Chapter 82

Chapter 82: Who Says Alchemists Can’t Fight?

Du Fan Zhi still hadn’t reached half-step Essence Condensation. Even with the Dharma Mirror, he could only force his way up to rank 42 before losing to the cultivator at rank 39, locking in his final result for the Fortune-Seizing Battle.

It wasn’t as dazzling as the year Huo Zi Xun claimed exactly thirtieth, but Li Shu was still pleased.

Jiang Yun, seated at rank 19, rested his sword by his side. Once people realized he was a sword cultivator, they hesitated to challenge him. Only a woman cultivator wielding a long silk ribbon stood and called for a match. After more than a hundred exchanges, she still fell to Jiang Yun’s blade.

She came from a minor great sect and was the strongest among her sect’s ten Foundation Establishment disciples this year, ranked 25. Though she lost, she smiled freely and said, “I’d always heard sword cultivators were the best at suppressing an opponent. Only after trading blows myself did I understand the difference. At least my curiosity is finally satisfied.”

Her sect favored spell cultivation, so sword cultivators were rare within it—if they existed at all, they were low-level or newly initiated. This was the first time her sect had made the Hundred Sects Assembly roster. As the senior sister, she naturally attended, and this was her first time ever fighting a Foundation Establishment sword cultivator at the Sword Radiance realm. Now she understood the reputation wasn’t exaggerated. Sword cultivators truly ruled their peers.

Jiang Yun saw her composure and returned a respectful salute. For a sect attending the grand event for the first time to seize such a high rank in the Fortune-Seizing Battle spoke to her talent.

After that, Jiang Yun fought three more matches. In the end, he swept aside a powerful half-step Essence Condensation expert and rose to rank 13—only one place below Liu Xuan.

Sword cultivators were that terrifying. A half-step Essence Condensation sword cultivator from Feng Hai Tower, also at the Sword Radiance realm, finally halted Jiang Yun’s climb.

Once Jiang Yun’s position was settled, Ling Zhen’s attention shifted to Liu Xuan—and this time the looks held more worry than pride.

Even though Dan Cheng Gate attended the Assembly, its disciples traditionally did not participate in combat at all. When the ranking elders first placed Liu Xuan, they intended to keep her below Jiang Yun. After all, she was a dan cultivator; her fighting strength was supposedly limited. She had performed brilliantly during the three trials, but in later matches she might not withstand even minor-sect disciples. Only because a Dan Cheng Gate elder argued fiercely—insisting that a late Foundation Establishment cultivator who had earned the title of Yellow-grade second-rank alchemist was an undeniable genius—did they finally place her at rank 12.

Everyone present knew Liu Xuan’s identity. Many eyed her like a stepping stone: an easy win that would lift their own rank.

The instant the judging disciple’s voice rang out like a bell, someone called, “Rank 21, Chang Hui Gate Qiao Ping Shan, challenges rank 12!”

Plenty of cultivators had been waiting to challenge Liu Xuan, but Qiao Ping Shan snatched the first chance. A few people scowled in regret—yet they weren’t too disappointed. If Qiao Ping Shan won, the two would swap ranks, and the cultivators behind him could still keep challenging Liu Xuan afterward.

Liu Xuan rose, smiling politely. “Ling Zhen Sect Liu Xuan accepts.”

She drifted down, landing in the arena as lightly as a leaf. Sleeves gathered, she stood there like an immortal consort from legend—yet her eyes were cool, nothing like the warmth on her face.

Zhao Chun knew this senior sister well enough to see it at once.

Liu Xuan was angry.

Anyone treated as a mere foothold would be furious. If anything, Liu Xuan was restraining herself.

Zhao Chun’s gaze flickered—and in that moment, she noticed someone else: Qi Yun Rong, seated among the Essence Condensation ranks. Her long hair was tied up and fastened with a jade crown, giving her a bold, martial air. A heavy ruler rested beside her, and even from this distance Zhao Chun could feel the violent aura it carried.

When Zhao Chun had first met Qi Yun Rong, Meng Han had said she was barely twenty. How much time had even passed since then? And now she had already stepped into Essence Condensation.

Qi Yun Rong might truly be able to stand beside Song Yi Kun and Xue Jun.

But what mattered now was the match in front of her. Zhao Chun forced her attention back to the arena.

Chang Hui Gate resembled Dan Cheng Gate in one key way: its disciples devoted themselves fanatically to a single path. Dan Cheng Gate pursued pills; Chang Hui Gate pursued talismans.

But Chang Hui Gate’s talismans weren’t limited to paper slips or carved plaques. They refined the rune patterns and engraved them into objects, extending talisman effects into tools themselves—from bowls and lamps used in daily life to massive constructions like palaces and flying ships.

Qi Yun Rong was the lone anomaly, obsessed with martial combat. She engraved offensive rune patterns into her heavy ruler and turned talisman craft into brutal battle strength, using runes to walk a martial path.

Qiao Ping Shan, however, was far more conventional. That didn’t make him weak. Anyone who could climb to rank 21 through talisman craft alone was no ordinary disciple.

“Please,” Qiao Ping Shan said, already convinced of victory. He struck first, flinging several small pellets while trying to needle her with words.

Zhao Chun recognized them instantly. Flameburst pellets—like the ones she’d seen at the Hong family.

The crude imitations Yue Zuan had made after his cultivation collapsed were nothing but toys that spat sparks. These, however, carried real power.

“Bold words for a fight that hasn’t been decided,” Liu Xuan replied, chin lifting slightly.

Her fingers flashed. Between them were yellow pills, each about the size of a knuckle—much larger than ordinary medicinal pills. For a moment, no one could guess their use.

Then Liu Xuan flicked one forward. It struck a flameburst pellet with perfect precision.

Boom.

Fire blossomed between them.

“The strange-pill path… that person…” The Dan Cheng Gate elder’s face changed repeatedly. In the end, under the questioning looks of nearby Essence Condensation cultivators, he swallowed the words and fell silent.

Qiao Ping Shan’s flameburst pellets were deadly against late Foundation Establishment cultivators; even half-step Essence Condensation experts would be injured under repeated explosions. Talisman cultivators, like alchemists, relied on external objects rather than the strength of their bodies. True dual-cultivators of spell arts and talismans typically treated spell arts as the core and talismans as support—they were not pure talisman practitioners.

Qiao Ping Shan had practiced talismans since childhood. Having his opener blocked by an alchemist was a first.

“How is that possible?!” he shouted.

Liu Xuan didn’t give him room to breathe. More pills flew from her fingers in rapid succession, detonating around him until he staggered in smoke and chaos.

With his talisman tools proving useless and no offensive spell arts to fall back on, Qiao Ping Shan could only grit his teeth and concede.

The judging disciple blinked, momentarily dumbfounded, before finally announcing, “Ling Zhen Sect Liu Xuan wins!”

The spectators had never seen an alchemist fight with such explosive ferocity. One after another, eyes turned toward Liu Xuan as she returned to her lotus seat.

On Dan Cheng Gate’s side, several disciples frowned, studying the scene with a troubled sense of familiarity.