"Fine. If you insist on seeing it that way, feel free to report it to the Primordial Alliance." Xin Yi'an shot him a glance.

Xue Jianming could only give a tsk of annoyance and let the matter drop with ill grace. True, he could seize upon this slip of Xin Yi'an's and refuse to let it go—but even if he really did report it to the Primordial Alliance, it would do him no damn good.

Because this was only human nature. Apart from that shameless wretch Lie Yingzu, what Xin Yi'an had done was cause for rejoicing for everyone else. The Primordial Alliance would never punish him for it—otherwise it would, by that very act, be encouraging the sort of shameless conduct Lie Yingzu had displayed.

A short while later, Leng Leng finally broke through successfully. Under the envious gazes of the crowd, she formally advanced to the realm of Foundation Establishment Perfection, becoming a figure truly standing at the very pinnacle of all the Primordial Alliance's disciples.

She had been born with the Shattered Ice constitution, and now she had become the stuff of legend with a single rank-up. From this point on, apart from Ling Tianyou and Xue Jianming, not a single disciple present could be mentioned in the same breath as her. Even the likes of Duanmu Yu would have to concede a notch. This—this was what it meant to have a boundless future.

"Miss Leng Leng, I truly must apologize for what happened earlier. This old man apologizes to you on behalf of the Cangwu Sect of North Island." Xin Yi'an walked up before her and bowed deeply with a grave expression.

"Ah?" Leng Leng was taken aback. Her whole mind had just been fixed on her breakthrough; she had not noticed Lie Yingzu's little maneuver at all, much less known what had happened afterward.

It was only when Wei Zhao came over and explained a few things in a low voice that Leng Leng understood. She said hurriedly, "You are too serious, Uncle Xin. There is no need to apologize to me—if anything, I ought to be thanking you properly. After all, it was you who protected me."

Even if Xin Yi'an had not stepped forward, Lie Yingzu could never have harmed a single hair on Leng Leng—Wei Zhao had been watching, after all. Still, Xin Yi'an had, in the end, done her no small favor. Whatever his considerations might have been, Leng Leng remained the one who benefited most, and that was beyond all doubt.

"You are too kind, Miss Leng Leng. It was simply what this old man ought to do." Xin Yi'an gave a bitter smile, nodded meaningfully to Wei Zhao, and then announced to the crowd that the matches would continue.

The matches that followed passed without incident. A day later it was once again the turn of Qiu Lingshan and the other early-stage Foundation Establishment disciples, and this time the great majority passed safely through their trials as well. After the first round of adaptation, everyone had clearly grown more accustomed to this entirely new realm of early-stage Foundation Establishment, and they had also become more deft at the counter-moves Wei Zhao had taught them. Facing opponents of their own level, they naturally had far more to spare.

This time, apart from the own-side matches drawn by lot, the only one who truly lost was Ying Ziyu. In the first round this girl had drawn Yu Bingbai and picked up a free win; it had looked like a stroke of excellent luck, but in truth it was a hidden disadvantage.

Had she, like the others, gone all out in the first round and fought a real battle instead of going through the motions, she might not necessarily have lost this second round. Her opponent, strictly speaking, was not particularly strong, and the sole reason Ying Ziyu lost was that she had not yet fully adjusted to the strength and atmosphere of early-stage Foundation Establishment. The tuition fee that had to be paid, in the end, could not be avoided.

Still, this was no bad thing. After this defeat, Ying Ziyu had plainly matured a great deal. Compared with success, failure spurs one onward far more often than not—especially for a girl like Ying Ziyu, who had somewhat lacked a sense of her own limits. This experience of defeat was all the more precious for her.

Wei Zhao watched Ying Ziyu, who had for the first time ever begun training on her own beyond the required hours, and smiled faintly. This was for the best. However strong he might be, he could not forever shelter them all beneath his wings. If even the youngest, Ying Ziyu, had begun to awaken, then surely the others would slack off even less—after all, if they could not even match Ying Ziyu, they would truly lose face. This was a rather pleasant unexpected gain.

In the third round of the trial tournament, the number who signed up for cross-rank challenges was less than half that of the second round. There were only three in total.

By this point, everyone had come to know one another more or less. To succeed in a cross-rank challenge, besides needing sufficiently formidable strength of one's own, there was one other crucial condition: it had to come as a surprise. Only in that way could a stronger opponent be made to capsize in a ditch. Otherwise, if both sides knew one another inside and out, the already slim odds of victory would become even more negligible.

And so many disciples who might otherwise have felt the urge quietly lowered their banners and fell silent. Yet although the number had shrunk greatly, the challengers were clearly much stronger. Anyone still bold enough to step forward and challenge at this stage was naturally no easy mark.

Of the three cross-rank duels, only one cross-rank challenge ultimately succeeded, but judging by the course of the bouts, the other two were fought tooth and nail as well. Those two challengers had in fact had no small chance of winning; it was simply that their luck was poor, and so they ended in narrow defeat.

"I didn't think so at first, but looking at it now, the rules of this trial tournament are nothing short of cruel," one Primordial Alliance disciple lamented, and all the others followed with sighs of their own.

Even Wei Zhao could not help nodding. Three duels, six combatants in all—yet of those six there was only one winner, the challenger who had succeeded in the cross-rank challenge. As for how the other five fared, their prospects were likely none too good.

The one who had been defeated in the successful cross-rank challenge needed no explaining; by the rules he had been directly eliminated. As for the remaining four, though the outcome was not so immediate, the bouts had been so fierce that each of the four was seriously injured. Unless they had powerful elixirs like the Great Return Pill, they would not recover in any short span of time.

At this rate, not only would they be unable to win the upcoming third round of regular matches, but even the fourth and fifth rounds would be a hard slog. Once they lost all three rounds, they would naturally be eliminated as well.

Just three duels had invisibly eliminated five people—to call such rules cruel was no exaggeration at all. The higher-ups of the Primordial Alliance had gone to great pains to devise these rules, and any disciple who could emerge triumphant under such cruelty, whatever their rank of strength, would at least not be a good-for-nothing weakling—unless their luck was truly beyond words.

Still, on the other hand, in a trial as full of chance as the Primordial Test, luck too was a part of strength. Put nicely, it was all a matter of serendipity.

After the cross-rank challenges ended, what came next was the drawing of lots for the matches among the Foundation Establishment Perfection disciples—the event everyone was most watching for! (To be continued.)