As the battle ended, Zhang Yu, holding Ying Mingchi, was enveloped in layers of divine light and guided back to the waiting area.

“Finally, I won.”

Zhang Yu glanced at the half-remaining Ying Mingchi, silently marveling at the opponent’s powerful physique, truly the strongest he had ever encountered.

“Compared to humans, the physical limit of these demon descendants is inherently stronger. He almost escaped.”

“But… why does this guy smell better and better?”

Smelling the aroma of roasted dragon meat emanating from the opponent, Zhang Yu felt his stomach rumble, and his saliva glands accelerated their production.

Zhang Yu wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth, and the next moment, he and Ying Mingchi landed in the waiting area.

Jiu Tianliu’s gaze became incredibly complex as he watched Zhang Yu return from the battle.

He had not expected that Zhang Yu, who was originally only supposed to gather intelligence on Ying Mingchi for him, would actually be able to defeat the opponent, and even defeat Ying Mingchi head-on in a direct confrontation.

At this moment, Jiu Tianliu saw something called ambition in Zhang Yu.

This junior, who had risen from the Civil Engineering Department, whom he once looked down upon, who was once obscure at Wanfa University, and whom he never considered a rival, had unknowingly grown to a level close to his own.

“This junior of mine, who just started his fifth year…”

Jiu Tianliu mused, “To what extent has his ambition reached?”

As Jiu Tianliu looked at Zhang Yu, Kuang Tianqing on the side also watched Zhang Yu with interest, thinking, “Has he improved again?”

“Although in this Top Ten League, almost every student improves in every battle.”

“But few show such a significant improvement as Zhang Yu.”

“No wonder Dao Qiankun values this kid.”

“And that hardness…”

Kuang Tianqing recalled the moments when she frantically attacked Zhang Yu at the end of their first team battle.

It could be said that Zhang Yu’s toughness after turning into a living stake deeply impressed her.

“What a hard guy, even harder than I estimated in the team battle.”

“Hehe, if I get a chance to fight again, should I compete with him on hardness? Or overcome hardness with softness?”

Kuang Tianqing licked her lips, feeling that Zhang Yu was becoming increasingly valuable to defeat.

Bang!

Upon returning, Zhang Yu casually tossed the half-dragon-bodied Ying Mingchi onto the ground.

On Ying Mingchi’s body, various injuries surged like waves, constantly sweeping through him.

But compared to the physical pain, the anger and humiliation in his heart caused him even greater suffering.

“I actually completely lost to this scumbag, this demon descendant discriminator, in a direct close-quarters combat…”

“A great humiliation… truly a great humiliation.”

At this moment, Ying Mingchi dared not even open his eye-gaze, fearing that as soon as he accessed the spirit realm, he would be bombarded with various taunts, criticisms, and insults.

Especially, Ying Mingchi could imagine that a significant portion of these would come from other demon descendants.

Besides the blow to his reputation, this defeat severely impacted Ying Mingchi’s long-held values.

“The path of xian dao, valuing the human form for its beauty, is because the human form is the most standardized form, the basic form considered by the Ten Great Sects when designing the xian dao framework. It is the most suitable form for cultivating various cultivation methods and using various dharma skeletons and magical treasures.”

“Although the demon race’s bloodline grants powerful physiques and diverse abilities, its potential and adaptability in xian dao are consequently inferior to the human form.”

“But now… I’ve even lost in physique to him… lost to a human?”

“Then even if I found the xianmen cultivation method to transform human bloodline into demon descendant bloodline… what good would it do?”

He kept thinking, but could never find an answer.

Just as his thoughts were crumbling, threatening to completely overwhelm this true dragon, Ying Mingchi suddenly perceived a familiar feeling in Zhang Yu’s gaze towards him.

It was the gaze of a demon descendant looking at another demon descendant.

In Ying Mingchi’s mind, the scene of Zhang Yu creating dragon beasts on the arena reappeared.

And the sight of him fighting head-on in the sea of fire.

Finally, all these images converged into lines of text from the theory of human and demon having the same origin.

“Humans are also demons.”

“Perhaps this Zhang Yu also underwent atavism, awakening the human demon bloodline, which is why he defeated me.”

Ying Mingchi thought, “I didn’t lose to a human; I just lost to another demon descendant.”

Zhang Yu was uncomfortably dazed by the aroma of meat emanating from Ying Mingchi, so he simply opened his eye-gaze and looked at the other ongoing battles.

Besides him and Jiu Tianliu, Yan Xiang of Youming University and Zang Shenyu of Jingang University had also long since finished their battles.

Yan Xiang defeated Xu Haixuan, the top student of the Talisman Department at Wanfa University, while Zang Shenyu defeated Di Lianzhong, the top student of Baigu University.

Apart from these, three matches were still in progress.

Zhang Yu’s gaze shifted, and his eye-gaze displayed the scene of Tian Shenggong and Yan Qianji clashing.

Both sides were powerful cultivators from the Refiner Department, but their fighting styles were completely different.

Tian Shenggong wielded a hundred-meter-tall military-grade puppet, while Yan Qianji commanded a vast army of military-grade puppets covering the mountains.

Especially, Yan Qianji’s puppet army, just by its appearance, gave Zhang Yu a sense of familiarity, making him feel as if he was seeing Dao Qiankun, Kuang Tianqing, or even himself.

And Tian Shenggong’s giant military-grade puppet made Zhang Yu feel even more familiar.

Various applications of earth sha gravity, as well as water vapor condensation, thunder sweeping,仿妖 (fang yao) structures, and spirit energy pollution… Zhang Yu felt as if he was seeing students from various schools in the Top Ten League stitched together.

“Damn, Jihu Zhanfa, this isn’t plagiarism? Not infringement?”

Zhang Yu immediately reported the situation to An Zhen Zhenjun, the coach of the school team.

The bad news was that Tian Shenggong’s techniques were at most a reference, not plagiarism, because with the technical support of Xianbing University and Jihu Group, he cleverly circumvented all technical copyrights and brushed past infringement.

The good news was that this approach made Tian Shenggong’s various technical applications far inferior to the original.

The worse news was that it indicated that the current Tian Shenggong was far from his peak.

An Zhen Zhenjun: “Once it comes to a crucial moment, if he is willing to infringe in battle, his strength can probably increase by several levels.”

An Zhen Zhenjun: “If Xianbing University or Jihu Group is willing to burn money for him to fight.”

An Zhen Zhenjun: “Then he might even have the power to contend with Kuang Tianqing.”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yu felt a sinking feeling in his heart.

He understood that all the order in Kunxu was built upon its economic system. For example, regarding infringement, people never feared breaking the law; they feared losing money and going bankrupt.

If the profits obtained through infringement far exceeded the losses caused by infringement, then the people of Kunxu would infringe extensively.

For example, the current Top Ten League concerns the ownership of xianmen cultivation methods, and every student might receive support from their school.

Given the scale of the top ten, the infringement losses caused by a mere Foundation Establishment stage individual battle are simply negligible compared to the profits brought by xianmen cultivation methods.

As Yan Qianji’s puppet army was terminated one by one, Tian Shenggong quickly secured victory in the battle.

Zhang Yu’s eye-gaze then showed another battle between Wen Wuya and Mu Qiansi.

However, by the time he looked at this match, the outcome had already been decided, with Wen Wuya defeating Mu Qiansi.

Zhang Yu couldn’t help but rewind and quickly review the battle process.

Originally, Zhang Yu thought the key to this battle would be distance.

But to his surprise, Wen Wuya never intended to circle around with Mu Qiansi from the beginning. Instead, he clashed head-on with Mu Qiansi and displayed strong resistance to Hehuan (Joyous Union) techniques.

What Zhang Yu didn’t know was that even before the battle began, Wen Wuya had undergone a surgical modification, turning himself into an asexual being.

Furthermore, he had Bai Zhenzhen cast Qiqing Jiandao (Seven Emotions Sword Dao) to temporarily erase his various emotions, approaching the battle with absolute rationality and calmness.

Even Wen Wuya’s eye-gaze had been specially adjusted so that he could not distinguish between genders or differentiate between beauty and ugliness.

Facing Wen Wuya, whose resistance to physical dual cultivation had surged, Mu Qiansi attempted to launch a dual cultivation attack through the spirit realm, planting threads of emotion in his mind.

And this was Wen Wuya’s objective: to draw Mu Qiansi from the dual cultivation battlefield to the communication battlefield, where he excelled.

After reviewing this battle, Zhang Yu then turned his attention to the battle he cared about most and anticipated the most.

The scene of Ying Zhoufan and Bai Zhenzhen’s duel suddenly appeared.

At this moment, Ying Zhoufan had transformed into a giant black eagle, moving at high speed in the atmosphere, soaring across the entire battlefield like a bolt of lightning.

Bai Zhenzhen, however, remained rooted to the spot, her face as calm as still water, but the murderous intent in her eyes grew increasingly intense.

Ying Zhoufan felt a chill in his heart, sensing that Bai Zhenzhen’s gaze towards him was like looking at a mortal enemy.

“No way…” Ying Zhoufan mused, “I don’t owe her money, do I? Could it be that this woman… is also a severe demon descendant discriminator?”

Considering that Bai Zhenzhen seemed to have a good relationship with Zhang Yu, Ying Zhoufan became even more convinced of this.

In Bai Zhenzhen’s eyes, videos of Kuang Tianqing and Zhang Yu were being played repeatedly, except that Kuang Tianqing’s avatar had been replaced by Ying Zhoufan.

Bai Zhenzhen knew that all of this was fake, but the changes in her emotions were not unaffected by the illusion. The surging sword qi transformed from crimson to deep red, then gradually turned dark red, becoming increasingly profound.

Wen Wuya, who had won and returned to the waiting area, watched this scene and thought, “Ji Qing Jiandao (Extreme Emotion Sword Dao) is already an evil path. I heard that Zhenzhen is now cultivating reality through illusion, which makes it even more sinister.”

Wen Wuya recalled some records he had seen of Ji Qing Jiandao practitioners, many of whom advanced their cultivation by creating illusions, dreams, fake photos, and fake videos.

But with such repeated attempts, many practitioners eventually experienced confusion between reality and illusion, unable to distinguish between fake and real videos, ultimately going completely mad.

At the same time, a black sword qi pierced Ying Zhoufan’s body, and Bai Zhenzhen secured victory in this battle.

At this point, only the final eight contestants remained in the Top Ten League.