Runes • Rifles • Reincarnation
141. Tournament Back On: Fan Biyu VS Li Xue

A day had passed, and the tournament was in full swing once more. Surprisingly, Chen Ai Yun had taken Jin Shu’s—well, really Gold’s—advice and reorganized the format. It wasn’t perfect, but for last-minute changes, it worked remarkably well.

Elder Di Ti now had a proper announcer’s platform, complete with an amplifying formation so her voice could project clearly across the stadium. It was also positioned visibly, so she no longer had to climb up and down from the arena after every match. In addition, an illusion formation had been set up to project her image above the arena—when it wasn’t being used to broadcast an enlarged livestream of the ongoing duels.

The elders were full of praise for the Sect Master’s “brilliant” ideas.

“This use of formations and the new tournament format is truly inspired. How did you come up with it, Sect Master Chen?”

“Yes, please share with us.”

“She’s one of our sect’s top formation specialists. Of course, something like this is child’s play for her.”

But Chen Ai Yun shook her head. “It wasn’t me who devised this. It was my newest disciple.”

She pointed toward Jin Shu, who was off to the side wrestling with a small silver-haired girl.

“Yin’er, you can’t fight,” he said, sighing with exhaustion. He had been trying to calm her down since early that morning.

“Why not~?” she whined, twisting and squirming in his arms.

“Because I said so!”

“Boo!” she pouted, trying to wriggle free again, only for him to grab her before she could fly off.

She struggled anew, but he held her tighter this time. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the elders chatting with Chen Ai Yun, their attention fixed on him.

Chen Ai Yun waved him over.

Jin Shu stepped to her side, bowing first to her, then to the assembled elders—Yin’er still squirming the entire time.

“Greetings, Master. Elders,” he said politely, then glanced down. “Yin’er, be polite.”

She huffed but stopped struggling long enough to bow her head slightly toward Chen Ai Yun—pointedly ignoring the elders.

“Yin’er—!” He started to scold her, but Chen Ai Yun gently raised a hand to stop him.

“Yin’er, do you remember what I taught you about greeting someone?”

“...Yes,” she replied reluctantly.

“Then, could you do that now?”

“Okay…” Yin’er nodded, then looked up at Jin Shu. “Let me down, please?”

Jin Shu hesitated. He didn’t know what Chen Ai Yun had taught her and wasn’t entirely sure this wasn’t just another escape ploy. He glanced at Chen Ai Yun for confirmation.

She gave a small nod, so he set Yin’er down.

She stepped forward, cupped her fists, and gave a slight bow.

“I am Jin Yin’er, daughter of Jin Shu. I greet the elders,” she said brightly, as if she hadn’t just been throwing a tantrum seconds earlier.

The elders didn’t seem to mind. In fact, they looked charmed.

“What an adorable little one,” one of them said fondly.

“Those features... is she a tiger beast?” another asked.

“Hm? I’ve never heard of a species with silver fur and wings,” a third elder mused, giving her a curious look.

“She’s your daughter?” asked Elder Bin—Bin Yu’s mother.

“That’s right!” Yin’er answered before Jin Shu could.

The gathered elders raised their brows, giving Jin Shu curious looks.

“Then her father is a…?” one of them asked cautiously.

“I adopted her,” Jin Shu replied honestly, sensing the odd conclusions they were jumping to. “So, I’m not sure.”

A collective oh swept through the group.

“I was about to say—you’re far too young to have children,” Elder Wu remarked. “You should come have some fun with me instead. I promise, no child-making involved.”

Her two disciples were a second too late in covering her mouth, but still managed to drag her away, muffling her protests with their palms.

The elders shook their heads as they watched the girl—or rather, the old woman in a young body—get dragged off, still kicking.

“Let’s get back to the topic at hand,” one elder suggested dryly.

“Right.”

“What were we talking about again? Ah, yes—the formations.”

“How did you think to add moving images to the illusion formation?” another asked.

Jin Shu scratched the back of his neck. “It wasn’t all me. I just had a great teacher.”

The elders glanced toward Chen Ai Yun with knowing smiles.

“Oh, you certainly did,” one said.

Jin Shu realized they had misunderstood, but correcting them wouldn’t help. It hadn’t been Chen Ai Yun who taught him—it had been his Aunt Zui, hundreds of years ago in another life.

“With this improvement to our illusion formations, we could enhance the effectiveness of our Sect Hiding Formation,” one elder noted.

Jin Shu blinked, puzzled—then a thought clicked into place.

Oh! That formation in Phoenix City!

He’d always wondered what it was. When he first arrived at the Immortal Phoenix Sect, Biyu had told him the sect was hidden and unreachable without a special talisman. But all he’d seen were mountains concealing the landscape. Only now did he realize the truth: he’d seen past the formation because of the talisman. That’s why the sprawling citywide array had puzzled him back then.

“Alright, enough asskissing—we’ve got a tournament to run.”

Sun Mei’er appeared suddenly between the elders, waving them off.

Most of the elders pulled sour faces but didn’t argue. One by one, they broke away, muttering under their breath.

Chen Ai Yun gave Sun Mei’er a reproachful look but didn’t argue. Instead, she raised a communication talisman to her lips and spoke softly into it.

A moment later, an image shimmered to life above the arena. It was a live projection of Elder Di Ti seated at the announcer’s platform. She waved to the crowd. “Welcome back to our grand tournament. Can you all see me clearly?”

The crowd erupted in cheers.

“For our first match back, we’ll see Fan Biyu versus Li Xue. The Vice-Sect Master’s eldest disciple against her newest!”

The cheers grew even louder.

Fan Biyu and Li Xue descended the stairs side by side to thunderous applause. As they ascended the arena stage, the projection shifted from Elder Di Ti to the two women standing opposite each other.

“You might have the title of first wife,” Li Xue said with a cheeky grin, “but I’ll be taking the title of strongest wife now.”

Her voice echoed across the stadium, carried by the transmission formation linked to the illusion display.

Biyu ran a hand down her face. “What nonsense are you spouting now?”

Li Xue glanced up at the projection above. “Oh. I didn’t know it was going to do that.”

The crowd immediately broke into a buzz of speculation.

“Did Li Xue say that Senior Sister Fan is someone’s first wife? As in—married to a man with multiple wives?”

“Or a woman,” another voice chimed in. “It’s not that rare in our sect. A lot of disciples marry each other.”

“Oh! Remember when she got hurt during her match with Senior Sister Tian and collapsed into her arms?” a particularly loud girl shouted. “Maybe they’re together!”

“No, no,” said the girl next to her. “It was Jin Shu who carried her all the way back up to the elders’ platform!”

“Right! And she was blushing so hard the entire time!”

“Oh my gosh—it has to be Jin Shu!”

“That makes sense… but who else is Jin Shu married to then?”

“Well, Li Xue said she’s taking the title of strongest wife, which means they must be married to the same person!”

The speculation only grew louder, until a sudden boom snapped their attention back to the arena.

While the audience had been gossiping, the duel had already begun.

Biyu’s unquenchable flames surged across the arena, rising overhead like a blazing tide. In their midst, Li Xue’s wind qi carved out a small, calm eye in the inferno—a swirling pocket of safety.

With a burst of speed, Li Xue blitzed forward through the firestorm, slicing her sword down toward Biyu’s head. Her blade connected—only for Biyu’s body to explode into flame. The fire clung to the blade, trying to crawl up her arms, but was repelled by the spinning barrier of wind qi surrounding her.

The towering flames parted—revealing a flame-wreathed palm shooting toward her back.

Li Xue spun and flung her half-melted sword at the attacker. The haphazardly spinning weapon forced Biyu to retreat to avoid the still-glowing metal.

But just as Li Xue landed, three phoenixes erupted around her—from both sides and her back—trapping her in a fiery triangle.

Wind roared to life around her, swirling violently and holding the flames at bay.

“Take my ultimate move!” Li Xue shouted. “Hurricane of Deadly Winds!”

With her declaration came an explosion of wind qi so immense it extinguished Biyu’s flames, dispersed the phoenix constructs, and launched Biyu across the stage. She slammed into the far qi barrier with a thunderous crash.

The crowd exploded in stunned excitement.

“Holy—what was that?!”

“That much wind qi?! How did she even cast something like that?!”

“Her cultivation shouldn’t be able to hold that much qi and still fight!”

“Uh… I don’t think she will be fighting anymore…” one spectator said, pointing toward the arena floor.

Li Xue lay flat on her back at the center of the stage.

“Ugh…” she groaned—a small sound, but it echoed across the arena thanks to the illusion screen above.

Biyu approached cautiously, watching for signs of movement. This was exactly the sort of moment Li Xue would fake—playing helpless just to land a surprise blow.

But even when Biyu stood over her, Li Xue didn’t move.

“Are you pretending?” Biyu asked, narrowing her eyes.

“No…” Li Xue murmured. “I really can’t move… that was all my qi… I thought if I used it all at once it’d be super strong…”

“You—are you actually stupid?” Biyu asked, sighing in disbelief. “You could’ve killed yourself doing something like that!”

“I… could…?”

“Yes!”

“Oh… oopsies.” Li Xue smiled weakly and stuck her tongue out. “But… I really can’t fight anymore. You win.”

As her words faded, the qi barriers dropped.

“Winner, Fan Biyu!” Elder Li announced.