The corners of Li Mang's withered mouth pulled downward slightly, a flash of disappointment and irritation crossing the depths of his eyes.
But in the next instant, his gaze slid past the arena once more, settling with quiet deliberateness on the other Black Blood Stockade elites warming up in the preparation area.
A moment later, a dull, heavy detonation shook the arena floor.
Boom!
Lin Yan's fist — wreathed in scorching flame and savage Qi and Blood — drove squarely into the chest of the White Bone Stockade Earth Path Gu Master.
The thick stone armor coating the man's body shattered into fragments in an instant.
He flew off the edge of the platform like a kite with its string cut, crashed onto the stone slabs below, and did not move again.
Clean. Decisive. Final.
"Black Blood Stockade — Lin Yan wins!"
The referee's voice rang out across the entire arena.
Lin Yan drew back his fist and stood tall.
Steam rose from his bare torso as his Qi and Blood surged. His gaze — wild and proud as a fire lion's — swept the crowd.
He beat his chest with a thunderous crack and let out a roar that shook the air.
"ROAR——!"
The martial arena erupted. Applause and cheering crashed down like a peal of thunder.
"Well done!"
"Show them what we're made of!"
Black Blood Stockade had drawn first blood. Morale and momentum surged to a roaring peak.
Listening to the cheers that threatened to lift the roof off the arena, Black Blood Stockade's Patriarch Lin Cang — seated in the place of honor among the VIP guests — could no longer conceal the deep, satisfied delight spreading across his face.
This was exactly the effect he had wanted.
Lin Cang turned his head, unable to resist a little showing off, and let his gaze drift sideways toward his old rival Li Mang.
Li Mang's face was dark and still as stagnant water.
His expression was so sour it looked as though he had swallowed a mouthful of bitter medicine and found himself constipated on top of it.
Lin Cang felt a surge of pure satisfaction.
He stroked the beard on his chin and deliberately raised his voice, smiling pleasantly.
"Brother Li, what do you think? Do the young talents of my Black Blood Stockade meet with your esteemed approval?"
The pointed provocation landed like a bucket of cold water over Li Mang's head — right as he had been quietly extending his search.
Li Mang had been fully immersed in that faint, delicate resonance.
Lin Cang's sudden interruption broke his concentration, and a nameless fury surged up inside him in an instant.
He was a peak Rank 3 cultivator. When had he ever been made to swallow such humiliation?
But in the midst of that blazing rage, he caught himself.
This was the heart of Black Blood Stockade. Seated beside him was a genuine Rank 4 powerhouse.
More importantly — he had come here today for something far greater.
Patience was the price of great ambitions.
Li Mang forced that killing intent back down his throat. The muscles of his face twitched with visible effort.
And then, with great difficulty, he squeezed out a smile that looked worse than a grimace.
"Not bad... not bad at all."
"Patriarch Lin has taught them well. Truly outstanding young talent — they carry quite a few traces of your own style from back in the day, Elder Brother."
Hearing those compliments — clearly ground out from between clenched back teeth — Lin Cang laughed with great satisfaction, nodded, and turned back to enjoy his moment of triumph.
Behind him, the members of the White Bone Stockade delegation watched their Patriarch — always so domineering, always so forceful — lower himself like this, and felt the humiliation sink into their bones.
Heads bowed, fists clenched until the veins stood out.
Endure.
Li Mang raged at himself inwardly. Great ambitions require patience. For the Black Bone King's inheritance — endure.
As long as I find the one who holds the token...
He drew a slow breath and closed his eyes again.
But beneath that surface of forced calm, the anxiety inside him was growing more frantic by the moment.
Since the matches had begun, the Bone Scepter hidden in his sleeve had already swept silently across nearly half the Gu Masters in the area surrounding the arena.
And yet — nothing. Not a single trace of resonance in return.
His gaze returned to the platform.
The brutal rotation format took a punishing toll on whoever held the arena.
After defeating two of White Bone Stockade's defensive specialists in succession, Lin Yan's Primeval Essence was finally spent and his body gave out.
He stepped down from the platform, breathing hard.
"I yield the stage."
But there was no dejection in him — only the deep, bone-deep satisfaction of a good fight.
"My turn."
The moment Lin Yan stepped off, a light, graceful white figure descended like a drifting butterfly and landed squarely at the center of the arena.
The one stepping up to relieve him was Black Blood Stockade's other prodigy — Lin Xue.
She wore white, her bearing cool and untouched by the world around her.
But within those beautiful eyes burned a fighting spirit no less fierce than any man's.
Her cultivation had reached the very apex of peak Rank 1.
The qualitative leap of Rank 2 was separated from her by nothing more than a hair's breadth — a single final step.
She could break through at any moment, perhaps within the next few days.
She had volunteered for this not to seek glory, but to use the intense pressure of facing an outside enemy to "forge herself through battle" — to squeeze herself against the edge of her limits and hunt for that one crack of a breakthrough opportunity.
"Medicine Hall — Lin Xue. I ask for your guidance."
Lin Xue's appearance drove Black Blood Stockade's atmosphere to yet another peak.
Up on the high platform —
Li Mang watched another brilliant core talent from Black Blood Stockade take the stage.
Without hesitation, he covertly activated the Bone Scepter once more, casting that invisible probing ripple outward like a net, locking it tightly onto Lin Xue's body.
Is it her?
One breath...
Two breaths...
Three breaths passed.
The result that came back plunged Li Mang into fresh despair and irritation.
The scepter beneath his sleeve remained utterly silent. Not the faintest response.
"Not this one either..."
Li Mang's eyes snapped open.
His face, worn down by one disappointment after another, had grown darker and more frightening than before.
The red veins in his eyes looked ready to burst. Something barely suppressed — something close to madness — had begun to seep through.
None of these so-called prodigies. Not a single one.
Li Mang gripped the scepter with crushing force, a roar like a caged beast tearing through his mind.
He had no other choice now. He would have to expand the search entirely.
Hmmm...
A subtle, almost imperceptible ripple spread outward from the high platform — slow and steady, like rings spreading across still water.
It moved like an invisible hand, carrying within it a lethal, searching scrutiny.
It was drawing closer.
Closer to the stand where Lin Mu and Lin Wuxie sat side by side.