Chapter 202: Entering the Outer Court
"You!" Elder Gu Lie's voice broke the silence. "How can you be so ruthless!"
"Ruthless?" Su Tianhao raised an eyebrow and scoffed. "He was going to sever my meridians."
"That's because he had to go all out!" Elder Gu Lie snapped. "He's fighting you—someone four minor realms stronger!"
Su Tianhao frowned.
"I might not know much about the Jade Finger Art, but I am not ignorant," he said coldly. "If Jin Yulong genuinely wanted to win, he could have gone for the pressure point at the base of my skull and I would have simply gone unconscious. Instead, he tried to sever my meridians to render me useless."
"It was a moment of desperation!" Elder Gu Lie pressed on. "Besides, you make it sound like a severed meridian is like shattering one's dantian. A fractured meridian can still be healed."
"Perhaps," Su Tianhao said, raising his chin slightly. "...but it can never go back to how it was. It can be healed—but the scar always remains."
With his considerable knowledge in the art of alchemy, it was only natural he was well-versed in anatomy.
Elder Gu Lie's mouth twitched violently. He was about to utter another counter when a sharp voice cracked through the air like a whip.
"ENOUGH!!!"
Bai Tianhu drifted forward, his silver eyes piercing.
"Elder Gu Lie! I will not tolerate this insolence!"
Every word, every syllable carried genuine weight that seemed to bore down on Elder Gu Lie like a boulder. Everyone felt it. The Storm Tiger Elder was furious!
Elder Gu Lie flinched. His head lowered like a scolded disciple before his master, the argument drying in his throat.
Bai Tianhu's fists clenched. "You can't even accept the reality before you. The Jadeclaw Peak accepts defeat with honour—not try to twist it!"
He glared hard at Elder Gu Lie. The goateed elder felt involuntary chills race down his spine like a man with a blade pressed quietly to the back of his neck.
Gulp.
Elder Gu Lie swallowed hard.
"Let it be the last time I see you pull such stunts—or you would be getting more than just a simple scolding."
Elder Gu Lie's head remained lowered. He didn't speak. His fists clenched until his knuckles turned white. At that moment, he assigned the blame for every part of this—the scolding, the humiliation before thousands of spectators—to exactly one person. The sound of grinding teeth was audible in the tense silence.
'I would repay this humiliation a thousandfold,' he vowed inwardly. 'I swear it.'
"Rest easy, everyone."
Huo Changfeng's voice drifted effortlessly through the gathered crowd. He turned to Jin Yulong. The young man was just getting to his feet, expression twisted with barely concealed pain, face pale, one hand pressed against his stomach.
Without hesitation, he retrieved a healing pill from his spatial ring—Peak grade three, worth at least a hundred gold coins—and swallowed it without ceremony.
His face slowly regained its colour. The wincing eased, though the pain wasn't entirely gone.
"As you can see, the opponent is doing just fine..." Huo Changfeng's eyes swept the crowd. "For this match, Su Tianhao wins."
The crowd remained silent. There was no cheer. No applause. Only quiet reflection.
Everyone's gaze moved between Jin Yulong—his finishing technique still replaying in their minds—and Su Tianhao, who stood where he had stood throughout, looking faintly impatient. Around him, three hundred prodigies who had just watched the whole thing stood in complete silence, each one privately grateful they hadn't volunteered.
The representatives of the various forces quietly analysed the battle. These veterans and Elders were naturally capable of seeing through a Martial Adept's attack—they all knew that Jin Yulong had clearly succeeded in reducing Su Tianhao's strength by half. By all logic, he should have won, and heavily at that. But at the last possible moment, when Su Tianhao moved, the force behind that blow felt like Su Tianhao's strength hadn't been reduced in the slightest.
"How can this be?"
They were all genuinely puzzled.
Jin Yulong's attack had been genuinely terrifying—a 5th level Martial Adept would have been helpless against it. Even a 6th level would fall, and a 7th level Martial Adept might not survive it either. So by all means, Su Tianhao at half strength should have fallen.
The puzzle ran even deeper for the three Martial Grandmasters hovering above. They were more experienced, and they had seen their fair share of abnormalities in the cultivation world. Yet nothing they had seen or heard could explain what had just happened in front of them.
"Are you okay?"
The voice cut through the crowd—warm, worried, carrying obvious concern.
Su Tianhao didn't need to turn to know who it was.
"I am fine, Bing'er," he said, his lips curved into the faintest smile. Despite his reassurance, Wang Bing's face still carried genuine concern, her brows drawing together.
"He went too far."
---
Up above, Lu Ruyi watched the entire scene with wide, unblinking eyes.
"That... how's that possible?"
Her eyes narrowed, her mind already working through the calculations. "If he is still able to display the power of a Peak-stage Martial Adept at half strength... Doesn't that mean he's two times stronger than his realm suggests?"
"This—" she paused. Her eyes widened with disbelief. Although she didn't want to believe it, it was the only logical explanation for what she just witnessed... or perhaps there was something more to it that she couldn't quite grasp. Regardless, the thought sparked something within her—a fierce competitive intensity that hadn't been there before.
"Although I just broke through to the 1st level Martial Core Realm, I can defeat a 3rd level Martial Core Realm expert without problem... I wonder how I would fare against you, Tianhao."
Her lips curled into a perfect smile, crystalline blue eyes shining with barely contained anticipation and excitement that literally rolled off onto Qiongqi.
The Jade Winged Eagle let out a low, eager sound—clearly already anticipating the outcome.
Lu Ruyi snapped back to focus as she heard Su Tianhao's voice drifting up from below.
---
"Now that I have won, does that mean I have 'earned' the privilege to enter the Outer Court?"
He placed special emphasis on the word earned—a deliberate callback to Bai Tianhu's earlier words: the Qingyun Sect does not hand out privileges. They are earned.
Bai Tianhu smiled—warm, genuine, carrying no particular reaction to the pointed emphasis. He drifted down slowly until he was hovering just a few metres above Su Tianhao.
"Of course you've earned it—you have shown your strength." His smile widened with appreciation. "I can see you are considerably stronger than your average Peak-stage Martial Adept. A physique, perhaps?"
"You can say so," Su Tianhao shrugged, his expression unreadable. No matter how they tried to probe him for more, they got nothing.
"Su Tianhao has a heavenly constitution?"
Murmurs rang out from the gathered geniuses, their eyes holding genuine surprise and awe. After all, heavenly constitutions were exceedingly rare.
"So that explains his strength."
"How can one person have such talent and still have a heavenly constitution! Heavens—it's not fair."
Bai Tianhu ignored their murmuring and turned to Su Tianhao with a direct look. "Could it be that your heavenly constitution amplifies your base strength beyond the normal scale?"
Su Tianhao nodded. It wasn't exactly true—but it was close enough to be credible and far enough from the truth to be safe. With his composure already beyond what most cultivators twice his age could manage, there was no way these people were going to see through him.
Seeing Su Tianhao had no intention of elaborating, Bai Tianhu didn't press. Instead his expression shifted—purposeful now, carrying the particular directness of someone who has made a decision.
"You have great potential. And with your enhanced strength, you would excel in the Jadeclaw Peak."
"Oh?"
The crowd realised immediately what was happening. Bai Tianhu was recruiting Su Tianhao. Everyone turned to Duan Fei to see how she would react—after all, the Jadeclaw Peak was a natural rival to hers. There was no way she would watch them recruit a monster like this without intervening.
But contrary to everyone's expectations, Duan Fei didn't move. She remained hovering where she was, her emerald hanfu fluttering gently around her, watching the two of them with complete calm and not a single sign of intervention.
"This—"
Even Huo Changfeng couldn't help but be quietly stunned. As the overall leader of the Outer Court, he knew exactly how fierce the rivalry between the two peaks could get—it had been burning for three thousand years since the sect's founding. There was simply no way Duan Fei would concede this without a fight.
'What is she planning?' he thought inwardly. Duan Fei's moves were always a mystery. No one ever quite knew what she was thinking.
Bai Tianhu narrowed his eyes slightly at his rival's silence—then, finding no interference where he had expected it, turned back to Su Tianhao with renewed confidence.
"There are many benefits that come with joining the Jadeclaw Peak. As long as you continue to prove your strength, you would naturally enjoy all of them—even special training areas reserved exclusively for our top ten disciples."
Hiss!
The crowd drew in a collective sharp breath. Training areas reserved for the top ten disciples? What kind of honour was that?
Bai Tianhu's eyes gleamed, noting the effect his words had on the crowd. He turned back to Su Tianhao.
"What do you say, boy?"
Wang Bing glanced between the two of them and sighed quietly. She already knew Su Tianhao's answer. She was glad for it.
'We'll be able to stay together.'
Sure enough, Su Tianhao's answer didn't surprise her—but to everyone else, it landed like thunder.
"I am sorry, Peak Lord Bai. But I have already decided to join the Silverblade Peak."
His voice wasn't loud. Wasn't heavy. It carried the particular calm that made it impossible for the other party to take offence even if they wanted to.
"Why?" Bai Tianhu asked, brows drawing together.
"That's because he's a sword cultivator~"
Duan Fei's melodious voice resonated in the air before Su Tianhao could respond.
The crowd exploded.
"Su Tianhao is a sword cultivator?!"
"Damn! He didn't even draw his sword—how strong would he be if he did?"
Sword cultivators were naturally known to exceed their cultivation realm in combat. The revelation reframed everything the crowd had just witnessed. As they all looked at Su Tianhao again, their impression of him rose to heights that had several of the younger geniuses quietly reassessing their own ambitions.
"That sword..."
Xiao Fenghua's hazel eyes had narrowed slightly—not with suspicion, but with the focused interest of someone who had just spotted something genuinely fascinating. He studied Dark Nether from a distance. Even sheathed, there was something about it that was quietly, unmistakably threatening. Which only made him more interested.
"I never thought I would meet such an interesting friend," he murmured.
Mo Qingxue stood beside him with a frown that carried more thought than hostility.
"This guy... he's dangerous."
---
Duan Fei drifted forward. "...And not an ordinary sword cultivator at that. His talent would be wasted in the Jadeclaw Peak."
Su Tianhao turned to her and offered a curt bow. "I would be joining your Peak, Lord Duan."
"Excellent choice!"
Her smile was radiant and alluring. She turned her gaze across the assembled Outer Court Disciples—and it settled on one particular figure who had been watching Su Tianhao with disbelief, shock, and something she hadn't yet named.
Su Mei.
"Disciple Mei, how about you escort Tianhao to the Silverblade Peak and help him settle in?"
"Y-Yes, Peak Master!" Su Mei snapped out of her drifting thoughts and turned to Su Tianhao with a smile. "Come with me, junior brother."
Her eyes carried complex emotions, and Su Tianhao read them immediately. The way she looked at him had changed. The familiar warmth he had always known was still there—but behind it, faint and still forming, was a careful distance she hadn't yet decided what to do with.
Su Tianhao sighed quietly and told Wang Bing to crush the competition, then moved to follow Su Mei. Before leaving, he gave one final glance at Xiao Fenghua. Something about that young man kept pulling at the edge of a long forgotten memory—and the more he tried to set it aside, the more insistently it returned.
He let it go and walked on.
Clap!
Huo Changfeng clapped his hands, drawing every remaining eye.
"Now that our dark horse has left us—let's officially begin the competition!"
Jin Yulong watched Su Tianhao's retreating figure, his green eyes carrying both dread and a fierce, unyielding resolve.
"It's not over yet."
---
Up above, Lu Ruyi patted Qiongqi's head.
"You hear that, Qiongqi? Tianhao became a sword cultivator!" Her voice carried the particular delight of someone whose interest has just grown deeper than they expected. "This just made him even more interesting, didn't it?"
Kree!
Qiongqi let out a sharp cry and ruffled her emerald feathers with undisguised enthusiasm. As the companion of the Jade Sword Lord, she carried an instinctive reverence for the sword dao that needed no explanation.
"Let's get moving, Qiongqi," Lu Ruyi said, stroking the eagle's head. Qiongqi closed her eyes and leaned into it.
"Let's go... I am going to give Tianhao a surprise visit."
Kreeeee!!!
Qiongqi's cry split the air. Her wings stretched wide—five metres of emerald feathers catching the light like jade in motion. With one powerful beat, she bolted forward, tearing through the clouds, her sharp eyes already locked on Su Tianhao's distant figure below.
---
Far from Lu Ruyi's position, on the other side of the sky, Zhan Kuang watched everything with calm, unblinking eyes.
"I never thought you would have such connections, Tianhao..." A quiet sound escaped him—somewhere between amusement and something that sat closer to pride. "Looks like I underestimated you."
His smile widened—like a craftsman who forged a blade long ago and is only now watching it cut through something truly worthy of its edge.
"You have delivered, Tianhao. Now it's time to build your legend and carve your name into this sect."
His eyes gleamed—sharp, ancient, deeply satisfied.
"I will be watching..."