My Clones Can Cultivate

Chapter 147

The twelfth match had ended... Shi Mo vs. Liyu... Liyu won. The words reverberated across the entirety of the Ray Arena. And yet, unlike what everyone had expected, there were no shocked gasps. No cries of surprise. No curses.

No angry shouts from people who had lost their bets... At least, not yet. Instead, every single audience member merely stared dazedly at the stage. Their gazes shifted from Liyu and then toward Shi Mo, who was lying flat on the ground, completely unconscious.

The entire crowd remained silent as their minds automatically tried to replay everything that had happened during the battle and how it had somehow resulted in this outcome.

At the start of the battle, Shi Mo had forced Liyu down onto his knees with what seemed like nothing more than a single word from his mouth. That alone had made everyone believe that this battle, unlike the ones before it, would not be in Liyu’s favor. And then... Liyu stood back up.

The two began to fight, and for a short while, it seemed as though they were battling on equal ground. Then, everyone discovered that Shi Mo was the wielder of one of the rarest and most powerful types of Qi in the entire world... Gravity Qi.

Shi Mo had used it to place Liyu at a terrible disadvantage by increasing the pressure around him. At the same time, he had decreased the gravity surrounding his own body.

The effect had been powerful. No... It had been far more than powerful. Liyu had appeared completely incapable of even lifting a single finger.

Then Shi Mo had pressed forward with his attacks, striking Liyu again and again while the terrifying pressure continued to suppress him. Seeing Liyu getting thrashed like that had made everyone watching believe that the battle was already over. That Liyu had finally lost.

That was what everyone believed... Until something too insane to be reality happened. Liyu... Yes, that Liyu adapted. Insane, right? He had literally adapted to a twenty-five-fold increase in gravity as if the entire thing was nothing more than a casual experience.

That revelation had shocked every audience member watching. The same people who had already written Liyu off and believed that he had lost the battle were suddenly forced to question everything they thought they knew.

And what had Liyu done immediately after adapting? He had casually stopped Shi Mo’s attack... Then given him a dirty slap directly across the face. As if that was not already enough, only a few seconds into their next exchange, Liyu slapped him again.

Then again... And again... And again... Until Shi Mo’s face began to swell. The big guy had undoubtedly lost a lot of face. Both figuratively and literally. After all, his face had been slapped repeatedly until his cheeks became swollen, bruised, and reddened.

Shi Mo, however, even after witnessing just how much of a monster Liyu truly was and seeing how utterly freakish his abilities were, still seemed determined to win. Maybe it was pride mixed with a hint of stupidity. Or perhaps it was courage and the refusal to lose what remained of his dignity. No one knew.

What everyone did know was that shortly after Shi Mo became serious, he had engaged Liyu once more in hand-to-hand combat. The battle had raged for a while as both sides fought vigorously to gain the upper hand... Or at least, that was how it appeared to most people.

Since the crowd and the majority of people filling the arena were actually mortals and not cultivators, they were unable to see the battle clearly at all.

The two were simply too fast for their mundane eyes to follow. Instead, what they saw... or rather, what they were able to hear... were the rapid sounds of... Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sounds echoed endlessly as the battle stage where the two were fighting cracked and broke apart beneath the force of their attacks. The two must be equally matched... That was what they thought. However, the reality was completely different.

And when the dust that had risen into the air finally cleared, the truth struck them with another overwhelming wave of shock. Liyu stood above Shi Mo’s mangled body.

He looked down at him with a calm expression and an almost gentle smile resting on his face. And Shi Mo... Shi Mo looked as if he had fought a furious Titan through a hundred rounds of battle... And lost every single one of them.

His body had been mangled beyond reason. His face, which had initially only possessed small swollen marks from Liyu’s slaps, was now completely covered in medium-sized swellings that had spread across every part of it.

At this point, it was almost impossible to even recognize the guy’s face anymore. Yeah... It truly looked as if Shi Mo had crossed a furious Titan... And the Titan had decided to vent every ounce of its bestial anger upon the poor guy. That was just how pitiful and mangled Shi Mo looked at that moment.

He even appeared to be teetering on the edge of death. And yet... He had not fought any Titan.

Anyone who had not witnessed the match would have surely believed that some terrifying beast had reduced him to such a miserable state. However... The person who had actually reduced Shi Mo to that pitiful condition... All eyes turned toward Liyu at that moment.

It was him. Someone who stood there with a small and warm smile resting on his face. He looked almost like a saint. Although... No one had considered Liyu a saint ever since his first match and the brutal way he had broken Shi Lan down. Still... He was brutal.

Extremely brutal. Therefore, everyone believed that Shi Mo had already lost. After all, with his body completely broken and mangled like that, it was obvious that there was no way he could continue fighting. It already looked as if Shi Mo was using every ounce of strength he possessed just to remain conscious.

However... Once again... The match did not go according to everyone’s expectations. Shi Mo did something that most people did not understand at first. And well... Everything happened so suddenly.

Even though the audience was a great distance away from the battle stage, a powerful ripple of energy still reached them. The air suddenly became heavier. Breathing became slightly more difficult.

And that was when everyone realized something that nearly caused the blood inside their veins to turn cold. Shi Mo... He must have increased the gravity once more. And this time... The increase was powerful enough to affect them despite the fact that they were not even the targets.

The crowd was unable to complain, however. And the reason for that was simple... What happened next was far too mind-breaking.

Their eyes widened in shock and awe. Their mouths slowly fell open. The stage... The battle stage that the referee... a powerful Bronze Core Realm warrior... had personally created... The same stage that was said to be powerful enough to withstand the attacks of an early-stage Foundation Realm warrior... Had just been splintered and crushed.

Not by some grand combat art. Not by an earth-shattering technique. And not by the attack of a powerful cultivator. Instead... The entire stage bent. Then... It shattered into countless tiny splinters.

It was almost as if a gigantic being had brought down a massive Warhammer upon it with every ounce of its strength... Crushing the entire stage into pieces. Shocked gasps echoed throughout the crowd in unison. Many people covered their mouths.

Their eyes widened more and more as they finally realized what had happened. And when they finally came to terms with it... They became even more stunned.

Shi Mo must have decided to use his final ace after being pushed to the very brink. And this... This was that final ace. Looking at the powerful and sturdy stage being shattered as if it were nothing more than stardust... The crowd came to a single conclusion.

Liyu was dead. He had to be dead. Nothing else made sense. If Liyu was not dead... Then what they had just witnessed would make absolutely no sense at all. If a force was powerful enough to do that to marble of such intense sturdiness... Then what would it be capable of doing to a normal human body?

The answer was simple enough for anyone with a functioning brain to come to. Liyu was dead. That was the thought echoing in everyone’s mind.

With their eyes widened in shock and none of them able to think properly, they waited for the clouds of dust and countless splinters filling the air to slowly settle. Only then would they be able to see the result of Shi Mo’s final ace. And when the dust finally began to clear... They saw Shi Mo.

He was lying there completely motionless. Beside him was Liyu... Also lying on the ground without moving. For a moment, everyone came to a conclusion. The selection tournament was over. And Liyu was probably dead.

Then... The Liyu they believed to be dead suddenly moved. Smoothly and sharply, he rose from the massive crater. And then... All eyes turned blank. Their minds completely stopped working as they looked at what happened next.

Liyu was standing there... Totally fine. He had even taken the time to style his hair back and put on a pair of dark goggles. Standing above the completely decimated stage... Looking cool. Super cool.

The initial shock had not even completely faded before many of the ladies in the audience felt their cheeks begin to burn. Although most people remained frozen in shock. Their minds continued to ring with only a single question... How? How had Liyu survived that final attack?

The sight before them made it feel as if their entire understanding of the world had been overturned. Liyu had survived a force powerful enough to effortlessly crush the Spirit Marble that made up the battle stage. And yet... He had survived.

Not only had he survived... He appeared to be completely unharmed. He looked entirely unfazed by everything. If anything... He even appeared bored.

The eyes of the crowd twitched as they stared at the ridiculous scene without having the slightest idea what they were supposed to think. They continued staring. Seconds became minutes... And minutes became many more minutes.

After a long period of silence stretched across the entire arena, someone from within the crowd finally spoke. He asked the same question that had been echoing inside the minds of everyone else in the battle arena. "Just who is he...?"

The man stared at Liyu. Liyu was still standing in a rather cool pose. One hand adjusted his stylish dark goggles while the other rested casually inside his pocket. It took a few seconds after that before the crowd finally reacted.

"Wait... he won?"

"Like... he really won?"

"Wait, maybe that makes sense..."

"No, wait... it doesn’t make sense!"

"Whatever! He won! That means I’ll be receiving three hundred Gold Coins!"

"Me as well! I’ll be receiving six hundred Gold Coins!"

"I’m rich! After all these losses, I’m finally rich!"

"He is truly the Honored One. To survive under such conditions and defeat a wielder of Unique Qi while remaining as casual as if this was nothing more than a normal daily routine... he has more than earned my complete respect."

A powerful cultivator spoke from his seat as he looked at Liyu as if he were some kind of divine being that had descended into the mortal world. His words, however, became the trigger for the countless female fans Liyu had gained simply by looking cool. They began to chant his name with their sweet voices.

"Honored One!"

"Honored One!"

"Honored One!"

"Honored One!"

The chant began quietly. But soon... It spread across the entire arena like wildfire. More and more people began chanting. The voices echoed endlessly throughout the Ray Arena. Even those who had placed their bets on Shi Mo and lost began to chant his name. Were they happy with him? Not at all.

After all, Liyu had caused them to lose a fortune once again. For the third time in a single day. However... That was not why they were chanting his name. The reason they chanted was because Liyu had given them a battle they would never forget.

All the matches they had witnessed so far had undoubtedly been good. But none of them had managed to keep everyone at the edge of their seats as much as this final battle had. The battle had made them eager. Eager to see what the next matches would bring.

"Honored One!"

"You are the best!"

Liyu remained standing on the utterly and completely decimated battle stage. A small smile appeared on his face as he heard the name he had decided to give himself only an hour or so ago being chanted loudly throughout the arena.

Seeing how much they were shouting... He figured that he should at least give them a wave. They deserve it, Liyu thought. And so... He waved at them. Snap... ! A wave of intense and burning pain instantly shot through his entire body the moment he moved. His body nearly twitched.

However, Liyu quickly brought the reaction under control. His moment of aura farming could not be ruined. Therefore, his smile remained calm and composed. He continued standing there as if nothing had happened.

Although internally... Liyu cursed loudly. Damnation... that is painful.

Meanwhile, the referee had quickly brought Shi Mo to the physicians immediately after Liyu had been declared the winner. The oldest physician and leader of the medical group stepped forward and decided to personally examine Shi Mo.

A few seconds later... His eyes suddenly shot open. He stared at Shi Mo with a deeply alarmed expression. Then he turned toward the referee. His voice sounded strained. "Hurry!"

"Bring Elder Ting here immediately!" "The kid is dying!" "Any second from now... and he will be dead..."