A Fine Hall of Templars, Indeed!

The supervising elder's face turned red, lightly coughing as he gestured for Jun Meng Chen to step into the ring. With a low nod of assent, Jun Meng Chen stepped forth, only to be hit by a smattering of contempt from the elegantly dressed youth.

"Who's this fellow, did the Divine Palace toss a random sow's offspring as a peace offering? Perhaps you thought that tossing the match and allowing the Demon Palace and the Hall of Templars a half-hearted, third-rate opportunity to explore a demolished inconsequential training ground properly displays your Divine Palace's image of generosity, hmph!"

The youth's words caused the elder to frown, as he gazed towards Balthazar. His tone imposing, the elder questioned, his voice booming throughout the plaza.

"Son of Baal, just what is going on? Was it not a selection between the Demon and Divine Palaces, when did the Hall of Templars become involved?"

Balthazar emerged from behind the cloaked immortal, before displaying a full shrug to the elder. His handsome face revealed only a curious expression, and Jun Meng Chen could detect the sincerity within.

"Divine Palace's elder, you can't push such a devastating hat onto my poor self! We indeed had a third member accompanying us on the way to the plaza this morning. However, the Hall of Templars launched an ambush before taking the third spot, hence resulting in this."

As he spoke, Balthazar waved an ox's horn, black and shining without a single blemish. Within the horn were innumerable inscriptions radiating a black light, yet everyone in the plaza could detect the fragility in the horn's construct. Not to mention, when the horn was revealed, the elegantly dressed youth's expression distorted, becoming rather unsightly.

"Balthazar you cur, how dare you slander this Alderan!" he whirled towards Balthazar, fiercely yelling at the violet-dressed immortal. "Who knows whether that horn was a trick you prepared beforehand, to slander our Name!"

"Who knows?" shrugged Balthazar, revealing a thin smile.

"You rushed in with three elders, instantly wiping out our third companion without even allowing us to say a single word. Perhaps," he directed towards the supervising elder, "if this elder expands his perception, he could still find the elder generation of the Hall of Templars."

The supervising elder raised an eyebrow, before a pale light erupted from within his body. Moments later, his expression completely blackened, before glaring at the elegantly dressed youth.

"A very good Hall of Templars indeed," he growled, raising his right hand into the air. With a single thought, the pale light converged into a thin beam that shot towards the sky.

"Three Royal Immortals sent to assist in a selection among the younger generations, the Hall of Templar indeed lives up to its noble name."

Turning to Jun Meng Chen, he patted the latter on the shoulder, quietly speaking. Hearing his words, Jun Meng Chen nodded, his eyes lighting with an imperceptible glow.

"As the referee, I will exclusively permit you to use three domain abilities without intervention. Crush this Hall of Templars brat, and the Divine Palace will shoulder the repercussions!"

As the referee returned to his original position at the edge of the ring, Jun Meng Chen lightly swept his right arm, a slender steel sword conjuring within. Seeing this, the elegantly dressed youth lightly snorted, releasing a golden splendor as he raised his hand directly above him.

When the blinding light had faded, a meter and a half long broadsword was grasped in his hand.

"To smash you, unknown agglomeration of weeds, I won't need to summon my immortal construct," he hissed, the divine essence swirling around his body at a frightening rate.

Jun Meng Chen's eyebrow lightly twitched, but didn't return a single word. Instead, he slowly moved his right foot back, the sword trailing on the ground behind him. His eyes locked onto the elegantly-dressed youth, Jun Meng Chen willed his spiritual core to awake from its idle slumber, roaring to life as divine essence poured into his body and soul, concealed from view.

As the two silently gazed at the other, Jun Meng Chen quickly scrounged up all of the knowledge he had regarding the Hall of Templars. The Hall of Templars was an alliance of aristocratic families of immortals, the sheer number of which was capable of contending with the Pavilion of Authority.

However, these aristocratic families were tailored towards professing nobility and collective authoritarianism unlike that of the Pavilion of Authority's individual might. It was just that Jun Meng Chen had no idea on their fighting capability. Hence, he adopted a more defensive stratagem, conjuring a more flexible blade than his usual rigid longsword.

"Fall, you ruffian!" howled the elegantly-dressed youth, grasping the broadsword with both hands before releasing a powerful diagonal, downward swing towards his left.

The sword enveloped in a storm of divine essence obscuring the original inscriptions on the blade, released a mighty vertical shockwave that rushed towards Jun Meng Chen at great speed.

The blade smashed into the ground, releasing a massive plume of divine essence that exploded towards the edge of the ring. The golden divine essence rushed out in all directions, creating a powerful sea with the elegantly-dressed youth as the epicenter.

Leaping into the air and imbuing copious amounts of divine essence into his feet, Jun Meng Chen dodged the incoming shockwave with ease. As he spun in the air, he saw the youth release a wide grin, one dripping with both disdain towards Jun Meng Chen and pride for himself.

"Can't even block on measly shockwave, that you had to dodge it?" he mocked, raising the sword once more. Inverting his grip, he plunged the sword into the ground, accompanied by his shout.

"Here, experience this sword's strength with your body! ! Engrave the name of Tierus Alderan onto your soul and construct, to quiver in fear!"

This time, the broadsword in Tierus' grip didn't ricochet off of the ground, instead piercing through like slicing through putty. When the sword had been embedded onto the ground, the sea of divine essence streamed towards the blade, pouring into the broadsword's pommel.

As Jun Meng Chen landed, he saw the pommel release a deep azure glow, and a deep sense of danger rushed through his body.

The moment the pommel had been suffused with the sea of divine essence, Tierus extracted the sword from the ground. Empowering his legs with divine essence, he rushed towards Jun Meng Chen with immense velocity, the large blade flashing in a downwards arc.

Raising the slender sword before him, Jun Meng Chen infused divine essence into the flexible blade as he met the incoming blow head-on.

Clang! Ting!

The heavy broadsword assisted by an overwhelming quantity of divine essence easily flicked away the slender blade, causing Tierus to reveal a grin and push on to cut at Jun Meng Chen's exposed body. However, before the broadsword could fall upon Jun Meng Chen's chest, it was stopped by a thin sword, the flexible blade lightly quivering as it dispersed the force of the blow.

Other than taking a step back to jolt the blade to ricochet against the broadsword, Jun Meng Chen was not harmed at all.

"Wha-!"

"If you're done preaching your nobility, shall I make my move then, oh majestic Alderan?"

Jun Meng Chen's cold voice interrupted Tierus's surprise, as the flexible blade easily knocked awry the broadsword, causing the noble immortal to stagger backwards from the rebound of his own momentum. Leaping forward, Jun Meng Chen swiftly swung the sword, the blade rushing directly towards Tierus's face.

Unable to guard with the broadsword in time, Tierus coiled divine essence around his left arm, solidly blocking the blow.

Taking advantage of the rebound of the flexible blade to turn a full circle towards the left, Jun Meng Chen poured divine essence into the sword, relying on the increased angular momentum and swift strike to send Tierus recoiling, unable to stabilize himself. Feet skidding, Tierus finally regained balance with a heavy stomp, before unleashing a powerful horizontal slash, warding off the approaching Jun Meng Chen.

"So annoying with your weak blade! Envelop, !"

Bellowing, Tierus grasped the broadsword with both hands as he held the blade parallel before him. Divine essence exploded from within his body as the broadsword unleashed a shrill screech, the blade contorting and warping itself to form a serrated, twisted edge.

Watching from afar, Jun Meng Chen disengaged the flexible sword, before conjuring a rigid longsword, running his fingertip across the steel edge.

"Explode!"

"."

The longsword glowed with a faint blue brilliance the moment Jun Meng Chen's finger ran over its length. Grasping the transformed broadsword glowing with a scarlet light, Tierus howled as he rushed forth, swinging the blade at Jun Meng Chen once more.

As the broadsword slashed forth, magenta flames exploded from within the blade, enveloping the warped edge with a terrifying heat. Within the flames, a malignant intent could be detected within, an indistinct figure of a vengeful specter confined within, shrieking crazily at Jun Meng Chen.

Facing the incoming wave of metal and fire, Jun Meng Chen released a light-hearted swing, the longsword lazily travelling through the air.

"Impossible! Negating the 's flames that simply, how is that possible!?"

As the steel edge contacted the flames, the restrictive domain engendered by blazed into activity, instantly forcing the flames to vanish like an illusion. Taking advantage of Tierus' panic, Jun Meng Chen reversed his grip before swinging the longsword with great speed.

The slender longsword collided with the broadsword with a massive clang, sending both weapons careening in the air.

Swiftly dashing backwards, Jun Meng Chen infused divine essence into his legs and shoulder, before ramming forwards, forcing Tierus stumbling backwards. Maintaining his momentum, Jun Meng Chen continued to rush forwards as pulsing globes of divine essence covered his fists.

With each strike thrown with the intention to kill, Jun Meng Chen's fists slammed into Tierus with an unstoppable momentum as they wreaked havoc on his chest, joints, and pressure points. With the occasional palm grasping the surrounding air to draw in Tierus for another beating, the globes of divine essence sunk into the body, each releasing a powerful shockwave that crushing his internal organs.

"You…ack!"

Gasping for air, Tierus backpedaled swiftly, only managing to catch his breath after he had backed up to the edge of the ring. Blood streaming from his lips, although Jun Meng Chen had been courteous to avoid his face, Tierus' elegant demeanor was nowhere to be found, leaving nothing but a ragged body gasping for air.

Groaning from the pain, he attempted to conjure another broadsword to rush at Jun Meng Chen while was still functioning; though the flames had been extinguished, the malignant specter was still confined within the broadsword. However, as he channeled divine essence throughout his body, Tierus' revealed a startled expression, quickly morphing into one of fear.

"You…you! Just what did you do to me!?" he shrieked, clutching his chest.

His clothes in disarray, Tierus staggered around the fringes of the ring as he attempted to upright his trembling body. With each movement, he would attempt to circulate divine essence, only to find that his meridians had been blocked, and the divine essence would rebound fiercely.

Standing from afar, Jun Meng Chen slowly walked towards Tierus, the slender longsword loosely grasped in his hand. Slowly raising it towards the sky, the blade trembled violently, before an eerie, deep scarlet flame manifested around it. Flames billowed in all directions, causing the spectators to break out into a chaos of discussion.

"That's! Didn't that Hall of Templars guy call it ? So it isn't an exclusive technique?"

"I'm not seeing any confined specter or entity within the longsword…perhaps this is only a visual imitation?"

"A shock and awe tactic? That's pretty smart, but will the opponent fall for such a trap?"

"Look! That self-noble immortal, he's panicking like hell!"

As Jun Meng Chen continued to approach Tierus with the longsword emitting a large pillar of dark scarlet, nearly magenta flames, the latter only sat dumbly on the ground, trembling in panic.

"Alright, let's end it here. No need to scar that lad, otherwise those Royal Immortal watchdogs would flare in anger. Son of Baal, this result is acceptable with you, no?"

The supervising elder appeared before Jun Meng Chen, lightly patting his shoulder. With a slight nod, Jun Meng Chen allowed the longsword to dissipate, the sea of flames gradually subsiding as its source was removed.