For the first time since she came here, the girl felt a bit of pressure from an opponent.
From her opponent's gaze and stance, she couldn't detect a single flaw.
"He's a master swordsman!" This was the only thing she could deduce in her mind.
With a serious expression on her face, she clenched her fists and delivered a punch in his direction. The water surrounding her made a gurgling sound and rushed towards him to knock him off the stage.
Tianlong's eyes remained incomparably calm when he saw that. He rotated his cultivation base and sent his terrifying Qi to the iron sword. It was an ordinary weapon that he had picked up from one of the bandits he had killed.
The full might of his Qi refining created strong sword energy. As the blade glowed with a sharp black light, he jumped forwards towards the incoming water surface and deliver eighteen consecutive sword slashes across its body.
Looking at the scene, the girl's expression calmed down and then turned into a sneer.
The surface of the palm split apart while the fingers were all severed. However, in the very next instant, all the parts started to go move backwards and to coagulate into that palm again. Trying to cut water was useless.
Looking at the scene, Tianlong maintained his calm. He raised his palm forwards made a grasping motion. Suddenly a vortex appeared in that place that caused the surrounding wind to rush forwards towards him.
Due to the strong suction force, the water lost its shape and rushed towards the vortex. By the time it coagulated into a palm again, Tianlong had already crossed it reached the other side.
All of this happened so fast that she didn't have a chance to react. By the time Tianlong's sword came in front of her, she could only conjure a thin water sword.
Unexpectedly, Tianlong chose to step back at the last moment and dodge the water sword.
With a piercing sound, the floor of the arena was slashed apart due to the effect of the water sword.
At that exact moment when her arms went downwards, Tianlong stepped forward and thrust his sword at the girl's neck.
"Formlessness is your strength, but it is also your weakness!" Tianlong emotionlessly said. At the same time he thrust his sword forward, two of his fingers in his other hand took the shape of a sword and flicked downwards.
Due to his mastery of wind, Tianlong was able to feel the changes in the wind around him. Even without looking back, he could sense that hand of water was closing on him from the backside.
Hence, he flicked his fingers to slash it apart with his Parting Wind slash. And due to the nature of wind blades which were even more formless than water, it could prevent the latter from merging back.
The girl quickly moved backwards with a pale face. Even three seconds hadn't passed since the match had started and she was already pushed back to such a position.
From her neck, she could feel a faint stinging sensation. When she touched it, she saw a faint red colour in her fingers. His sword had grazed her skin!
When she thought about it, she felt both fear and anger.
"Return!"
The hand of water collapsed and turned into water vapour that quickly turned into a silk band and returned to her.
In her entire life, the number of times she had gotten injured could be counted with one's fingers. It was unimaginable to her that someone would draw blood from her during a simple exchange.
Looking at her angry expression, Tianlong suddenly smiled. He looked at her with a ghost of a smile on his lips and asked, "Thinking of releasing your seals?"
The girl's eyes widened in amazement when she heard his words. However, she quickly changed her facial expression as if she didn't understand the meaning of his words.
Tianlong only chuckled at her attempt and once more rushed forward.
Just like how she had felt that all her battles were pointless, Tianlong too felt that his battle with the girl was pointless.
In fact, it wasn't just this battle, he felt most such competitions were pointless.
"Cultivators should keep their divine abilities and cultivation level in a veil of mystery. If someone knows your exact strength, appropriate measures can be taken accordingly.
"These tournaments force you to reveal your tactics and draws too much limelight. Some people get too invested in them and even reveal their trump cards for a brief moment of glory. What's the use of such fame? It only paints a person as a big target!" This was one of his many inner monologues when he saw his classmates fighting or discussing tournaments over the years.
However, he never voiced his opinions out loud.
Some things were best kept to oneself.
Hence, while he could fight the girl more easily with his tyrannical fleshly body and evade all her attacks with his smoke wind transformation, he still chose to fight with just his wind spells and swordsmanship.
There was no point in divulging his strong points in front of everyone.
Even if they were his own clansmen.
Had his mother not told him to fight, he wouldn't have bothered to face this young woman.
As his sword once again rushed forward, the girl created two water swords and slashed diagonally. Both of her slashes were delivered with an interval gap.
She clearly remembered how Tianlong had chosen to evade it and counter-attack. With this interval gap, she could quickly respond in case he chose to counterattack.
However, in the next instant, her presumptions were crushed as Tianlong waved his hand caused hundreds of wind blades to manifest around him.
The girl's expression immediately turned ugly. While her water blades could faze through anything deliver sharp blows, the incoming wind blades could do the same.
As a matter of fact, they were a step above her water blades.
"Your swordsmanship is commendable but that's as far as you can go!" She coldly spoke when she saw his wind blades vanishing as soon as they came in contact with her.
Looking at her figure which seemed to shimmer, Tianlong wasn't surprised. When he had previously touched her with his sword, he had felt that her entire figure was covered in a faint layer of water that acted like armour.
None of the wind blades could pierce the screen and could only produce distortions on the thin water film before dissipating.
Had he known any sword arts, he could've pierced the screen. However, unlike his father, his mother refused to teach him anything beyond basic sword styles.
"Did you know that the very thing that shields you can also become your cage?" Tianlong softly spoke as he saw her approaching him while remaining unaffected by the wind blades.
Since his status as a wind cultivator was already known by others, he wouldn't shy away from showing his wind-related divine abilities except for his wind smoke transformation. Seeing the incoming water blades, he remained calm and took a deep breath from his mouth.
The girl felt an immense sense of danger when she saw his actions. At once she lost her calm expression. The water around her took the form of hundreds of arrows and shot forwards.
As he took in a breath, the wind in the area was stirred and rushed towards him. His blood boiled and gave his brown skin an even darker look. Not minding the incoming arrows, he punched forward and released the wind that he had sucked in. "Raging Tempest!"
The wind exploded in the place where let out the punch. It carried forward a fiery gust of wind that violently destroyed the water arrows as soon as they came in contact with it.
Without giving her a chance to react, the fiery wind reached the girl in an instant and heated up the water screen around her.
"Aargh!!"
The girl let out a mournful scream as she felt herself being suddenly covered in boiling hot water. She hurriedly dissipated the water screen around her and moved backwards.
Tianlong didn't follow up with any more attacks and watched her get out of the water screen around her with a dishevelled look. Her skin glowed with a pinkish glow due to being drowned in the boiling hot water.
Everything happened so fast that people didn't have time to react. All of them were amazed by his swordsmanship and his control over the wind.
It was especially the case for the youngsters whose eyes were burning with zealousness. Some of the females had blush on their faces while looking at his dashing features.
No matter who they were, the strong were always respected!
Too bad he wasn't very appreciative of beauty which could be seen from his brutal way of attacking such a young girl.
Seeing her eyes that were spewing fire at him, he smiled and spoke in a voice that only she could hear, "You might want to redo your Facial Transformation art of yours... It would be very bad if people knew that a princess of Xia Country was defeated by someone from a rank 3 country. It's just that I don't know whether you are princess Jingyi or princess Mengyi…"
…
While the audience could only see his attacks superficially, the elders clearly understood the sophistication behind those spells. Even the basic sword strikes carried a charm that could only be seen on experienced swordsmen from the mortal world.
Thinking of sword strikes, all of the elder's eyes gathered on the cold female who was sitting with them.
However, all of them quickly averted their eyes for fear that they'll offend her. The patriarch's warnings still rang in their head.
"You've hidden his talent too deeply. If we didn't see with our own eyes, we wouldn't believe that such talent existed in our clan." Long Fang silently praised while keeping his eyes fixated on the stage.
While others were praising him, the person who felt the happiest wasn't Long Qianmei, but Ji Cangyue. After all, the former already expected these results as for the latter, she only had a rough idea about her disciple's strength.
Subsequently, she also felt a sense of awe from Long Qianmei who was sitting right beside her. The latter truly was an idol for all female cultivators in the clan.
But when she thought about how her husband Long Zheng was looking at Long Qianmei, her face became a bit pale.
Even though his wife was sitting right beside Long Qianmei, his eyes were only focused on the latter.
"As expected of your son. His sword is so elegant!"
Unlike others, Long Qianmei had no surprise on her face when she saw the fight.
With paying attention to their praises, she spoke, "We are but a clan from a rank 3 country that mainly involves themselves in business. Inheriting our bloodline, our children have an advantage over others in the city in terms of cultivation talent. But outside the country, they are just average! Should they lose, then they should be able to accept it… Sending a newbie alchemist to fight against her? Hmph, all of you have disgraced yourself!"
In an instant, the praises from the elders came to a halt.
Everyone there was tongue-tied and didn't dare to refute her. Even if both the alchemists were older than her, all of them could only let her berate them.
Since the match was already over, she had no more reason to stay here. If not for the fact that she would be leaving the clan soon, she wouldn't have come here too.
All of them simultaneously looked at Long Zheng with a bit of grudge. After all, he was the one who had suggested the whole thing.
Noticing their gazes, Long Zheng felt a bit ashamed. He didn't think that his first meeting with her after so many years would go like this. With a helpless voice he tried to explain himself, "Mei Er, I…"
Yet, before he could speak another word, Long Qianmei coldly stated, "How dare you address me like that?"
Her voice carried a trace of killing intent that froze everyone's heart present there. All of them felt as if a sharp sword had being pointed at their neck.
Long Zheng's face became especially pale. He didn't expect that his casual words would draw such a violent reaction from her.
All the Jade Core cultivators felt a sting in their dantian. Their Cores seem to tremble in fear when her aura washed over them.
Staying inside the clan for hundreds of years, they had already forgotten the fear of death.
"Don't think that just because you were once my senior brother, you can behave unscrupulously in front of me!" With a cold snort, she walked out of the room without giving him a second glance.
As soon as she left, all of them breathed in relief. Both Long Fang and Long Ling'er felt a sense of fear that they haven't felt in a long time.
"Dear!" Ji Cangyue rushed forwards when she saw a drop of blood coming out of Long Zheng's lips. Most of Long Qianmei's aura had been focused on him which caused his blood to flow in reverse.
Long Zheng's face was ashen white. Although he harboured adoration in his heart for Long Qianmei, he had buried those feelings in his heart for years ever since she had gotten married.
Instead, he put all his thoughts into increasing his cultivation base and isolated himself. However, it was clear that they were worlds apart. He couldn't even withstand a flash of aura from him.
Seeing his concerned wife who was wiping off his blood, he felt a strong sense of irritation in his heart. If she had not insisted on keeping Qingxue from participating in the competition, this situation wouldn't have occurred. He wouldn't have been humiliated in front of everyone.
"Go away!" With a harsh tone, he slapped her hand away from his face. Pushing her away, he left the room unwilling to stay here for a single moment.
As he flew away, he felt that his wife truly couldn't compare with Long Qianmei.