34 - In the Arena

"NEXT!" Xu Xin's clear voice rang through the arena, and everyone reacted in a shocked manner, because who on the same level would want to fight against this brutal bastard who didn't even have to follow the rules?

Everyone at the same stage and even those a stage higher than him were fearful of his abilities.

He had just nearly killed that young genius, and he had the support of the King and Queen themselves in order to get the exemption letter, so who the hell would go against him?

But there were always exceptions, and a slightly older boy soon stepped forward, and there was a scar across his face as he smiled.

He was another fourth stage cultivator, and though he was weaker than the previous genius in terms of raw strength, he won out in experience by far.

Without hesitation and without even waiting for the previous boy's body to be cleared out, Xu Xin charged at the boy coming towards him with a seemingly insane expression, but inside, he was perfectly calm.

He had already realized that this was going to be a tougher fight, because he had expended a large portion of his inner energy just now and he already had troubles fighting against those of the fourth stage since he was simply too weak right now.

At the peak of his life, he could just stand there and do nothing to win the fight, with the enemy attacking him and coming away with broken bones, but now, he had to carefully control himself so that he didn't lose.

As for why he won the last rounds so easily, it was because they weren't experienced enough in fighting and he was able to easily beat them due to their lack of experience and direct power.

However, this boy in front of him was stronger than the first person he fought against, and he was much more experienced than the boy he had just fought, making him a much more worthy opponent.

Knowing that his opponent was older than him, his experience was much higher than the two he fought before and his flaws would be few and far between when compared with them.

On top of that, due to the age difference, this boy would have better physical endurance than Xu Xin and he would also be able to take a hit much better than him as well.

As they clashed, Xu Xin felt his hand start to hurt as he found that this boy cultivated the element of fire, which excelled in attacking.

Fire was opposite to ice, but luckily, Xu Xin's body strengthening technique imbued his skin itself with the element of ice, making him more resistant to fire and ice techniques.

Facing a strong opponent, Xu Xin obviously used his techniques to reinforce his joints and cushion the impact to allow him to take as little damage as possible.

With all of these factors added together, Xu Xin took next to no damage at all from this punch despite being weaker than this boy in front of him.

However, the next moment, he was faintly shocked, because this boy in front of him had at some point grabbed a knife and was now stabbing it towards his chest.

Along the edge of the knife was a thin stream of fiery red inner energy, and it made the blade much more dangerous.

Xu Xin instantly reacted, and he pushed the boy's fist away from him while using the momentum to barely push him out of the way of the knife which was stabbing towards him.

In the end, he barely managed to avoid the knife, and he even had a cut that went straight across his chest.

Xu Xin was surprised that he managed to avoid that, because it was clear that the boy in front of him had been hiding his strength. He was really at the peak of the fourth stage, or at least equivalent to it in strength.

Xu Xin felt a little bit of searing pain from the cut on his chest, but the next moment, he simply wiped out all of the fiery inner energy in the cut using his own icy inner energy.

If his body hadn't been strengthened by the body strengthening technique he created, that cut would've been a lot worse, and it wouldn't be as easy to wipe out the fiery inner energy contained in it.

Luckily, he was prepared, and he always overestimated his opponents in order to have some wiggle room.

He didn't care much about the shallow cut on his chest, because it barely even got the chance to bleed before the aquamarine blood in his body sealed it up and started to heal it. It would look as if it never happened by the end of the day.

"If that's all you've got, you won't be able to beat me," the boy arrogantly claimed. He felt that because he had managed to wound Xu Xin, he had seen his strength and knew how to beat him.

Xu Xin, however, didn't even seem to care for his words, because he was thinking. He could definitely beat this boy in front of him, but it might actually be better to use him to train himself.

After all, this boy countered him in every way. The boy had enough experience that he wouldn't fall for tricks, and he also used the element of fire, which countered Xu Xin, and he specialized in attacking with a knife.

It could be said that he was perfect for Xu Xin to train himself with. After all, he wasn't particularly good at using the elements of ice and water yet; it was limited to theory since he hadn't had a chance to fight seriously yet.

Then, suddenly, Xu Xin put a bit more inner energy into his eyes to increase his reaction speed, and he charged at the boy, converting all his icy inner energy to the water element, his movements getting faster and more flowy, making him unpredictable and smooth.

His flexibility also improved as a flowing aquamarine inner energy covered his hands, going specifically into his fingers.

The boy saw him ignore his taunt and charge straight at him, and he prepared.

He then swung out his fist towards Xu Xin's chest, but was surprised to find that Xu Xin reacted before he even managed to swing out and ducked down, bending at a seemingly unnatural angle while also swinging out with his right leg.

The boy's fist missed as Xu Xin's leg hit his shin, knocking him off balance, but he wasn't done there. Xu Xin then accurately stabbed out with his index finger, still covered in the watery inner energy, and stabbed a specific point on the boy's knife arm.

Before he retracted his finger, he suddenly converted all the watery inner energy that had gone into the boy's body into icy inner energy, and he then backed away instantly.

The boy didn't have a proper chance to react, and by the time he regained his balance, Xu Xin was gone, and he felt an immense pain coming from his knife arm.

Looking at it, he found that he was incapable of closing his fist, and he had dropped the knife to the ground.

Slowly, feeling began to return to his hand, but it was clear what Xu Xin meant by doing this. Having a knife and sneak attacking with it was not the kind of fight he wanted to have.

As such, he simply wiped out Xu Xin's icy inner energy, but he was surprised to find that it actually took a while to do so, with him having to actually focus on it in order to completely wipe it out, and even then, there was still some left over.

It was because Xu Xin's inner energy was formed through the ancient ice water technique, and it was extremely resilient, boosting the resilience of water and the strength of ice to make it hard to get rid of or counter.

Of course, the boy's inner energy was stronger, hence why he was able to still get rid of it relatively easily, but he grimaced a bit when he realized that this boy wasn't as simple as just being extremely skilled in a fight.

Suddenly, Xu Xin charged at him, his calm eyes keeping watch over every move in the boy's body.

Instantly, the boy had a feeling that all his secrets had been exposed and that everything he had done in his life, good or bad, could be seen by this boy, and this feeling scared the shit out of him.

Meanwhile, Xu Xin was given a shock at this moment, because he felt a surge of weird power come from the aquamarine blood in his eye as he felt like he could see a glimpse into his enemy's movements.

It was like intuition, and he couldn't help but wonder if this was another ability of the 'bloodline inheritance'.

With this feeling, he felt even more confident in winning now, and his body seemed to exude confidence as he charged fearlessly towards the boy.

The next moment, they clashed, and this time, it was an exchange of hits, both of them simply punching the chest of the other, making no attempt to dodge or block the hits.

He had decided against using this kid to train since he had just gotten an idea.

It was a pure contest of strength and defense, and whoever won this exchange would likely be the person to win the fight, if it didn't outright end the fight.

As the boy's fist hit Xu Xin's chest, he felt as if he was punching a wall, and he felt his fist start to hurt as the fiery inner energy on his fist was drained of power, eventually fading into nothing, doing barely anything to Xu Xin.

Xu Xin's clothes had a hole burned in them from the fiery inner energy, but his chest, glowing with a light aquamarine color, was essentially unharmed, with only a slight burn there.

Meanwhile, the boy's chest felt pain as he felt a cold and invasive power spread through his chest, instantly going through his whole chest before quickly freezing and causing him to clutch his chest in pain.

Fire wasn't good for defense, and he figured that he would take damage from this hit while being able to hurt Xu Xin, but he never expected to do almost nothing to Xu Xin while he himself was hurt from this exchange.

He instantly sent his fiery inner energy to clear out the icy power from his chest while backing away from Xu Xin, but the sheer amount of icy inner energy wasn't something that he could quickly get rid of.

He then looked at Xu Xin, only to see that he was taking off his shirt, because it had caught on fire from the boy's palm.

Underneath the shirt, Xu Xin's muscular body was revealed, and every bit of his body seemed to contain some form of ancient and primal strength, with every muscle and tendon being perfect in shape and strength.

Seeing Xu Xin's body, the boy realized that, even though he was older, his body was nowhere near as good as Xu Xin's, and he was slightly ashamed that a boy younger than him could have such a perfect body.

Suddenly, Xu Xin's body let off a very slight aquamarine glow as he activated his body strengthening technique, allowing him to increase his defense and heal his body at the same time, and the singe marks on his chest started to fade away.

In the end, Xu Xin was completely fine, while the boy was still clutching his chest in pain. It was clear that he had lost in this exchange, and he was no longer that confident in beating this boy, and he regretted choosing to go for an exchange of pure power.

He also realized that the cut on Xu Xin's chest was nearly invisible by now, and he was shocked, because this healing speed was completely unnatural. Only he knew that the cut hadn't been deep, but it wasn't exactly shallow either, and for it to heal this fast was too exaggerated.

Meanwhile, Xu Xin was laughing at this boy for his stupidity. Going for a pure exchange of power against someone who cultivated the element of ice and water and clearly cultivated a body strengthening technique? He was simply asking to be defeated.