pushed his combat strength to 307. He broke through another major realm, and three more points of light lit up on his divine origin.

By the standards of this world’s martial-cultivation hierarchy, he had now reached the early earth realm. His connection to the divine origin had thickened to the width of a thread, and altogether six points of divine-origin light had been kindled. It could be said that this was the greatest gain from the tournament challenge.

“My turn,” Xiao Kaitian said, flexing his hand with a series of sharp cracks.

Duan Fei’s expression changed drastically in the distance. Hastily, he waved both hands. “Wait, I—”

But how could Xiao Kaitian wait? He had already taken two attacks; was he supposed to let it end there? In a flash, he closed in, entering Duan Fei’s defensive range.

“Divine Origin, go!”

With a sweep of his right palm, Xiao Kaitian finally sensed that, at this level, the divine origin could be released. The instant he struck, Duan Fei’s whole body seemed to suffer a tremendous impact, shooting backward like a cannonball and slamming with a thunderous crash into the wall behind the arena.

In the span of only a few seconds from start to finish, once Xiao Kaitian slapped Duan Fei flying, the entire public arena fell silent.

The only sound that remained was Xiao Kaitian’s own muttered complaint: “Tch, it’s been a while, and I got the force wrong. Sorry, I didn’t control it properly. I only meant to knock you down.”

Unfortunately, Duan Fei, deeply embedded in the wall, was vomiting blood, his tendons, veins, and bones all shattered. He could no longer hear the apology.

The staff of the seaside martial arts institute, along with Xue Rong, who had come to watch, all stood frozen, swallowing hard.

Something about this challenge match felt completely wrong, especially the staff member who had been in charge for the second time. He was almost crying; how was he supposed to write the match report?

Xiao Kaitian, however, did not care. His gaze swept over Xue Rong, then he brushed the dust from his clothes. “Does your martial institution offer compensation? This outfit cost me over a hundred thousand. Two challenge matches, and you’ve wasted two sets of clothes on me. Doesn’t the institute have anything to say?”

The staff member looked embarrassed beyond measure. Who told you to wear such expensive clothes to a match? Hadn’t you seen that your opponent wore battle-friendly attire? But he did not dare say a word, and could only force a smile.

Since everything was over, Xiao Kaitian had no intention of lingering. He waved a hand, and Guo Lei hurried over, still pale with the lingering fear of surviving calamity, yet in her heart her admiration for Xiao Kaitian had risen to an even higher level.

Watching Xiao Kaitian and Guo Lei stroll off with great swagger, Xue Rong’s eyes immediately turned cold. This Xiao Kaitian had hidden himself so deeply; he had actually been a martial cultivator with no small amount of strength.

Had he known this earlier, he should have used other methods. Among martial cultivators, conflict was far more brutal than in things like corporate challenge matches, which were little more than exhibition bouts.

But whatever the case, he had failed again. There would be no easy explanation to Xiao Zhenglv. The Du family still had no movement. And that old fox Tang Jian of the Tang family had long ago attached himself to Xiao Kaitian. Had he known all along how formidable Xiao Kaitian really was?

Realizing this, a trace of inexplicable panic rose in his heart. Xiao Kaitian was far harder to deal with than he had imagined.

“President Xue, what should we do next?” one of his subordinates asked carefully. Anyone could see that Xue Rong was in a foul mood. “This is the second expert from the Dark Mountain Mystic Arts Sect to fall.”

“Why be afraid? It’s only one sect. This is the territory of the martial powers of the Qinling Mountains,” Xue Rong replied with forced confidence. He could not afford to reveal his incompetence before his men. “Find someone and tell the Mystic Arts Sect the truth. I don’t believe they’ll let this go.”

“Understood!” the subordinate answered. “As for this time’s result—”

“I’ll explain it to the Xiao family myself,” Xue Rong said with a sigh.

This excuse would need careful thought. To keep making things up would only backfire.

When Xiao Zhenglv received the news, it was already past eight in the evening. He was lying on the sofa on the top floor of the Xiao Group building, which he had turned into his private residence. From the bathroom came the rushing sound of running water; inside was a rising young actress he had recently been pursuing with great effort.

When he hung up the phone, his face was so dark it seemed ink might drip from it.

He had calculated every possibility, yet never imagined that Xiao Kaitian would actually be a martial cultivator. The news overturned everything he thought he knew. Clutching the bathrobe in his hand, he felt only hatred toward his elder brother, Xiao Zhengxin.

“So in the end, you really did keep something in reserve,” he murmured. “Or was there some other change?”

When the intelligence from the island country first came in, his instinct had been that Xiao Kaitian, that fool, had simply been lucky enough to obtain help from the Hagiwara family and a certain hall, allowing him to return smoothly to the country.

But looking back now, the matter seemed far from simple. If Xiao Kaitian was a martial cultivator, then everything that had happened before would have to be reconsidered.

Still, from the Xiao Kaitian he knew, the man had indeed been a fool. The only explanation was that something “unexpected” had happened in the island country.

He had more or less seen what made this world so “peculiar.” Xiao Kaitian’s sudden change could be explained that way as well.

What he cared about was not that, but how to strangle the grown Xiao Kaitian before he could fully emerge.

The conflict between the Bian family and Xiao Kaitian was already irreconcilable. He had also heard that a collateral branch descendant of the Su family had fallen at Xiao Kaitian’s hands. The power of those two families could be brought together.

But as for the attitude of the martial world, he still did not know. It seemed he would have to probe its depths.

The bathroom door clicked open. Xiao Zhenglv smiled and set down his cigar, putting on a charming expression. “Darling!”