After I left the sect, the entire sect knelt down and begged for forgiveness.

Li Qiu knew that continuing like this would be extremely detrimental to her!
She seemed to realize that her opponent might be planning this! Since they couldn't defeat her quickly, they used this formation to make her consume more spiritual energy.

With both sides possessing roughly equal spiritual power, and neither being able to replenish their strength with elixirs, they are currently at a disadvantage.

If the time drags on and the opponent keeps trying to exchange spells with me, my spiritual energy will definitely be depleted by the opponent first.

Lin Yan thought the same way. She couldn't give her opponent too much time; she wanted to make them panic and lose their composure! Flames ignited on the magic sword in her hand, and the sword's momentum carried a scorching heat wave, constantly eroding the opponent's coldness.

She unleashed a sword strike, and a fiery dragon shot into the sky, hurtling towards Li Qiu's location.

Li Qiu gritted her teeth and swung her whip, sending an ice bird out of its wings to block the charging fire dragon.

She formed a hand seal with one hand and chanted incantations rapidly. The ice layer spread quickly, expanding at an astonishing speed, enveloping and freezing everything, as if she wanted to turn this place into her own territory.

But the ice that had spread out quickly crumbled, and she saw the fire snakes crawling towards her and swiftly surrounding her.

Seeing this, Li Qiu brandished her whip, and the biting wind swiftly cleaved the fire snake in two. The two forces collided, and the powerful spiritual energy fluctuations caused the barrier to tremble slightly.

But after she managed to withstand the onslaught, she felt powerless.

The massive depletion of her spiritual energy and the intense barrage of spells were overwhelming her. She could clearly feel the blockage in her dantian, and even a dull ache.

Did the scales of victory ultimately not tip in her favor? Li Qiu was naturally unwilling to accept it.

In any competition held by a celestial sect, who wouldn't want to be the champion?

Li Qiu withdrew all her spiritual power and transformed into an even larger ice bird, rushing forward to extinguish the fire snake!

The fire dragon charged forward with overwhelming force, letting out a deafening roar as it broke through the ice bird and hurtled towards her. The powerful force sent her flying, crashing heavily off the stage.

Seeing Li Qiu fall off the ring, the referee rushed forward and loudly announced, "Lin Yan has won this match!"

The audience erupted in uproar. No independent cultivator had ever won the competition before, but today that record had been broken.

Some people bet on Lin Yan out of curiosity, and now they regret not betting more spirit stones!

Lin Yan sheathed her magic sword, calmly watching Li Qiu fall to the ground, her heart unmoved. She was merely the champion; her goal was the speech on the podium!

Her gaze fell on Ling Yun on the high platform, whose expression was unfriendly, and a cold glint flashed in her eyes.

She knew in her heart that he definitely wanted to kill her right now, but with so many people present, he didn't dare to make a move. She didn't believe that swearing an oath would make him give up the idea of ​​killing her.

One day, either he will die, or I will be killed.

Li Qiu gritted her teeth and struggled to get up from the ground. She looked at Lin Yan on the stage, her eyes full of resentment, but she said nothing.

She knew in her heart that she was inferior in skill, and losing was losing; there was nothing to complain about. That's how competitions are—there are winners and losers.

The disciples of the Miaofa Sect immediately came down to help Li Qiu up, fed her some medicine, and helped her regulate her breathing.

Lin Yan also stepped off the stage and fed herself a healing pill.

Next should have been the competition for third place, but the first group immediately sent someone to inform everyone of the number of participants, thus determining the ranking of the competition.

First place: Lin Yan
Second place: Li Qiu
Third place: Xuan Ye
Fourth place: Lu Ji
...In previous competitions, the top sect always had someone in the top three, and in most cases, the disciples of the top sect were the champions. Now, they have fallen to fourth place, which is quite unexpected.

When a rogue cultivator wins the championship, naturally some people will feel envious.

"Tch, he only won because of luck, he used underhanded tactics. Just wait, once he gets to the secret realm trial, he'll definitely be eliminated early on. By then, his total score will be so low that he won't even make the top ten, and the title of champion will become a joke!"

She wasn't angry when she heard it, but it was impossible for her to pretend she didn't hear it. Why should she indulge others who were jealous?

Lin Yan curled her lips into a mocking smile. "Then why didn't you win? What round did you make it to? You weren't eliminated in the first round, were you?"
The sarcastic, sour-tongued cultivator kept a sullen face and couldn't utter a word for a long time. Because he had indeed been eliminated in the first round.

"I didn't see you in the last round either! Did you not make it to the last round because of bad luck, or because you didn't know how to use your skills? Let me see which sect you belong to."

Because this person was eliminated early and didn't have to compete, he was wearing his ordinary clothes instead of the sect disciple's robes.

If someone is a disciple of a sect, even if they are not wearing disciple robes, they should still be carrying a disciple jade token.

When the male cultivator noticed her gaze falling on the spot where his jade pendant hung, he quickly grabbed it to prevent her from seeing it. He didn't know why he had reacted so instinctively.

Before Lin Yan could speak again, Wen Ya walked over from the audience and confronted the male cultivator, saying, "What are you babbling about? What kind of strength does someone who can't even beat me have? Instead of spouting these sour words, why don't you look at yourself and see if you're even worthy!"

"You! What's it to you? Mind your own business!"

"So what if I meddle? You're a defeated opponent! Others win by their own strength, unlike you, who's like a creature from the gutter, all you do is spout sour nonsense."

The man's face turned bright red after being rebuked by Wenya, and he slunk away.

Wen Ya was so happy that she turned to congratulate others: "Congratulations! You really won first place, that's amazing! I'm so glad I was impulsive and bet all my spirit stones that I've been saving up on you. I've made a fortune this time."

Lin Yan gave an awkward smile and pointed to the rest area, saying, "I need to rest for a bit now."

"Oh...look how excited I am." Wenya returned to the audience seats.

The next segment is to announce all the rankings, but the host will read out the names of the top fifteen and their respective factions shortly.

She took this opportunity to catch her breath and think about what she should say when she went on stage.

As is customary, the top three finishers in the competition are required to give a speech when they go on stage to receive their awards. Her speech had to be sensational enough to provoke Lingyun Laodeng into taking action.

Why doesn't she take advantage of this opportunity to cause trouble now, and wait for Ling Yun to find a chance to kill her quietly later?

After the rankings were announced, it was time for the awards ceremony.

The first two disciples didn't speak much; they mostly gave thank-you speeches, thanking everyone in turn.

When it was Lin Yan's turn, she coughed lightly twice. This was a prelude to her starting to cause trouble; before speaking, she provocatively looked at Ling Yun sitting on the high platform.

There were still quite a few Xuantian Sect disciples below who had bullied him in the past.

Many of them may not have initially intended to bully her, but with so many people bullying her... (End of Chapter)