The tournament matches continued, with cultivators knocked out of the running one by one. Sun Fuyu, however, continued to win. One of his major strengths was being able to recover qi quicker than others.

Wen Zhihao’s home base became a well frequented spot. Zhou Sheng and Lin Yijun, Wang Li Wei and his friends, Hu Jingyan and Sun Fuyu’s other shixiongs and shijies, and Zhang Wu would all come by at various meal times.

The number of animals lazing around grew, and many curious cultivators came by and became temporary cat-slaves. When a rumour got out that spending just half an hour with Disciple Wen’s cats was enough to soothe a cultivator’s heart, even more cultivators flocked by.

Wen Zhihao looked at all the cultivators earnestly playing with the animals, petting them when they wanted to be petted, feeding them when they wanted to be fed, and coughed lightly. At least they’re conducting animal therapy on their own accord.

The demonic tiger, prowling on the rooftop, had his tail held up proudly. Soon, they’d have a cat-slave army!

 

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The last day of the tournament were the grand final matches of each cultivation bracket.

Multiple magical image-and-sound recording devices were set up around the stadium: cultivators wanted to take these recordings back to their sect to show off their sect’s predicted victory.

The Foundation Building¹Recall that the stages are Qi Refining < Foundation Building < Golden Core < Nascent Soul < ... bracket was first (there was no Qi Refining bracket). After all the Foundation Building matches concluded, Lin Yijun personally awarded the winners with their own special winner’s banner and a large sum of spiritual stones.

These young Foundation Building cultivators basked in the entire stadium’s applause: they were the most promising of junior cultivators. Some senior cultivators were thinking that they should spend spiritual stones and treasures to entice these winners back into their own sect…

The Golden Core bracket was next. Moves became more powerful.

The Mid-Stage²Recall the sublevels: Early-stage < Middle-stage < Late-stage < Peak Golden Core finale was between a sword cultivator and a whip cultivator—the one that defeated Wang Li Wei. The sword cultivator won, just barely. Wang Li Wei paid careful attention: he’d defeat that whip-wielding cultivator in the future too!

When the Late-Stage Golden Core finale match began, Wen Zhihao actually felt nervous for Sun Fuyu. He had to take his own advice and breathe deep breaths to dissipate the anxiety. Wen Zhihao’s sword, Mao Lan Meng, secretly sneaked out of Wen Zhihao’s spatial ring to watch the match.

Sun Fuyu faced his opponent with deep concentration and calmness. The other was also a wind-root sword user. This was a battle to see who could most effectively wield their blade.

Dust and qi spun chaotically around the stage as the two cultivators attacked each other. Blades rang, and explosions sounded whenever they broke the sound barrier.

Wen Zhihao’s heart was pained every time Sun Fuyu was hit. After this, Wen Zhihao had to pamper Xiao Yu as much as he could.

As the battle extended, Sun Fuyu’s trained ability to continuously pull in qi from the surrounding environment nudged the match to his advantage. As his opponent became fatigued, he was just a little fresher, stronger. With tricky sword parries and a compressed burst of fresh qi, Sun Fuyu was able to push his opponent all the way to the battle stage line!!

The crowd roared.

The other cultivator swore at their inattention—how did they get so close to the edge in the first place??? They wanted to get back inside the battle stage, but their feet were both just over the line! They had already been pushed out!

“…And this match goes to Cultivator Sun Fuyu! Cultivator Sun Fuyu of the Golden Sun Sect is the winner!”

Sun Fuyu halted his next move in shock. He…had done it? He stared at his opponent, then stared at the referee, not quite understanding words through the loud audience.

He was in a daze when the referee led him to take a seat with the other Golden Core winners, so that the Peak-Stage Golden Core match could start.

Relief filled Wen Zhihao’s chest, before elation flooded it. His lips curved up into a bright smile. He hugged Xiao Bai, he beamed at Aunty Liu.

“Xiao Yu won! Your little Uncle won, did you see?”

“Yes! Little Uncle won!” The children jumped up and down in excitement, waving their banners.

Wen Zhihao barely paid any attention to the Peak-stage Golden Core match. His gaze met Sun Fuyu’s across the stadium.

Heart overflowing, Wen Zhihao blew a kiss to his fiancé.

Sun Fuyu curved his eyes in happiness and beamed back.

Once the Peak-Stage Golden Core match ended, Lin Yijun called the Golden Core winners up to the central stage one by one and presented them with their winner’s banner and monetary reward.

Sun Fuyu thanked Senior Lin Yijun and looked fearlessly at the crowd of cultivators. Now, everyone had seen his ability. And he would only get stronger. No one should now dare to hurt Wen-ge!

After the round of applause, Sun Fuyu flew directly into Wen Zhihao’s arms.

“Xiao Yu was so handsome,” Wen Zhihao said happily. “Xiao Yu was so strong!” He kissed Sun Fuyu on the cheeks, on the nose, and on the forehead.

Sun Fuyu laughed, feeling breathless. “Wen-ge, Wen-ge…”

“Congratulations, Xiao Fuyu,” Liu Jing said warmly.

Everyone gave him their congratulations. Sun Fuyu’s cheeks went red from all the attention.

“We’ll hang your banner in the hall of our new house,” Wen Zhihao said.

“En,” Sun Fuyu rested his head on Wen Zhihao’s shoulder. Now that all his matches were over, he could finally relax.

Then came the Nascent Soul bracket. The Early-Stage match was won by a cultivator named Hu Lingzhi who could flexibly handle over one hundred swords at the same time.

Ruan Lanxi’s eyes glowed. She was already planning to ask Uncle Wen if she could have two more swords!

Zhou Sheng was in the Middle-Stage Nascent Soul bracket. His moves were devastatingly sharp and filled with a cold aura. His polearm cut through qi and his blood threads completely suppressed his opponent.

Each subsequent battle featured more explosions, more power.

The Peak-Stage Nascent Soul match was the last—having Divine Spirit cultivators fighting would destroy entire cities, entire islands, let alone the stadium. And cultivators above that level were out of the question. Anyway, most of the high-level cultivators were often in seclusion.

Spectators gasped when the Peak-Stage Nascent Soul cultivator cleaved the battle stage in half, the shrapnel slamming against the stadium shields that protected the audience. Qi clashed against qi so powerfully that the stadium vibrated. With a loud explosion of white-hot fire, only one cultivator was left standing, the other knocked out of the ring.

Cheers and confused roars threatened to deafen ears. The demonic and righteous cultivators had treated this tournament as a way to fight against the other side—yet the winner was a rogue cultivator??!! No, not a rogue, but rather a cultivator from a tiny almost unknown sect that dabbled in everything, and who had allied with demonic cultivators at times, and with righteous cultivators at other times…

“If Lin Yijun had fought, he would have been the winner! The righteous cultivators are the strongest!”

“Tch, just you wait, next time our demonic cultivators will win!”

“Invite that cultivator back to our sect!”

“No, we’ll invite that cultivator first!!”

Lin Yijun kept a cool expression as he waited for the winners to come up to the central stage. He announced and presented the winner’s banner to Hu Lingzhi first. Then, he announced Zhou Sheng.

A little thought flashed in Zhou Sheng’s mind, but in the end, he restrained himself from kissing Lin Yijun. They’d already kissed in public once, there was no need to blind eyes again. But after the tournament concluded…

Lin Yijun’s gaze darkened slightly. He could clearly see the ‘dual cultivation’ thoughts in Zhou Sheng’s eyes. It was torturous to maintain a cool and collected facade to present the last two winners of the tournament.

Lin Yijun then called all the winners to come back on stage along with the main organiser team.

Another senior cultivator took over the final words. “…Let us give a round of acknowledgement to the hard-working and dedicated cultivators who have made this tournament possible! A round of acknowledgement to the audience! And finally, one big round of applause to the top cultivators of the world!”

Flower petals rained down on the stage upon which the winners stood. All of them were outstanding cultivators from different sects. Their names will be engraved down on a plaque to commemorate the first ever cultivator-world-wide tournament.

And Wen Zhihao had eyes for just one of those cultivators: Sun Fuyu. He set off some butterfly-light talismans in celebration, so proud that he could burst. Sun Fuyu was the best!

 

 

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If I got my own characters’ cultivation stages wrong...please tell me T_T