Chapter 678: Dry Him Out, If You Can't Kill Him, Exhaust Him

"I'm not messing with you," Xu Xiaoshou said calmly, watching the numerous contestants behind Xiao Wanfeng, whose eyes instantly flared with rage, looking like cornered beasts.

"You're definitely messing with me!" Xiao Wanfeng barely managed to prop himself up, still gasping for breath. The hand holding the teacup saucer trembled even more at Xu Xiaoshou's shocking words.

"I never trifle with people," Xu Xiaoshou replied with only a smile.

"You do!" Xiao Wanfeng felt as though the person standing before him had become a devil.

"They're here." At that moment, Xu Xiaoshou changed the subject, pointing behind Xiao Wanfeng and indicating he had no time for idle talk.

"Waaah—" With a strange cry, the instant Xu Xiaoshou's voice rang out, Xiao Wanfeng exploded with energy, flipping into the air to narrowly avoid a sharp spike protruding from the ground.

"Don't spill the tea. I want to drink it," Xu Xiaoshou said, pointing at what Xiao Wanfeng was holding. After a brief thought, he reached out his hand and brought the teacup over, leaving only the saucer with Xiao Wanfeng. He gained new insight into Xiao Wanfeng's quick reactions, but merely watched with a smile as Xiao Wanfeng darted about, completely defenseless, amidst the onslaught of multicolored spiritual energy.

"He's quite something..." Xu Xiaoshou secretly praised. Xiao Wanfeng's movement technique was indeed astonishing. He wasn't using any spiritual techniques, yet it was as if he had eyes in the back of his head, transforming himself once more into a flexible sword. But this sword was peculiar. Other people's swords desperately sought out the enemy's weak points, attempting to draw forth blossoms of blood. Xiao Wanfeng's "sword" was desperately trying to force its way into the gaps of his opponents' attacks, terrified of missing any sliver of a chance to survive.

"Young Master Xu, where did I offend you?!" Xiao Wanfeng cried as he dodged, but held back his tears, afraid they would blur his vision. By this point, he was too exhausted to complain, unable to even utter an extra word. Young Master Xu's words were light and casual. But the people behind him, as if fearing Young Master Xu would go back on his word, directly used powerful attacks, drowning out the instigator's voice. All they were thinking was to trade his head for money!

Like most people, Xiao Wanfeng initially didn't believe Young Master Xu truly wanted him dead. He thought it might be the wicked pleasure of a privileged young master; perhaps if he showed his desperate state, Young Master Xu would take pity and retract his earlier words. But in a fleeting moment during his frantic escape, Xiao Wanfeng glanced back to see Young Master Xu floating on his sword, sipping tea, and watching with relish as he darted left and right.

"You're absolutely twisted!" Xiao Wanfeng truly despaired. He realized Young Master Xu wasn't joking; he really wanted to kill him! But why? He had only joined the Heaven's First Tower less than a day ago, and he hadn't poisoned the tea. Young Master Xu, why would he treat his own people like this? He clearly... He didn't treat Brother Xiaoxin this way!

"Die!""Great Origin Dragon Slash!""Whispering Wind and Drizzle, Silent and Shadowless!""Golro Sin Sword!""Earth spike, earth spike, earth spike, I spike, I spike, I spike..."

Crazed shouts, each corresponding to a strangely named spiritual technique. Since birth, Xiao Wanfeng had never had the courage to provoke this many enemies. But now he swore that the group of people chasing him were an absolute nightmare. How dense was the crowd? Some melee fighters, unable to push their way into the first wave of pursuers, had even started learning to throw swords and hurl themselves from a distance!

"Crazy, crazy, crazy!" Xiao Wanfeng gritted his teeth, tempted to throw the tea saucer at the faces of the people behind him, but dared not. It was Young Master Xu's property, and he'd heard it was outrageously expensive... "How can I be so useless!" Xiao Wanfeng's heart was about to melt into bitter water.

"Earth spike, earth spike, earth spike, I spike, I spike, I spike..." That damned Earth Spike Fatty attacked again. But the path ahead was blocked by ice walls, storms, and lightning, leaving no escape. Both sides were human walls wielding weapons, making it impossible to break through.

Filled with despair, Xiao Wanfeng, as if divinely aided, stamped his foot, lay back on the ground, and twisted himself through the legs of those behind him in a flash. "This is a way out!" Xiao Wanfeng saw it clearly. But fantasies are beautiful. In his imagination, this was the only path to escape, but reality is always changing in an instant.

Because someone was jostled by the crowd and stumbled, bumping into another's shoulder, that person's sword then pierced the back of someone ahead. The wounded person's steps faltered, and two pushing forward on the side simultaneously crashed into each other, causing knives and axes to swing forward. The burly man further ahead, being a Xiantian, keenly sensed something amiss. He ducked, only to find a youth had just slipped through his legs?

"Snap!" The man moved at light speed, grabbing Xiao Wanfeng's foot. The nerves in the ankle are not particularly sensitive, but the warmth mixed with the opponent's sweaty hand transferred a distinctly clear sensation rapidly to his brain.

The taste of death... Xiao Wanfeng froze. He realized he had miscalculated and was caught. At this moment, under the heavy bounty, what it meant to be caught was self-evident. He closed his eyes tightly. Xiao Wanfeng desperately wanted to draw the wooden sword from his back. As luck would have it, the wooden sword was pressed against the ground beneath his back. Above him were many more legs; the sword, clearly, couldn't be drawn. Xiao Wanfeng ultimately gave up resisting. As a Houtian, what could he possibly do against a Xiantian?

"Young Master Xu, I curse you to a terrible..." Just as the curse was about to be completed, a golden speck of light fell from the sky into the crowd.

The next second. "Boom—" An explosion thundered. Xiao Wanfeng's eyes shot open, and he saw people flying everywhere, like a celestial maiden scattering flowers. These fellows, who had been ferocious just a moment ago, now had their protective spiritual energy shattered by the blast of that golden light bead, blood mixed with saliva spraying everywhere.

"Young... Young Master Xu?" Xiao Wanfeng looked up at the upside-down Young Master Xu floating in the air, utterly unable to decipher whether his expression was a smile or something else. He sprang to his feet, and the inverted view of the world finally returned to normal. Still shaken, Xiao Wanfeng finally noticed the faint golden gleam around Young Master Xu's body and on his fingers. Just now, he used this technique to blast away the group of burly men who were about to pile on him like Arhats? "What is he doing?" At this moment, Xiao Wanfeng's emotions were a mix of confusion. He had no idea what the unpredictable Young Master Xu's true intentions were. If he wanted Xiao Wanfeng dead, why go to all this trouble? If he wanted to save Xiao Wanfeng, why orchestrate this grand chase with a heavy bounty?

"Clap, clap, clap!" Xu Xiaoshou, standing in mid-air, applauded thrice with clear admiration. Then, under the bewildered gaze of those nearby, he turned to Xiao Wanfeng and said, "Impressive, you actually lasted seventeen seconds!"

Xiao Wanfeng was stunned. Veins instantly bulged on his forehead, an unnamed fury surged in his heart, and his almond-shaped eyes immediately turned sharp. The sword intent in his gaze seemed to solidify into reality, having already, in his imagination, sliced the incomprehensible man into a thousand pieces countless times.

"Seventeen seconds, wow!" Xu Xiaoshou looked at the furious Xiao Wanfeng and asked curiously, "To last seventeen seconds as a mere mortal, surrounded by dozens of Xiantian practitioners—don't you think that's something to be happy about?"

"This is... something to be happy about?" Xiao Wanfeng's head twitched violently. He raised his hand, ready to smash the tray down, but in the next second, sanity returned, and he caught the tray with his other hand. It looked as though he was asking, "Is this something to be happy about?" while simultaneously drawing a small half-ellipse in the air with the tray.

"Are you sad, then?" Xu Xiaoshou tilted his head and countered.

Xiao Wanfeng was speechless. In Young Master Xu's eyes, are things in the world only either 'happy' or 'sad'? Can't it be something that makes one want to cry but no tears come? Can't it simply be unexplainable? And more importantly, the issue isn't whether the essence of this matter can be defined as "happy," but rather, what exactly are Young Master Xu's intentions with this action?!

"If you're not sad, then you must be happy," Xu Xiaoshou chuckled, waving his hand nonchalantly, "Take a break. We'll continue later."

Thud— Hearing this, Xiao Wanfeng swayed, his legs once again turning to jelly. "Later... continue?" He licked his dry lips, unsure what to say. You're a devil, aren't you! What exactly do you want?!

Those nearby, hearing this, instinctively prepared to transform back into hungry wolves and pounce on the 'little lamb' Wanfeng. But Xu Xiaoshou suddenly turned, his face filled with coldness. "A bunch of trash! You can't even take down a mere mortal, and you dare to stand on this stage?" With a flick of his hand, golden light beads from his "Blasting Stance" flew out, like they had tracking signals, precisely striking every contestant who had just participated in the fight.

"Boom boom boom boom boom..." The arena was suddenly rocked by roaring explosions and golden light. Limbs and flesh flew, figures scattered, and dozens of people were cleared from the stage. The scene fell silent.

No one had expected that among Young Master Xu's rules for these people, there was also a seventeen-second chase limit. What they had even less expected was why some people, despite being Xiantian practitioners themselves, couldn't immediately take down a mortal with no spiritual energy. And someone, with a mere flick of his finger, could blast away dozens of people!

"He's a Xiantian?" Finally, contestants on and off the stage, and the audience, all raised the question simultaneously. The golden light pillars were too striking. Young Master Xu, enveloped in golden light, looked even more like a war god descended to the mortal realm, simply standing in mid-air, making everyone dare not move an inch.

"Is that an explosion attribute?""What are those golden light points? Is this a spiritual technique a Xiantian practitioner can master? Does anyone know what attribute Young Master Xu has?""No idea... But my Dad Xu comes from a Half-Saint family. Why shouldn't he be able to do what others can't?""Isn't this normal? Shouldn't a descendant of a Half-Saint family be invincible among their peers, clearing the field in an instant with a single thought?""Clearing is clearing, but the problem is, he looks so effortless, it can't be an act, can it? With so many high-intensity explosions, wouldn't his spiritual energy be depleted?""He's a Half-Saint successor!""Damn it, a Half-Saint successor's Xiantian is still a Xiantian. If he plays like this, how am I, a Zongshi, supposed to compete? I'm not even sure I could withstand that one blast.""Then you should reflect on yourself.""Damn you, I'll give you something to reflect on, come here...""Smashing the ground?""I'm going to kill you!"

Below the arena, the audience was engulfed by various astonishing and critical remarks. Everyone finally witnessed Young Master Xu's first true display of power. But at that time, most people's attention had been drawn by Young Master Xu's antics towards Xiao Wanfeng and the other Xiantian practitioners. So they hadn't even seen how Young Master Xu summoned this spiritual technique. But the result... One light point, one Xiantian? Getting blasted to bits was lucky, death was normal? Where did such an exaggerated Xiantian come from?!

"By the way, shouldn't you be wondering why Young Master Xu treated his own subordinate that way just now?" A faint voice in the crowd, unable to suppress initial curiosity after seeing the break in combat, asked the question. But now everyone was so captivated by this "Xiantian wonder" that they paid no attention to such minor details. Throughout the entire arena, the only one still concerned with this question was the subject of the matter himself, Xiao Wanfeng.

Xiao Wanfeng, expressionless, approached Young Master Xu, who had thoughtfully landed on the ground, accommodating his inability to fly. He pondered for a moment, ultimately choosing to calmly address the question: "What exactly does Young Master Xu want?"

"What did you learn?" Xu Xiaoshou asked.

"Learn?" Xiao Wanfeng was taken aback. Did Young Master Xu have another intention behind this action? What did he want him to learn?

"It seems you haven't realized it yet!" Xu Xiaoshou's eyes narrowed into a smile. He flew up and said to those around him, "Break time's over. You can keep going. Kill him, and if you can't kill him, just try to kill him. The reward is still valid, anyway."

Xiao Wanfeng looked up in astonishment.

"Ah—""Kill, kill, kill!"

Among the crowd, there were clearly some who had been startled by the explosion and intended to remain calm later. But these were a minority. After truly witnessing Young Master Xu's post-battle intervention, and even seeing him enforce the "kill Xiao Wanfeng within seventeen seconds for a million spirit crystals" rule, they realized this matter was very likely real! If Xu Xiaoshou himself followed the rules, then trading a head for spirit crystals isn't too much, is it? With such thoughts, the 'trapped beasts' in the arena, who already needed to wield their scythes against others, finally found a more enthusiastic and aggressive reason to charge at Xiao Wanfeng.

"Waaah—" Xiao Wanfeng cried out strangely, glared fiercely at Young Master Xu, then turned and ran. He could only manage a fleeting glare because if he had truly stared, he would undoubtedly have been chopped to death by the burly men rushing from behind during that long moment.

"Learn?""Learn what? What does Young Master Xu want me to learn?""What the hell is there to learn?!"

Xiao Wanfeng had originally wanted to think, but once surrounded, his mind felt like it was splitting apart; how could he possibly continue in his intended direction?

"Heh heh, keep trying to realize it, money-making Wanfeng..." Xu Xiaoshou, floating in mid-air with his arms crossed and his feet resting on the reversed Zang Ku, chuckled as he looked at his message log.

"Received speculation, passive points, 9999.""Received fear, passive points, 9999.""Received suspicion, passive points, 9999."