"This Zhang Kuanglie really knows how to scheme. He wants another middle-level secret technique without paying anything for it."
"How can anyone be this shameless?"
Another cultivator shook his head. "Li Yun will never agree. The terms are obviously unfair. He has the best chance of clearing the Everlasting Pagoda of anyone who’s shown up here in years, so why would he gamble away his future on something this ridiculous?"
Several people nodded. Then Li Yun spoke, and his answer was simple.
"If you want to fight, then let’s fight."
The whole area fell silent. Faced with a challenge that was plainly unfair, Li Yun had actually accepted it.
Several people shook their heads at once.
"He’s still too young. Passing the first floor must have made him overconfident."
"Even suppressed to the same realm, a Dao Resonance Realm expert isn’t someone he can compete with. This fight is going to teach him a painful lesson."
Others sighed. "I thought Li Yun might clear the whole Everlasting Pagoda someday. If he stays this impulsive, maybe I overestimated him."
Nobody believed that Li Yun could win. Whatever Zhang Kuanglie’s character was like, he was still an experienced Dao Resonance Realm expert. His cultivation might be suppressed, but his knowledge was not.
"Excellent!" Zhang Kuanglie laughed. "You really do have guts. Since you’ve accepted, let’s go into the Astral Battle Realm and settle this right now."
The Astral Battle Realm was a special illusory world made for sparring on Chronospace Island. The fighters could shape the terrain freely and decide how large the battlefield would be, and since death there was not permanent, cultivators could fight without holding back.
"Wait," Li Yun said, without moving.
Zhang Kuanglie frowned, and Li Yun looked at him calmly.
"Since this fight involves a wager, we should both swear Soul Oaths before we go in. Otherwise, someone might decide not to keep his side of the deal after losing."
Zhang Kuanglie’s eyebrow twitched. "You..." Then he laughed. "Fine. It’s only a Soul Oath, and I have no reason to refuse. After all, I’m definitely going to win."
He swore the oath at once, and Li Yun followed. The cultivators around them stared at Li Yun with stranger and stranger expressions.
"He actually made Zhang Kuanglie swear an oath."
"Does he really think he can win?"
A few moments later, Li Yun and Zhang Kuanglie entered the Astral Battle Realm. The illusory world was enormous, and at first there was nothing inside it except the two of them.
Zhang Kuanglie laughed. "Brother Li, since you were brave enough to accept my challenge, I’ll give you one advantage. You can choose the battlefield."
The environment could have a big effect on a martial artist. A cultivator who used fire-based techniques could be weakened in an extremely frozen region, while someone who specialized in movement could become much stronger in complicated terrain full of obstacles.
Fighters usually tried to choose terrain that suited them, or at the very least to avoid terrain that worked against them. Handing Li Yun complete control over the environment showed how little respect Zhang Kuanglie had for him.
Li Yun barely thought about it. "There’s no need for anything complicated. An ordinary plain will do."
Zhang Kuanglie’s face darkened at once.
A plain had no special terrain. There were no mountains to hide behind and no narrow passages, so it offered no advantage of any kind. Generally, only someone who believed his strength was overwhelming would willingly choose a battlefield like that. Zhang Kuanglie had meant his offer as a show of superiority, and Li Yun had answered by picking the one terrain that suggested he needed no advantage at all.
"Very well," Zhang Kuanglie said coldly. "Since you’re so determined to lose, I’ll give you what you want. Today, I’ll show you what separates a true Dao Resonance Realm expert from someone like you. Even with my cultivation suppressed, the gap between us is beyond anything you can imagine."
His aura suddenly erupted.
"Gale Lock Prison!"
Violent wind swept across the plain with a boom, and four walls of roaring air quickly formed around Li Yun. Within moments, he was trapped inside a square prison made entirely of compressed wind.
Li Yun raised an eyebrow. The pressure inside the prison was considerable. The wind pressed against every part of his body, and even ordinary movement became difficult.
Zhang Kuanglie smiled. "How does it feel? Are you still feeling confident?" He stepped forward. "My Gale Lock Prison holds my understanding of the Wind Dao. With your shallow strength, how could you possibly break it?"
His smile turned cruel. "Now take another move. Thousand Gale Blades!"
The wind prison changed. The shapeless winds condensed into hundreds of razor-sharp blades, which whistled toward Li Yun all at once. Thin cuts appeared all over his body. A single wound would have meant nothing, but hundreds of them together made him look badly hurt, and blood began to seep through his robes.
Zhang Kuanglie’s smile turned triumphant.
"How pathetic. You talked so confidently that I almost believed you had something worth seeing. It looks like all you know how to do is boast." He raised a hand. "Enough. I have no interest in wasting more time on trash. Lose."
The winds gathered, and a massive blade of compressed air formed above the battlefield and slashed down at Li Yun.
Li Yun looked at the incoming attack. There was no panic in his eyes, only disappointment.
"I didn’t expect it either," he said calmly. "I didn’t think a supposedly powerful Dao Resonance Realm cultivator would be this weak once he suppressed his cultivation."
Zhang Kuanglie’s smile vanished, and Li Yun’s gaze sharpened.
"You’re the one who’s going to lose."
He stepped forward with Horizon Fold Step, and his body vanished. There was no blur and no streak of light. One moment he was standing inside the Gale Lock Prison, and the next he was right in front of Zhang Kuanglie.
"What?"
Zhang Kuanglie’s expression changed violently. He had not seen Li Yun cross the distance at all. Li Yun was simply there.
Then Li Yun used the Void Severing Sword Style. His sword flashed, and a snow-white streak of Sword Qi crossed the space between them.
Zhang Kuanglie’s pupils shrank. Only moments ago, Li Yun had seemed completely helpless, yet the pressure coming from his sword now felt like it belonged to an entirely different person.
The change had come too fast. Zhang Kuanglie had the experience of a high-level expert, but his cultivation was suppressed to the 1st level of Spirit Manifestation Realm, and his body could not keep up with what his mind understood.
The sword light passed with a soft hiss, and Zhang Kuanglie’s head flew into the air. His eyes were still wide open, with shock frozen on his face, as his headless body crashed down onto the plain.
For a moment, silence filled the Astral Battle Realm. Then Zhang Kuanglie’s consciousness was expelled, and his body reappeared outside.

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