In the air, Xiao Qixiu, who'd been observing arena number 12 from the start, smiled slightly.
The outer yard disciples this year were high-quality candidates. This was the third Innate Stage fighter he had discovered today.
This person had an Innate Stage physical body that was incredibly difficult to detect. That was really rare!
If not for the two faint consecutive Innate Stage auras that had appeared, even he would have been fooled by the young man called Xu Xiaoshou.
That lad really had… Um, a strange talent.
In the arena.
A group of people lost all rationality when they heard Xu Xiaoshou's words.
A mere Spiritual Cultivation Level Five fighter dared to say such insolent words? Just because his body was strong without parallel didn't mean his body had actually reached the Innate Stage.
"I can't take it anymore. This lad is really asking for a beating!"
"It looks like just one person won't satisfy him. Since that's the case, let's all join forces and send this limp prawn out of the arena!"
"Brothers, attack!"
Forty to fifty people pounced forward at the same time. Some of them had their fists raised, some carried swords, while some hid around and prepared to launch sneaky surprise attacks and manueverings…
Xu Xiaoshou looked at the forty to fifty murderous people in front of him and trembled. Their dark expressions were rather terrifying.
However, he steeled his nerves and charged forward. He roared furiously to boost his courage, "If you're a man, use your fists. Those of you who are wielding swords, put them down if you have the guts!"
Boom, boom!
Mayhem instantly erupted, and Xu Xiaoshou was swarmed by a wave of people. Su Qianqian, who was in the spectator seats, let out a nervous squeal when she saw the scene, and she tightly grabbed onto Rao Yinyin's rather short red dress.
"He's quite daring!" Rao Yinyin observed Xu Xiaoshou being clobbered and laughed.
"Got attacked. Passive Points +14."
"Got attacked. Passive Points +16."
"..."
The notification panel got updated once again. Xu Xiaoshou charged into the crowd and took on countless punches with his body. He used his fists to sweep the people wielding swords to the side and kicked them out of the arena.
He didn't want to fight anyone using blades, swords, or daggers…
"F***," he thought. "There are even people using silver needles?"
"Get out of the arena, all of you!
"In my arena, we fight to the death with our fists!
"I can endure thousands of punches, but even an Innate-stage physical body will bleed when slashed by a spiritual weapon, even if it's one without a grade.
"So all of you are fated to leave the arena!"
Xu Xiaoshou cleared the arena and expanded the battlefield. At the same time, he experimented with different poses so that he could receive even more punches at the same time.
A human body's surface area was rather limited. Even if forty to fifty people were charging over toward you, not more than ten people could actually hit you at the same time.
However, it was different for Xu Xiaoshou. He pounced, crawled, and leapt the moment a punch landed on him. He tried every possible way to get everyone to hit him.
The only thing he needed to pay attention to was protecting his vital areas from being damaged.
"Got attacked. Passive Points +11."
"Got attacked. Passive Points +22."
"Got attacked. Passive Points +33."
The Passive Points reflected in his notifications continued to increase in his mind. It started from the tens and slowly rose to the twenties, then the thirties…
Xu Xiaoshou's technique became more and more refined. At the same time, his attackers became more and more excited as they continued to attack.
They couldn't see the brazen lad. However, for some reason, their punches would always land on that lad's detestable face every time they threw one out.
Every punch that connected with his flesh felt amazing!
It felt really good!
"Am I actually this powerful?" some thought.
Some people had even closed their eyes as they were fighting. They felt as though they'd reached an epiphany and become more in tune with the path of cultivation.
This is… what the Innate Stage feels like!
Mum, I achieved a breakthrough!
The judge was in a daze. This was a brutal scene!
He saw the handsome face of the insolent lad from just now get beaten into a new shape by the people surrounding him.
His caved-in abdomen, his raised forearms, and even his stiff toes were terrifyingly brutalized at every moment.
Xu Xiaoshou's shoes had fallen off during the beating, as he'd found that he could extend his toes to create more surface area for punches that way.
The judge was dumbfounded. Had those people consumed drugs? Why had they suddenly become so ferocious!?
He saw a person who was Level Three. "What is he doing? He's closing his eyes?"
"Wow…
"Didn't his punch hit the air? Why did it coincidentally hit Xu Xiaoshou's shoulder?
"There's also a Level Two fighter over there…
"What?
"How could he have persisted and not been thrown out of the arena until now?
"My God!
He was nearly sent out of the arena, but Xu Xiaoshou hooked himself back in with his foot.
"How is that possible?!"
The judge broke down!
The situation felt off the more Xu Xiaoshou fought. Why had the number of people decreased?
Xu Xiaoshou clearly looked like he was trying hard to stay in the arena. Even so, the number of people in the arena had gradually dropped from sixty to just over forty.
Suddenly, he saw a few figures hiding deep within the shadows. They were picking on the people who had their eyes closed and were experiencing the path of cultivation. Anybody who closed their eyes would definitely be sent flying out of the arena.
"Darn them. They dare to attack my Passive Points?!" he thought.
Xu Xiaoshou secretly adjusted his posture and slowly closed in on those poisonous tumors before sending them flying out of the arena one by one.
These scheming candidates were the first to be sent flying by Xu Xiaoshou's strange fighting style.
All the people who'd been sent flying outside of the arena were dazed. None of them knew how they'd gotten eliminated.
In the spectator seats, the young lady, Su Qianqian, had covered her eyes with her hand, not daring to look at the scene. Even Rao Yinyin felt that it was a little over the top.
In the arena, the competitors stopped crowding together as they'd had at the start. Instead, they gradually expanded their formation and created a large net.
The attackers at every point of the net didn't have to move too much. All they had to do was send Xu Xiaoshou flying and wait for Xu Xiaoshou to be pushed back to them.
The "pitiful" Xu Xiaoshou was like a sandbag. He was sent flying all around the offensive web and hit on every part of his body.
The judge thought that it was about time for him to step in. Even though he felt that Xu Xiaoshou was detestable and wanted to give him a few punches of his own, he was a stoic judge. He had to calmly enforce the rules.
Just as he was about to shout for the competitors to stop, he suddenly caught a glimpse of the "sandbag" Xu Xiaoshou's expression.
What kind of perverted expression was that!?
He had a wide smile, which made him look like he was enjoying the process. He had a comfortable look under his swollen face. He looked incredibly at ease.
It was simply…
He didn't look like someone who was being attacked. Instead, he looked as though he were enjoying a massage...
He listened closely and realized that the sandbag was chattering continuously amidst the volley of punches.
"It feels great!
"Punch me harder if you have the guts.
"Faster. It's best that you hit me a thousand times in a second!
"F***. You can't kick me there…"
The judge was speechless.
He silently lowered his hand that he'd been about to raise to stop the violence, and decided to keep quiet.
Perhaps he doesn't need me to get involved…
"Dong…"
The ancient chime of the clock once again reverberated from the horizon, making everyone jump. Xiao Qixiu's voice followed: "There's an hour left until the end of the group-stage competition!"
He'd made this rule up just now on the spot specially for arena number 12.
That was because the battles in the rest of the seventeen arenas had all ended a long time ago.
The battles in the other arenas had all been simple and traditional in style. The most powerful fighters had sat off to the side and meditated while those less powerful cleared the field, indigantly fighting each other until only one was left.
A magnificent and brutal battle had only erupted in arena number 12.
At this moment, all of the people who'd been sent out of the arena gathered in the spectator seats of arena number 12, even though they could've gone back to rest if they'd wanted to.
All of them watched the merciless scene with wide eyes.
"What's going on?"
"The people in arena number 12 are too insane!"
"They don't even see him as human. They're beating him up like he's a beast!"
"That's right. It'd be fine if they were just surrounding him and beating him up. But why the extreme method? They should give him some respect and not hit his face…"
"Yes, yes. We're from the same spirit palace and are bound to encounter each other someday. Tsk tsk!"
A weak fighter would often attract the sympathy of the onlookers. Some of the female disciples couldn't bear to watch the fight any longer and started bawling. They cried as they cheered Xu Xiaoshou on.
"Darn it… Ah, I wasn't talking about you… Xu Xiaoshou, hang in there!"
"Xu Xiaoshou, hang in there!"
"Xu Xiaoshou, you're the best!"
The cheers spread like wildfire the moment the first one rang out, filling the entire arena.
The spectators who didn't know the reason for the beating voiced their outrage, saying it was unjust. They cheered Xu Xiaoshou on as they furiously looked on at the people who had just been sent flying out of arena number 12.
The people who had "voluntarily exited the arena" felt indignant. "Why are you guys saying that when you don't even know the truth? Why don't you get in the arena?" they thought to themselves.
In the arena.
Xu Xiaoshou dropped all pretense when he heard that he only had less than an hour left.
He had long drawn the crowd to the edge of the arena while being beaten up. On the surface, this group of people looked like they were dealing a great deal of damage, but they had actually been manipulated by him.
This was like taichi. Once the momentum was created, even the attacker wouldn't be able to stop.
Xu Xiaoshou jumped toward the area outside the arena. All of the attackers followed like moths to a flame, looking shocked as they found themselves leaping out of the arena.
In that instant, the arena fell silent.
"My God!"
"What happened?"
Everyone in the spectator seats erupted into exclamations. There must be something wrong with arena number 12. They were fighting like absolute maniacs and now they were jumping out of the arena just because someone else had jumped?
Had they been frightened by the cheers and suddenly felt irreversibly ashamed?
In the arena.
After Xu Xiaoshou's actions, only four people were left in the arena, excluding the judge.
He forcefully dragged over the muscular man who had been the first to attack him. His name was Qiu Wei, right?
"There's still about half an hour left. I thought about it for a long time and still think that your damage output is the best. Come, let us fight again!" Xu Xiaoshou said sincerely.
This person's Hundred-Step Beast King Fist was equivalent to 50 elite soldiers!
Qiu Wei turned pale when he heard that. He looked around him and found no friends.
An indescribable feeling of fatigue swelled up within him. He retched, then immediately jumped out of the arena.
Xu Xiaoshou was perplexed.
The judge could no longer watch. He waved his hand and said, "The competition has ended!"
Off to the side.
Liu Zhen let out a deep breath as he watched Xu Xiaoshou, who had destroyed both the minds and bodies of the competitors. He said, rather relaxed, "I told you to wait. I wasn't wrong, right? We placed in the top ten…"
Zhou Zuo swallowed, his face filled with shock.
"Brother Liu."
"We're in the top three!"