The Long Journey to Immortality

"What's going on?" Han Lu asked, slightly puzzled.

However, she quickly guessed the reason.

"Could it be that Chai Tianjiao's master in the Extreme Heaven Palace, or other high-ranking members of the Extreme Heaven Palace, instructed Chai Tianjiao not to kill anyone in this friendly match?"

After thinking about it for a moment, Han Lu felt that this deduction made a lot of sense.

Ultimately, this tournament was designed to pave the way for exchanges between East and West. Fighting can enhance communication, but killing will certainly damage relationships that are not already based on much trust.

With that thought, Han Lu breathed a sigh of relief and focused her attention on the upcoming arena match.

After everyone leaves the stage, the first match between Han Lu and Dong Fengyu will begin in 15 minutes.

As soon as she stepped off the stage, Fu Tianqiao eagerly took out a booklet from her storage bag and handed it to Han Lu, saying, "Senior Sister Han, there is information about that Dong Fengyu in this booklet. Take a look quickly."

Han Lu took the booklet and saw that it was a "snack of intelligence".

"How did you get this? Did you buy it?" Han Lu was slightly surprised, not expecting Fu Tianqiao to have such cleverness.

"Yes, I got up very early today and took a stroll around this area. I spent one spirit stone to buy the information that this gambler had prepared."

The cultivation world of the Great Yu Dynasty is far more open than that of the Central Plains. For example, in this friendly match, the Extreme Heaven Palace did not miss this great opportunity to earn spirit stones, and directly opened a betting platform in its official capacity to attract bets.

The fifteen minutes the referee mentioned for Han Lu and the others to prepare seemed more like a time reserved for the many cultivators who dreamed of "turning a bicycle into a motorcycle."

With the market there, naturally, many cultivators like Zhong Wencheng would take these scraps and sell them outside the competition venue.

These cultivators wouldn't consider whether selling this information to Fu Tianqiao would expose the background of the participants from the Extreme Heaven Palace.

For them, making money is the most important thing.

Faced with such a wonderful opportunity, even Han Lu, who was extremely confident in herself, did not hold back.

Borrowing the booklet, Han Lu quickly found the section about Dong Fengyu in the twenty-odd pages of information and began to read it carefully.

A cultivator's memory and reading ability are a hundred times better than those of an ordinary person.

Han Lu finished reading the few thin pages in no more than twenty breaths, reading ten lines at a glance.

"Thank you. Tianqiao's opponent, Wu Jiayue, is no pushover either. Be careful when you go into the ring later." Han Lu returned the booklet and gave Fu Tianqiao another word of advice.

Fu Tianqiao smiled and nodded, "Thank you, Senior Sister Han. I will be careful."

After speaking, Fu Tianqiao took a few steps and generously shared the information in his hand with the two cultivators from Xuan Yang Valley.

Huang Ziqiang and Ni Kuan were slightly surprised, but they both happily accepted Fu Tianqiao's kindness.

However, after reviewing the information, neither of them smiled.

Upon seeing the information in the document and understanding Mo Zhehan's approximate strength, Huang Ziqiang couldn't help but gasp and sigh, "He actually possesses the bloodline of the Candle Dragon and can even transform into a true spirit to fight?"

Ni Kuan, who was already under a lot of psychological pressure, broke out in a cold sweat after learning about Chai Tianjiao's results, realizing that he had drawn the worst possible lot.

Huang Ziqiang's words reached Han Lu's ears.

"Mo Zhehan also possesses the True Spirit Bloodline?"

Han Lu's eyes darted around as she recalled her experience of fighting the "fake Azure Dragon" in the competition.

"In that case, I'm starting to look forward to a big battle with him in the upcoming semi-finals or finals."

Chapter 610 A Battle of Gentlemen

Han Lu didn't know much about Zhulong.

All she knew was that the Candle Dragons were not a major clan among the dragons, but they were definitely a lineage of dragons whose bloodline was close to that of the "true dragons" from before the ancient cultivation era.

Zhulong's innate supernatural abilities are 70% similar to those of the Prison Phoenix of the Phoenix Clan.

But when the fight actually starts, Han Lu can't say for sure what moves Mo Zhehan, who has transformed into the Candle Dragon, will use.

"But that's for the future. There's no need to think too much about it now. Let's focus on how to deal with Dong Fengyu's many tricks."

After mentally rehearsing the upcoming battle several times based on the information, Han Lu only came up with one sentence.

"Be careful and cautious."

Dong Fengyu was a minor celebrity in the Jitian Palace, and he was one of the seven people selected through the competition. Naturally, his information was clearly written in the records.

Han Lu already knew his specific cultivation level, the number of magic treasures he possessed, the types of spells he was good at, and whether he had any secret techniques he had hidden away.

With her rich combat experience, Han Lu felt that under these circumstances, she had increased her original 95% chance of winning to 99%.

Unless Dong Fengyu had truly mastered some earth-shattering secret technique in the two months leading up to the competition, Han Lu didn't think he could gain any advantage over her.

The fifteen minutes of preparation time passed quickly.

When the eloquent Golden Core cultivator's "announcer" voice rang out again outside the rest area, Han Lu stood up from the chair in the rest area and walked out silently and unhurriedly.

As soon as Han Lu stepped out of the array's restrictions, she was greeted by a sound wave that was even louder than when she entered.

Originally, playing away from home, Han Lu should have only had "seven and a half" supporters cheering her on.

However, thanks to the betting platform set up by Jitian Palace, Han Lu easily attracted a lot of supporters who hoped she could win the competition.

Although her motives were not pure, it ultimately gave Han Lu more confidence in this "foreign land".

Listening to the shouts of the Jitian Palace disciples watching the match, Han Lu also learned about the approximate odds for her match.

Since even the Extreme Heaven Palace didn't know Han Lu's exact strength, the betting odds for the first round were set quite conservatively.

Based on the information that Han Lu had only recently advanced to the late Foundation Establishment stage and had only been there for half a year, as well as the approximate strength information obtained by the Nascent Soul cultivator using divine sense to detect her aura, we can understand the situation.

Han Lusheng's odds reached 2.5 to 1, making him the slightly weaker side in this matchup.

Upon hearing this result, Han Lu was filled with regret, regretting that she had not staked all the more than ten thousand spirit stones in her storage bag on herself.

Otherwise, she could have earned 15,000 spirit stones from this one trip alone, making a big profit by taking advantage of this trip to the Great Yu Dynasty.

Although it was only a hundred meters, Han Lu used her lightness technique and it still took her a full half minute to walk to the arena, making Dong Fengyu, who had already stood on the arena, wait for a long time.

This is not a strategy that Han Lu wanted to use, such as "one effort, then decline, then exhaustion".

She simply wanted to slow down, to let the intense atmosphere get her blood pumping, so she could unleash even greater combat power in the battle.

"Fairy Han, shall we stop our battle here today when it's over?"

As expected, Dong Fengyu maintained his composure and etiquette in the arena battle, just like a cultivator from the Central Plains.

"Fellow Daoist Dong," Han Lu returned the greeting, "Indeed, we have no grudges against each other, and the exchange between East and West is an inevitable trend. There's no need to fight until we're black and blue on the stage."

"I would like to ask Fellow Daoist Dong to give me more guidance and let me see the myriad Dao techniques in the Extreme Heaven Palace."

"Fairy Han, please don't be so polite. I'm sure I'll get to see some of the many tricks up my sleeve when I see Fairy Han."

The two exchanged pleasantries in an extremely civilized manner.

It must be said that although both of them were eager to win, they did a flawless job of putting on a show.

Seeing Dong Fengyu's performance, the Palace Master of Zhetian Palace, who was wholeheartedly trying to promote harmonious exchanges between the East and the West, naturally smiled broadly.

Within the Jitian Palace, there were quite a few who disliked Dong Fengyu, this outlier.

Many disciples, unable to defeat Dong Fengyu, could only resort to verbal sparring at this moment, sitting in the stands and shouting "hypocrite!" to make themselves feel better.

Seeing that the two had run out of things to say, the Golden Core cultivator acting as referee finally spoke up, "Are you ready?"

Han Lu touched the storage bag at her waist and said, "Ready."

"Elder Huo, I'm ready too." Dong Fengyu was familiar with the Extreme Heaven Palace cultivator who was acting as the referee.

Elder Huo nodded slightly and flew down to the side of the arena.

The formation was activated, and a strong yet paper-thin light screen covered the arena.

This formation, specially drawn for this friendly match, can completely withstand even the attacks of a late-stage Golden Core cultivator once activated, provided that there is sufficient spiritual energy, causing them to dissipate within the formation.

"Count down to five, the competition is about to begin!" The booming voice of the Golden Core cultivator who had previously been in charge of announcing the start of the competition echoed throughout the arena.

"Five...four...three..."

The entire audience counted down together, and the deafening sound was like a sledgehammer rhythmically pounding on Han Lu's eardrums.

"One...begin!"

As soon as they finished speaking, Han Lu and Dong Fengyu made their moves simultaneously, officially opening the curtain on this East-West friendly match.

Dong Fengyu patted his storage bag, and eight array flags flew out of it. Under his control using his weapon manipulation technique, they flew precisely to the four corners and sides of the huge arena.

Seeing this, Han Lu, who originally intended to use other magical treasures, changed her tactics and summoned the spiritual energy sword from her dantian.

With a shout of "Swift!" he controlled the spiritual sword to split into eight, slashing towards the array flag.

One side attempts to set up a formation, while the other side uses methods to disrupt this process. At the beginning, both sides fight in a fairly conventional manner.

Seeing Han Lu's methods, Dong Fengyu did not take them seriously. He had used this move at least twenty or thirty times in sect battles, so he naturally had plenty of ways to deal with enemies breaking through formations.

He made a hand seal, and another twenty-four talismans flew out of his storage bag.

Once all the talismans are activated, they follow the array flags, serving as cover and a barrier to defend against external enemies.

"A trivial skill."

Han Lu muttered a disdainful remark to herself, but did not change her mind about continuing to use her spirit sword to destroy the array flags.

Applying the "point" technique she had previously comprehended to her spiritual sword, the spiritual sword, which was in perfect harmony with her mind and spirit and almost became one with her, perfectly presented the sword intent of the "point" technique that Han Lu now understood.

The spirit swords flew at an extremely fast speed; to the naked eye, they were only a flash of light before the eight spirit swords Han Lu had separated made contact with the talisman.

These talismans, drawn by Golden Core cultivators, could have easily withstood an attack from a high-grade magic weapon, a spirit sword.

However, under Han Lu's spirit sword, the defense of these twenty-four talismans was practically useless.

With a single strike, in an instant, the eight array flags were exposed to Han Lu's spiritual energy sword.

Dong Fengyu was shocked and tried to use his skills to rescue him, but it was too late.

Han Lu's spirit sword accurately severed the flagpoles of the eight array flags in half, completely stripping them of their spiritual power, rendering them unusable in this battle.

In the first round, Han Lu won by a narrow margin.

Chapter 611 Handling with Ease

The severed battle flags are temporarily rendered useless and need to be repaired before they can be used in battle again.