Clap, clap, clap!
Thunderous applause came from the spectator seats. Without a doubt, this battle had been extremely exciting and full of twists and turns!
They'd thought that Xu Xiaoshou wouldn't be able to last against the continuous barrage of punches from Liu Zhen's Great Darkness Calamity Fist. They didn't expect him to counter that technique with just one finger and turn the tide of the battle.
They'd thought that Xu Xiaoshou wouldn't be able to turn the situation around after being severely injured by Great Darkness Calamity Fist. However, he'd unexpectedly taken advantage of his injury to seize the initiative and blur Liu Zhen's vision with his blood.
More importantly, the two of them had circled in the air at high speeds. Not only had Xui Xiaoshou's spin made Liu Zhen doubt for his life, but the technique he used in the end had allowed him to maneuver around Liu Zhen and slam him into the ground, showing the full extent of his powerful brawling skills.
Xu Xiaoshou, who had initiated this insane battle, had stated that he would've been done in if he didn't have Strengthen.
The dark energy of the Great Darkness Calamity Fist was terrifying. Even though he had managed to turn defeat into victory, he had now lost all ability to battle.
The judge ran over. "Do you need to rest?"
"Yes." Xu Xiaoshou nodded.
The judge took a deep breath, then pointed at Liu Zhen, who was being crushed under Xu Xiaoshou's weight. "He needs to rest too."
Liu Zhen had already fainted. He didn't know if Liu Zhen had fainted because of his fall or because of his anger.
Xu Xiaoshou awkwardly stood up, finally releasing the candidate Liu Zhen. Attendants immediately rushed forward to carry Liu Zhen away.
"Aren't you going to go into the barrier to recover?" the judge asked.
Xu Xiaoshou stole a glance at the applauding crowd. "What a joke," he thought. "How could I possibly go into the barrier?"
He shook his head and turned his attention inward.
"Got encouraged. Passive Points +242."
"Got praised. Passive Points +366."
His notification panel constantly updated. Within half an hour, his Passive Points had surpassed what he'd earned during his past two battles.
Xu Xiaoshou couldn't help but glance at the lower section of the interface.
"Passive Points: 7225."
Tsk tsk!
Not counting the few points that Di Xin'er had given him, just Liu Zhen alone had given him more than 2000 Passive Points.
He had earned the rest of the points from the insane crowd during the time between his battles.
This number was still constantly rising.
Xu Xiaoshou no longer paid attention to his Passive Points. Instead, he started examining his body.
He had been severely injured from the explosion of dark energy. It could be said that he did what he did after the explosion using sheer willpower alone.
The tension left his body, and with it the ability to move. It felt painful to even lift his fingers.
However, there was still another round left in the preliminaries!
Xu Xiaoshou clenched his teeth and sat down on the Chuyun Platform with his back facing the crowd.
He took out a pill bottle. Inside was the tenth-grade recovery spiritual pill that Elder Qiao had given him after the group-stage battle—the Red Gold Pill.
"I'll go all out!" he thought.
Xu Xiaoshou seemed as though he were prepared to die. He picked up a Red Gold Pill but didn't dare to take a big whiff of it. Instead, he took a gentle whiff.
In that instant, he felt as though he'd been struck by lightning. His eyes rolled back into his head and he started to tremble violently.
"Uhhhh…"
Everyone in the spectator seats was watching Xu Xiaoshou. At that moment, they saw Xu Xiaoshou suddenly tremble, his back facing them. All of them craned their necks, incredibly curious.
"Wha's he doing?"
"He's taking pills? What kind of pill is that? Why are its effects so strong?"
"That must be a poisonous pill. It's so terrifying!"
Everyone saw Xu Xiaoshou, who was seated, suddenly fall backward. His body formed a star-like shape on the Chuyun Platform. He looked like a twitching pile of mud.
"What did he eat? Why is he shivering like that?"
"That guy must be the trembling type…"
Everyone instantly became confused. Xu Xiaoshou harvested another large wave of doubt while he was unconscious.
Even the judge was scared silly. "What is this?" he thought. "We just sent Liu Zhen away, and now you've collapsed too?
"How old are you? Why do you have to make a judge like me worry so much for you!"
He quickly ran over with the medical team. They felt for Xu Xiaoshou's pulse while applying pressure on his philtrum.
"Uhhh… I'm, I'm fine…" Xu Xiaoshou foamed at the mouth.
"Do you look like you're fine?" the judge nearly cursed.
"You have to tell me if you can't hold on, and I'll take you to heal your wounds!" The judge tried to press on Xu Xiaoshou's chest to stop him from trembling.
Xu Xiaoshou's eyes rolled back as he struggled to sit up. However, he had no strength left in his body. He howled weakly.
"Don't, don't touch me!"
"Currently, I have a… sensitive constitution. Uhhh…"
The judge was speechless.
He silently withdrew his hands from Xu Xiaoshou. "Perhaps he doesn't need me…" he thought.
The spectators were all wondering what was going on. Because Xu Xiaoshou was lying down on the ground, they could see his face, and a few of the spectators who could read lips interpreted the conversation.
The spectators were in an uproar.
"He must have taken an aphrodisiac!"
"Taking those things before a competition… I have to hand it to him!"
"Someone drag him off somewhere and cool him off!"
"I strongly request for a drug test. That Xu Xiaoshou must have consumed a banned drug!"
All of these interpretations of the situation gave Xu Xiaoshou countless Passive Points. There was doubt, respect, mockery…
The medical personnel who'd taken Xu XiaoShou's pulse released his hand from around his wrist and said in shock, "He seems to be fine?"
"What?" The judge was confused.
"I don't know what medication he took, but its effects are really powerful. His body is recovering at a rapid rate. He's almost fully healed."
"Hehe!"
"He's almost fully healed?"
The judge pointed at Xu Xiaoshou's convulsing body. "Then what's that?"
The medical personnel stammered and said, not too sure himself, "Pleasure?"
The judge's expression darkened. "Pleasure, my foot!" he thought.
"You're useless!"
He thought for a moment, then pried open Xu Xiaoshou's hand and saw the Red Gold Pill.
"Just this?"
He raised an eyebrow, then took the pill and popped it into his mouth. The medical personnel almost jumped when he saw him do this. "You can't eat that!"
"It's fine. It isn't poisonous. If it was, Xu Xiaoshou wouldn't have dared to consume one, and he wouldn't be experiencing the effect you described. By taking it, I'll immediately be able to detect if he consumed banned drugs before the competition or not."
The judge sat down cross-legged. He circulated the spiritual source in his body, and the pill immediately dissolved into his system.
He opened his eyes. "What's going on?" he thought.
"Is this really a Red Gold Pill?"
He looked at Xu Xiaoshou, who couldn't stop trembling, and lapsed into deep thought. "Did we eat the same thing?" he thought.
"Or could it be that he really does have a sensitive constitution?"
The judge trembled when he thought about that. The medical personnel was startled.
On the ground off to the side, Xu Xiaoshou continued trembling for a while before gradually regaining composure. Because of his experience with the Spiritual Cultivation Pill the previous time, he was actually much better off this time around.
Furthermore, the Red Gold Pill was ultimately a medicine used to treat injuries. The high only came in one wave. It came on fast, but it quickly went away.
He had to admit that while the side effects of the Breathing Technique were great, the effects of the technique were even greater!
"I seem to have mostly recovered. I still feel a little pain…" Xu Xiaoshou thought to himself.
The explosion of the dark energy left by the Great Darkness Calamity Fist was no laughing matter. His scalp still crawled when he thought about it. He didn't how he'd been so brave enough to hang on during that battle.
"Yes, there was nothing I could do besides try my best to hang on during that battle I think…" he thought.
Xu Xiaoshou flailed his arms and legs, forcefully trying to reenergize himself. He still had one more battle. He couldn't cool down.
The judge watched Xu Xiaoshou jump about and occasionally twitch. There was a doubtful look on his face.
"So that's the end of the matter?" he thought to himself.
Xu Xiaoshou leapt about and looked back, then waved his hands and thanked the spectators that loved him. He expressed his gratitude for their concern before returning to the notification panel in his mind.
"Passive Points: 10220."
Tsk tsk, it increased by over 3000 points!
"This is true love!" Xu Xiaoshou exclaimed as he walked into the barrier once again with trembling legs.
He had reached his quota for today. He might've even exceeded it.
The judge followed behind him like his personal bodyguard. "Are you ready for your next battle?" he asked nonchalantly.
"There's no rush. Let me rest for a while more. Give me some time, all right!"
Xu Xiaoshou took out a Spirit Crystal and whiffed it from time to time, trying his best to stay at peak condition.
Even though he had just gone through a rough battle and recovered from a severe injury, he could still use 60 to 70 percent of his powers, which was decent.
"All right!" the judge chuckled. "Then let's start. There's no time left anyway."
Xu Xiaoshou looked at the judge in shock. "You're a dog! Why did you even ask me if I wanted to start if we're out of time? Do you have to toy with people like that?"
The judge happily infused an array token with his spiritual source and activated the screen, a victorious smirk on his face at having achieved a small victory against Xu Xiaoshou.
The screen shimmered, and a name was selected.
"Wen Chong!"
Xu Xiaoshou looked at the judge, dumbfounded. "Wen Chong?" he thought. "You must be messing with me!"
The judge put his hands up as if to say that he had nothing to do with the matter, an innocent look on his face.
At the same time, the spectators immediately got into an uproar. The atmosphere had immediately become fired up by that name.
"My God, Wen Chong?!"
"This must've been rigged. That Xu Xiaoshou is so pitiful. Someone must've pulled this on him!"
"That's right. He's just gone through a battle of life and death, but in the end, he won't even have the chance to rest before he has to face a boss who's supposed to be the champion of an arena."
"Champion of an arena?" Some people were excited, while others didn't understand why everyone had suddenly gotten into an uproar. "Tell me quickly. What's going on?"
"Do you know arena number two? Boss Wen was unlucky and was grouped with Zhao Qingteng during the group-stage competition. He got dominated. Zhao Qingteng became champion while he got second place."
"Tsk, so what? Xu Xiaoshou is also a champion!"
"Zhao Qingteng is ranked second, an Innate-stage expert!"
"Boss Wen is ranked second and is half a step into the Innate Stage!"
"Sss! He's that strong?"
"Hehe, do you think that's all there is to it? No, no, no… That guy is the mortal enemy of Xu Xiaoshou!"
The person speaking was beating around the bush and whetting the appetite of the people around him.
"Stop beating around the bush. Tell us quickly!" the people off to the side said, impatient.
"Do you know Liu Zhen? The Level Ten who nearly made Xu Xiaoshou explode?!"
"Yes, yes!" Everyone nodded.
"He's Wen Chong's lackey!"
"Ssss!" The crowd gasped.
"That's not all!" The speaker had a proud expression as he continued, "You know Di Xin'er, right? The girl who got hit on the head twice by Xu Xiaoshou with his wooden sword!"
"Yes, yes!"
He revealed the shocking news. "Wen Chong's goddess!"
"Oh s***!"
"Intense!"
"Then Xu Xiaoshou is done for, darn it!"