Miao Yi asked, "Young Master Yang, do I look that helpless in your eyes? Rest assured. I will be back soon enough. These people won't be able to do anything to me!"
"No!" Yun Feiyang was strongly against letting Miao Yi take on such a risk.
To Yun Feiyang, it didn't matter whether or not he could get a good placement so long as he could ensure Miao Yi's safety. At least that way, once he returned, there would naturally be someone to act coy in front of his grandfather, Yun Aotian, and help cover for him. However, if anything were to happen to Miao Yi, then he would be in big trouble.
Miao Yi argued back, "Bai Ziliang and I have a score to settle. Since he wishes to kill me, I can't let him have the last laugh either! Young Master Yang, I cannot back down from this challenge!"
Yun Feiyang gave him an excuse, saying, "No! It's too late even if you want to step up now. There's no one to team up with you!"
The people facing them shouted once more, "Why do you shrink from our challenge?!"
"As if I need to form a team to kill off a few grunts!" Miao Yi scoffed. He couldn't be bothered trying to gain Yun Feiyang's approval any longer. As he spread his arms out, a black mist quickly enveloped him, equipping both him and Charcoal in armor while the Inversed-Scales Spear appeared in his grasp.
Beside him, Yan Beihong saw how adamant he was, and said, "I'll go with you!"
"No need! I'll be back soon enough!" Miao Yi abruptly turned his head around to answer. Then, he quickly transmitted his voice over, asking, "Big Brother Yan, please let me use your name for a while!"
'Use my name?' Yan Beihong was startled. 'What did he mean by that?'
Looking at the situation, Yun Feiyang thought, 'This guy is just too stubborn!' He then furiously bellowed, "This young master commands you to stop!"
Miao Yi knew there was no persuading Yun Feiyang, so like an arrow, he immediately shot ahead on Charcoal without another word!
"You...!" Pointing his finger at Miao Yi, who left without his permission, Yun Feiyang laughed in exasperation. 'I've stopped at nothing to protect you, but still, you insist on rushing to your death. Who the hell do you think I am?' Gnashing his teeth in frustration, he snarled, "He doesn't appreciate my concern at all! Fine! Go rush to your death! This young master is washing his hands of you!"
He was speaking purely out of rage.
As a close friend of Miao Yi's, there was no way Yan Beihong could just sit by and watch him step up to the battle alone. A plume of black mist quickly enveloped his body, and he was about to charge out with his longsword in hand!
Miao Yi abruptly brought Charcoal to a stop, draconic roars erupting as he pointed his spear over at Yan Beihong to stop him in his tracks. With a sharp gaze in his eyes, Miao Yi looked at Yan Beihong, transmitting his voice over and solemnly asked, "Big Brother Yan! Even though I may not be a capable man, I do not wish to look shameful in front of my long-lost sister! This is a battle for my pride. I will not regret it even if I end up dying. Please allow me to be selfish just this once!"
Yan Beihong glanced at Yue Yao, who was watching the battle while unaware of what was actually going on, and he couldn't help feeling a pang in his heart. He then sighed deeply, turning the sword in his hand and— whoosh! —stabbed it into the ground. His hand still holding onto the hilt, he turned his head away and shut his eyes. There was nothing he could say!
The leader of the other party shouted, "Name yourself!" He too wanted to know exactly what kind of person this was to make Bai Ziliang order him via voice transmission to challenge and kill.
Miao Yi turned his head back and shouted, "My name is Yan Beihong!"
Underneath him, Charcoal kicked his hooves excitedly. It was moments like these that were most exhilarating to him.
As soon as he said the words 'Yan Beihong', Bai Ziliang, Yue Yao, Kong Zhi, and the others all noted it down in their heads. 'So this person is called Yan Beihong!'
"Yan Beihong?" Still huffing furiously, Yun Feiyang was suddenly taken aback. He looked to the others in confusion, asking, "Who did he say he was?"
Yan Beihong abruptly opened his eyes. Initially, he couldn't fathom why Miao Yi had transmitted his voice over asking to borrow his name. However, now he seemed to vaguely understand why.
Taking in a deep breath, he explained softly on Miao Yi's behalf, "Brother Miao has a grudge against Bai Ziliang, so he doesn't wish to divulge his true name in order to avoid Bai Ziliang's retaliation."
"Will this even work?" Yun Feiyang asked in skepticism.
In the Celestial Nation's camp, Gu Sanzheng and the others exchanged glances with one another, thinking, 'What's going on? How did Miao Yi become Yan Beihong? Did we mistake him for someone else?'
"Zhao Fei, what do you make of this? That's definitely Miao Yi! That sound his spear is making is proof enough!" Sikong Wuwei transmitted his voice over to Zhao Fei.
Zhao Fei replied in kind, "Brother Miao must have his own reasons for doing this. We should just play along with him!"
As they were discussing this, the two of them quickly looked about to see if anyone from the Red Scarves Alliance was around. Fortunately, there wasn't a single one. Although they had already realized this back when they were finding members to team up with, they still couldn't help glancing around out of concern for Miao Yi.
In this cultivation realm where everyone was constantly on guard against one another, Miao Yi's selfless sacrifice had finally brought him a few friends in return.
"Why are your teammates not coming out? Is the Devil Nation's camp filled with nothing but cowards?"
"Why would I need extra help just to kill off a few grunts? I alone will be enough to deal with all of you!" Miao Yi replied loudly before charging out on Charcoal.
The crowd instantly fell silent. As this was just the first battle, everyone was still trying to test the waters. Little did they expect a lone contestant would pop up right from the start. Everyone immediately held their breaths and widened their eyes as they focused all their attention on the thousand-meter wide arena.
As for the challengers, they were a little anxious at first because Bai Ziliang had forced them to step up. However, when they saw that there was only one contender, they immediately regained some vigor.
"You have only yourself to blame for seeking death. Attack!" the leader shouted, and the ten riders immediately split into two groups, charging straight towards Miao Yi.
In an instant, a lone rider clashed with ten others.
Sharp ringing noises erupted as the lone rider instantly charged past the other ten like a sword cleaving through an ocean wave.
Like a raging dragon, the spear shot out, dancing with eye-dazzling speed as cold sparks shimmered in its wake like billowing snow.
"Harrumph!" Charcoal released a deafening roar as he abruptly raised his hooves and came to a stop. With a sharp and icy gaze in his eyes, Miao Yi waved his spear with one hand, splattering the blood away from the spearhead as he pointed it straight towards Bai Ziliang.
The Inversed-Scales Spear's draconic roars erupted across the battlefield. Meanwhile, the outcome of the battle had already been decided in that single moment!
The ten mounts that passed Miao Yi by were already far away, but currently, their riders had all already collapsed to the ground. The last thing they did was clench onto their bleeding necks out of reflex, before they burst open abruptly and their heads completely flew off. Their bodies were still violently twitching on the ground, not yet completely dead.
The speed at which Miao Yi launched his spear was simply too fast, too sharp, and too precise! The overwhelming force he just displayed made it seem as if he could even pulverize an entire mountain if it were in front of him right now.
No one in the crowd had been able to see what had happened. All they could tell was that Charcoal's speed had grown increasingly fast, charging past the opposition in an instant. They couldn't make out the blinding fast movements of Miao Yi's spear at all. All they saw was the blurry shadow of a spear, as well as the blossoming flowers of blood that came with its every flicker.
It truly seemed as though Miao Yi had cleaved through an ocean wave. The instant he charged past those ten riders, they were immediately blown away as though swept by a gale of glowing snow.
The crowd of 20,000 participants was unnaturally silent. Their eyes were wide-open, their pupils shrunken, as they all stared at the sight before them.
Not just the normal participants, but even Yue Yao, Hei Wuya, Feng Ruxiu, Kong Zhi, and Ba Jie were utterly dazed. The astonishing might of that attack was even capable of leaving experienced people such as them lost in stupefaction. That illusory, yet destructive spear was so breathtaking it caused everyone's hearts to pound furiously!
They wondered to themselves whether they would be able to withstand that spear without their transcendent artifacts, and the answer was no!
Seeing that spear pointed at him, Bai Ziliang felt as though there was a sharp needle pricking his heart. As he looked at that spear, he sensed an immense pressure on his body as though he was under a giant rock. The air was so heavy that he even felt difficulty breathing.
Beside him, Lan Susu couldn't help revealing a sign of fear in her eyes. That spear was simply too terrifying, and the sound of its draconic roars echoing across the battlefield was enough to cause her to tremble anxiously.
Within the Celestial Nation's camp, Gu Sanzheng, Zhao Fei and the others were completely dumbstruck. Even though they knew long ago that Miao Yi possessed an incredibly powerful spear art, they never imagined it could be this terrifying!
Yan Beihong was also in awe, slowly turning his head to look at the longsword in his hand. He too was quite confident in his own sword art. But it was only now that he realized that Miao Yi hadn't used his full strength when they were fighting.
However, Yan Beihong believed he could understand Miao Yi's reasons for doing so. That overwhelmingly powerful attack was simply not something to be used when holding back against someone. The moment such an attack was used, it would signify that the user was out to kill. Miao Yi clearly didn't think it was suitable to use such a level of attack against Yan Beihong, because he had never thought about killing him!
Yun Feiyang was still looking at Miao Yi furiously, but at the moment, his expression was completely frozen. His mouth gradually grew wider, so much so that he could fit an egg inside, and his previously furious expression was eventually replaced with that of utter disbelief!
'Little Sister! Did you see that? What do you think of your Big Brother's spear art? Will you be proud of it?'
Such was Miao Yi's thoughts as he pointed his spear towards Bai Ziliang. He then felt a sudden dizziness in his head as though his mind had gone blank, and he had difficulty breathing. It was as if all his stamina and transcendence energy had been used up in that one moment.
He felt as though he could keel over from his mount at any second. However, with nothing but a single thought in his mind, he stubbornly forced himself to hold on.
As Charcoal's hooves came back down, Miao Yi slowly lowered the spear that was aimed towards Bai Ziliang. It was simply because he couldn't hold it up much longer. Keeping himself upright on Charcoal's back, Miao Yi tried his best to stay conscious and breathe in some air, doing all he could to look fine.
As his mind gradually regained some lucidity, he slowly recalled what had happened earlier on.
Just now, he had only launched a single attack towards the ten riders that charged at him. It was just a single attack, but somehow it multiplied tenfold, forming ten seemingly separate strikes. This one attack was the culmination of his ten bitter years of training with the spear on the island as well as the dozens of years of experience he had gained afterward.
As he launched his spear, his thoughts and wishes all coalesced into a single desire. There were no distractions in his mind, and he entered a state where every fiber of his being was devoid of all but a single desire—he simply wished to show a certain someone that this big brother of hers was not so weak after all!
As a result of this one desire, Miao Yi managed to combine all his years of experience with the spear into this single attack, which was capable of transforming into ten different strikes. Each transformation had come from a near-absolute melding of Miao Yi's power of will, transcendence energy, spear, and body, allowing him to attain a realm he had never set foot in before.
When he launched his spear, Miao Yi had even ignored the attacks from the ten riders coming at him. Although the riders had hastily pulled back their weapons in self-defense, they couldn't retract all of them in time, and Miao Yi freely allowed these weapons to land on his body, relying on his armor artifact to block them as he forced his way through.
Having regained some clarity of mind, Miao Yi felt weak all over his body. That one move had really taken a toll on him. However, there was an indescribable excitement inside him. He had always thought that his spear art had already reached the limit of what he could perform with his ability, as there was no visible difference even as his cultivation increased.
It was only at this moment that he realized he had broken through a bottleneck and brought his spear art to an entirely new level. Before this, he only knew how to combine man, spear, and technique into his strikes. Now, he understood how to add his spirit into the mix as well.
However, the consequences of such premature comprehension were severe. The level of skill he used to transform this one spear attack into ten strikes had far surpassed the limits set by his cultivation, nearly draining him of all he had.
Miao Yi himself knew best the status of his body. He probably shouldn't fight anyone for the next ten days at least. Not because his transcendence energy wouldn't recover in time, but that his mind was already on the brink of collapse. Perhaps even if a mortal were to try and cut him with a sword right now, he wouldn't be able to gather enough focus to dodge it precisely. What more if it was a cultivator.