The first stage of the martial arts tournament began, and the participants immediately ran toward the portal.
Bai Yunsheng, meanwhile, walked leisurely behind everyone else.
As soon as he entered the portal, a bright haze enveloped him. Opening his eyes, he discovered he was in some kind of rocky terrain.
All around him were rocks and some kind of minerals. Below him lay a dense jungle.
Looking up, Bai Yunsheng noticed thick black smoke at the mountaintop and frowned.
"They must have thrown me closer to the volcano... It would be unlucky for someone to be transported directly into the crater!" Bai Yunsheng thought to himself and sighed.
He began to descend toward the jungle and consider his plan of action.
"Most likely, everyone has already started hunting monsters and racking up points... You need over 100 points to pass the first trial and over 200 to reach the top."
"However, the point of the first trial is to reduce the number of those who pass to 100. So I can just wait until everyone kills each other and sneak in among them. Points are only needed for reaching the top anyway, and I don't need to rack them up!"
Approaching the jungle, Bai Yunsheng leisurely wandered through it, admiring the scenery.
His melancholic face reflected calm and peace.
As he passed a strange tree, it suddenly came to life and attacked him.
Bai Yunsheng, ignoring the "tree," jumped back and looked at it.
"The Tree Stick Insect is a large-sized spiritual insect of the stick insect species that camouflages itself as various trees..."
After learning the description of his opponent, Bai Yunsheng hurled three needles at the insect's chest, head, and rear.
As soon as the first needle pierced the insect's rear, it struck its Dao core, thereby sapping its strength.
The second needle, which struck its head, pierced its skull and struck its brain, killing it.
The final needle, which struck its heart, finished off the beast.
"Humans, demons, and spiritual beasts each have two cultivation cores. Although they have different names, their mechanics are identical."
"Demons and spirit beasts have a Body Core like humans, but instead of a Dao Core, demons have a 'Demon Core' or 'Dark Yin Energy Core,' while spirit beasts have a 'Soul Core.' Essentially, the 'Demon Core' and 'Soul Core' are exactly like the 'Dao Core' of humans, the difference being that they not only increase their longevity but also their strength."
"Only human cultivators have an empty core, which requires Dao worms* to become stronger!"
After examining the corpse of the wood stick insect, Bai Yunsheng found a blue crystal and, applying it to his tablet, gained 10 points.
"The stronger the spirit beast, the more points it gives, and even though I said I wouldn't collect them and would just wait for the others to kill each other, it would be better for me to accumulate at least a few points..."
With these thoughts, Bai Yunsheng continued on.
For the next few hours, he lazily wandered through the jungle as if he were at home.
He picked fruit from the trees and ate it when he was hungry, drank water from the river, knowing it might be dirty and poisoned, and simply walked and admired the view, enjoying the sounds of nature around him.
Even when Bai Yongsheng heard a strange crunching sound, he didn't show it and continued walking, ignoring the surveillance.
"Apparently, the hunt for the others has already begun, and some have even formed alliances to score points together!" Bai Yongsheng concluded and lay down under a tree.
While his pursuers thought he was being too carefree, Bai Yongsheng himself, unnoticed, set a couple of traps and hid poisoned needles in his hands.
When, an hour after Bai Yongsheng closed his eyes, his pursuers thought he had fallen asleep, they brazenly emerged from their hiding place and approached him.
After taking a few steps, they attempted to strike Bai Yongsheng, but suddenly heard a scream.
Turning around, one of their comrades had fallen into Bai Yongsheng's trap. His leg was tied and he was dangling from a tree.
In their attempts to help their comrade, they completely forgot about Bai Yongsheng, who wasted no time in escaping, hiding among the trees.
Only when their pursuers remembered Bai Yongsheng had vanished without a trace, and they began to scream angrily and curse each other's inattention.
***
A few more hours passed at this pace.
Bai Yongsheng strolled lazily through the forest, killing the spirit beasts that attacked him, thereby gaining points and escaping from the other participants who tried to attack him.
Right now, he had 47 points, and it was already evening. It wasn't much, but considering scoring points wasn't his goal, he wasn't complaining.
After a while, he came across a temple and looked around.
"The empty ruins of a mountain god temple... Just like in a novel. So, it's just an ordinary building with no interesting treasures. A perfectly ordinary, dilapidated building... The perfect place to hide until the end of the trial!" Bai Yunsheng chuckled and entered the temple.
Entering the temple, he noticed the unremarkable surroundings and, sighing, lay down by the window and closed his eyes.
As he prepared to fall asleep, he heard the sound of approaching footsteps and glanced irritably out the window, where he saw a group of people in black robes.
"Exactly, how could I forget! In the novel, Yan Pantu will cause a ruckus in the tournament!" Bai Yunsheng thought to himself with a heavy sigh.
"If I remember correctly, he sent 50 of his men undercover and instructed them all to eliminate as many participants as possible..." He frowned, eavesdropping on their conversation.
"Are you sure there's someone here?" asked the deep voice of the man walking in front.
"Judging by his build, he's most likely a man, and apparently the leader..." Bai Yunsheng analyzed in his mind, counting approximately 41 people.
"Aye, sir! My instincts have never failed me!" a confident young voice rang out.
"Then split up and search this temple! If you find anything suspicious, get rid of it!" the leader ordered them, and the unknown men began to approach the temple. "Hmm... I don't stand a chance in a direct confrontation, and I don't think they'll let me slip away so easily..." Bai Yunsheng thought to himself, plotting the optimal strategy against them.
When the six men in black robes entered the temple, they noticed nothing and began to inspect everything.
Bai Yunsheng, who was somehow standing on the ceiling, took aim at the one in the back.
As soon as five of them entered one of the rooms, he immediately jumped from the ceiling and, landing on the last one, struck him in the sleep spot.
The man lost consciousness and fell to the floor with a crash, causing a commotion and his comrades to rush over.
"What's wrong with him? Is he under attack?" a female voice rang out.
"Everyone get ready! There's someone here!" another woman said loudly and drew her saber.
The others also drew their weapons.
Bai Yunsheng, standing behind them, threw several needles, hitting two men in the back of the head. Only two women and a young man, again judging by his build, remained. There were 35 more people outside.
The three immediately reacted to the sound of bodies falling and turned to see Bai Yunsheng.
The young man and the woman with the saber immediately attacked him, while another girl began performing hand seals for a hand formation.
"Guys, he's here!" the woman with the saber shouted to her comrades outside.
"Damn, I've attracted their attention!" Bai Yunsheng clucked his tongue and charged.
Dodging a strike from the young man's spear, Bai Yunsheng threw a couple of needles at the woman with the formation and kicked the woman with the saber in the stomach.
The needles hit the hands of the woman with the formation, causing her to scream and stop performing hand seals, causing her formation to disappear. "A person who cultivates formations must constantly nourish them and directly touch them for them to work. Of course, when you're a high-yield formation master, you don't need to touch the formation or perform hand seals, and these formations can draw their energy from the natural energy around them. But considering that the events are only happening at the beginning of the story, the opponents aren't that strong! So dealing with them won't be a problem..." Bai Yunsheng thought as he dodged the enemy attacks.
Leaping slightly and spinning in the air, Bai Yunsheng knocked out the young man with a blow to the jaw and pushed the woman with the saber away. She crashed into one of the columns, hitting her head hard. Bai Yunsheng wasted no time in rushing toward the woman with the formations.
She didn't have time to jump back, and when Bai Yunsheng struck her in the back of the head, she lost consciousness. By that time, the others had already run toward the temple.
"Damn, I can't avoid fighting them after all... Taking hostages won't help here, because they can freely kill their comrades, and they'll resurrect in the real world!" Bai Yunsheng thought to himself irritably.
"Looks like I'll have to use 'that' technique... Damn, how annoying!"
Sighing, Bai Yunsheng assumed a fighting stance.
The other attackers entered the temple and saw their fallen comrades and a man in simple, luxurious attire.
His knees were slightly bent, as if he could barely stand, his back was hunched, and his arms hung by his sides. He looked as if he might collapse at any moment.
"Judging by his appearance, the fight with our guys had really worn him out. If he was this tired fighting six people, then he wouldn't stand a chance against 35!" the "leader" of this group thought to himself.
"Considering your condition, you're no match for us! Surrender, and you'll die less painfully!" Only after looking at his face did the leader recognize the young man.
"That's Bai Yunsheng, the city leader's husband! If we give him a good beating and record it on the Jade Broadcaster, Yan Pantu will pay us handsomely!" the leader thought to himself, grinning under his mask.
"Xiuyin!!!" a male voice shouted in fear, and a short man ran up to the woman with the saber, who lay unconscious, blood pouring from the back of her head.
"You bastard, you'll pay for what you did to Xiuyin!!!" the short man shouted furiously, drawing his sword and running toward Bai Yunsheng.
Bai Yunsheng himself made no attempt to dodge. He didn't react at all.
His weak stance, as if he was ready to fall at any push, and his eyes, which lacked any reaction, made him think that Bai Yunsheng had been greatly weakened by the previous battle.
"Bastard, it's his own fault for what you did to Xiuyin! Now I'll make you regret it!" he thought to himself and swung his sword vertically.
Just before he received the blow, Bai Yongsheng stepped to the side, dodging the blow.
The swordsman, unprepared, struck the ground with his sword, cutting through the wall behind Bai Yongsheng, and his sword got stuck on the floor.
Just as he was about to look at Bai Yongsheng in surprise, he was suddenly struck in the throat.
The swordsman clutched his throat and tried to breathe, but Bai Yongsheng, in turn, grabbed him by the cheeks and snapped his neck. The last thing the swordsman saw were the shocked faces of his comrades.
Everyone froze, unsure how to react. Even Bai Yongsheng himself showed no signs of life.
"What just happened?... It all happened so fast that I didn't even have time to see his neck snapped!" "What's wrong with this guy?!" the leader of the attacking group thought to himself. His comrades were thinking the same thing.
Meanwhile, Bai Yunsheng stared blankly at his hands. His opponents couldn't understand what he was thinking.
"I... killed someone... Did I really do it?" Bai Yunsheng saw blood on his perfectly clean hands.
"Why... If I really did kill someone, then why don't I feel anything?" Bai Yunsheng clenched and unclenched his fists, as if trying to comprehend the truth.
"If this were me from my world, I would have a panic attack over what I'd done, but I feel nothing at all!"
"Come to think of it, everything was strange from the very beginning! Every time I looked in the mirror, I didn't see that annoyingly slick and arrogant face of Bai Yongsheng from my sister's novel, but rather an indifferent, even detached look!
"Could it be that when I entered Bai Yongsheng's body, something malfunctioned and affected my personality!?"
While Bai Yongsheng was pondering this, the opponents managed to recover and took up arms.
"Everyone! Kill him immediately! Whoever brings back his head will receive a generous reward!" their leader shouted and attacked Bai Yongsheng. His men also rushed to the attack.
Three were the first to emerge.
One of them swung his halberd over Bai Yongsheng's head. The second, appearing from the side, attempted to strike Bai Yongsheng's legs with his hammer. And the third appeared behind Bai Yongsheng and swung his sword diagonally, intending to cleave him in two.
Moved With the purest instincts, Bai Yunsheng ducked, dodging the Halberd, and jumped up, taking no damage from the other two.
With one spin, Bai Yunsheng broke their jaws with a powerful kick and sent them flying a considerable distance away. And all the while, he continued to think about the changes within himself.
There were 31 opponents remaining.
Seeing that three weren't enough, the enemies decided to attack en masse, but Bai Yunsheng dodged them all without a single reaction.
All this time, his stance hadn't changed. The same hunched back, hamstrung legs, arms hanging at his sides, and lifeless gaze. It seemed like he was on his last legs, yet somehow he defeated them without giving them a chance to attack.
The battle continued at this pace for half an hour. They attacked, he dodged. The opponents even began attacking all at once, but it still didn't produce any results.
Suddenly, Bai Yunsheng stopped. Following his example, the enemies did the same, awaiting his next move.
Suddenly, Bai Yunsheng shifted his stance. His back straightened, his head bowed slightly, and his arms extended slightly forward, as if he were grasping something.
Those with extensive combat experience could clearly sense that something was wrong, but those without thought he had finally become serious.
So ten of them attacked Bai Yunsheng, while the elders tried to call them back.
As soon as the ten men came within ten steps of each other, Bai Yunsheng stepped forward and hurled over thirty needles imbued with his Dao energy.
Most of the attackers managed to block the attack, but two did not. The needles pierced their eyes, blinding them, and just as they were about to scream in pain, more needles pierced their skulls, penetrating through their mouths and lodged in their bodies. brain.
The Dao energy imbued in these needles dissolved their brains, thereby depriving them of life.
The eight who managed to block the needles were shocked and didn't have time to react before Bai Yunsheng appeared in front of one of them.
With one precise blow, Bai Yunsheng pierced the large man's chest and, grabbing his spine, ripped it out, tearing off the large man's head along with it.
Blood gushed as if from an explosion, and the enormous body fell to the ground with a crash.
"Again..." Bai Yunsheng whispered softly, and, squeezing the spine, he used the skull like a mace and pierced the jaw of the girl standing nearby.
She didn't even have time to feel pain; the last thing she saw was the fist that tore her head to pieces.
"Again..." Bai Yunsheng whispered again, swinging the makeshift mace.
"Braaaat!!!" A cry of despair was heard from an even larger man.
Seeing with his own eyes how his older brother's skull and spine were torn off was too brutal a sight for him.
Enraged, he lunged at Bai Yunsheng, but Bai Yunsheng effortlessly dodged without looking.
With one blow, Bai Yunsheng pierced his chest and literally tore off his rib.
A loud cry of pain and despair echoed throughout the temple and the jungle, frightening away animals, birds, and spirit beasts.
Tired by his screams, Bai Yunsheng plunged his "mace" into his chest, puncturing his lungs and making it difficult for him to breathe, and then drove his own rib into his skull, killing him instantly.
"And again..." Bai Yunsheng said, a little louder.
At that very moment, Bai Yunsheng disappeared and appeared before a woman taller than him, holding sickles in her hands.
Without giving her time to react, he pierced her stomach with both hands and, lifting her above his head, severed her spine in two and tore her apart.
Blood gushed out like a bucket, staining his hair, face, and clothes.
The enemies, witnessing this brutality, began to lose their fighting spirit. Some even dropped their weapons and began to retreat. Pure terror was reflected on everyone's faces, even the leader's, despite their masks.
"And again..." Bai Yunsheng said clearly. His eyes pierced them.
His blood-stained face was devoid of any emotion, but his eyes stared at them like a predator at its prey.
Instinctively, everyone sensed the same thing: He was the hunter—they were his target.
"Again!" Bai Yunsheng said, striking one of the enemies in the ears, disorienting him. With the next blow, he pierced his chest, tearing out his heart and throwing it into the mouth of another after removing his mask.
The third, choking on his still-beating heart, couldn't even cry out. After all, Bai Yunsheng had torn off his arms and stabbed them into the chest of the one whose heart he'd ripped out.
"Again... And again... And again... And again... And again... AND AGAIN!!!" he repeated over and over, continuing to kill them one after another.
"Why...?" Bai Yunsheng suddenly stopped.
His face was hidden by his hair. He stood hunched over, pondering something.
As soon as he looked at them, everyone was utterly horrified.
The face of the monster who had done all this to them was expressionless. His dark, abyssal eyes had turned bloody red. All the blood in his hair and face had disappeared, and a faint smile graced his terrifyingly beautiful face.
"Why do I like this so much?" Bai Yunsheng asked with a cold smile, looking at Yan Pantu's men.
Completely surrendering, the enemies dropped their weapons and began running in all directions, just to get away from this devil.
"Wait! Where are you all going? If we unite, we can defeat him!" the leader shouted loudly, trying to convince his remaining 20 subordinates, but even he was horrified by this sight and wanted to flee from this place too.
Grabbing one of the fleeing men by the hair, Bai Yunsheng grabbed his lower jaw with one hand and his upper jaw with the other.
"Where are you going? Let's play!" Bai Yunsheng said with a happy smile and tore the poor guy into two.
***
The next hour passed in this manner. Bai Yunsheng played garden with Yan Pantu's men and "eliminated" those he caught from the tournament. Each one was worse than the last.
All this time, a smile of pure happiness adorned his face, like a child playing with toys.
Finally, the game of tag ended, and he caught the squad leader, Yan Pantu.
"Stop! STOP!!! PLEASE SPARE MY LIFE, LORD BAI!!! I WILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING ABOUT YAN PANTU'S PLANS AND EVEN LEAD TO YOU FROM HIS MOVES!!!" he pleaded, trying to think of anything to save his life.
Bai Yunsheng stopped and, smiling sweetly, stroked his head.
"What a good boy~"
For a moment, hope appeared in the leader's eyes, but it vanished the moment Bai Yunsheng's face lost that smile and that lifeless look returned.
"I already know what he wants to do..." Bai Yunsheng said coldly, twisting his neck 180 degrees.
At that moment, he heard a rustling sound, and his cold gaze fell on familiar faces.
There, in the distance, the shocked eyes of Zhou Yulong and Fan Zheng stared at him.
Smirking to himself, Bai Yunsheng looked at them with his bone-piercing gaze and said coldly:
"You're here..."
To be continued...