For a brief moment, Xuan dreamt of pizza.

And by the time he opened his eyes, everyone had already moved him aside, making him realize that he was actually knocked out just now.

Letting out a groan, Xuan tried to stand up, only to realize his feet were crushed, taking ages to regenerate. What just happened? He remembered thunder falling from the sky, but wasn’t it natural? That kind of thunder shouldn’t even do damage to him.

"What happened?" he finally muttered.

Yuelan rolled her eyes. "Heck if I know. You suddenly passed out and your legs exploded."

"He was hit with an attack from the sky," Sierra said. "It seemed to be an invisible attack, and if I had to guess, it must be because of the man he offended."

Xuan scoffed. "I offended? I didn’t do shit. It was Yuelan."

"Do you think anyone would even dare to attack this beauty?" Yuelan pointed at herself, then shook her head. "In case you were having any foul thoughts, the answer is no. No one would even dare to lay their hands on me."

Right...

Well, whatever it was, Xuan knew that he had pissed off someone strong enough to cause a lot of pain for him, even if it couldn’t kill him. But if someone like that was around, why couldn’t Xuan feel it?

Was it because his Elemental Qi only had Poison Qi focused into it?

There were a lot of thoughts on his mind, but too few answers. But he now knew that he had someone targeting his ass. For that reason, Xuan most definitely needed to step up his game if he wanted to survive moving forward.

Though... He did think it was bullshit that he was the one who got attacked, and not Yuelan.

"The Sun Sect and the Thunder Sect are very tightly knit allies. Both of them are in this tournament, and if I had to guess, the Thunder Sect’s elder saw what you did and struck you down," Hanbi chimed in.

Everyone turned toward her, allowing her to explain further.

"The Sun Sect is a sect that values sportsmanship and fair grounds. The Thunder Sect, on the other hand, is chaotic. They do whatever is in their best interest. But when it comes to honoring the terms of their allies, they do so without hesitation."

"Ah? So because I robbed that idiot, the thunder boys attacked Xuan? Pfft..." Yuelan held back a laugh. "How silly."

"Doesn’t seem silly over here," Xuan said, and before anyone could say another word, he went ahead and severed his legs, realizing that if he let them heal naturally, they would never actually heal due to the type of Qi that was in that thunder.

And of course, that was the right decision as his legs began to heal at a rapid pace. Before long, he stood up and glanced around, noticing he was now in a different part of the forest, several kilometers away from where they were earlier.

"So how do I find this guy who attacked me? Is he in the tournament?" Xuan asked.

Hanbi shook her head. "Elders can’t participate. He’s most likely watching from above."

The sky?

Xuan glanced up, but couldn’t see anyone. He turned to Sierra, and noticing his gaze, she shook her head too. Clearly, she had no idea where they were either. But she was also the only one who managed to see the attack aside from him.

How strange...

"Let’s lay low for a while. Actually, we can just go back to the center. We have enough jade slips to pass, and..." Hanbi trailed off, glancing at Xuan’s waist.

She could’ve sworn she had let him hold onto all of those jade slips, so where were they now?

Could it be...?

"Shit..."

Yuelan noticed that too, and spat on the ground in anger. "I knew we should’ve just stored those inside some kind of storage."

Hanbi rubbed her temples. "We can’t... These jade slips are imbued with Qi, and whenever they go into a storage, their light dies down. It’s to prevent anyone from bringing in any jade slips from the outside to cheat."

Smart.

But annoying.

"It’s a problem though. Nearly two hours had passed since he was knocked out, and if I had to guess, all of the jade slips were found already. Are we going to be knocked out in the first round?" Hanbi mumbled, biting her fingers out of anxiousness.

But just then, Sierra coughed and took out a jade slip from the back of her robes, the same jade slip she had found earlier and didn’t expect she’d need to actually use.

"I have this. It should be enough, right?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

Hanbi let out a sigh of relief. "You’re unpredictable. I knew I liked something about you, other than the fact that you can’t ogle Xuan."

Hm?

"I don’t need my sight to ogle him," she replied.

Before this could erupt into some kind of pervert showdown, Yuelan abruptly took the jade slip and stored it around her waist. Then, she cast several dozen Qi barriers around her, most of which were meant to just redirect Qi and all sorts of other energies.

She expected it to be enough for whatever kind of attack would be cast on them.

But unbeknownst to her, the attacker was someone at the Spirit King Realm. A realm higher than Spirit Lord, and a realm which was like a leap from one mountain to another when it came to power.

It would take 100 Spirit Lords to take down even one Spirit King. It was that type of overpowered being they were dealing with, and the four of them would find out when they finally got back.

But until then, they naively chatted for a bit, and once a loud drum resounded through the area, a voice soon followed:

"The tournament is over! Those who have jade slips, please return to the center! Those who didn’t get any, get out of here!"