My Clones Can Cultivate

Chapter 122

"Why am I scared?" Shi Lan thought as his body couldn’t stop trembling subtly. He was feeling extremely nervous as he looked at Li Yuexin’s bloodied and poisoned figure, who was still standing in the exact same position she had been in since the end of her match against Xueyi.

That last attack... it was nonsensically powerful; no one needed to tell Shi Lan, for he himself knew that if he had been hit by that attack, he would die. There was no way he could survive it.

No wonder he was scared, but that wasn’t the only reason why he believed fighting Yuexin would be a fool’s errand; there was another reason as well: she was simply too ridiculously powerful.

Despite only being at the very first stage of the Qi Refining Realm, she possessed the strength to go toe-to-toe with Xueyi, who was at the peak of the realm, and had even managed to defeat her.

Shi Lan knew for certain that he was no match for Xueyi if she fought him as seriously as she had fought Yuexin, which could only mean one thing: he was no match for Yuexin either.

Feeling the weight of despair beginning to settle over him, Shi Lan shook his head: "No... I can’t think like this." After all, there was still a very high chance that he could win. Yuexin was by no means in good condition; her entire body had turned purple from the poison, which must have been causing her unimaginable pain.

She was barely even standing anymore; if he went all out against her from the very beginning, then he should be able to secure victory. With that thought, his unsettled mind finally calmed down: "I can win this..." With renewed determination, he forced his legs to move and headed toward the battle stage.

Meanwhile, Xueyi was being carefully carried away to receive treatment for her injuries; although she hadn’t been incapacitated by her wounds, she was still trapped in a state of shock after nearly losing her life.

As Shi Lan stepped onto the battle stage, his heart couldn’t help but race once again as he looked toward Li Yuexin. She was finally moving.

The heart that had only just calmed down immediately began thundering violently inside his chest once more as he watched the bloodied figure of Yuexin slowly raise her head and look directly at him with her blue eyes.

Seeing the chilling malice hidden within those eyes, Shi Lan instinctively took a step back in fright; for a brief moment, he almost turned around and fled, but he forced himself to stay rooted in place. One thought alone stopped him: if he ran now, Shi Tian would brutally kill him.

Yuexin herself, however, wasn’t paying the startled Shi Lan any attention. The malice within her gaze wasn’t directed at him; it existed for one simple reason: she was still struggling to suppress herself from entering the frenzied state brought about by her bloody nature.

She had stepped into it just moments ago to unleash that final attack that had nearly killed Xueyi, and immediately afterward, she had begun fighting with everything she had just to break free from its insidious voice... a voice that seemed completely hell-bent on consuming her mind with endless bloodlust and the overwhelming desire to drink blood.

It took brutal effort and an intense inner struggle, but she managed to do it; with her powerful will and strong mental fortitude, she was finally able to break free from the voice, or rather, from the frenzied grasp of her bloody nature, and become herself once again.

The moment her mind cleared, the first thing she felt was a stabbing pain spreading throughout her entire body. Her hands shook; her body trembled violently from the constant waves of agony stabbing through every inch of her being.

She knew there was no way she could defeat her current opponent, Shi Lan, in the state she was in; if she wanted to win, then she would have to rely on her bloody nature once again.

But this time, she had to hold herself back from diving too deep into it. After all, she truly didn’t want to end up killing someone; no, she wouldn’t give in to her bloodlust and make another costly mistake.

With that thought, she slowly exhaled before turning her calm gaze toward Shi Lan, who seemed somewhat startled by her. She raised an eyebrow, wondering why he looked so frightened, but quickly shook her head; no, her own situation was already too terrible for her to be wondering about someone else.

Her body was being ravaged by unbearable pain right now, yet she refused to cry out; if she showed even the slightest sign of weakness, they would force her off the stage, and if that happened, the Li Clan would lose.

No, she wasn’t going to allow that to happen; she only needed to defeat Shi Lan and then one final opponent from the Guan Clan. She was so close to victory now, no... she wasn’t going to lose here.

Her gaze sharpened as she forcefully cleared her mind and stood tall upon the battle stage, her sword firmly gripped in her hand. The referee gave her a solemn look; he could clearly tell that her condition was extremely serious, but he was also more than certain that she wasn’t going to surrender.

Her eyes alone made that perfectly clear. With that, he turned toward the crowd, who had been cheering loudly for Yuexin ever since her victory over Xueyi: "Alright, everyone! We now move on to the next match!

The previous battle was an incredible and intoxicating spectacle for everyone to witness. It ended in a truly spectacular fashion, albeit a little too quickly for everyone to fully enjoy. In the end, the Battle Princess emerged victorious.

With Xueyi defeated, the next challenger from the Shi Clan has arrived to face her. Will she be able to push through, defeat Shi Lan, and then overcome her final opponent from the Guan Clan to earn one of the Golden Tokens and win the tournament?

Or... will Shi Lan bring her winning streak to an end and eliminate her from the tournament altogether? Let’s find out together! Let the battle between the Battle Princess of the Li Clan and the Fist King of the Shi Clan begin!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the referee disappeared from the arena.

The battle stage still bore countless scratches from the previous battle, along with one enormous scar left behind by Yuexin’s final strike that had nearly claimed Xueyi’s life; still, the arena wasn’t damaged badly enough to require repairs, so the next battle would continue on the same stage.

Yuexin’s gaze sharpened as she looked toward Shi Lan; he was the very first challenger who had stepped forward to fight the Li Clan, and he was also the one who had defeated Li Xie in such a cruel and painful manner.

The image of Li Xie’s teary eyes, his pained smile, and the moment he was smashed into the pillar beside the battle stage, all flashed across Yuexin’s mind. Her anger immediately began to bubble, and following that, the voice returned:

"Kill him... Kill him... Drink his blood... He is nothing but your prey... Kill him... and drink his blood." The eerie and compelling voice echoed through her mind once more; her consciousness slowly began to sink into a haze again.

Her blue eyes gradually changed to crimson red; she felt an intoxicating surge of strength flood through her body once more, but then, she clenched her fist tightly.

She struggled desperately for control; after an intense battle against her own mind, she managed to regain it. When she opened her eyes again, one eye remained blue, while the other glowed a deep crimson red: "I need to end this before I lose control,"

Yuexin thought anxiously. After all, she knew she might truly go beyond the point of no return if she completely surrendered to her bloodlust, so she refused.

She couldn’t afford the consequences of letting the entire world witness her bloody side... the side of her that craved only one thing, and one thing alone: the overwhelming desire to drink blood.

Yuexin calmed her racing mind; she had spent a long time with the Clan Lord learning about this inhumane nature of hers and the proper way to control it. She had spent several long years on that alone, and she was not about to lose to her inhumane nature, not now.

She took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly before her gaze shifted toward Shi Lan, who seemed to have regained his confidence as he also took a battle stance, ready to fight. Without another word, the two launched forward, and the battle quickly began.

At the leaders’ seats, the clan leaders were all looking at Li Yuexin with changed gazes; the respectful looks they once held because of her skill and talent had now become filled with fear and wariness, and the reason for that was twofold.

The first was obvious without needing much thought: that enormous crimson arc that had filled the arena earlier. That attack was something that matched the full-powered strike of a Foundation Realm warrior; the power contained within that crimson slash was not something someone at her level should even dream of unleashing.

If she was able to unleash an attack that rivaled the all-out strike of an early Foundation Realm warrior while still only at the First Stage of the Qi Refining Realm, then they could only speculate just how strong she would become after reaching the Foundation Realm... or even the Core Stage.

The thought alone made the leaders suck in deep breaths; they were shocked, they were impressed, but above all else, they were fearful of this monstrous genius.

And as if that alone was not enough, she was doing something even more monstrous than the crimson strike they had just witnessed: she was still fighting despite her condition.

She had been heavily poisoned, and that was not even the only thing that had to be considered; she was covered in severe wounds, and with all the combat arts and techniques she had used, she should have exhausted her qi by now.

She should have been weak enough to collapse, and yet, she was breaking every bit of logic they knew. Not only was she still standing, but she was also fighting Shi Lan head-on; she was not being overwhelmed the way everyone had expected: "...She is a monster... How is she still fighting?" Clan Lord Guan could not help but ask in shock.

At this point, he was no longer stunned that Xueyi, whom he had believed would secure the victory, had lost; that battle had already ended.

Instead, his attention was completely fixed on the monster called Yuexin, who was somehow still battling through everything that had been thrown at her. Rather than dwelling on Xueyi’s defeat, he turned toward Li San with a gaze filled with questions: "Tell me, San... where exactly did you find her?"

Li San saw his gaze, along with the questioning looks from the other clan leaders, and merely shrugged; he did not bother replying. The truth remained that all of them had conducted investigations into Yuexin’s background before; unfortunately for them, Li San himself had made sure they would never uncover anything meaningful.

Eventually, they had given up trying to learn about the Battle Princess’s past, but after everything they had witnessed today, there was no doubt they would begin their investigations all over again.

Li San sighed inwardly: "Looks like I’ll have even more covering up to do after this tournament ends."