Shi Gaolin’s halberd ca down like a guillotine, the arc so heavy that even the air seed to bow under it.
However, Bai Yegui didn’t retreat, instead he simply vanished!
He was there one mont, and gone the next, leaving Shi Gaolin’s halberd to cleave only empty space and crash into the arena floor with a boom that made the protective formation ripple.
BOOM!
The crowd’s eyes widened in confusion from the result.
"Where did he—?!"
"What the heck kind of movent technique is that?"
"No... that felt... wrong."
Shi Gaolin’s pupils constricted rapidly, his feet twisting as he swung the halberd back up and spun in a tight defensive circle.
His body may have been built like a mortal grandmaster, but his reactions were not those of a mortal at all!
He was sharp and calculating, already adjusting to the idea that this wasn’t going to be a straightforward contest of Hungry Ghost power.
Then the air behind him chilled as a shadow fell over his back.
Shi Gaolin imdiately reacted by whirling and thrust outward!
CLANG!
His halberd struck sothing unseen and bounced back as if it had hit a steel wall, the recoil numbing his palms.
Bai Yegui’s voice drifted out, calm and faintly amused.
"Good instincts."
The ’sothing’ that blocked the halberd still didn’t fully show itself, with only a vague distortion in the air, like a silhouette behind a thin veil.
Though, it was just enough for Shi Gaolin’s spirit sense to catch a hint of... malevolence.
His expression darkened as he planted his feet and surged with Hungry Ghost yin power, a dense and malicious chill rolling off him as he raised his halberd again.
"Stop hiding! Since you’re so strong, co and show it!" Shi Gaolin said coldly.
Bai Yegui chuckled lightly.
"As you wish."
In the next instant, the so called ’veil’ tore open and a towering Hungry Ghost Avatar manifested behind Bai Yegui.
This one was a full body, not a half-torso like what the third realm normally allowed nor floating arms and a head which was for the second realm.
It was ten feet tall, complete from crown to feet, its outline sharp and oppressive, its presence so cold and ancient that even spectators felt their blood slow.
The Hungry Ghost Path section exploded into chaos.
"That’s impossible!"
"A full-body Avatar at Core Formation?!"
"That’s a Nascent Soul-level Dharma Idol form!"
Even Gu Mugui’s face twitched, his earlier composure slipping for the first ti as he leaned forward, eyes narrowing as if he wanted to deny what his own senses were confirming.
Shi Gaolin’s expression finally changed - for just a second - shock cutting through his fury, but he recovered quickly, tightening his grip on the halberd.
"So that’s your reliance, huh? Its true that your talent breaks common sense." He growled, forcing himself steady.
Shi Gaolin raised his halberd to point at Bai Yegui. "But so what? You might be stronger than or even more talented, but so what? I will still fight because that is my Dao!"
Bai Yegui didn’t answer the brave words, rather only lifting a hand, and then, just as quickly as the Avatar appeared, its body blurred and sank away, vanishing as if it had never existed.
The crowd froze again, even more confused than before.
"It disappeared?!"
"Did he retract it?"
"No... I didn’t feel it retract. I just... lost sight of it."
On the highest platform, Li Ling’s eyes narrowed slightly.
’This bastard...He’s hiding it in the void!’
The others didn’t have the context to na it, only the vague feeling that Bai Yegui had so kind of special talent.
But Li Ling had already walked that road as he had learned what the Tai Xu Mysterious thod encapsulated, and he recognized the ’shape’ of it imdiately from the way reality itself seed to fold and swallow the Avatar.
It wasn’t refined enough to be true mastery, but for soone in the third realm to force that kind of effect onto a Hungry Ghost Avatar...
Absurd!
Even Li Ling was moved by this talent. It seed that indeed, Bai Yegui might prove to be a suitable rival for a few major realms until he was left so far behind that he had to call Li Ling ’Ancestor’.
Shi Gaolin didn’t know why his halberd felt like it was striking empty air one mont and an iron mountain the next, he only knew this was dangerous.
So he did the only sensible thing a disciplined fighter could do.
He widened his stance, lowered his center of gravity, and began to cut the arena into zones by sweeping, thrusting, pivoting, forcing Bai Yegui to keep distance.
Each strike carried Hungry Ghost power that left pale frost on the air, attempting to stifle movent, to limit footwork, and to turn ’space’ into a cage.
The crowd’s voices rose again.
"He’s controlling the field!"
"As expected of Senior Shi!"
"Don’t let him vanish again!"
Bai Yegui watched, calm, hands behind his back, as if Shi Gaolin was demonstrating sothing for an assessnt.
Seeing this, Shi Gaolin took a risk by lunging forward, halberd tip flickering as it split into three strikes of which two were feints and one was the real thrust, the point aid for Bai Yegui’s heart!
Bai Yegui didn’t dodge, he simply tilted his head and stepped aside slightly, allowing Shi Gaolin’s halberd to strike an unseen obstruction again.
PENG!
This ti, the impact was different, because it stuck and Shi Gaolin’s eyes widened with horror, as if his weapon had been seized by a giant’s grip.
Then the air to Bai Yegui’s side rippled, and the ten-foot Avatar’s arm appeared - just the arm alone - its fingers clamped around the halberd shaft like a vise.
The crowd went hoarse from shouting.
"It’s appeared again!"
"He’s manifesting it from the void or what?!"
"Exactly, it’s like it’s appearing from nowhere!"
Shi Gaolin roared and tried to yank the weapon back, but the Avatar’s grip tightened, causing the halberd shaft to creak.
Shi Gaolin’s forearms bulged as he poured power into his body, refusing to lose his weapon.
Bai Yegui sighed softly, like a man disappointed by an overhyped performance.
"You’re still trying to ’fight properly’, and that’s why you’re weak!" He stated matter of factly.
Shi Gaolin’s face twisted. "You—!"
Before he could finish, Bai Yegui raised his hand and ford a familiar seal and Li Ling’s gaze sharpened.
Yin Thunder!
A pale bolt with black mottling snapped into existence with a sinister crackle, not exploding outward, but compressing into a thin, lethal line aid directly for Shi Gaolin’s chest!
Shi Gaolin’s pupils shrank as he tried to retreat, but his halberd was still trapped!
He tried to abandon it, but the instant he loosened his grip, the Avatar’s presence surged, a pressure that made his bones hum and his blood turn cold!
So he did the only thing left, he raised his free arm and braced his entire body, using his hardened physique and Hungry Ghost power to endure.
ZHI—BOOM!
The Yin Thunder struck and Shi Gaolin’s body jerked violently, teeth clenching so hard that blood seeped at the corners of his mouth.
A patch of his robe blackened, and a wave of decay-like chill crawled across his flesh, but he didn’t fall imdiately.
That alone made so elders nod, acknowledging his toughness, but Bai Yegui wasn’t impressed.
The trapped halberd suddenly twisted, forced sideways by the Avatar’s arm, causing Shi Gaolin’s stance to break apart.
His balance snapped for a fraction of a second, and that was enough.
The ten-foot Avatar’s full torso erged, not by slowly forming, but by appearing out of the void like a phantom.
A giant knee drove forward like a battering ram and slamd into Shi Gaolin’s midsection.
BAM!
Shi Gaolin flew backward, halberd flying out of his hands, skidding across the stage in a shower of sparks.
He hit the arena floor hard, coughed, and tried to push himself up to fight again, only to freeze in place because Bai Yegui was already above him, looking down with a mild expression.
"You wanted proof?" Bai Yegui asked softly.
Shi Gaolin’s eyes were bloodshot with rage and humiliation.
Bai Yegui’s gaze drifted briefly toward the Hungry Ghost Hall section, toward Gu Mugui, toward the disciples who had once treated him like dirt.
Then he looked back at Shi Gaolin.
"I gave you the first move, that was your proof." Bai Yegui stated with his hands behind his back.
The ten-foot Avatar’s shadow fell across Shi Gaolin’s face, looking down on him with its massive fra.
Shi Gaolin’s jaw trembled, not from fear alone, but from the crushing realization that his careful diplomacy, his leadership tone, his strategy...none of it mattered here.
Not against this kind of talent.
He tried to stand anyway and Bai Yegui didn’t stop him himself, instead he simply extended a finger.
The Full Body Avatar’s palm pressed down as a slow and rciless force pinned Shi Gaolin to the arena like a nail into wood, cracking the tiles under his body.
Shi Gaolin’s limbs trembled, his halberd lay several ters away, useless to him, and the crowd finally understood the most humiliating part.
Bai Yegui hadn’t even needed to ’fight’ him in any elaborate way, he had simply demonstrated the gap between two ’geniuses’.
The Divine Deva Overseer’s voice rang out a mont later, heavy with caution as the formation thrumd under the pressure.
"Winner, Bai Yegui!"
The Hungry Ghost stands exploded into a storm of conflicting emotion, so cheers, a lot of anger, and quite a bit of stunned silence along with a bitter swallowing of pride.
Gu Mugui’s expression was ugly and gloomy as Shi Gaolin lay pinned for another second, then the pressure lifted.
He rolled to his side, coughing hard, eyes burning with a fury that had nowhere to go.
Bai Yegui turned away without another word, as if the match had already faded from his mind.
And on the side, Li Ling watched him with a faint narrowing of his eyes, the corner of his mouth lifting in sothing that wasn’t quite a smile.
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