The roar of the crowd hit me like a physical wall as I emerged from the portal, the familiar warmth of the arena's afternoon air replacing the cool depths of the Infinite Ocean Realm.

My robes were still damp in places, and I could taste salt on my lips from the underwater battle, but the cheers washing over me suggested the spectators had found the fight entertaining.

"Ke Yin! Ke Yin! Ke Yin!"

"That's two hundred spirit stones for me!"

"Did you see that plant formation? Incredible!"

"The way he turned that ice dragon into fragments! Incredible!"

"The village boy's unstoppable!"

But the angry voices coming from other parts of the arena were just as loud.

"Are you kidding me? She had him frozen solid!"

"This is rigged! There's no way he should have won that!"

"I lost three months' worth of spirit stones on this garbage!"

"Ming Yue was supposed to be unbeatable in that world! What kind of technique was that plant nonsense?"

I couldn't help but smile slightly as I walked across the arena floor.

The betting had clearly been heavily against me, despite my cultivation advantage.

"Master," Azure said with what sounded like amusement, "you seem to be developing quite the reputation as an upset specialist."

"It's not my fault people keep underestimating me," I replied internally.

Most people had probably looked at Ming Yue's water specialization, the aquatic environment, and her recent breakthrough to ninth stage, then decided that environmental advantage would trump my Pseudo-Elemental Realm cultivation.

But I didn't blame them.

By every logical analysis, I should have lost a fight against a Domain-empowered ninth stage qi condensation cultivator.

And if I hadn't had access to red sun energy mutations and that plant-based calligraphy technique, then that would have been exactly what happened.

Yet here I was, advancing to the round of thirty-two, while the previously undefeated Ming Yue was receiving medical attention for spiritual exhaustion and forced unconsciousness.

That was xianxia logic for you, I supposed.

It didn't matter how perfectly you planned, how many advantages you had, or how thoroughly you analyzed your opponent's weaknesses. Just when you thought you had everything figured out, your opponent would pull out some new energy source or technique you'd never encountered and completely flip the script.

Fortunately, this time, I had been the one with the unexpected trump cards.

But the real worry was that somewhere in this tournament was another competitor who might seem weaker on paper but possessed some hidden ability that could completely counter my advantages.

Wu Kangming was dangerous, certainly. His ring clearly contained some kind of mentor spirit, and those usually came with access to ancient techniques and forbidden knowledge. But he wasn't exactly a surprise.

What I had yet to witness was the classic "dark horse" trope.

If everything I knew about this world was true, and so far, it had been depressingly accurate to xianxia novel tropes, then there was almost certainly someone here who looked completely ordinary but was hiding something extraordinary.

Maybe it was that quiet seventh-stage girl who'd barely spoken to anyone.

Maybe it was one of the eighth-stage cultivators who'd advanced through pure luck and determination.

Or maybe it was someone I hadn't even noticed yet, blending into the background, cultivating some forbidden art and had secretly broken through to the Elemental Realm, while everyone else focused on the obvious threats.

In the cultivation world, underestimating anyone was a good way to end up dead or worse.

And just a few minutes ago, I had come close to suffering such a fate, nearly being turned into a cultivator popsicle.

I shuddered slightly.

No matter who I was paired up against next, I couldn't afford to let them use their most powerful techniques.

A quick and efficient battle was the way to go.

With that thought, I gave a wave of reassurance to my parents and then found an empty meditation cushion near the arena's edge to settle down and recover my energy.

The fight with Ming Yue had been more draining than I'd expected, particularly the combination techniques at the end.

I had used up almost ninety percent of my red sun energy reserve, and my blue sun reserves had also taken a significant hit from the healing and the extended underwater breathing. As for my qi reserves, it was hovering around forty percent, which wasn't terrible but definitely not ideal for facing another opponent.

It was going to take a while to get back to full strength, but fortunately I had time before the next round began.

Looking around the arena, I could see that most of the other battles were still ongoing, their outcomes being displayed on formation screens positioned throughout the spectator sections.

I turned my attention to those screens, curious to see how the other tournament favorites were faring in their matches.

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Yuan Zhen's battle was already over, apparently concluded so quickly that the replay formation had to slow down the footage for spectators to understand what had happened. His opponent, an eighth-stage earth cultivator, had simply ceased to exist in the span of a single heartbeat.

One moment he was raising defensive barriers, the next he was unconscious in a crater, his cultivation temporarily sealed by whatever technique Yuan Zhen had used.

The ordinary-looking cultivator was clearly anything but ordinary.

Wu Kangming's fight was similarly decisive. His opponent had lasted perhaps thirty seconds before that impossible sword technique cleaved through every defense he could muster.

The most unsettling part was how casual Wu Kangming looked afterward, like he'd been sparring with a child rather than fighting for tournament advancement.

Earth Fist Liu's battle was even shorter. His opponent, a wind cultivator who specialized in mobility and ranged attacks, had apparently thought he could kite the massive earth specialist around the battlefield.

Instead, Liu had punched the ground once, creating such massive seismic disturbances that his opponent lost his footing and was immediately eliminated by a follow-up attack that sent his unconscious form flying.

Chen Feng's match was wrapping up as I watched, his shadow techniques making it nearly impossible for his enemy to land a solid hit. The Ghost Step Expert lived up to his reputation, appearing and disappearing like smoke while steadily wearing down his opponent's defenses until he landed a clean knockout.

"The favorites are all winning easily," Azure observed. "No surprises so far."

I nodded, I hadn't expected anything less. They would continue to win convincingly until the dark horse made their presence known.

I turned my gaze to the screen displaying Luo Yichen's match, he was still locked in battle against a female cultivator I didn't recognize.

The nameplate identified her as Fan Li, eighth stage of Qi Condensation, with what appeared to be a wind-based cultivation method.

The battle was taking place in something called the "Shattered Peaks Realm," a mountainous environment with floating stone platforms connected by narrow bridges. Perfect terrain for testing mobility and aerial maneuvering.

Fan Li had clearly not studied Luo Yichen's fighting style, because she was using her wind techniques to stay airborne and maintain distance.

It would have been smarter for her to engage in close quarters, preferably using martial arts.

The Mirrorwater Sword Style was most effective at long to medium range where the blade could capture and reflect incoming spiritual attacks.

She sent a barrage of wind blades down at Luo Yichen's position, each one sharp enough to carve through stone. But Luo Yichen's response was almost artistic in its precision.

His sword moved in flowing patterns that seemed to literally drink the wind attacks out of the air. The Mirrorwater Blade absorbed each strike, storing the kinetic energy and wind essence within its surface.

When Fan Li paused to gather power for a larger technique, Luo Yichen simply pointed his sword upward and released everything at once.

The stored wind blades erupted from his weapon with twice their original force, creating a spiraling tornado of cutting force that Fan Li couldn't possibly evade in mid-air.

She managed to form a defensive barrier, but it lasted maybe a second before the reflected attack tore through it and sent her tumbling to the platform below.

The match was over.

Clean, efficient, and demonstrating exactly why inheriting a legendary sword style made someone such a formidable opponent.

"Impressive technique," Azure observed. "The Mirrorwater Sword Style really is well-suited for spiritual arts combat. Turn the opponent's strength against them while maintaining perfect defense."

"Wu Kangming chose his sworn brother well," I agreed quietly.

Luo Yichen was more dangerous than his recent breakthrough to ninth stage might suggest. If I faced him in later rounds, I'd need to be very careful about my technique selection and face him using martial arts, a discipline of combat that just happened to be my weakness.

But it was the next screen that made me genuinely worried.

Wei Lin versus Jin Hao, another eighth stage cultivator, this one specializing in fire techniques. The environment was the "Volcanic Forge Realm," with rivers of lava, obsidian platforms, and geysers of superheated steam creating a hellish landscape.

But what struck me wasn't the dramatic setting. It was how differently Wei Lin was fighting compared to his usual style.

Normally, Wei Lin approached combat like a business transaction. Calm, calculated, always looking for the most efficient exchange rate between energy expenditure and results achieved. He would analyze his opponent's abilities, find the optimal counter, and execute with minimal wasted motion.

This wasn't that Wei Lin.

This was someone unrecognisable.

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