Chapter 27.
Dark Battle Angel: The Rise of Yan Feitian.
~Pit of the Damned
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The first battle was between two random members from both factions, and the Yan clan emerged victorious with a crushing defeat over their opponent.
This dampened everyone's mood—except for the Yan clan members, who were howling like wailing spirits in delight at their first victory.
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The second bout featured the Yan clan youth, Yan Lei—the same one who had vomited his guts earlier in the Yan clan courtyard—and one of the Yin-Yang Dynasty's twin siblings, Yin Kai.
They approached each other and engaged in close-quarters sword combat, with Yin Kai gaining the initial advantage.
As the battle wore on, a dark shadow flickered in Yan Lei's eyes, and black veins appeared beneath his skin like slithering serpents. His power surged skyward. In an instant, he became a different person—possessed, almost.
**Crack~
Yan Lei tilted his neck left and right, popping joints echoing through the arena. His eyes turned emotionless.
Yin Kai, who had previously been holding his own, was pushed back and watched in growing fear at his opponent's transformation. Even so, he held his ground, gripping his sword tightly.
Yan Lei raised his sword vertically and charged. Their swords clashed in an instant, releasing a storm of sparks that rained down like amber lightning.
Yin Kai gritted his teeth and tried to resist the onslaught—but to no avail. His sword snapped in two, and he was hurled backward by the impact.
**Silence~
A pin-drop silence blanketed the entire arena.
Yan Lei had knocked Yin Kai out with a single sword strike. The Yan clan burst into ecstatic cheers, especially Yan Lei's great-grandfather, who grinned from ear to ear—forgetting how vehemently he'd once opposed the consumption of that malevolent black liquid.
This marked the second crushing victory for the Yan clan.
But while the Yan clan celebrated, Yan Rouxi remained silent. Though Yin Kai was a top-tier genius of the Yin-Yang Dynasty, his true strength lay in his synergy with his twin sister. The fact that Yan Lei had to rely on that eerie black power just to defeat Yin Kai revealed the massive disparity between the two factions.
A vicious thought crossed Yan Rouxi's mind. She whispered a few orders to her attendants, who immediately bowed and departed to relay her commands.
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The third bout began and ended swiftly in a victory for the Yin-Yang Dynasty. This time, the fighter from the dynasty struck hard and fast, not giving his opponent time to activate whatever strange ability he possessed.
Cheers erupted from the crowd as his name was chanted:
"Yang Wusheng!"
Yang Wusheng had helped the Yin-Yang Dynasty regain a sliver of dignity.
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The fourth bout...
The Yan clan's participant immediately activated his bizarre dark energy, transforming into a grotesque yaksha with bulging black veins. The crowd grew gloomy at the shameless display. As expected, the Yin-Yang Dynasty lost after a few brutal exchanges. The Yan youth's attacks were vicious and heavy handed—leaving his opponent in a sorry state.
The audience's disgust for the Yan clan, which they thought they had already maxed out on grew even more profound. Some even began cursing at the Yan clan's ten ancestors and ten generations.
The Yan clan, however, remained unfazed to all the curses and disgust thrown at them.
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The fifth bout followed the same pattern, ending in another overwhelming defeat for the Yin-Yang Dynasty. But this time, even the blind would be able to see the increasingly heavy-handed attacks from the Yan clan.
Thus, the first half concluded with a score of four to one in the Yan clan's favor.
After an hour's break, the second half began.
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This time, Yin Kai's twin sister, Yang Mei, stepped into the arena to face off against a beautiful young woman from the Yan clan Yan Huamei, a few years older but of similar strength, both at the Second Order of the Qi Refinement Stage.
The crowd erupted with excitement.
This was the battle they had unknowingly been waiting for—one they dubbed: "The Battle of Beauties."
Both Yang Mei and Yan Huamei had the character "Mei" 'meaning beauty' in their names. Not only that, they were the most powerful and stunning females of both factions under the age of twenty.
They appeared on stage like twin butterflies.—
One dazzling as a thousand exploding nebulae, her beauty radiant as dying stars.
The other, an icy queen exuding the charm of a thousand kinds of cold indifference.
Without any formalities, the sixth bout began.
Yang Mei wielded twin dual-edged short daggers with blades as thin as cicada wings, crafted from a mysterious red crystal inscribed with countless runes. Each strike released sparks of glowing embers that radiated with searing heat.
Yan Huamei, by contrast, wielded a curved double-bladed dagger that shimmered with a chilling metallic light. Its edge was unbearably sharp.
The two clashed, going toe-to-toe, their weapons singing with melodic "dings." Their ferocity increased with every strike, keeping the crowd on the edge of their seats.
Despite the furious pace, neither gained an upper hand.
Then, suddenly—
Yan Huamei disengaged, withdrawing from close combat. She unsheathed ten more curved, double-bladed daggers.
If one examined them carefully, each blade was part of a larger weapon.
With swift precision, Yan Huamei assembled the pieces into a long metallic crescent blade , gleaming like a scythe.
She leapt back into the fight, maneuvering the crescent blade with astonishing skill.
Yang Mei's eyes flashed with surprise—but a playful smile crept onto her lips.
Then, her red daggers began to sizzle, emitting a crisp burning sound.
She spun gracefully flipping behind Yan Huamei crisscrossing her daggers as it released a violent red arc of searing hot Qi. The blazing ray struck Yan Huamei's back directly—sending her flying across the arena like a ragdoll and leaving a scorched X marks the spot shaped burn across her robe.
True Qi!
Gasps erupted throughout the arena.
How could a teenage girl—believed to be only in the Second Order of Qi Refinement wield the power of True Qi?
Even if thought its purity was barely passable, it was unmistakably True Qi!
The crowd erupted in loud a chatter, everyone trying to process what they had just seen. Theories buzzed through the air.
Yan Huamei turned, blood trickling from her cherry lips, her eyes filled with disbelief and indignation as she faced Yang Mei.
"Yang Jiang, what is the meaning of this trickery?! How could a person at the Qi Refinement possible annex the power of True Qi" Yan Rouxi called out.
Yang Jiang scoffed, retorting coldly, "Each to their own means."
"Shameless!" an elder beside Yan Rouxi roared.
"You dare call this foul a 'means'? Shame! Shame! Shame!"
This old man was a zealous follower of Yan Rouxi's cause.
Yang Jiang smirked.
"One can eat whatever they want, but not say whatever they please. Moreover, our dynasty's methods are far more orthodox than your clan's eerie black aura—which I could also question."
The elder fell silent, nervously gulping.
Everyone knew—if they investigated the black aura's origin, the Yan clan would be in deep trouble.
At best, it could be considered a forbidden concoction.
As for its true nature... only the Matriarch knew.
Yang Jiang went on:
"Never mind all that. Let me enlighten you. As we all know, the Qi Refinement Stage purifies one's condensed Qi three folds after surpassing false Qi. These phases are classified into the First, Second, and Third Orders.
"After the Third Order comes the True Qi Stage. But during a cultivation relapse, Yang Mei and Yin Kai discovered something extraordinary. An accident led them to uncover a sacred technique that allowed them to condense traces of True Qi even while still in the Refinement Stage.
"What you saw just now was a portion of the True Qi Yang Mei has accumulated over many months."
The crowd went wild.
Never before had such a thing been heard of—condensing True Qi at the Second Order of Qi Refinement!
The Yan clan's expressions darkened.
If more monsters like this were to keep emerging from the Yin-Yang Dynasty, how could they hope to keep up?
Back in the arena, Yan Huamei gave Yang Mei a hard look before silently forfeiting. She refused to use the black aura to win—and even if she did, it would've been useless against Yang Mei's True Qi.
She leapt off the stage, ending the sixth bout.
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The seventh bout featured Yang Wei against a random Yan clan girl—and, unsurprisingly, the Yin-Yang Dynasty won.
The eighth and ninth bouts were Yan clan victories, thanks once again to their mysterious black aura.
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Finally, the tenth and last bout for the first round began: Yan Feitian versus a girl from the Yin-Yang Dynasty. Although everyone expected the Yan clan to win—but what happened next stunned them all.
Yan Feitian didn't move a single step nor summon any weapons.
A strange amnesty glow flickered in his eyes—and was reflected in the girl's eyes.
Thud.
She collapsed, completely unconscious and defenseless.
Yan Feitian calmly descended from the stage, indifferent to the uproar that followed.
Gasps and murmurs spread like wildfire—even the Yin-Yang Dynasty and the Yan clan were shocked. Yan Rouxi herself hadn't expected such a decisive victory.
Even Yang Wei's brows furrowed. He hadn't taken down his opponent that easily—and she hadn't been nearly as strong as the girl Yan Feitian had just defeated.
This girl was no ordinary fighter. She was a known genius, twenty years of age, with one foot into the True Qi Stage and with a solid foundation.
She should've at least been able to put up a fight.
Yang Wei had not choice but to reevaluate Yan Feitian once more.
On the other side, Yan Rouxi was thrilled—but even she was unsure what method Yan Feitian had used.
But to Yan Feitian, none of this mattered.
He sat quietly in an isolated corner, watching the shocked expressions around him—as if it had nothing to do with him.
Everyone knew one thing for sure:
This was only the beginning of the rise of Yan Feitian.