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As he watched Tuntun and Xiao Budian enter the Hidden Dragon Gorge, Yang Qing suddenly woke from his daze and looked at Zhu Yi with a hint of hesitation.

Zhu Yi turned around. "What’s wrong? Fifth Junior can just fire away."

Yang Qing laughed in embarrassment. "Second Senior, I feel that Song Qingyuan’s performance was also very outstanding."

"It’s not bad." Zhu Yi nodded calmly, "Judging by the strength he demonstrated so far during this Spiritual Conference, he can even be ranked in the Top 3, but the pressure he gives me still pales in comparison to Jiao Junchen and Shi Xingyun."

Zhu Yi paused, then continued saying, "This is just the feeling that I’m getting."

Yang Qing and Yue Hongyan looked lost.

Lin Feng then explained, "The feeling that your Second Senior is referring to, is not some esoteric concept, neither is it a psychological effect."

"When he observes others, certain details would stimulate his thoughts and attract his attention. Perhaps he can’t pinpoint the principles behind them at first, or identify the crux within, but he can still pick up some subtle hints."

Zhu Yi turned around abruptly. "Master, you’re referring to..."

Lin Feng smiled and nodded. "Your intuition is correct. Song Qingyuan did showcase the formidable strength of an elite Aurous Core cultivator in his previous match, but he exposed his weaknesses, unlike Shi Xingyun and Jiao Junchen who seemed almost flawless."

"That’s why you view him as a smaller threat as compared to Shi Xingyun and Jiao Junchen."

Zhu Yi sank deep into thought. "That woman Shi Xingyun is not someone who would speak carelessly. The Great Qin Empire’s intelligence agencies definitely have a certain grasp of Song Qingyuan’s situation. Under such circumstances, if she excludes Song Qingyuan from the list of opponents to look out for, it may be because she’s extremely confident."

Lin Feng did not reply, and scanned the Heaven Lake Sect’s delegation and thought, "The details I can pick up from a match are still relatively little. His subsequent match with the Purple Clouds Sect’s Gu Lei would probably test my intuition skills."

In the Hidden Dragon Gorge, the Sun Moon Sword Sect’s disciples, Li Dongtao and Yun Mei, were sizing up Tuntun curiously. Before they entered the gorge, their sect’s elders already informed them about Tuntun’s background, so they both knew that she was a pure-blooded Taotie.

Yun Mei alternated her gaze between Tuntun and Xiao Budian, and broke out into laughter after a while. "Senior, unleash everything we’ve got. We know they’re really strong, but it’s still very embarrassing if we lose."

Li Dongtao nodded and looked at Xiao Budian. "Your injuries haven’t fully healed, it’s best not to push yourself too hard."

Xiao Budian puffed up his small chest and exclaimed, "If I try my hardest, I can lose without regrets. I’ll give it my best shot."

Although his face still looked frail and pale, Xiao Budian’s words still sounded incredibly confident, which instantly roused a huge ovation from the crowd outside. Even those who were wishing for the Celestial Sect of Wonders to lose, were applauding his tenacity and courage.

Instead, it was Tuntun who pursed her lips and stared at him in disdain.

It was this brat who discreetly used his mana before entering the Hidden Dragon Gorge to tell her that, "I’ll leave this match to you. I’ll just sit at one side and watch you."

And now he’s acting all heroic and noble. How shameless!

"In a while, I’ll hide at one corner with Zhuge Fengling and see how you make a fool of yourself. Anyway, since you’re injured, you can’t outrun me." Tuntun’s small face cracked a sly grin, with the little abacus in her mind calculating madly, until she saw Xiao Budian bellow a war-cry and charge straight for Li Dongtao and Yun Mei.

Tuntun was momentarily stunned. "Am I seeing what I’m seeing? Is this little devil really going to charge in so recklessly with all his injuries?"

Xiao Budian then joined his hands together. Cyclones and thunderbolts were already swirling around him violently, clashing head-on with Li Dongtao and Yun Mei.

Li Dongtao belted out a long howl and drew his Sun Radiance Sword, which cast thousands of beams of light like the rising sun, and faced Xiao Budian’s attack head-on. Amidst the resplendent rays of sunlight clasped multiple rays of Yun Mei’s well-concealed Lunar Glow Sword Radiance.

The pair worked flawlessly together with great chemistry. The mana from both Sword Radiances mutually strengthened each other, and they relied on their combined efforts to weave a prison with their Sword Radiances, trapping Xiao Budian inside.

Xiao Budian was unfazed by this. His Infinite Thunderstorm spiked in power, and he singlehandedly took on the sword duo’s joint attack.

Tuntun batted her eyelids. "Was he just joking when he said those things previously?"

The little Taotie approached the battle cautiously and observed it closely. She noticed that although Xiao Budian was bursting with confidence, his body has yet to recover fully, and he was being restrained securely by Li Dongtao and Yun Mei.

If he continues to raise his mana levels, he may slip into an uncontrollable state again and tear his existing wounds, which made Xiao Budian extremely concerned.

Tuntun’s heart was riled up. "If I run away and hide now, I wouldn’t seem very faithful."

"More importantly, his Master is watching outside. If I don’t offer any help at all, I probably won’t be getting anything good when I get out of here."

"Furthermore, we have to win in order to enter the Ancient Huanghai World to feast on the goodies there. If we lose, this little devil can still enter but I can’t." Numerous ideas instantly flashed through Tuntun’s mind before she finally settled on one. "Um, I’ll support him from the side. I’ll just offer a helping hand, but he’ll handle most of the fighting."

With that, Tuntun didn’t go any closer and just opened her tiny mouth, unleashing her Devour abhijna. Her mouth was like a black hole, with incredible suction powers that instantly swallowed a portion of Li Dongtao and Yun Mei’s Sword Radiance.

Tuntun smacked her lips. "It tastes pretty good."

Li Dongtao and Yun Mei were slightly shocked. The Devour abhijna of the Taotie tribe is considered to be well-known, yet it is rarely seen. With the duo’s first encounter with it, it felt very tricky to deal with.

Yun Mei’s Sword Radiance did not change, but Li Dongtao’s sword suddenly transformed. The originally shining and blazing Sun Radiance Sword suddenly extinguished its light, as if a Tiangou had devoured the sun, with the sun instantly vanishing into thin air and the land descending into darkness.

There was only the weak glow given off by a flickering ring, like the astronomical phenomenon of the annual solar eclipse. This was the Solar Eclipse Swordplay, a variant of the Sun Radiance Swordplay.

Li Dongtao’s swordplay changed into the Solar Eclipse Swordplay, while Yun Mei’s swordplay remained as the gorgeous and shadowy Lunar Glow Swordplay. Both their Sword Radiances turned dim at the same time.

Tuntun then suddenly felt that she could no longer absorb much mana from her opponents. Everything before her became like an empty void.

But Xiao Budian seized this chance to go on the offense. With the opponents’ sword forces weakening, he immediately charged forward.

But after briefly withdrawing their strength, Li Dongtao and Yun Mei’s sword forces quickly bounced back explosively.

Li Dongtao’s swordplay turned back from the Solar Eclipse Swordplay into the authentic Sun Radiance Swordplay, shimmering with a golden glow, lighting up the heavens and earth like the midday sun.

On the other hand, Yun Mei’s sword force transformed from the traditional Lunar Glow Sword into the unrestrained Full Moon Holy Light Sword. Its power and impact was in no way inferior to Li Dongtao’s Sun Radiance Swordplay. A full moon rose into the sky and wanted to steal the sun’s limelight.

Both their swordplay did not coordinate by having one as the main and the other as the support. Instead, both would weaken and strengthen together, instantly unleashing the greatest, most explosive force.

Xiao Budian wanted to retaliate, but instantly took a painful blow to the head. Xiao Budian didn’t dare to have any signs of hesitation against Li Dongtao and Yun Mei’s majestic Sword Radiance, and immediately gave up on all forms of offense to concentrate on defending himself.

If he didn’t, he would have been pierced into a sieve by thousands of rays of Sword Radiance.

That being said, Xiao Budian was still sent flying back like a kite that broke off from its string by the overpowering assaults from the Sun Moon Sword Sect’s duo.

The duo’s sword force had just been unleashed, and rolled towards Xiao Budian and Tuntun, wave after wave like the rapid tides of a raging sea.

Tuntun gasped and took a deep breath, fully activating her Devour abhijna to forcefully swallow Li Dongtao and Yun Mei’s Sword Radiance.

But the complementing forces of the Sun and Moon had seemingly infinite power, like the coexistence of Yin and Yang, which gave Tuntun more and more pressure. "Such mana levels are already too ferocious even for someone in the Nascent Soul stage. The Sun Moon Sword Sect’s Dual Sword Combination is too impressive."

In the face of imminent danger, Tuntun didn’t dare to hold back, and charged her Grand Sun Primordial Flame fully and collided it with Li Dongtao and Yun Mei’s Sword Radiance.

The holy rays of the Grand Sun Primordial Flame ignited and exploded continuously, incinerating rays after rays of Sword Radiance, but it still couldn’t suppress Li Dongtao and Yun Mei’s endless wave-like assault.

But by temporarily weakening her opponents’ attack, Tuntun bought herself a precious sliver of time.

The little Taotie took a huge breath, and her tiny belly instantly became bloated and round. The next moment, Tuntun opened her mouth and fired something at Li Dongtao and Yun Mei.

Spit!

Tuntun expelled all the Sun Moon Sword Radiance that she had previously ingested using her Devour abhijna and had yet to digest, all in its original state, straight at Li Dongtao and Yun Mei’s incoming attack, and both forces collided violently!

The Sun Moon Sword Radiance against another Sun Moon Sword Radiance!

The amount of Sun Moon Sword Radiance Tuntun discharged was nonetheless limited, and cannot compare to the combined forces of Li Dongtao and Yun Mei’s boundless Sword Radiance mana, but that instant burst of energy still exceeded the latter in power.

"That’s too bad." Tuntun sighed, "But at least I disrupted their attack. I’ll take this chance to ..."

As she considered her options, Tuntun wanted to turn and flee, but then she witnessed a sight that made her burst into tears.

The last thing her retina registered was the view of Xiao Budian’s relaxed back before he vanished into the depths of the gorge’s dense forests in a whiz, with no trace of him after that.

At this moment, there seemed to be a bleak gust of autumn breeze blowing across the Hidden Dragon Gorge, leaving Tuntun stranded alone amidst the howling wind.

She felt as though a flock of crows just flew over her head, with bursts of laughter seemingly mocking her for her idiocy.

The air turned still, and time seemed to have come to a halt.

Tuntun gulped bitterly and turned around to see the Sword Radiance of Li Dongtao and Yun Mei’s Dual Sword Combination surge violently, which inundated the area and engulfed her.

To them, Xiao Budian’s move may be similar to what Zhuge Fengling did previously, but their strength levels cannot be mentioned in the same breath at all. The sword duo didn’t dare to believe that Xiao Budian was fleeing, and just assumed that he was lying in ambush, waiting for the opportunity to strike.

The pair instantly made the same decision, to focus all their efforts on one person first, to take down Tuntun before dealing with Xiao Budian.

Tuntun was immediately submerged in an endless ocean of Sword Radiance, and her shrill roar resounded throughout the Hidden Dragon Gorge.

"Shi Tianhao!!!"