Without any suspense, Quan Zhen was eliminated from the tournament by Gong Xinyue's fiery whip. To make matters even worse, the flames on his body began to increase in intensity, resulting in the youth screaming in a high-pitched manner as he struggled to pat them out with his bare hands. This only caused the flames to spread even further as he screamed, "AAAAAH! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!"
Truth be told, Gong Xinyue was going easy on her opponent but, in order to make sure others had second thoughts about trying to take advantage of her, she needed to set a hard example. Since her opponent should have been able to protect himself with his Qi, at least a little bit, she didn't expect him to behave in such a manner.
It was only after several second that Quan Zhen finally managed to extinguish the flames on his body. This earned him a lot of incredulous looks from the crowd but, as if he didn't see them, he pointed toward Gong Xinyue and shouted, "You devilish woman! You must be some a disguised Demonic Beast! I'll make you-"
Despite there being nearly twenty meters between them, Gong Xinyue's whip seemed to defy logic as it easily extended the full distance to Quan Zhen, striking him across his chest. This sent the youth flying backward once again but, at the same time, a shadow leaped into the arena from the viewing stands, shouting, "You dare attack my brother after the match has already ended!? What a wicked and outrageous display...!"
As the tournament was opened specifically to recruit outsiders, there were a number of people who had gathered to join in the rather festive event. This included aspirants who wanted to join the Sect but, as such events always drew a crowd, a number of Mercenaries and Vagrant Cultivators were also in attendance.
Quan Zhen was an example of someone who had ventured to newly named Devouring Moon City as he had also heard the rumors of the mysterious individual who had run rampant through the city. He, along with many others, wanted to catch sight of this figure as, according to some of the rumors that had spread, she was supposed to be a young woman with unique features.
The most important part of the rumors that had been spread was that this same woman practiced an incredibly powerful Yin Cultivation Technique so, while the chances of obtaining her for yourself were slim, belonging to the same Sect as a powerful female provided various opportunities. After all, when the strongest member of a Sect was female, there were generally more females within the Sect than males. Thus, for many errant Cultivators who wanted to take shortcuts on their path to power, they were very eager to try their hand at courting such a powerful and mysterious beauty...
Though she hadn't exactly dropped her guard, Gong Xinyue was surprised when a member of the crowd suddenly leaped in from her blindspot to attack her. She instinctively twisted her body in a very limber fashion, shouting, "Shameless...!" in a cold voice as her whip quickly darted back like a bolt of flaming lightning toward her new attacker.
While her flaming whip would have been able to deal with most Cultivators of a similar level, it was very apparent that the man sneak attacking her wasn't a standard participant of the tournament. He was able to grab the whip with his bare hands as flames of his own making covered his forearm.
Before Gong Xinyue was able to fully understand what was happening, the man showed a malicious smile on his face as he coldly uttered, "A woman has no place wielding flames. I'll be taking this...!"
With considerable ease, the man yanked the whip and, like a lure used for fishing, Gong Xinyue was pulled off her feet due to her habit of tightly holding onto her weapon. At the same time, the man made a three-pronged claw with his right hand as he attempted to strike toward her chest with an obviously lethal amount of force.
(Fenrir's Commentary: '....')