"What will you do without me, Bai Yun?!" Gu Chen shook his head, a highly arrogant smirk plastered across his handsome, dirt-smudged face.

"What will you do?"

Gu Chen stepped into the bright sunlight of the Exit Plaza and stopped.

His immaculate white robes were torn at places, dried black blood stained his sleeves, and fresh claw marks marred his chest.

But his posture was perfectly straight, and he carried himself like a conquering king returning to his peasants.

Bai Yun’s smug smile vanished, as he gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, glaring at the Golden Boy.

"You look like a chewed-up piece of trash, Gu Chen. Did you spend the three days hiding from me?"

"Hiding?" Gu Chen chuckled, "From you?"

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and stopped suppressing his Qi.

BOOM!

A massive, suffocating wave of spiritual pressure violently erupted from Gu Chen’s body. The sheer force of it cracked the ground beneath his boots. The invisible shockwave hit the front rows of the crowd, physically pushing several weaker disciples backward.

It wasn’t the aura of a 7th Stage Spirit Realm cultivator anymore. It wasn’t even the 8th Stage.

It was the heavy, absolute, dominant pressure of the 9th Stage of the Spirit Realm.

The entire crowd fell dead silent. One could hear a pin drop.

"He... he broke through!" Gu Mo gasped, his eyes bulging out of his scarred face, "Twice! He broke through two minor realms in three days!"

"That’s our young master!" a Gu Clan disciple screamed, completely losing his mind.

The Gu Clan side of the plaza erupted into deafening, chaotic cheers. The despair from just a few minutes ago vanished entirely.

Their champion had returned, and he was an absolute monster.

Up on the viewing platform, Patriarch Gu Yangtian shot out of his heavy wooden chair. His grim, suppressed anger was instantly replaced by overwhelming joy and pride.

"Hahaha!" Gu Yangtian roared, pointing a trembling finger at the Bai Clan Patriarch, "Do you see that, Bai Haoran?! That is the true genius of Poison Valley Town! Your little Bai Yun is nothing but a stepping stone for him!"

Bai Haoran’s face turned an ugly shade of purple. He gripped his beard tightly, entirely unable to retort.

At this age?

Already a 9th Stage of the Spirit Realm?

This was terrifying.

Down in the plaza, Gu Chen ignored the cheers, as he strutted directly toward the central counting table, completely ignoring Bai Yun, who was grinding his teeth in pure humiliation.

Gu Chen unhooked a massive, bulging spatial sack from his waist. He slammed it onto the wooden counter with a loud thud.

"Count it," Gu Chen commanded the elders, his voice dripping with authority.

The elders scrambled to open the sack. They dumped the contents onto the table, and the crowd gasped again.

Apart from the dozen or so beast cores, there were incredibly rare, glowing medicinal herbs.

From poisonous herbs to Qi nourishing ones, Gu Chen had everything there.

Gu Chen had used his ’Righteous Heavenly Eyes’ to loot every single hidden stash and secondary chamber in the Sovereign’s tomb. He had found all the leftovers Gu Fan hadn’t bothered to pick up, it wasn’t much, but it was more than enough to win this lousy tournament. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"This... this is incredible!" the Gu Clan elder stammered, rapidly calculating the energy values. "Gu Chen! Total score... 4,900 points!"

The giant Qi screen flickered violently.

Gu Chen’s name rocketed past everyone.

It smashed Bai Yun out of the 1st place spot, claiming the absolute top of the board in bright, glowing gold text.

"We won!" Gu Mo screamed, hugging a nearby disciple.

"Suck on that, Bai Clan dogs!" the Gu Clan disciples roared, completely throwing the earlier taunts right back at their rivals.

"Hand over the Spirit Mines! Your top genius is just a joke!"

Bai Yun looked down at the ground, his face burning with absolute shame. He gripped his sword so tightly his knuckles turned white, but he didn’t dare say a word. The power gap between him and Gu Chen was now an insurmountable chasm.

While the entire Gu Clan celebrated their incredible, last-minute victory, on the elevated platform, Madam Li, sat rigidly in her ornate chair next to her cheering husband.

She was wearing a purple silk dress, looking every bit the noble and untouchable Matriarch. But her perfectly manicured hands were gripping the silk fabric on her lap so tightly her knuckles were white.

She wasn’t looking at the glowing scoreboard.

She wasn’t looking at the Clan prodigy Gu Chen.

At this moment, she didn’t give a single flying fuck about the clan’s glory or the Spirit Mines.

Her dark, anxious eyes were frantically scanning the thick, swirling fog at the edge of the forest, with a tight knot of worry twisted in her chest.

’Where are you?’ Madam Li thought desperately, biting the inside of her cheek.

Gu Fan wasn’t the dreaded stepson he wanted dead anymore. He was her... She was his...master.

She was completely addicted to that playful smile, those sarcastic remarks, that warm touch.

If Gu Fan didn’t walk out of that fog, she felt like she was going to lose her fucking mind. She didn’t care if the entire Gu Clan burned to the ground as long as he was safe.

"Worrying about the final tallies, my dear?" Gu Yangtian asked, completely misinterpreting her tense posture as he sat back down, still grinning from ear to ear, "Relax. Gu Chen has secured our future."

"Yes, husband," Madam Li replied softly, keeping her face perfectly blank while her eyes remained glued to the forest entrance, "He has done well."

Down in the plaza, the Bai Clan disciples were completely silent, their heads hanging low.

"Well, Bai Haoran," Gu Yangtian called out across the platform, thoroughly enjoying the moment, "I believe the hour is almost up. Are you ready to formally concede the bet?"

"You..." Bai Haoran gritted his teeth, opening his mouth to formally surrender the Spirit Mines. There was no time left.

"I..."

But before he could throw in his hat, the dense, toxic fog at the edge of the plaza parted once more.

The heavy, confident click of boots against the stone drew the attention of the entire crowd.

Bai Bing stepped out of the Ten Thousand Poison Forest.

The entire plaza froze. Every single eye locked onto her.

Unlike Gu Chen, who looked battered and bloodied, and unlike Gu Ling, who looked exhausted and ragged, Bai Bing looked absolutely, flawlessly immaculate.

Her pristine white and silver robes didn’t have a single speck of dirt or a drop of blood on them. Her long, dark hair flowed perfectly down her back.

Her skin literally glowed with a terrifying, fiery vitality. A heavy, scorching heat rippled off her body, distorting the air around her like a mirage.

She didn’t try to hide her cultivation either.

BOOM!

A second shockwave of 9th Stage Spirit Realm pressure slammed across the plaza. It crashed directly into Gu Chen’s aura, completely neutralising it.

The crowd went into absolute uproar.

"What the fuck?!" Bai Yun screamed, completely dropping his sword onto the stone floor, "She... she broke through her stagnation?!"

"She’s at the 9th Stage too?!"

Was there a sale in the Ten Thousand Poison Forest that he walked by?

"Heaven!"

Bai Yun suddenly felt dizzy and dropped on his knees, falling face first in the ground.

But everyone was looking at Bai Bing to even care about some random Bai Yun.

Bai Yun?

Who Bai Yun?