In another rest chamber, although Bai Qiuyin was paying attention to the matches displayed on the light screen, her gaze was not entirely fixed on Bai Shuanglian.
Instead, it lingered on Ling Xiaoyou with a look of appreciation in her eyes.
‘This girl is quite something. From her aura, she only recently entered the Soul Gathering Stage, yet her strength far exceeds her cultivation realm.’
‘Hmm, should I say she’s worthy of being the person Shuang likes? She really is as outstanding as her.’
As Bai Qiuyin was thinking this, she suddenly heard one of her juniors calling out to her.
She turned her head and saw one of her younger relatives looking at her curiously.
The junior asked, “Great-Aunt Qiu Yin, are you very familiar with this Ling Xiaoyou?”
“Why do you ask?” Bai Qiuyin replied with a question instead of an answer.
“Because you seem to appreciate her quite a bit, so I felt like you might be very familiar with her,” the junior said.
“Familiar? I wouldn’t say we’re that familiar.” Bai Qiuyin let out a light chuckle and looked back at the light screen.
Watching the separate frames showing Ling Xiaoyou and Bai Shuanglian, she said, “But she is a very good girl. Perhaps… you all will have to call her sister-in-law in the future.”
“Sis… Sister-in-law??”
Their clan’s current generation didn’t have any older brothers; the older members were basically all girls, so it should have been “Elder Sister.”
Ignoring her bewildered juniors, Bai Qiuyin continued to watch the light screen, already thinking about how to arrange the wedding for those two children in the future.
***
On the other side, in the Ghostly Resentment Office’s rest chamber, the image of the arena where Ling Xiaoyou was located had been intentionally enlarged.
Everyone was staring at the screen without blinking.
Upon seeing Ling Xiaoyou defeat her opponent with such ease, excited cheers immediately erupted in the rest chamber.
“That was amazing, Elder!”
Miao Miaomiao watched the screen with great excitement; her admiration for Ling Xiaoyou had reached a whole new level!
‘I didn’t expect Elder to not only be experienced in various matters, but even her strength is this powerful. She’s truly perfect!’
‘As expected, I still have many things to learn from Elder!’
Miao Miaomiao clenched her fists, her small face flushing red as she made up her mind.
On a sofa not far away, Li Xuemà n was still drinking her hot tea, looking as if she were an NPC with fixed actions and behaviors.
However, if one observed closely, they would notice that her gaze had actually been fixed on the light screen the entire time.
Watching the scene of Ling Xiaoyou resolving her enemy, Li Xuemà n nodded in satisfaction.
‘This girl really is a dark horse. I was originally worried that her rushing into the Devil’s conspiracy was too reckless, but now it seems she wasn’t being reckless, but was full of confidence.’
‘Perhaps I can pass that magic art to her. If it’s her, she should be able to bring out 100% of its effects.’
Li Xuemà n thought to herself as she took another sip of hot tea.
***
Unaware of the waves she was causing in the outside world, Ling Xiaoyou was currently dealing with yet another challenger—she had lost count of how many it had been.
The opponent was a woman who, like Ling Xiaoyou, was also a spirit.
Perhaps because she had prepared before entering—after all, the scenes of the previous contestants being easily defeated were quite unforgettable—this female spirit did not fall into the same predicament as the initial challengers, who were immediately wrapped and drowned by the water.
But even so, the silver needles filling the sky brought by the rainstorm made it difficult for her to cope, let alone the fact that Ling Xiaoyou had not even truly begun to attack her yet.
‘Speaking of which, if I just keep dragging this out until the time runs out, would that count as a victory?’
Feeling her spirit power gradually recovering within the rain, Ling Xiaoyou pondered.
Although this felt a bit like exploiting a bug, it wasn’t a bad option.
However, Ling Xiaoyou didn’t actually intend to exploit such a bug.
After all, it wasn’t as if she couldn’t win, so why bother?
If she did that, people would say she won through unfair means.
She didn’t want that, even though she didn’t particularly care about the opinions of these strangers.
Glancing at the female spirit struggling to hold on under the heavy rain, Ling Xiaoyou suddenly felt a bit bored.
After all, she hadn’t even exerted her true strength yet, so how were these opponents already about to fail?
‘Can you guys even do this?’
If Ling Xiaoyou’s thoughts were known to this female spirit and the previous challengers, they would surely have wanted to kill her.
What did she mean by not having exerted her true strength yet?
Did she think they didn’t want her to try harder?
No, if they could have forced her to, they certainly would have done so long ago.
The problem was that it was simply impossible!
Forget attacking; in such an environment, even maintaining their current state was incredibly difficult.
How were they supposed to make her exert her true strength?
Of course, even if these people knew Ling Xiaoyou’s thoughts, there was nothing they could do about it.
They were no match for her, let alone capable of taking revenge.
Perhaps sensing Ling Xiaoyou’s thoughts, or perhaps finally unable to endure and deciding to risk everything, the female spirit suddenly surged forward.
Bracing against the torrential rain and the sky full of silver needles, she charged toward Ling Xiaoyou, the cold knife in her hand emitting a terrifying light.
But before she could even get close to Ling Xiaoyou, the water beneath her feet suddenly seemed to come alive.
After a burst of writhing, a woman who looked exactly like the female spirit emerged from beneath the surface.
Aside from being somewhat transparent, expressionless, and composed entirely of water, she was essentially identical to the female spirit.
Whether it was her clothing, her weapon, or her appearance, she was exactly the same.
‘Is this… me?’
Looking at the Water Replica in front of her, the female spirit was extremely confused.
What exactly did Ling Xiaoyou want to do?
Ignoring the female spirit’s confusion and daze, Ling Xiaoyou glanced at her, then at the “copy” she had created, and nodded her small head in satisfaction.
She had just come up with a new idea: whether she could create replicas similar to the Water Replica that had just appeared.
The answer was obvious—she could!
However, it was currently just a shell.
The internal structure was still just a mass of flowing water.
But if she improved it in the future, perhaps she could completely copy her opponents and store them in her memory bank.
When that time came, every opponent she had ever fought would become one of her combat assets.
She alone would be an army!
Imagining that scene, Ling Xiaoyou felt a bit entranced.
However, she quickly reminded herself that she was still in the middle of a battle and needed to show her opponent some respect.
With that thought, Ling Xiaoyou began to control the Water Replica.
Mimicking the female spirit from before, it brandished the long knife in its hand and assumed a combat stance.
Seeing this, how could the female spirit not understand what Ling Xiaoyou was trying to do?
But it was precisely because she understood that she was fuming with rage!
What was the meaning of this?!
This girl actually looked down on her this much!
Even if you are indeed very powerful, wanting to fight her with a randomly made replica—isn’t that taking her too lightly?
Anger burned in her heart, turning into a surging fighting spirit.
The female spirit swung her long knife, her magic arts blooming as she added various effects and buffs to her blade.
The moment the female spirit attacked, the Water Replica also moved in sync.
Its posture while swinging the long knife was exactly the same as its opponent’s, like a reflection in a mirror.
The knife and the water knife collided, yet they strangely produced the metallic sound of Clang!
Feeling the vibration, her arm slightly numb, the female spirit staggered back a few steps.
Her pupils shrank. she never expected that a mere replica would have the strength to clash with her, and even slightly surpass her.
How exactly was this achieved?
What the female spirit didn’t know was that while the Water Replica seemed separate from the lake beneath it, it was actually constantly connected to the depths.
In other words, she appeared to be fighting only the Water Replica, but in reality, she was fighting the “behemoth” beneath her feet.
However, while this sounded impressive, it was still far from what Ling Xiaoyou had envisioned.
She furrowed her beautiful brows slightly, looking at the battle between the two identical figures on the lake, still somewhat dissatisfied.
Although her idea was just an initial concept, there were still many shortcomings.
For instance, just now, while it seemed her Water Replica had more strength and gained the advantage in the initial clash, that wasn’t what Ling Xiaoyou wanted.
Because the Water Replica’s technique was merely an empty shell, and it hadn’t actually imitated the internal essence and skill, it had been forced to rely on the lake beneath it to suppress the opponent.
Otherwise, during that first hit, the Water Replica would have been sliced clean in half.
Granted, it could have just recovered since it was water, but that would only show resilience, not strength.
It wasn’t what Ling Xiaoyou wanted.
‘As expected, trying to perfectly mimic an opponent right now is still too difficult.’
Ling Xiaoyou felt a bit discouraged and let out a soft sigh in her heart, but she quickly cheered herself up again.
‘Even so, my logic isn’t wrong. This combat concept is very good. Perhaps I can consider turning it into my own unique magic art in the future.’
‘Mm, but I still need to find a way to analyze every move of the opponent. Whether it’s the technique behind their power or the flow of their spirit power, I must have a clear understanding before I can talk about imitation.’
Ling Xiaoyou had indeed cheered up, but the cost was that the Water Replica suddenly acted as if it had been injected with adrenaline, beating the female spirit so hard she was in absolute misery.
She struggled to parry her opponent’s attacks.
She had clearly cast every buffing magic art she could on herself, so why was this replica’s strength always a level higher than her own?
Now, forget strength—she couldn’t even keep up with its speed!
Under the replica’s continuous assault and the flushing of the heavy rain, the female spirit finally couldn’t hold on anymore.
After revealing a flaw due to a mistake, she was pierced through the chest by her own replica, ending this grueling battle.
Before leaving, she wore a look of relief.
The battle was finally over.
No matter what anyone said, she was never participating in the Xuantian Martial Tournament again!
Absolutely not!
Seeing this, Ling Xiaoyou was momentarily stunned.
She then awkwardly scratched her head.
It seemed she had gone a bit too far.
Should she make the next opponent and the replica more evenly matched?
‘Hmm, I should probably turn this rain back into normal rain, too. This environment is indeed too difficult to fight in.’
After all, if the battles were always one-sided, she would have a hard time gaining any experience from failure.
Ling Xiaoyou nodded her small head, very satisfied with her own thoughts.
She waved her small hand toward the sky, meaning “hurry up, next one!”