The Long Journey to Immortality

As always, a rule regarding cultivation level was mentioned: a small number of cultivators who came here to try their luck, but those who were not at the fifth level of Qi Refining, had no choice but to leave disappointed.

After all, Wen Er Ya was only preparing for the competition, not thinking about engaging in battles beyond her level or challenging herself.

She only wants to fight and compete with cultivators of the same cultivation level.

After saying that, a small portion of the cultivators who had been surrounding Han Lu and Wen Erya left. Of the remaining thirteen people, Wen Erya randomly selected five as her sparring partners for the day and promptly handed them a spirit stone as payment.

To encourage the sparring partners to work hard, Wen Erya also set up a reward system: "The one who plays the most seriously will receive an additional low-grade spirit stone as a reward."

Of the five, three were from Dongshan Academy, while the other two were cultivators from Zhongshan Academy who came because of Wen Erya's reputation as a "leek" (a term used to describe someone easily exploited), hoping to earn extra money.

Don't underestimate a spirit stone. For many outer sect Qi Refining cultivators who can only receive two spirit stones from the sect each month, making a special trip and spending some time for a spirit stone is definitely a worthwhile deal.

Han Lu was surprised to find that she actually knew one of the three cultivators from Dongshan Academy.

He lived next door to her; he was Duan Xiao's older brother, Duan Mingcheng.

Duan Mingcheng also noticed Han Lu.

Duan Mingcheng actually regretted it quite a bit. He regretted not knowing that Han Lu was one of the only two disciples of Elder Piaomiao among the new disciples when he visited her. He regretted not encouraging his younger brother to interact more with Han Lu.

Therefore, upon seeing Lu Yao, Duan Mingcheng took the initiative to walk up and greet Han Lu.

"Junior Sister Han, what brings you here too?"

Han Lu said, "Isn't it because Senior Sister Wen asked me to come and help her out? I also wanted to broaden my horizons here."

Han Lu's answer was quite in line with her cultivation level as a mere novice Daoist.

Duan Mingcheng wanted to say a few more words to get closer to Han Lu and thank her for her guidance on his brother the day before, but Wen Erya, who had already paid the money, didn't want to waste another second.

Using the token to activate the restriction, and seeing that the "healer" arranged by the sect for each arena was in place, Wen Erya stepped onto the arena and said, "Let's begin, who wants to go first?"

The five cultivators, who had been paid to do the work, exchanged glances after receiving the spirit stones. Two of them stepped forward and said in unison, "I'll go first."

One is from Sun Yat-sen University, and the other is a fellow student from Dongshan University.

"We'll have to fight sooner or later," Wen Erya said, pointing to her fellow disciple from Dongshan Academy. "Then you go first, and he'll go second."

Upon hearing this, the cultivator chosen by Wen Erya made a hand seal, lightly leaped more than two meters into the air, and directly stepped onto the arena.

Having shown off her skills, Wen Er Ya had even higher expectations for this first match.

"Min Gan Ci."

"Gentle and elegant".

After both sides introduced themselves, Han Lu took it upon herself to act as the referee, only needing to shout "Start!"

When Han Lu's voice rang out from the edge of the arena, the two on the arena released their spiritual power and began to fight.

Compared to the duel between Han Lu and the second-level Qi Refining cultivator a few days ago, the duel between Min Ganci and Wen Erya, both fifth-level Qi Refining cultivators, was much more interesting.

Whether in terms of the amount of spiritual power or the number of spells and secret techniques they have mastered and can use, these two Qi Refining Level 5 cultivators are far superior to Han Lu and the three Qi Refining Level 2 cultivators.

Not only can they play rock-paper-scissors, but they can also produce complex weapons such as pistols, grenades, and submachine guns.

A fight between the two would naturally be more entertaining to watch.

The other four sparring partners in the audience watched very attentively, especially Han Lu, who was there as a "coach".

At first, Min Ganci was just testing the waters.

Several icicles appeared out of thin air and shot towards Wen Erya, who was not far away.

Wen Erya casually summoned a wall of water as a form of defense.

The ice spike struck the water wall as if a hammerhead had been wrapped in cloth, losing its destructive power in the blink of an eye, and was eventually absorbed into the water wall and completely dissipated.

With one attacking and the other defending, Wen Erya clearly seemed to have the upper hand in the eyes of ordinary people.

But in Han Lu's view, it was Wen Erya who suffered a small loss.

[Author's Note] The groundbreaking ceremony is over, time to get to work.

Chapter 43 Two Suggestions from Coach Han

Off the field, a sparring partner who was a "sycophant" shouted "Good!" upon seeing this.

Han Lu took Wen Erya's response to heart, shook her head slightly, and thought that she would use this as an example to criticize Wen Erya and teach her something useful.

Ultimately, the purpose of a contest of skills is to win, not to fight beautifully or attract cheers.

The most direct and simplest way to win is to wear down the enemy and preserve yourself.

Wen Erya's actions were quite skillful, demonstrating her perfect application of magic.

However, in Han Lu's opinion, in such a situation, a simple dodge, although not very elegant, can save a lot of magic power, thus gaining the upper hand and accumulating advantages.

After all, not all cultivators are like Han Lu, whose cultivation methods require opening up so many acupoints to create a spiritual vein.

Even Wen Erya, compared to Min Ganci, who was also at the fifth level of Qi Refining, only opened a few more acupoints and gained a little more spiritual power.

The small amount of spiritual energy wasted in each move and each exchange could very well determine the final outcome of a duel.

Han Lu was thinking about how to organize her thoughts. When she brought up the matter with Wen Erya after the competition ended, the competition was still ongoing.

Min Ganci's opponent was Wen Erya, so she naturally didn't intend to defeat him in one move. Her previous small moves were just a greeting to Wen Erya, and her counter-move was already fully prepared.

Min Ganci took two steps back, creating some distance between himself and Wen Erya. Then, he reached out and patted the storage bag at his waist, and a magical artifact appeared in his hand.

"umbrella?"

Looking at the magical artifact in Min Ganci's hand, the sparring partners watching from below the stage were full of doubts, unable to guess what the strange artifact could do.

"Senior Sister Wen, be careful." Because Wen Erya was Elder Piaomiao's personal disciple, Min Ganci also addressed Wen Erya as Senior Sister Wen.

Upon hearing this, Wen Erya indeed looked nervous, and had already recited half of the incantation for the protective spell.

Little did he know, this was just a smokescreen by Min Ganci. Although the umbrella in his hand was indeed a magical artifact, it was one of his secret weapons prepared for the competition, and he had no intention of using it at this moment.

At this moment, taking it out was merely to conceal the rapidly forming hand seals of the left hand hidden behind the umbrella, thus buying time for this powerful but unskilled technique.

After a few breaths, Wen Erya realized that the umbrella in Min Ganci's hand was not emitting any spiritual power. She then realized that she had been tricked. By the time she tried to take the initiative, it was too late.

The sound of surging waves rose beside Wen Erya.

A surging wave appeared out of thin air on the arena, which was clearly made of marble with reinforced protective barriers.

"Giant Wave Technique?"

Wen Erya realized the situation was bad and had no choice but to continue using the water wall for protection.

Although Min Ganci's magical power was limited and he was unable to control the giant wave, which was nearly three stories high, to bypass the water wall erected by Wen Erya, this spell only needed to point out a direction to achieve the desired effect.

In desperation, the water wall they erected was only a sheet of paper thick, and they couldn't use the same soft-to-hard approach as before to deal with the towering waves.

As the giant wave crashed down, the wall of water in front of Wen Er Ya collapsed instantly.

The enormous impact slammed Wen Erya to the ground.

The waves swept away, the magic dissipated, and Min Ganci's forehead was covered in sweat.

Clearly, such a powerful move also consumed a lot of his spiritual energy.

In a life-or-death situation, Han Lu would definitely have called this action reckless.

However, since he and Wen Erya were only competing on the arena, once this spell hit his opponent squarely, it would be enough for the referee to call out "the match is over" and declare him the winner.

The outcome was just as he had expected.

After the giant wave subsided, Wen Erya lay on the stage, unable to resist. Han Lu quickly announced that Min Ganci had won and called the doctor who was guarding the side to come up and work.

The main reason why renting an arena requires paying such a high fee to the sect is to arrange for a physician with a cultivation level of at least the eighth level of Qi Refining.

The physicians were disciples of the Zhengyi sect who were skilled in healing techniques, so it was considered a good job.

The physician, dressed in the uniform of a Qi Refining cultivator from the Zhengyi Sect, with a red ribbon tied around his right arm, hurriedly stepped onto the arena and bent down to unleash two healing spells he was skilled in on Wen Erya.

Wen Erya, who had only temporarily fainted, got up from the ground in the blink of an eye with Han Lu's help.

"Junior Sister Han, please help me apply this medicine."

Seeing the wounds on Wen Erya's arm caused by the impact, Han Lu quickly took the medicine Wen Erya handed her and helped apply it to the wound.

"Let's take a short break." Wen Erya forced a smile and looked at the sparring partners waiting on the sidelines.

Immediately afterwards, she popped another healing pill into her mouth and whispered to Han Lu beside her, "Junior Sister Han, can you help me analyze this?"

“Okay,” Han Lu told Wen Erya everything she had just said. “Senior Sister Wen, you made a few small mistakes in the competition just now. Otherwise, you should have been able to defeat your opponent easily.”

Upon hearing this, Wen Erya mustered her spirits, lest she waste Han Lu's hard work by overhearing a few words from Lou.

Han Lu is not good at teaching, but if she really wants to put in the effort, it is not difficult for her to tell people some simple truths.

“Conserving spiritual energy is a very important thing in arena battles.”

"Like just now, if I were facing those ice spikes, I would choose to dodge or deal with them in a way that consumes less spiritual energy."

"Accumulating advantages little by little is the key to winning the final victory."

……

Swallowing hard, Han Lu glanced at the bruises on Wen Erya's arm that had faded considerably after the ointment was applied, and continued, "Secondly, don't be misled by your opponent's words."

"Unless they shout to surrender and admit defeat, don't believe a single word your opponent says."

"Although I don't know what kind of unprecedented supernatural power Min Ganci's umbrella will help him use."

"But I will definitely take the initiative to attack, using spells or magical tools, to keep the initiative in my own hands."

……

Han Lu spoke for five minutes, and Wen Erya spent another ten minutes drawing inferences from what she had said and slowly digesting the information.

Only after feeling that her body had recovered did Wen Er Ya continue her special training, calling on a second sparring partner to come on stage.

It's unclear whether it was because Han Lu's words really worked on the rookie Wen Erya, or because the second sparring partner went easy on her.

This time, Wen Erya easily won using only magic.

After swallowing the pill and restoring her spiritual power, the third sparring partner, Duan Mingcheng, who was acquainted with Han Lu, made his appearance.

Duan Mingcheng is five years older than his younger brother Duan Xiao, but due to his lack of talent, he has been stuck at the fifth level of Qi Refining for nearly a year and a half.

This makes his combat experience at this level far richer than that of the first two sparring partners.